Weekends away

Heya all - family and friends,

This time I've been really lazy and haven't come to update my blog for May month until now. May has been quick as I've been away from Melbourne during two weekends.

First weekend was spent in Brisbane with Mick's family where we visited little cute Niamh who was born in December 2011, she's such a little cutie.
Mick and his brother Gray spent some time bonding at the go-kart track driving Gray's go-kart. I joined them and was their assistant carrying things.

 Mick and Niamh

 Niamh with mum (Nuala)

 At Ipswich go-kart track outside of Brissie, Mick, Gray and Vince

During the 2nd week of May I went to listen to the adventurous Warren Mcdonald and Margo Talbot in Melbourne, Warren lost his legs while hiking in QLD a few years ago when a boulder fell on his legs, after waiting for help for 2 days his legs couldn't be rescued and had to be amputated at the thigh. Margo is one of the few female Canadian waterfall ice climbers in the world, and she and Warren are a great team, they've climbed and hiked around the world. It's incredible to see how much energy the two of them have and just because you don't have two legs doesn't make you less adventure seeking - I guess Warren and Margo show what life really is all about, you need to live it and experience it :)

Margo waterfall ice climbing in Canada

Warren on top o Federation Peak, Tasmania - 2 years after his accident


 On Friday 11th of May, me and Mick went to a Mexican theme party/dinner in Burnley, where everyone was dressed up and we all had Mexican food and drinks - there was even a piñata (Pedro) to knock down full of candy :)
Great evening and lots lots of laughter :)

  The Burnley Mexican party in a few pics :)

On Sunday morning I took the bus with my bike to Mt Macedon where I did the Mt Macedon circuit walk, 18km - my first day walk by myself. It was a great day with all seasons on one day, rain, sunshine, hail and fog.

Mt Macedon circuit walk in a few pics :)

 3rd week of May was preparation for the Wilsons Prom walk with the club. Left Friday evening and got back on Sunday afternoon. Walked from Tidal River to Halfway Hut on Friday evening and set up camp there. On Saturday we walked to the Lighthouse via Roaring Meg and the South Point and back to Halfway Hut where we spent the second night. 




 On Sunday morning we walked back to Tidal River and drove back to Melbourne after a shorter lunch stop in Foster. Think we walked almost 60km over the weekend, mostly with day packs so it didn't feel that heavy.

Me by the Lighthouse                                                  Me and Mick

 Gorgeous beach in Wilsons Prom National Park, 250km south east of Melbourne, on the way back to Tidal River on Sunday morning

4th week of May was a city week, went to Krissie's birthday drinks in Northcote, movies on Saturday and Nitro Circus on Sunday with Mick.

 Nitro Circus - motor bikes flying around and skaters/tricycles/boards going down the ramps, crazy and funny people

Recovery month

Heya all,

Been back in Melbourne for 6 weeks now, time has passed quickly, been good going back to the routines.

 

Brighton Beach                                                                               Autumn in Melbourne

First week of April was spent at work, took a day off on Monday to recover after the long flight and had 3 days at work before the Easter holidays. Marie and Vince (Mick's parents) came down to Melbourne over Easter, they stayed with us for 4 days. It was great to have them here, went to see a comedy show at the Melbourne Comedy Festival (Claire Hooper) and a footy game on Easter Monday (Geelong-Hawthorn which ended 92-90, very exiting game). 





At the footie game, Geelong against Hawthorn, Melbourne weather showing its best side, sun and rain every 5min
 
Second week of April was an almost back to the routines with 4 days at work, yoga, dinner in Burnley, walk in the Dandenongs where I did the 1000 steps twice. It was great to be outside and the weather was almost too hot for walking, 26 degrees ... this is Melbourne autumn weather. 



Lots and lots of food at the Burnley place - a non Pants-party :)

Third week I started the bootcamp again, tough mornings to come since I now will go for the 6am bootcamp on Monday and Wednesdays. Tried to play the didgeridoo at the Swedish church on Tuesday when Paul was showing us all enthusiasts how to play the aboriginal instrument. It was much harder to play and make a proper noise that didn't sound like farting. There were lots of laughs, me laughing more than blowing :). Will need to practice at home with the vacuum cleaner tube, that seem to work for me, the wooden didgeridoo didn't make a good noise for me. 


