Birthdays and Chillin' With That

Mood: Relaxed

Music: Johnny Cash - Jackson, Thievery Corporation- The Mirror Conspiracy, Blur - Parklife, Hugh Masekela - Child of the Earth, Ujang Suryana - Kang Mandor (Music from the Tea Lands), Robert Miles - Children

Word of the Day: molnig = which means cloudy

We enjoyed a really nice lunch for Doug's birthday on Tuesday. Uncle Nils' treat to Doug. Doug's dad came too, so the 4 of us went for a little nature walk, lunch off a golf course and then off to the beach to watch the locals and then play a little mini golf with an ice cream bar to top the outting off! I do enjoy these Magnum ice cream bars! I swear this chocolate covered bar is far tastier than your ordinary treat in the US! (Did I just say that?!? ^_^) Lunch was nice, definately Swedish. Leek soup to start with a variety of wholesome slices of breads. A salad bar with just a few offerings, and a few pickled items, like carrots and different olives, including kalamata! YUM! We had breaded and fried flounder with boiled and dilled potatoes. A clarified butter dressing for the potatoes. On the fish was a little mix of capers and finely chopped beats. Sounds light enough, but when finished, we just sat for a bit, to settle before we went on for mini-golf.

(What a sad sight that was... I've never seen such a poorly maintained course. No scenery, gravel in the greens, totally ghetto... but I understand that's how they are, just something to enjoy a little, but nothing like the asthetics back home!) I guess the cool part was the sea air, and the what-cha-ma-call-it... with the parachute sailing? That's one in the air, and one getting ready on the beach. Later therewere 6 in the air! Made me want to try it! In the pic just above this one with the "chutes" is a great shot of locals enjoying the sun and the coast. Just on the shore line is a naked child, enjoying the cool waters! Ah, Swedes. In the pic above that, it's hard to see, but people are in the distance of the light blue water lines. At the dark blue, the coastal shore just drops off, but it's that shallow for quite some distance, just about the length of that old pier supports in the first pic.

It was a lot to hang with these 2 old guys. They use their swedish and try to teach me some, and then switch to english, and then talk to Doug in swedish, and then back again. Takes a lot of energy out of me to concentrate for the afternoon for all that! But it was a fun time. Just takin' it easy, enjoying the company, and the fabulous afternoon. Sunny, breezy, really beautiful. Which is more than I can say for yesterday or today.

Yesterday was all grey cloudy and drizzly/rainy most of the day... today, partly cloudy, I do see some sun and blue sky, so that's cool. I've already learned that the moment there is blue in the sky, you enjoy it! Take advantage of it. Truly, I'm finally beginning to understand how this vacation/time-off mentality is here. I mean, hours of operation are far shorter now than the rest of the year, and it's because people are enjoying the fine days while they have them! Once that sun starts to go in the autumn and it all is grey and cloudy, it's not the same anymore.

But enough about the grey that's ever so inevitable. Italy's gonna be tough to swing. It's looking rather pricey to go. Airfare is one thing, but lodging is quite another! Whoo, that's high. So, we'll see if Beck has any suggestions near/off of Rome. Because this trip may be a bit more pricey than we're comfortable with. It'd be one thing if we could have booked some 4 months ago, or more, but this'll be tight. Speaking of long distance planning... We're already tossing dates for travel around the holiday. That's tough too, since we both don't have jobs to consider in our timing, so we'll most likely wait a little longer before we pick that out too. I may book something and hope for some part-time job in the autumn that won't be too problematic, and then maybe Doug can book later dependent on his new job life. Well, it's a start.

Anyhoo... we did get to trek out to Malmö and come back via Lomma along the coast (which is where we enjoyed lunch with Nils and Dad). That ended up being about 3 hours with a half hour walk in Malmö. It was a nice ride, not too rough, but a fair consistant pace. I think we'll be able to kick it up a notch soon with a couple more local-ish rides. I'll keep you posted on those journies. Here's my fun hair-doo at a pause in Lomma to apply a little more sun block and drink a little H2O. Gotta enjoy that helmet hair! o_O (Malmö is behind my head, even though the grey clouds make that hard to see.)

I'm thinkin' we will be able to trek out tomorrow afternoon to a new spot. Today is filled with some computer work that Doug's up to. That's cool though, I needed some time to make some cards and work on that creative energy. I think you'll like 'em, each one is so unique! Eventually, you'll get a taste of them. I know it.

Smiles