Busy and hectic first month of 2011

New year and new challenges ... 2011 here I come!
After a very busy and stressy month I´m happy that January is gone ... in a good way.


Phillip Island - 3rd Jan

First week of Jan was relaxed, enjoyed my time off from work to the 4th. On NY-day I took off with some climbing friends (Jacinta, Mick and Roger) to the Cathedrals and Phillip Island. I didn´t do any climbing by the Cathedrals, but I did some surfing on Phillip Island, so fun! Will definetly do it again. Got back home on the 3rd.
Attended my first wake on Saturday the 8th, talked a lot to Egg´s brother, baked 2 apple pies, was social, sad and happy at the same time ...

Second week of January started in an easy way, 2 birthdays at work, my manager and mine, lots of chocolate and sweets haha. My b-day was a good one, work during the day and went to Victoria Night Market after work with some colleagues (Diana, Cynthia and Annie). Good sangria and crepés, and good after market drinks in Windsor with Mick!
Rest of week activities were; running in pouring rain for 90 min, ice skating in Docklands, pool party in Hampton at Helen´s place, my own birtday and sponsorship party by the Melbourne Bowling Club and pool party in Caulfield.


Pool party in Hampton at Helen´s place on Saturday


Birthday party - playing lawn bowling


My Swedish family in Melbourne - Savanha, Oden, Ida and Fredrik

Third week of Jan was very busy and stressy, too much to do at work (which is good), started on my sponsorship paperwork on Monday with the migration agency, started my Spanish intensive lessons for 3 weeks and 3 times a week, did a long run which I so needed, finished my visa paperwork on Friday after a chasing week with my previous employers in Sweden (they did a good job and helped me), went to a tennis party in St Kilda on Friday evening with lots of Swedish people - had good fun there with Mick, Dev, Danni - talked to Sofie Arvidsson (one good Swedish tennis player who played in the Australian Open this year). Went out to Werribee on Saturday and stayed there to Sunday evening. Played with kids and went with them to Adventure Park in Geelong on Sunday ... I was a kid during the whole Sunday haha :) Good times and good memories!


Tennis party in St Kilda - here with Dev, Mick and me


Tennis party in St Kilda - me and Sofia Arvidsson :)


Adventure Park in Geelong - with the whole group, 23 Jan

Fourth and last week of Jan I continued with my Spanish classes, went to see Tieto Puente Junior on Australia Day (26th Jan) where I danced some salsa. Saturday was a busy day with 2 pool parties, one in the city and one outside the city. My Swedish friend Sara had a farewell party .... sad to say goodbye to her...
Mark from MUMC had a fence paiting,BBQ and pool party by his parents house in Ivanhoe. Yep, I did paint some of the fence, but didn´t go into the pool, too cold for me ...
On Sunday I went to Brighton Beach with Mick, so hot and nice weather, over 35 degrees. Afternoon was spent at the Windsor Castle pub with Mick and his friends, celebrating his 31st birthday.


Tito Puente Junior in Melbourne - 26th Jan, Sydney Meyer Bowl


Dancing at Tito Puente Jr concert :) - I look so happy!


Sara´s farewell-pool party - 29th Jan


Me with the girls on Mick´s birthday drinks by Windsor Castle pub - 30th Jan

Sad and Happy December

Year 2010 is gone and a brand new one has just started .... 2011 here I come!

First week of December was fully booked with 2 Christmas parties, salsa dancing, voluntary work at the Swedish Christmas Bazaar at the Swedish Church and I also run my last running race for 2010. The race, Susan's Women Run, 10k, was fun and I managed to finish in a good time too. End of Sunday was spent at the pub in Windsor with Mick over some beers and good talk.


Me with my colleagues from IBM at the End of Year Party


Christmas Bazaar by the Swedish Church, over 10000 people in 2 days, I worked in the smörgås-tent


Last running race for 2010, 10km in St Kilda, Melbourne, 5th of December


Me at Sean´s Christmas party at the Crown

Second week was busy too with indoor climbing (Mick and Nadia) where I did some leading, went salsa dancing with Sara and Diana to the Spot, flew up to Sydney on Friday the 10th of December and had a great weekend up in the big city. Met up with Carl, Sean and his friends on Friday evening, said goodbye to Carl on Sunday morning before he flew home to US after almost one year of traveling. Always sad to say bye a good friend....
Did some surfing in Dee Why (North of Sydney) on Saturday, had so much fun, even if I didn't stand up this time. Met up with Grant in the evening over dinner and drinks by Circular Quay, good time and company as always :). Tried a new sport on Sunday afternoon before flying back to Melbourne, lawn bowling ... Aussie sport, a very social game played outdoors, looks like bowling but it's not, the bowl is heavy and rolls with the weight focused in the middle.


