Holy crap...

Cannot believe the last time I posted something was in June!  Good thing I'm not like a real blogger or I'd be broke and unpopular.  I guess it's a sign that I am either having too much fun, totally stressed out or am just bored with this whole malarky.  Mmmm, might be a combo.
I suppose life just gets in the way and as the great Ferris once said ' if you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you might miss it'.
So this is what life has been giving us the last while….

Let it go...

So I said I fell in love again in Paris and this time it wasn't with a man but with a dad.  Not an old geezer but my daughters dad, otherwise known as husby.  And with the daughter too.  We went to Disneyland people!  So as you can imagine the magic dust and fireworks were completely to blame.

A delicious pear…

It's been a bit since I last posted and things have been good but busy.  Busy with the daily grind and not so much else, but sometimes when you look through pictures you've taken in that time, you see that lots has happened but you were too blinded to see it at the time.

She speaks English...

I got the best Easter gift this year, and it wasn't chocolate.  My daughter speaks English.  Well of course she does, you might say, since I'm English!  But that hasn't been the case since she learned to talk.
There was a few months around 2 where she said 'car', 'happy' and 'book' and words like that.  But since she started dagis and heard Swedish all around her, she really never spoke it.  I wasn't taking it so well and was becoming really frustrated and sometimes sad.  I understand Swedish but its not my first language and somehow I almost didn't feel that she came from me because of it.  Things translate differently and I wasn't having those 'oh that's so cute' moments when she said things, because they don't sound cute in Swedish in the same way.  And the biggest problem for me was that my parents and relatives and her little Irish friends couldn't understand her.  For Tilly everyone understands Swedish so she couldn't figure out why she needed to speak anything else - duh!

I will give credit to my parents for being patient enough and stubborn enough to keep telling her they didn't understand.  Which in all fairness they didn't.  And what do you know she suddenly just spoke pretty good English.  It was the same when she learnt to walk.  Nothing, not even an attempt until 19 months and then boom she just got up and walked.  The same with drawing or writing.  Nothing until 4 years and then she just wrote her name and drew a little person.  So I guess she is one of those people who absorbs things, accesses and then only when she is really certain she won't fail, she just does them.  Good or bad, I'm not sure.  But I don't know how to express my happiness when she says 'Mummy' instead of Mamma, or 'Look at my outfit' or as she did today 'I want to krama you' (krama is hug in Swedish) so there is a little Swenglish going on.  But I'll take anything.

So thank you parents for helping out and for giving me a skip in my step everyday, and oh the fact that its 22 degrees out helps too.

Best Husby Ever...

Just when I thought that husby had outdone himself at Christmas with the perfect gifts, he went even better with the best birthday surprise ever!  Now it's nothing to do with material objects, but more the effort and thought of every moment that he spent time on, which really impressed me.

Although my birthday is only the 9th March, a few months ago he told me to take the last day of February off work because we were doing something for my birthday.  
On Friday morning, after Tilly went to her grandparents we jetted off to Dublin for a trip I knew nothing about.  We arrived at the Trinity Capital Hotel in the city centre, where we got an upgrade to the Georgian Suite from a chatty lady named Jan at reception.  The perfect welcome, full of banter and lots of little 'ya hear's' and 'it'll be grands'.

We went for a stroll and then for some classic fish and chips at an old friends new restaurant.   A trip to the hairdressers and an afternoon pint at the one and only Stags Head pub ended a beautiful spring day perfectly - well so I thought.

I was then instructed to dress well and off we went to a more posh part of town.  Dinner was to be had at the classy L' Ecrivian, where we enjoyed the tasting menu.  The best part of the dinner was the sommelier, who was a fantastic charming tiny lady, who topped our glasses a little more than ought to be OK when having 7 tasting wines.  So after A LOT of food and even more wine, we demanded the bill and a cab so we could get the hell out of there and unbutton and just have some privacy (and I don't mean for anything romantic)!

