Lifecruiser

Today we’ve had a mouth full with the dentist. Mostly because of the fact that it was so early in the morning. At least it was early for us night owls: 11 o’clock… *yawn*

Isn’t it strange that our teeth shall begin to fuss with us just before or during a trip? And both of us every time now.

I’ve never had that problem with my teeth before, I have really good quality, quite the opposite from Mr Lifecruiser. Except since I did a big fix with special porcelain crowns at my last dentist. She obviously did a poor job, or at least with a bad quality of the material - this one lasted for about 2 years, just long enough to let the guarantee time pass…

Very irritating, so I switched dentist to Mr Liferuisers, who said that he thought that the crown were a bit thin, he would’nt have done it that way. He fixed it temporarily then. It sucks that I paid over 6000 Swedish crowns (over $800) for these two crowns to be really sure that they would be good for quite a while and then this happens. I’m just waiting for the other one to crack.

Mr Lifecruiser had this time lost 3 fillings in a short time. One of the teeth in the front, so I tell you he was really HOT ;-) You could believe he had been in a fight. Except that anyone that knows us, know that he is even more peaceful than I am…

We couldn’t let him travel to Ireland like that or…? I mean, think about it, an Irish pub in Dublin a late night - some one could think that he was looking for a bar fight ;-)

While he was in the dentist chair being tortured I was tortured in the waiting room. No, I don’t mean by other patients, even if I sometimes think it is a pain with some of them, this was a more fun-pain torture. Just tiny wounds afterwards. And scratches. Yes, they had a puppy there! A dachshund who was in his teeth itching age…. No need of a dentist there! He was quite a mouth full to handle.

They had a quick look at mine too, despite that they had no appointment for it. Nothing were fractured of the temporarily fix I have on top of the crown, just a pocket in the gums, they washed it, no big deal. I’ll take care of it and then we’ll see.

Afterwards we had to reward Mr Lifecruiser with something for being such a good boy *lol* at the dentist, so we went up to a popular street in the southern part of downtown with a nice view over the city and bought him soft icecream. OK, I confess, I wanted one too :-)

We did a photo stroll there too, but it was difficult light up there (not to mention all people, bus etc in the way), so they may not end up particularly good since we only had my old camera with us.

And: the sun was actually shining today! Not all the time, it was cloudy, but, we can tell: the summer warmth has come back and we can actually be outside again!

With very big bright smiles, showing our teeth.

Yeah, the SUN… I can’t belive it.

*totally speachless*

1. Thursday aren’t just about this T13 things, Thursdays is also Mom’s day for me and Mr Lifecruiser. We always visit her (Lifelessions) at the elderly home and some other days too, but Thursday is a regular. Mr Lifecruiser plays the piano and we’re singing together with some others of the elderly living there. It’s really heartwarming (and sometimes heartbreaking) to see how much it means to the others that don’t get visits. One lady there is from Gotland and we’re thinking of visiting her home area this summer too see if we can bring her something back from there to remind her of it. Even a guy there who is having severe hearing loss and have been a little out of the fellowship, seems to relax and enjoy it now too. We kind of build a bridge between them and make them begin to talk to each other. It feels really good to do some good :-)

2. We live in a small but cosy 50 square meter apartment in a very nice and quiet suburb of Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. It’s hard to believe that we are so close to the city when there is so many animals and lush verdure around the house. We’ve choosen to live this compact living because we’ve planned to be travelling as often as we can. And of course so that we can avoid the cleaning business as much as possible… Even if we’re spicing it up with housekeeping method #2.

3. I repeat this since not many seems to believe us when we say it: we’re both sleeping in a bed that is 90 cm (35 inches) width and we’re doing it well too. When we’re sleeping. *lol* Don’t ask me how we’re doing it, I wouldn’t believe it myself if anyone had told me before this… Sometimes in the summer when we’re on the island Fårö, we even sleep in a smaller bed than that (80 cm), but that is a little bit too small I have to admit. Somehow we seem to fit in to each other like puzzle pieces and obviously does the right turns at the right moments. It’s magic I guess ;-) We love the closeness we get and I use Mr Lifecruiser as a radiator. He is the warmth in my life.

