PH-11

I have decided that January 2011 will be the kick off time for my new Project Health 2011. Why is this, well the main reason is that I’m feeling very unhealthy. I have had so much fun in the last couple of months, so much fun; which can be seen on the increase of waistline that I have and the fact that my stomach ulcer has come back in full force.

I can’t blame it all on the fact that I have had great visitors in my flat since early October even if I would want that. It does come down to the fact that I have eaten to much, drunken to much and smoked far to much.

Now it has been lovely to do this, but I am starting to see the side effects of this hedonistic couple of months that I have been having.

All the dresses and skirts I bought in New York in August are too tight in the waist.
My attention span is really bad.
I have much less energy then I normally have.
My skin is getting prickly and I have got breakouts again. Wrinkles and pimples in combination. Not fair at all.

As I’m a all or nothing person I will try to do this as a project, but my aim is
1. Not to let it take over my life.
2. Not get injured from the increased training.

These are things that I have never been able to do. Ever. I normally get far to into it, cutting out all socialising and focus only on eating well and training hard. Rendering my personal life a bit dull and also about 4 months in I will have got myself injured again.

So I will not do it that way this time.
I have made a project plan, I have divided the time from January to April into stage 1.
In stage 1 I will stop smoking, I will eat more vegetarian food and get back into regular exercise.

In stages, not all at once.

If I would do it all in once, then one is very likely to fail. So first step is, stop smoking, stop drinking for January and go to one yoga class a week.

This is my plan, or Project Health 2011, or PH-11 as I will refer to it.

Membrane

the kind of armour I would like
I have not been writing for a while. I have been very busy as I have had guests in my flat since the second week of October and will continue to do so until the first week of January. It has been lovely to have so many people come and see me. But it has also lead to much sadness as I have to see them leave. My friends who are staying at the moment are leaving on Friday and Sunday, and my dad arrives on Monday. So it will be a weekend of mixed emotions.

At the moment I feel like my shell is getting very membrane like and I let things in and out to easy. I like it better when it's like armour, I know that might not make me the cuddliest person in the world, but there are plenty of pandas to take that role. Anyway, in regards to my armour, my friend pointed out last night that why don't I just let myself feel the way I feel and remove all the strategies of avoiding feelings I don't like.

That seems like a terrifying way of life, to much emotion, to much drama. I don't do drama. But I guess that is what people mean with live in the now and all incense that stuff.

I have had such a fun fun fun time in the last few months. To much fun, I feel my energy is depleted, in combination with hyperness. Unenergetic hyper me, Isn't my dad a lucky guy who will get to hang out with that person for a month. Really hyper but can't be bothered doing anything anymore. Let's hope he is jetlagged the first couple of days so I get a decent amount of sleep.
I feel a need to centre and kind of quiet down. I have started a plan for 2011, for a more sustainable way of living. However much fun I have had I also know that what I'm doing at the moment is so scatty and un-organised it kills all creativity I have, all extra energy and a lot of the feeling of caring for others. And that is not a good thing.

1 Year anniversary

Today it’s a year ago that I started working in my current organisation.
It is one year since I was convinced that I was going to be fired within two weeks. I seem to have survived for longer than that, I’m pretty chuffed about that.

Anniversaries of all sorts are interesting occasions as they make you think about what has been happening since this time last year. By God has a lot of things happened. I was reading back in my blog post from the first day last year. I was so scared and uncomfortable. Now I’m not scared, I’m still uncomfortable sometimes but that is mainly because my role has changed to be a very different from what I have done before. I enjoy that very much. But it is still challenging.

Separating or getting divorced is obviously the biggest change in 2010. I’m still pretty surprised about that one. I never saw that one coming. That knocked my sense of control of my live to the curb. Funnily a friend pointed out to me last night that I have more control of my own life now then I have ever had before as I can make decisions only for me. No one else has to be involved in the process at all.

How come I feel that I’m standing in the middle and things are just happening around me at record breaking speed then?

Family in town

I have my mum and sister in town, which is so lovely. They have been here for about 10 days so I have been kept busy with socializing and hanging out. This week I have a holiday so I can really get to spend some time with them.

We have been to the beach today, yesterday we had crap weather so we went to buy me some fab balcony furniture. Once they arrive I will be able to have people come over and enjoy my fabulous view for a drink and meal cooked by someone else on my huge bbq.

Having people for a visit is real nice, they are the first in a long long list of people that are visiting this Australian spring and summer. I will not have the flat to myself for any extended period of time until mid January. As I haven't lived on my own for very long I'm finding it surprisingly easy and nice to have people around...it's almost like old times.

killed the keys

After my run on Tuesday, I was very tired, and my arms went funny and I spilled water on my laptop. That lead to three letters dying on my laptop. The funny thing is, these where important letters....at least one of them where in everyone of my user ids or pwd for just about anything. And my admin id...

hence I've not been able to log in to my computer until now when my keys have dried out...

