Right now

Carb charging with thai curry for a very big night! It is the premier pubcrawl with our newly formed group called the PubRoaches! 

At 17.00 we're all meeting in a small pub in Sliema, to embark on a pub crawl that involves one drink in each little wierd pub for about 10 pubs. Other rules apply as well. Let's see who survises...GO PUBROACHES!

Long time no see

Hello again old and new friends. I have to start by apologiszing for not blogging in such a long time, but I have been very busy with work lately and just haven't had any real inspiration to blog.

But now I will try to be better.

So what has happened since last time? Dinners, Halloweenparties, Kick off with work, Drinks in Beergarden, Comparing ear size(it is now proven the Vähä girls have very big ears), Fenkata in Mgarr, disovering that huge peppers grow in our garden, Moved to a new office, Trainings, Betsafe ladies night and lots of cosy evenings!

Fenkata night in Mgarr

A regular Friday night in Coconut Club

Peppers from ze garden

Action captured in Beergarden, with legend Henry.

Big Vähä ears

 

Lodz, Poland.

At very cool hotel.

Very interesting...

Very interesting indeed I have to say. My stats show that I have readers from the following countries: Sweden

Malta

France

United States

United Kingdom

Ireland

Poland

Slovenia Isn't that great? But who are you all I wonder?

Valley of death

So yeah, pretty bad storm and flood last night. I'm glad we live on a hill!

Hej hej

I'm still alive, I have just not had the time or energy to blog since I came back from my baltic tour. But now I promise to get better.

It has been raining quite a bit since I got back, and last night was pretty bad. Really bad for us since we have some electrical failure going on in our apartment that makes everything trip everytime it starts raining, meaning no electricity for us.

A guy is coming to look at it this week though, so let's hope for no more thunder storms until then.

Other than that we have been planning for the upcoming Halloween party, lunching, playing squash, cosing and working. Working from the new office, that is, and it is awesome! I really like my job now, and I feel really good about it!

Still alive and kickin'!

But this time from  Lodz, Poland. It seems like a nice city, even tho I haven't seen a lot of it yet. The hotel is awesome and there is a huge shopping mall right next to it :)

That's all you get for now, I will blog more when I get back home again!

Alive and kicking

Just letting you know that I am alive and kicking in Riga. Work is going well and we are having a good time, but i forgot to bring my camera cable to I am unable to upload any  pictures until I come back home.

Had a nice gym and spa session today, the spa in the hotel is really luxurious and nice, and then buffet dinner here at the hotel. Full, but not too full actually.

Missing my man as crazy, but I am keeping a mental countdown until I come home :)

The hotel's room service menu has a 'Scandinavian style shrimp sandwich' (Räkmacka in Swedish) and we have had two each so far. Yum, nice hotel. The weather sucks tho, it is really cold and autumny and I miss the Maltese weather now.

Time to sleep!

Riga!

We have arrived safe and sound in Riga, after a whole day of travelling. Now we are off to the casino and the Rigged in Riga tournament party!

I'm really good at this!

Had a nice run and a good, exhausting workout on the rocks with Nema, now I'm sitting here eating cheese for dinner, having a glass of red and postponing the packing. I have to say, I'm quite good at it. But far from as good as I am postponing unpacking.

My record still is when me and two friend when for a summer vacation to Malta in July, and by christmas I still had some stuff in that suitcase. I just took whatever I needed out of it, and let's face it, in Umeå in fall/winter you're not gonna need that many items that were usable in Malta in July!

Ok, I have to do this now! Get the packing done and over with. Joe the Crazy driver picks me up at 7.30 tomorrow morning, then off to the Paris of Baltikum! Or is that Tallin..?

What to pack?

I don't know what to pack for this Lavia/Poland trip...I heard today that it is 7 degrees in Riga..What?!! This means I have to start wearing socks again!! I haven't worn socks or a long sleaved top since May... On top of this I'm going to be away for 8 days, I'm gonna miss the hell out of my fiancé, that's for sure. I'm starting the countdown the minute I leave..

This pic is from when we were in Riga a couple of years ago, a traumatizing boat trip and many mugs of Glintwine was included in that trip :)

Football and cooking class!

While Seamus is charging for football practice with Beergarden FC, I'm attempting to cook carb free chocolate cake.

 

Now, time for cooking class with the girls!

Every other day...

...the water has to be changed for the little ninjas! When I change the water in the big tank, I move them to this kidney shaped smaller one.

And then they go mad when they come back to the big one. Swimming around like maniacs! Cute!!

Buster!

The pork roast...

...turned out very nice despite of my lack of experience in the pork roasting field. I cooked it in beer, beef and chicken stock, a lot of herbs, mustard and carrots.

Like farmor!

I'm currently making a pork roast, and I feel like my farmor (grandma). The reason I'm making a roast at this hour is that I bought it on Saturday and I don't want to waste it by not cooking it. Btw, that's another shopping problem I have -meat, if there is good meat in the store, I can get really inspired to cook something from it, even tho, as in this case, I don't know how to cook it, and then I just have to buy it.

