Lentil Sprouts!

The end is nigh! Or well.. March anyways hahaha

However with the end of March.. comes the start of daylight savings. Our clocks went forward an hour and made for quite a short Sunday.. but that was ok, coz we didn't do much with our Sunday.. altho it is always amusing to watch Emma iron... which actually seems to freak Nemo out any time he sees her doing anything that isn't normal.. by that I mean, isn't normal for her to be doing.

Of all tho, I think the best thing to come out of Sunday was this photo..

 Yes I am pure awesomesauce!

Actually.. come to think of it something else awesome came out of Sunday.. and that was *drum role* Sketti & Eggs on Toast! Wooooot! Still doesn't quite taste as good if I actually made it in New Zealand.. or even Australia for that matter.. damn Brits adding extra sugar to everything! It was still very good tho and just what the doctor ordered for a little home sickness.

And something not so awesome from yesterday.. the bloody curry we had. It was waaaaay too hot for this big mouth! I couldn't even eat it.. it was so hot that it tasted of nothing and it felt like my mouth was melting. I made bacon and eggs instead. Emma took the leftovers for lunch. She is She-Ra after all and can handle such things.

However, there was some amusement while eating said bowl of heat.. and that was the fact that I had decided to try my hands.. at chop sticks. It certainly is a good way to slow down your eating.

Moving backwards to Saturday.. while we were at the hairdressers getting all snazzied up! There was a little boy there, who was o so cute! In his little jeans and cardy and bright bright bright blue eyes. He certainly was a good source of entertainment.. watching him get his mum to chase him off over the place.. I especially liked it when he felt the need to taste test the stools base. Bless. I do love kids.. when you can give them back at the end of the day.

As of Saturday, Emma decided she wanted to grow some sprouts.. she bought 2 little container thingos and a couple of packets of seeds. Once we got home however.. she quickly discovered that she had got the wrong type of seeds for those particular containers.. I can't blame her tho, I think anyone would have done the same thing coz they had those seeds right by those containers and there were no other containers to be seen.. anyways we ended up going to the plant store and buying the correcto container and all was well. Emma got the process started and she was washing the seeds.. and I mosey on up and say.. "hey! they look just like lentils." to which Emma responded with "that's coz they are, its a lentil mix" and at that very moment I felt as daft as they come.. but really.. how was I supposed to know right? I didn't read any packets! lol that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I am looking forward to trying these lentil sprouts.. one of these weeks.

Missing NZ.

It has.. over the last couple of days.. come to my attention that I am feeling a little bit homesick for New Zealand. I can blame Em.. for her showing me a website outlining all the kiwi goodies I haven't had in a looong looong time. Like Cheezels, Burger Rings, Twisties and Rashuns! I would kill for some Rashuns right now! There were also many other things too.. lollies, cookies, chocolate.. I partly blame Whittakers for the chocolate.. I recently started following them on twitter and it is there that I noticed that they now do mini slabs! MINI! I love all things mini! bitesize! It is my biggest weakness. So that of course got me thinking of Peanut Slabs and the like.. and well it just got me thinking of NZ again. Why o why do you have to be SO far away NZ? Why can't you just be a hop, skip and a jump for little ole me to pop over and enjoy some kiwi goodness.. the kiwi sun, the kiwi grass.. the kiwi rain.. the Welly wind.. the kiwi attitude.. and of course the accent. I watch Almighty Johnsons and get a little kiwi accent goodness but it just doesn't seem to be quite enough..

I do have a kiwi beer in my fridge currently.. so I think I might just have to enjoy it over the weekend. Although I do wish that the weather was a little nicer.. beer is always that much nicer when the sun is out.. I could get lucky and the sun might show up again for the weekend.. fingers crossed.

The sun however, has been our for the past few days.. it has been gorgeous! The temps have even been in the double digits! Not high double digits but when you have been used to cold cold.. the low doubles are heavenly! Even Nemo has enjoyed the sun as it beams in the kitchen window and he parks up on the kitchen floor enjoying it. Times are lighter too.. which is making for a much happier Jo.. soon enough summer shall be upon us and it will be grand. I really do enjoy a Swedish summer.. when it is a nice summer and not a testy summer.. yes I'm looking at you Summer2010!

