Cultural July

Hey hey,

Yep, July is gone ... and I'm wondering why the month just flew away so quickly.
Sum up of July: a very cultural month :)


Foggy Melbourne from level 26 at work - the fog just came and it was surreal, like in the movies, couldn't see the buildings over the river Yarra


Ireland or Australia? - greenish landscape along GOW


2 kangaroos watching us bushwalkers along the GOW

First weekend of July was spent in the city, visiting the Swedish family in Werribee with Mick - always so good to see the kids, Sue & Rudolf and Ida & Fredrik.
MUMC-Krissie was organising the skating in the Docklands on Sunday evening and it was a good skating time, first time in winter time with a cooler temperature outside than inside.


View from GOW - past Aire River

Second weekend was spent bushwalking on the Great Ocean Walk, did the last part of the walk from Aire River - Johanna Beach - Ryan's Den on Saturday (27.2km) and Ryan's Den - Glemamle Homestead (29km) on Sunday. The 7 of us from MUMC walked and walked with the heavy backpacks for 2 whole days, from 8am to 5pm both days. We all made it to the end of the GOW (Great Ocean Walk), 2.5km from the Twelve Apostles... except for one of us who hitchhiked back to Apollo Bay (where we went and picked her up on the way back to Melbourne).


The 7 dwarfs from left: Michael, Rob, Mary, Amber with Mick, Nhung and me at the back


The end of the walk, the Twelve Apostles, almost blew off the walking track cause the wind was so strong :)

The third, forth and fifth week of July was spent in Melbourne, working, dancing ballet and tango, seeing the Nederlands Dance show (a modern dance show), a French movie (Little white lies), celebrating Christmas in July with Mick's friends in Brunswick, brand launch party for Experis, celebrating the 2nd Christmas in July at the Swedish Church where Ida was cooking all the delicious Scandinavian food, had one year at IBM on July 26 :), saw a Spanish film on the MIFF (Melbourne International Film Festival) - Medianeras (cool, new style movie), went to my first house cheering party in Northcote at Krissie's place (good to see the MUMC-friends) and I did a long day walk from St Kilda to Brighton Beach and back to St Kilda on the last Sunday of July.


Christmas in July - food and Ginger beer at the Swedish Church, no alcohol before the City to Surf in Sydney :) (hårda bud/tough luck)

See you next month!

Diving and bushwalking June

Hey all,

Here we go again, another month is gone. June was a very quick month I must admit, way too quick. Being away from Melbourne during two weekends helps the time to move quickly :)


Early sunrise by Blanket Bay June 19 - Great Ocean Walk with MUMC

First week of June was a warm up for the second week with lots of work (me backing up on a colleague as a Resource Manager), did a daywalk in the Dandenong NP (Sherbrooke walk, footy game on the MCG between Collingwood and St Kilda (the Saints lost big time - Go Saints next time) and volonteered at the Swedish Church Sunday afternoon when the Swedish priest family had their farewell party day.

Second week was a good week with a long flight up to Cairns on Thursday afternoon after work. The warm Cairns was very welcoming to a chilly cold me and a sweaty warm Mick who didn´t like the hot QLD as much as I did. On Friday morning we took our dive medical and were picked up by Jason, the dive instructor from RumRunner and had the first theory day on our Open Water diving license course. Tiring long day with lots of video watching and dives in a cold pool was ended with a good and warm Greek dinner in the small city of Cairns with almost no traffic :). Saturday morning we got up early at 6am for the boat departure from the harbor at 7.45 with the destination Great Barrier Reef. Had our first 2 dives in the open water with some practices and skill tests. All good except for me and Mick being seasick on the boat and throwing up overboard. I got so seasick that I couldn't eat anything for almost 24 hours, just had some water and slept for more than 14 hours ... what a boat ride, damn big waves ...
On Sunday we had our last 2 dives, where the first one in the morning was down to the magical 18m deep (Masa the instructor for the morning dive took us down on a sand patch and put the number 18 on his writing board) :). We all passed the dives and tests (me passed the mask removal after some well needed practice) and headed back to Cairns - me sleeping the whole way back since the waves were big and I didn´t want to throw up again.


