Warm ears!

I'm finished with my head band! Perfect for when I wear my hair up so I can't use a hat to keep my head warm. And it's alpacka wool so it's very warm indeed. And it was fun to make since it was quite intricate details on it. I'm slowly becoming more and more obsessed with my knitting.

Getting advanced!

My most advanced knitting yet is currently happening. It's so much fun! It's going to be a head band to warm my ears when I don't want to wear a hat. I'll show you the finished product when I'm done.

And they have a sale on knitting yarn at our local grocers now so I'm about to go stock up. Yay!

Fancy visit

Last weekend two of my dear friends came and visited from London. It was a weekend of excursions and fun and laughs and reminiscing. Here are some photos from the weekend.

Göta Kanal. Where my grandparents live and where my mum grew up.

Beautiful weather!

And we went to Läckö Slott. A castle on an island in Lake Vänern. Vänern is the biggest lake not only in Sweden, but in the European Union!

The impossible project

I've taken on an almost impossible project. To gather all my blog entries since the winter of 2008 in one place. These entries are spread over three blogs, not counting this one! I seem slightly crazy and obsessed when I think about that. But then again, I have always been a diary writer.

In an entry from the spring of 2008 I found a list of sorts, and it seemed appropriate to repeat it since it was five and a half years ago I wrote it, and the first question is
5 years ago... I had spent two months in Nottingham and was loving every minute of it.
3 years ago... I had returned back to Nottingham after my year abroad in Mexico and was trying to fit back into British life again.
1 year ago... I had lived in London for a month and was getting more and more desperate (and depressed) to find a job. One of the darkest periods of my life.
3 months ago... I had just moved back to Sweden and my parents house again after having spent five years abroad.
Yesterday... It was Saturday and my parents and I went to my grandmother and celebrated me getting a job and watched movies from when my brother and I were little. It brought my grandmother to tears and laughter watching us play with our beloved grandfather whom is no longer with us.
Today... I haven't done much at all except continued going through homemade videos and cutting them down to manageable sizes.
Tomorrow... Is the start of my final week as unemployed (for this time). And I am going to do absolutely nothing and not feel guilty about it or think that I should be searching through job sites instead.
In one year... I will be working in Sweden. Living in my own place. And my mum will still be here.

Love December 2013

There is so much to look forward to. It's been a long time since I had this much fun and excitment ahead of me. Good news and good things in life are so under rated and not celebrated enough. So yesterday my mum and I bought cake, because we celebrate good news in our family as if it is someone's birthday. So here it goes. A nice, beautiful list of what my December will look like.

• My new job starts on Monday the 2nd of December.
• On Saturday 7th of December we're heading to Stockholm to see my brother and have a family night out. We're going to see Galenskaparna. They're a Swedish comedy and satire group which sing and do plays. They're amazing.
• On Sunday 8th of December I'm going to Uppsala to visit my beautiful friend M and to see her baby boy for the first time. So excited!
• On Thursday 12th of December S and D are coming from England to visit! And they will be here until the 16th. So excited about this too! 
• And then it's almost Christmas, which is also very exciting.

So all in all, I think it's going to be a good December.

Beautiful morning

It's a wonderful feeling. Waking up to a job offer.

Knitting obsessed

Since I knitted a hat for my friend's baby I've become obsessed with knitting hats. It's a good way to use my left over yarn from my other projects. So far I've made three for myself. All very cosy and will keep me warm now that winter is here (first snow is expected tomorrow!)

The benefits of home

Sometimes I panic when I realise that I'm unemployed and living at home with my parents. It's not really the norm. But then, there are some definite advantages to being here. Other than the most important and obvious one that is.

1. There's a full fridge and freezer and pantry with lots of food of all kinds. And goodies. And baking goods. And it comes with a fancy kitchen which makes cooking and baking more fun than it ever was while I lived in the UK.
2. A month ago or so my parents bought a new car. That means that the old car got more or less handed to me. Definitely a bonus.
3. Access to a lovely garden which is mine for the taking if I ever feel the need to get out and do some gardening (who knew raking leaves could be so satisfying!).
4. I get to sleep and live in my room. This, where I'm sitting right now, has been my room since I was born. It has been my hideaway my whole life. It holds memories and comfort. This is where I feel the most at home. Getting to sleep in this room is definitely one of the best things of living here.
5. Comfy, nice furniture everywhere in the house which suits all possible moods. 

And the most important and obvious one you ask? Getting to have traditional weekend breakfasts at the dining table with my parents, the way we have done it all my life. And spending an entire, rainy weekend in front of the tv watching the European golf tour with my dad. Having afternoon fika with my mum. In other words. Getting the chance to spend some serious quality time with my parents.
 

Therapy

Knitting has become my new therapy. It is amazing how much time I can spend just sitting in a chair in silence knitting away. I'm working on a hat now, it is almost winter after all.

I knitted a cardigan and hat for my friend's baby a couple of months ago. First time I knitted with multiple colours! Can't wait to see the little guy wearing it. He might have to grow a bit first though.

I didn't realise how therapeutic it can be to make things with your own hands.

OneFineStay

I know I complained a lot.
I know I whined a lot.
I know it wasn't all sunshine and happy days.
I know it was actually pretty far from that.
But sitting here, thinking back, I miss it.
Quite a lot.

OneFineStay.

It was only 6 months. And they went by so quickly. But regardless of the crap we had to put up with there it was such a wonderful place to work. With amazing people. And great opportunities. And I'm sure it's only become better since I left. And will probably become even better as they keep on growing and finding the best way of doing things.

OFS London. I miss you guys. And sometimes I wish I was still there with you guys going through the motions. You are an incredible bunch of people. Some of the best actually. And that's not just me being sentimental. I laughed more with you than I had in a long time.

Life changes quickly.

Memories that awaken old dreams

I read a review of one of Ursula LeGuin's books and it threw me straight back to Nottingham and my days as a student. It seems so long ago now. It's over a year ago since I handed in my masters dissertation. In my third year of uni I took a class called The Politics of Science Fiction. In that class we read Lathe of Heaven, by LeGuin. She's a brilliant author. I decided to open a folder on my computer which I have barely looked at for over a year. The folder labelled 'uni'. And for some reason I started opening my old essays and reading them. And I am truelly in awe. I can't believe I used to write things like that. I can't believe that that was my daily life. Reading articles. Formulating thoughts. Writing essays. It's seems so far removed from what I do today. If you had asked me then how my life would look like a a year and a couple of months after student life finished, my vision wouldn't have been anywhere close to reality. That sounded bitter. I'm not. At least not usually. It's just different. Very different.

I mean. I used to write sentences like this: "In pursuing this I will take on a Marxist approach and look heavily at the expansion of markets and the effects this had on the masses within different populations." Who writes like that? I used to. And I loved it. It makes me want to take up that old dream (okay, not that old) of doing a PhD. How cool and painful and amazing wouldn't that be? Only problem is I think I'm more likely winning the lottery than getting a PhD place in Sweden. The other option is to do it in the UK. But that would kind of defeat the whole purpose of moving back to Sweden. And besides, I have no money what so ever. Let alone money to finance five years of higher education. But oh wouldn't it be wonderful? I think it would. Maybe I should start working on that proposal again? Couldn't hurt.