Running

I found a really cool lite site where you can map your runs...this route I ran today, 6.3 km and I ran it in 37 minutes. So not a great time. But it's improving. I ran 5 km on Saturday morning in 40 minutes. But then again I had been sick for almost two weeks.

I'm better now, and i'm running again. Only problem I have right now is cramp in the food from dehydration. Can you rehydrate with beer?

Singapore

I'm in Singapore, which is lovely, hot and humid. Unfortunately i'm still ill. I think the stomach flu/food poisoning I got last weekend has pushed my stomach ulcer to rear it's ugly head. The continuous nausea is driving me nuts. I feel sick when I don't eat and even worse when I do eat. Which is so very sad as Singapore has great food, particularly great seafood which the thought off eating is making retch.

Singapore as most of you know is pretty much one huge shopping center. So I've done my best, but have come up pretty flat. Did buy a pretty dress and some shoes, and undies, as they do have M&S here. Can't fault old M&S for undies.

Tomorrow my training start, and I was soo exited about this training and I soo wish I was in a better shape for it, I know it's going to be very intense. Hence it would have been great if I was in tip top order. But I guess I'll just have to fake it till I make it.

This last week has been pretty rough as I've been ill and I quickly realized that I'm in a country where I have no family and no old friends. No old friends that you can call and go, -I'm sooo sick can you go and get me some soup, please. It was rather disturbing and embarrassing to have to ask A to help me get some food. Which to his credit he did, twice, which was very kind. It's always hard to ask for help, especially under these circumstances.

Well, I guess I'm just feeling a little sorry for myself today, so I'm gonna go and crash out in my humongous hotel bed. You could fit 8 people in there and have spare room.

sunshine coast

Last weekend I went on holiday with my friends, for a long weekend up to maloolooba. Believe me when I tell you, it's quite a special place. The tattoo ink to free skin ratio is very low. Don't get me wrong. I like tattoos as much as the next person, but tattooing "Property Off" and then the name your missus/mister is a little less then classy in my mind.

The weekend was awesome, included lots of foul language on my part, some people in the group got chucked out from the club for wearing red maybe orange thongs (flip flops).

I even got to see the Big Pineapple. There seems to be a thing here in Australia, for places that aren't really famous for anything to just build whatever they have lots of in that area really big. And then people will go and see it. Just like we went to see the pretty small Big Pineapple. Next weekend I'm going to see the Big Merino. That is not a joke. I will take pictures to prove it. Here is the start of the "Big Adventure". I give you "The Big Pinapple".

I ended up getting really sick however at the end, ate some morton bay bugs and spent all together 3 days vomiting.

The exitement is back - at least a little

Natasha Collis line for Astley Clarke
I spent a little time today at lunch checking out Astely Clarkes website, which is my most favourite jewellery store in the whole wide world.

I have not been wanting to make anything for a very long time, I felt uncomfortable and just plainly haven't wanted to sit down and do it...

Then today something happened, I was checking out Natasha Collis line for Astley clarke and my fingers started to itch. Not itch to try to make things that looks like hers, she makes amazing in a totally different style from me. But they where itching to make things for me, things that I like to make, for me.

So I guess maybe it's time to unpack that part of the flat, that part of my life.

Check out the view

This is my view when I woke up on Friday morning. The fog was so heavy you couldn't see anything.



This however is the view from my balcony this Saturday morning, not half bad hu! I'm loving the boats.

Photo wall

This is the start of my "photo wall", to be honest I lived in London for 10 years and did not put one picture up on the wall. Now I have put up 14 in one night.

My living room. I will take a photo of the view from my balcony during the weekend when there is daylight.

1.46%

Maybe it's OK that things aren't all totally lined up and sorted yet.

It's only been 1.46% of time relative to time spent together.

Other things that are 1.46% according to Google.
The current CD rate from GigantBank.com if you invest $2500 is 1.46%
As of August the 23 the return rate of Canada’s provincial bonds for the month.
On Oct 27 2009 Japanese shares fell 1.46%
On Oct 14 2009 India's annual inflation rate was forecast to have risen 1.46% in the first week of October.

So I am not alone, a whole bunch of random totally unconnected things are also 1.46%.

Sorting it out

I’m getting sorted, slowly. All those things that I’ve never bothered with before, like electricity and gas providers, redirection of mail (which is currently going through my friend), changing my address, my beneficiaries and my will. I’m getting it sorted. I feel pretty adult and organised. Like when you attend a meeting with typed up notes of what you are going to say.

I’m also getting my “photo wall” sorted. I have had a bunch of photographs printed in 6*7 format and I’ve bought a stack of white frames at IKEA. I’m going to put them all up on the wall tonight. I have already laid it out how I want them to be set up now I just need to start measuring to make sure that they are all level and straight.

I will make the wall such that I can add photographs as I go along. The first bunch is mainly family and my friends in from London. As I take more photos from my stay here in Australia they will probably be printed and put up as well. I’m thinking there might be a few from the long weekend I’m doing on the Sunshine Coast later in September. I will have to go back to IKEA and buy new frames, use up that 50 dollar IKEA voucher I won at the Swedish national day lunch raffle.