Me trying to smile ... hard to smile while diving :)


Group picture from left; Jason, me, Mick, Naomi and Singh


On RumRunner on the way back to Cairns, the sun was warm and I could sit down for a while without being seasick

Back in Cairns we hired a car and headed up to Cape Tribulation for 3 days of laziness filled with sleep, food, beach walking and book reading. Tried Jungle Surfing in the rainforest south of Cape Trib, preatty cool and not scary at all, see below ...


Jungle surfing in Cape Tribulation, here upside down on the last section of the surfing

Headed back to Cairns on Wednesday June 15 and flew back to the chilly Melbourne. Always hard to leave a warm and beautiful place...

On the weekend of 17-19 June me and a group from MUMC headed out from Melbourne for a bushwalking trip along the Great Ocean Walk (GOW). We started (12 people with me as trip leader) from Apollo Bay and finished the fist day in Blanket Bay and the second day by Aire River. Had a good time walking and contemplating on the beach, muddy walk sections and good long sleep in the warm tent. We saw a koala and a wallaby on the way and the Canadian guy Felix was happy and exited that he had seen some native Australian animals on his first bush walking trip down under.


Beach walk from Apollo Bay via Marengo Beach, weather was crazy with sunshine one minute and rain one minute


Koala on the ground, didn't or couldn't climb up the tree, could have been sick, poor thing


All of us by the end of the walk, Aire River - happy walkers resting sore feet with blisters

The rest of June was spent at work, dancing, watching the BANFF Mountaineering Movie Festival with MUMC, tried to give some blood (but couldn't since the nurse picked a bad place and my blood didn't fill up the bags) and attended a midsummer party at the Swedish Church with Mick.

Active May

Hey hey,

May is gone, quick as the wind down here in Melbourne.
Winter is knocking on the door here now with chilly winds, cold nights and warm days. Still strange to have the seasons the opposite from what I´m used to.

May was full of different activities - running, climbing, bushwalking, music concert, tango dancing, movies etc...


This was the view the first morning from Moleside camp site during the bushwalking along GSWWT (Great South West Walking Track)


Kangaroo family along the bushwalking trip

Some of the highlights from May was The Cat Empire concert, awesome good concert with lots of good old songs and they even played my favorite song "Tho shoes" :)... if you haven´t heard of The Cat Empire listen to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3nkzjACUG4

During the weekend of May 13-15 I organised my first bushwalking trip within MUMC (Melbourne University Mountaineering Club) to the south west side of Victoria. Me and 6 other walking enthusiastics walked 50km during 2 days, 30km on Saturday and 20km on Sunday. The walk we did was the Great South West Walk, along the Glenelg River from Moleside camp to Nelsons Kiosk in Nelson. I was walking in pain on Sunday since my feet were sore from the day before. One or two leeches got through under my gaiters and when I took of the gaiters on Saturday evening my pants were covered in blood. Luckly I wasn´t in pain and the leeches died after all the blood sucking :)


Happy walkers from left; Taner, Muhammad, Roberto, Sally, Jennifer and me (missing Megan)


Magic sign to look for, some of us did miss the sign but eventually got back to the track


The track took us over to South Australia, so now I've been to all states down under except for WA

While the Spanish Film Festival was in Melbourne I saw two movies, one with Diana and one with Mick. Both movies were really good, especially the "Colours of the mountain" which took place in Colombia.

Since I´ve missed the dancing in my life I started to dance tango back in April and still am once a week. Love the tango, such beautiful music and so suble dance steps. After dancing salsa for a few years it´s hard not the dance with the hips and the tango teacher is still telling me not the use the hips, "this is not salsa, don´t use the hips" :)

Got to see my favorite kids (Oden and Savanha) too during one short afternoon in Werribee. They were happy to see me just like I was happy to see them :)

Time to go to bed, long day awaiting tomorrow!

Autumn in April

Hey all,

I've been slack I must admit and not been in the mood of writing the blog
during the past weeks ... April here it comes ... enjoy!


