We were up late last night - or should I say morning? It was past 3 o’clock in the morning when we got in bed, but just before that, I suddenly remembered that it was the 28th of February. That meant that next day should be the 1st of March. Wasn’t it something we should do at that date?

Ahhh, yes, Mr Lifecruiser have an important doctor’s appointment then, so I reminded him about it. He was playing poker on the internet as usual and I suppose he was distracted by his playing, but he checked his Outlook calendar and yes, he had some note there about a doctor’s appointment at 1 pm. We were both looking at the computers date too and confirmed that it was the 28th of February, so the day after it would be the 1st of March…

So after some really bad sleeping hours, we managed to get there in right time before 1 o’clock, just to discover that they had not any note about him having an appointment at that time. We got to the right nursing ward, but there was no people. We begin to suspect that something really was wrong. Found a nurse that was checking up that he had an appointment the 1st of March alright, but 1.30 and told us that it’s the 28th of February today!

What could we do other from laugh at the situation…? Especially since we’ve needed the extra sleep this morning. You know how “giggly” you can be when you’re tired…

But nothing bad that hasn’t anything good to follow! The nurse suggested that we had to buy us some real Swedish treat at this time of year, that is called Semla. It’s the right day for eating semla today, so at least we would do something on the right day!

It’s a very special kind of cream cake and it demands a very special kind of technique to eat them….

Yummy!

Semla:
During Sweden’s Catholic days, Lent, the period of fasting that covers the 40 days leading up to Easter, was strictly observed. On Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent, when people needed to fill up on their fat reserves they ate semla, a bun filled with almond paste. Since the Twenties semlas are eaten with whipped cream. As innocent as a bun cake can be, this is the one that killed (!) a monarch, when in 1771 King Adolf Fredrik died of a seizure having eaten too many semla after a large meal.
Source: “Things Swedish” by Mari Hemming

Last year we decided to attend an Swedish Opera performance, since I never had been in the Swedish Royal Opera house. I have never been so keen on Opera if i should be honest, so I was a little bit worried that I would be bored or even worse: begin to giggle if they acted too seriously. We did choose one of the most popular, Carmen, to minimaze the risks.

We became interested because of the fact that our favourite Swedish King, Gustav III, was victim of a conspiracy and was assassinated during a masquerade ball held at the opera house in 1792. He was a very cultural King, very fond of Theatre and Art.

Both of us realized at once we got the idea, that we got the perfect outfit for the Opera house - our wedding clothes from the 18th century! Yes, it was a crazy idea, but hey we are crazy aren’t we? So, we put on our wedding clothes, now included wigs with proper 18th century hairfashion. Mr Lifecruiser with a very chic ponytail back and curls above the ears, me with e very high coiffure and some curls hanging down from there. The whole outfit in 18th century manner including the coats. I had to hire my coat though.

It was a little bit difficult to get in and out of the car and even to sit in the car, because my wig is very high and I have to bend down my neck or at the side a bit to fit into the car. A real procedure to come in and out without get stucked with the wig… We noticed that there was a lot of people staring at us during the drive into the city, I guess it’s not so often they see someone dressed like this today!

Then we had to park the car on a street nearby the opera house and walk the last bit. We discovered that we had no change for the parking ticket machine… So, we needed somewhere to change. The only place nearby that was open, was McDonalds. They have very big glass windows and we could see a lot of people in there - staring out on us in disbelief! I understand them, who expect to see 18th century people in the street of Stockholm today and at McDonalds of all places…. I refused to go in there actually, I didn’t want the smell of hamburgers stuck to the clothes, so we skipped it.

We got a lot of attention inside the opera house too. Every one stared at us, to be exact. Some even laughed a little, but over all it was very positive reactions. There were a lot of questions of course and one of them were repeated all the time: Were we doing some advertising for upcoming events? They couldn’t beleive that someone actually could go dressed like this in private, without any other purpose. Well, we could!

