baby steps

i spent the night sleeping at the bus stop outside cityterminalen (main bus terminal) last november. was taking the first flight out of skavsta (airport for budget air carrier) and so planned to take the first bus out of stockholm (to skavsta). wrongly assumed that cityterminalen would remain open through the night so i took the last train into the city, only to find myself locked out and without a place to go till my 0430h bus. way to go! so i sought refuge at maccas until it, too, closed at 0100h and then huddled at the bus stop trying to keep warm and stay awake till it was time to board the bus. needless to say, it was one of my more memorable nights to date and a pertinent reminder of how blessed i am - to be homeless by choice and not by circumstance.

believe me, i'd tried almost everything to get indoors but there was no where to go. all the hotels in the vicinity were accessed by keycard only. fair enough i suppose, why would they want vagrants in their lobby? later learnt of the all-night kebab shop a few blocks away but having witnessed gang fights with crowbars at medborgaplatsen* in broad daylight, i wasn't about to wander around at night.

so the whole point to this is that i have a 7am flight out of skavsta this summer. however, i counted my pennies and booked myself into the skavsta hotel instead. yes, it's not going to be cold, yes, having survived a night at the bus stop it wasn't half bad, yes, i much rather eat than sleep my SEK505 but i told myself never again. money is meant to be spent, and earned back, anyway.

yay to progress!

*whoever said stockholm is a safe city lied. where i was staying, there were drug-induced fights and convicts hiding in the neighbouring forest. an acquaintance's smoke break at night was once rudely interrupted by a bloodied, battered man begging for help. patrol cars and dogs fanning out across the residence were a common sight. dead bodies in the lake, and we even had a ho killing her pimp in the very next block. not to mention the 'harmless' nonsense like blood poured into the washing machines at night. all true.

p/s oh i feel my love-hate relationship bubbling to the surface now.

it feels like

i'm trapped in one of those snow-globes. and it's awesome :)

beauty

in the winter morning light

going the distance

it's terrible that the pizza shack is closer to my front door than the running track.

my waist never stood a chance.

hot chocolate

after my kettle run-in, i needed something to soothe my frayed nerves and this little baby hit the spot. met J, N and L for tea in the city and all was right with the world again. it's fascinating how diverse our ethnic backgrounds are. J's a french citizen who is half-armenian and half-spanish. one of her grandfathers is from a country that doesn't exist anymore! N and L are both australian, N's parents are lebanese, born and bred, while L's dad's irish and her mother's chinese and there we all were, seeking warmth in a tiny cafe in ostermalmstorg, tucked away in stockholm. the world is so small :)

weather report

like, seriously.

commonwealth games

went to sigtuna with the parentals but they're speedy gonzales and i was left breathless as we rushed in and out of the oldest town in sweden. made a mental note to return someday and today was the day! we braved the blizzard but spent most of the afternoon enjoying a leisurely lunch in a sweet little cafe. great food and better tea and cookies! the tea's whole leaf and home bagged! and we had more coffee and tea than we were entitled to. took advantage of the blustery, blizzardy weather and snapped some mood shots. eagerly awaiting S' artwork but my pedestrain photos are up on facebook. we posed, frozed and i stepped into a lot of duck poo. but we'd fun catching snowflakes, eating donuts and trolling each other.

here's to more adventures of the swedish kind!

dear beautiful

body of mine,

i love you to bits but there's something i feel compelled to draw to your attention.

as much as i appreciate the sartorial advantage that not having to bundle up in my heavy-duty winter coat affords me, it's vaguely worrying and undoubtedly ridiculous that i'm flouncing around in a flimsy cardigan, unperturbed by the frigid chill (3deg celcius at last consultation).

while i applaud your hyper-efficiency, would you be so kind as to cease overcompensating for my being accustomed to living one degree fifteen north of the equator for the past 22 years? i understand it's tempting to immediately store whatever i send your way as insulation for the impending winter but, believe you me, i much rather bundle up and look like frosty's freckled cousin than to look like the michelin man's twin without a coat.

