Our new home...

Finally after many years of 'discussions' husby and I have bought our first home.  Granted it is not the small house with the garden, which I've dreamt about like forever, but it is our home where we will grow old and be together.  Because those house discussions were starting to get in the way, if you know what I mean.

So a month ago we moved into our 110m2 apartment in our beloved Blackeberg.  (not the best pic)

We love it here and since Mikael went to high school here, and has lived here for 13 years, it felt right.  Tilly doesn't have to move dagis and we can still get the best burger in town at our local 'grill'.

On the plus side this apartment

A lesson to learn...

It's been awhile since I wrote anything, well because we've been on holiday, we've moved and we've been working.  So it's been mental.  Tonight was the first night I got to relax and look at some stuff on the interweb, and I found this quote from a woman photographed by Humans of New York.

“When I was younger, I thought listening was just about learning the contents of someone’s mind. I’d always try to finish their thoughts, just to show them that I knew what they were thinking. As I got older, I learned to listen better. I realized that by trying to anticipate their mind, I was ignoring their heart.”


What a great lesson.  I'm so guilty of this, and always thought that I was connecting with people but I guess I have some learning to do....

Age and wisdom!

3 is the magic number...

OMG the last few weeks have been mental!  Between the constant bank holidays for May and June, (which in Sweden also means a half day the day before the bank holiday), the overload at work before the summer, planning our move in less than a month, a vacation in Greece in between that, and the new developments and mood swings of our little lady, I think I might be closer to to loosing it than ever before.

At the start of 3 I thought it was amazing

Summer Time...

After a very long Swedish winter and a snail paced spring, Summer finally has arrived.
Sweden is a funny place, totally schizophrenic really.  During the winter everyone is dressed in thick dark clothes and barely makes eye contact, let alone conversation.  It's dark longer than it's light and generally its pretty depressing.  But in the spring and the summer it's like another place completely.   Light for 20 hours a day, sunny and hot (above 20 degrees most days).  People are friendly, chatty, spontaneous and helpful. The city is amazing with all the water around and the fact that you don't need too many clothes and can just be around outside having picnics and going for walks makes a huge difference to my general well being anyway.

So here's a little journey through our spring and summer so far....

Looking forward to many more days like these until at least October.  

I hope everyone is having a great summer so far.....x

PS - this post is dedicated to my friend Leisha who actually reads this blog and told me to get posting :)

The Party...

Last week Tilly was at home with scarlet fever but as always was as bright as a button!  Normally being trapped indoors ends up in too many hours in front of the TV or computer, so I had to come up with something fun to do.  So the night before I reminded her that it was Teddy's birthday the next day and that we had to have a party for him.  Teddy was turning 5.

What a great day we had.  We baked him a strawberry cream cake - which Tilly decorated with much care.

We wrapped his gifts and made him a card, and blew up balloons and set the table very nicely for him.

 We decided we needed a few more guests so called her grandma down the road to see if they felt up for a party.  Luckily they did and so we sang to him in both Swedish and English and enjoyed opening his presents and eating cake.

She had so much fun and couldn't wait to tell pappa all about it when he came home.  This was one of those days I had been waiting for when becoming a mother.  Full of fantasy and silliness but with a heap of memories.

Soon we will all be mad...

In 1995 I saw the movie Strange Days and it totally freaked me out.  It predicted some crazy techno things about the future (1999 to be exact) which seemed very possible.  And now its just a thing of the past.  Then there was Minority Report  which was 10 years ago and I see that we are almost there.  Was it less than 4 years ago we didn't have smart phones?  Time is moving so fast.
So when I went to this PR and Digital marketing presentation for work a few days ago, I realised that we are pretty much doomed and as early as the end of this year!
It's the  Google Glasses.  Holy crap right.  You saw that?! Constant information in your eyeball from the moment you wake up.  Informing you on the weather (look out the window and find out the fecking weather!)  Giving you your agenda for the day.  Who you going to meet, when and where.  No not because you remember it, but because it flashes in front of your face while you brushing your teeth. Every time you look in the direction of some registered place, it beams up info about it, or ask if you want to check in.  Directions get mapped out in your vision like GPS when you need to get somewhere.  Blip, blip, blip constantly in your head.  What happened to the excitement of getting lost and having to talk to a stranger to ask directions.  Or discover a new place because you took the wrong street.  Bump into a friend and have a coffee instead of planning and scheduling every waking moment.
Were these glasses (oh now contacts are being considered because the glasses are so goddam ugly)- were these glasses developed because too many people were getting knocked over or walking into poles because they were constantly looking down at their phones?  Or is it that we want to see if its possible to regress our brains to that of apes.

I'm afraid.  I'm grossed out.  I'm shocked.  I'm worried.  What about Tilly?  Will this just be the way it is?  Will she not know how to communicate, or read body language or talk to people or think for herself?
I used to think those guys at Google were impressive for developing things like Google Earth but now I'm wondering if they have little horns and pointy tails.

Protect yourselves.  Teach your kids to think, question, read, discuss, discover, search.  Get them to do it with actual people too and make some rules about how much time you are online when your kids are awake.
Save Us!

Turkey in Easter...

Most years husby and I have always gone away on a city break for Easter.  But since Tilly came we have spent it at home with family and lots of eggs.  But this year husby got his travel bug on and booked us a trip to Istanbul.  And when I say us I mean only the 2 of us!  Since he booked the tickets 6 months ago, I have been dealing with a lot of feelings about leaving Tilly for 4 whole nights, but finally about 2 hours before we left, I embraced the opportunity for us to see a beautiful city together and have some US time.  

The city is amazing.  But that will be in the next post.  Now for some talk about the food.  

As you can see it was tremendous!  

Mediterranean food is the best.  And Turkish food is all that with a little spice.

From the doner kebabs, to the dolmades, to the aubergine to the fish.  Its all amazing.

We tried street food and restaurant food, and it was all good.  Fresh, organic, home cooked, loved and delicious.

Here are our tips:

1.  Sarnic -  a traditional place set in an old water cistern.  Sometimes seemed touristy but was lovely all the same - dinner was meze and lamb chops of course.

2.  Mikla - equivalent of a Michelin star place (but they don't give out stars in Turkey) which is on the top of a hotel Marmara Pera.  Amazing setting.  Chef is half Swedish! 

3.  Balikci Sabahattin - amazing fish restaurant.  You must book and don't listen when they tell you starters will be offered at the table.  That's only meze and not hot starters.  I missed my calamari.....

Some more tips and some more info on the flavours of Istanbul.

My advice is to try everything.  The surroundings, sights, smells all add to a once in a lifetime experience.  

My favourite meal however were the 2 on the plane.  We got upgraded to business class on the way there (i know!!) but we didn't get to have the menu option as husby had ordered a 'special meal' for us, which they just brought.  That would have been nice as an economy passenger but not this time.
 It was nice but I had to add a lot of salt.  Then on the way home when we were regular passengers they brought another menu which sounded lovely but wondered about our 'special meal'.  So I read a little in the in flight magazine and saw that special meals were for special religious or dietary needs and had to be ordered when booking the flight.  So when we received our 'special meal' again, I added a lot of salt.  I was so curios as to what special need husby had chosen for us, and after looking through our booking page I saw he chose BLAND meal.  Hello, bland?  WTF.  Why would anyone order bland and is that really an option.  Anyway guess who's booking our next flight!

Bon Appetito!