Surfing on Dee Why Beach, north of Sydney, with Carl and Sean


Me and Carl just before he went to the airport in Sydney


Shelly Beach - just off from Manly Beach, my old favourite beach :)


Playing Lawn Bowling with Sean's friends in Sydney

Third week was a quick and sad one, went to the Swedish Church Christmas concert to feel the Christmas spirit (it's hard when it's warm and sunny down under), flew to Canberra on Tuesday morning for renewing my Swedish passport at the embassy and had a gorgeous day in the capital city. Rented a bike for the day and biked around the whole city. Had the last work Christmas drinks with Manpower where I managed to get tipsy and had to walk my bike home (almost the whole way).


Canberra view from the Tower hill, took the bike up and wanted to check out the view from the Tower, to my disappoitment they only took cash and I only had card on me


Parliament House in Canberra


My bike for the whole day in Canberra, the most bike friendly city this far in Aussie, impressed!

Over the weekend I went to Arapiles with a group from MUMC. I didn't do any climbing, did a long walk by myself around Mount Arapiles instead, met an old man from WA on the walk and had a good talk to him about Australia. Reason for not climbing was that I didn't find it appropriate since a friend from MUMC died in NZ during the week. End of Sunday was spent at the pub in Windsor with Mick, almost a habit now, the Sunday pub talk and drink :).


Walking view by Mount Arapiles - beautiful!


View from the top of Arapiles


Group picture by Arapiles, from left; Ben, Ivan, me, Sean, Mick, Jacinta, Roger and Brent

Forth week was Christmas and full of work to finish up before my 10 days of vacation. On Monday the 20th of December I received my best Christmas present ever, work will sponsor me so I can stay and work in Aussie for up to 4 years! YEAH! So happy! Had a delicious morning tea on Thursday at work where we played indoor cricket (and I made my famous chocolate truffles), had a Christmas Eve lunch at the Swedish Church with lots of good food and present game, went for a concert in the city with my extra Swedish family in Melbourne, stayed in Werribee with the family for 2 days and enjoyed being part of a family and played with my favourite kids in Aussie (Savanha and Oden).


Morning tea at work with my colleagues, from right to left; Jo, Chris, me, Diana, Raj


Me playing indoor cricket, fun time, we played with a paper ball :)


Me on Christmas Eve by the Swedish Church, the kids by the tree are sleeping since they were singing "The bear is sleeping" :)


My extra Swedish family in Aussie, Sue and Rudolf, Ida and Fredrik with their two lovely kids Savanha and Oden - Christmas Eve concert in the Kings Domain Gardens in the city


Me with Savanha and Oden having fun with the camera on Boxing Day :)

Last week of 2010 was a lazy week doing not too much ... cleaning, washing, meeting up with friends, went to the beach with Diana - one of the best beaches in Victoria (Rye Beach on the Mornington Peninsula), took the bike to Brighton beach one day, went for a NYE party in West Brunswick on the bike (in 40 degrees heat and I got so overheated that my first question at the party was if I could borrow a towel and take a shower to cool myself down). Had a good NYE, went to two parties at the same time, back and forth between them, happy and tipsy, took the bike home with Mick's company along the bike track. Happy New Year to everyone!


Brighton Beach, outside of Melbourne


Rye Beach, south of Melbourne, gorgeous beach with crystal cold and clear water

Hope 2011 will bring lots of good memories, fun and challenging things into my life and to everyone else too :)

Changes in November

Well, it´s now December and I wonder where did the time go ... one more month to go of 2010.

On the way to work one morning - clear blue sky and rowers along the Yarra

In the beginning of November I had the privilege to baby sit the Swedish kids in South Yarra again ... had so much fun. Reading bedtime stories can be challenging I promise :).

