Washington DC

Washington DC is an amazing place! Me and D spent the whole day yesterday on a tour bus and boy are there many things to learn about the city and and it's history!! I'm sure we just heard a fraction of it! We have seen most of the famous monuments and buildings - Capitol building, the White House, the memorials and Arlington Cemetary with JFK's grave. The monument I liked the most was Lincoln memorial (pictured above).

Today we took it asy and just hit the shops in Georgetown. It was a very good day with sunny weather except when we had lunch (crab cakes) with my friend Jeana - then it was pouring down!!! Good timing!!

Tomorrow we are going to have to say goodbye to Washington DC, because we are heading towards Ohio. On the way there we will stop ove one night in Pennsylvania. Yay! My first American roadtrip - like in the movies! Just hope it's not in the movie "California" - (with a pshycho Brad Pitt and crazy Juliette Lewis!!)

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!

Summer has begun

What's the most summery thing you can do? Put flowers up your nose!!!!

Oh so sweet!!! Summer is definitely here in the sense that I can start enjoying it doing something else than studying for the CFA. Yay! My tan is non existent which is why I have had to seek help in self tanning cremes lately, but now - I'm going to work on a REAL tan. No too much, just the kind of tan that will get focus off my study pimples and make me look less like a dead person.

To kick start summer, as I have mentioned earlier, M and V will come to London town to salute the Queen and to visit us, of course. First things on our to do list:



1. Shopping


2. Have some Earl Grey tea & biscuits with the Queen


3. Dance till we can't dance no more - in a cool night club


4. Chill out in a nice park

Now folks, how does that sound? SWEET!!!

6 days to D day...

...and 10 days to M&V day!!! That's a more fun countdown! I have been sitting here studying and feeling sorry or myself at home the whole weekend while the sun was, and still is, shining over London. There are only a few days left so I will definitely have to pull it together and kill the CFA Level 1 exam like "Xena the warrior princess" (that was how I visualised it this morning when I woke up).

And when that's done I will just relax and enjoy the company of my truely amazing friends, M and V, here in London!!! I like!!!

Up to the surface for some air

I have been deep diving into my CFA books lately which is why I haven' had much to blog about. A good thing for me - it means that I'm spending as much time with my books as possible. But to be honest, I can't wait to put them away... I like what I study - but for the 3rd time!!! Jeezes!! It's a bit much. I feel like I know it by heart now... which I should, considering the CFA institute expects you to memorise 4000+ pages for the 6 hour exam! Crazy people...

Let's hope the saying "3rd time lucky" is a saying for a reason!!

And now a bit of whining...

Today's highlight was buying nail polish. I don't have time for any other fun stuff. Hobbies and fun I am currently only having during my lunch hour. The rest of my spare time is for studying. Thank god I only have to hang in there for two more weeks. Then the big fat CFA exam is on my doorstep. I will not be defeated again!! But until then I will enjoy my new pink nail polish...

...Phew!! Felt good getting that off my chest. Feeling better already. A bit of whining does wonders sometimes!!

A very special day...

My darling having pancakes in New York

My little meatball turns 31 today!!! I bought his present (a leather jacket) 2 weeks ago, but I wanted his birthday to be special so, to celebrate that I took him to a restaurant for some grub. It was a Turkish restaurant in Covent Garden called Sofra. We stuffed ourselves with very nice mezes hummus and toasted with some fine Turkish wine. Delicious!

When D turned 30 last year he wanted his birthday to last for 30 days. That was one of his birthday requests! I had to treat him with extra well with things such as an extra piece of dessert, a foot massage or me not being able to get mad at him doing silly stuff... Well, it turns out he liked that so much that he requested a 30 day birthday this year as well... Some nerves, huh?!! So... 1 down, 29 to go... Happy birthday to youooooo.....

Urban Fruit Fly in London

Yesterday was almost like a regular study Sunday except for one thing: A dear friend from high school and also author of the "Urban Fruit Fly" blog, was here in London. She was in London over the weekend to meet up with some other Erasmus friends, so a few of them, me and D all had a good laugh over a cup of coffee.

Me and the Urban Fruit Fly hadn't seen each other or spoken for many years until we started emailing a year or so ago. It started with seeing her on Facebook. Isn't it great that Internet and technology gives you kind of a second chance to re-acquaint yourself with long lost friends?

I think she would definitely agree as she is an engineer in media technology!! :-)

Paulina it was very nice to see you again!!

I have a new playmate!!!

Me and my precious

My precious and his older brother

My new playmate is called Samsung NC 10 but in this household it goes by the name "precious" (Uh oh "Lord of the Rings" flashback!!), tesoro (treasure in Spanish) or älskling (darling in Swedish). It was a present from my B-friend, D. The best B-friend in the world!!! (maybe now I'll be forgiven for calling the new laptop "älskling" because that used to be his nickname...).

I'm over the moon! This was a perfect gift for me since I use the computer 24 hours a day now, thanks to my CFA studies and I'm constantly hogging D's computer so he can't check what's new on Facebook. But now he will, because I have my own mini laptop! Yay! Hooray!! I'm so happy!!

And it's blue like a blueberry and fits in many of my handbags!!! Loves it!! Now I kind of know how Elle feels like. You say "huh?". You know Elle Woods in "Legally Blonde". Everything she wears and owns is pink. Well I'm a bit like "Legally brunette" with blue as my favourite colour - except my wardrobe isn't very blue and I have very few blue things - but it really is my favourite colour!!

Thank you darling!!! (Yes, I mean D - not the laptop)