Melbourne!

We have finally arrived at our first destination on our trip - Melbourne. It took us 29 hours and 35 minutes from our door in Lund, to the door of our hostel in Melbourne. We arrived early this morning, and are doing a great job trying to stay awake, in order to set the time straight.

It was easy to get into Australia, not like America. You just filled out a landing card, had to leave all your bananas, cashews, and hazelnuts behind (I hear). When we stood waiting for our bags to arrive, there was a cute little Beagle dog. He walked over to me, and I got so happy for some animal-contact, that I said "hi cute little dog" and started petting him on his back and ears. So cute. But then I was told to put my bags down so the trained drug-dog could search my bags. Apparently his trainer did not like that he liked me, she took it as some sign that I was carrying drugs or other sniffable illegal goods. Oops. But they let me go again.

We've been up a high tower in Melbourne called the Rialto towers - 253 m up on a 360 degrees view of Melbourne city from their sky lounge. We then went for a fruitless walk to find the Budget rental office. We searched for 295 Southbank boulevard, apparently it is located on City Road. My brain was not thinking straight. But we found a nice park and sat for a while, went for a heavy lunch at Federation square, and then had a look around all the shops. We are both a bit sunkissed. Joding also goes under the name Rudolf at the moment.

Lots of sun, and t-shirt/shorts-weather. It's perfect here!

Tomorrow we'll rent that car on City Road, and then we'll try to stay on the left side of the road all the way to Lorne, where the conference will start on friday.

Time to go now. I am on Joding's lap, and I feel his falling-asleep-twitches.

Singapore Changi Airport

We have just landed in Singapore. We have 45 minute transit. We have done some serious power-walking, filmed us and the airplane, and taken pictures of me in front of some of the millions of orchids blossoming at the airport (they are not fake - I checked).

We've been travelling for 19 h 45 min, and have slept at least 5. The in-flight entertainment on Qantas is magnificent. Over 50 films to choose from on your individual tv-screen, tv-shows, radio, audio books etc. Good food, great service, wonderful facemasks. We got a 3-seat to ourselves, and we were very happy. At least Joding. But he sort of wished for a dwarf, but I think he liked the seat to be empty even more. When we were boarding we sat and hoped no-one would show. Joding said "at least not a fat person, but a dwarf would have been kind of cool". Well maybe a dwarf will join us now for our last couple of hours left to Melbourne.

It is 25.5 degrees here. How we know that you ask, when we are just inside? Well we kind of felt it when we left the plane through that walk-thingy, and also there were a thermometer telling us the exact details. It feels tropical. And not a great time to be wearing socks up to your knees, under your pants, and two shirts. Someone is doing that. (i.e. me).

I better blog this now before the connection breaks. Free internet on Changi Airport, bloody brilliant!

Hope you are all fine at home (in the snow and cold, moahahaha!)
/Sistersweden&Joding

Going on vacation!

This is a picture of a cuddly thing you'll have to put up with for a while. I will try to publish some pictures during my vacation in Australia, or at least some nice text. But if I don't - don't worry! Then I am just in the outback chasing some fluffy things that for a second can remind me of my lovely Cute Cat. I'll miss him intensly.

If you want to check out the whereabouts of Cute Cat, you can always surf into my mums blog (in swedish - but pictures in the general language of cuteness).

I'll be back in Sweden on the 22nd of February. Hope to see you all back reading my blog then!

Old lady scoring

What don't you do to get some attention. Even blogging with rather offensive titles.

What really happened today is that I have scored some serious old-lady points. I have bought a senile-strap for my glasses, i.e. a strap that makes you not lose your glasses, or as in my case - makes you not drop your bike-crash-adjusted glasses when looking down some Australian cliff.

For recently having turned 26, one would think this was enough Nana-activities for one day, but in my case, "enough" isn't enough. I also bought a pair of supportive socks. Now, who under 60 has those? My friend, who is a medical doctor by the way, gave me the tip of using those to alleviate leg swelling and pains during my long flight. I bought into it totally, and went and got some today. If nothing else, they can be my new school-girl socks. Retired-lady socks.

My bags are packed...

...I'm ready to go. I'm standing here outside your door. I hate to wake you up to say goodbye.



Well, my bags aren't really packed, but I love that song!


But as you can see, there has been some progress made this morning. I have made a pile with some of my stuff (awaiting the laundry on saturday for the rest), next to Joding's pile. And Cute Cat has packed my bag, with himself. I think he wants to come with me, because he simply can't live without me for 4 weeks.

Or am I projecting my own feelings on him? Again.

The wrath of CSN

CSN = an agency from which you can loan money during your university studies.

Which I have done, of course.

But now. They sent me one letter yesterday, and two today. The bastards demand 652+587 SEK (150 USD) each month until the day I die. Or at least until I am 50 years old, whichever comes first (I hope the latter, and I think they do too). They conveniently charged me 100 SEK for telling me how much I need to pay. Bastards.