First weekend of November I had my last guest staying at my place by the Swedish Church, Lovisa came from NZ over the weekend, she left for Tassie on Sunday. We had a fun time, chilling, city window shopping, went to a birthday party in Brighton and had many good laughs and delicious food and drinks. On Sunday after Lovisa left I took off with the kids to Werribee and had a wonderful and playful day with them ... thank you Savanha and Oden!

Me and Lovisa on the train to Brighton

Second week meant that I had to move out from the church, Tuesday the 9th was the big moving day ... I moved in to the church with 3 bags and I left the place with 10 pieces of bags (I didn´t pack so good so maybe I could have less). Anyway, this made me realise that I have so much stuff and I don´t even have any furniture. Had help of Gunnar from the church to drive all my stuff to the new place in Windsor (between St Kilda and Prahran). Now I'm sharing a 4 room apartment with an Aussie girl (Sylvia) and a Greek guy (Chris) - they are a couple and an Irish girl (Ruth). I have my own room, small and enough for me with lots of sun light. It´s a quite place and I´ve been here now for 3 weeks. I must admit I miss the privacy I had in my own apartment before ... oh, well ...time to get used to this new life! Change is good ... and changes to take time to adapt to :)

Old room view


Old kitchen view

I´ve been running, on and off, had a running race Nov 20, Corporate Games where I participated and run for IBM. Run 10k in probably the slowest time ever, 54 minutes and I wasn´t happy about the time. No excuses but the course was so boring and no people were cheering ... I know by now that I´m only good when I´ve the people energy around me :)


Farewell dinner at the church for Martina


Me and Martina, the "husmor" at the Swedish Church untill Dec 15, then she leaves back to Sweden :(

Went to my first house-warming party in Melbourne where the theme was Toorak (it's a fancy suburb in Melbourne, I stayed there for 5 months haha) ... so everybody was dressed up in fancy and posh clothes. Had a good time and I even danced at the party hihi :)

The climbing is still on, at least once a week with the enthusiastic climbing group (Dev, Mick, Nadia, me, Adrian, Devo), been climbing with Nadia twice - she's such a good and inspiring climbing partner and she's tough, pushing herself up the 19 wall like it was an easy 16 :).

Last weekend of November, I went to MUMC's (Melbourne University Mountaineering Club) Christmas party outside the city, to Kangaroo Ground, around 45 minutes drive. Had a wonderful time playing indoor games since the weather was rainy and stormy. Went kayaking on both Saturday and Sunday afternoon on the Yarra river, Ben and Helen were the leaders and they had a short intro to the basic things in kayaking for the 8 of us. Had to make a push-out from the kayak, Ben turned me upside down, I did get out ... hurt my knees in the quick push. During the Saturday kayaking I was the spinning queen on the Yarra, since I couldn't manage to paddle straight, was spinning all the time. On Sunday I did much better, practice is good ... had a turn in a steep water fall and I managed to come up quickly and was holding very strong to the paddle and the kayak. When Helen said to let go of the kayak I had to ask her twice that is was OK to let go :). I like kayaking, will definitely do it again. On Sunday morning we had to move the cows from one side of the farm to the other ... new and close encounter, fun thing to do.

View from the house


Me gambling, did win once in poker during the evening hihi


When the shower inside didn´t work this was handy after the kayaking:)


Cows and calves, 20 of each, we had to count them before the gate

Ah and yes, ... finally on the last day of November, I bought new running shoes since my old ones can't be used more (been in the dirty Yarra river when kayaking) and the big holes in the shoes didn't look pretty either. Hopefully the new runners will help to run in a good time on my last running race in 2010, on Dec 5 in St Kilda (Sussan Women's Fun Run = 10k).

My new Brook´s runners

At the moment I'm looking forward to know whether I'm staying in Australia on a business visa or not ... looks like yes for maybe 50%. The process of staying is long and there is a lot of paper work that awaits me ... but I think it'll be worth it :). I like Australia and I do want to stay here ... and like my mother tolled me when I left Sweden - 'you'll be stuck there Ingrid' - now I'll have to tell her that she was so right haha. So yep, looking forward to know, looking forward some love and things to do too ...

Long and quick October

Hey ... another month is gone ...

