Australia Zoo

Before leaving Australia we tried to travel and see the country as much as possible. Which of course was a bit hard seeing that we only got a few weeks notice... But we did manage to tick of a few of our "must see" places off our list, one of them was Australia Zoo - The Home of The Crocodile Hunter. The zoo is only a 2 hours drive from where we lived, so we grabbed some friends along and went for a day trip!

Före vi åkte från Australien hade vi massor av ställen som vi ville besöka. Man skulle tro att vi under våra sex år skulle ha hunnit med det mesta, men tyvärr hade vi antingen för lite tid eller för lite pengar! Några ställen hann vi med trots allt, ett av dom var Australia Zoo som ligger ungefär 2 timmars bilväg från var vi bodde.

Some sort of cockatoo - Nån sorts papegoja

The popular Croc Show, it was shorter than I had expected
Den omtalade krokodilshowen som var kortare än väntat

The compulsory koala photo...
Skam den som besöker ett autraliensiskt zoo och inte tar minst 50 foton av koalan...

... and the equally compulsory kangaroo photo!
... och några till av kängurun också!

I got to feed the elephant, I love animal encounters
Matade elefanten, jag älskar när man får komma nära djuren

The tiger show was an unexpected bonus, we stumbled upon it by mistake! Much better than the Croc Show to be honest. It's great to see big kitties playing and having fun!

Av rent misstag var vi på rätt plats när tigershowen drog igång. Härligt att se dom stora katterna hoppa i vattnet!

I still remember the day when the news reported that Steve Irwin had died. I wasn't a big fan, but he did bring back the word Crikey!

Jag kommer fotrfarande ihåg den dagen då nyheterna berättade att Steve Irwin hade dött. Lite konstigt eftersom jag inte var ett stort fan. TV-stationerna drog snabbt ihop ett antal dokumentärer över hans liv, och i flera dagar var allt som visades på TV på nåt sätt relaterat till  " Krokodiljägaren".  Han dödade för övrigt inga krokodiler utan han räddade dom, undrar varför han kallades så...

Spicing up our life

Day 15 in the Kingdom... Dag 15 i Kungariket

The last few days have been spent with trying to fix up the house and filling the pantry. Our housing came fully furnished and with a starter pack (4 sieves, but no cups or mugs), which helps out a lot when it comes to starting a new living from scratch. But we also have to eat, so over the past few days I have tried stocking up the kitchen cupboards with the essential staples, which includes a number of spices seeing that we do a lot of ethnic cooking.

A week ago we had invited some friends over for breakfast and just before they arrived I realised that we don't even have salt & pepper. Luckily our compound has a little grocery shop for the essentials, so the problem was easily solved.

Back to basics, spice wise at least...
Koka soppa på tre kryddor...

For a few days we got by with the above spices which included an Italian spice mixture that I brought with me from Australia. It is a really nice mix of spices and it also reminds me of my university days when me and my flatmate only bought the bare essentials for the kitchen as our stay in Australia was only temporary.



Nowadays I live in a half Indian household and my friends tell me that they now consider me Indian by association! No Indian household will get by without a myriad of spices, so on my first trip to the local supermarket I headed straight for the spice counter. The man behind the counter thought that my long list of things would never end...

There were still some spices left in the shop, I promise!
Mitt saldo efter att ha rannsakat kryddisken i supermarketen!

The supermarkets over here remind me a lot of those back home, they have these deli counters that sell a never ending variety of cheese, spice, fish, bread... It might seem ridiculous to some but finding the food that tastes and even smells familiar to you plays an important role when adjusting to a new country. Just this week I met a woman that found it hard to adjust because the meat tastes and smells so different. At first this seemed strange to me as there are so many other things in this country that is so different, but the more I thought about this the more I agreed with her.

Dom senaste dagarna har jag varit upptagen med att försöka förvandla vår villa till ett hem. Jag väntar fortfarande på att få frakten från Australien levererad så för tillfället försöker jag få köket att bli fullt fungerande. Alla möbler är inkluderade i hyran och huset kom också med ett så kallat startpaket. Startpaketet innehöll det mesta som behövs i ett hushåll: kärl, bestick, handdukar, lakan etc.





Som en del av servicen i vårt bostadskomplex är busservicen som transporterar oss husfruar till och från lokala shoppingcenter. Så en av dom första dagarna hoppade jag på bussen för att besöka den lokala supermarketen. Matbutikerna här påminner en hel del om marketarna därhemma, men besöker man butiken för första gången så behövs det nästan en karta så att man inte går vilse!

Mitt första butiksbesök gick mest ut på att handla en massa basvaror. Högst på listan stod en lång lista med kryddor. Inget halvindiskt hushåll klarar sej utan åtminstone en triljon olika kryddor. Mannen bakom kryddisken trodde nog att min lista aldrig skulle ta slut. Jo, ni läste rätt, kryddisken. I supermarketen säljer dom kryddor, nötter och torkade frukter av alla dess slag. Jag önskar att de sku finnas ett sätt att förmedla doften via bloggen. När jag nu öppnar mitt skafferi börjar det dofta alltmer som hemma, det är otroligt hur så simpla ting som dofter och smaker får det att kännas alltmer som hemma!