4. Both of us is cooking the food in this house, even if I have to admit that I might be a tiny monsterbit better at eating the food than cooking compared to Mr Lifecruiser…. The most amazing with our cooking is that despite the fact that our kitchen is very small, we’re never in the way of each other and we’re doing exact the right things the other one doesn’t have begin with. So it’s full of harmony, but it’s still speed cooking. It never stops amazing both of us. Very often we cook with some nice music on and have candle lights. Food is one of our lifes great joys. Even if we just eat something simple, it’s almost always homecooked. You can see our kitchen here. (Oh, boy, now I’m getting really hungry and have to have a short break for a kitchen raid…)

5. We have a livingroom that is very nice and comfy, but we hardly ever spend any time there. The TV is in there too, but we hardly ever use that either, we’re kind of free from TV. Only if Mr Lifecruiser is feeling sick or something and don’t manage to do anything else or if it is a poker program. I’ve switched the TV against the computer and blogging, he plays netpoker. Even then we sit side by side at our computers, in the bedroom. So it seems that we spend a lot of time in the bedroom hah? For the wrong reason? Well, who says we’re doing what in what room? *blink*

6. What we do to make a living? We live on Love ;-) Seriously, my last title were Consultant and Project Manager (IT), working with Systems Management and developments for TCP/IP Networks and IT helpdesks, but I’m on sick leave since 2001 (!) because of my back. During my sick leave they cut down the staff, so I had to go, which left me in quite a bad position. Even if I get well enough to begin to work - who want’s to hire someone with a bad back like mine? The only thing they offered were a fusion of the disks, but they didn’t give much hope and weren’t surprised when I said no… I’ve heard about too many bad outcomes to be willing to risk it and when not even the specialist give me hope, how can I agree to one? I’m just waiting now for another back investigation in the end of this year to see how things are evolving. Mr Lifecruiser has his own little business which he manage from home, educated as a marketing economist, but helping companys with safety data sheets for chemicals among other things. Nah, that sounded so boring, urrrk. Lets say: Lifecruisers, Enjoy’ers, Lovers.

7. We both love to travel as you’ve noticed, I’m sure. It has been quite an effort for me to manage the trips with my back and I’m totally devestated afterwards, but it’s soooo worth it. Heck, I’m always in pain so what if there is some extra :-). Since our last trip to South America that ended in the middle of December, we’ve been at home for once. It’s mainly because of my lack of iron with the going bald thing. It has been a lot of things to take care of around that, to take care of me. Trying to get in shape for next trip which is to Ireland the 16th of June. After that it’s celebrating the Swedish Midsummer and then off to Fårö, the island outside Swedens eastcoast the 3rd of July.

8. We don’t have any children living at home. Mr Lifecruiser has one growned up daughter and I never got any children for several reasons; not in the right relationship, not the economy or surroundings to support a child in. You have to have something good to offer children, not only being selfish. Many times people thinks that I don’t like children. I may give that impression, because I tend to keep a distance to them. The truth is that I’m highly susceptible to illnesses and always seem to get some illnessess from them sadly enough. They seem to have extra strong germs.

9. We only have strange unreal pets (read more under category pets), even though both of us really love animals. It would be nice to have them, but they demand to be taken care of and we don’t have that time or possibilty right now. Health issues and travels put an end to that - for the moment. When we’re getting old and grey we’ll probably get some pet friends :-)

10. My best friend and Assistant Field Reporter on this blog, Miss Ass. Lifecruiser and I speak to each other almost every day. She has been in Sweden since January now, involuntary stuck here due to healt issues. It’s about 30 Swedish miles (about 187 miles) between us and both ill, so it’s hard for us to visit each other. I don’t know what it is, but she always get the most unusual problems or illnessess. She is followed by such a bad luck. As an example: if other people get appendicitis she get an appendicitis that bursts and actually were dead for a short while, followed by other severe complications. Now she has been in and out on the hospital the last months trying to convince the doctors that they had to let her stay there and investigate why her blood pressure went up like a skyrocket (and I really mean a skyrocket!) all the time. It couldn’t only be the infection she had earlier and never seems get rid off. They tried to claim that she got a virus after that infection. Finally they took her serious and is now waiting for blood test answers which includes hormones. They saw on the x-rays that one of her adrenal glands is enlarged, a very unsual illness. They may have to do a surgery to remove it. We’ll see what they say when they know for sure.