 
Trying to play the didgeridoo - harder than I thought 
 
Went to catch up with the Swedish crowd at the Young & Jackson on Wednesday, good time, and I realised that I've been in Melbourne quite some time now compared to the crowd, and I haven't been to the pub catch-up since last year, shame on me. Me and Mick were invited to Dev & Christian for dinner on Friday, and oh my what a dinner, delicious spicy food with starters and main course plus chocolate for dessert. Good to catch up with them, thanks for the delicious dinner guys!

On Sunday I took to train to Upper Ferntree Gully, went to meet-up with the women's walking group in the Dandenongs, did the 1000 steps (again) twice. The girls were are very nice and the weather was on our side while walking the steep sections. Will go again and catch up with the girls. 

Dandenongs - trees 


Last week was a short week with the Anzac day on Wednesday where I took the bike on the train and went to Werribbe to see the kids and the family. It's been 2 months since I've seen them ... Savanha was taller and skinnier and Oden was taller too. Happy afternoon with a happy Ingrid :)

Biking-Ingrid, very serious with the helmet on            This is Australia for me - I've been looking for this shot for a while now

On Saturday I went on my 2nd walk with the women's walking group, this time along the bay from Station Pier in South Melbourne to the Westgate bridge park. Beautiful morning with a bunch of happy girls, ended with a drink before saying goodbye. Met a few interesting people who I would like to meet again. Sunday morning we had brunch with Nadia (visiting from Perth), Dev and Christian in Hawthorn, just a quick walk from our place. Was good to see Nadia and listening to her stories from the outback of Australia when she and Stew were driving through the central (they started from Melbourne in June 2011 and ended up in Perth 5 months later). This country is huge, some people don't think that Australia is a large country ... but it certainly is. When Nadia tolled us the long boring roads in NT, I could just smile and remember the hot car while we were driving up to Darwin last year. 

See ya until next blog :)


 Brunch with Nadia at Liar Liar, Hawthorn

Europe month

Hej Hej,

Back in Melbourne 2 weeks now ... been working and celebrating Easter with the Buckley's visiting me and Mick.

After Easter flowers from Mick's mum as thank you, very beautiful roses

March month has been vey busy with lots of travelings in Europe, so I'll just put down the most important trips and things.

On the first week of March, 2nd March, flew to Geneva for a week of skiing in Chamonix (France) with the UCPA. Took the bus from Geneva to Chamonix, 2 hours on the most incredible bus ride with lots of grand views along the highway to the little city of Chamonix. The whole city is surrounded with proper mountains and Mt Blanc (the highest peak in Europe with 4210m). Saturday was a non ski day, tried the skies on Sunday with Mick on the snowboard and Dude on his skis, I was called miss Plowy since I couldn't parallell ski (not yet). The ski school started on Monday morning, for me was the Perfectionnement level the best option, something between the beginners and the intermediate level. We started with 10 in the group and by the end of the week on Friday we were down on 6 ... no we didn't loose them along the steep sections in the Chamonix valley ... they simply changed groups as they learned more or steped down a level if they couldn't keep up with the group. Our instructor Mitsuo was really good, not perfect in English, but a good skier and good instructor. I remember that he tolled us on Monday afternoon that by Friday we would be going down on red slopes ... but after lunch on Tuesday he took us all down on red. Some of us were more scared than others, I was proud to go down on the red one and did high fives with the others at the end :), really cool feeling!

A UCPA day looked this this:

Up by 7am, breakfast at 7:30, off to the ski storage to pick up the skiis and boots and meet up with the group outside the house at 8:30, off with the UCPA bus to a new ski place each day (been to Les Grandes Montets, Brevent/Flegere, Le Tour/Vallorcine and Les Houches), up with the little or big gondola to the top and ski to midday, lunch stop with the group, more skiing in the arvo and back with the UCPA bus to Chamonix around 3:30pm, back to ski storage to return gear and up to room to rest up/shower before dinner, dinner at 7pm, bedtime at 8/9pm ... usually a very good sleep with no deams just solid sleep :). This schedule was on for 6 days.

Me on the skis ... I think it was the 2nd day on Tuesday on the windy top where I put the balaclava on

Brother Dude in his Peak outfit, on his way down in the Alps, in the Chamonix Valley

On top of Auguille du Midi, 3842m high, with view of Mont Blanc and the rest of the Alps, amazing high place, after the Alps everything else will look like little hills ... see the people walking down? they are all off down along the glacier on the back of the mountain, Vallé Blanche run - brother Dude did this on Wednesday :)

Okey, skiing was a big thing in March ... finished Chamonix by paragliding down from 2000m with my brother into the city on Saturday morning, then we left for a drive along Italy, France and Switzerland and flew back to Copenhagen on Sunday arvo.