First weekend I took off to the Arapiles with MUMC (Melbourne Uni Mountaineering Club) and learned the skills of trad climbing, which means climbing and putting in gear for your own safety. We were a group of 10 people, different ages and nationalities with 3 skilled climbing instructors. Had a fun and challenging weekend, even if the climbing was easy, the trad climbing takes so much more time compared to indoors lead climbing and sports climbing. Here is me putting in a nut, a very focused Ingrid on a grade 10 wall :) ... which is a new beginner wall.



Now you see me better, my belayer Daniel below me.



Second weekend in Melbourne I had only one thing in my head ... the Melbourne Half Marathon on 10/10/10 :). The race was on Sunday morning, starting at 8am, so yep I had to get up early, by 5.45 for a quick and easy breakfast. The running went all good, the race was boring with almost no people cheering along the streets, I was bored and so I ran quickly, the quickest half marathon this far. Run into the MCG and passed the finish line in 1 hour 55 minutes and 6 seconds (compared to the Stockholm Half Marathon last year, 1:58:34).






A happy and very proud me inside the MCG with the medal :)

Third weekend was meant to be a Grampians hiking/climbing weekend but because the weather was bad the trip was canceled. Melbourne is a good city for rainy free days. Went to the Melbourne Museum, saw the "Hubble 3D" movie at the IMAX theater, had a nice tea pot on Lygon Street (which is the café and restaurant place close to the city, where almost everybody speaks Greek or Italian).
On Sunday the 17th of October I went to see and hear a spring concert at the Swedish Church ... the theme was "Home longing" or just simply "Home sickness" ... and yep, I got really home sick, longed home for probably the first time in 9 months. The music was beautiful and I had goose bums many times :)

Fourth weekend I took off from the city - this time to the Grampians for hiking and climbing. Stayed 2 nights at Troopers Creek, climbing and hiking the first day and the last day just climbing. The funniest thing during Saturday was that the climbing up the 3 pitches wall took less time than the hiking dowm to the camp sites :). Got lost on the way down and we had to go up again and find the walking track.


Just a tent view in the morning :), Joey with its kangaroo mum




Battle ships in the Grampians?


After the second pitch, up on grade 10, just climb following

Last and fifth weekend in October was meant to be the most challenging hike in my life with MUMC, but the weather was not on our side again. The plan was to do the Cross Cut Saw in the Victorian Alps, a circuit hike for 4 days in steep and challenging cliff scrambling. The rain didn´t stop us ... we took off for hiking on the Great Ocean Walk, 2 days of hiking was the plan. First night the rain was poring down and the wind was strong, had an easy walking from Aire River Camp site to Johanna Beach, 13km with some amazing views. The challenge came when we had to cross Johanna River, just close to the camp site. We crossed the river in groups of 3, holding hands with ocean waves coming from the left and the river speeding into the ocean from the right. All 6 of us made it safe over the river! We were very happy later :)
This was the angry river and ocean crossing ... doesn´t look so scary from above, but trust me it was a quick and deep river... see pic below!




We did have a vampire with us ... not me, even if I´m borne in Transylvania, wasn´t me, Helen dressed up since it was Halloween haha :)

We did see the most touristic place along Great Ocean Road - The 12 Apostles, well there are only 6 remaining now

4 of us, me, Sean, Helen and Vincent by the apostles on the last hike day

Work is still on, have another 3 months to go to the end of January, all good at work! I´m a SPOC now (single point of contact) for all contractor and fix term hire conversions, nice! More things to do and I enjoy being busy at work. Had a girls night out with the girls from work one evening after work, went for a pizza dinner + movie, saw "Eat Pray Love" with Julia Roberts, a girl chic film, very beautiful sceneries ... I'm already longing for Asia next year!
We had so say goodbye to Janet, a contractor who started in July together with me ... sad to say goodbye to her. Hope she´s enjoying fruit picking up in Queensland or NT!

Me and Janet on her last day @ IBM

I did something that I´m really proud of this month ... I donated blood for the very first time and not the last one I think. Since I had bad experience from my last time in Sweden I wanted to re-try. The nurse was kind and she understood me and put a cover over the blood bag and I didn´t have to see my own blood. Lost 0.5 litres in 10 minutes and I was happy and dizy at the same time. Will have to wait 4 weeks for the results and to know which blood type I´m. Exiting!

At the moment I´m looking for a new place to stay in, have to move out from the church apartment on the 9th of November :(