Young Shoe Lover

Peter took this picture when we were in Siena, Italy, a couple of weekends ago. The little girl didn't want to leave her seat* and she was pointing to a specific pair of shoes that she wanted. Her mum tried to lure her away but she had her eyes set on those shoes! Not even two years old and already a shoe fan! Or perhaps it's just two-year-old stubborness but I like to think the former! :)

* Eventually they left without buying any shoes .

Show & Tell: 5 O'Clock

This week's Friday theme is 5 o'clock. When I read Victoria's choice of topic for 20 June I immediately thought of: leaving work at 5 pm. I'm one of the lucky ones working 9-5; actually only 7 hours a day as my working day includes a one hour lunch break (usually that's not the case in Sweden). And due to some access restrictions in my particular part of the building I have to keep these hours. I can come in at 8 or 8.30 but I rarely work beyond 6 pm because if I do I need to find a colleague with higher security clearance who can stay with me.

I'm actually most productive in the afternoon but at 4pm I start looking at my watch, or the work desktop clock. At 4.30 pm I start "closing up the shop", clearing my desk a little bit and making neat piles of paper instead of the regular 9-5 chaos, checking if I have done what really needs to be out of the way that particular day. Then I go to the kitchen and put all the glasses and cups that have some way accumulated on my desk during the day in the dishwasher. Peter usually calls and we talk about what we're having for dinner and who will stop by the food store on the way home, or where we're meeting if we're doing something else after work. I only have a 15-minute walk from work to home, so most days if I'm not doing anything particular after work I will go home and have a snack and watch some sitcoms and surf the Internet until Peter comes back around 6 pm. I like this time of the day, winding down after work, having some me- time before it's time to cook dinner and do whatever needs to be done that day in terms of chores - laundry, ironing, hoovering or what have you .

Since I don't start work until 9 and I live only 15 minutes from work I don't need to get up until 7.15 or 7.30, which means that I'm very rarely up at 5 am. Sometimes I wake up around 5, especially this time a year when it hardly ever gets dark in Sweden, but I go back to sleep with a smile - another two hours of sleep, yes!

This feels like a very boring post but maybe 5 o'clock isn't very exciting! :)

List Fun

I always enjoy a good list and I haven't done one for a while so...

When did you get up today? The alarm went off at 07.25 and I usually don't linger for more than a few minutes

Diamonds or pearls? Both (conflict-free of course), but have neither if we talk about the real stuff

Last film you saw at the cinema? "Indiana Jones"

Favourite TV show? Used to be "Friends" but now it is "How I Met Your Mother" if we stick with the same category

What did you have for breakfast? Two pieces of bread with messmör, a cup of tea and some fruit juice

What is your middle name? Elisabet

Your favourite food? Pecorino cheese if that counts as food (I mean, it's not a meal)

What food don't you like? I like most things but I'm not too fond of cream based sauces

What is your favourite CD at the moment? Hardly listen to albums these days; I like to shuffle my iPod

What car do you drive? A Golf that we share with Peter's sister and her boyfriend although over the summer we have his parents old BMW. We were going to keep it but now we're thinking of selling both and buying a new less thirsty car

What is your favourite sandwich? Anything with pecorino cheese

What human characteristic do you simply not stand? Cynicism

What are your favourite clothes? I guess I have to say shoes considering my recent post

If you could go anywhere you wanted, where would you go? China (Beijing and the Great Wall) and New Zealand (and lots of other places!)

Favorite clothing brand? None in particular

Where do you want to retire? In a cosy house in the Swedish archipelago but not too far from the city. And apartments in New York and London and perhaps another little place somewhere hot and beautiful, in Africa perhaps. Gosh, I wish I will be that rich when I retire that I can actually live in all these places. Okay, I'm going out to buy a lottery ticket! ;)

Favourite time of the day? Either the morning when I can get ready for work in my own time or just after having got back from work and relaxing in front of the TV (or on the balcony this time of the year) before starting dinner

Where are you born? Södertälje, Sweden

What is your favourite sport to watch? Football (watching France-Italy in the Euro Cup as we speak)

Coca Cola eller Pepsi? Coke Zero, but I drink very little soda

Football or ice hockey? Football

Are you a morning person or a night owl? I'm both as long as I go to bed at a rather decent hour. Or not in the same 24 hours, as Skolfröken said

Pedicure or manicure? Pedicure. I like to get a foot massage and have my feet taken care of!

Any exciting news you can tell us? Nope, I'm afraid not, except that my work beat the Swedish Foreign Ministry at football today with the rocking results 14-4 (or maybe it was 12-4?). Photo evidence below

What did you want to be when you were little? Lawyer

Best childhood memory? Oh, there are so many! Skolfröken wrote something about recording tapes and that made me think of a tape I made when I was around 7 years old. I sing songs and talk about my doll and how I had had a fight with my then best friend Elisabeth. I still have the tape somewhere (maybe I should digitalise it actually)

Been to Africa? Yes, South Africa last December

Ever been in a car accident? Just a very small incident in the US when someone ran into the side of us. A girl ran into the back of us in Italy last weekend as well actually but the car didn't get a scratch and no body got hurt

Favourite day of the week? Friday

Favourite flowers? Red roses or lavender

Favourite fastfood restaurant? One of the thai places nearby

Do you own a bike? Yes, my grandmother's old one from the early 1980s. The tyres need air and it needs a good cleaning though

Who was your latest e-mail from? A good friend, Frida, asking when we should get all the girls together this summer

Bedtime? Usually around 22.30-23.00 but sometimes after 23.00 which makes me cranky

Last person you shared a dinner with? Peter

What are you doing right now? Blogging and watching football. Wondering if this list ever ends...