So, slowly I’m getting there. Getting sorted.

Flatlining

I had a nice weekend, but for some reason today things just got really flat.
Really sad and hard in a way, I guess it doesn't help that work was a little rough and a nice 12 hour day at that.

Any tips for anti-flat activities would be much appreciated. So far I've only got new haircut and signing up for the gym on the list.

I know nothing

It is funny, I've not lived full time in Stockholm since January 1997, but I still read the local newspapers online. I still read the DN Pa stan which is the weekend magazine, I guess I do it to feel not so far away when I speak to my family, so I know a little bit about what is happening in their surroundings. I'm sure they do not read the Sydney Morning Herald to keep up with mine. But that is OK, it's a bad paper anyway.

So DN (the newspaper) often has something called Stockholms testet, which is like an online test about what is happening in the city, questions about museums, displays, politics and all other things that has been in the news for the last week.

I always do the test. For fun...

Today was the first day I didn't get a single answer right...
Not one.

That was surprisingly sad.

When spell checker won’t help

Sent an email today signing off with Retards instead of Regards.

To my boss...

New Flat

I’ve been in my flat for over a week and I love it. I really love my flat, probably the second time in my life where I live somewhere where I want to invite people just to show it. It’s such a nice flat, with two big locks, and the bedroom is a nook behind 1 extra door so I feel very safe and home. I feel at home. That is a strange but lovely feeling.

I have gotten everything up, I have got my photos printed and I will put some on the wall.

The walk to work across the harbour bridge in the morning is more then amazing. I have found the best point to take photos of the opera house. I will bring the good camera out in the next couple of weeks and take some photos.

I can lie in my bed on the morning and look at the turquoise water of the harbour and watch the sail boats float around.

And it’s tidy and when it isn’t. It’s my mess.

When I can’t sleep I can just turn all the lights on and faff about for a little while longer.

The only strange thing is cooking for one. I eat a lot of toasties, so many that I probably will start to look like one. One more thing that isn’t optimal with my flat. There is no real good supermarket close by, there is a supermarket but it’s not good. Hence the toasties.

dinner

Having a cup of tea and anzac biscuits for dinner today. Simply cause I can. Last time I lived on my own I ate ice cream for dinner for a year.

I remember it fondly.

New whereabouts

I'm in my new flat and it's lovely. Very girly for being me, but comfortable and has the most amazing view. I will as soon as I get it all sorted take photos and post.

I blatantly stole this photo from the Internet. But it shows the view a couple of minutes walk from my house. My view is in the other direction, over Lavender bay and all the sail boats.

I moved in on Saturday and Saturday night I went out for some food with friends. I underestimated how tired I got from the move. 3 Drinks and I was all over the shop and went home. On Sunday morning I woke up and did not recognize my surroundings (as the flat is new) and I remebered I'd been out for drinks and I nearly jumped off the balcony thinking I'd done something incredible stupid. Then I remembered this is my new house, I live here...and felt much better and went back to sleep.

Last night

It's my last night in current flat, I move out on Saturday, but tomorrow night I'm suppose to be out at a work dinner.

It's quite a weird feeling seeing all my things in boxes, all my clothes stacked up in the hall way ready for an 8 am start on Saturday.

It's weird because I moved into this flat about a year ago, and this was just gonna be somewhere we lived until we bought something, with big plans for the joint future. And that is all different now, and that feels weird. At this point I can't say good or bad, all I can say is that it feels bad.

For all the shit things, there are going to be good things by leaving this apartment. I will not live next terrible smelling food neighbours. And that will be great...

So last night here...new beginnings and all that.

Dancing queen

Went salsa dancing last night, I am in no form a great dancer on club dance floor and I'm not a big fan really. But I love all types of couple dancing, waltz, foxtrot, salsa what have you I'm there. I think it's because there are rules, there are actual steps that you are suppose to take. I can do that. 1,2,3,4 and to the side then I'm golden.

The place that we went to looked like normal city bar on a Tuesday, plenty of suits standing around grabbing their drinks and bragging about their profits and commiserating their losses. Then about at ten to eight in the evening all these girls in nice dresses and danceable shoes started to trickle in. I didn't pay that much attention as I was hanging out with new friend San and learning more about her super glamorous job. At eight they had a little step session, explaining the basic steps it seemed, we missed out on that cause we where busy loosening up by drinking a little wine.

And then all of a sudden the whole floor exploded with all these couples who where such great great great dancers. It was such a joy to see. All these people really having the greatest time on a Tuesday night in the middle of the CBD. So I danced a little, with a few people which was so much fun, no matter that my legs and feet and arms where all going in the wrong direction most of the time.

So I'm going to find myself a proper dance class and learn this for real. I am after all my fathers daughter. Focused dancing overbite and all.

View 3 min walk from my house

View Larger Map


What do you people reckon? nice view hu? This is the view when I walk 3 minutes out of my new flat. Not bad if I may say so myself. The opera house and palm trees. One can not complain. You have to press the view larger map link to for it not to be blurry. Once I move in I will post proper pictures.