11. Our interests: Love, travel, photographing, music, cooking, architecture, animals (Mr Lifecruiser is one, I’m just a hungry monster ;-), nature, dancing, good movies, educating reading, poker and golf for Mr Lifecruiser, blogging and horses is mine, even though I can’t go horseback riding like I used to… Let’s just say: anything in life - it’s much easier *lol*. We find almost everything interesting or educating, we’re rather openminded.

12. Please send us some warmth and sunny weather… It’s cold over here, not even near to be called summer yet. We’re freezing. Despite our method to contribute to the global warming effect. Anyone have anything else to offer to give us some warmth?

13. We try to really live, enjoy, love life today - you’ll never know if it’s too late tomorrow…

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

The whole Sweden is celebrating our National Day today, the 6th of June.

The Swedish parliament made it to a national day as late as 1983, before it was just the Swedish flag day, even though it has been discussed since around year 1900. Last year they also decided that this should be a public holiday, which means that people get more motivated to really celebrate it.

We celebrate this day with flagparades, picnics, music events, choir singing, the royal family participating in different ways and speaches hold by prominent persons in the communitys. Even persons that have become new citizens this year are greated welcome as Swedish citizens with a cermony where they get a document that shows that they have become Swedish.

The reasons for why the Swedish flag is blue and yellow is that it’s originating from The National emblem of Swedens colors – a blue shield with three yellow crowns.

The origin of the date is that Gustav Vasa was crowned as Swedish king the 6th of june 1523 and that 1809 years instrument of government was signed the same date, which adopted the constitution of Sweden.

The flag were primary used by the Swedish King and his army, primary the marine. From Gustaf II Adolfs time – around 1620 – we have picture proof of blueyellow crossflags on Swedish ships.

Loudly singing the National Anthem of Sweden:

Du gamla, du fria, du fjällhöga Nord,
(You ancient, you free, you mountainous North)
du tysta, du glädjerika sköna.
(You quiet, you joyful beauty!)
Jag hälsar dig, vänaste land uppå jord,
(I greet You, friendliest land upon earth,)
din sol, din himmel, dina ängder gröna,
(Your sun, Your sky, Your meadows green!)
din sol, din himmel, dina ängder gröna!
(Your sun, Your sky, Your meadows green!)

Du tronar på minnen från fornstora dar,
(You are throned on the memories of olden days,)
då ärat ditt namn flög över jorden.
(When honoured Your name flew over the world,)
Jag vet att du är och du blir vad du var.
(I know that You are and will be as you were,)
Ja, jag vill leva, jag vill dö i Norden!
(Yes, I want to live I want to die in the North!)
Ja, jag vill leva, jag vill dö i Norden!
(Yes, I want to live I want to die in the North!)

Maybe you’ve heard it too often this year when Sweden won both World Championships and The Olympic Games with our icehockey team Three Crowns (Tre Kronor)…. *lol*

The Swedish Anthem instrumental
Wikipedia about Three Crowns

Did I ever tell you about our HONEYMOON?

We did go to Crete - Greece’s biggest island - and stayed at the very small village Almirida, between Hania and Rethimno, which at that time only had about 75 permanent inhabitants. Perfect for a honeymoon hide out, we thought. With a hotel just at the beach and a perfect room with a wonderful seaview, we planned to just move between our bed to the beach and back again - at least for the first week.

We should have known that it wasn’t that easy when we’re involved. To begin with the weather turned (yes, remember that weather curse I have?) very windy so there were that red flag at the beach all the time, so we didn’t dare to go swimming. One man were actually almost drowned there one morning, because he defied the red flag. However, it was still wonderful sunny weather and nice to just be outside dipping our toes in the water. We were on our honeymoon, so we were so happy!