Well, we'll how this one turnes out, I kinda made it up as a went along, and now it's just cooking. I'll take a picture when it's done!

The Shoes!

Unfortunately my colleague tells me that there are good shoe shops in Riga, where we are going this weekend and next week, so I might have to take that statement back and make it a week instead!

More shoes will move in here:

I think I have a problem..

...these are the shoes that I have bought in the past 2 weeks...Too much? Borderline. I should probably take a little break from the shoe shopping for a couple of weeks.

 

But I love them all. No regrets. I think I have to break in the beige ones today in work :)

October 3rd, Malta

As you can see, the weather is still quiet awesome! Today we had a long wine lunch in the sun with M & L by Spinola bay and planned for our upcoming Halloween party! The rest of the day has been dedicated to watching Two and a half Men in bed and just general relaxing.

The Hangover

I think one of best things about a crazy party night is to check the photos on your camera the day after, it is usually very entertaining, and can explain what happen better than your blurry memory. If you have seen the movie The Hangover you know what I'm talking about.

Well, this morning was no exception, and I'm sharing what I think is the winning picture from last night :)

Caption: 04.00 Saturday morning, Beergarden

Another crazy night in Malta

It has been a very quiet day today, we woke up at 12, both of us very hungover. Haven't had a hangover in a while, or to be exact since mum and dad were here and we had that birthday party in Beergarden. And as a matter of fact, last night was a very similar evening. We went to the Blue Elephant to celebrate that Nema got the job (starting Monday) and had a super nice dinner. Again, I can highly recommend that restaurant, the food is great and the service superb!

After that we went to Beergarden and stayed there until they closed -4 o'clock in the morning! There was karaoke this time as well, and yes, once again I sang Hotel California! :)

I don't even want to know how much I drank last night, but we were 6 people and I think we averaged two rounds each... Yeah, it was a lot of drinking, singing and talking. But it was fun, so I don't mind that this day had to be dedicated to watching Modern Family and eating junk food in bed. And speaking of that, I think it's time to go back to doing that :)

What is Sweden most famous for?.

Except for IKEA, Victoria Silvstedt, the love for queuing and the obsessive coffee drinking? 

Swedish Meatballs of course! And this is what's on the menu, and on the schedule for the cooking class tonight! There will most likely be some wine on the menu as well, as we have something that calls for some celebration; Little Nema got the job! Yaay!

Triceps like Linda Hamilton...

...that's what they use to write in the magazines in the 90's as motivation for women to weight train, that you would get triceps like Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2.

And if you ask me, I'd very much like to have those triceps. The very 90's hair do I'd skip tho :)

But I have worked on my own triceps today, me and Nema did a nice and exhausting work out in the park, and one of the exericeses in the round was tricep push ups. Haven't done them in a looong time, and I could really feel it, I suspect some muscle pain tomorrow as well. Good pain, I like it.

And of course for my arms to look like below:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Best lyrics ever written?Maybe not, but it is hilarious. And, the song is certainly not written about our turtles, they don't 'do machines', nor are they party dudes. They just are, sometimes they eat too. But I think they are 'Heros in a hard shell'!

-Turtle power!

Rain! Yippie!!

Finally some rain! And we were out jogging in it, then workin out at the play ground, it was awesome, and it feels like autumn might actually be coming now. It's getting a bit cooler, and I can start wearing my cardigans that I love so much :)

Another work week has started, after another very succesful weekend in Malta, and again I am the lucky one to work from the company apartment! I am actually not sarcastic when I say that, I think it's quite nice to work from there, it's quiet and have a lot of room, and the trainees have time to ask as many questions they like. I can't complain.

Now I'm off to cook some beef steak with broad beans and peas in butter for me and my man. And I think I'm getting paid tomorrow. And I have new running shoes. I love my life!

Tired on the bus back from Notte Bianca in Valletta on Saturday.

I want more!!

I want more weekend, I think they pass by way to fast. Here are some pictures from this weekend! We've been shopping, having wine lunch, been to the Notte Bianca festival in Valletta, more lunching, running and powerwalking -all in all, a great weekend!!

The WC 2010

That would be the Wine Cup of 2010 -or the quest to find a new Gnarley. The first group of four wines was tested last night. Two have now qualified to the next round. We will have for groups like this, and in each group two wines qualify to the next round. We will then have two more groups á 4 wines that we will challenge to each other to find two qualifiers from those two groups.

Then, we will have a Grande Finale where we will pick the winner of the Wine Cup 2010, and possibly crown a replacement for Gnarley Head!

The contestants

Judge no 1

The two qualifiers from the first round: Yellow Tail Purple and Kumala

.

Yellow Tail was my favourite, and Kumala was Seamus' one.

And the qualifying scheme along with notes :)

Will there ever be a new Gnarly?

