day 22

sunday 30 may 2010 stockholm

i think today i just spazzed at J's :)

so to spare you the boring details, here are some photos of my regular route to uni from kungshamra.

i still have stockholm on the brain.

something for the singaporeans

looks like someone's been pretty on the ball with the post world cup job apps.

day 21

saturday 29 may 2010 stockholm

after 3 lovely nights crashing at A's, i figured i'd imposed enough and it was time to move on to my next charitable friend. moved into J's with some drama concerning a certain absentee german and my old room at k-town. end result: very happy to take J's offer to sleep on her couch. and we met the crew in the south (oh my i can't remember the t-bana stops anymore!). while waiting for the rest, we chanced upon this very sporting bride made to yodel at the t-bana for change. how absolutely mortifying, and hats off to the gutsy bride-to-be. she really could yodel! she was brought blindfolded to the doors and when her blindfold was whipped off, her hens (haha) ordered her to yodel, which she did with minimal hesitation and rather well, i might add. moral of the story: don't get married in stockholm.

too cute!

and we went to vapiano's for dinner at gamla stan. love their fresh herbs, any fresher and you'd have to pick them yourself. oh wait, i just did.

after dinner, it was off to lilla essingen for C's birthday! what a pleasant surprise to see C again, and the very gracious birthday girl gave me the box (meant for the empty bottles - them swedes are so green they recycle EVERYTHING) so i could mail my 5kg of shopping home. now that's a real friend ;)

and the sunset over the water - what did i say? how not to love stockholm in summer.

day 20

friday 28 may 2010 stockholm

absolutely action-packed, and i wouldn't have it any other way!

began with lunch at berns with O and M, two swedish gentlemen that a family friend introduced me to last semester. going to berns for lunch was a little like going to zouk flea, i.e. odd to see the interior of and be inside, in the day. but it was great to see them again. they were part of my record-breaking dinner last year and truly excellent company for a delightful 9h long evening. never a dull moment with them and they give the best crash course to swedish culture ever, from how it's ingrained in O to conceal a vodka bottle in his jacket (drinking in public is illegal in stockholm!) even when he was in berlin (where it's O-K to be seen swigging from a bottle at noon), to M and the efficiency (or not) of the road works pre-royal wedding. there's definitely something to be said about picking up the intricacies of a culture from born and bred swedes, although O did spend most of his childhood in various exotic locales and M spent a good while in the UK. and maybe that little added 'outsider' advantage is what makes them the warmest (haha) swedes i've had the pleasure of meeting. although a warm swede is largely an oxymoron to me.

think O took the photo below when he was trying out my camera!

delish lunch of thai meatballs (oh yeah, in sweden, totally politically incorrect!) was followed in quick succession by tea with the glossy posse in ostermalmstorg. who'd have thought that we'd all be back for our first visit at the same time? perfect timing, couldn't have planned it better myself. and it was exciting catching up because everyone's moved on and yet is the same (sense the recurring theme?) A had finished her masters and begun teaching criminal law to freshmen back home (lucky them!), T was done with her bachelors and had just bought an apartment, R was finishing up her 2nd masters thesis and about to plan her great south east asian escape and J was reunited with the love of her life in their love nest. so all good and happy to see them happy :)

loved the tea salon they picked, perfect for stureplan girls and ladies who lunch ;)

and after tea, it was off to S' for fredag punch, our swedish institution.

S transformed J's room and really made it his own

yay to friends and catch ups and non-stop face stuffing in stocks!

whenever i miss stockholm

i swing by hilda's blog to see what sweden looks like through her eyes. the above photo is hers, and how i wish i was back on the soder, watching the sun set over the city.

day 19

thursday 27 may 2010 stockholm

hit the ground running bright and early on thursday and met J at stikkinikki's for some of stockholm's finest ice cream. a dear friend who was in stockholm on exchange the year before me let me in on this sweet find on the water (ONLY AVAILABLE IN SUMMER!) and J and i eagerly went to sample nikki's offerings. apparently it's proprietress is an american lady who's married to a swedish gent, and she now sells home-made ice cream for fun! can't think of a happier job than scooping out ice cream for grateful ice cream fans. and this cart's ON THE WATER. i cannot overstate my fascination with water in stockholm. it's all about water and light in the swedish capital and ahhh, it's the windy waterways that make stockholm stockholm. mad love!

and after ice cream, we met up with the man himself for some good ol' fashioned rainbow fun on gamla stan. hurhur.

after my usual chai latte, it was back to kungshamra and straight into my old corridor. the corridor rallied for a special 'welcome home' dinner and it was a mini-culinary around the world tour, with everything from sushi to polish specialties i can't name. nothing had changed! my friends were still there, 6 months wiser maybe, and it was just like old times (recurring theme on this nostalgic blog)

and this is kungshamra in all her summer glory. the flowers came out :)

home sweet home. i love kungshamra.

post-commencement

thoughts here.

and surveying the mass of balloons and streamers that had descended on us with a bang, a friend of mine quipped,

"10 minutes after the nursing graduates are done playing with the balloons and have left the hall, we're still going at it."