NEW YORK

So many funny stories to tell.

Had the best holiday off my life. Much thanks to my best friend Mon who talked me into going.

Fun fun fun

I've been complaining about being bored lately and having no fun. I have decided to work against this self pity by going to the Comedy Store in Sydney next week. I booked tickets today, which made me feel very constructive.

I bought Tickets for Will Andersson, he is rather big Australian comedian. I hope he is funny. He looks kinda funny on facebook.

When I lived in London I used to go to the Up the Creek which is a totally dingy great comedy club in east London. I love stand up comedy, good comedy, bad standup makes you feel like you want sink into the ground and that just for the audience. Imagine being the actual act.

Anyway. I think guy ought to be good. He is apparently famous. That must count for something.

Free for all

Today when I was on my way home on the buss the charging machine was broken so the trip was free. The old lady who was sitting in the seat behind the driver was so exited about these news that she progressed to point out to every single passenger that stepped on the buss from then onwards that "it's free, isn't that great, I think it amazing".

She did that for all aprox 40 passengers that came on to the buss on the way home.

I wish I could get that exited about getting a 1.60 dollar fare for free.

Winter is a downer. I think gettting that exited over small things, It must be the best life skill ever.

I'm now going to passively go and watch sit coms on TV to cheer me up.

brrrrr - square

My sister told me I'm not allowed to talk about that it is cold, as it's not really cold. I guess it kinda is if you are up in the mountains. A couple of funny things though, about the cold.
1. It's colder inside then outside. Peoples houses are like fridges, that they insist to sit in.
2. People are complaining about how long it has been this cold. I think maybe 3 weeks. And it's really only really cold when the sky is bright bright blue.
3. Its not that cold. But it is windy.

The stone above I bought to replace the stone I snapped the corner off. I hope they will like it. You never know with these things. I have to redo the setting a little bit. It's now to big, the stone is 1/2 a mm smaller in width. It's funny what a difference 1/2 mm makes. 1/2 mm is huge deal if you are a brain surgeon as well.

Or an eye surgeon. Maybe not so important if you just cut people in the leg.

Other than that. Life is good. The weekend will be quiet after the huge hallaballo that was on last Saturday. And I have gone against all my rules and bought low fat ice cream. I will sit in my fridge appartment and eat my low fat ice cream. And I will Love IT

Coldest Day

Today it was the coldest day since 1949 in Sydney. It was -5 in penrith this morning. Was still 16 degrees in the city at midday..

I'm not complaining. But i'm rahter cold as they don't know how to insulate houses here. It seems that when they put insulation in houses 16 year olds die. Not very good. They should send their old midnight oil leaders to sweden to learn about tripple glassed windows. Very toasty.

Somehow I can't get the reallt cute picture of eskimos I had lined up to load

so Imagine really cute enuits at the top of the page please

Long time, nothing written.

It's not due to lack of things happening that I haven't written anything. It's the total opposite. To much things in one go and I became very overwhelmed. Some great things. My new role was finally announced, which made telling people what I do a lot easier, you know when you no longer just some random person wandering into the department asking what people are doing but actually also can tell them why I'm there. I'm very exited about this new role it's quite different from what I've done before so that is scary, which means I'm not sleeping much at the moment. But that is timed perfectly you see cause no one else is sleeping either due to the world cup games being showed at 11.30 at night through to 4.30 in the morning.

We had a great weekend with midsummer party in the apartment. We made tons of food and I tried to cure salmon above, a picture above (that is not the salmon I cured that is just a picture of cured salmon that I've stolen of the Internet). As always with parties there are some things that occurs the day after like how did the conversation about people with both aspengers and toureetes start, why is the floor in the toilet covered with pie crumbs and what happened to the candles in the hallway. All and all a great night really.

Other not so great things. The ring with the giant square stone is now a giant square stone with a cracked corner. I had just finished setting the stone and I was going to level it out, and I cracked the corner. So that was a bit shit. I have been trying to replace it, I have been at 5 gemstone stores in Sydney trying to find a princess cut moonstone to no avail. Moonstones are very rarely faceted as the beauty of the stone is shown best as a cabochon and they are also soft and scratch easily so a faceted stone shows wear much easier. I did however find some really nice checkerboard cut chalcedony that I know have in a little bag that I can poke at and go...ohhh pretty.

Anyway. I'm still looking for the moonstone. Secondly, I found that the second ring that I fabricated and had cast in gold, they casted it in the wrong colour of gold. It was casted in white gold. So I had to ask them to re-cast it and I have to wait until the end of the week.

And I'm running out of time I've realised. There are only so many hours in the day and I don't have time to make as much jewellery as I did before. I think it is because I really like my job. So I spend so much more time and energy there so I don't have that much left over when I get home at night.

Earrings

I'm working away in my little studio. The rings for the giant square stone is finished and I'm having it cast in gold this week. I'm quite exited to see how it's going to come out. It should be finished by wednesday and then all I should have to do is set the stone. The reason I have fabricated the ring in Silver to then later have it cast in solid gold is that fabricating in gold is very expensive. As you have to file so much material away.