We are explorers, both of us, so of course we couldn’t be still for long. We had planned to rent a car and drive around seightseeing, now we did that a little bit earlier than planned - and for a longer time. We choosed an open Jeep, to be just a little cool for once in our lifes…. *lol* Oh, boy was that a wonderful experience to drive around with the hair blowing in the wind and still not be cold at all… Ahhh… We drove around like scalded troll’s (a swedish expression) over the whole island. At least it felt like that and we loved it, to be able to see so much more than just the beaches. Meet the genuine people out in the countryside.

Crete is an island full of breathtaking high mountains with some fantastic gorges (Samaria 18 km), the highest mountain is 2.456 m above sea level. So it was like a roller coaster all the time, up up up and around and then down down down and around…. Everywhere we went it took a little bit longer time to drive there than we had counted on, because of the mountains slowing down the pace.

As I’ve wrote once before: The only problem was that both of us are afraid of heights, so I always arrived to the goal covered in sweat after the horrifying but beutiful drive and Mr Lifecruiser got nightmares about heights every night. He was shaking and kicking his legs and saying things like: “No, don’t go there, don’t go forward to the edge.. and then started kicking… Obviously falling over the edge or at least close to doing it. (Or was it me that he was kicking over the edge? Hm…)

One time when we were on about 1400 m height and turned around a mountain - the very strong wind took a grip in our Jeep’s top - a tarpaulin of some sort - and we seriously thought that it would take us “Jeepdiving” down in the valley… He had to step on it real hard to get more speed to avoid it… Pheeeew! The Crete people themselves have a more aggressive driving style, they have no fear of the heights, full gas and just honk before every turn and I guess that will work as long as there isn’t a tourist on the other side that don’t know of this code!

Come to think of the Crete people’s driving… They were very calm and peaceful people when you met them, but as soon as they entered their cars the devil seemed to appear - full gas and quite reckless driving, scaring the shit out of us many times! No wonder they had put out small memory stands everywhere beside the roads to remember their lost ones that had accidents there. And there were full of them. No surprise, because on top of that there could suddenly step out or lay cri-cri goats in the middle of the roads…

After a while you kind of adjusted to their way of driving, because you had to follow the stream a little to not be in the way all the time. One way (which didn’t have any traffic) to another very nice village Georgioupoli that took us 35 minute to drive in the beginning on curve roads, took bearly 20 minutes in the end. That’s when I called Mr Lifecruiser for “Rally Harry”…

We really loved Georgioupoli, if we ever go back, we may end up staying there. They had a little more to offer when it come to pleasures. The beaches were slightly better too, we actually could go swimming there. More restaurants and bars, but not too crowded. We had one crazy dancing maniac evening there. No one was dancing before we came. We kind of set the grounds there and the staff were very happy to see the upbeat of the place, so they even gave us free drinks. Not that we had time to drink so much, we were high on Love and dancing…

One of the days we were on the south side of Crete, we found another beatiful beach with no tourists and the sun were about to set, so we couldn’t resist the temptation to stay until sunset. The sunset were so much larger than back home in Sweden so we had quite a romantic moment there…. The sunset went much faster than we expected and we had forgotten how dark it gets at once, in Sweden in the summer it never really gets dark. So we had to drive home in total darkness on unknown (not the same way we came) narrow high mountain roads… We didn’t go fast I tell you, because there were no lights at the roads and no houses either!!!! Quite an adventure, we thought that we would be stuck up in the mountains and never see some civilization again. I begun to think: what about if the Jeep broke down up there? I had only a mini skirt and top, with flip-flops - how practical and nice wouldn’t that be up in the mountain in the night…? No flashlight in the car either, but then I remembered the cellphone - we could have used it as light and phoned the traveller agent. When driving by the first house we spotted, we were attacked by very angry dogs…. One were almost up in the jeep. Pheeew.

