Australia

Last night, Emma and I toddled off to the movies to see Australia. I would have prefered to have toddled off to see the actual country of Australia but for now I just have to settle for the flick. It was a pretty good flick.. I did.. for the most part enjoy the movie.. however not one that I would want to see again tho and there were a few moments where I thought.. huh? but yeah all in all it nice to go to a movie that I actually enjoyed instead of rolling my eyes a million times. I wouldn't exactly say that it is a must see.. but it is a must to see it on the big screen.. afterall the big screen just adds that little bit extra to flicks.. well I think so anyways.

Right now it is New Year's Eve and soon enough it will be 2009.. just a quiet night in to ring in the new year and hopefully I can at least stay awake to ring it in.. to be honest tho.. I have no faith that I will stay awake.. I am a bit of an old lady that way.. maybe next year I wont be so much of an old lady.. maybe I will wake up a bit.. we will see I guess.. only time will tell.

The Birthday, Christmas & I

The day sort of started on the 23rd.. just before midnight when the neighbour decided that it was time to start their festive party.. they reached their loudest at around 4am.. I was SO unimpressed.. but I guess that is the joy of living in an apartment.. so anyways after a shitty sleep.. Emma, Nemo and I were up early.. Nemo got the last of his advent calendar.. and while he munched away on that Emma gave me the start of my birthday pressie.

Then out the door Emma and Nemo went for the morning walk while I got to stay and relax in bed.. which after a bit got a little boring.. so boring in fact that I decided to get up, clean up a little and start getting breakfast organised.. I however didn't start cooking the pancakes.. as that is Emma's job.. she totally does the best pancakes ever.. soon enough they arrived home and the cooking begun and then we all tucked into some very yummo pancakes with cream and boysenberry jam.. BLISS! Nemo didn't get jam and cream but got his own pancake.. afterall he is part of the family.

After breakfast we then sat down and opened a few xmas pressies.. Nemo is not so good at opening his own gifts.. not like Cato, the parentals doggie.. he is pretty awesome! but yeah.. we got Nem's a little blue m&m jumper.. its a little small but still looks wicked cute.. who cares if it doesn't cover his ass.. its for inside anyways.. mainly for after baths. but yeah.. see how cute it is?

After the present opening we just relaxed at home and watched stuff.. nothing overly exciting.. its always nice to take things easy.. then we ate some sandwich cake.. which was SO fab! I devoured a nice big chunk of it.. but it still hardly made a dent in it lol

After lunch.. I fell asleep on the couch.. nothing like a mid day snooze I say.. then Emma had to wake me up coz I needed to shower and we had to walk Nemo before heading around to the parentals for the xmas feast and Donald Duck re-runs. Most of the time I was the only one laughing at the re-runs.. prolly coz I'm still new to that whole tradition lol

Then the feasting, laughing, chatting and drinking begun.. Tasty!

Soon enough it was dark and Emma played santa.. I wish she had of worn the mask tho.. like Emma's mum did for my first xmas here.. or well she didn't wear it the whole time.. coz it got to hot but she started out with good santa intentions.. so yeah.. anyways Emma handed out all the gifts and then we tucked into ripping the wrapping off..

My very main gift.. which was all I wanted..

...was this very spunky Krups Espresso Machine!

It is my pride and joy.. and it makes a very nice brew.. I am so very happy with it.. I still need to buy a metal milk jug for the frothing tho so I can make cappacino's & latte's like a pro! but just normal coffee is creamy and yum.. Emma even said that it has converted her now.. and that is saying something.

All in all I had a really good day and it was awesome to have it start out as my birthday and end as Christmas.. over and done within one clean swooop... always nice don't ya think? Totally glad it is all over with tho.. now to get the year over with and begin the new year ahead.. good times.. I hope!

The Sandwich Cake & Nemo

Today Emma and I made a Sandwich Cake for my birthday tomorrow.. it is a long process but totally worth it.. as it is the yummiest ever. It was the first thing I ever ate upon arriving in Sweden and it is still my most favourite thing to eat in Sweden. I must say.. knowing it is in my fridge.. is pure torture! I just want to eat it now.. but I also know that tomorrow it will taste even betterer.. its always better after you have let it flavour a little.. like just about everything.. it always tastes better the next day.. with the exception to an open bottle of beer.. now that is totally not cool the next day.

Anyways.. so Emma and I had just finished slaving over it and was getting ready to wrap it up and stick it in the fridge.. Nemo was sitting on the chair at the table.. he usually behaves.. but it seems today was the exception. I didn't see it all unfold.. but I was there for the aftermath and witnessing the steps of discovery..

First up.. Emma tells Nemo off for licking the side of it. I did not witness that but I heard the telling off.. which drew my attention to the situation.

Next.. came the discovery of the gap to which I with a puzzled look on my face and tone in my voice.. "was there meant to be a bit of cucumber there?" to which Emma responded with a big laugh of yes there was.. lots of laughter continued.. & for a moment there I thought Emma might actually pee pee her pants.. but she didn't coz she is a grown up!

Next.. came the discovery of the little nip mark that Nemo must have left when he took a nibble out of the cake.. not the lick like what was first thought!! The little bastard! This time.. I thought that this time I was going to pee pee my pants.. coz its pretty darn funny that we noticed it all in steps rather than right away. Nemo is one in a million that is for sure.

My first ever sandwich cake for MY birthday and the little bugger takes the first bite!! Totally unimpressed I am.. but I also totally see the funny side to it all.. and below you shall see it all.. the little nibble Nemo took out.. Looks like he got a little egg, a little bread and some cucumber.. mmm good!

Christmas Baking.. 3

Mandelmusslor

& that is the very end of all the Christmas baking and goodie making and also that is the first and very last time that I will ever make those blasted things again.. it was NOT fun! Don't be fooled by their simple shape.. they are a bitch to make and for that reason I will never make them again. NEVER!

I do enjoy eating them however.. you have a little jam and then some freshly whipped cream.. and down the hatch they go.. very very good.

Round Up!