Speaking of summer.. bring on EuroTrip2011! Although a part of me wishes it was MoveBackToAus2013.

More New!

So early hours this morning, Em and I got up to purchase an iPad 2. By early I mean midnight.. and then after sitting there for an hour refreshing the page we discover that they wont go on sale for another hour! Gah! So we wait out the hour.. and then as soon as the 2am hits.. we do what is needed to secure an iPad.. only to have our hopes dashed by a system that was overloaded and wouldn't process the damn thing! So after 20ish mins.. I sent Em back to bed.. afterall she had to be up for a hard Friday at work and I sat there clicking and entering what was required when it was required.. wanting to bang my head against a brick wall. Then just after 3am.. it worked! Happy happy joy joy! but not for long.. coz of course with an overloaded system you just had to know something was going to go terribly wrong.. and indeed it did.. the transaction went through.. twice. Damn you Apple! Damn you to all heck.

And then I guess it had done it to other people also coz the part of the system that allows you to 'correct' things yourself was down. So, Em then had to email and then we finally headed back to bed.. with only a couple of hours before we actually had to get up again to actually start our day.. good times! 

Once up, we checked the site again and it was all working normally and we were able to fix things up and now we just have to wait for the refund.

Of course our spending didn't stop there! Hell no! We gotta spunk things up you see.. so we headed to GelaSkins and purchased a spunk skin for the iPad and also the netbook.. and also while we were there we picked up a couple more skins for the iPhone along with the trusty GelaScreens.. would rather scratch those than my beautiful touch screen! Am I right?

So now all we have to do is sit back and wait for all the goodness to arrive! I do hate waiting. But I do love getting new stuff! Who doesn't right?

New Stuffs!

Wooooooot!! Getting new stuff is ace!

Yesterday, the little Lenovo ideapad S10-3 netbook we ordered online on the weekend arrived!

Today.. I write my first blog from the little sucker! 

It is soo cute! It is taking a little getting used to a new layout of a keyboard however and coz it is a Swedish keyboard I am not quite used to the ? being so far away and I keep doing _ instead lol

Fun times! and not to mention always hitting the shift key instead of the enter key.. which is getting real old and annoying actually lol mainly coz I don't realise until I have hit it a few times and gone wtf in me head! sometimes out loud.. and sometimes Emma even has to tell me..

When using windows.. its way slow and makes you wanna pull your hair out, when you load an application but we.. by we, I mean Emma.. will put linux on it. Good times. Sometimes I do love being with a geek!

It's so little! Bitesize! Love it!

I very much like my new toy and I know Emma loves it.. she spent more time on it last night than I did! Now to head over and check out Gelaskins to see if I can get a funky skin for it!

5 Years.

So there we have it.. 

5 years ago yesterday, I left Melbourne. Em and I, sat in the airport bar and had a beer with John and Chris before embarking on the most horrible flight of my life.. Poor Emma. I'm sorry. Here's hoping I do better on the trip 'home' yeah? ;) 

5 years ago today, I arrived in Hässleholm. Looking out the window at all the snow.. I'm sure Emma really enjoyed my face turning into one of a little kids at the sight of all the snow. I was wide eyed and bushy tailed! 

It is kinda hard to believe I have been here this long.. life really has a funny way of working out. Also, it's funny to think about how 5 years ago it was snowing at this time.. but today.. there isn't any.. I swear Sweden was just trying to be nice and not make me wait for my first snow fall! How nice right? It was lulling me into a false sense of it's niceness! hehehe

Here's me in the snow.. 5 years ago. (it was actually taken on the 27th.. so not quite 5 years but close enough right?)

Yes.. I am wearing jandals! AND I still wear those same jandals.. sometimes. lol

Speaking of weather.. it hasn't been too bad as of late. We had a few frosty mornings which nearly had me slipping on my ass.. but I managed to stay on my feet.. that is despite Nemo's best efforts to pull  me down! He can be such a little bastard.. but an extremely loveable one! I am really looking forward to the summer.. and taking in some warmth. Also.. I'm totally looking forward to the European adventure! 61 days until we head off onto the open road! Ok, to start with it will be open train tracks and the air.. but then we really kick into the open road! and no more accidents Georg! If anyone has any spare cotton wool.. can they please send it Georg's way!