After a lie in and a plate full of sausages for breakfast, we enjoyed another spring day in the city.  Until I was taken again for more food to meet my next surprise - my family. We had an emotional and fun lunch at Marco Pierre White where the restaurant sang to me and the waiter was certain my step dad was the lord himself!  It was so lovely to just chat and hang out.  Super special.

After that I was sure that nothing more could be happening.  But I was wrong.  Some more afternoon pints and then instructed to get dressed and head out to Kehoes.  We met friends C & P who I haven't seen in years for some bubbly, before heading off to another venue.  

This time to friends who have opened a new pub 57 Headline Bar.  This is where the big surprise was to take place.  All the effort that had gone into all the months of organising.  When I walked through the door there were balloons and loads of people gathered round.  But no-one I knew???  Were we in the right place?………………. No we were just punctual!!!  

Being away from Dublin for so long and married to a Swede, we totally overlooked the fact that 8:30 means 9:00 in Ireland.  So I was more of a surprise to the ones throwing the party, as I was there before them.  Fecking hilarious and just perfect to feel all Irishy again.

What a great night seeing everyone I love and chatting and catching up on all sorts of shite.  Loads of wine, loads of laughs and loads of wine again.  Oh and I think I demonstrated how to light sambuca in your mouth.  WTF you're  40 dammit!  Anyway the picture kinda tells a story of how much fun we had because it's the only one!

Thank you to everyone who organised things and keeping it all a big secret.  Now I know who tell secrets too!!  And thank you to those who came and to those who couldn't make it but sent their love.  Thank you for the gifts and the chats and the big hugs and kisses.  It will keep me filled until the next time we meet.  

A massive, huge, gigantic thank you to the best husby ever!  You really do know me and I am so lucky to have you in my life.  

Now lets grow old together!

Gender bender...

Time for my yearly rant about gender and the obsession Swedes seem to have with it.  Particularly woman.  Now, I am all for woman being treated equally and so on but I have come to the conclusion that I am not a feminist and am getting more and more annoyed by the whole thing.
A picture goes up on Instagram or a blog with a girl wearing a princess dress or girls playing with barbies, and its like someone let out all the freaks.  The comments come every minute about how terrible it is for girls to be put into boxes and stereotyped blah blah blah.  Maybe we should be focusing on less playing with guns and violent video games than fucking up our gender roles.

I never think of my gender as something that allows me to do or not do things I want.  And I certainly won't teach my daughter that she should be 'fighting' for woman's rights in this higher-than first world country where everything is handed to us on a silver platter.  She can fight for human rights regardless of gender when she feels its unjust. She can play with barbies, trucks or bugs.  She can wear pink, black or yellow, as long as she is well mannered and kind to her fellow person.  She can be whatever she wants to be without hating men, or looking for a reason to call one sexist.

But I won't allow her to feel embarrassed of being feminine and liking feminine things or wanting to do things 'women' like to do.
As long as she wants to, that's equality.

Now I am off to the kitchen to make my man his dinner, and pour his drink.  I will be wearing a floral dress with an apron while doing so.   Later he will wash the dishes and pour one for me, while I put our daughter to bed in her pink pyjamas.

Welcome back old me...

We are 10 days into 2014 and it's looking like a good year, so far.  Early days I know, but I'm gonna stay on this buzz for as long as it lasts.  2013 wasn't a terrible year but it won't be missed.  I felt a lot of stress last year.  At home, at work, within myself and with others.  It was my 7 year itch year.  I've lived in Sweden for 7 years and had 4 jobs, 3 homes, 1 husband, 1 child and a million emotions.  But now I think I am ready to accept and enjoy what I have in my life and let loose that control freak who's been taking over my carefree old self.
So welcome back old girl (and that's literal since I'll be fecking 40 this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

So thank you 2013 for getting me this far and for my man who sticks by my side…x