Emma is now on christmas holidays.. tomorrow is the day of christmas joy.. it doesn't really feel like it.. but I will be glad to have it over and done with.. and then I get to let loose on my new espresso machine.. I simply can't wait!

The weekend was a pretty slow one.. we went to the movies on Friday night with Hanna and we saw.. The Day The Earth Stood Still. It was PURE crap! I lost count on how many times I rolled my eyes.. it seems whenever we go to the movies with little Hanna, we end upseeing a shit movie.. just as well we don't see her all that often.. you know with her living in the states in all.

Saturday morning Nemo got trimmed.. so he wasn't much of a happy camper but now he looks so smart.. I just love his colouring after he has been trimmed.. all his white bits really come out of hiding.. its nice. The rest of the weekend was spent making stuffs and doing nothing much else.

Monday night we went to Mr Guitar's place to have a glögg & gingerbread evening. I don't usually drink glögg.. but this one was a raspberry one and it wasn't too bad.. not that I would want to drink it all the time.. but yeah it was good enough to drink now and then. After we downed some glögg and gingerbread.. oh and the others downed some Lussekatter too.. a movie was put on and it was rather interesting.. Emma.. of course nodded off.. I had a few moments where I was nearly nodding off.. but putting my arms above my head seemed to work with keeping me awake.. and eating chips and stuffs helped too lol

Well I best get started on my Tuesday as its 9am and I still need to have breakfast.. I think some french toast is in order! Mmmm

Christmas Goodies!

Peanut Butter Balls!

Georg! the Bunnie Killer.. gave me the recipe for these and being peanut butter I just HAD to give them a go.. and I am glad I did.. coz they are actually rather yummy.. even tho they have those yucky dates in them.. but the dates give it that little something something.. just yum!

Knäck!

Rischoklad

Marzipan Balls..

It was meant to be a log but last year we found it a little bit on the really not fun ride to make.. so instead we made balls.. which turned out to be equally not as fun to make.

Dooley's Mocha Tops..

These my friends are absolutely De-Lish! They were meant to be made with Baileys but we had Dooley's.. close enough I say.. and anyways.. pure YUM! yeah I know.. you want some!! They were a little hard to get out of the form.. which is why most of them are a little cracked.. but like I said.. a little crack never hurt anyone! lol

Fruit & Nut Dark Chocolate

Christmas Baking.. 2

Soft Gingerbread!

Emma had a little accident when turning this beautiful baby out and broke it in half.. if you look carefully on the side you can actually see the crack.. but a little crack never hurt anyone right?

We only have one more thing to bake and all the Christmas stuffs are done.. done...done! & I can't wait to gobble them all up.. ok maybe not all.. but some.. YUM!

For The Pups!

Just because humans get yummy treats for Christmas.. doesn't mean that the pups can't too.. so Emma and I made some Peanut Butter Poppers in the shape of cars for all the pups.. of course we tested them on Nemo first and he does approve.. oh and I was also a taste tester.. I can't say that they are overly flavourful.. but then again pups lick themselves so I'm sure these are plenty tasty for them!

The TunaCans & I

Jo vs. TunaCans!
& who do you think won?
Not I.. but the freaken TunaCans of course!

So there I was.. happily going about my day when all of a sudden not ONE but TWO cans of tuna decided that they couldn't take life in the cupboard and decided to come out.. and come out they did.. and they took no pity! The shuffled along the.. stealth style.. to go unnoticed for their surprise attack into the big back world.. out of that cupboard they were a-commin.. no matter what the cost!

The tuna cans had carefully maneuvered their way to the edge of the cupboard.. just waiting for their chance to leap out. They got their chance when I.. had left the cupboard door open and my back was semi turned.. they took that chance and they leaped with all their might and came a crashing down.. down.. down... right onto my big toe!

OUCH!

Emma was quick to round up the rogue tuna cans and put them back in their rightful place of the cupboard.. while I whinged about my toe.. when I removed my sock.. it was bleeding a little at the nail.. I could hear the tuna cans laughing from in the cupboard.. or was that just Emma? I am not completely sure.. it is all a blur!

Emma then ran some cold water into the tub for me and off I toddled to soak my bleeding swollen toe.. I could still hear the laughter.. those freaken tuna cans.. you will get what you deserve when we make a sandwich cake out of you! muahahaha

Cookies!

Now who doesn't just LOVE cookies?

So the other day Emma showed me a recipe from a blog called.. 'use real butter' for Espresso Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies and they looked so good that I just had to give them a go.. I however didn't make a full recipe so mine aren't quite as thick and well that is a-ok by me.. they still taste good and that is what matters.. right?
So anyways here is my cookies...

Witnessed Stupidity

Nemo and I had just started out on our lunch time walk when we were confronted with what had to be one.. or well several of the stupidiest things I have ever seen.. done by one woman and her car.

Now the first thing that this woman did that drew my attention in her direction was... *drum role* She drove the wrong way down a one way road!! Now it takes a special sorta someone to do such a thing yes.. and it turned out she was an EXTRA special sorta someone coz just as she finished driving the wrong way.. she drove out into the middle of the road and then just paused!

Yes.. this special woman just paused! So as she is standing in the middle of the road.. about 30 seconds later a bus starts coming towards her.... and what on earth do you think she did?

If you think she actually all of a sudden got some smarts and quickly and easily drove off and got out of the way of the oncoming bus then you would be totally incorrect. What she actually did was stay still and I guess contemplate a little longer on what the right thing to do would be and the thing she came up with was.. REVERSE!! in the middle of the street and move over to the wrong side and continue reversing.. at least she moved over eventually enough for the bus to actually be able to pass and of course once the bus passed.. this special woman went back to just standing.. but at least now she is on the correct side of the road.. she is just failing to actually drive anywhere when a car comes up behind her and she just stays still.. I guess contemplating? after about 30 seconds the other car honks rather loudly.

Which I guess finally snapped this woman out of her daze of stupidity coz then she started driving.. slowly forward.. in the correct direction on the correct side of the road and then she turned into the one way road which she came out of previously.. I shake my head and continue on my merry way thinking that the stupidity is all over and done with.