Autumn colours on Tassie

First weekend and week of April was a busy one, as I tend to make myself busy ... birthday party on the beach, attended an outdoors shop sale and won a day pack from Mont ( a very nice and super comfy day pack of 35 litres), saw the Swedish comedian Carl-Einar Häckner's performance and had a good laugh, had some delicious pea soup with pancakes and punsch at the Swedish Church on Thursday 7th and took off from Melbourne on Friday the 8th of April for a MUMC-trip (Melbourne University Mountaineering Club) to Mt Bogong. We went up the Eskadale Spur to the summit of Mt Bogong and slept on the summit in heavy rain and wind conditions. I was happy that the tent was safe and dry and I managed to sleep quite many hours after the fitness challenging hike up to the summit. On Sunday we strolled down the Staircase among the clouds and didn't see the beautiful views from the summit, which is the highest peak in Victoria, 1986m.


On the way down from Mt Bogong

Second week started in pain since my legs apparently weren't in such good condition as I thought they would be, the down hill stroll from Bogong killed my legs for 3 days :). Went to Melbourne International Comedy Festival and saw Nick Cody, a funny local Aussie guy from Melb, climbed at the city gym and had a nice quite weekend in the city with Mick (watched the Swedish movie "Involuntary = De Ofrivilliga" - a really good one for being a Swedish movie, I highly recommend the movie.

Third week was the Easter week and me and Mick took off to Tassie/Tasmania for a week on Wednesday 20th after work. Landed in Launceston and picked up the car, which unfortunately wasn't a manual to Mick's disappointment. Had a night in Hadspen in a cute cabin and started the big island driving the next day.
First day on Tassie was rainy and chilly and just the way I was imagining it to be ... spent the day at 4 wineries (Providence, Leaning Church, Brook Eden and Pipers Brook Vineyard)sipping/tasting wine and bought some bottles of wine and sparkling to send back to Melb. Second day on Tassie was sunny and very welcoming for a day's hike in the Freycinet National Park on the east side. Did the Freycinet circuit walk, 11 km, with a lunch stop on Wineglass Bay beach where a hungry and tame wallaby was approaching me while I was eating.


Looking ready for the day hike around Wineglass Bay in Freycinet NP


Waterglass Bay beach


The wallaby :)

Third day on Tassie, still sunny weather, drove from Swansea to the Tasman National Park, quick look in Port Arthur, Hobart and finished in Port Huon where we had one night in the best cabin with the most gorgeous view over the river the next morning. Forth day, still sunny, did an air walk in Tahune, drove through Hobart with the destination Strahan on the west side of Tassie. Stopped to see Russels Falls on the way ...
Fifth day, sunny day, did a walk in Strahan to Hogarths Falls with the goal to see at least one platty/platypus, but we didn't see a single one, I was looking and looking, stood in the middle of the creek and called for them, but still no platty :(. Drove to Cradle Mountain and stopped by Henty Dunes(amazing big sand dunes between 30 and 40 meters high) north of Strahan, by the Indian Ocean. Had a cultural stop in Zeehan at the museum where we strolled around for a long time, drove after lunch to Rosebery and did the quickest walk ever (return walk 2 hours instead of 3 hours as stated on the walking sign) to see the Montezuma Falls (one of the highest waterfalls on Tassie with a drop of 104m) ... pretty amazing I must admit and the walk in was so worth to see the fall. Finished the long day with a delicious dinner at the Lodge in Cradle
Mountain.
Sixth day, still sunny with gorgeous blue sky, did a long day's hiking around Dove Lake, up to Marion's lookout, up to the summit of Mt Cradle (scrambling and sliding on the rocks up and down) and walked back to the car around the lake via the Face track to the Twisted Lakes and Hanson's Peak. What a day - amazing good day with more than 14km hiking, steep and flat, mostly steep, many good photos from this memorable day.


Two happy scramblers on top of Mt Cradle looking down on the valley, see the big blocks of rocks? - Mick has jumping down like a monkey while I was sliding down my ass where the rocks were too big to jump or walk on


Dove Lake in Cradle Mountain National Park - gorgeous day

Last day on Tassie, still sunny and we drove back to Launceston, past Staverton's big maze where we were kids all over again, stopped at 2 wineries and filled the last 2 missing bottles in the case, dinner in Launceston and drive to the airport to drop off the car and fly back to Melb on Wednesday (27th) evening. Tassie was amazing and I wish I could live there, the most beautiful place I've seen in Australia this far, they even have snow in the winter time and all the nature and many good hikes there ... well, Tassie is just one hour away from Melb and not a world away! Will probably go back and do the Overland track later this year.