The above earrings is for Mr T:s niece. They are white topaz ones, I hope she will like them. She wanted small ones, but they looked so ugly as studs so I made them into solid wire earrings.
I'm gonna upload them to facebook let her have a say.

Other than that, My new job as a boss for many people is proving to be interesting and exiting and a little scary all at the same time. Not much sleep I will have for a while methinks

The Red Jacket

Little Ms M pointed out in her comment that my jacket has been around for a while. It's not even the half truth. I bought that jacket in a Second hand shop when I was student in 1998. I often pair it up with a mulberry handbag I got given as a present in I think 1989.

The reason why I have so much old stuff, is that 1. I don't enjoy shopping very much and 2. I get really attached to my things.

I reckon the price per wear for the red jacket is probably so low that the jacket is actually paying me now,

New Face Decorations

I have glasses. Not all the time, everyday, but when I read or work in front of the computer I wear glasses. As I never really wear them that much I have always bought very simple non-offensive frames that you don't pay much attention to nor pay much money for (Specsaves here I come)

These are my second best ones. The thing is that they are maroon....I'm not sure about maroon.

Anyway, as my sight is getting a little worse I now need new glasses. And I will need to wear more often. Hence I need to have a look for new frames that looks good and "enhance" my style if you like.

I want to get architect style glasses. You know the type, where you can tell from a long distance that this person is Scandinavian. I call them Scandinavian architect glasses. So Mr T and I walked into the city yesterday to have a look. It wasn't a good idea, by the time we got there we where both tired and grumpy. And of course I did not find any that I liked. I spent most of the time getting frustrated that I could not find anything, the people in the shop was unbelievable unhelpful and I ended up getting furious at the frog looking lady working in the shop and Mr T at the same time.

Hence we left without new glasses. But I do have some photos. So I need a little help. Which of all these glasses are the best ones. Or should I keep looking.
These ones above are my favourite ones. Mr T thinks they are to dark for my complexion and makes me look like I'm an angry librarian. I do not see why that is a problem. Maybe when I go to the library in the future they will treat me nicer and stop giving me fines all the time.
These are Mr T:s favourites. He thinks they make me look very intelligent. I think they look very much like the goggles I wear when I polish. The frames are also red. And my face get's red anyway easily, so they will blend in. But not in a good way.


These ones I like as well, except on the sides they have huge rhinestone D&G sign. And I'm not that big a fan of Dolce & Gabbana to start with, and I hate big logos. And I kind of think that If I'm going to walk around with advertising on my face I would like to get paid, not pay for it.

I like these ones the least. They make me look funny.

Hands and Other things

I have found out that the issue with my hand is inflammation in the tendons. This is good news. However right now I need to rest my hand and take anti-inflammatory medicin. So I will take a little rest from making jewellery. Or I will make less. I will fill the orders I have, and then not do some more for a while.

So I've been thinking about what I will do then with my spare energy. I was thinking I'd buy a sewing machine. First I was thinking I would just fix up my website. But then I realised resting my hand should mean no unnecessary typing as it is the typing that has been getting me into trouble. So no typing. But sewing should be alright, maybe.

So I was thinking, as I find that clothes in Australia are either very expensive or very ugly, I will have to learn to sew nice clothes. So you can expect me to look a little funny for a while until I get a hang of how the sewing machine works. Once I got one that is. I have a tendency to buy very colourfull fabrics and keep them in piles in my room. So I guess I'll just start with them. Expect to see me in a green stripy dress with a gigantic red flower on..or maybe a bright yellow pair of trousers with dandelions. Or hot pink with grey leaves. Those are the fabric I own at the moment. I never really buy fabric with a plan of what to make. I just buy them if I love the colour. My most favourite one is a Turquise sari fabric heavily embroided with gold...I wonder what I could make of that..

Other then that when they checked out the hand they found that I had some issues with discs poking out in the spine. Behind the shoulder blade. Which makes sense as I've had pain there for years. I just thought it was sitting with a bad posture. However after double checking with the super doctor (my auntie), she says it's fine to go running but stay away from the weights.

So that is good. Cause I don't like weights. But I like running.

Swedish National Day celebration

For the first time in my life I have celebrated Swedish National day, at the Svenska Klubben in Sydney. It's a Swedish club in Sydney, there is a number of different clubs and organisations for Swedes and other Scandinavians in Sydney.

The event started with flag raising and singing of the national anthem, followed by traditional folk dancing (pictured above) and finishing of with a really good smorgas bord lunch. And there was a raffle, and even better than that, I won a price. A present voucher for IKEA. No I'm not kidding.

I thought the event was very nice, the food was lovely, I did feel a bit silly with flag raising and national anthem singing, but the great food made up for that.
I have never been much for formalised nationalism, in my 10 years in London I never attended a Swedish group event or even have any swedish friends really. Somehow it feels more important here. Maybe it's because I'm so much further away now.

Anyway, the food was great.