alternatively, you might wish to consider increasing your metabolic rate to generate heat. i'm open to similar compromise, but most certainly and without further ado, this sudden fat formation has to stop.

best wishes,

the inhabitant

friend-publicity

we interrupt this post to bring you a photo of home-made tandoori chicken from scratch! unfortunately, it's not my cooking prowess to brag off but it was worth the walk in the freeze. was leaving home when K started preparing it and he very kindly offered to keep me some. so i walked the 20 blocks to C's for her 21st, stayed for an hour, walked back to devour my chicken, then back to C's for the rest of the party. not had tandoori since singers and i'm so glad for a multinational corridor :)

now back to friend-publicity...

what better way to leave your mark on the largest swedish law firm than to advertise for a friend?

and the man himself at C's 21st. think the superman get-up is post-wine spill, but don't quote me on it. apparently it happened while i was on the chicken run (see above).

watch and learn kids, watch and learn...

the best laid plans

of mice and men, don't (always) go astray.

it's N's birthday today and we actually pulled off a successful surprise!

(photo credits to the amazing S - go check out his art if you haven't already. and he does this amazing photo/music pairing, feels a little like cheese/wine. ooh! good stuff.)

thankfully, the surprise went according to plan. S deserves an oscar for his amazing performance. N, usually a most suspicious character, didn't smell a rat. and C very kindly opened his kitchen. think the official story was that S wanted to print something, which N accompanied him to do, and then they were to go to C's to pick up a razor (???) and then lunch with the boys at C's. went like clockwork. after all, what's a surprise party without a frantic last-minute duck under the table? although N did see the cake-laden table ("wow, C really went all out for lunch...") before he saw the army in the kitchen.

and the following photos were taken on my iphone so get the perfect standard S set out of your mind!

my phone has a new inclination towards deconstruction. very intelligent, i must say. consider the possible social commentary that could accompany each photo. anyhoos, this is cake #1, the chocolate cake i ripped off K. turned out ok, surprisingly, if you'd be so kind as to excuse the charred surface, thoughtfully obscured by the many many candles.

raspberry roll and patriotic cupcakes

don't know who contributed these but they were so simple yet so so good!

and these are my real friends - lovely ladies who risked life and, uh, amoebic dysentery to try cake #2.

1. ill-disguised apprehension

2. resignation

3, evidence of a fully-functioning gag reflex

1. putting on a brave front

2. the brain (naming rights to A) itself

3. down the hatch!

and more credits to A who, after christening cake #2 "the brain" took the rest of it home because i didn't want to put such a fragile organ through the trauma of commuting from lappis back home. A is also a true friend, and all the other lovely people who restored my faith in my culinary (in)ability. life's good. i can cook.

on a completely unrelated note, i start shivering like crazy if i don't eat meat. realised this yesterday when i was wondering why i was so unbearably cold despite looking like the michelin man in my room. and then i thought about when i was last shaking uncontrollably and it was in kunming in 2006 while on a medical mission to the leprosy village. and that was because i'd subsisted on nutella / pb&j / suspect tuna sandwiches for a fortnight. so after a fortnight without meat, it struck me that i was in a perpetual chill regardless of how many layers i was piling on. should've remembered because i'd not had meat since the chinese binge in london on saturday. so i promptly devoured half a kilo of pork (sigh) and today i was able to go out in a flimsy cardi. darn, there go my dreams of being a vegetarian one day. i used to tell myself that once i stopped growing i'd go off meat (but i'm still waiting for vertical growth). then that became once i'm out of my 20s. but i'm pretty sure i'll find another excuse when i hit the big 3-0. maybe i'll be lactating or something.

self-discovery is an underrated virtue.

note to self

cooling multiple cups of hot tea on the windowsill is a good idea.

until the tea (and you) turns frigid,

and you're too frozen to retrieve it from 30cm away.

so plus points for a snowy autumn and minus points for freezing me. am reduced to wearing my big coat in my room.

am unamused.