The speed of time

Time goes faster in France than in Sweden... or so it seems. I can't believe I've been here for more than a week now. Even less believable is that I have only 5 days left before I fly home. On the one hand I am really excited about starting my new job but on the other, a few more days here would have made it possible for me to go to the beach for a few days in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, on the Atlantic coast where we have our summer flat. But I can't complain, a new job AND holidays, not everyone can have it and I am thankful for it.

Last week I was in Montpellier with my brother, his wife and their soon-to-be-1-year-old son. The weather was quite good and the temperatures around 30 which seems to be "cold" for the locals who complain that there is no summer this year. Well, it was just perfect for me, warm enough to feel that it actually is summer but not too much to force you to stay at home the whole afternoon and wait for the temperatures to cool down somehow. We didn't do anything special but took it easy: played with the little prince, went shopping, had some long "aperos". An apero is a short word for aperitif, something typical french; before dinner (or lunch), you have a drink a few small things to eat like olives, chips, peanuts, etc... and you take it easy and talk. It can last from 10 minutes to hours, the point being of just it, taking it easy and enjoying life and the holidays. We also had some nice food and especially fruits and vegetables because Montpellier's region is famous for its peaches, watermelons and etc. On Sunday we went to the beach and not even 2h hours gave me more colours than what I had gotten the whole summer. I wonder how I would look like after a week on the beach there...

Now I am back at home, in Pau where life is steared by the Tour de France. Pau is one of the most classic host-town and this year the Tour stays here for three days. I wanted to go downtown and do some shopping but the Tour is leaving from Pau tomorrow morning and some streets will be close around 17 and the whole center will be a big mess... so shopping will wait until Friday. Instead I am watching it on TV, writing here, and reading the 7th and last Harry Potter that I bought on Monday. I wonder how many days it will take me to read it and how little hours I will sleep the next nights.

Left for me here are: a day in the mountain, some time by the pool and in the sun, some reading, meeting my dear old friends Mattieu & Helene, seeing my grand-father, time with the family, some shopping, eating & drinking of course! And then a whooole week-end in Paris with my friends and drinks & food again.

There might be only a few days left, but there's still a lot to do!

La moitie...

Ca y est, j'en suis deja a la moitie de mes vacances et la semaine prochaine je serai a Goteborg, prete a commencer mon bouveau job. D'un cote je suis impatiente et il me tarde de commencer, d'un autre cote, le temps passe trop vite ici.

J'ai donc passe 5 jours a Montpellier chez mon frere et sa family et c'etait topissime! Mon petit bout de chou de filleul est vraiment adorable. Il est super eveille et regarde tout, comprend tout, s'exprime meme s'il ne parle pas; je peux vous assurer que lorsque vous le faites un peu trop attendre avec sa bouffe, il vous le fait comprendre!! Et il peut passer des larmes au rire en un quart de secondes, c'est genial. On s'est bien marres tous les deux et on a danse ensemble meme! :-) Il a un petit camion qui fait de la musique et du coup, il s'accroche au rebord de la table basse pour se mettre debout et il remue son popotin et il est mort de rire, c'est trop drole de le voir!

Montpellier est une ville super sympa et qui doit etre tres agreable a vivre. Il y a partout des stands qui vendent des fruits et legumes pour pas cher du tout! Du style 4kg de peches et brugnons pour 5 euros: une misere!! Ou 1kg de tomates pour 1 euros, en Suede, je paie 4 ou 5 euros pour la meme chose... Il faisait assez beau et aux alentours de 30 degres, ce qui moi me convenait tres bien. Mais visiblement les Montpellierains trouvaient ca un peu limite, les collegues de ma belle-soeur disaient meme qu'il faisait "froid"... froid, 30 ??? Bon OK c'est pas les 38-40 auxquels ils sont habitues mais quand meme....

La, je suis rentree a Pau et il fait moyen et aux alentours de 20... comme ce que j'ai eu a Goteborg les deux derniers mois, j'adore... Et apres les suedois me demandent comment je supporte la Suede avec son temps pourri: pas dur, c'est le meme qu'a la maison!! Mais la, le soleil pointe le bout de son nez, esperons qu'il voudra bien rester pas trop loin qq temps...

