25 June 2007

Birthday Celebration x3

I had the pleasure of throwing a birthday meal and dessert for 3 birthday folks just last Friday evening. Otto from middle May, Gabi from late middle May, and Doug from just the 20th of June.

Doug and I decided to make some grand pizzas. We had 1 huge pan with a tomato basil sauce, sliced tomatoes, chopped marinated garlic, red peppers and Gouda cheese with some dried Italian spices too. The other thin crust pizza had a Parmesan tomato sauce, roast beef, sliced tomatoes, chopped marinated garlic, sliced marinated green olives with feta cheese, Gouda cheese and some dried spices, including a Spanish chili powder. Yum yum. I made the dough with a blend of white and whole wheat flour (both organic... is there any other?)

They turned out fantastic.

Thanks to Lena's cake recipe, I made up a delicious simple sweet cake with a cherry and blueberry filling. I whipped the cream up with a bit of sugar and vanilla. That cake was presented on my new cake plate with a clever doily pattern right on the underside of the plate. No useless and annoying paper doilies! But still the cuteness.

Here's the guests. From left to right we have Otto, Erik, Nils, Phinah and Gabi. I'd like to take this pause to say, "Happy Birthday Doug, Otto, and Gabi; I hope that the evening was as pleasant for you as it was sweet for me."

In the center of the table, we stumbled upon some brilliant gerbera daisies on sale, so I decided to share a sample of the colour tones we expect to use in our wedding display as well. Delicious rich red, orange and yellow with a hint of pink and then lime green tones. Way bright and fun and lively!

And for extra measure, although sadly not the best focus from the camera are these shots from a side street in Lund here. All these bursts of flowers and "bushes" are stunning roses! Isn't the overload amazing? Anywhere there's a bit of ground, they plant something or something finds it's way to grow there!

Next post... our own efforts of green thumb and our growing produce! That's right! We have produce!

15 June 2007

Got Water?

This rock festival was too much for words... so I'll try to add some to the few picutres I managed to snag and capture. As the festival wore on, it grew more challenging to just pause and take pictures... especially since energy was so lacking. So, hope you like them!

Anders here is working 1 of the 3 moped kiosks that make up Caffee Italiano. On the right pic, Cristina is on the right coaching him. He's had training in Malmö for barista training, but until this festival, hasn't actually worked with it yet! He learned quickly and was totally open to coaching. What a cool sport.

Ted, you're absolutely right, they're drivable 3 wheeled mopeds. This brown one was stationed in the main way "outside" by a ton of shops and food stalls. The red one from the other post I worked at and we drove it in 2 or 3 afternoons to an area that you need to be secured to enter and then you can enjoy all the music you want. So, we started on the "outside" for the mornings and then about 12-2pm we'd move "inside" nearer the bands and people! Well, inside, we were perfectly positioned to be near the 3 biggest bandstands (ahem Aerosmith) and 2 were just in other areas. The 3rd moped was always on the "inside" and nearer one of those other areas just mentioned.

Next here is the bandstand that the 3rd moped was nearer to. And another shot with peoples and then more so. Each afternoon bringing more and more. The last days, it'd been so crazy to capture the masses! These were from Wednesday and Thursday only.

These next were attemts at catching just a bit of the place these folks called home for about a week. That's right, lots and lots of tents. These extended so much further than I even cared to wander!

My new friends fortunately had one more space in their camper so I didn't need to set up my new tent. Sometimes, it was a blessing, and other times, just plain sauna quality. But it was cool not to have to worry about my things in a tent!

Here's finally a photo of the 3rd moped. It's sweeter than the rest because it's bigger and has an access door on the side. What's cooler still is Cristina here, is wearing a t-shirt that says: "I love snowboarding." How cool is that? Have I mentioned how much I like this girl? Cool chic. So, looking at the espresso machine straight on, then around to the right would be the stage you saw above. to the left and further are the other 3 I was nearer and at the meeting point of (and by the watering hole).

I think this whole festival had cleaning issues. Throughout the night, garbage sat, and this was only Wednesday morning... didn't actually start until Wednesday afternoon! Here's one of many situations where I saw groups of cleaners (städ = clean) just standing around idle.

Meat anyone? kött kött = meat meat.
I just loved this sign. Made me think of all the vegetarians I've known and know of... but seriously, meat anyone?

Or rather water anyone? This place got so toasty, well over 80 degrees. And crazy open sun, no cloud relief. So hot in the afternoon. We were parked right by this here watering hole. Even got our water there too. But I'll tell ya, the people would flock after a band ended like there was only the 2 things, water and the bands, but I understand they flocked everywhere too... food, beer... you know, important things. See the poor earth? That used to be green and grassy. It's so torn up, that it's just dust and loose soil. The crowds literally kicked it all up with the evening bands too. Huge multi-story dust clouds would move with them. If you had to walk in it, well, brace your eyes and get ready for sting and a bit of coughing as you breathe in the dirt. Quite nasty. But I guess, it's better than if it rained? Just can't tell personally, but I suppose they're right.