I feel like baking today.. but I am unsure what I should bake. 

Emma complained the other day that I haven't baked enough lately.. shame on me!

I think I might just go and take a gander at foodgawker.. and see if anything jumps out and gives me any ideas..

New Brushes!

The weather for the past few days has been beautiful! Blue skies and just pure wonderful! However it seems with the blue skies at this time of year.. we get the really lovely chill that comes with.. which really does my head in, especially after having a day where it was PLUS 8! Yes that's right.. +8. This morning however it was -7.. not cool! 

What have I been up to as of late.. lets see.. there was some baking, maple cookies to be exact! Om Nom Nom! So very good.. and I only screwed up the cookie scoop once over the 4 trays of cookies! Go me!

Nemo got a buzz cut! and now his winter jacket swims on him.. but at least he is all spunky.. or well a different kind of spunky coz I do enjoy his shaggy look.. but I really do love his colouring when he is all short.. its all win win really! Altho Nemo didn't think so when he was getting trimmed.. or when he was getting bathed.. or when his paw pads were getting tarred (but not feathered!) and cute little sockies here put on! Adorable! Here's an old photo of Nem's in his socks![clickme]

We went to IKEA! I love a good day out there.. we went by train too.. which is WAY faster than going by car.. crazy as! I much prefer going by train now.. but going by train means no big purchases. We came home with 3 paper bags of 'small' purchases.. one particular item has a little funny story to tag along and it went a little something like this...

Jo trying to decide what colour dishwashing brush she wanted.. blue or green.. it really is a hard choice right? Emma responds with the option of just buying both! *gasp* omg so excitement! and so I chuck in the 2 brushes to the carry bag and Emma pipes up and states "see.. you do get stuff!" and I am sure you can imagine my face after.. and then of course the laughing coz it was pretty darn funny!

We shopped and looked around.. then went back through the store for some lunch.. meatballs FTW! & then some coffee and cake too.. cheap eats FTW! Then on the way out, after paying for everything and feeling stuffed.. we of course had to have a little soft serve.. you can't go to IKEA and not have a soft serve! Seriously.. rain, snow or shine.. I'm eating soft serve when we go there. lol

And speaking of buying stuff.. Emma got something new too.. not from IKEA, or well she got many things from IKEA but this was something from a camera store.. a nice new little camera.. which is pretty nifty.. here a few of the photos she has taken.. and yes don't I make an awesome model? LOL

Ok.. so the camera is apparently 'ours' but we all know Em is the master photographer! And for anyone interested to know what kind of camera.. Canon Powershot S95 All in all tho, I have had a lovely few days with Emma home, even if she was a bit sickly snotty!

Macaron Tasting!

Last night.. Em and I broke out the taste buds and gave the macarons a try.. 

Both of us have never had them before, so it was a fully new experience, they always look so enticing and kinda pretty!

Orange - not too bad, tasted kinda candy like but I didn't mind it.. which is saying something coz I'm not big on orange flavoured things

Pistachio- rather marzipan-y, not my fave at all.. I've never been huge on marzipan but Em is only just realising how much like marzipan pistachio actually is.. it has been rather amusing!

Coffee - nice but nothing special, not strong but not too weak either.. if that makes sense?

Raspberry - actually quite bland. Raspberry should have an awesome hit of flavour but that was simply meh. Sadly.

Lemon - it was ok, I prefer my lemon.. again with a bit more kick.. punch.. hit.

Chocolate - was kinda like a cheap chocolate. That is really all I can say about it.

Verdict - just meh, don't think it was worth the 60sek (10sek each)

Flavours could have been a little more there and maybe a touch more of the buttercream filling? They seemed really really dry. I've never had them before so they could be how they are meant to be.. which then leaves me with the conclusion that I don't really desire to have them again.  I might just skip trying these in Paris and spend the mula on snails!
Must say tho, I do love the lightness of these little fluckers.. however it is so hard to go halves coz they crumble, but in saying that it made the experience that much more fun!

They left a bit of a nasty after taste for me too.. which was a bit of a bummer.

Maybe Em and I will have to try our hands at making our own..