Disappointed

Day 11 in the Kingdom - Dag 11 i Kungariket

I thought I'd check the news from my native Finland, just to see how the results from the general election turned out. I am extremely disappointed to learn that the nationalist party the True Finns have managed to gain 19% of the vote! That makes them the third largest party.

I am also disappointed that I did not get to cast my vote in this election. The reason being that I was traveling while the polling was held in Australia as well as Bahrain, which means I missed out completely!

Redigerat den 24 april: Ganska störande att jag skriver en lång berättelse ENDAST PÅ ENGELSKA om hur upprörande valresultatet var... Jag var i djup schock, vad annat kan jag säga! Däremot är jag glad att se att den finlandssvenska identiteten har förstärkts som en följd av detta.

Usch

Day 5 in the Kingdom - Dag 5 i Kungariket

Smoking. Such an annoying habit and so 20th century... Seems to me that 90% of the local (male) population smokes. Annoying. Thanks for letting me vent.

In other news - it seems like we have found a place to stay and we are moving in tomorrow if all goes as planned.

Jag har lovat att jag kommer att koncentrera mej på fördelarna med att bo i detta landet och försöka ignorera nackdelarna så gott det går. Men jag måst bara påpeka att jag börjar känna mej som en rökt böckling. I dethär landet existerar nämligen inga begränsningar på var folk röker. Så medan jag sitter i hotelllobbyn och njuter av min capuccino så störs idyllen garanterat inom 30 sekunder av att någon i grannbordet bestämmer sej för att futta eld på cigaretten. Störande, tack för att ni lyssnade läste.

Saker och ting har börjat hända på bostadsfronten, om allt går som planerat så flyttar vi in imorgon!

Land of the Sand

Turku in summer
Image courtesy of Turku Touring

Day 4 in the Kingdom - Dag 4 i Kungariket
 
I got some comments on my previous blog from a few friends, such as "If you squint really hard it looks like Turku" :) For those of you who don't know, Turku was my home town of 10+ years.

To give you some more ideas of where I am I can tell you that:
- the cars are driving on the right side of the road (literally)
- the weather is a "balmy" 35 degrees. I say balmy because it is the start of spring over here...
- in order to survive over here you have to let go of common sense as defined by Western culture :)
- the meals are super sized
- writing goes from the right to the left and it is hard to understand any of it!

As some of you might have guessed, I am in the Middle East in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to be more exact! As a country it is not completely new to me as I have visited twice before when visiting my husband's family.  For my husband this country is home as he knows it, he was born here and lived here for most of his life prior to moving to Australia.

For me this is an exciting adventure and I know that things in our new home country (?) will not always be easy. But I am determined to make the most of it! I will definitely be sharing a lot of my experiences with you, taking some photos along the way!

Take care all, I'll be back again soon!

We have moved

Day 3 in the Kingdom - Dag 3 i Kungariket

In my last post I told you that I have been working on a project. The nature of the project: moving house. But, not only did we move from one apartment, we have also moved to another country!

After nearly six years it was time to say goodbye to Australia and take on a new challenge. So where in the world am I? Ill give you a little visual hint.

The view from our hotel room window

Orsaken till att det har varit så hektiskt på sistone är att vi har flyttat. Vi har inte bara flyttat från en lägenhet till en annan. Nejnej, flyttar man så ska man göra det redigt. Vi har nämligen lämnat Australien och flyttat till ett annat land! Ni kan ju försöka gissa var i världen jag befinner mej nu, bilden ovan får vara den enda ledtråden.

Still here

Hi everyone! Just wanted to write a quick note to let you know that I am still here. I know it's been a while, sorry...

I've been working on a project recently and it has taken up a lot of my time and probably nearly costing my sanity as well! I have limited access to internet at the moment, so I will share more with you in a while :) I've also lost the privelege that is the use of my own laptop as my husband has developped a preference for it. It's lighter and also works much faster than his own. That's why I have to share some photos out of my archive of older pics.

Have an excellent weekend everyone!

Waiting for the train - I know I take photos of the most random things, but I just love these vibrant colours!

Hej alla vanner! Det var ett tag sen sist, alldeles for lange mast jag medge. Jag har ett litet projekt pa gang och det har tagit upp all min lediga tid. For tillfallet har jag sporadsik tillgang ti internet, sa jag berattar mera lite senare :) Min man har utvecklat ett starkt tycke for min dator som ar mycket lattare och snabbare an hans. Darfor sa saknas dom skandinaviska vokalerna, dessutom har jag inte tillgang till mina nyaste foton sa det far bli nagot ur mitt arkiv.

Trevlig helg till er allihopa!