On the almost last day of April (dagen förre Siste April = the day before the Last of April, this day is a big day in Lund, where I´m from since all the students are out partying and drinking during the day and celebrating that spring is coming, in my case down under celebrating that winter is coming) ... went to the Swedish Church on the 29th and had "Siste April" there with splendid good food, drinks and singing of course!

Quick March is gone

Hey,

Month of March is gone and I feel like a duck at the moment - cool, collected and calm on top (mostly), and paddling like hell underneath, haha.

F1 in Melbourne - Albert Park, too quick little cars, Sunday 27th March

First week of March I was back to work, first week after 4 weeks of leave meant that going through my emails took me one day. Not bad!
Took the train out to Werribee on Tuesday 1st of March, and celebrated Sue's 70th birthday with the troop from the Swedish Church. Nice evening with delicious food and company, thanks Sue & Rudolf!
Other weekly activities were; got my business visa label in my passport :), saw the International Airshow at Avalon Airport with Mick and hit some surfs in Lorne on Sunday morning (where I used my gift voucher) - surfing is way to good, want to surf more.


Acrobatic guys up in the air at Avalon International Airshow


Me in front of the Royal Flying Doctor plane - cool plane


What a house! - driving along Great Ocean Road on the way back to Melbourne

Second week of March was a good one, went to my first MUMC (Melbourne University Mountaineering Club) meeting of 2011 to renew my membership. Drove with Mick to Lake Entrance on Saturday morning, on the east side of Victoria and camped by Pettmans Beach (a very beautiful and secluded beach north of Lake Entrance). Dinner on the beach with waves, fishermen fishing and an empty fridge on the shore is something I'll remember for a while :). The morning run on the beach barefoot with the cool dip in the ocean was memorable too! Did a short and easy bush walk in Mitchell River National Park on the way back to Melbourne and a walk in Lake Entrance (small touristy town with a life saving competition over that weekend).


Ahhhh this is so my beach - Pettmans Beach, north of Lake Entrance


Cute sand cat in Lake Entrance - where is Robin and Arnold?


Short bushwalking in Mitchell River National Park, almost too easy


Mitchell River NP - river view, wishing for more time here... maybe another time

Third week was exiting and sad with a public holiday (Labour Day in Vic) where I borrowed Mick's car and drove to IKEA to pick up the kids and Ida and drove them home to Werribee - excellent day with the kids, Sue, Rudolf and Ida & Fredrik. Too bad I managed to scratch the car at IKEA :( ... so I won't be driving and parking the big car at IKEA no more... nope. On Tuesday the 15th I went to Egg's memorial service in the city ... sad afternoon ... good to see the MUMC friends there.

Saved some lives on Thursday by donating blood, attended a house-warming party in East St Kilda, Roisin, Richard and Reese's new place and met up with old MUMC friends. On Friday Mick's friend, Lars. from Darwin arrived to Melbourne with his girlfriend, Bridget. and little lovely daughter, Addyson. Went for a St Kilda pizza dinner with the troop in the evening. On Sat we all went out to the Burn-out competition close to Avalon Airport where Lars participated with his pink car :). This was my first bogan whole day experience - had a really good day watching the cars burn their tires and look at the people with their "fancy" cars. I even had the opportunity to sit next to Lars in his pink car while he was burning down the new tires in 2 min 50 sec ... have a look below :)


Me and Joshie - the party theme was "Hair", I didn't dress up and reason for my bandaged arm was that I donated blood earlier that day


You see the car?


... and now you don´t see the car :)

On Sunday afternoon we had a walk around Melbourne with the Darwinians, went to Brighton Beach and the Royal Botanical Gardens ... excellent day with lots of sunshine!


