DUBLIN: 2011

christmas prep

Home to Sweden on the 22nd, was so excited when I saw there was snow on the ground! But that was gone just in time for Christmas. (And yes, I'm aware it's not snow on the picture, they're clouds.)

23rd, Christmas preparations. Was only supposed to decorate two cookies, but I couldn't help myself.

Despite my failed Christmas baking in Dublin I made yummy saffron buns. So much easier when you have everything you need...

Bingolotto (bingo) at Cam's place. Ida and Sadaf trying to catch up after missing the first round.

Camilla, Theres and Mia.

Yesterday was the "real" Swedish Christmas. Ate way too much food, met a lot of family and got presents on the theme "cold", or maybe "warmth". So now I'll survive the Dublin winter. Today there'll be more family when my aunt, uncle and cousins are coming, Christmas Day tradition. However, I was very upset when I found out we're not going out to our summer house anymore. That's what happens if you don't go home for three years, they take away important traditions. Ah well, there's no snow to play in anyway and at least dinner at grandma's is still here. Christmas Day in Sweden is a big night to go out on so might have a couple of pints if I can walk after all the food. If not, city centre is downhill from grandma's place so can just roll down. Tomorrow, even more family when there's dinner at my step brother's. And I'm already sick of Christmas food.

Merry Christmas!

christmas shopping

This thing with buying Christmas presents... Not my favourite task of the year. It's not that I don't like giving away things, I do, but only if I find the perfect gift. I mostly find perfect gifts for myself though which might seem weird as I've only been looking for stuff for the kids (not my kids, obv). Don't know if I haven't grown up yet or if I've in some way been going to departments intended for myself. Hm. New attempt this afternoon, really looking forward to fighting my way through Henry Street together with a million other stressed Christmas shoppers. Walking speed is about 1 meter/minute. Yay.

Henry Street in December.

Crowd surfing might be the solution?

snow

It was snowing in Dublin yesterday! Maybe 30 seconds and about 10 snowflakes but still, snow!

No snow today but free Christmas lunch at work, win. Met up with Ruth and Tea after work and returned my shoes that I've had for 2 months but were falling apart. 76 euro richer, win. Were my fave shoes though, fail. But I also found a new dress for the Christmas party and could exchange the one I bought last week but lost the receipt for. Now Oskar is here, we're eating gingerbread cookies, drinking glögg (mulled wine, without the wine) and eating chocolate fudge with spoons. I failed a bit and made it too soft, but still so much win!

The reason he's here to use my Internet, and not see his sister, we can ignore.

12 pubs and adult points

So, the 12 pubs was fun! Got a bit crazy in the last pubs that were crowded with other pub crawlers/normal immortal people but managed to get a drink in all 12. Not full pints though, wouldn't risk trying that with work... The 3rd stop was a tiny pub that seemed to be the hangout for men 70+. They did not look impressed by 50-100 people in weird sweaters trying to get a drink in 30 minutes.

Jessica, Marcus and Therese in the first pub, with sweaters and Santa suits intact.

2nd pub, condensation on my camera but think it gives the picture a Christmasy glow.

Mike and I in the 5th pub, still going strong.

Told you everyone looks weird here around Christmas.

At the end of the evening I dropped my phone on the floor and the display died. Was really pissed off as I obviously am not allowed to have a phone for more than 3 months before it dies/disappears/I drop it in the toilet, and because I had no way of getting in touch with Ruth. At the last bar I told some random guy sitting by the bar "Slam this as hard you can in the counter, I hate this phone". (I'd have done it myself but the place was really crowded.) He probably thought I was a lunatic and tapped it lightly on the counter. "No, slam it as hard as you can, it doesn't work, I hate it and I just want it to die properly!". He did and the phone started working again! Never been so happy in my life. No, that's a lie, but I was happy alright.

On Saturday I didn't get out of bed until 6 pm, not counting the trip down to Lidl for that nearly killed me. But I had cravings for cocktail tomatoes and crisps and had nothing to eat at home. Don't know if it was worth it though. But after a few movies, a nap and a shower I felt fine and met up Ruth for some wine, cheese and olives at Fallon & Byrnes, how many adult points is that?

Today is Ruth's last day before going on a way too long Christmas vacation so will meet up with her after work for some shopping. Christmas party on Friday and I have nothing to wear! As usual.