I however.. was wrong.. I look over and there is this woman in her car.. trying with all her might to park her car in between 2 cars.. the space she is trying to park in is clearly NOT large enough to fit her car at all.. but she keeps trying.. and trying.. and trying some more before she finally gave up coz her towbar hits the car at the back. I am so gobsmacked by this point I just don't know what to think and then I see her drive like 2 meters and park easily in a spot that is large enough.. which I might add had been there the WHOLE time!

So that my friends is the witnessed stupidity of the day and totally made me wish I had taken my phone at least so I could capture a picture of this woman.. coz I think the world needs to beware!! When I come across people like that I often think to myself.. "How on earth have you been able to survive in this world for this long?" People like that make me look perfect and sane!

The Earthquake & I

So there I was.. sitting at the computer after just stepping in the door from walking Nems.. loading a few pages and getting my morning started.. when I feel the apartment shake.. shake and shake some more. Nemo springs up from the rug and comes over to me. I head over and look out the windows to see what on earth could be causing this shaking.. coz I was under the opinion that earthquakes and Sweden don't play together. Anyways I couldn't see anything and the shaking only lasted about 10 seconds and nothing broke.. it wasn't that kinda shake.. just a little rumble.. being from NZ I have had much more fun earthquakes.

After the rumbling.. Nemo seemed a little worries and was running in and out of all the rooms.. I guess trying to work out what the freak was going on.. and he really isn't the brightest of dogs.. afterall this is a dog who will look at me when Emma speaks to him.. even though we speak different languages to him! but anyways.. Nems is doing his room checks and I try to call Emma.. to no avail coz she has poo reception.

Now before you start thinking that I called Emma coz I was freaking out.. I wasn't! I was just totally confuzzled coz like I said I was under the impression earthquakes and Sweden don't play together.. anyways Emma called me back about 5 minutes later when she had better reception and said that when she got to work she would check out what happened and then get back to me.. meanwhile Nems is STILL running in and out of all the rooms.. STILL wondering what the freak is going on lol

So the outcome of the earthquake was 4.7 and it took so many people by surprise that some people were all ready to tell their neighbours off.. according to some of the comments.. that are in Swedish so Emma told me that one.

Officially my first earthquake in Sweden.
Sweden sure pulls out all the stops for little ole Jo!

Nems Update: He has stopped running in and out of rooms and is currently snoozing under the desk right next to me with his paw on my foot. It is rather warm!

The Weekend & I

Goodness me.. its SPC!
Well my weekend came and went in all but a blink of an eye.. at least we got some baking done, and the tree put up and the presents under it.. which is always nice.. Emma's interest peeked when I showed her a present just for her that she has NO idea at all what it could be! Which is the way it is going to stay until we have our own little xmas with Nemo.. on my birthday I might add.. after the yummo pancakes with boysenberry jam & cream.. o I really can't wait! I also can't wait to see Nemo sporting his little blue m&m jumper.. don't worry I know you will want to see that too.. so I will be sure to put a pic up as soon as I can! lol

OOoooooo and some very good news.. My Apple In-Ear Headphones with Remote and Mic finally arrived!! I got to try them out and I can't say that they are amazing or that they suck so bad I want to rip my ears off and never hear again.. I find that they do just what any small in-ear headphone should do.. they make it so that you are able to listen to music on your iPod decently and really that is what matters and seeing as though I am unable to use the earphones that came with the unit.. I am happy to actually be able to use my unit whenever I want.. which hasn't been much before that coz I could only wear them when I wore a certain jacket as it was the only jacket that had a pocket high enough that I could use the tops of my old SE phone earphones to be listen to music.. and with it being so cold.. I have been unable to wear that jacket.. but now I get to walk Nemo and not go so totally insane and actually have a good reason as to why I am ignoring people who decide to start talking to me while I walk him.. sometimes I really do think I have a sticker on me that says "Talk to me!" Anyways.. long story short.. I have my new earphones and I am happy with them.. so music here I cometh!

Also another package arrived.. this one being from my brother & his little family. Its always nice to get packages.. especially ones that have body butter in them that have leaked! lol Nothing that a little wiping didn't fix.. and nothing was actually ruined beyond repair and so that is the main thing.. and most importantly the Whittaker's Kiwifruit Chocolate was AOK!

All in all.. my weekend was rather good to me.. I however didn't get much rest as such.. but it wasn't totally exhausting.. and now there is only one week left before Emma goes on holidays and we will have nearly 3 weeks of rest.. or well.. baking.. eating.. present opening, possibly drinking and then rest & catching up on some tv shows.. oh and scrapbooking our Boston trip! Most of all I am happy to have Emma home to entertain me and I'm sure Nemo will be happy to have Emma home coz he is just purely sick of just seeing my ugly mug every day.

However.. this week Nemo only gets me 4 days coz come Friday he is having a little trip into work with Emma.. yipeeeeee! That should make him happy coz A) he gets to hang with Emma.. B) he gets to ride on 2 trains and 2 buses! C) he gets to have love and pats from many of his fans! and D) he gets to have a Jo ugly mug free day!

Christmas Baking.. 1

Saturday was the first day of the Christmas bake off and we started with making Gingerbread. We kinda cheated a little and purchased the dough from the bakery.. coz well we didn't fancy spending a day actually making the dough and having to leave it overnight.. impatient or what? I should have been named impatient really.. I was poorly named when I was named Darling.. oh I mean Jo! haha

Anyways it was kinda fun making them.. and best of all Emma did most of the hard work with all the rolling and cutting out.. I was in charge of putting them in the oven.. setting the timer.. taking them out and putting them on the cooling rack.. then transferring them from the cooling rack to the container.. oh and I was in charge of putting them into position on the tray! How awesome am I? lol I think we did about half a dozen trays.. of many different shapes.. Bitten Gingerbread Mens, Stars of two different sizes, Christmas Trees, Angels, Pigs.. ummm I think thats about it..