I had been a little bit worried that my high hair would be in the way for the ones that happened to sit behind me, but we got lucky, we were placed just in front of the balconys, so they was higher up and didn’t have any problems to see over my head. I didn’t giggle either, but I did have a difficult time trying not to cough! Some times I thought I should be suffocated, phew…

In the pause the staring part was continued, but also a lot of positive remarks. One even said enthusiastic that we made their visit here complete, our clothes fitted so well to this wonderful old building. And it was true, it is from the same time period as our clothes style and it’s a incredible beautiful building. It’s worth going to a performance, just to see the building.

Sorry to say, we didn’t get any good photos from there. It was very diffult with our little digital camera to get the right lights. It’s a lot of gold ornaments in there and everything is shining. We didn’t want to carry anything that was not typical to the 18th century, so the small digital camera was perfekt to hide in my little evening bag.

Will we go to the opera house again? Well, it depends on the performance, maybe if it’s something that involves Gustaf III or the 18th century.

What about the Carmen performance, did we like it? Nah, we think it was too modern…

Ha! Got you there on my subject line, didnt I? Yes, we Swedes may be fast with our zips, but that’s another story which I’m not going to tell you this time.

Since we’ve noticed that people don’t know much about Sweden (except maybe the fact that we just got a gold medal in icehockey in the Olympic Games), we’re now starting with this post and others to follow, to help you to explore some things about Sweden and the Swedes.

Did you know that the zip fastener was discovered by a Swedish man named Gideon Sundbäck in 1913? Then the idea was caught on in a big way when the US army used it to replace uniform buttons and lacing during the First World War.

Since then the zip has gone from strength to strength and is today even used in abdomen surgery on people who need more than one operation. The true zipper, and the design used today, is based on this interlocking teeth, that the Swede patented.

So, next time you’re using your zip, you’re going to think about Swedes, aren’t you…?

Source:
“Things Swedish” by Mari Hemming
Wikipedia about Zipper

Some times I wonder how in earth certain products are made. Now I found this useful site that explains how a lot of products are made. I mean, it’s good to know things, all of it.

You don’t know when it can come in handy to know how to make dynamite, gas masks, artificial skin, a roller coaster, a space suit, a Stetson hat, an ukulele, a bullet proof vest, or a flea collar…

How products are made

I think I found one of the reasons for why my brain isn’t working properly… Yes, I know that I’ve been crazy since I was born ;-) but on top of that it has stopped working as it used to do.

Accordning to an article over at My Back Pain people with chronic back pain brains may age up to 20 times faster than normal. It actually shrinks the brain by 11%. Specifically the gray matter, which is responsible for memory and information processing. MRI brain images and other tests were showing that chronic back pain patients lost about 5%-11% of gray matter a year - about the same as 10 to 20 years or normal aging. In addition, the more years someone has chronic back pain, the more brain loss they suffered.

Oh, boy, am I in big big trouble now… maybe I don’t even have any brain left soon? I’m starting to fall apart peice for peice here, first the back, now the brain, WHAT is to follow….?

Another article on that blog are also saying that chronic pain often presents sufferers with a real “catch 22″ dilemma. If they talk about their pain, they risk being perceived and labeled as hypochondriacs, or even worse, fakers or malingerers. On the other hand, if they hide their pain, others don’t believe the pain is significant. It is enough to tax the patience of the most stoic person….

How well don’t I know that. *shaking it off like water on a goose*

Yeeeahhh, I got the happy plague, so I don’t care!

Secret whisper: Any one having any spare parts to offer?

Oh boy it’s the dirty day again. Our eyes are opened to how this home looks like. We haven’t noticed it until now. Or rather chosen not to see…

We can’t have a couple of new dusty pets. It looks like he has sort of spread his children all over the place now.

I think that we’ve been too good on practising one of our earlier mentioned housekeeping methods. Guess which one of them?

Or maybe we both was hoping that this young man would be saying the truth…

“When you are in Love, you get to sit down and drink coffee and watch a little movie. And then the other one have done the cleaning up”.

[ Henrik, 6 year ]

Hm… I think we’ll have to practise one of our other housekeeping methods… I’m not going to tell you which one of them. Have a guess again!

Googlism for a-team:
a-team is not a free service
a-team is not scared to use guns like your boy macgyver
a-team is always armed to the teeth

By Field Reporter: Miss Ass. Lifecruiser

Happy… That is what my daughter was last Saturday!!