I (ironically) understand why they need to charge me those extra 100 SEK each year. It must be some tricky business figuring out how much I owe them. The total, divided by the number of years left. Must take some 4-5 seconds to ask your calculator what that comes down to.

The bastards.

Yucky Yuki

Cute Cat does not approve of snow. I tried bringing him out today, but he was extremely reluctant. Constantly shaking the snow off his paws and looking generally offended.

I, on the other hand, love the snow. It is pretty, it makes it bright, the air feels fresh, it is wonderful having it fall on you. It makes the road a bit slippery, and some say biking is insane in this weather, but seeing how I fall over on my bike even when it isn't slippery - I might as well continue biking regardless of some snow. Who knows, I might even hit my glasses another time, so they straighten back the 15 degrees the right side of the frame is off now.

Yuki (japaneese) = snow

Biking incident

The road was flat. No rocks or any debris. No-one was around distracting me. I was biking (innocently of course).

I had a picture frame in my left hand, allowing only the right hand to hold on to the handle. It was raining, and my right foot slipped from the pedal. I tried a naïve attempt to correct for the loss of balance. I had a chance to think "damned it, I'll fall" just before I am lying face down on the wet asphalt bike road. It hurts, and I sit up. Move my body to feel if there's anything to worry about. I look at my glasses, which I heard scraping the asphalt, but luckily it only scraped the frame a little bit, not the actual glass. Probably I have the helmet to thank for that (and for not hitting my head, obviously). My bruise collection from this weekend of moving boxes and furniture have several new contributions. One bruise on my shoulder, that hurts. And a huge bump just under my right knee (probably from when landing on the bike), at least a decimeter in diameter (4 inches), with a red-lilac scraped area in the middle. Additionally, some skin has been lost from my right hand, which also huts a bit, but luckily I was wearing leather gloves.

The picture frame is intact (for those who were concerned about it).

Quite clumsy. And no-one around to blame. But on the other hand, no-one around to see it.
It's almost like it didn't happen - apart from me telling Joding, my new workout-pal Elisabet (and the whole queue at the gym), plus writing about it here I guess.

Elvis

Elvis is an extrodinarily funny series in the free newspaper Metro. Joding found one that suits our situation perfectly.

In the first box Elvis' girlfriend comes in and tells Elvis (for swedish, click on the series for larger image or see the transcript below) "I just saw a documentary about serial killers. They remembered in detail where, when and how they had comitted their crimes years later. They sort of relive their crimes and enjoy it. How sick do you get?"

In the second box their cat (compare with Cute Cat) is sitting and thinking "I pissed there five weeks ago, when they didn't give me food quick enough. I emptied the entire bladder." "And I pissed on that curtain dead seven months ago when they didn't let me outside. It was a hard jet, from left to the right.." " And I pissed on that skirting-board in one pump 13 months ago when they switched the dry-feed".

I wish I could know Cute Cat's thoughts when he pisses on my bed (and on the cusions at my mom's place), so I could know what was wrong. He must realise I'd do anything for him to not get angry!

And Tony Cronstam (the brilliant series designer), I hope you are a sweet man and won't prosecute for breaching the copyright, but instead realise I give you full credit of your incredible series, and hope you see this as a chance for increased publicity instead.

På svenska står det i första rutan (Elvis flickvän) "Jag såg precis en dokumentär om seriemördare . De kom i detalj ihåg precis när, var och hur de begått sina brott åratal efteråt. Som att de återupplever brotten och njuter av det. Hur sjuk kan man bli?" I nästa ruta sitter deras katt och tänker (jämför med Viggen) "Där pissade jag för fem veckor sen, när de inte gav mig mat tillräckligt snabbt. Jag tömde hela blåsan.." "Och den där gardinen pissade jag sönder och samman för sju månader sen, när de inte släppte ut mig. Det var en hård stråle från vänster till höger.." "Dörrlisten där pissade jag ner i ett enda pump för 13 månader sen när de bytte torrfoder.." Hur Wig-Wam är inte det?! Det är säkert så han sitter och tänker det lilla aset.

Cuddling in all the softness

Cute Cat is trying out our new bed linen. He found a perfect little cave, where he could warm his body, and still keep his head cool (and enable full visual control over me and Joding while unpacking our shit). The pictures are non-staged, actually!

Meta-blogging

A photo of my photos.

The extensive collection of Cute Cat-pictures I had in my old apartment has been reduced from around 30 items to 5. I bought a nice frame at IKEA, where the currently coolest picture-quintet featuring Cute Cat will be diplayed.

Moving-in business

Today was the offical moving-in-togheter day. And how quick it was. Much due to me and my mum driving several rounds with the car back and forth between the two apartments on three earlier separate occations. So it was only the big things left.

I also needed help from my handy-dad. Watch him using his cool power drill in the concrete wall. And also do note how Cute Cat is not enjoying the racket. And with what awe Joding is checking out my dad's cool powerdrill, much more powerful than his own.

Cute Cat is fleeing up on higher altitudes, trying to escape the noise. My mum is watching him. She's impressed of course, no way her clumsy little Obidoo could jump like my superior cat!