Below you will see a pic of the Uncooked Bitten Gingerbread Mens! Sunday was the day that we made something that I personally do not eat.. We made 'Lussekatter'! They are bascially sweet saffron buns.. saffron and I totally don't play well together.. but Emma loves them so Emma shall have them and we only make them once a year so why not.. but it sure is torture to spend some time baking to not have something at the ned of the day fresh to eat.. or well for me anyways.. Emma got to eat some and she ate so many that she got heartburn.. silly lass!

We usually bake them without the raisins.. coz Emma isn't much for the raisins and we call them Blind Cats.. which makes it more fun for me to say "We are baking Blind Cats today!" but yeah we added the raisins.. for some reason.. to them all so we made 3 dozen Not So Blind Cats! lol

Below you will a pic of the Not So Blind Cats.. freshly baked!

Christmas Tree!

From this...

...TO...

...This!

The Cat & I

Yesterday Emma and I were walking to the supermarket to buy a few things.. like carrots and dip! oh so YUM!! but yeah on our way.. we came across this cat and it was wicked cute.. kinda reminded me of Oscar.. a cat that I loved in NZ.. who was not mine but for many years I did look after him..

Annnnnyways... so we saw this cat.. and it was on this fence.. but the fence was kinda tandgled in bracny twiggy things and so only its front paws were on the fence.. it was kinda a weird position.. I gave the cat a little pat and then we went to walk away but it looked like the cat was having a little bit of trouble trying to manouver its body out of the branchy twiggy things and down off the fence.. so me being the sweet, kind, wonderfully caring soul that I am.. decided to help the cat out.. and help it out I did.. I took it off the fence and put it on the ground.. inside the fence coz I figured thats where it was heading..

..but then as soon as we went to walk away the cat gave this look of sheer horror and wtf.. and was gave the impression of 'why on earth did you stick me down here for?' so of course me being the sweet, kind, wonderfully caring soul that I am.. went back over to the cat.. leaned over the fence.. which wasn't an easy task as it was a bit of a stretch to try and pick the cat up again.. but I managed it.. I picked it up.. and put it on the foot path on my side of the fence this time..

..but then as soon as the cat was down.. it jumped through the fence gap.. which was right where I had just pulled it up from!

At least the cat was happy and it gave Emma and I a good laugh..

and me a dirty jacket!

Baked!

Over the past week I have made a few things and so now I am going to tease your tastebuds and eyes with some of my baking goodness!

First up we have the Lemon Cake I made.. It was so moist and tarty and just simply delicious!!

Next we have the Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls.. They were a little disappointing but still tasted great.. just not pumpkinny enough I guess.. Emma couldn't taste it and I could only taste t where the cinnamon wasn't over-powering it.. and I would hate to know how cinnamonny they would have been if I had of used the full amount that the recipe called for! yikes!
Next we have.. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.. we needed to use up the pumpkin puree and these looked tasty enough.. the raw batter had a nice pumpkin flavour but once it was cooked.. it was kinda more gingerbready.. but still VERY tasty.. I would totally make them again!

Lastly we have the Bread Buns.. simply delicious!! omg so yummy! We didn't even have to butter them coz they were that tasty! totally good bread! and the best bit was.. I got to use the bread maker for the dough! ACE! That was actually the only reason why I wanted to make them! but it paid off.. they got gobbled up!

And just so you don't think that we are total pigs with all this baking.. we didn't eat it all by ourselves.. we shared it around.. coz we are nice like that!

Oh and I haven't even started the christmas baking yet!!!!

Xmas Lights!

On Sunday.. Emma and I headed off early to help the parentals put up some Xmas Lights.. not a huge amount.. just enough to make the place look christmassey..

..ya know..

So there we are.. just finished getting the first load of lights untangled.. coz its a given.. no matter how you do it.. every year they are gonna be tangled when you take them outta the box.. so yeah there we are.. lights in hand trying to work out how to get them over the tree..

*lightbulb* I say that we should toss them over.. coz that seems like the best option coz Emma and I are both not giants.. as you well know.. I do sometimes wonder what it would be like to be a giant.. anyways so there we are.. lights in hands.. in position and about to start the countdown.. then just like an olympic swimmer.. Emma does a false start!

We collect ourselves and once again.. lights in hand.. in position and now starting the countdown...
Three...
..............Two...
.........................One...
...................................and we toss.. only Emma tosses so hard and totally lets go of ALL the lights and the lights go for a little trip right OVER the tree! HAHAHAHA it was great! So funny!

After that we took a different approach with the help of Emma's dad and soon enough the lights were on the tree and all was well in the world and we could move onto the other sections we needed to get done.. which we did and then sat down and enjoyed the best glass of milk and nibbled on some gingerbread!

Knickery Snowman!

Looks like another month of me being a pretty slack blogger but hey..

..I get there in the end!

So let me cast my mind back and pick out a few funny moments of the past week.. coz its been that long since I last did an entry.. actually its been a little over a week..
but who notices anyways?

Umm well we headed off to Copenhagen to check out the shops and have a little look around.. and most importly to buy some Boysenberry Jam.. its not anywhere near as good as Cottee's but its the best I can do so it rocks.. which means I get to have boysenberry jam & cream on pancakes for my birthday breakfast! & Emma's pancakes totally rock the boat!! Nothing like starting a morning with total goodness I say! Makes me wish everyday was my birthday.. not for presents.. but for breakfasts!!

So anyways.. we went to Copenhagen and it was packed.. we kinda knew it would be but getting Jam was wicked important!! It was also cold and a little wet... but all in all it was a good day. I nearly got killed by a bird.. The picture below is of me just after a bird swept past my face.. so close I might add that the wing touched me! *straight face* It was highly amusing tho.. it was even pretty close to Emma's face.. it swept right in between us as we were trying to take a nice photo of yours truly in front of the giant tree.. as you can see.. the picture didn't turn out so nice.. even tho I am in it! LOL That was definetly one way to start off the day in Copenhagen!

It wasn't long until we then discovered that in Copenhagen.. not only do they drink booze for breakfast but they also have snowmen holding underwear! Thats right folks.. snowmen and undies.. and here is the picture proof!