She had her birthday on the Sunday so she was going to celebrate it with some friends Saturday evening…down town! They started home, with some food and drinks. Went down town to a bowling hall. She called me from there asked me for more money! And, because I’m a nice person and a good mother I was going to transfer some money and call her back. So I did..from my cellphone to her cellphone. She said, I can’t hear you, I will call you back to the home phone!! hmmm.. It wasn’t noisy here…She called me back and said..- Strange, it’s still hard to hear what you say!!! *lol*.. Nope..she’s not blond!! After a while she did get the message..more money on her account! Then she had told her friends all evening how much she did love her mother and what a wonderful person I was! The best!!! Good to know… I will NOT be late to remind her of that from time to time..*lol* ..

The evening went on and guess they or at least she … had some more to drink!! She had been sitting on the toilet talking with a girlfriend. The friend had asked her - Are you done or?? She didn’t want to spend the whole evening in the bathroom! My daughter had smiled..said yes..and went up! Her friend looked a bit frightened..my daughter had forgot to take off her pants…and to lift the lid up from the toilet..so..her friend thought she had pee’d in her pants! But… she hadn’t… she had forgot that she needed to pee!!

The evening went on in the same stile…. When it was time to leave she had been sitting and waiting for some friends, she took up her cellphone and was going to make a phone call to a boyfriend in Belgium! She was talking and talking…telling him about the night, meanwhile a friend of hers was trying to tell her that she had no money left to call for! My daughter just waved with her arm… and was putting the other hand over her ear so that she could hear the friend from Belgium! hmmm… The only thing she could hear was the voice from the phone company telling her that she did not have enough money to make a phone call!!!

Then they were waiting for the pick up to come…my daughter said..no problem..he will be here soon. I have been calling him! Maybe in her dreams…because she didn’t even have his phone # !! So someone else called him after about half hour..*lol*.. My daughter went cold so she tried to warm up in other peoples cars… couldn’t understand why they all were jelling at her! Strange isn’t it! Don’t we all love to get a drunk girl in our cars!!! *lol*

Finally she came back home… went in to the bathroom to get undressed..she did all right! Then out in the kitchen..starting to make sandwiches…. I heard that she was braking a glass… I said.. the glass, did anything fall on the floor? I don’t want the dog to stamp on it! No no she said..I saw a broken glass here, and I did pick it up. Why was it on the floor???? hmmm… Guess! Ohh, I have no clue!! *lol*.. Back to the sandwiches. She took out butter cheese and salami from the fridge. Did forget to use butter, tried to cut the salami with the cheese cutter.. didn’t work out though the salami already was in slices! So..she did put on ALL the salami on one sandwich..looked at it and smacked it with her hand!!! Then she was putting in everything in the fridge again…the cheese with the plastic bag on top… the salami sandwich under the butter… the cheese sandwich on the bench..and..the plastic to the salami..well… she looked on it. one time..two times..tree times..it was empty..so..why just not put it between the bench and the fridge???? Then she said.. Good Night..sleep well..see you tomorrow!

The next day came..she felt really good in the morning..until she saw her boots… they had high heels before she left the night before..and no heels at all this morning!!! She has no clue what so ever when she did loose them!!! *lol* Probably when they were walking outside in the snow waiting for the ride to pick them up…*lol*…

The picture proof:

She is suppose to go out this Saturday as well…. just wonder what she’s gonna wear?? No way.. not my boots!! That’s for sure!!!

Chief Editors note: To be fair we must now offer the subject of the post to come forward and defend her self. We’ll see if she have something to add to this fabulous story!

Today we have a special day over here…. Our engagement anniversery! We’re taking care of each other and our Love every day, but today especially.

Our engagementtrip the 24th Feb 2004 went to our beloved wonderful Gotland-Fårö. Gotland is a small island outside Sweden and Fårö is an even smaller island outside Gotland. We have to take the big ferry to Gotland first and then drive up to the north-north-east of Gotland to catch a smaller road ferry over to Fårö. It’s a vacation paradise on the summer because of it’s beutiful landscapes, birds, sheeps, weather and unbeleivable beaches. Mr Lifecruiser has been there every summer for about 27 years!