-cue attack of the random balloons-

doesn't that say so very much about our chosen profession :)

day 18

wednesday 26 may 2010 paris to stockholm

with great anticipation, i left beauvais for skavsta. nevermind that beauvais is just about the world's worst airport in my books. i was going to be in stockholm again! with my friends! ironically, i joked that i was going to stockholm to say goodbye, and it did seem like that. having left before christmas last year when most of my friends were going home for christmas, only to return after epiphany, i was going home for good. it was a rushed few days, also because i'd scheduled my last exam to be 6 weeks before the actual date so i could leave in time to begin final semester at my home uni, i wasn't privy to (many) pre-christmas / farewell parties. thankfully, the opportunity to be in stockholm again, when most of my friends were still there, was one i grabbed the moment i could.

gotta love college livin'. this very comfortable room was home for 3 nights and i'm immensely grateful for the time i'd with A. she's pure sunshine and light, goodness radiates from her being and if she wasn't such an angel, i'd be wriggling in self-loathing next to her. but she's by far one of my favourite people in stockholm, someone i'm so happy i got 'bonus' time with. we'd long h2hs into the night and i appreciated how she gave me so much space. she was busy revising for finals so i tried to make myself scarce, but it was nice to go home to her at night and girl talk until we drifted off to dreamland.

nothing like being back in stockholm! it was such an amazing home-coming of sorts. it felt as if i'd never left and the past 6 months back home didn't happen. almost like i'd blinked and when i opened my eyes, the snow was gone and the grass was green, having left when the place was knee-deep in snow. well, maybe ankle-deep if you're tall, but i'm not very :) plus to see all my friends again, oh wow, that was something else. like time froze and nothing had changed, which is weird seeing how everyone had gotten on with their lives, and i sort of hadn't. and it was only when i was back in stockholm that i truly began missing the friends who'd gone home after fall semester. perhaps because my memories of them was concentrated in stockholm, i couldn't go to lappis without trying to peek into A.Mc's corridor, or think of how the last time i was at tidemann's i was with N. which made the presence of those who'd stayed for spring semester all the more valuable and it was surreal, in a good way, to be back in our little eramus kid family fold.

also, gula villan was my first stop after dinner at professorslingan the lappis pub and there's something magical about the yellow house at almost midnight. the sky never really fades to black during the swedish summer. it just turned an elegant navy and being back on the gula villan balcony, where i spent my first night out 10 months ago, doing exactly the same thing i.e. cheek-to-jowl with erasmus kids, chugging cider and trying to be heard above the din - nothing quite shouts home-coming like that :)

thoughts

i graduate tomorrow.

yes, i've gotten used to the idea, having first finished my final paper in early may, and then i got my results by text while in stockholm (sitting in my kitchen surrounded by my housemates from last year - whoops all round, thank you very much. and then they tried to get me drunk on my own pear cider. not happening.) and then again when i began the post-grad course yesterday.

so why oh why am i suddenly immensely humbled and increasingly overwhelmed at the thought of traipsing down a stage in my cap and gown? even if for some reason i oversleep and skip commencement all together, i'll still have my qualifications... so it's not about the ceremony, really. but how it signifies completion, coming-of-age and unceremonious release to the big bad world. gulp.

that said, i'm determined to wear my booties with the gown. hehe.

and, on a more sober note, thank you god for opportunity.

day 17

tuesday 25 may 2010 paris

last day together in paris. walked around, checked out rue st honore (oohlala!) and, um, some jerk stepped on my archilles' tendon and bloodied my heel. nothing a few choice words and exacting demands couldn't solve. to console my wounded pride, he (love of my life, not the clumsy jerk) sat me down at one of the palace cafes, plied me with san pelligrino, cleaned the wound, stopped the bleeding, nursed me back to health and, um, bought me a wallet from CDG. ahh, i'm way too materialistic for my own good.