When we lived in Stockholm, we used to always buy this wine in Systembolaget. When we had a chance to be there between 10-19 weekdays and 10-14 Saturdays that is :) Yeah, I don't miss the old Systembolaget, I can tell you that.

Anyways, we both really love this wine: Gnarly Head, but I haven't been able to find it here in Malta, so now we have embarked on a quest to find our new Gnarley!! It started yesterday...

As many of you might be suspecting..I did buy it the first time because of the cool tag, it had nice colours :) But what a great buy it was.

They are ok!

And cute as usual! This is Buster by the way.

Freckles The Stoplight!

This is what I look like right now! Yes, I just came back from a run, I don't normally look like this. Good run today, managed to go a little bit longer than yesterday, and did some exercises on the rocky beach, push ups and stuff.

 

Now, while aftersweating, I'm gonna check how our Mutant Ninja Turtles are doing, and then take a shower. 

The weekend can begin!!

The aftersweats..

..is out of control in Malta. Me and Nema went for a run, and did some circuit training in the park, I came home about 45 minutes ago, have showered and been sitting very still, but I'm still sweating!!

Well, it was a nice workout, tomorrow we run for a little bit longer. There has been a training break for about a month due to a lot of visits and just general lazyness, but now it is nice to take it up again.

As soon as I have stopped sweating I'm gonna get dressed and go down to Hugo's for dinner with Soffla. Nice food and great company -what's not to like? 

Nervous!!

Why do I feel nervous?! It's because Little Nema has an interview in like 15 minutes and I'd love for her to get that job, so I'm really nervous now! Fingers are being crossed (EN) and thumbs are being held (SE) :)

Cooking class!

Today we're cooking vegatable gratin and pork filet marinated in a lot of yummy, yummy things. Of course, since both me and the cooking students are Swedish, this is served with a creamy sauce! Must have sauce! Seamus think I ruin all food with sauce, but I have to disagree. The sauce is the icing on the cake! :)

Close, but no cigar....

To easen up the mood a little bit, I will give you a couple of pictures from Saturday. Taken while enjoying our one and only purchase this day; Les cigars! Don't ask me why, I do however blame a very strong Long Island Ice Tea that was indulged at Hard Rock Cafe at the Waterfront which may have contributed to the decision!

 I won't be smoking cigars again in a long time, everything smelt of smoke for the rest of the evening and I felt slightly naseaus.

Well, I won't smoke a cigar in a very long time again, unless:

1. I win the lottery

2. I start and manage to run a very successful company 

3. I get more than 1000 readers on this blog

So, let's just wait and see :)

Nazis in parliament

Yes, that is exactly what happened in the election in Sweden. A party that hide behind the term 'democrats' in their name, and have obvious rasist and almost nazi like opinions have actually won seats in the Riksdag now. It makes you wonder why, it makes you wonder what's wrong with Sweden as it is today that makes people want to vote for a party like that?

Well, it is very sad and this seems to be what is on everyones lips, blogs and facebookpages today, and probably will be for some time now, and it doesn't make me feel very proud to be Swedish. Quite the opposite actually...

Red or Blue?

It's election in Sweden today, I think they are counting the votes as I write this. Mum and dad brought all the brochures and ballots and everything needed for the voting with them last weekend, so we had the vote then.

I'm very confident in what I voted for, and I think it's the first time I actually thought about why I voted for a certain party and really considered it instead of just 'going with the flow', and I feel good about that choice.

No matter what the outcome will be I guess it will not affect me that much right now, since I'm not living there, but I still think it's important that people do their duty and vote, if you don't you have no right complaining about things being the way they are.

Other than that, I'm trying to fight the instict of napping again, something that is not easy to do after a whole day at the beach and with a cosy, snoring Irish man next to me :)

What's wrong with us?!

Saturday evening turned out the exact same way as Friday night, and I think this confirms it -we are getting old, or at least older. :)

With the same intentions as on Friday, of going to the pub for a drink, we had dinner at home first, then we were 'only gonna watch one episode of Arrested development' and then get ready to go out.

So, what happens? We wake up at 23.30, all cuddled up together, we decide that we're gonna continue watching that episode we fell asleep to..-and wake up at 2.30!

But on the bright side, it was very cosy and I feel extremely rested now, and ready to take on this day! Currently I'm cooking a soup for lunch, and after that I think we'll go for a swim!

Messing!

Of course we managed to squeeze in some messing about on the way back to the bus!

Adventures in Valletta!

A little picture summary of our adventure in Valletta today!

We arrive in Valletta Terminus safely

The hunt for Valletta Waterfront begins. I've been there before, but every time by car so I had no idea how to walk there.

 

 

 

 

 

The hunt continues.... some nice views and a lot of sweating on the way...

 

We might actually have hit the ghetto of Valletta at some point here...but we didn't give up, we were determined to find the waterfront...

 

And finally we did!

 

 

Great success! Nice view, good cocktails and nice food! What a great day!