The Cretan diet is something I’m holding very dearly to my heart, of course since I’m the hungry monster. I can be very picky sometimes, but I loved the Greek food and the olives - say no more! Souvlaki, Moussaka, Saganaki and Tzatziki especially - I’m really starting to drool here - and their way of giving us the bill. They did bring us their speciality greek youghurt with honey (tasted very good) and Raki (their local alcohol, more like gas :-) on the house every time we should pay. And you had to taste the Raki and toast with the host, otherwise you were unpolite. It was quite a balance to keep there, because if you drank it all and looked too happy, they were quickly there with another one!

There was one day when Mr Lifecruiser did have to go without my kisses for very long because his lips were no honeymoon lips exactly! (Eating Kalamaria)

That was the day we drove to Crete’s most beautiful beach on the southeast side, Elafonisi beach, even called the Maldives of of Crete or the pink beach because of the pink color in the sand from the coral reef. Greece have wonderful clear water in the sea and at this beach it was amazingly cristal clear! There was the small islet creating a lagoon with turquoise water. I think it’s probably the most georgoius I’ve ever seen. Like a tropical island I imagine. Fine, white sand and perfectly shallow, not to much, not to little. Just perfect. No waves at all that day either. There are another beautiful beach, but on the northeast, Falassarna, with the same clear calm water and it was there a little lively (hungry!) fish took a tiny bit of my heel… I had a wound there from the shoes and I guess he liked the blood taste, because he kept attacking me. I must be very delicious… *lol*

Of course we also visited The famous Palace of Knossos - you can’t go to Crete and not visit Knossos - it would be like going to Paris without visiting The Eiffeltower! The numerous finds from the palace are all of exceptionally high quality art, pottery, vessels, figurines and wall-paintings which are all housed in Herakleion Museum. It’s connected with thrilling legends like the myth of the Labyrinth with the Minotaur and the story of Daidalos and Ikaros. But be prepared to have a lot of time to walk around, because it’s a lot to take in. (Virtual tour of Knossos)

Even the hotel staff were wonderful to us. The cleaning ladys were every day doing figures with the bed cover or the new towels, a flower, fish etc. They were so concerned over the fact that we only slept in one half of the bed - until they heard that we were on a honeymoon and wanted to lay that close to each other. As a matter of fact, we still does… We left them a nice message with some greek words we found in the dictionary and some good tip. They shouted and waved to us from the balcony the last day. They were so sweet.

To summarize all this: Crete is an amazing island with unbelievable scenery, amusements and interesting things to explore. I can totally understand why so many keep coming back. We will some day too - on a second honeymoon!

Click to see Lifecruisers photos from Crete. (And then click on the text “View as slideshow” up in the right corner of that window, to get the best viewing)

Tagged again by Sharlet and this time it was a difficult one. I mean, it’s like asking some normal person to list 6 normal things about her/him…

How to choose only 6 Weird Things About Me…?

1. I’m an Elite weird freak geek.
2. I would probably die without olives.
3. I’m a hungry monster and a petoholic.
4. I once told my family and friends that they were only allowed to phone me or visit me if they were really BORING, because laughing would be my fall.
5. I once had my halfnekkid bikini picture on this blog.
6. I once showed my tits in public.

How about YOU????? Have anything to confess?

Our Friday went by hunting for children clothes in Stockholm and surroundings, something for my niece’s daughter that’s having her 1 year birthday party tomorrow.

Despite the fact that we have had some baby booms, there weren’t many stores specialized on children clothes to find. The one that were, had a very small assortment. Too small for this little girl anyway, because we got orders not to buy anything pink or too girlie, she is going for the more cool fashion style.

And what did we find every where? Yes, pink girlie clothes!!! So this task wasn’t among the easy ones, but you know how stubborn I am, so eventually I hunted it down.

Imagine a dark little beauty with brown eyes walking around with these clothes! She’s going to be a heartbreaker when she gets older….

I took pictures of the gifts to, wrapped up and ready to give away. Some patterns she may like. (Click on the pictures to enlarge)

Blunder: In the gift in the middle is a white, very cute little bathrobe with a hood, but I was too fast and wrapped that one in before I had taken the photos…. So you have to stay curious of that one!

