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Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

We were lucky enough to spend a whole week at the cottage in Clarkville while in NZ. Mrs Clarkville was newly freed from work at the start of her maternity leave, so although we were working while there, we also got to do a few excursions, like a jaunt up and over the Port Hills.

Anneli enjoyed making friends with Toby:

We were there for the amazing honey harvest:

And we were privileged to sleep beneath the beautiful “wedding tablecloth quilt”, which I love:

Thank you Clarkevillians!

I have uploaded a few pictures of Anneli and a few random pictures taken so far in NZ.

For baby cuteness, check out Anneli’s gallery

For scenery and stuff, check out our trip gallery.

Every time I open my laptop there is work to do, and I’d much rather free myself from the computer and be out in the sun, rather than writing blog posts or processing photographs. So if you’re waiting for photos, you’ll just have to keep waiting … until we get a rainy day or something!

We spent the weekend in picturesque Hunnebostrand, by the sea:

We enjoyed a preposterous amount of seafood, including crabs, shrimp, smoked mackerel, seafood pate, löjrom (a kind of caviar), havskräftor (small crayfish, like langoustines), and finally lobster as the main event. I’m fairly sure it was the best lobster I’ve eaten – moist and tasty and not at all chewy. Lobster season runs from September to April, and Hunnebostrand is the home of the “Lobster Academy”.

We also visited a couple of flea markets, where I scored a marble rolling pin and two awesome vases from Alingsås Keramik:

Back home, we found that mice have been having a party in the part of the cellar where Linus was aging some cheese. We have set out a bunch of traps, but from the amount of cheese that has been eaten it seems we may have a mouse army living downstairs.

Anneli’s first tooth made its debut appearance last Wednesday, which pleased her immensely. But after a day of grumpiness she seems to have gotten used to it being there. It feels strange when I feed her though, and feel the tooth scritch against the plastic spoon. I wonder how long it will be before the rest of them start popping up, and if she will be similarly grumpy each time – or better, or worse.

At last, photos from our trip to Toledo are up … click here.

The week before last, we snuck off to Paris for a 3 night mini break, and (unlike my other half-dozen or so trips to Paris) we even managed to do some touristy stuff.

Our first outing was to the Chateaux de Versailles:

Which was sparkly.

The next day we descended into the Paris catacombs:

Not so sparkly. I was a little alarmed by the sign warning of the 130 steps down and 83 steps up that would be required, since even unpacking the dishwasher makes me start panting these days. But actually the staircases weren’t too much of a problem, and we went straight to a cafe for refreshments when we got out.

We also went to see Keith Jarrett doing a solo improvisation concert, and took a nice dinner cruise on the Seine. The set menu included a bottle of champagne and a bottle of wine per couple – I had half a glass of champagne, and Linus made a valiant effort and managed to polish off most of the rest.

Back in London, we are in the thick of moving arrangements for the big shift to Sweden. The movers are coming next Wednesday to take our stuff, and we fly over on Friday. We are staying with my cousin in north London for the last 2 nights after all our belongings have left. The BMW is on Ebay and we’ve been looking at Saabs on the internet – ooh, to have a car with functional heating! What a treat!

There’s not much news on the pregnancy front. We had a bit of a growth spurt last week, so I suddently felt a bit heavier and really notice the increased waddle and the difficulty of rolling over in bed. I had my last appointment with our local GP yesterday, all was fine and she was confident that baby is head-down at the moment, so I’m hoping he/she stays that way. I’ll be 33 weeks when we fly, but SAS will accept pregnant lumps up to 36 weeks and I have a “fit to fly” letter from the GP so all should be fine.