day 16

monday 24 may 2010 paris

this was by far one of the highlights of my entire holiday. the day was perfect from start to finish and i was very very happy. we began with breakfast at laduree along the champs with french toast that was all chewy, crispy perfection,

followed by a long, slow stroll to walk of breakfast. and when we tired, we sat on a grassy patch in the park. time passed without our knowing, just sititng and talking, enjoying the shade, enjoying the great weather, enjoying being young, foot-loose (literally) and fancy-free. such a humbling and empowering revelation at the same time. no responsibilities, and sheer self-indulgence.

after sufficient rest, we went on to the gardens by the tower and sat some more. people-watched in a contented silence. the kids making a pretend-slide on the fountain walls, a boxer chasing a ball, teenagers locked in passionate embrace, seniors locked in passionate embrace. someone had a radio on, someone else was rocking a child to sleep. he took photos, i lay on the grass. a busker took out his saxophone. when we got hungry, we went in search of chartier.

and chartier did not disappoint. we scored the last two-top and had one of the best evenings ever. good service, better food and, excellent conversation washed down with some house red. money can't buy happiness, but it sure can buy an amazing day in paris, with the city at her low-key, laid-back best.

day 15

sunday 23 may 2010 pisa to paris

back in paris, we whiled the afternoon away at a corner cafe along home street.

the frothiest cappucino ever, for him.

it's not san pelligrino, but it'll do, for me.

the prices almost sent us into cardiac arrest. absolutely exorbitant but that's the price to pay for the appearance of sophistication in paris!

delightful dinner with the Bs, our very gracious hosts. props to them for letting us use paris (and their delicious penthouse) as a base. F outdid herself with gratinated cauliflower with minced meat, which tasted much better than it looked and we enjoyed dinner in the sun on their terrace. ahhh, summer in paris. it's all about rose on the terrace and tanning over dinner.

for those in the know

am resuming have resumed posting at the reserve.
the travelogue continues here but swing by for what i've been up to back home!

atypically personal interjection

we interrupt this travelogue with a slice of real life, unfolding in real time.

met my grandmother this morning and her sharp eyes spotted the crumpled famos amos cookie bag i'd valiantly tried to stuff into my clutch.

'what did you have for breakfast?'

'um, a banana?'

'don't lie to me.'

'ok ok, so i had a famos amos cookie.'

'just one cookie?'

'uh, no, five but they're, like, tiny.'

and then she insisted that i'd lunch at her's, whisking me out of my self-imposed single girl bachelorette pad livin'.

after a wholesome lunch of fish soup with more vegetables than fish, she instructs her help to pack me a huge ass pack of lobster keropok. for, get this, tomorrow's breakfast. and then she sends me on my way back to afore-mentioned bachelorette pad. oh the joys of having indulgent grandparents :)

plus, in addition to fish soup, my wedding was on the lunch table as well. she was appalled that i refuse to have a church wedding. when i pointed out that she didn't have one, she reminded me that she and my gramps are the antichrist. no kidding. hahahahaha. but my grandmother's deadpan and had me in stitches. as it turns out, they got married outside the fullerton when it was still the general post office, and a musty one at that. apparently, 61 years on, she still regrets not having a church wedding and is of the opinion that i will as well.

day 14

saturday 22 may 2010 lucca

because we're city-averse, we bypassed pisa and stayed at lucca on our last night in tuscany. didn't make sense to stay within the city walls, either, so we picked a cosy little B&B above the city's most-loved trattoria, or so lonely planet waxed lyrical. explored the walled city then headed home for a late dinner. after all, what's better than comfy digs? comfy digs with food just a staircase away! bring it on :)

day 13

friday 21 may 2010 rignana

the most picturesque stop the whole trip. double hammock, infinity food, the best meal on-site. i can't begin to describe how much i enjoyed rignana and the chianti region. must. go. back.

day 12

thursday 20 may 2010 montalcino

the other life-changing experience this holiday, in addition to pasta fresca fatta di casa, was brunello wine from montalcino. oh brunello, where have you been all my life??? and it was going for a song in the many enotecas in montalcino, complete with complementary munchies. be still, my heart. so we sipped our way through montalcino, sampling (what seemed like) every year and vineyard and picked up a few choice bottles to bring home. i am brunello mad at the moment and it's reason enough to make a return visit.

 snigger. the things you see.

like neeps. teeheeehee!
ps love the mini decanter at the spout. too cute!