Ted, I'm proud you actually looked at the photos from the last post. Because I have never seen so many people only clad in undies as they walk about. A man in boxers? yeah, a woman in a bra and briefs? oh yeah, and a man in a thong? sadly, even so! I don't have many pics of them due to never having the camera at the ready for them... but I don't think you'll miss seeing them. Would've had to put a rating on this blog then, don't you think?

This here last photo was a fun moment whereby this fellow played a little complimentary air guitar for us as we were so shearly exhausted on the last night (Saturday). These sorts of folks made the festival so much fun; got to admit.

I hope you guys enjoyed the festival tour. Feel free to ask more questions, I'm just spent and don't quite know where else to elaborate.

13 June 2007

Sweden Rock Festival

The Sweden Rock Festival: a place where loads of people from all over the world (but mostly Sweden and Europe) come to a no-name place near Sölvesborg on the East coast of Sweden for an exhausting, thouroughly intoxicating, crazy rock and roll adventure for 4+ days! And I got to go and serve excellent espresso drinks to these (10s of?) thousands of people for the night before the morning after a bit and all those days in-between! (Picture on right: only Friday, before more and more people came... that red and blue tent is a a massive beer tent and I was sorta close to it as we moved the moped I was at everyday outside of the music area [top picture] to the inside past and well around the corner of the green tent in the right picture for the afternoons and nights... CRAZY!) By Sunday morning, that blue and red tent was pastel from the earth dust that was kicked up into the air!

My 3 worst bits from the festival:
  1. I am experiencing the worst detoxifying experience in my entire life. The environment was so filthy and toxic that each half day that passed, I experienced a new problem. By the time Doug got me home, I just collapsed with exhaustion on the hallway floor. He helped me draw a bath and then I essentially slept. Fevered too. From early on coughs to eye irritation and battling over 80 degree heat and loads of sunblock and tons of dust in the air to becoming an outright flu like situation with congestion, sore throat, light fever and exhausted body muscles and irritated and sensitive skin. Way nasty.
  2. Sheer exhaustion and a bit of confusion throughout the festival.
  3. I realized I don't like festivals and am not so sure I really want to keep doing this line of work... none the less, my bosses want me back and I could use more work anyways, right?
My 6 largest prizes from the festival:
  1. I officially have a job in Sweden. We all hit it off serendipitously. We're really happy to have found one another. Sebastian and Cristina couldn't be cooler or more motivated people.
  2. I have finally mastered the technique of Latte Art. I successfully and purposefully created the BB, the heart, the leaf and a rosetta (not as many of the last 2, but still made them!!!!!)
  3. I have a souvenier rock n' roll devil guitar pick.
  4. I got to practice my swedish and learn loads of new words and how to say stuff.
  5. I was compensated a bit more than offered for all my hard work.
  6. Avoided getting hardly even a sun tan whilst most were burnt to a crisp!
More fun details later folks. I'm gonna take a break again. Still recovering ya know.

04 June 2007

Birthday Redefinition

Before I head out tomorrow for my big event with the espresso service at the rock festival, I felt like reflecting on my new birthday conclusions.

I'm thinking that it's a birthday like this one I've had that starts to get people to not like them, rather than the age itself. I mean, hey, at least for a while, I'm embracing aging, nothing I can prevent, just live the best and healthiest that I can to enjoy the years that I have. So, aging is not my concern here with my new grand 27 completed years on this little rock of a planet hurtling through dark space only happening to be lit by our beautiful and searing sun.

No, my thoughts are within unknown expectations. It's funny how leading up, I didn't think I had any, but now realize I was full of them. Expecting some cool surprise in the mailbox, some fun thoughts from somebody I love from the US. It's funny, I did get a couple greatings and I must say they really did make me smile and enjoy that moment. But it's funny, well maybe not. Because I expected a few other folks, at least, to mention a happy day or something, ya know, nice and simple. It's funny how it didn't happen. Vague at best. Out of family, I gotta thank Mom, Aunt Martha and Sarah & Ted, and Grandma Carol for thinking of me. It meant the world to me that you mentioned it. Because now, I can officially say that I don't like birthdays anymore. I feel let down and that they really don't matter more than keeping track of how many days or years we revolve around that spectacularly toasty sun of "ours".

I don't know, I had to get that out there. It's bizarre how you don't even realize you have expectations until you've noticed them let down. Doug and I, on the other hand, celebrated a sweet birthday. We ate at a really tasty Mediterranean/Greek restaurant and he gave me a sweet and stylish little necklace. We then headed to his folks' place to have sweets and I must say that is was a nice evening with lots of jokes and light air. They were sweet and graced me with a few gifts that I didn't really expect though. Mostly, I think I was stuck on the idea of my family not doing very much to highlight the day. When I talked with my brother, I found out that if he didn't have a party for himself, then quite likely, he wouldn't have had much either? Weird. What's going on here? I don't reallly understand. I also know I'm just writing to vent and get it out of my head.

Mostly, right now, my focus is Swedish and getting siked up for the upcoming work week. Then after that, the end of my course and more wedding preparations in full gear. So, I'll see ya in a week or so after the Rock Festival to show some pics and tell some good stories, I hope.... hmm, expectations? Wonder what I've built in there and don't even know it.