annoying

Last Friday I went out with a few friends to celebrate another friend's birthday. The evening started out great. I met up with my friend MK and her friend (and now also my friend) MR for a meal in a cosy French bistro restaurant. After the meal and a few laughs we went on walking to the nightclub. It is called Chinawhite and is quite a posh place, but because our friend MD (who's birthday we were celebrating) had put us on the guest list we were able to get in.

The fun continued on the dance floor, chillax area, the bar and even the VIP area. Great fun, until I felt my feet and me were too tired to continue dancing and the club closed. So I took my jacket and headed for the exit with a friend. Out on the street I reach for my mobile in my party handbag, but can't find it. Earlier in the evening, the shoulder strap broke and the bag fell on the floor so I had to carry it like a clutch bag for the rest of the evening, but I didn't mind because that kind of looked nice, I though.

What must have happened is that my mobile fell out of the bag that moment. I went back into the club with my friend who helped me look for my beloved mobile n the dance floor, the bar, the VIP area and the chillax area... It was nowhere to be found and it was easy to look as well the the club had closed and most people were already out of the club. Nothing in the lost and found. So a few friends call my mobile to check if it is with someone or if we can hear it.

It had been turned off. That just happens if the person who found it has no intention of returning it to its' rightful owner. So even if I lost the mobile, someone took it after that.

Luckily, HTC (the brand of my phone) has a personalised web service from where you can control your mobile remotely. The morning after, I connected to my htc sense page and tried to localise my mobile on the map, but it was impossible because the mobile was turned off. So I just blocked it from there. The only comfort I get from that is that the bastard who took it won't get any joy from it. I think it's such an ugly thing to steal other people's belongings. I work hard for my money and it was a big deal for me to buy my first smartphone. I really loved that phone.

Hopefully it won't take too long to get a replacement phone from my insurance, but it's not fun to wait. It's damn annoying, actually!

Midsummer in London

It rained a bit - like it always does on Midsummer!!
We were sitting next to the bush where people went to the toilet....

We managed to get hold of some Swedish Cider!! Kopparberg!

I haven't been very active on Facebook lately, because of my studying, but I checked it out this morning and I saw that so many of my Swedish friends had uploaded pictures of their midsummer celebrations. Aaaw! I really felt like I was missing out for the first time in many years!

Midsummer celebrations is very important for Swedes, we make careful preparations long in advance and wait with great anticipation for the big day that is always on a Friday (so you can arty through the bright night until the morning). In the end - nothing usually turns out the way you planned. For example: someone falls asleep (drunken sleep) under the table around 5pm, anotherone gets hurt playing "Kubb" (swedish garden game throwing wooden "kubbs" at other "kubbs" that are placed on the ground) and has to go to the emergency or people who wouldn't make out under normal circumstances - make out. As a sugar coating on top of that - it rains. But the day after everybody laughs at the weird midsummer celebration they had that didn't turn out the way they thought!

I missed the whole preparation and drama bit of midsummer! The Swedish Embassy and the Chamber of Commerce arranged midsummer celebration in Hyde Park and I was surprised to see soooo many Swedes in one place at the same time. There must have been several hudred Swedes assembled, also having brought some "bonus Swedes" (=non Swedes) to the celebrations. They had put up a tiny Midsummer flower pole there but I still felt like I missed the vital ingedients of preparations and drama. Me D and another Swedish friend of ours, M, went there and had a very nice picknick. We had a great time, but I couldn't help but miss the Swedish midsummer food - herring, fresh potato, salmon... etc. One thing I didn't miss was the "nubbe" - the strong (and disgusting if you ask me) schnapps you take during the midsummer lunch while singing - because Malin had brought some mini bottles of Swedish Akvavit. So me, D and M sang a bit and had our "nubbe" - which brought a bit of midsummer mood to the table.

It was a very nice day in London, but did make me miss the real Swedish midsummer celebration. I have to go there next year and show D what it's all about!!

A weekend to remember

Boy did we have fun this weekend!! V & M came here for some London adventures!!

Thursday

Me and D pick up some pizzas and before we meet the happy couple by Golders Green station in the afternoon. We all head back home and share the pizzas over some laughs and walks through memory lane.

Friday

V & M hit London town to see the usual sightseeing stuff (Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Tower Bridge and Tower of London etc...) while me and D are at work. After work we meet those little troublemakers for some after work pints at P&P by Bank station. Mark, D's former workmate from NYC (Sheffield) joined us as well. After a pint we hit All Bar One on Cannon Street for some tapas. Yummy! We had so much fun! Visa even convinced the funny waitress to try snus!!