We were planning on staying longer but opted to leave a little earlier coz well.. it wasn't all that exciting and I was a little sick and tired of people walking into me and walking at a snails pace.. oh and coz I was annoyed at the stupid English store.. I got all excited when we saw it.. we went into this pokey little store and it was full of goodness! They had sausage rolls! I haven't had a sausage roll since I left Australia.. so I got a little happy.. then I just saw many other things that I haven't had in such a long time.. we picked up a few things.. including a couple little Milky Bars.. I just simply LOVE white chocolate and it seems Swedish people don't share that passion and for some reason have like NO white chocolate! It is kinda nuts if you ask me! So as you could imagine I was wicked happy to see this.. quickly grabbed a couple and there we were all ready to pay.. with plastic of course.. coz plastic is the way of the world.. especially when you are in another country! Then it happened.. we were unable to pay with the plastic that we had as it wasn't a certain card.. his machine only took one kind of card! Can you freaken believe that? In this day and age.. SERIOUSLY man! We considered going to find an ATM.. but didn't deem it worth it.. and if he is going to be stupid enough to not have a decent eftpos service then fuck him.. he just lost a sale. Simple really. But yeah after that we decided to call it a day and started our little journey home.

'tis the season

Indeed it is! December has struck and Christmas is upon us all. The lights are up, decorations in the street.. decorations in the home.. lights on trees & lamposts.. lights on houses.. lights in windows.. the Christmas candy.. the Christmas chaos.. there is even a special blend of Christmas coffee and I had my very first brew of it today and I must say I rather like it.. it is a good coffee.. and I shall buy it again.. next year at Christmas time!Christmas shopping is all but over.. for us that is.. for other people.. maybe not so much.. coz not everyone is as organised as I.. afterall I am Captain Awesome!

Here we even have Nemo doing his best impersonation of being a Christmas present!!

I know.. cute right? You know you want him!

Soon the Christmas baking shall begin.. and that is something that I am actually looking forward to.. nothing like a good dose of baking to make one feel useful! I will be sure to show many pictures of all the yummy things that get made.. just to make your mouth water.. if only one could eat pictures huh? I am looking forward to trying a few new recipes too.. like soft gingerbread and fruitcake.. I don't think I have ever made a fruitcake and I do like it.. but yeah.. we will see if Emma's mum still wants fruitcake.. if not then maybe I wont make it.. we shall see what happens once the orders come in..

Speaking... or well... typing of orders.. it seems Nemo is in the mood for his walk now.. I went to take him before but he seemed more interested in sleeping so I left him.. but now he is jumping at me so 'tis that time for a jolly walk!

Big Eyes!

Cat or Dog?

So tell me.. is he a cat or is he a dog?
I am finding it so hard to tell these days!!

If Nemo could talk he would totally be saying...
"eff you!" while flicking me off!!

And while we are doing photo's here is another one..

if you click this linkage that is! --->>click me!!

I do believe that the ducks have taken up a new hobby of.... ice-skating!!

So today it rained.. but at least we have hit the plus degrees and I was able to get the organic container in from the balcony.. you see it has been that cold that it has been stuck to the balcony cement block and with it being below zero for the past week or so it has been impossible to get it up.. but now its up.. and has been cleaned and the huge block of ice that was in it is now defrosting in the kitchen sink.. ahhhhh yes the joys!

Another thing about the below zero temps is that it has caused havoc with my eye/head and the other day was the worst it had been in a very long time.. I can see why it has been nicnamed the suicide headache.. thats for sure.. but now its slightly warmer so hopefully I will just go back to having the usual pain.. one can hope! I'm not overly impressed with the rain tho.. maybe it wont last long? or is that just totally wishful thinking?

What I do know is that I need to buy some decent shoes for walking in wet weather.. my guess is that is going to be another one of those impossible tasks for me.. but dang nabbit I have every right to be fussy and fuzzy if I so close to be fuzzy.. but right now I'm talking about fussy so yeah I have every right to be fussy when it is good money people spent on things.. why should I pay for something that I don't like? Actually that seems to be the case that I always end up paying for something I don't like coz there is nothing that I do like and I HAVE to actually get something.. like my phone.. I needed a new mobile and there was not a single one available or even coming out in the near future that was even close to what I wanted.. so I went with a Nokia and the deciding factor was the colour of it.. and when I get it.. you know what? It wasn't even close to being the colour that they have on the freaken website! Talk about feeling ripped off. Is everything lies these days?

Samual Goldwyn - "I'm willing to admit that I may not always be right, but I am never wrong."

Story time...

Once upon a time there was a alien superman powered vampire named Vo-El, who was out braving the cold walking her trusty sidetick Nem-El! While they were out in the below 0 temperatures, which of course would do nothing for Vo-El as she is o so powerful and no blooded.. but anyways they were out enjoying the glory it is to just walk around and mind ones own business when a car comes up behind them and a woman lowers her electric powered window and asks rather loudly in swedish if one knows where the station is.. to which Vo-El was only able to reply.. "Ok.. I don't speak swedish but..." before...

*VroooooooooooooOOOM*

off she goes with so much power that it felt like she thought that Vo-El was going to reach into the car and murder her with the english language!!
Vo-El simply gave her the big finger and said "fuck you then" and continued on the glorious walk with Nem-El.

For the record Vo-El was in fact going to give the lady directions of 'if you turn around and follow this road then you will come across the station'.. but no the lady just had to freak out.. but really was there a need to put your foot hard to the floor and speed off like Vo-El was some kind of crazed freak? It really makes you wonder what this world is coming to when people act like that.

Vo-El actually got stopped again by someone wanting to ask for directions and it went a little something like this...
Dude in car - "Excuse me" but in swedish.
Vo-El - "ok I can't reply in swedish but I might still be able to help" (as you see Vo-El thought at least this way if they still wanted to ask the question in swedish that would be ok and it is informing them that english is what Vo-El speaks)
Dude in car - "no. it is ok" and off he drove.

I guess there just is no helping some people.. maybe Vo-El should just stick to "Sorry I'm not from here" coz it would sure get the same reactions.