All ready for the paragliding down, camera ready too :)

Second week of March, the 12th was a big day ... for my grandma, she turned 80 years and the family celebrated her with a dinner at home and funny presents.

Me and my little granny, here she´s 80 years and 2 weeks old ... missing her already

Next day we flew to the northern Sweden, Kiruna for 3 days. Stayed one night at the Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi ... inside the cold room of 5 minus degrees, and 2 nights in Kiruna. The Icehotel was very cool, though very touristy with almost no Swedish people there ... a bunch of English people. On Wednesday we went on a husky sled tour from the Icehotel, 12 dogs were pulling us 5 (incl the husky caretaker) on a 3 hour long tour. It was a beautiful day with sun, snow and wind. The hot tea was great when we stopped for fika :). After lunch we took the bus into Kiruna, the big city (population around 23000 in the whole county). Stayed 2 nights at a cheaper accomodation in Kiruna. Went on a snow mobile tour on Wed evening with a dinner and northern lights on the agenda. We did see the northern lights ... but unfortunately no photos could be taken as an evidence :(. Next time .... the lights were amazing, on Thursday evening, the green colour was strong and was flowing on the whole sky, it was like someone was painting the sky with green all over ... I was standing outside in the wind and was saying many ahhhhhhhhh and ohhhhhh´s as the sky was changing all the time. It was an amazing feeling to finally see the magical northern lights!

Inside the Icehotel - by the Icebar

View from the Aurora Balcony at the Icehotel in Jukasjärvi, 20km from Kiruna ... got up the check the weather, but the first night in the Arctic Cirle was cloudy and no northern lights were seen

All geared up with the Icehotel clothes, in a bluish overal, boots and gloves ... our own gear was as good as the hotels though

Husky sledge tour on the snow and ice river, 12 happy huskies were pulling us, I had the privilege to sit in front all the time on the sledge

Dinner by the fire on the snowmobile and northern lights tour - I remember it was a chilly and windy night, both me and Mick drove the snowmobile and on the lake section we both drove 90-100km/km and left the rest of the group behind us :)

The wodden church in Kiruna, pretty amazing church, very neat with all the wodden details

After the northern Sweden short trip we (me, Mick and Anna) drove up to Göteborg to visit Marie and the little family with Linnea, Lukas and Linus over the weekend of March 16 to 18. It was geat to see them all, the kids have grown so much since I´ve seen them. Linnea is now 4 years and Lukas is 2 ... I´ve been away way too long. The weekend challenge for Anna, Marie and Linus was to speak English since Mick doesn´t speak much Swedish ... I think we all did our best to speak in English, the kids were a bit confused from time to time since they couldn´t understand what we all were talking about. The best was all the delicious food Marie had prepared and the Sunday bunsch breakfast with the pancakes ... ah, so good! It was so sad to say goodbye to them all, not knowing when we´re going to see each other next time....

Me with the girls, Anna and Marie in Göteborg (Gothenburg)

All of us in Ingared, from left: Linus, Lukas, Marie, Anna, Linnea, me and Mick - this photo took a few shots since the kids were all around and couldn´t settle and we had our legs in the majority of the pictures :)

On Sunday the 18th after driving back to Lund, returning the car and dropping Anna off at the train station, we took the train to Copenhagen Airport to continue our Europe travelings ... flew to Milano on the most shaky flight ever in my life... flew over the Alps and it was very windy outside the plane and I was very happy when we landed at Milano Linate airport.

We did a 5 day drive around in the northern part of Italy with stops at Modena (Ferrari Museum and Gallery), Bologna (Ducati motorbike museum and factory tour), Venice for 2 days, Brescia and the Garda lake on the way back to Milano.

Italy was intense, with lots to do and see, the driving was done by Mike entirely ... mad people drive in Italy - no rules and no sense for others in the trafic ... my what a traffic there was on the highways.

Venice was beautiful, no cars inside the city, we parked the car for 2 days and walked and walked everywhere.

