Sunday afternoon

Last Sunday we took a ride in the car in an attempt to catch a shop or two which all closed right about when we got there. We always do that, linger at home until it's almost too late, just to end up in a shop 15 minutes before they close. Well, at least we save some money. :-)

While we were out there we didn't feel like going back so we went for a drive. We were already quite some distance north of Stockholm so we headed out to beautiful Vaxholm. One of the many "suburbed" islands in the near vicinity of Stockholm. We walked around for a bit and found an open restaurant - Restaurant Portobello.

Apart from a very poorly brewed latte and slow service, a fantastic eatery!
It was operated by four elderly Spanish gentlemen, very correct, oozing experience and they treated us with utmost respect despite the casual feel of the place.
It was a truly enjoyable experience to have dinner there, the food was a 7-8/10 on the scale but the atmosphere made up for anything lacking in the food department. These four gentlemen sang to a lady who were celebrating her birthday there, they greeted all the locals with warmth and they were smiling and joking (with style) amongst themselves. All in all something rather unique in this dreary country of ours.

I can't but recommend making your way out there, should you ever be in the neighborhood.

Pork-pancake

The upside of living with an immigrant is that you occasionally get a visit by a mother in law who cooks strange and wonderful food for you.
:-)

When my mum visited a week ago, I asked her to please make us "fläskpannkaka" (pork-pancake?), which she lovingly did.

Swedish Fläskpannkaka:
------------------------------
Egg
Milk
Wheat flour
Salt
Salted pork (sidfläsk)
Butter

Whisk the egg and milk while adding flour. Cut the pork in small cubes, sear them lightly. Butter an oven pan and spread out the pork cubes, pour the pancake mix over.
Bake in a hot oven for 40 minutes, until it's solidified and have turned golden brown on top.
Serve with sugar and jam and a side of shredded carrots.


Norwegian Fläskpannkake:
--------------------------------
Egg
Milk
Wheat flour
Salt
Salted pork
Butter
Potatoes
Turnip (swede! :-D)

Whisk the egg and milk while adding flour, fry thick pancakes in butter in a frying pan. Cut the pork in slices, sear it in a frying pan. Boil the potatoes. Cut the turnip in large slices and boil.
Cut the pancakes in four pieces, serve together on a plate and pour melted butter over it all.


I tell ya. Mouthwatering it is. Healthy it's not. At least not when S' mum cooked it, I tried to not see how big the chunk of butter was that she used to fry each pancake. But it tasted heavenly...

Not quite the same as our own "fläskpannkaka" though, my taste buds were expecting that salt-sweet mixture... :-D

Immigrants

The downside of sharing your life with an immigrant (which I'm lovingly reminding my Norwegian de-facto he is whenever he needs to find his footing in reality) is the fact that you on occasion get the house swarming full of family members from that other country, speaking a language you _almost_ understand and generally demanding your best behavior throughout their stay.

It is, urrm, fun. It is all about good times. But I do have issues with a few things - like the fact that with people sleeping everywhere my home looks very much like it did that first day when we moved in. But I've already seen the benefit of having a bigger place - there are actually non-occupied floor space throughout the house now, unlike how it used to be in the apartment.

Another issue is the fact that I don't know how to handle all these subtle little cultural differences in what to eat, when to eat, what to do, when to do what etc. I'm used to some form of planning, dynamic or well in advance. That's not something S' family seem to worry about. Some of them require coffee and cake, but never at a time when I'd be forewarned that it is due. Others don't like to eat much, so food need to be planned carefully or not at all (really haven't worked that one out yet). Activities are kick started by everybody getting up, putting shoes on and leaving the house in a rush, never mind where we're going or when we're coming back - just hurry up and follow.

And why on earth does these people not realise they'd get more quality time with us if they didn't all arrive at the same time?

I just have to realise I'm a boring old fart of a control freak and the man I love have a family which is put on this earth to make me become a better person.

8-)

Marriage!

Ha ha! :-D My sister is getting married, how cool is that?! :-D
She's been wanting to get this done for so many years and finally, finally it's going to happen! :-D

I also managed to find my password for blogger.com so I can sneak in here and make notes from work. Still no internet at home.

Owned

We are now officially owned by the bank.

The difference:
- we now pay rent to the bank, instead of to HSB.
- we now have a bigger place.
- we now pay less per month than before.

Feels like a win-win. :-) But we'll see how much we spend on heating the darn thing come next winter. We've promised to turn off the computers (all except the server) when we stop using them from now on. We have no phone or internet yet, so the computers will be a non-issue to start with (HOW WILL WE SURVIVE???).

The previous owners had cleaned the place "ok". I would've loved them to clean the walls of the bathrooms, to actually wipe the dust off edges and top of things etc and to use a dust-free wipe when they wiped everything in the kitchen (S and I agreed that must be why every cupboard door looked so "fussy"). So we should probably talk to them about leaving us a nominal sum of 1000 SEK for that, I mean we're paying our cleaners between 2-3000 to clean the apartment.

I should be packing, but instead I've been checking AH in Orgrimar. Yeah, got to keep on top of the market, right? ;-)
Best get going.

Happier than ever

I am happier than I've been in a long long time (and I'm a generally happy person, mind you). And I'm also more tired than I've been in a long long time.
But we get the keys to our house (OUR HOUSE) tomorrow and we're spending the first night there tomorrow (TOMORROW!) and we're moving our stuff across on Saturday.

I can't sleep, I keep thinking of all the bits and pieces tucked away everywhere that we haven't packed yet and I can't help getting all giddy from thinking of our new life in this new place. I went to bed at 00:30 last night, couldn't sleep, finished reading a magazine, tried to sleep, failed, read a few chapters of my book and finally managed to fall asleep right before 03:00. Only to wake up right before 06:00, same thoughts buzzing around in my head.

A few years ago I wouldn't have been particularly excited over moving houses. I have moved... approximately 15 times the past 17 years, so I know the drill (it's only a house, a place where you put your stuff). But this is the very first time I've actually owned my own place.
OK, I only own half of this one, but it's still big. :-)

I best go pack a few more boxes! :-)

Men in Trees

I should be packing my bag for the trip to Prague tomorrow, but instead I watched the first episode of "Men in Trees".

So, I'm hooked.

"Everyone" has been talking about this TV show and when even my boss refers to it as something he takes time out to watch... I just had to have a look for my self. It is rather appealing. :-D Even S thought so and promptly made sure we had a sure supply of all the available episodes.
Classified as "good to have" on the media PC once we've rigged it in its new house (our new house). :-)

I'd say it's a good replacement for Sex and the city. But it seems to contain a few more male characters which makes for a good balance but which may also make it too tame come a few more episodes.
I'll get back to you on that one.

Some links:
imdb (7.7 of 10)
Anne Heche (seems to be a bit of a nut-cake according to Swedish Wiki, but still)

	Anne Heche	...	Marin Frist (17 episodes, 2006-2007)
	Abraham Benrubi	...	Ben Jackson / ... (17 episodes, 2006-2007)
	Emily Bergl	...	Annie / ... (17 episodes, 2006-2007)
	Sarah Strange	...	Theresa (17 episodes, 2006-2007)
	Suleka Mathew	...	Sara (13 episodes, 2006-2007)
	John Amos	...	Buzz / ... (11 episodes, 2006-2007)

Now what should I pack for Prague??
*sigh*