Pregnant Memories

My friend Malin's family photo shoot reminded me that I haven't shown you the results of my "modelling" when I was pregnant with Isolde. I thought it was a fun thing to do at the time and I'm sure I will be happy to have these photos in the future, but when I look at them now I feel a bit silly... But at least they don't look like THESE! Anyway, here are my favourites. I was in week 36+1 when they were taken.




The photos were taken by Lina & Linda.

Show & Tell: End-Year Check

Since the end of the year is approaching Erica has included a recurring Show & Tell topic, the six-month review. I thought I'd include photos I haven't already shown.

July

July was very much dominated by the World Cup - we watched the final outdoors on a big screen in Peter's friend Kaveh's backyard. We also did a memorable UK roadtrip in July but I've shown more than plenty of those photos!

August

In between visiting the UK and France (Nice) we attended Wera's name giving ceremony - here she is with parents Åsa and Rikard. I managed the feat of taking lots of wonderful photos with our SLR camera and the zoom lens before discovering I had forgotten to put in the memory stick. Luckily I had brought the small digital camera as well.

September

On an autumn walk at the country house we made a not so successful attempt to take some artistic belly shots :)


October

Mum and I went to Copenhagen for a weekend


November

Our wedding was the event of the month of course!


December

Thanks my Secret Santa Katarina for your Christmas present! I had to open it right away of course! A hat, socks, mittens, towel and cool shoes for Belly Dancer!

An October Weekend in Copenhagen

I remembered that I haven't blogged about my weekend in Copenhagen with my mum! So here goes!

We stayed at Guldsmeden Carlton Hotel. Guldsmeden is a small chain of designer hotels with a sustainable and fair trade concept. Carlton is the cheapest of their three hotels in Copenhagen but it was good enough for us! The organic breakfast was delicious!

Our first day, Saturday, was spent shopping (as the shops are closed on Sundays in Denmark), and on our way we passed one (the?) of Copenhagen's most famous landmark, Tivoli


Pink Ribbon breast cancer awareness event in the City Hall Square


The Royal Café where we had Danish smørrebrød, "smushi". I really liked the interior!


Yummy!


Sunday our feet were still tired from all the walking (and shopping, or window-shopping really as we only bought one thing, a dress from Sand for me) the day before so we hopped on a tourist bus. One of the first sites we passed was Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, the Museum of ancient and modern art, founded by the famous brewer.


Not all of Copenhagen is glamorous


Cute allotments, including a small "mosque" (though some American tourists on the bus exclaimed "look at how small those houses are!" and probably thought poor Danes live there permanently)


View of the Royal Palace, Amalienborg on an overcast morning


Christiania, freetown and self-proclaimed autonomous neighbourhood. We just passed by this time but next time I want to go in.


The spiral church tower of the Church of Our Saviour (Vor Frelsers Kirke), in the Christianshavn district.


City Hall


National Gallery of Denmark where we visited the domestic gallery (not the Bob Dylan exhibition though)


My mum posing in Nyhavn, with its colourful 17th century houses


Yours truly posing from another spot in Nyhavn :)


Mermaids, boats and restaurants


Beautiful old door


Kongens nytorv, the King's New Square (new as in 17th century), with a statue of Christian V, the Royal Danish Theatre, the famous shopping centre Magasin, among other things


Our third day, Monday, was another sunny day and we walked around the city until we had to head to the airport after lunch. On our walk we stumbled upon the Swedish Embassy.


Mum down by the waterfront by Amalienborg






The Opera House


Mixed waterfront pictures, including the marina near the Little Mermaid, St Alban's Anglican Church and the Gefion Fountain


The Little Mermaid had travelled to the world exhibition in Shanghai. We knew about it already so we were taken by surprise and disappointment.


While waiting for the hop on-hop off bus to take us back to the hotel we got to witness a model photo shoot


Finishing off with a beautiful water view!

Show & Tell: Up and Down

Friday theme as a Sunday theme this week (and I never got around to doing last week's theme...). Musikanta calls the shots this month and her second theme is Up and Down. This week has been a bit up and down in many ways. I have a stubborn cold, which won't go away and have now added to the repertoire with a chesty cough, probably because I didn't rest as I should have done last week but I was feeling well enough to go to work and we had so many things in the evenings anyway (concert - laundry - antenatal class - breathing class) that I could just as well go to work too (but tomorrow I probably do need to stay home and go to the doctor if I'm not feeling better). The week was also a bit up and down in terms of emotions. Friday was my grandmother's (who passed away a couple of weeks ago) funeral, a sad occasion of course, and Saturday we celebrated my brother's 30th birthday with the same group of extended family, naturally a much happier time.

But enough about that illness and sorrow! I thought I'd illustrate this week's theme with pictures from Peter's flying lesson a few weeks ago. Sorry for the number of photos but I took a lot from my backseat location and had difficulties picking the best ones :) I recommend you to look out for the ones of the centre of Stockholm (including for example the Royal Palace and Gröna Lund) and of our home (click on the photos for bigger versions)!

After 20 minutes of theory, the instructor gave a more practical demonstration of the plane

Peter takes his seat - a bit nervous but happy!

Lots of instruments to run through!

Time to take off!


And lift-off!


First views are of Bromma airport and not terribly exciting


Better views


Peter does well keeping us in the air and horizontal


Centre of Stockholm with the Royal Palace to the right of the wing and lots of other recognisable landmarks!


Lidingö, I think


About midway through the 45 min-1 hour we were airborne, the instructor demonstrated how engine failure doesn't mean you automatically and immediately crash, by setting the plane in neutral/idling (tomgång)


Vaxholm and Waxholm Castle


Close-up of the castle


Somewhere in the Stockholm archipelago


More archipelago shots


Illustrates the size of the ferries that go to Finland and the Baltic countries pretty well


Someone has made a heart in their field!


Back to town; view over most of the centre of Stockholm


Close-up of the Globe Arena and the Kaknäs Tower (or Cookie Nose Tower in Swenglish) front left. I like this picture as it has an industrial look to it.


Our neck of the woods! We live in the left area of the picture below the buildings with the white tops


To the left of the previous picture; Gärdet with the Kaknäs Tower, the harbour and Hjorthagen


Close-up of our neighbourhood - look to the left of the tower building (Svea torn apartments) and you will see long buildings with the red roofs; we live just behind them in the buildings with black roofs. You can also see Stockholm Stadium in this picture in front of the tower (with two small towers on the left side of the stadium).


Centre of town with Gröna Lund amusement park towards the top right-hand corner


More city centre views


Close-up of the City Hall and Slussen (and several cranes)


Back at Bromma airport


The instructor takes care of the landing; that's not something they let you do at the first lesson