Australia vs Denmark 1-0 in the Friendly

Australia did beat the Danes, more beat then mash I guess. I'm not sure it was the actual Danish team, it seemed to be some kind of Danish/Polish contingent. But it was a friendly. And they played better then they did against New Zeeland last week.

I'm going to have to have a think about who I want to win. But I do think it would be fantastic if Nigeria won...But then again, Salsa Fotball from south america is so very entertaining. Even if they cheat and throw themselves on the floor every 5 minutes.

Italy...NOOOOO, any team but Italy I think..

World Cup Songs

My sister put this one on her her blog, It's South Africas world cup 2010 song. It's not the official Fifa song, the official Fifa song is sung by Shakira which makes no sense as she is from Colombia and not really a good representative of Afrika at all. And it's not a good song either. I prefer this one, eventhought it's sponsored by Coca Cola who I'm brought up to belive is evil.

So while I was going throught and looking for the world cup 2010 songs, (englands was awfull, truly awfull), I was looking for Swedens. Then I remembered that Sweden didn't qualify, which is shocking. Mr T very exitedly pointed out that it made Australia a better fotball nation as they qualified.

Have you ever heard such a thing. They don't even call it by it's right name. It's fotball people, fotball...

They even call their team the Socceroos...

Shocking...

As sweden didn't qualify I will have to suport the Socceroos with all I've got. I hope they mash the Danes...(It's a friendly, but still no excuse not to mash the Danes)

Ulrika

 

This design is named after it's owner. It's now finished and on it's way to it's new home. It's a little more floral then I usually do it, but I like it. The stones are blue topaz briollettes. Very light coloured and sparkly.

Happy Australia-versary

Today it's exactly one year since we arrived in Australia. One year, it has gone really fast as it always does.

There are a lot of things that have been better then expected this year. There are also a few things that has been harder then I expected.

I found that fitting in has been harder, I found that people are much more offended by swearing then in London. I have a terrible habit of swearing and it seems to equally offend and amuse people. A little like swearing kids are funny, but not something that one should encourage.

I found finding a job unsettling, but that has so far led to a much better place then I thought would have been possible. More stress full, but better.

I found that making friends when you are older is harder. We have been lucky that Mr T had some friends from before or we would have been very lonely. Especially since our life in London was so very friends involved.

I have found that where I live affects me more that I thought. The general feeling here is more positive, people seem more positive, being outside is not just possible it's actively encouraged. I don't "concrete" so much.

The things here that I do daily that really adds happiness to my life is:

The coffee is really great - I love coffee, can't drink much off it. So i try to get the best cup for the single cup I can drink a day.

I eat a lot fruit, I really like fruit. The quality of the fruit in Australia surpasses any fruit I've had anywhere else. Also they tend to do fruit in seasons, so you can't eat out of season crap fruit.

I live really conveniently located, from the shops, from work, from beaches. It's not the most charming flat. Our last flat in London was much more beautiful but It's more convenient.

I believe the things that we do everyday affect us more then we think. I would do 35 minute commute every day in London, on a over crowded train where I often had to stand with my face in someones armpit. Here it's a 20 min buss ride, or a 45 min walk. That makes my life a little better every day.

So all in all, an eventfull year, a truly eventfull year.

80 men in Sequinned Dresses

We spent the weekend in the Blue Mountains, which is the mountainous area about 2 hours west - north west of Sydney. It's an area that looks very much like the Grand Canyon except covered with eucalyptus trees.

You can see in the photo (where I do my weird tilting my head and squint pose) how beautiful the views are. There are these views all over the place. This is just one of the look outs up there.

I have been up in the mountains 3 times. Each time I end up borrowing clothes from my 5 foot 1 inch great auntie because I'm so cold. It is so much colder up there then down here in the City. You forget between each time how freaking freezing it is..

Most of the towns in the mountains are rather small and cute and you know small towns. Hence you don't expect to go into a bar and see 80 men dressed up in full on sequinned ball gowns that is for sure.

We went to an old hotel in the little town of Katomba for a drink before dinner, as I entered the bar I was struck that there was a lot of very tall females in there. Which in itself is not strange, Australian women are rather tall. At 5.7" I often feel short here.

But then I have a closer look and all the tall females are actually there for a Transgender formal dance. Except for the Ladies(men) in their ball gowns there was some Men(women) dressed in their formal dinner suits. But the Ladies(men) stood out more in their dresses mainly due to the bright colours and the amount of work these ladies had put into their outfits.

The variety of styles was huge. There was some that looked like they stepped just of Dancing with the Stars,all sparkly and chiffony, and some with full on taffeta ball gowns and one girl in a very very very short lemon yellow hardly butt-skimming dress.

I was thinking all the other ladies in there would think she was the slut, cause she was wearing such a short dress.

Anyway, the night was young when we left them but they all seemed to have a good time. The reason I was so surprised was it was a very unexpected place to walk in on 80 men dressed in sequins.

Other than that.

I have learned to re-wire old school porcelain fuses.

We have had a wedding invitation that was sent to us taken by quarantine as the paper that the invitation was written on had straw in it.


