November

Last week of Nov will start. My God! Time is passing by so fast! On the other hand, those months are not so exciting so maybe better they finish quickly ;-)
Eternal greyness is here. Mixed with full darkness, 100% moisture (that is rain). Misery! Candles at home are helping a bit :)
During the week I was 3 days in Brasov. We had 20C and sun (OK, those temperatures are not normal for this season) but it was soooo nice! Felt like late summer or early fall. Of course Romanians love to have it warm indoors so radiators were on! I thought I would faint in the hotel room but managed to cool down a room a bit.
Every time I go to Romania, I discover new stuff ;) This time I got really positively surprised by driving culture. Something is maybe changing over there. I mean people don't drive so crazy, and there was quite ok culture on the roads. Of course there were some stupid people as well but only few. And the new road between Bucharest and Brasov is also nice! (around "plotesti") ;-)
Can't wait for indoor smoking prohibition in public places...
Anyway, it feels always nice to go to BV :-)

I got back, only 2 days of work here, and the weekend. Met with Monica and we went to the Arandas to see the new baby girl. Cute!
I also managed to find some of my (and Alex') winter clothes in the cellar. Good to be prepared!

The coming week - a short business trip to France, so again a shorter week here. Then just 2 weekend in HH and off to Göteborg! Can't wait! I was "forced" to take out all my holidays before the end of the year so it's gonna be almost 5 days in GBG :) Then just 1 week at work and off for Xmas holidays. Nice! But there will be quite much pressure at work before that...
Xmas as usually with the family. Our traditional drawing lots who is getting a present for whom has taken place. Puh not easy! ;-) After Xmas - flying to Romania for new year's eve.

Halloween party

Last Friday we had a party at home - of course with a theme of Halloween. Alex asked all the guys to dress up but at the end only few people had some outfits.
Anyway we had really fun, as usual too much food and drinks (so we need to organize another party ;-)
Miguel came for one day to our company so it was fun to get some updates from him at the party. We also had Thomas there - too bad Txell couldn't be with us.

Alex and Thomas:


Our pumpkin that Alex made:






Playing beer pong:


Skype with Melody late at night (at our place):


The weekend was quite calm. But I managed to get some fall shoes and also color my hair so something achieved :)
On Sunday we had a very long brunch at some Swedish/German couple's place. It was nice and cozy. And good to be inside when the weather was so crappy...
The whole week was fine although a bit difficult to handle time change - dark dark dark, and lots of rain the whole week. Sooo bad! Hope we can have some sun this weekend.
Tomorrow we may go to WEFUNK radio party in Schanze (depending on the moods); otherwise taking it easy I guess. Maybe a bit of biking as well.

Weekend in Gdynia

This weekend I'm at my parents' place in Gdynia. Came on Fri evening and actually staying until Monday. Magda with her boys came as well so it was a full house those 2 days :) Nice! We had a really good time together, nice dinner with family, walk at the waterfront in Gdynia. Max is such a cute little boy!
Here with his mom:



Family at the beach:




Tomorrow - another massage session. I've got to fix my back. And flight back to HH in the afternoon. Of course the trip is like a big project but cheap flights - what to do...

In the middle of fall

Forgot to say last time - Robyn's concert last Sunday was soooooo great!!! She is so cool and talented and a great performer! We had so much fun! Of course not so many Germans were dancing but we did a lot. Met also a very interesting man around 70 year old who goes often to different concerts. Amazing!
This weekend was also nice, with sun but not such high temperatures. Fall is here. We spent time with friends, had dinner (again) i L'Orient (a lebanese restaurant nearby) - which was as ususally nice. Then Handan, Hamid, Alex and me went to our gym for a party. I know...a strange concept to have club in a fitness place but we just went to experience it once. Nothing special, a lot of Untz Untz Untz music; on one floor with "black music" is started OK but then turned to too much salsa and so on. Cool but not for such a long time! Especially when there are 3 couples dancing!!!!
Today we met again with some friends for fika. Nice, relaxing and fun.
Usch Monday tomorrow. Not looking forward. Next weekend - a family weekend in Poland. Alex will be off to Romania.