Bridget, Addyson, Lars, Mick and me in the Royal Botanical Gardens

Forth week of March was an exercising week with running and outdoor climbing on the schedule. Went out to Werribee Gorge on Saturday morning with Nadia, Dev and Mick for some top-rope climbing. Good time outside even if my climbing skills were a bit off the cliff ... need to practice more indoors! On Sunday I went to see the F1 Qantas Australian Grand Prix finals in Albert Park with Mick (mostly to see this world famous race which my brother adores and to make him jealous of course haha). Those cars made such a load noise and they were smaller than I thought too. When the race finished everyone was running on the track to see the distribution of prizes, and so did we :). Had a good look on Sebastian Vettel (1st), Lewis Hamilton (2nd) and Vitaly Petrov (3rd) from about 50 meters ... pretty cool and was thinking of my brother who should have been there seeing the race with me :)... next time Dude, next time :)

Werribee Gorge


Happy Nadia belaying Dev - Werribee Gorge

Last week was a quick week with things on every evening after work. Had a work lunch BBQ along the Yarra on Tuesday, sunny weather and warm with good veggie sausages, yummy! Saw a Spanish movie with Diana after work, Bituful ... a good and thoughtful movie.

Over and out for March 2011!

Half tour of Aussie in February

Hey ... another month is gone, February was a traveling month, have probably never been flying so much during one month before.

First week of Feb was spent in Melbourne, finished my beginner Spanish course, todo bueno! I went out to Werribee on Wednesday to see the kids and to create a welcome poster for the girls greating in Sydney. The poster work too us around 2 hours and I was amazed the kids had so much patience :) ... proud Savanha and Oden below!



Took off from Melbourne on Saturday 5th of Feb, flew up to Sydney ... and I still remember the floodings in Melb from the storm on the 4th Feb ... power was cut off in the apartment and the wind was strong, many bridges were closed. Despite the storm I could fly out from Melb :)
Had 2 days of chilling in Manly, didn´t do much ... ran in pouring rain along Manly to Shelly beach and was doing high 5´s with every runner I was meeting along the path, did a long beach walk from Manly to Curl Curl beach and back to Manly, had some beers with Andrew and was waiting for the girls to arrive from Sweden.

Big hugging day was early Tuesday morning (8th Feb) at Sydney International Airport, I stood and waited for Anna and Caroline, ready with the poster in my hand. When I finally saw them I was so happy :), was good to see them after more than 1 year!



Had 2 chilling days with the girls in Manly, went for long walks along the beach, talked and catching up for the lost time ... I did a 2 hour surfing lesson on Manly Beach and managed to stand up on the board for amazing 13 seconds hihi.


Surfing is easier for each time I try ... Manly Beach 9th Feb

On Thursday 10th Feb we took the train from Sydney to Katoomba, 2.5 hours on the local train up to the Bluies (Blue Mountains). Introduced the girls to bush walking around Katoomba, did some shorter walks in sunny weather on Thursday and Friday. I did a long 6 km circuit walk along Prince Henry track in pouring rain on Saturday, got so wet that I was freezing terribly afterwards. On Friday evening we met for dinner and drinks with Grant, had some delicious Greek food and continued to a local pub for beers. On Saturday evening we took the last train back to Sydney and stayed up the whole night for taking an early flight to Cairns at 6am. Puh, we did manage to stay awake, slept 2 hours on the plane.


Me in the Bluies close to the the 3 sisters


Grant with the 3 (one tall, one pink and one brown) chicks in Katoomba

Arrived to Cairns on Sunday (13th Feb) morning, tired and cranky, checked in at Gilligans Backpackers Hostel, stayed there for 2 nights. Were lucky with the weather, hot and humid and not so much rain, I was expecting more rain since it was the rainy period. On Tuesday morning (15th Feb) we went on a sailing boat cruise for 2 days in the Great Barrier Reef with the RumRunner, a boat from Cairns. Had an awesome time onboard, did a free intro dive and everything went all good and I did 2 more dives.






One big step into the GBR


Lots of fish to tick off from the map :) ... did see some sharks, colourful fish in all colours, a sting ray, cuttle fish, a trigger fish, octopus and one green turtle on the last dive


Me in the GBR fully equipped :)... of the 8 dives I did, the most memorable was the last one when I saw the turtle




Happy me on the RumRunner :)

Got back from the sailing on Wednesday afternoon, hard to walk straight, felt like being on a boat while walking on land hihi. After some beers in the evening I was all good again! Decided with the girls to hire a car and drive out from Cairns, so on Thursday (17th Feb) I drove to Cape Tribulation along the coast. Stopped for lunch in Port Douglas, which is a fancy pansy tourist town, glad we didn´t sleep there ... took the river ferry and checked in at Cape Trib Beach House and had a great dinner there before we went to bed.