And Mr T is happy to report that Chilli Chicken soup and Raspberry bagel work together well as a flavour combination.

Proof of concept

 

My Cousin is getting a PHD. Wich is kind of cool, she will be a doctor that helps people. Hence a doctor with a PHD. I used to work in a team where I was the only one that didn't have a phd. They where all doctors that didn't help people as their Phd's where all in maths.

Anyway I digress. I got asked by my dad to make a present. Hence DAD this is the begining of the idea. I wil make a flower shaped lariat pendant. With the little blue briolette topaz that you can see in the picture. With matching earings.

Do you think it's a good idea. Or you want me to go back to the drawing board..???

The ring for the big stone is getting there. I will just have to go and have it cast in gold. That will have to happen next week.

So im slowly working my way throught my to-do list.

Very slowly. That is the problem when I only have 1 hour each night to do it after work.

I figured it out

Lately it has been getting a little colder, and little wetter and a lot dark. And I've felt like something is missing. Like I'm waiting for something fun, cheerfull and more festive. It just struck me what it is. It's Christmas. I'm used to a long and dark winter that is broken up with a bright shiny festive point. I think that is we are so obsessive about Christmas, it's the brightest thing that happens in winter. And in northern europe the winter is long.

Here the autumn/winter is very short, it's not that cold in Sydney. However there are places in Australia that get's really cold (not like -25 but your know enought for fake snow). But it's dark and there is no festive element with added holiday. And that is what I'm missing. I'm a huge fan of christmas, it's my favourite holiday. Mainly cause of the Christmas crafting and the food and the cookies. Big fan of the cookies, and the festivitites. That breaks up the long and dreary winter. But here there is no such thing. No special winter cookies or holidays or festivities.
Maybe that is what I need to do, invite a bunch of people for winter festivities. I reckon a roast or a casserole would be a good thing to serve, some red wine, lots of warm and festive food.

I shall have to think about this one, there are some problems with this plan.
1. A plate broke , so we only have 5.
2. We don't have that much room. It wuold be very cramped. But maybe we don't invite so many people. Only like 5 or so, that could be a good reason to buy new plates.

Maybe I trick mr T to go to IKEA so I can buy plates.

Maybe Midsummer...maybe we can do a a winter midsummer festivitity..
I shall have to have a think

Working away

A lot of exiting things have happened in the last few days. I sold the above ring in my Etsy shop and I finally figured out how to make a good setting for the big moonstone order I have.

This stone has caused a lot of problems. The stone is big, 12 mm square and the end result of the ring will be made in gold. Gold is expensive, hence making this ring in gold would be a bad idea. I would have ended up filling away a small fortune. My plan is to make the ring in Silver and then make a casting model of it and have the ring cast in gold. That way I don't waste any extra gold and the client aren't spending money on metal that ends up on my floor.

More things are in the works for my other Job. Which are also exiting but I can't talk about that yet. So I will keep quiet and go and make a band for the big moonstone ring..

6 Hour Winge

I have been working on a setting for a ring. A setting for a very big square stone. And it is driving me crazy. I have spent 6 hours on it so far. And all I have to show for it so far is a square with some pointy bits sticking out in really weird directions.

The problem when you are working on a new style, something that you have never done before and no one you know has done before is that you kind of work things out as you go along. This is time consuming, and I don't have that much time.

But today after 3 hours I thought out a much better way to do it. Using round wire instead of square wire. So tomorrow I start again.

Do it again, Do it right is my motto. But now, crap tv, cup of tea and a cookie

The above view is from where I went running at lunch today. Perfect running weather. 19 degrees, chilly wind and bright blue skies. You can't fault it.

Energy - Smenergy - Bubbles

I have been lacking in energy in the last few weeks. I normally have to much energy, to the level where I can be a bit annoying to some, I have been informed on occasion.

But these last few weeks I have been really tired and not very creative. And far to emotional really to work on any new ideas. The necklace above is a prototype for a new Design. I do like the bubble concept and the benefit of making a prototype is not just that I get to be the owner of new jewellery but also that I can figure out that works and what doesn't during the production.

For this necklace when I make another one I will make the bubbles in round silver wire and maybe wire that is 1.1 or 1.2 mm instead of square wire as it tends to twist. I mark out clearer where the solder joins are going to be. And I will make the setting for the stone higher then the other "Bubbles". For prototype I made the setting for the tourmaline about the same height as the other bubbles and that makes it very very hard to set.

Back to the tired, the problem with being tired when you work on a new design is that you can get very upset when it doesn't work out the way you planned. Instead of looking at it as an opportunity to work out how to make the piece the best way you focus on your result not being perfect. And perfect has always been very important for me. I think I have to learn that for prototypes "good" is good enough. Or Perfect is the enemy of done...

Anyway. In regards to the tired. I think my body is just so surprised that the days are getting shorter but it's May. Maybe it will get better if I eat more watermelon. Watermelon solves a lot of problems I found. I also saw at the cricket that it makes a rather fetching hat here it is modelled by a cat. But if you imagine a row of drunk aussies yelling "HOWZAT" you get what I'm talking about.