Fårö still is beautiful in the winter! We were standing in the sunset with a very strong wind (!) trying to make a toast and drink champagne without sand in the glasses. Experiencing mother natures power as well of the power of our Love, in the sunset, totally alone… It was so romantic *dreamy sigh* It felt that we were alone on the whole earth. Of course we did draw a heart in the sand too, with our names in it and everything.

When we were heading back to the car we had to take it carefully. It was gettting very dark and we had walked about 1,75 kilometers to reach the middle of the beach (it’s very long) and we didn’t have any flashlights with us. That was nice too, alone in the darkness…

Go and see a few photos by clicking on the menu Photo above and then choose the folder Engagementrip. They aren’t so good, but hey, it’s difficult to shoot in the darkness and with water and sand flying around and all the kissing that’s going on…

As you can see on the photos, I’m wearing a lot of clothes so there were no stripping on the beach… *lol*

So this will be todays post and as a surprise for you we’re gonna have our special field reporter Miss Ass. Lifecruiser writing another post here after this one!

Exciting hey???!!!

“Most people would rather be certain they’re miserable than risk being happy.”

[ Robert Anthony ]

Many times I feel like people actually do choose to be unhappy. They seem to go in to a loop with unhappy feelings, instead of doing the best of the situation and move on. Yes, I know, it’s not always as easy to do as to say… But I really feel like some people don’t even try any more. Or rather a lot of the people don’t try any more.

How come? Have they give up hope? Is it the society we have today? Stressful, no time for anything, not even for feelings or family. Every one is always talking about all their problems, surely they must have something good to tell…? Or is the whole earth now spinning in a negative loop? All the News is just filled with negative news too, they seldom report something positive. There is a lot of positive stuff going on, so why waste our precious short life time on worries or negative things? It’s only we, ourselves, that get damaged.

We can influence our lifes so much, not to every point, but pretty much. It have a lot to do with our own attitudes, just stop and think about it for a moment. You know we’ve a fantastic mind that can do things the scientists don’t even understand all about. Just set your mind to it, we don’t say that it’s easy, but it’s worth it. Confirm that you’re happy and if you’re not - try to change the things that makes you unhappy - or learn to live with it - and be happy. We all have to do that choice, even though our situations can be more or less difficult.

Life has a lot of up and down bumps and the important thing is to not let the down bumps get glued to you - rip it off. You must do it, for your own good. You and noboby else have a responsibility for your own life. It’s like ripping off a patch, it shall be done after proper healing time. It can hurt to rip it off, but it’s temporarily. Don’t let the days, weeks, months, years pass and then regret that you didn’t do anything. Don’t let YOUR LIFE slip through your fingers.

We urge you to put your feets firmly to the ground and say STOP to all negative stuff and start to initiate all the positive thoughts and acts you can instead. Do an inventory of all the good stuff in life - or that could have been worse - and appreciate it. Be grateful for what you have and don’t ogle at other peoples things, lifes or whatever. Decide what it is that make YOU happy and live happily with that - or make up goals to reach it, but be realistic.

Life is a fantastic gift and we ought to take better care of that gift. There is so much good stuff that we take for granted, that is miracles actually. The nature, our body & brain, all living creatures, all the fantastic things that mankind has invented. Even small things. Think about it during a day and try to see things in your life in a different, new view. You may find it less boring than you thought it was.

Your mood can affect not only your day, but others too. If you smile, people tend to smile back at you. There is nothing wrong with a laugh, it’s healthy for both your body and mind. Laugh triggers the release of endorphins, which work as natural pain killers, it’s also beleived to decrease stress-related hormons. We should try it more often than we do, since it never can be overdosed. Worries or happiness - both are contagious.

We’re now giving you the happy plague!

♥ LIVE, ENJOY, LOVE…. LIFE!