Hiking

October is here. What happened to September?! ;)
In the week I had to do my car's service. So the mechanic guy showed me what has to be replaced and fixed: shock absorbers (they broke when he wanted to change them!), brake pads and discs were the major highlights. I assumed the price would be around 600EUR. It ended up at a bit over 1000EUR!!!!!! OMG!! So freaking expensive!!! So now I seriously consider getting rid of the car...OK, I didn't have to give it to VW/Skoda workshop but generally it is super expensive to own a car.

Weekend is almost over. Why?????
Today we went hiking in Harburger Berge. At least some nice nature and a bit of a hill :)
I expected more wild trails but we tried to go off from the main hiking "roads" or riding paths. It felt so good to have my hiking boots again!
It smelled mushrooms in the woods but we didn't find any good ones...











This week there will be some action at work, also a trip to France. And next weekend we will go to Robyn's concert on Sunday! Yuppi!!

Hmmm....

Such a long break in updating this blog... Many reasons - mainly I think being lazy, but also not so much happened since my vacations. Work work work. Fall has arrived earlier than anybody expected. It starts to be dark when you get up, and also around 19.30. I don't want it! I know - each year the same story. But I didn't get enough of summer!!!! Actually it feels that summer was sort of 5 months ago. So weird!
Anyway, what happened since last time - Alex came back home. Now focus is on finding a job in Sweden. On top of that he has a broken sternum (chest bone) so he has to take it easy for 5 more weeks.
I don't have anything broken ;)
The weather doesn't really help my bones though... (Karolina, 68 years old ;-)

Last weekend we had a late birthday celebration (Alex). It was fun! Although so much alcohol is left that I think we need a new party at home. Maybe Halloween? ;)

This weekend my parents and Filip came to visit. So nice! We had an obligatory shopping round downtown. Shopping project was successful for everybody but me. How hard can it be to find a pair of shoes?!?! ;) In the evening we had a dinner in a very nice restaurant at Fischmarkt (Kasematten) http://www.river-kasematten.de/. Fish was perfect! A plan to go out later on was not really an option since Filip's plane was quite early today.
The eternal greyness on Sunday has been awful! Rain rain rain. Blä!

A new week is coming. Hope it will be a good one. I cannot believe that we almost have October. Scary!

After holidays

So - 3 weeks in total and now back to the reality. Well, sort of back - still haven't got a real kick for work ;)
5 days in Göteborg were so nice. When I arrived on Saturday - there was a heavy rain downtown, however in Åkered where Petra and Magnus live - sun and amazingly warm! So we even went to swim! Later on a grill and nice evening sitting outside in the garden.
Sunday - rain rain rain. We went to town since Petra promised Theo to get a ride on the "GBG-wheel". So we did it.







Then one of the biggest events during this stay was that Petra and Magnus got a little baby girl (while I was staying at their place!). Big congrats to the proud parents!!

I spent some time with Tania and Dan and we had also a nice dinner at "Hos Pelle" with Fredrik and Ylva.

It feels (as usually) great to be home. I think it's time to be back :)

After GBG, back to HH, laundry and repacking the suitcase. Off to Malaga together with Monica to visit Handan and Hamid.
Now we are talking real vacations!
It was warm and sunny and totally relaxing.

We ate good food (mainly seafood), drank good wine, swam a lot in the sea, played beachvolley, read books, yeah - total relax!
Also lots of talking about Iran, politics, religion and life. God! Sometimes we were so serious ;)

At the pool:


A view from the terrace:


Dinner on the terrace:


From the beach:






Handan and Hamid's place is cozy and nice. Next time we have to stay longer.

Today Alex is coming back to HH. Tomorrow I guess IKEA visit - we need another wardrobe to get place with all our clothes. Oh well...