Happiness is... a long chat with mum

Summer time is a busy time for my parents, they keep themselves busy with a wide range of things. Today I talked to my mum for the first time in a while. She gave me an account of what has been happening since we last spoke. She told my about when they went to their local Ikea looking for something particular. And those of you who are familiar with Ikea know that you cannot visit the store without walking through at least half of it! I can imagine the look on my dad's face when something he thought would be quick and easy turned into a mini marathon in a furniture store!

Above is a picture of my childhood home, it probably also provides the explanation to why I love red timber houses with white trim.

Idag pratade jag med min mamma efter en lang paus. Sommartid ar brada tider for mina forldrar, darfor ringer dom mer sallan. Idag fick jag en uppdatering pa bade ett och annat som har hant. Bland annat fick jag hora om nar hon pappa besokte Ikea senast. Dom skulle bara titta in som snabbast, dom sokte efter nagot speciellt. Men ingen Ikea-visit ar nagonsin snabb och enkel. Herr Kamprad har utvecklat ett fiffigt koncept vilket innebar att man maste ga igenom storsta delen av butiken innan man hittar utgangen. Jag kan forestalla mej pappas min nar nagot sa enkelt blir sa komplicerat!

Bilden forestaller mitt barndomshem, och erbjuder sakert ocksa en forklaring till varfor jag alskar roda hus med vita knutar. 

How the other half lives

The other day (more like over a week ago)  we were driving around the Gold Coast and decided to check out a street called Hedges Avenue in Mermaid Beach. This street is home to a long row of absolute oceanfront houses. This means it's an exclusive address and the area is often referred to as Millionaires Row. Some of these houses are worth nearly 20 million dollars.

This is the view that you would have living here.

Some of these houses are massive, with immaculate facades and gardens.

Fancy that, even the cars have a view!

I like it when people put in a bit of effort on the small things.  How cute is this address plaque?!

Enough from me for now. I have the TV to myself and Masterhef is on! See ya!

Haromdagen korde vi onkring och bestamde oss for att kolla in Hedges Avenue i Mermaid Beach. Addressen for dom rika och beromda, Hedges Avenue kallas ofta for Queenslands mest valbargade gata. Att kopa ett hus har kostar miljoner, endel hus har ar varda narmare 20 miljoner dollar!

For den slanten far man en fantastisk vy over Stilla Havet och stranden som stracker sej tiotals kilometer bade norrut och soderut. Manga hus har massiva proportioner och fasaderna och tradgarden runt husen ar snudd pa perfekta. Till och med bilarna parkeras med utsikt over havet!

Nu e de hemmakvall framfor TV'n som galler for mej. Min battre halft ar inte hemma sa jag har fjarrkontrollen helt for mej sjalv! Vi ses!

Monday thoughts

"The world is a book and he who stays at home reads only one page"

I read this proverb in a magazine the other day. Unfortunately I didn't write down who it was that said, this. Nor have I been able to find out by googling it.

I am the type of person that loves traveling, and all the experiences (good and bad) that come with it. Others are perfectly content without traveling, they feel uncomfortable in their unusual surroundings. I admire both types, just because someone has traveled the globe doesn't men that he/she is a better person...

The picture above is from my village in the beautiful archipelago fo Turku.

Jag laste dethar citatet i tidningen haromdagen, men jag kom inte ihag att skriva ner vems citatet ar. Om det ar nan som vet, snalla upplys mig! Sjalv alskar jag att resa, slanga mej ut i det okanda och samtidigt lara mig nagot nytt. Andra trivs bast hemma i sin valbekanta omgivning. Jag beundrar bada typerna av manniskor, nan som har rest varlden runt ar inte battre an nan som har levt hela sitt liv i en liten by pa landsbygden.

Bilden ovan ar fran min hemby i den vackra abolandska skargarden.


Update: the bove quote is by St Augustine. Thank you Tiina!

Updaterat: citatet ar av St Augustine. Tusen tack Tiina!

We have upgraded!

Bye bye mobile broadband, hello ADSL 2!!!

Wow, now I can actually browse the internet without having to spend a lifetime online. Today we got our new router, and in less than 30 minutes I had managed to get our newer,faster internet connection up and running. OK, I admit, the router was already configured by our internet provider.