Other than that. I've been wanting to make a B'day card for my sister. But can't decide about a design. So I was thinking I'll do it themed on 34. But then I found that rule number 34 on the Internet is "if it exist, there are porn about it". And I don't think I can do a B'day card on porn for family. So I have to come up with a new one. Maybe "Dancing Shoes"

Bondi to Bronte

This weekend has come with the most amazing weather. Which you can see in the picture. It's 25 degrees and bright blue skies. I'm not wearing a scarf cause it's cold but because I don't want to burn my chest as I'm only wearing spf 30.

Today we went for a walk along the beach side walk to from Bondi beach to Bronte beach. It's one of the most popular beach walks in Sydney I think. I like it cause it's by the beach and the possibility to stare on the perfect people with the surgically enhanced body structures is big. It's a place where a lot of beatifull people go to run. I like it. I however don't run there. I just watch others do it.

However I did go for my first longer distance run in 2.5 years and it seems that the hip could hack it. It wasn't a long run or fast. But it was in a continous incline, 4.5 km in 30 min. So not to bad for being the first go in a long time.

My plan is to be able to run the city to surf run that is on every year in June/July, it's 14 km. I'm not planning to run it this year. But next year, that way I will have a goal for my physio. Cause belive me, if you need to do 150 double knee bends, and 50 single kneebends every day you do need a goal.

So that is it. City to Surf 2011.

Professor David Harvey – my new crush

David Harvey - The Enigma of Capital - Kings College from swpUkTv on Vimeo.

I'm watching BBC world news interviewing Professor David Harvey about the future of capitalism. He has quite a few interesting point about our need to think about alternatives to capitalism as endless growth is no longer a possibility.
Now I don't totally agree with Prof Harvey on all his points, I think he painting a very bleak picture for our future. But his main point that continuous growth of 3% of our economy is unsustainable, financially, politically and ecologically.
But more importantly, I really like the way he talks and explains things plainly. I always find that the smartest people are the people able to explain complex issues with very few simple words. If you can say something like ...a Credit Default Swap works just like an insurance..
Then people understand what that is, everyone knows what insurance is, you give someone a little bit of money often and if something goes wrong that someone are suppose to give you lots of money. However they often find a way for you not get any of it without giving them more beforehand.
Anyway, I will know have to go and get some of Prof. David Harveys book such that I can decide whether he is right or wrong (in my opinion) and not just get charmed by his fuzzy Santa Beard and softy softy eyes. I have a tendency to dislike Marx and Engel and so I might be a little hard to convince.
If anyone want to see how Economics Santa Looks and sound here he is talking about the Enigma of Capital

Super Week

I have been quite busy filling orders lately, which is really nice. I've been working on these sterling silver pendants with freshwater pearls.


I have realised I really like pearls. I never used to, maybe is a sign that i'm getting more mature. I think they look so nice on the skin. So I made this one for me. The benefit of being the maker is that you can do that.

I have also been working on this bubble pendant. It's just a prototype, and it's not finished. The 4 ring from the right will have a pink tourmaline set in it.

Tommorow I start on the ring with the huge square stone. I think I will make the ring in silver and then cast it in gold. Gold is so expensive that it's far most cost efective to cast it so you don't end up paying for all the metal that you file off.

Other then that, i'm quite exhausted and feel that my observation skills of my surroudings have gone. It's like I have just the level of energy to work and make jewellery. All other things becomes superflous.

Other super things. This week is Super Weeek in this household. I'm trying to negotiate the australian pension system that is called Superannuation. By law have to invest my money in funds. I don't like funds. Mainly cause I don't trust fund managers and I don't trust their statements. They are trying to fob me off with long words for simple calculation. And the difference in the level of return from the funds between using the different calculations can be huge.

So I don't like them. But I have to have a Super wheter I like or not so I will choose one that I think are the most safe and most likely to be guaranteeed by the government when it all turns pearshaped later on. So to make this experiance nicer I have named SUPER WEEK. And I will give myself a treat (the above pearl pendant) when it's all over.

Not Much

 
I have not been writing much lately, unfortunately I've not really found anything interesting to say.

We spent the weekend up north in the heat, it was still so hot that I feel slightly wozzy at time and the humidity makes my hair all flat. The trip lead to a big dip in the bucket of gemstones and bunch of new orders. Which is nice. There is one amazing ametrine, which I hope I will be able to make something interesting out off for Mr T:s niece, there is a whole load of lovely zircons, some white topaz and a big deep red/orange stone that i think might be something like a citrine that is quite interesting but I will have to do some more testing and get back to you about what it actually are. The light pink stone is called YAG (Yttrium aluminium garnet ) that is a synthetic stone. It used be used a lot as diamond stimulants, but since cubic zirconia was "invented" is not as popular as it's not as cheap to fabricate.

Other orders I will finish this week are these 5 different pendants that has been ordered. And another two rings with very big stones. So I reckon I'm going have to get cracking on this making jewellery bizz..