This happened during 2004-2005:

1. Our first romantic trip together, a short 48 hours cruise to Finland with a snow storm and me getting…uhum… stomach turnings, read about it here if you missed it:
The turbulent Finland cruise.

2. As soon as we came to Portugal the weather turned bad, it was excellent just before… It switched just like that [*poff*] when we landed there…

3. Bad weather in Paris except from the afternoon when Mr Lifecruiser proposed to me, when the sun was shining and the birds were chirping and the love flowing… which saved that memory for ever :-)

4. In Iceland, where we expected bad weather we got excellent weather, but Mr Lifecruiser got some kind of small whiplash injury from a rough jeep tour in the glacier area instead…

5. We had to cancel 2 months vacation in South Asia because we both got Pneumonia only weeks before the departure and then the Tsunami came…. We lost some money on the cancel, but we didn’t feel up to it by then. Too much pictures from the CNN news of the Tsunami were tormenting us in our minds. On top of that it often comes a lot of diseases afterwards. We were not in the shape of facing anything like that after our pneumonia. It took us months anyway to get well.

6. We had bad weather when we went to London (not that unusual ;-) except from a few hours the last day…

7. I had a very bad cold with fever for one week in Spain and the other week it was bad weather and they haven’t had that bad winter before that and spring weather for ages… But I guess we were somehow lucky, because we were in Fuerteventura which is an island near to Africa and in Madrid it even began to snow! Eeeek… See my goose pimples here or picture proof of my tissue fashion here.

8. One week before going to Scotland I got appendicitis and they had to remove my appendix. I went to Scotland anyway, but was “not really in shape”. Hm. I had to have the stitches removed somewhere and Miss Ass. Lifecruiser came up with a brilliant backup plan before the trip: a Vet! That made me feel really safe to go… But I did find a local hospital out on the islands. It was like being thrown back in time several decades… A very interesting experience that I wouldn’t want to be without! The doctor had a very long BEARD… but he was very professional.

9. It rained every day for about 4 weeks in a row when we were at Fårö (island outside Swedens east coast) last summer. During that time, there were also a lot of other unpleasant happenings I won’t write about here. Let’s just say that it made me and Mr Lifecruiser even more close to each other, if it’s possible to be closer… And I still count Fårö as the most beautiful recreation place ever.

10. We’ve been to the U.S. too, but as far as we count we still haven’t really been there. It was a catastrophy. We hadn’t planned that trip ourself like we use to and there was business and family matters involved too. The weather was not the problem this time. I even managed to lose 3 kilo (6,6 pounds) due to lack of food when we were there. I needed that extra weight, so it was a problem. Next time we go to the U.S. we’ll be fabulous, I’m sure, because we’ll plan it on our own.

11. In South America I had about two whole days before I got a very bad stomach infection. I was close to be needed to have some medical care, but bearly managed without it. It took me about two weeks to get kind of in shape again, before we had to travel to the next country. We had problems to get out of one country and had to pay penalty, because some jerk had put the wrong stamp in our passports and problems to get to the other. We missed our flight at the first stop because of wrong directions given by 3 different airport staff (!) and had to stay a night on a hotel which they had to pay. Almost a night, we came there late and was given an early flight the morning after. Which left us with about 4 hours of sleep.
When we arrived at our beach resort I had one wonderful afternoon there before I in the evening got fever and a sore throat… And my nose…pheeew, it was flooding… I had high fever and couldn’t eat much. The stomach problems came back too. All together with the U.S. trip I lost 9 kilo’s (19.8 pounds) and I wasn’t in need of that weight loss.

12. I may have some bad curse on me, don’t you agree after reading this…? *lol* (At least I’m highly susceptible to illnesses…)

13. Don’t even dare to say anything about our upcoming trip to Ireland…!

NOTE: Why I don’t give up travelling? Because I’m stubborn and crazy - I LOVE IT! It’s all about your own attitude - I decide to have a nice time and I am, despite all that. There is still a lot of very pleasant things in our tripsl too. It had been more boring to stay at home!

- And who knows, maybe I’ve filled my quota with the bad things now…?

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!