The result of the power-drilling - nice fabric on the wall. How cozy is our sleeping corner?! With the new big bed! Cute Cat is of course trying it out. Since he was too curious to sleep during the entire afternoon when all the unpacking-action was going on, he has been passed out during the evening.
My couch in our apartment. And my lamp. And my poster. And my bookshelf. And my table. And some tulips I got for my birthday. The wallpaper is pretty much the only thing that belongs to Joding... Dominant? Little me?!

(I'm not bossing him around, I swear! I let him keep most of his glass-decorations, the carpet is also his, and his chair, and the small table (under the tulips), and most of the flowers are his, and the curtain, and the blankets and cushions on the chair, etc.)

It went so greaaaat!

The presentation. How excellent it was. And the defense - how I held up!

It was supposed to last an hour in total, the entire hulabaloo. My presentation lasted 20 minutes, and the whole thing went on for 1.5 hours. Can you imagine how many questions they had time to ask? And especially how many I had time to answer.

I wasn't nervous before the presentation. I was excited, and eager. I don't understand, usually I get quite nervous, at least just before when everyone has gathered and it is time. But I was actually rather relaxed. I started losing my concentration at the end of the 1.5 hours, but who wouldn't have, right? When continuously bombarded with questions, you are bound to exhaust after a while.

Afterwards everyone was so reassuring and gave such nice compliments. One of the opponents said "well, this couldn't have gone better!", and my professor said "you did excellent, the questions won't be harder at the dissertation (in two years), it was so good!", and everyone seemed to agree that it was excellent. And most importantly of all, I think so too. At least now. The evening it just felt quite empty. The morning after I felt disillusionized (both part of the very common post-great-effort-anticlimax). But when I got to the lab that afternoon (the day after the "thing"), I felt so good, because everyone again complimented and were very kind.

Today my legs have turned colourful, and I am off to cut some brains!

Have a nice day!

Bam pam pam paaaaam!

Two more hours left before my rather important half-time seminar. I'll be presenting the work I've done so far to an audience and two opponents (independent researchers), and after my talk, they'll ask me a bunch of questions. I am not nervous yet, just a bit excited. I have been very active this morning, to keep myself distracted: I have hoovered the new apartment, done crossword puzzles, listened to music, went for a brisk 30-min run in the rain, emptied the trash, fixed the flat tire on my bike, cleaned Cute Cat's litterbox, showered, flattened my hair, and now I am eating a bit to avoid fainting, but little enough to avoid throwing up if I get nervous later!

So just the perfect amount! How ever one determines that...

Moving in together

We are trying to assemble our new piece of IKEA furniture. With a very successful result. Cute Cat is of course as always in the middle of the action. Joding (my lovely boyfriend) is posing with one of his more masculine items in the background.

Cute Cat quickly found his spot on the new shelf. On the top, of course. 230 cm up, just by the celing. Next to the toilet rolls. Some toilet roll-remnants were later found on the floor. Eager to be in the center even when super-tired, he fell asleep on top of the shelf while we were still building it and arranging the baskets for it

Some rationalisation is necessary. Only 8 of Joding's 15 towels were allowed to stay. And some of our plastic bags were stowed away for later use.

Stavning á la Willys

"Var vänlig vänd sträckkoden mot dig. /Personalen"

Tvättproblematik

Igår var första gången som jag tvättade som Joding-sambo, och första gången på inte tillräckligt länge som jag fick vänta på min tvätt-tid, som var starkt reglerad till mellan 19-21. Jag tvättar all min tvätt på 40 grader, oavsett färg (jag köper inte vitt, helt enkelt), förutom att sängkläder och underkläder åker i 60 grader. Jodingen hade fyra olika grupperingar, och jag lät honom bestämma. Man måste kompromissa i ett förhållande, det är viktigt =).

Jag funderade lite på hur jag skulle göra med mina 3 (á 500kr) bh:ar från Victorias Secret dock. Förut körde jag dem på 30 grader. Men det fanns ingen 30-graders maskin i planen. Och jag ville inte vålda i dem i 40 grader. Speciellt inte eftersom jag inte äger en tvättpåse. Jag frågade Jodingen om det fanns något ullprogram eller så, som körde tvätten svalt och kort tid.

Han svarade att det fanns det. Det fanns ett sånt där skon.. skoningslöst program.

Sen skrattade han. Han hade nog råkat blanda ihop ändelserna på skon- lite, det gör viss skillnad om man lägger på -sam eller -ingslös. Som jag ser det.

Jag valde att planera in en handtvätt för mina bh:ar.

The new sexy...

...tea pot. You'll just have to excuse the focus being placed on the oil bottles in the background. I blame it on not being my own camera. The pot is a very kind early birthday-gift from my sweet boyfriend. It's a shame Danish design is brilliant, otherwise I could fully boycott that country once and for all, and thereby complete my semi-total repression of my danish heritage. Eva Solo - just bloody brilliant. Or röde pölse, as the Dane would say.