Favourite colour? Yellow and pink this summer

How many tatoos? None, and that will remain the case

Our team that beat the crap out of the Swedish MFA today! Granted we lost the last two years but now the trophy is back with us! I should have taken some photos during the match but first it rained and later I was too busy playing and this is even after most people had already taken off their shirts. We went to the pub afterwards so I forgot to stretch which doesn't bode well for tomorrow. In addition I have a very swollen bruise on my leg (didn't wear any shinguards), but it was fun!!!

Sad Day for the Jazz World

Very sad news today. Esbjörn Svensson, the lead in the Swedish jazz band EST (Esbjörn Svensson Trio) died yesterday in diving accident, age 44. I went to see them in concert five-six years ago and have enjoyed their music since. It's so sad that their won't be anymore of Esbjörn's excellent piano playing, and obviously, my thoughts are with his family a day like this.

Show & Tell: View

Thought I'd show you some views from Peter and my trip to Italy with my parents last weekend.

View from Il Duomo di Firenze (Florence Cathedral).

View from inside the dome.

Trying to get a glimpse of the oak trees on top of the Guinigi Tower, Lucca's most famous landmark.

View from the Leaning Tower of Pisa - people were really obeying the "keep off the grass" signs!

My parents, sitting by the fountain and trying to take a picture of Peter and me up in the tower.

The Lisbon Treaty and the Irish

Please Ireland, vote yes today! Since you're the only ones having a referendum on ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, you're holding its future in your hands! The EU cannot spend another four years on a new treaty (we all remember what happened with the Nice Treaty)!

I have written about the benefits of the EU several times before, for example here, here, here, here, here and here.

Updated: an older post specifically on the EU constitution (that has now been renegotiated into the Lisbon Treaty).

Best Right Now!

Fantastic Swedish commercial running right now! It's in Swedish but with English subtitles.

Show & Tell: Light

This month's Show & Tell themes come from Sunny Swede. Her choice of topics are:

6 June: Light (from ljus, as in illumination, daylight, bright, lightly coloured, etc.)
13 June: View (the Swedish word utsikt could also mean forecast or prospect/chance)
20 June: 5 o'clock
27 June: Cooking

Anyone is welcome to join the gang!

My take on this week's theme, light, is to show you the beautiful sunset I documented while in the Swedish eastcoast town Oskarshamn at the end of March. It was just before 6 am in the morning and so beautiful to watch it from my hotel room overlooking the Baltic Sea.

The Books Post

This evening I attended a book reading event at Kulturhuset in Stockholm (it was actually in the evening sun on the roof terrace - well done organisers!) and came back with a few reading tips for the summer. The theme of this week (I think it will be a weekly or monthly thing over the summer) was Swedish debut authors. Those that particularly struck my interest were:

• "Hej Dolly" by Amanda Svensson
• "Paris-Dakar", a series of novels by Jens Liljestrand
• "Picasso valde också Kristinehamn" (Picasso also chose Kristinehamn) by Marcus Grahn

I have written about books several times before. Previous posts labelled "books" (there might be more since I blogged before labelling was introduced and I haven't had the time to go through all old posts for labelling purposes yet):

• (unrelated to my reading but) about some new book about Ikea
• a book list from spring 2007
• five weird books I've read
• my "book nerd" level
• my book list from a few weeks ago

Those of you who use Facebook may be familiar with iRead and book recommendations. It lets you click either "I like it" or "I don't like it" and whether you have read it or not. They give you 25 recommendations at a time but I will just treat you to the 10 first ones. Today they are recommending me the following books:

• "The History of Love" by Nicole Krauss - Haven't read it but think I would like it
• "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson - Yes! A favourite! Read it and loves it"
• Joke" by Milan Kundera - Haven't read it but I have read his classic book and would probably like this one too
• "The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxfod Dictionary" by Simon Winchester - Read it! Excellent!
• "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" by Jared Diamond - Another favourite!
• "Death in Venice" by Michael Henry Heim - Haven't read it and not that interested
• "Ett öga rött" by Jonas Hassen Khemiri - Haven't read it yet but want to (have read his second book "Montecore")
• "The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure" by Hans Magnus Enzensberger - Sounds interesting, want to read it
• "Turbulent Souls: A Catholic Son's Return to His Jewish Family" - No, doesn't strike my interest
• "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides - Haven't read it and don't feel like it

Show & Tell: Shoes & Books

FINALLY! Time for my shoes blog. I LOVE shoes and I have a LOT of them so I had to post about them at some point!


I have purchased these really useful transparent shoe boxes from Inreda.com for my dressier shoes that I keep in my bedroom closet. Earlier they were just all over the place with some bags and purses thrown into the mix. The flip flops on the left are a new purchase - I always get blistards between my toes from flip flops but I'm hoping these softer ones will be different. The stripey Muji slippers on the right are a favourite.

This is my less organised shoes drawer in our hallway. I should say that these are my spring and summer shoes; my winter shoes are already tucked away in the basement.

Some more from the shoe shelf by the door. The shoes still on the shelf are Peter's - he doesn't have as many shoes as I do but probably 1/3 or even half of my collection and thus way more than the average man.

A recent purpose, well, actually a year ago in Hong Kong but I didn't get around to wearing them last summer. They are a bit hard and as I always get blistards I need to prepare my feet with plasters and Compeed before I'm ready to break them in.

Another recent purchase, this time from South Africa. It was summer when we were there in December but once back home in Sweden I had to put them away for a few months.

This is turning into an international shoe shopping post! I bought these slipper like shoes (with hard soles) in Hong Kong as well, but wore them quite a lot last summer. Especially since last summer wasn't that great and I often needed warmer shoes than sandals.

BOOKS - coming soon! :)