Dolly has a big heart

And the swans like it.

First day of spring!

The skaters are out and so am i!

I'm only 29..

No kid, no husband but a small ass flat. Still have time on my side..

Tessa just turned...

30! She's got it all sorted, kid, husband and flat..

Candle lit dinner

We had hamburgers and fries, yummy!

My date for tonight

Not too shabby!

Baby sitting

Hardcore babysitting in the suburb, me and lisa have 24 hours of playing ahead of us. Double date on a friday night, one can't ask for much more!

Unwrapping..

And we're celebrating

At club finskjortan where lina's friends are playing. It's actually they're club. Good times!

Lina is 'filling years'..

Sally likes sausage

And will do anything to get it..

More snacks..

Snacks..

There's a party in sthlm tonight

Nonsense

I'm just sitting in my flat. Listening to the sounds of Stockholm through the window. It's quiet, emptied, like everyone has left the pulse behind, or taken it with them, to go celebrate the holidays somewhere snowy.
I like the feeling of having the city to myself.

Almost like I'm in a movie with Will Smith, hiding from some ALF.
Pretty cool. Wonder if I can empty the stores of their spring collections tomorrow?
Before the aliens come here and erase it all.

Goodnight!

The white stuff

For about the third time this whole winter, there is strange white stuff falling from the sky. Just when we had accepted global warming and started to look forward to spring in march and full summer in april. Sucks cold ass.

St eriksplan by night

And i've rented a movie and have a date with ben&jerry. Yummy!

Auntie wants a piece too..

Hanging out with dolly

She likes her chocolate cake. Sunny day in sthlm. Making the most of the situation..

Lisa & ester

And this is how it all ended...

Sara and mike pre Rome

These two lovebirds are going to Rome in about 8 hours..

After work memory lane

After work the sthlm way

Dolly

I'm her no 1 fan..

A house on the water

Is one of the things you can buy in sthlm.

Morning walk

I'm thinking a tropical beach would be sweet.

Meanwhile in sthlm..

Weather: Grey, 6 degrees

Happening: I went to the post office to pick up the new Drivers Licence I applied for from Brisbane.

Nothing much going on really! Big in sweden at the moment- the big "schlager" finale on saturday, who will we send to the eurovision song contest in Belgrad?
Mindboggling!

Sthlm trivia # 2

Found a videoclip about Gamla Stan, "Old town". And it truly is old. Older than me in fact.
The first time the street Köpmangatan was mentioned in text was in 1323.
Pretty impressive!

Sweet Sunday

Yesterday meant a good, long, fun night.
Erika had a birthday bash and I managed to capture excactly how happy she was. She was glowing..





Like every good party does, this too included a singstar competition...


...that I naturally rocked to pieces....


So, today was a bit of a laid back day. Stockholm is pretty quiet and closed up on Sundays, so Lisa and I decided to go for a walk instead of hanging around in the sofa all day.

Now I've only spent some 98% of my day there :P

Sunday night - a walk in the park

Sunday night - a walk in the park

It doesn't get better than this

Off to the party in a few hours, bringin my painting and the singstar stuff. I'll kill the competition.. Rock&roll...

What if

I add some jaeger in the equation? But no. Not a good idea. I'll sleep on it!

I'm thinking..

A little more wine is needed.

Crazy friday night in sthlm...

Weather: Soooaked in sun...sweet as!
Temp: Some 7 lively degrees.
Todays Buzz: The Pharmacy chainstores (state monopoly) is about to launch sales of sex toys!

Unfortunately there were some last minute changes of tonights activities and therefore I shall now enjoy this evening in solitude and silence in front of the big square-shaped media (like a squarehead should)..
Well, it won't be quite as dull, but the nice, relaxed after work was cancelled by the other participant, so I'm just gonna jazz around in my flat, finish a painting I've been working on and maybe sip on a glass of red (add a baguette and I'm French?)..

Kind of nice, if it weren't for the fact that my social needs has rocketed lately, so a quiet evening at home...naaaah....

Luckily, a birthday party on the agenda tomorrow, coming to rescue me from my tower...

/Rapunsel

Sthlm trivia

So, what's life in Stockholm like?
It's not all about darkness, freezing temperatures and Ingmar Bergman. In fact, we don't even have polar bears contrary to what many people believe.

This winter has been the warmest one in 250 years and my fear of coming home from 30+ degrees celsius to -30 were quickly replaced by fear of global warming...
No snow, no need for warm jackets but still - not much light.

The people in stockholm are rarely born here. They moved here from small villages throughout Sweden in oursuit of careers in "media" or perhaps to get a job on Stureplan, the financial centre and also the place where the wannabe socialites hang out, waiting to get discovered by the nightclub photographers.

The nightlife in that part is all about VIP's and docu-soap celebs and they're hangarounds in an anxious mix.

I prefer to go out in the south part of sthlm, "Söder" where you find the arty places, the relaxed bars and really cool little shops everywhere. This is where the "media-people" live, breathe, work and stroll, of course in a chilled way, in their expensive cheap-looking clothes.

I live in Vasastaden, where all the "Caffe Latte-moms" rule in their expensive but not cutting edge fashion-outfits, the last resort before you buy a house with very minimalistic furniture and style, but they're still a little anxious about being mistaken for regular "family with two kids in the suburb" Swedes, also called "Svenssons" after the most common surname in Sweden. Being a Svensson is not cool. Unless a media-couple from Söder turns it into the New Black in pure irony of course and buys a caravan and matching jogging suits for the fun of it.
Vasastan also has the biggest population of singles, and that's where I fit in. Subsequently there are a number of trendy bars and shops and crazy expensive foodstores here.

But mix all this with the fabulous surroundings consisting of parks, water, old buildings, superb shopping and a great mix of restaurants and Stockholm is fantastic.

And of course - I live here, which makes it a really fun place.. ;)

Sss

Stockholm wearing a summer sunset last year.

There's a new player in town..

I learned to love v in australia. It's really good for the crazy long drives one has to do down under. Well, now they're here. Can't help but feeling nostalgic!

So, Stockholm, is that any fun?

I think that this is supposed to be sort of a photo-blog about stockholm and it's inhabitants' (myself included) everyday life in this beautiful city in the north.
This is for the friends I made during my travels and for anyone who is just curious about Stockholm.
Might turn into sort of a diary too. Stay tuned and you just might find out..


This is Kungsträdgården (Kings Garden) on one of the first warm, sunny days last year. When that happens there's a fight for a place in the sun..


This is the small park just outside my house, early spring last year. Wish it could look like that now...

My beloved flat. The first night at home I lit some candles and just enjoyed sitting in my sofa, being at home again!

Lisa threw a "welcome home"-dinner at her place a few days after I got home.

From the right - Lisa, Hanna, Tessa, Sara and Sara.

Me and Lisa while I still had a tan..

The only day of snow since I got back. Global warming killed it in a few hours, but me and my godson Svante managed to enjoy some of it...

I have taken up painting as a hobby since I got back. I invited Lisa to a painting night, and she was very focused..

Meanwhile, I took a break and enjoyed some wine in my favourite place - the couch!

Sara, the Pirate, turned 30, and we went out for drinks to warm up for her big party 2 weeks later.

Well, that's it for now.

Coming up - the famous Bagel...