De toute maniere, meme s'il pleuvait, je suis paree, je suis en train de lire le dernier Marc Levy, Les enfants de la liberte, et apres ca Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows m'attend, je l'ai achete hier. =) La semaine derniere j'ai lu La prophetie d'Avignon, un bouquin du style Code Da Vinci. Pas super mais facile a lire et ca se passe a Avignon dans le Palais des Papes donc c'est sympa. On se prend vite dans le truc et on s'attache facilement aux personnages et le suspens est bien mene. La fin est nulle par contre... mais c'est le cas de toute cette categorie de toute maniere, la fin du Code Da Vinci n'est pas terrible non plus, c'est pas du tout le meilleur du livre, loin de la... Enfin, j'espere quand meme pouvoir continuer mes lectures au bord de la piscine plutot que dans le canape du salon...

Family

I am currently in Montpellier at my brother and his wife's place, enjoying being with them and with the most beautiful almost-one-year-old son. That's why I am not writing much here.

God, it's hot here! What a difference, compared to Sweden! Hahaha!! Today the Tour de France is arriving in Montpellier and tomorrow, it's leaving from here as well, which means a lot of problems and hassle to drive around... Pain in the ass-Tour!!! And the worst is that it's coming to Pau next week when I will be there as well!!! God I hate this f***ing Tour!

Gotta leave you now, I'm going to post my signed jobcontract! =)

France

Ca y est je suis en France!!! Hier, j'ai eu un peu la trouille en arrivant à l'aéroport de Pau-Pyrénées (attention, ca ne rigole pas! ;-) ) en ne voyant pas ma valise sur le tapis. 3h d'escale à CDG n'est visiblement pas assez pour faire suivre les bagages... Mon soucis était que j'ai une valise Samsonite grise, plus commun tu meurs... et je n'ai pas d'étiquette avec mon nom dessus (mission de la semaine, me trouver un porte-adresse machin!!). Heureusement, ce matin ils ont appelé pour dire qu'elle arrivait avec l'avion du matin et ils l'ont amené à la maison cet aprèm. Ouf!

Et hier soir, au diner j'ai bu du Dom Pérignon 1998: trop bien!!!!!!!!!!! Ils ont ouvert la bouteille dimanche pour les 30 d'Etienne et il en restait un peu alors ils me l'ont gardé, trop sympa. J'aime bien quand je rentre et qu'on me traite comme l'enfant prodigue. Hehe!

She's the greatest dancer...

The wedding was great! Malin looked like a princess and had the largest smile on her face the whole day. Tom who usually is a tough guy was quite moved and close to tears a couple of times, especially when he saw her coming in the church. I don't take too much risk by saying that everyone had a great time and enjoyed themselves, you could see it on the faces. It was very personal as well, it was Malin & Tom's wedding, not something done by the book, and I really appreciated that. I will try to write more about it this week, but right now I have to pack because I'm leaving for France in two hours!! But I had promised a picture of my dress, so here it is. =)

B&W vs Pink

I got angry and complained about the weather... and it worked! The sun came back today and it felt good to feel the warmth on the skin. I even had an ice-cream, which I hadn't had in around three weeks! I chose after-eight because I love mint and chocolate and I tried a new flavour: vanilla with chocolate bits and marzipan (pâtes d'amandes in French). The new one was really really good! Especially the green marzipan bits! :-)

Tomorrow I am going to Eskilstuna for Malin and Tom's wedding. The third this year. The good thing is that one was in Italy, one in France and this one in Sweden and there was no one that was going to several of these weddings with me. Which means that I could have the same dress again and I didn't have to find another one. But this time, I am changing the accessories: another handbag (B&W and pink, found it in among my "collection"), new shawl (a pink and silver one that I bought a few weeks ago), other jewels (forgot my bracelet in France and can't have a green necklace with pink accessories so it will be a pink necklace instead). So instead of going Black & White from head to toe (with a green touch) it will be B&W and pink this time.

I had been thinking about taking a picture a put it up for you so that you can see but now, most of it is already packed so you will have to wait until Sunday or Monday...

Soupe aux carrottes

He oui! Ca m'a repris! J'ai cuisiné à nouveau... je sais, ca m'arrive de plus en plus souvent, va falloir que je fasse gaffe. Mais bon, c'est la faute de mon mixer magique et adoré aussi, il est trop bien!