After that we headed to the pubs in Soho. We found one that was half empty but had a good DJ so me and M hit the dance floor to show off our dance moves.

At midnight we were so tired we decided to take the Tube home... While me and M were a bit tired, the boys crossed their legs and read the newspaper...

Saturday

We started with day by going to funky Camden town. The boys really fancied the massive doughnuts!

Maria went into shop after shop and started to get this weird look in her eyes and it was hardly possible to make contact with her. When she started sweating we establish a diagnosis: it was a clear case of shopping fever. The fever didn't exactly go down when we hit super busy Oxford street!

We all snapped out of the shopping fever for a second when hundreds of naked cyclist swooshed down Oxford Street. A funny surprise!!

Gangstas of East Finchley

Sunday

Sunday was the last day for V & M here in London so we decided to go for a walk in our neighborhood - Hampstead Garden Suburb. Pictured above are V, M and D trying to imitate the weird Australian animals - I call them "Beaver deers", because that's what they resemble... I think M does the best impression!

We had lunch in the Bull & Bush pub by Golders Hill park. V was so happy he got to try proper British Fish and Chips!!

The weekend just flew by way too fast. As the saying goes: time flies when you have fun.

Next time we see M & V will be in Stockholm. We miss them already!

Party in STHLM

Dancing, yeah!!
Me and D

The foxy ladies

Me and the birthday boy

Last night we had a splendid reason to celebrate and party. A good friend of ours - my best friend Maria's husband, V - celebrated his 30th birthday. The party started at their place with some music, snacks and very good company. I met new people and also friends I hadn't seen in a very long time. It was great. After that, most of us wanted to go out and dance a bit after having warmed up a bit in M & V's apartment. We went to the Lemon bar where they played old Swedish pop music hits from the 80's. I was almost feeling sorry for D, because if you haven't grown up with that kind of music you would, most likely, think it stinks. But D was happy with the music and also danced his butt off together with the rest of us. I was impressed.

It almost felt like "back in the days" when I lived in Stockholm as a student going out and dancing like crazy not caring how you look when you dance - just giving it all. We had a blast although, I realise that I'm not as energetic now as back then because I'm veeeery tired today!!

A blast from the past

Agneta & Anne-Frid?
Björn & Benny?

Chiquetito

Dancing king & queen

The day before yesterday we touched down on Swedish soil and yesterday we had our first challenge: To dress up like ABBA and see my relatives. The latter was more of achallenge for D than for me, since I didn't have to struggle to remember their names.

The whole story is that my dad's cousin's wife won a Mama Mia/ABBA theme party on the radio for 100 people - needless to say, we were invited. As we are not often invited to costume parties, we decided to go all wild and crazy and get the best costumes. So last weekend in London, we went on a 70s clothes hunting mission. We succeded but with injured wallets as 70s clothes in London are not cheap. I ended up with a green jumpsuit with gold threads and D with a pair of bell bottom trousers a la Björn or Benny... Brilliant!!

Yesterday we were so proud to put on our costumes for the party because we were so sure we were "da bomb". It turns out I underestimated my parents fancy dressing skills as we were outshined by them!! My dad in his old pilot style glasses, tight pilot shirt and bell bottom trousers and my mom in the Meryl Streep outfit from Mama Mia. They even dominated the dance floor with their "Bugg-dancing" moves for a while. I was impressed. Even though me and D got authentic 70's vintage clothes we didn't capture the REAL 70's spirit, because we never lived it. We were just two 70's rookies in 70's clothes while my parents really rocked the real feeling fo the 70's. Who would have thought?

I will post some pics later...

Update: DONE!!

Prospero año nuevo!!!

Yesterday was a tough one!! After many hours of travelling and some waiting in the Airport of Berlin, I touched down in the beautiful island of Mallorca.

Prospero año nuevo!!!

The picture is of the Cathedral in Palma de Mallorca. Beautiful!

Yesterday was a tough one!! After many hours of travelling and some waiting in the Airport of Berlin, I touched down in the beautiful island of Mallorca.

After having had a wonderful dinner with David and his family we followed the spanish tradition of having 12 grapes during the last 12 seconds of the year - for good luck. We all made it even though most of us chewed and swallowed the seeds as well! After having toasted with champagne to welcome the new year, me, David, David's sister Aina and her boyfriend Alberto headed for the party.

We had a lot of fun and danced until 4 o'clock in the morning. It had been a very long day so I was knackered to say the least!!!

I hope you all had a great New Years Eve and that you will have a prosperous 2009!!