My August

August went by in two seconds. Lovely month with two trips to Sweden. One longer in the beginning and a shorter weekend one in the end. The first trip was really special because David's family came - his parents, sister, sister's partner and son. We also had amazing weather the whole week. Over 30 degrees every day which is unheard of for that long in summer time. But the best thing of all is that we were all gathered in Stockholm - my family and D's family - for our wedding. Me and D got married in the City Hall in Stockholm on August 2nd. That date is a decade after we first met in Dublin.

After the wedding we all went to Häringe slott which is an old manor house turned hotel. We had the wedding reception there with our families - we were ten people in total. We then stayed at the hotel for 2 nights enjoying the pool, sea, floating sauna, canoes and tennis courts around there. We had an amazing time together.

Proud

In London 2011 is the year of a big royal wedding, but in Sweden we had it last year when the crown princess married a man of the people. The royal wedding was great PR for the Swedish royalties and they had never been more popular in modern time. My mum was asked to engrave one of the wedding gifts from a famous Swedish design house. It was a big tin plate from Svenskt Tenn. The above picture was published in the biggest newspaper in Sweden. I'm very proud.

CFA L2 exam done

I can gladly say that summer has officially begun for me. I went to the exam in Stockholm after a week of studying without interruptions at Mom's place and did my very best. Not sure it is enough but considering how tough this spring has been, I will not kick myself to much if I don't pass. I did everything I could have done.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Spanish capital to see my man. Can't wait!

Madrid, here I come!!!

My Xmas holiday pics

It was very snowy in Sweden

...but very beautiful

My brother with gf J by the Swedish xmas table

This is one of 3 square Spanish tortillas that I made

We had a very nice family lunch with my dad's cousin and his family

Of course we had to celebrate M's birthday!!

We are so cute together, aren't we?

Then we were off to London and there my mom fund the tiramisu of her life

On our way to see the fireworks by the London Eye

Waiting for the fireworks

...by St Paul's Cathedral

My mom is happy to find pastries by Columbia road

Columbia Road flower market

Summer in Sweden

The yearly BBQ!!!
Grill master Daddy

Responsible for the rice!!!

Lovely dinner guests

D with 2 beautiful chicas - J and H!!!

Well of course we arranged a quiz about the Englund family!

The winners were H and J, with happy runners up in the background

Me and daddy on our way to Djurgården

Terminator D goes canoeing

Woohoo! We suck at this!!

Freshly picked blueberries for the sponge cake - You bet your a** it was yummy!

That's right - we found them yummy mushrooms in the Swedish forest!!

In Nyköping city... our summer residence (cosy house) is located 20 min by car from there

How come my parents completely kicked mine and my brother's ar**s in boule?

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!!

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!!