Cette fois-ci c'était donc de la soupe aux carrottes, je vous donne la recette, mais n'ayez pas peur, c'est très simple, vous me connaissez! ;-)

1 litre d'eau
500 g de carrottes
crème fraiche
curry
estragon
cannelle
sel

• Pelez les carrottes et faites les cuire dans le litre d'eau. Lorsqu'elles sont cuites (les carrottes sont cuites! Hahaha!!), mettez les carrottes et l'eau de cuisson dans le mixer et mélangez.
• Ensuite vous pouvez rajouter, à discretion, un peu de crème fraiche, du curry, de l'estragon et une pointe de cannelle (j'ai aussi mis un peu de graines de pavot cette fois-ci, mais c'est optionnel).
• Un peu de sel, et voilà! C'est prêt!

Vous pouvez râper un peu de fromage dans la soupe aussi, c'est bon!

Bon appétit!

Vintage

It's autumn... It's fucking autumn!!! During my two first years in Sweden, I've been complaining that there were only two seasons in Sweden: winter and summer and that there was no real spring or autumn. Well, this year we had only two seasons again but the other two! There was snow only during one week compared to the three months last year and it was not cold at all so it was kind of spring rather than winter. And now... well, now it's autumn: grey, half-cold, rain, wind... It sucks!

This lead to the fact that I didn't do anything today either, didn't feel like doing anything with this weather. So I worked a little bit on the decoration in my flat and added a Matisse corner to all the "corners" in the living-room.
















A friend told me that she liked the dress that can be seen on one of the pictures of my flat, the pink dress on the left. The most amazing with Kristina's dress is that it's actually vintage! It looks so new, so fresh. And the colours are just amaaaazing!! It could definitely be a spring-summer 2007 collection but it was actually made in the 60's! Can you believe it? I find it extraordinary how the cut, the colour, the material is so latest fashion... latest fashion or just timeless actually? Well, I don't know exactly but what I know is that if she hadn't told me, I would never had guessed it was vintage...



I was wearing vintage today as well. I inherited a few pieces of clothes from my grand-mother and I love them. Today I was wearing an orange 3/4 long sleeves T-shirt from Hermès from the 60's as well.

This is us

Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris - This is us

A big thanx to my little pruno for the tips... Discovered them last year and became a big fan very quickly! Listen to the rest of the album because it's amazing!

:)

Min tråkig dag

Just nu håller jag på med en del jobb intervjuer som leder till någonting som det ser ut just nu. Så jag har slutat skicka ansökningar för ett tag nu och har inte så mycket att fylla mina dagar med, måste jag erkänna... väntar mest tills att jag får flyga hem nästa måndag.

Igår och idag tex hade jag inga intervju och ingenting planerat heller... är ganska uttråkad. Såhär såg min dag idag:
-vaknade vid 9.30, åt frukost och läste nyheterna på internet, chattade lite.
-tittade på de sista två avsnitt i Heroes 1a säsong (grymma förresten).
-åt lunch, grejade lite i lägenheten.
-gick till stan, skickade en arbetsgivarintyg för att få pengar från min A-kassa, kollade lite grejer på NK för min bror trots att jag har inte råd med det flesta, köpte ett kort till Malin & Toms bröllop nu i helgen
-fick ett sms från Mioara och strax efter ett samtal från Male: "fika nu?", frågade dem. Yay! en mening till denna dag!
-då tog jag mig till Haga och hade ett trevlig fika med två goda vänner.
-sen skippade jag gymmet (igen)(tyckte att det var roligare att stanna med dem lite längre än att gå å svetta)
-och ikväll gjorde jag inte så mycket...

Imorgon då? Ska träna lite, gå till stan igen för att kolla vidare för de presenterna jag måste köpa, ska lämna en väska hos en vän.
På torsdag har jag en intervju på morgonen, tvätt tid på eftermiddag (jo, det måste man göra ibland...), träffa Manu. Ser bäätre ut.
På fredag, intervju igen och förberedelse innan expeditionen till E-tuna och sommarens sista bröllopet.
Helgen: bröllop.
Måndag: äntligen! till Frankrike.

In the end, har jag nu passerat den träkigaste delen av veckan och det ska gå mycket snabbare nu.