Humans are complex creatures.

Snow!

So it snowed just a little today.. like such a little amount that you could basically blink and miss it! lol but it was snow!! *nods* I does like the snow! Maybe not so m uch the cold that comes with it.. but hey you can't win everything and it seems I totally just can't win anything! Life aye? Gotta love it!

So I am sitting at home alone on a Saturday night.. bored out of my mind.. I was so bored that I even got down the xmas decorations.. but alas.. it is too early to put them up.. and plus we don't even have a tree! So now they are down and ready to go.. which is good in a way. Also I figured I may as well sort out the cupboard while I was getting the decorations down.. so now that is in a much less cluttered messy orderer.. it is a more organised clutter indeed. I also figured why stop there and cleaned out the 'everything' drawer.. or well by clean out.. I removed all the paper shit and put it in a plastic bag and put that in another room where I can't see it.. You see Emma likes to keep ALL bits of paper/receipts and I never feel that I can throw it away.. and it just gets put in the 'everything' drawer until I remove them and put them in a plastic bag which.. usually at some very later date.. Emma will come along and either just throw it all out coz its been so long.. or she will actually sit there and go through it.. either way I don't much care coz they don't both involve me having to sift through it! LOL and that my friend.. is a good thing!

*twiddles thumbs* well I really gots not much to say.. I have just sat here staring at the screen for about the last 20mins.. so its official.. I'm out...

but hey it snowed!

Socks!

Seriously.. I cannot believe how hard it actually is to find decent, comfortable socks at a reasonable price! All the socks that we got in america I myself.. cannot wear in shoes as they all come down past the heal and then I start to get blisters and not to mention it is wicked uncomfortable!! AND I might just mention.. a little on the chilly side too!

Which now leads me to the other problem I am having.. you see sick of not being able to wear the american socks and the old socks are well old and past their used by dates.. I opted to just go and buy some sports socks.. thinking that they will be a little thicker which would nice in these colder times.. and boy was I disappointed.. coz not only were they not even close to thick and warm.. they were uncomfy as all shyte and it seems each and every single pair has screwy toes.. and thats like one of the most important things to get right in socks.. so now I have even more socks that are stupid and quite frankly I am pretty annoyed about it. P-R-E-T-T-Y annoyed!!

Now however I just have to grin and bare it and wear socks that I don't find comfortable because it seems stupid to waste even more money on socks that are shit. Really how hard is it to make decent socks that dont cost like $20-40 a pair? coz that is just crazy money to be spending on a single pair of socks!! and I love socks.. seriously.. I always have.. they make me happy.. or well they used to that is.. until the world started making shit stupid crap asshat socks!!

On a much happier note tho.. the photo's arrived!! I guess my bitching made it happen lol On a much funnier note tho.. Emma and I saw this very strange mannequin angel in a window display.. where I come from the wings go the other way yes?

Slack!

Well it seems I have been a very slack little blogger and haven't blogged a single thing in 2 whole weeks! Shocking I am.. yes! Spanked I should be... no! You see the problem is I am feeling very un-inspired.. a few times I have sat here.. with my screen glaring at me.. fingers on the keys and nothing comes.. not even a start.. maybe its the cold weather.. maybe its just me being lazy.. whatever the reason I am now trying to rectify it..

Now let me cast my mind back to what I possibly have been up to this past couple of weeks..
Hmmm *ponders* you know what nothing really stands out other than Emma and I had our first attempt at making Tiramisu and it was actually rather nice indeed.. it was a very good joint effort.. sadly there are no pics for you to see how wonderful it was.. but it really was! We made it for Emma's mums birthday on the Saturday just gone.. along with a lemon cake which was also rather nice.. just incase there wasn't enough to go around.. and also incase the Tiramisu wasn't actually liked lol but they both went down a right treat so all was well in the world.. arrr.. I mean house.. coz at the moment nothing is right in the world!! People are really fucked. Employers are really fucked.. why is that they seem to just simply refuse to fire people who are slack & stupid? That is a topic that I think I could rant on and on and ON about.. but I won't.. coz it's early and I don't want to get myself all agro this early! lol

Things just seem to make me all agro.. it must be the season.. and my total love of xmas.. which seems to come earlier and earlier every darn year! Soon enough it will be time to put up our own decorations and no doubt Emma's mum will once again try to get us to put up xmas curtains.. I totally draw the line there!

_______ <<-see line drawn!

Emma and I have nearly completely finished the xmas shopping.. which is always nice.. just a few little things are needed and then we can wipe our hands of it.. the other weekend, Emma spent the evening wrapping pressies while I kicked back with a little bottle of wine.. it was very nice indeed. I am however, waiting on photo's to arrive.. that should have arrived last week so I can actually get started on the scrapbook for my nephews.. looks like I am gonna have to rush it once I do get them.. IF I get them.. which I hope I do otherwise I will be one mad mad kiwi in Sweden! Well I still have 13 days until I have to send the package off.. so it should be AOK! yes?

On Sunday just gone.. Emma and I made another first attempt at making Latkes! and they turned out pretty good.. as you can see frpm the pic below... yeah I know you want some of that yummy goodness!

Lily Tomlin - "The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat."

black outs by candle light!

October is out and November has well and truly begun.. and it seems to have begun with miserable, gloomy weather and black outs!

First lets start with the weather.. well it is cold and if it was a little bit colder we would actually have snow.. coz there is a mist in the air which means that every time I walk Nems we come home wet.. gross is all I have to say! I don't mind walking Nemo.. I just don't like walking him when he can get wet.. the smell of dirty wet dog is not nice to my little nose. Nemo however seems to just love getting wet.. I swear it is coz he just likes to piss me off as much as he possibly can.. which really isn't all that hard these days.. I am a moody old bitch when it comes to this time of year.. oh wait who am I kidding.. I am a moody old bitch always! lol

Ok.. now lets move on to the black out..
..Emma and I are in the kitchen cooking dinner.. having a good ole laugh and just enjoying the boring routine that is cooking.. when all of a sudden it goes all black.. Nemo cries.. as you see he is afraid of the dark.. the big wuss! Anyways.. so luckily dinner was just about ready and so all we had to do was leave it on the heat for a little longer.. it would have been wicked annoying to have only just started cooking.. which I suspect that would have been the case for many households.. there was about 500 households effected.. so they say. At least we got to eat by candle light.. how romantic!