Googlism for happy:

worry is an illness
worry is a sin
worry is the misuse of your imagination
worry is the darkroom where negatives are developed
worry is to put today’s sunshine behind tomorrow’s clouds
worry is wasted mental energy
worry is not our friend
worry is unreasonable
worry is something you learned to do
worry is unnecessary
worry is a thief
worry is more exhausting than a day of work
worry is one of the heaviest burdens of life

People do have a bad habit of saying dumb things sometimes, probably because they are feeling so bad themselves. I’m glad I don’t suck it in any longer. It’s nothing to take notice of. Only to pity them. One thing I often heard is people complaining that other people is telling them that they’re fat and should try to go on a diet. They don’t need to hear that, they are fully awear of it, I promise you!

I know the feeling, but the opposite. During my whole time growing up I was told: Oh my what you’re skinny! It can be a big problem, because people don’t think of it as a bad remark, but it really is - if you have to listen to it 88 times a day year round and don’t like yourself being skinny. I think that maybe people are saying that even more often than they say to some one that they’re fat.

So, unless you have some constructive advice that can be helpful, shut up with the remarks. Figure out some other, good way, to support the person instead.

I was so ashamed over me being skinny when I was a teenager. When I was on the beach, I was always laying sun bathing on my stomach. That was because if I did lay on my back, my hip bones would stand up too much and made the bikini underwear lean on the hip bones, almost revealing what I had in my bikini underwear. It created a hole to watch through. Actually it have effected me today too. I have built up a very good amount of sun tanning cells at my backside and have a much harder time to get suntanned on my frontside - even though I do sunbath my front today. What I don’t understand is why I’m only gaining some weight around my stomach… The legs and arms still is a little bit too skinny.

Then we have the fact of the clothes that never fitted. That was probably more difficult because I was also tall. So if I should get clothes that fitted me in width size, they were way too short. Especially before the jeans become a fashion here. How lucky I was when the first really tight jeans fashion came here! You had to stand in a long line outside the store to get inside and try some jeans on. And for the first time in my life I could actually have a pair of trendy jeans that was fitting me nice. I was so excited!

Today I still have problems with clothes. Usually they are to short for me, despite that my length only is 176 cm, but my legs are long. When we went to the Netherlands last year I was thrilled with the clothes there, they were actually almost too long even for me! I had to buy two pants there. So obviously there are a lot of tall people in The Netherlands. I didn’t feel so tall for once.

Come to think about that, I remember one time when we were in The Scottish Highlands, near Loch Ness. There was this nice old man playing his bagpipe that we stayed and talked with for a while. We were curious about how to play the bagpipe and was asking a few questions about it. He started to look at me from top to toe, several times up and down and said repeatedly: “You are very tall… You are very tall…” And he just couldn’t stop saying it. This time it was fun. I have to admit that everywhere we went in Scotland, I felt like one of the tallest. Mr Lifecruiser is at the same height, but he is a man so it’s more acceptable.

My life would have been a little bit easier if I had been a little bit less skinny and maybe 5 cm shorter, but I’ve getting used to the fact that I’m always between all sizes!!! I get a lot of exercise running around and trying clothes every where, thats positive. And not buying is positive for the wallet :-)

That counts for shoes too. We actually had to take a trip to Milano 2004, just so that I could buy me some summer shoes (winter shoes is easier). My feets are so thin so they keep sliding in the summer shoes. It must be narrow shoes and The Italians have it! Need I say that I purchased six pair of shoes there? I never know when I get the chance again. It can go many years before I can find new ones. The shoe factorys don’t know what they missed!!! I could have been a big customer if there were any shoes that fitted me!

Another negative thing with being skinny is the fact that’s it’s too easy to lose weight. I MUST eat at regular times otherwise I’m not feeling well at all and the hungry monster comes out! That can be a problem when we’re out travelling, finding suitable food or places to eat. When we were in U.S I lost 3 kilos, which I didn’t managed to build up again before we went to South America. The hot weather plus some diseases made me lose another 6 kilos there! All together, 9 kilos is a great deal on my body. Luckily I had a few kilos extra before we went. I’ve still not get all of it back.

So I guess what I’m saying is: fat or skinny, tall or short, it makes no difference, we’re all humans, stop nagging about peoples appearence!

Googlism for skinny or fat:

fat is spreading
fat is fabulous
fat is not a feeling
fat is hell
fat is new hat
fat is tons o’ fun
fat is only ugly until you put a nipple on it
fat is out
fat is being miserable and so much more
fat is not a dirty word