Here’s a picture of the whole family in Paris:

Wowee! What a productive day I’ve had. I’ve photographed socks, vacuumed the lounge, done a load of washing, made a batch of banana muffins, and put up my photos from Shanghai. Phew! I’d better sit down and knit for a while now.

yes, it’s time for the obligatory let’s-look-back-at-2007 post. what an amazing year! it feels like the first half passed in a frenzy of wedding organisation, but we did still manage to take some trips away, including a memorable easter in marrakech and yet another weekend in paris. i also took a fantastic girly weekend away in february, escaping to budapest with theresa, toni & tracey. we also visited knutsford several times in the first half of the year, to take advantage of the never-ending hospitality of aunty angela & uncle paul while i had my dress fittings with their neighbour.

the wedding week fairly flew by, and we enjoyed every minute of it. it was great to have so many people join us in sweden, and to be able to spend some extra time with those who stayed on a bit longer. we had a month back in london before heading over to NZ and having our second wedding reception, which was another great day. i caught up with old friends who i hadn’t seen for many years, and it was great to introduce Linus to everyone and to show him a tiny bit of my home town. from there we long-hauled it to the maldives for two weeks of blissful honeymoon.

since the wedding & honeymoon we’ve been mostly housebound, and starting to make improvements to the flat. we’ve replaced all the windows & doors with brand new double glazed ones, much more secure and much less breezy! the next step is to get some paint on the walls and some new flooring.

2007 was an interesting year for my career. in march i wrapped up my job at that big investment bank i was working for and headed for a new job at lastminute.com. as i threw out piles of “business casual” clothes i told myself i was leaving that industry behind forever and i fully embraced the jeans & sneakers environment again. it didn’t turn out to be all that i hoped for though, and i decided to make another move after just 3 months. i did a couple of weeks work for my old company – artists first – before heading away on honeymoon, and then started contract hunting when we returned. and lo and behold, i ended up buying a whole new business casual wardrobe! yes, i’m now back in the world of banking, but it’s a whole different world when compared to the last one. plus, as a contractor you don’t have to care about shmeltzing yourself into the “company culture” and don’t have to sweat about whether you’re doing enough networking to earn yourself a bonus. and i get paid more too. why wasn’t i doing this before?!

of course, the year wasn’t all sunshine and roses. you win some and you lose some, and we lost some very special people in 2007. early in the year Linus’s friend Rob was killed in a motorcycle accident, and not too long afterwards we were travelling to Sweden for the funeral of Agda, mother to Linus’s Dad’s wife Ulla. i had met Rob only a few times, and never met Agda (though i really wish i had – she was a knitting legend!), but it was obvious that they were both really special people and were well loved by many.

most painful for me was the death of my nana, just before we were due to come to NZ for our wedding party. she was a cunning old bird though, and let go just in time to allow us to attend the funeral, without having to see her in the sadly bed-ridden state she was in at the end – i do believe that she quite deliberately chose her time. i miss her terribly though. the world was a richer place for having had these three individuals in it, and we’ll never forget them.

sadly for nana, she missed out on one of the happiest occasions of the year – the arrival of her first great-grandchild, my nephew luke. he’s the cutest baby of all time – although i may want to retract that statement when i have one of my own!

and now it’s 2008 and there is much to look forward to. in february/march we’ll be back in NZ for a while, to catch up with the family and to be at the wedding of my very very dear friend paula. in june we will be taking possession of a little house in sweden by the sea, and there’s every possibility we’ll be moving into it before the end of the year.

so here’s to a new and exciting year, bringing more good changes and hopefully something great for everybody.

well, google’s takeover of blogger seems to be less than seamless – my old blogger account is either gone or inaccessible and i’ve had to resort to setting up a completely new one.

oh well, it had been ages since my last blog anyway maybe some other day i will restore all the posts from the archives.

anyway. today i have had a photo sorting frenzy, and i have a whole lot of new stuff to show. Actually it’s all not that new, as the comments show …

vallda sandö, sweden (christmas)
lulworth cove, UK (last summer)
budapest, hungary (girl’s weekend in march)
marrakech (easter)
chelsea physic garden, london (visited with tracey in february)
la palma, the canary islands (last december)
brighton, UK (last november)

the day started out dim and rainy so i took the opportunity to sit indoors and deal with photos, erina (who’s currently staying with us) is similarly updating her own blog, and linus was/is on the playstation. last night for erina’s birthday we took her out to le quecumbar, where a fantastic band “the bright size gypsies” were playing. i always enjoy the live music at le quecumbar, but these guys were particularly brilliant. they’ll be playing the first sunday of every month, so go and check them out for some entertaining gypsy jazz.