Port Douglas beach view


View from south of Cape Trip on the way back to the ferry crossing back to Cairns

On the way back to Cairns we stopped along the way, had a look at the sanctuary where we saw many native animals from Queensland ... many crocs, spiders, snakes and birds ...


Since I loved the diving I took off with RumRunner for the second time, from Saturday to Sunday, 19-20th Feb, while the girls stayed in Cairns and did some things on their own for 2 days. All in all I did 5 dives, wasn´t allowed to do the night dive with the others since I don´t have a PADI license, but I was happy with my 5 dives anyway. Will have to do my PADI Open Water soon, maybe in June over the next long weekend in Victoria.




All good - OK OK, ready for the warm water :)

Back to Cairns on Sunday arvo and managed to walk better this time :)
Went with the girls to a bbq to Jason and Tess´s house close to the airport on Edge Hill.

BBQ-troup, American girl, Anna, Caroline and some others I don´t remember the names of

On the last week with the girls and February, we rented a car in Cairns for 2 days, drove south of the city and saw many beautiful waterfalls. This is gorgeous view just south of Cairns ...



One of the waterfalls around Milla Milla...


On Tuesday (22th Feb) arvo we flew to Darwin, a 2 hour flight. Could see from the sky all the water in Kakadu NP and guessed that the roads wouldn´t be so good for us to drive on. And yep, it turned out that Kakadu NP was almost closed, the main road from Darwin was closed and you had to take a longer way around to it. We decided to skip Kakadu and focused instead on Litchfield NP (a much closer national park from Darwin). We stayed one night in a backpackers hostel in Darwin and hit the road with the rental car on Wednesday morning to Litchfield. I drove the most time, much easier this time, Anna and Carro tried to drive for a short period of time. The route on Wed was Darwin-Batchelor-Florence Falls-Buley Rockhole-Wangi Falls-Tolmer-Termite Mounds. Slept in a cousy little cabin at Pandanus in Litchfield :)


Florence Falls in Litchfield NP, had a lunch here down on the rocks after a cool swim


Tres chichas eating lunch by Florence Falls :)


Wangi Falls, big falls, so noisy, was closed for swiming


Road view in Litchfield ... I'm not driving here :)


The Mitshubishi Outlander we drove for 2 days around Darwin, big and comfy car, good when crossing all the water on the roads like here ...



On Thursday (24th) we went to Crocodylus Park, outside of Darwin to see the mighty crocs ... nope, we didn´t see any crocs while walking, swiming or driving in Litchfield.


Croc loves meat ...


... and I got to hold one baby croc, a Johnson, a freshie one. The park guide next to me talked for 50 min non-stop, he really must love his work!

On Friday (25th) we returned the car and had a day in Darwin where we walked around and took a proper look in the city. Went to Darwin Museum, saw the Tracy exhibition (big cyclone that destroyed Darwin in 1974) and had a delicious lunch there before we walked back to the city centre. Met up with Lars and his friend in the evening, one of Mick´s old friend for dinner and drinks in the Wharf Precinct. Lars was a funny guy and the girls and me had a good time on our last Darwin-evening.


Me by the Wharf Precinct in Darwin

Flew back to Sydney on Saturday morning, a long 4.5 hour flight, where I managed to sleep for 3 hours and had a boring time the rest of the flight... danced around the plane while people were sleeping hihi :)
In Sydney we had a relaxing afternoon walking to the Royal Botanical Gardens before we took off to Andrew´s birthday party in Kings Cross. It was a fancy nice party with a guestlist, drinks and food. Good time there with the girls. Went to a salsa place by the Rocks with Anna after the party where we danced a bit before heading back to the hostel. Sunday was a bitter-sweet day, it was time to say goodbye to the girls and we went for a farewell lunch on Bondi Beach... had lunch at Icebergs where the service was non-existing, I had to act a waitress for my own food and drinks.


Last lunch with the girls for a long time :( ... great food and view of Bondi Beach


One tall, one pink and one brown on Bondi Beach - Sunday 27th of Feb 2011


... and the poster is in Anna´s hands now in Sweden, Lund

I flew back home, to Melbourne on Sunday evening and started to work again at IBM on Monday morning ... this since my business visa was granted and I can now stay and work for 4 years in Aussie :)