Sweden: T-8 days.

I survived the 12 pubs and my Christmas tree hat now has a place on my Christmas shelf. I just can't understand who's eaten all chocolate in my calendar already?

Now, Christmas dinner (deluxe version, as you can see) with my über ugly mug (but it's Christmasy!) and Mad Men.

visit weeked deluxe

Pics, pics and more pics from last weekend.

You're welcome.

Singing with feeling at Woolshed karaoke night.

Shot stop at Temple Bar.

Loads of Christmas lights, I like!

Eh yes.

After shopping pints and Guinness Stew at Sheehans. Standard Saturday.

Saturday pre-party.

And she kept them to herself all night.

Old roomies.

The end.

polar bears are the new black

This week I finally called to connect the gas for my radiators (ok, esb called to make some offer with electricity, gas and whatever, but I had plans to do it). Told my land lord who had to fix something first and got a text from him a couple of hours later "Boiler not safe to connect, I'll buy you a radiator". Eh... Ok, that's nice of him, but what does he mean with "not safe"? Will my apartment blow up soon? Anyway, as long as I can sleep without being scared of never waking up again, I'm fine. Got the radiator yesterday and it's got this modern display that tells you the temperature of the room at the moment. It was 9 degrees in here. NINE DEGREES. It's been on since four this afternoon the temperature has increased with a whooping 7 degrees. If it didn't say "WARNING. Do not cover" on it I'd keep it under my duvet. Maybe I could just have it on top of me?

Now - fashion!

So, Ruth, Tea and I went shopping yesterday. I found a dress for the company Christmas party next week, what ya think? Only 7 euros at Penneys and it got polar bears on it! Plus, it's made out of fleece so it'll keep me warm. So much for so little money.

Part of my outfit for tomorrow, I'm gonna be a Christmas tree. With reindeer socks. It'll be interesting going out with Ruth after the 12 pubs (if I survive), she will not be dressed in something Christmas ugly. Ah well, everyone looks stupid here this time of year.

Night.

12 pubs of christmas

Wicked weekend with Lasse, Lucas, Chrille, Frida and Johanna here. Will tell you about it when I've recovered, might take a while. Especially since we're doing 12 pubs of Christmas with work on Friday. Finally! First time in I'm doing this and I'm gonna go all in. Seemed like no one else was so now I've promised to make Marcus' Christmas sweater if he does all 12 pubs with me. That is if I'll make it until the end.

Rules:

1. One Drink Minimum - 30 minutes maximum in each pub.
2. Not wearing a Christmas jumper is frowned upon. At least make some effort.

3. No one left behind - we all have to stick together.
4. No getting comfy in one spot - 12 Pubs is compulsory, ''winners never quit and quitters never win''.

These are the rules for our 12 pubs but I've seen different ones without time limit and where you can't eat during the 12 pubs (which will be hard even if it's not a rule).

So after work today I'm meeting Ruth for some dress and Christmas jumper shopping. Will probably try to do the sweater myself, the point is it should be as ugly as possible, see examples below:

Also, found antlers and blinking red nose at the 2-euro shop yesterday, if I'm going all in I'm going all in!

all you want for christmas is me

Forget that question about what you want for Christmas, me coming home will have to be enough. I'll wrap myself in some free Metro's if to make it a bit more exciting for you. As my lovely, lovely recruitment agency decided to wait until yesterday with calling the revenue office to set me up as an employee I'm still on emergency tax and will be broke for another five weeks. Nice, thanks for that. Couldn't have made a bit more effort with Christmas coming up? No?

My decision to stay home for two weeks feels like a good plan.

Had some plans on taking it easy this weekend as well but Tea signed me up for Krystal's 5-year anniversary so didn't have a choice. Really. And it's stupid to say no to free entrance and free drinks even though the last thing didn't exist. Anyway, a nice evening.

On Saturday I hung out in my bed most of the day but in the afternoon I got restless legs and met up with Josef and Olle in the city. Love Grafton Street in December, except for all the people... After some window shopping and a Guinness we went to Larissa's place for tacos. The others were going to a party but I was tired (and stuffed from all the food) and went home early, good decision.

Sunday was sunny so met up with Tea and Ruth for another photo session before taking the Dart to Monkstown and the Swedish Christmas market.

They sold out of the "Julmust" in 15 minutes but at least they had some chocolate left when we got there! And waffles, mm...