Mick at the Museo de Ferrari in Modena, Italy - a proud Mick with all the latest F1 cars in the room

Me at the Ducati Museum and factory outside of Bologna

Venice gondola hats

Happy in Venice :)

By San Marco place in Venice at 7am in the morning, before all the tourists are up and running

Driving around the Garda lake in Italy, many tunnels along the lake

One stop along the lake - very pitoresque town

The lake Garda - water was very clear

Finished Italy with a multo deliciouso pizza in Brescia

Last dinner evening with the whole familia ... it was a sad sad goodbye, some crying involved too

Prep month before Europe

Hej alla / Hi all,

February blog has been a mission to finish since the wifi has been poor or non-existing during the past week. I wrote the blog on the way up to Kiruna (northern Sweden) more than a week ago but couldn't finish until today. Sitting in Brescia (north Italy) at the moment, chilling with a quick wifi at the hotel ... been in Italy for 4 days, flying back to Sweden tomorrow.

Melbourne in February .....

First week of February was spent at work, doing boot-camp training and yoga, played golf for the first time down under with Fredrik on the Mornington Peninsula (great game even if I wasn't so good).

Golf with Fredrik on the Mornington Peninsula, great game, me need to improve more :)

Second week of Feb was a bit more exiting :), did rapjumping of a building in Melbourne with Mick, quite cool thing where you abseil down with your face looking forward and not backwards as abseiling usually is ... see pic below. After the 2nd jump down I got the feeling and the last jump was a quick one with two big jumps down. On Satuday the 11th of Feb a bunch of us were saying goodbye to Diana and her friend, they took of to Europe for one year. Lucky them!

Rapjumping in Melbourne - abseiling down with the face forward (and not backwards), pretty cool and very quick jumps down the building once you're comfortable enough to release the hands on the rope

On the 3rd week of Feb I went to the Swedish Chuch for the volontear party, it was good to see everyone and have a bit of good Swedish food. The only bad thing was the long walk home afterwards since my back bike tie was flat and I went to pick up the bike where I had left it in the morning on the way to work. On saturday we went to Calder Raceway to see the Top Fuel dragrace where they fuel up the cars and race them. Preatty cool cars, so much noise they make

(could feel it in the chest) ... quick cars that made 400 meters in 5 seconds or less. On Sunday we went out to Werribee to say happy birtyday to Sue. Had a delicious meal together, played with the kids too and went home feeling happy.

Not my best picture of 2012 - but a funny one - at the dragracing with very loud top fuel cars, so loud that I could feel it in my chest

On the 4th week of Feb the focus was on finishing up at work, hand over my things and pack up the big bag for the Europe trip. We saw Roxette live on Wednesday evening, they were good and played many many songs that I've been singing alound on when I was younger :). They played my favourite one "How do you do" :)

Roxette concert in Melbourne Feb 22 - Per Gessle and Marie Frediksson - good music and lots of songs I've been singing alound when I was younger :)

The big departure was approaching on Friday 24th of Feb, took of from home at noon, Chris took us to the airport and we checked in without any fuss and went to see the big A380 plane. It was a big ship, it's always amazing how many people can travel on big planes. The flight to Singapore took us around 8 hours (no sleep on this section) and after a short leg rest in Singapore it was time to step back onto the same plane and fly to London, whitch took us 13.5 hours I think. Did manage to sleep a bit, not much, the seats were not so comfortable. Instead of sleeping I was watching all the adventure documentaries, the best ones were the 3 guys basejumping into the big whole in China, the bushwalkers on Island and ... mountaniers?

My dad was waiting on us at the airport and drove us to Lund to my old apartment. Was so good to see my mum and grandmother after more than 2 years. There was a big hug party (no cries to my big surprise). On Sunday Anna came over to Lund to see us, great to see her after one year :). Went up to the city and had lunch-fika (lunch catch-up). The Swedes love the word fika which means catch-up but fika is more commonly used when anyone is having a coffee/tea break, the workplaces have two fika breaks during the day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Fika is great :)

Big ship, A380, took us to London in many many hours from Melbourne (more than 24 hours)

On the last week of Feb we chilled in Lund, had the best thaimassage, had an evening session of bodyflight in Copenhagen with my brother - flying in a wind tunnel is bodyflight, it's amazing how the wind can make you fly, really cool thing. I wasn't scared and I found the flying quite exiting. The flight sessions were 2 minutes at a time and we had 20 minutes each during the evening. Thanks mister Dude!

Flying people inside the wind tunnel in Copenhagen - the instructor showing a student what to do

Me and Mick at the wind tunnel in Copenhagen, Denmark - happy bodyfliers in our suits, holding the helmets

Lund in February ... on an early Sunday morning still jetlaged