Emma looks out the windows and sees that many people around us had been effected.. and many hadn't.. it seemed to be a mix.. like half buildings etc.. and town.. most of town was out. Our plan for the evening WAS to go and see the Bond movie.. had pre-ordered tickets in all.. so we decide to head off early to take Nems for a walk.. and check out the black out.. and more importantly see if the cinema had power.. and yep you guessed it... no power.. so no movie for Jo! I was totally looking forward to it ALL day! Maybe that was the universe was just trying to piss me off?! coz really it IS all about me! hahahaha

So anyways.. stores had to close early etc.. and trains had even been stopped.. coz they had no power.. it was total darkness in town.. it was kinda cool.. but at the same time a little freaky out walking about.. so we headed to get some candy to much on while we sat home by candle light and chatted about random crapola.. which is alway fun yes?

At 6:36pm the power came back on.. 6mins after the movie we were meant to go and see was meant to start! I guess it just wasn't meant to be.. maybe on the weekend we will take another crack at it.. we will see. All up we were without power for about 100 minutes.. the longest 100 minutes of my life! LOL na not really.. it was kinda fun though.. we should do it more often! At least the candle light thing.. it is actually rather nice sitting in candle light.. don't you agree?

Well this week so far hasn't been anything to brag about.. although I was at a belated house warming party on Friday night and I had a guy there trying to tell me that Sweden was smaller than New Zealand.. I think maybe he thought New Zealand was Australia if I am to be honest.. coz he was a bit of a dingbat and I just wanted to punch him in the nose on several occasions.. but that is a whole nother story which I wont get into.. but yeah.. he was amusing for a small part of the night but pissed me off more than anything.. I don't like people trying to tell me I am wrong when I damn well know that I am right.. and I am more often right than wrong.. you see I don't like to make a dick of myself.. so I try to get all my facts together before I open my big mouth.. maybe more people should be like that and then I wouldn't have to deal with annoying people.. but I think that is way tooo much to ask..
For those who don't know.. according to Wikipedia...
New Zealand has a little over 4.2 million peoples & an area total of 268,680 km²
Sweden has a little over 9.2 million peoples & an area total of 449,964 km²

Cold Times.

omg! So this morning when it is time to walk the little Nems.. it was like... -1! (or well one website said -2 & another said -0.5.. so I went somewhere inbetween coz I figured that would be about right... ya know?) I know! Currently it has warmed up a little and is sitting at about 2! OOo so toasty yes? umm no. Luckily however I have a spunky new very warm winter jacket so I don't totally freeze my tush off and I think it is about time I crack out the thermals. The forcast says that it is going to snow tonight but I totally don't believe it.. I however would like to have a little snow coz it is so pretty.

Saturday is actually forcast to be cold-ER.. at -4 with a high of 0! I know.. how jealous are you right now? but yeah I dare say that will change between now and Saturday.. coz really weather forcasts are total poo.. and they don't even get it right when its real time lol.

Tomorrow is halloween.. so for halloween.. Nemo is going dress up as an m&m (not really) and go in to work with Emma and hopefully he will bring home loads of candy from all the Axis fans! haha or well I am just happy to have a morning to myself without the grumpy growly lad.. possibly a sleep in too.. we shall see how the morning plans out. He will just be a happy chappy coz he gets to ride on the train and will get loads of pats from his Axis fans.

Well that is about all I gots to say so I will leave it there and go and umm.. make a coffee

Dark Times.

Darker times are ahead.. indeedy doody they sure are.. daylight savings has ended and it is rather sad.. terribly sad.. it means that most of my walks will be done in darkness and if not total darkness then then onset of darkness. Gloomy as! It sure as heck doesn't make me want to go out walking.. but one does what one needs to do.. plus Nemo would be an even sadder sack if he didn't get to go for walks and I don't think I could handle a sadder Nemo.. this one is bad enough. Plus I have to deal with me and that is hard enough.

I fed the ducks yesterday and it was a freaken frenzy.. it was almost like they were starving or something.. so maybe I will make them some more bread tomorrow. I like feeding the ducks.. it is kind of peaceful and everyone needs a little peace in this crazy world where people do fucked up shit and get their arms sucked into toilets on trains.

Umm so lets see.. what have I been up to? Not a freaken lot.. altho I did finally get to see Kung Fu Panda and it had a few funny moments.. so now I just gotta wait for WALL•E and will be good in the world lol Actually you know what.. that is about all I got.. I have been up to pretty much nothing.. no excitement here. Sad? Yep!

Tai Lung: You... you're just a big... fat... panda!
Po: I'm not a big fat panda. I'm *the* big fat panda.

Meh!

Wow what a totally boring and uneventful week I have had. Nothing even remotely close to fun happened to me.. or even for me.. and I found myself wondering when the freak it would end coz boy o boy has it dragged.. actually speaking of boys.. something funny did happen..

I was walking down the stairs of my building and I noticed the morons.. in one of the apartments that I can't stand.. had opened the door a little and he obviously had heard me coming down and just as I was about to step in front of his door he went to swing it open right into me.. but I of course was too quick and responded by slamming the door shut back on him. Yes.. GO me! *pats self on back* and then I continued on my merry little way out the door to go and meet up with Emma at the station. I really REALLY hate my neighbours. They are inconsiderate asshats.

Now moving on from asshats.. to crazy nerds.. thats not really that big of a jump is it? lol Anyways... this happened in Boston at the Museum of Science and it was actually pretty funny.. but maybe.. just maybe one would have to have been there to really find it funny.. either way I am just gonna ramble on about it now coz a) I can and b) I can and c) I have nothing more important to say so this will fill in the gap.