Now that we are in the middle if winter (yes that's what they call it although the temperature is 20+ degrees) it's nice to look back at some of the photos I took last summer. This one is taken at the lighthouse in Byron Bay.


Här sitter jag nu och surfar så att håret flyger. Vi har nu bytt till ADSL 2 bredband, istället för mobilt bredband. Och jag installerade det och allt! Okej, såhär gick det till: min bättre hälf ringde telefonbolaget, dom skickade en färdigt konfigurerad router, allt jag gjorde var att koppla in sladdarna.

Här e de mitt i vintern (ca 20 grader utomhus visserligen), jag hittade några sommarbilder pa datorn. Denhär tog jag när vi besökte Byron Bay på min födelsedag. Fördelarna med att bo på den södra halvan av jodklotet är att jag för en gångs skull firar min födelsedag i varmt och soligt väder!

Happiness is... a clean home

I must admit that I’m not a super tidy person, nor do I obsess about the shoes not being perfectly lined about or if something is out of its place (OK, maybe sometimes I do…). Our home is definitely one of those places that looks like someone lives there, there are some books stacked here, a watch there etc. I have seen homes that look immaculate all the time, but I have to admit that many of them feel like they lack character, some even border on sterile.

What I do love though, is a clean house. I hate dust and watermarks on the bathroom mirror. Hence I was very happy to come home from work on Monday finding that the apartment had been vacuumed, the shelves had been dusted AND there were two meals on the stove ready to go! Needless to say, the dishes had also been done. Ah, bliss…

I feel bad for my husband though; he is allergic to dust, so I’m usually the one doing the dusting. Note to self, will bake him something nice next weekend.

Dom som känner mej, vet att jag inte är världens superstädigaste människa. De spelar ingen roll om skorna står lite snett, eller om saker och ting inte är på rätt plats (för det mesta). Jag gillar hem där det syns att någon bor, jag avskyr hem som saknar karaktär eller som e så fixade in i minsta detalj att det känns sterilt. Hemma hos oss står det en hög med tidingar här, en klocka ligger på bordet där osv.

Vad jag gillar är ett rent hem, jag hatar damm och vattenmärken på badrumsspegeln. Föreställ er min glädje när jag kom hem från jobbet på måndagen och fann att golvet var dammsuget, hyllorna var dammade och på spisen stod maten färdig, både kyckling och indiska köttbullar (koftas). Till råga på allt var disken också diskad!

Som tack ska jag nog ta och baka något gott nästa helg.

Living room mood board

While browsing the internet the other day I came across this website for creating mood boards. I love mood boards. It's like having a scrap book full of inspirational pictures, without having to buy a bunch of magazines for inspiration. Which I do anyways, these mood boards are just an added extra!

Seeing that I live in a rented unit, I can only realise a limited number of my interior decoration ideas and dreams. With the mood boards you can let your dreams flow, plus it'll cost you nothing!

This is my first mood board ever, I look forward to creating more for different rooms. I guess we know what I will be doing this weekend. I hope you have a great one!

Springbrook

Last weekend I was up for a rate treat as a friend from back home came to visit me. My high school friend Christian and his friend, also called Christian, are doing a road trip along the east coast of Australia and they dropped by along the way. The guys were up for a visit to the nearby national park, so we took them to Springbrook. This is a gorgeous place in the Gold Coast hinterland, with waterfalls, nature walks and beautiful lookout points.

One of the lookouts is called the Best of all lookout, but on the day we visited the view was definitely not the best.

It is a beautiful spot, but on the day we visited the weather was overcast and foggy, so this is all we saw.

But there were plenty of other lookouts and the view from those were much better.

I came to this very same lookout a couple of years ago and got a much better view then.

It's a great place to come, especially on hot summer days, because the weather is always a few degrees cooler than down on the Gold Coast.

We also did a detour and visited Natural Bridge, yes another waterfall. But at the bottom there is a cave that is home to a colony of glow worms. This is a popular place to visit for Australian as well as overseas visitors.

The cave is also home to a large number of bats, all of which where on the move right when we were about to get into the cave! Scary.

I really enjoyed getting out of town and just enjoy the forest, listening tor the birds chirping, or whatever it is that makes all that rainforest sound… The excursion was part of a great weekend that ended all too soon!