Monday, October 09, 2006

Events of September

So here we are, time has flown and its 6 weeks or more since I posted last. As ever, and as it should be, it's been a fine a busy time.

The end of August continued to be frighteningly hot and sunny as did September. Apparently September was the hottest on record in Sweden and everyone at work continues to tell me how "you won't be smiling soon - the winter will come". In truth it was shit cold when I rode to work this morning - I'm still going by bike every day, but then it was only 4 degrees, and as I keep telling everyone it's not England is the tropics and I'm quite used to commuting in winter temps. Obviously minus 20 may be more of a shock but we'll. Currently I'm having to wear golves and 3 layers to cycle, but I've got a long way to go yet before it gets too much. In all ikleyhood it'll be the ice that beats me rather than the sheer temperature.

Anyway - I'm warm now, thanks to 2 things in principle.

1. whiskey - a fine single malt 15 year old balvenie that Howard brought over in mid September (ok I'm rambling now and not talking in any particular date order, but that's the whiskey to a point). so yeah anyway - Howard came over (more or less or my birthday by co-incidence) and he bought me a bottle of this

Balvenie 15 year Single Malt

and frankly it's bloody nice - so thanks mate!!

But more to the point we went to a great restaurant where we ate the tasting menu and drank about 8 courses of wine. By god it was fantastic!! We were there for 6 hours more or less, and what with having started with a cocktails at The Sky Bar first (very nice), we were a bit the worse for wear at the end of it. But by god it was good - seriously - the best...so following that we went back to Howard's room / suite at The Grand Hotel and frankly they're nto bloddy kidding - this was one f'ing grand hotel room and drank G&T and whiskeys til later in the morning - but anyway I'm getting to the point - all this drinking and eating was suitably great but Sarah had a job interview the next morning, which considering we were both still pissed as buggery is quite surprising that we even made it, but make it we did (I went with her for reasons that are too complex for me to describe here), but yes we hauled our arses out of bed and made it across town talk foriegn languages with an italian and a bulgarian, and discuss life in stockholn generally.

Strange times indeed....but you know what - she got the job. Magic!!

so back to the point in hand:

why I'm warm:

2. cos we've put the heating on - not amazing world breaking news but relevant to my life I guess - the cold is coming and I'm excited - bring on the snow is all I can say.

So yeah - september, well auagust really,, the end of august was a holiday for me, some downtime from work before the partying events of england. Basically we hung out in town and inthe archipeligo and went to places like this Grinda where we swam in the sea and generally lazed on deserted islands in the sun. If I remember rightly, that's one of the many reasons why we're here....

So following that off to England we flew for parties and fun. First off we got to contend with the "terrorism alert". I use this phrase with a heavy bag of salt since I think most of it is all just political bollocks, but anyway, fortunately stockholm airport decided that we'd be quite able to take toothpaste on the plane without endangering ourselves, and they'd also decided that there was little value in making people queue for 6 hours in a rubbish airport terminal to remind them what a great job their government was doing "portecting" them. but yeah...anyway...

so Tom and Karen's wedding ensued and frankly it was damn damn fine. Two of my favourite people in the world getting married and having a big party. How much better than that can it get. maybe I should have a photo link at this point, but I don't, we didn't take a damn photo, not s single one, we were just having too much of a good time. We cruised down the Thames on the boat and drunk fine wine and talked with many people that it has been a while since we'd seen and had a beautiful evening generally. Thanks Guys!!

Following that it was off to a quick walking holiday to chill a bit before the next family wedding. We did 3 days of the south downs and man, it was HOT. 28 degrees one day whilst carrying all our stuff, but by god the views were great because of it, and frankly it was great reminder of why the british countryside is so loved (and missed by us at times). Life doesn't get much better than this ...and every night we stayed in lovely country pubs. great views, great food, good beer and stunning views, add to that the feeling you get after you've walked 25km, and what more do you need.

So we got back from that and Prima cooked us a quite wonderful curry. To stay with james and Prima (as I have done 3 times already in the last 4 months) is quite a priviledge, cos they look after me like something else....

But things never stopped (including the heartburn by this stage) and there was no time to dawdle, it was on to coventry for another wedding (Andrew and Karen) which was also a total laugh. I have pictures of this one, but I've kept them private in respect of others' weddings, so if you're a named contact on flickr then have a look, if not then well, suffice to say the normal events went down, and there was a chocolate fountain. enough said.

And then back to croydon for one last blow out (well actually 2) and a big slap up meal at the noodle bar whose name I have forgotten.

In truth it was 10 days of absolute madness and partying and 10 days of absolute regret in a way, because I just spent it with all my favourite people and it kinda reminded me the things I'm missing back in the UK. However much I love Sweden and however much I love the life I have now, there is nothing like your true true friends and their company.....

There were other things that happened in that period, but frankly, I'm loosing the will the type right now, and there's still more of september to cover.

So yeah - there we go, the rest of the time, well it's a bit of a blur.

My aunt and uncle came to stay
I worked a shite load
I went kayaking in the middle of stockholm - truly amazing fun, and a load of other interesting swedish lifestyle things happened.

now it's time to get away from the computer, as it's 12 hours since I logged on this morning.

laters to anyone who's still listening.