Ok.. moving onto the actual story.. well there Emma and I are at the Museum of Science in the geeky computer area.. and Emma spies this table where you design your own programme to make a little fugly robot thingo move (it looked like a vacuum cleaner head) and well.. she was doing her thing.. there wasn't exactly instructions so she just started putting the different blocks together to make it do what she wanted to do.. it was a bit weird actually.. and I had no idea what she was doing coz quite frankly I wasn't paying attention.. I was paying attention to the little robot dog.. but anyways.. Emma asked me to do something and I wasn't so sure what she was asking me to do and well.. the crazy nerd lady overheard our discussion and took that as her queue to jump on in.. and jump on in she did.. she went into this over detailed explanation of what you are meant to do etc and what each of the blocks did etc.. and then when she finished she said all chuffed like "now you can tell people you made a programme" or well something to that effect anyways and Emma was like.. "uh yeah.. I kinda do that in my everyday life as its my job" or something to that effect.. hey give me a break it was how many weeks ago? and then crazy nerd lady was like.. "oh not so exciting then.. maybe you can say that you programmed a robot" or something to that effect.. but this isn't exactly the reason why she was crazy.. the reason why she was crazy coz then she was following us around.. trying to find another opening to talk to us again and it was all very creepy and made me just wanna get the freak outta there!! and we did and moved onto another section at the museum. Well there you have it.. the end of yet another post... sad yes? lol

Quentin Crisp - "If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style."

Gosh, he is cute!

Now what has been happening in this past week you wonder.. well I wonder that too.. I really do! I prolly had heaps of funny shit to say but really I have been slack and now I can't even remember the half of it.. what can I say I am getting old.. and actually now Emma is as old as me.. for at least the next 2 months anyways.

Saturday we had a birthday bash for Emma and I made a couple of yummo cheesecakes and Emma and I made our first attempt at making sandwich cake and it was a success.. which was nice.. maybe we will make it again. It was a good afternoon but by the end of it, I was well and truly knackered. I think Nemo was the happiest of all.. maybe he even thought everyone was there just for him.. who knows what goes through that dogs mind.. he is one of a kind.. as I just said to Emma coz currently he is all pissy at me for opting to do dishes instead of curling up on the couch with him.. hey a housewife has to do what a housewife has to do! & I am a housewife! hahaha

Lately I have been having the weirdest dreams of all the land.. seriously. The very very weirdest had to be the one I had when I was having a little snooze with Nemo on Friday morning.. there we were curled up all nice on the couch.. so nice that I dozed off instead off watching my show.. but then I woke up coz I had a crazy dream.. I actually woke up all wtf like.. wondering what was happening.. so it went a little like this.. there was a big bird with a kitten on its back and they were chasing butterflies.. yes.. you read that all correctly.. how insane is that dream? I have to wonder what it means.. but then do I really wanna know?Well that is about all I gots so I'm leaving you with this pic of Nemo... and how big does his mouth look? He just loves to have paper in his mouth.. and Emma's socks.. and gloves.. like I said one of a kind. Gosh, he is cute!

Threadless Poop!

"threadless" gets sung out opera style as I walk past a girl. Emma and I look at one another and just crack up.. americas are a bit weird! But in saying that it was nice to have one of my tees noticed as I can't really see it happening in Sweden because a) people just are not that open and b) I doubt many people in Sweden would shop at threadless so they wont exactly know the tees to be able to sing out opera style and c) well I can't think of a c so lets just leave it there.

The next day.. Emma and I head into Cheers to have a spot of lunch.. I actually got to have fish 'n chips.. it was nice but it wasn't the same as having it as takeaway from an actual fish 'n chip store ya know.. there is just something about ripping into a package of fish 'n chips and munching away on them using nothing but ya hands.. but it was the first lot of fish 'n chips I had had since like 2005 and it was enjoyable so I ain't complaining. Anyways though.. moving back to what I was originally going to say.. we head into Cheers and the girly who greets you to take you to your table stumbles out the question "threadless?" and we are all like "yeah" (as in like yeah we rock.. coz you see both of us were wearing threadless tees today) and she was like "cool" and then showed us to our table.. we sat.. we ordered.. we ate.. we paid.. we left! easy as that! lol

So it seems that my tees were noticed a fair bit in lamerica.. which is kinda cool and heck lets just say I'm famous! or not.. its up to you! I just love having wicked tees.. don't you? The best thing about tees is that you don't have to iron them.. unless you are wicked anal.. which I am not.. some people beg to differ tho and to them I give you the big finger.. and I don't mean the kit kat!

Ok, now moving onto the Poop part of the post.. I am sure you are wondering.. coz "Threadless Poop" is totally an awesome blog title right? right! but yeah so far there has been no poop talk.. well my friends this is where it comes in.. the poop talk..
So Emma and I have not long arrived in Boston and we are having a gander at the State House.. and I notice this woman walking a little oddly and slowly across the road.. giving oncoming traffic evil glares as they gave her wtf looks. It is not long before we too are across the road and walking behind this lady and just as I am about to say it looks like shes done something in her pants.. both Emma and I at pretty much the same time catch a wiff of the poopy stink and stink it sure was! We were walking the same way as her.. which felt like it was never going to end.. for ages!! I know poop stinks in general but man I would of hated to have been in a toilet having to smell it concentrated like that coz if it was that potent out in the fresh morning air.. it would have been 100x worse actually inside in a small area! The oddest part was though.. she didn't exactly look like the sort of person who would poop themselves but yeah I guess accidents happen and well.
Also we didn't actually realise until we got home.. actually I didn't even realise at all until Emma told me (which actually is the only reason I remembered poop lady.. so thanks Emma!) that we managed to get a photo of her outside the State House.. she is very small but she is the lady in the red top and black pants, across the road in the middle of THIS pic. The pic was actually taken before we even realised she was poop lady... which makes it even funnier and kinda awesome! lol

Moving from poop to toilet cleaner now.. I totally don't recommend citus tic tacs.. they totally taste like toilet cleaner.. totally.. and we have another 5 little packs of them! Anyone wanna try? hahahah