Lucia. Best was the little girl who started wailing on "Midnatt råder", haha.

On Thursday Lucas, Frida and Johanna are arriving from Sweden, followed by Lasse and Chrille from Malta on Friday. Anything can happen. Whoop!

the lonely blogger

But I would never let my laptop take the right side of the bed.

achtung, freitag!

I am what I myself call "everyday lazy", it's like when you're going to the kitchen but still don't bring that plate that's been sitting on your living room table for a week or so. I'm getting better at it, especially when I'm only living in one room, and especially when I found out I have a hungry roomie. But when it comes to bringing stuff from the kitchen I always have to challenge myself/destiny/whatever. Yesterday I was balancing a bowl full of yogurt, a plate with cottage cheese sandwiches and a glass of water and was just about to put it down when I dropped the sandwiches, upside down, on my laptop keyboard. In an attempt to save my dinner in the middle of the air I also spilled half of the water over the laptop.

Put it upside down, dried it with my hairdryer and hit the keyboard in case that would help (violence solves everything, right?). But no, the mouse pad refused to work and it freaked out a bit every time I restarted it. Was so pissed off I went to bed at 9 last night. Tried to read for a while but I was too angry and it was so cold in my room I couldn't hold my book without getting frost bite in my fingers. Tried the nice approach to my computer and put it upside down under my duvet so it wouldn't turn into an ice cube over night. And voilà! This morning it worked! Ah, can celebrate Friday now.

Didn't get tickets to Florence + the Machine though, despite my supporting t-shirt. Apparently 14,000 tickets sold out in 5 minutes because greedy people bought 8 of them and put them on E-bay straight away. Pooooop! We're hoping for an extra date instead.

Tonight - party at Assan's and 5-year anniversary at Krystal, whoop!

fast week, slow day

Not much to do today, spending my time thinking about reason walking by the desk where we have free chocolate/thinking about reasons why I should not walk by the desk where we have free chocolates. First world problem? Think so.

Just found myself playing with a plastic cap on my desk, that's how bored I am.

Reading about the news anchor at Fox who, regarding to the students that were pepper sprayed, said it wasn't so bad because "It's a food product, essentially". One of your five a day maybe? The link's in Swedish but scroll down to see other stupid things she may or may not have said.

Tomorrow the tickets for Florence + the Machine at the O2 in March will be released, Josef has the mission to get us two, there will be a fight! If I don't get one I'll be a very sad panda. I think I'm gonna wear my Florence t-shirt tomorrow for good luck, should work.

Today it's one month until Christmas (Swedish Christmas) and I'm starting to get stressed about presents. I haven't bought Christmas gifts for three years, how does it work? What should I buy? What do you all want? Ok, not all of you but family? Please send me a list, I am clueless. Is it enough with me coming home? I can bring some Irish delicacies such as... eh, never mind.

Very random post. I dedicate it to Ruth that is bored at work as well. You are welcome, Ruth!

wednesday evening

Half week over, yes! Thursday is almost weekend, right?

Milan-Barcelona with Arabic commentators on Josef's computer, Swedish live update on mine and Olle in the background, complaining over his disgusting soup. They came over to steal my Internet so they could order their own, now I'm forever alone.

Ah, it's nice. Gonna finish first season of An Idiot Abroad now, love Karl Pilkington!

important information

My mouse has eaten the cheese from two of the traps but is still not caught. Either the mouse is really smart or the traps are really bad. So basically I'm just feeding it now, maybe I can tame it after all? Or maybe I should get a cat instead, company and mouse killer in one, win!

Christmas in Sweden is booked! December 22nd - January 3rd, haven't had that much holidays since... Ok, this summer, wasn't so long ago after all. The plan was to go somewhere nice over New Years but I realised it'll be nicer (and cheaper) to just stay home. Might go to Ruth's place in Norrland over NYE instead, this doesn't look too bad, ey?

Snoooow, yay!

photo session sunday

Had a super nice, quiet weekend including movie night with Ruth, café session with Ruth and Tea, dinner at Corfu with Oskar, Marcus and Stefan, a few drinks and 'Picture this' with Olle and his sisters and finally a photo session Sunday with Ruth. The sun was shining when I woke up around 8 yesterday but (no surprise) it was gone when we finally got out. Took a walk to Docklands anyway where there's a lot of graffiti.