This was a bit unusual way to use a paper, wouldn’t you say? We spotted this car in Fuerteventura, Spain and thought it looked very funny.

The car keep an eye on you… *giggles*

Last Cyber Cruise Event:
Chinese Food Song and Dance in Oslo
Välkomna till Fulufjället

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After the very interesting discussion in my last post (participate you too!), I think we need a Friday joke :-)

The Captain quickly realized that the deep leaning at the rail at top sundeck had unceremoniously dispatched the top part of her bikini into the deep.

To not make any one else feeling awkward, she clasped her arms across her chest and made a dash for her cabin. She could sense everyone gawking at her along the way.

Upon entering the deck stairs a little boy, who was following his mother to the beach asked, pointing to her arms:

- “Are you carrying puppies in there?”

Not wanting to explain what had really happened, the Captain replied:

-”Why yes, yes they are”.

She quickly moved on but heard the boy shout after her:

-”If you’re giving them away I’ll take the one with the pink nose!”

Well, I think I’ll keep my puppies to myself… and for Mr Lifecruiser of course! *giggles*

Last Cyber Cruise Event:
♥ Gorges du Tarn, France
♥ Key West Paradise, Florida
♥ Murphys law meets Mr Turtle on the Maui Cruise (14 Sept & forward)

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I believe that’s a bit misleading facts, since many Swedes only belongs to the church because up to 1996 in Sweden, you were automatically a member of the Swedish Church when you were born - as long as you didn’t manually cancel your membership.

Many Swedes have during the latest years (since the seventies) done just that - step out from the Swedish Church. The main reason for it is that many Swedes don’t have the faith at all - or have a very weak faith in God - and the membership costs you money. You have to pay Church tax if you’re a member - for something you don’t even believe in.

Since 1996, only children that are baptized automatically become members of the Swedish church, which means that the number is decreasing for every year. The Church of Sweden services are very sparsely attended nowadays.

Personally I don’t know any one that attend church services regularly.

We’re just not brought up being active Christians and you know how hard coded everything is that you learn as a child. Only 3 out of 10 Swedes state that they have confidence in the church and only 1 in 10 Swedes thinks religion is important in daily life. Of course that is inherited.

You have to bear in mind that Sweden is a very open-minded country, often at the forefront of change. Maybe it is our heritage from the Norse paganism, when we were worshiping Æsir gods before the eleventh century, I don’t know…

Swedes are characterized by a general confidence in values of liberty and a positive view of frankness, tolerance, trust, and respect for other people, according to a study carried out by Uppsala University.

In the secularized Sweden the church is forced to be very liberal and open to a modern delivery of the Christian faith, which hasn’t been the fact earlier, but might be in change lately. Otherwise the Swedes might feel like the church is too authoritarian – an attitude that modern Swedes simply won’t accept.

Even the mottoes of the Swedish King and Queens has been changed, the last time God were mentioned in a motto was in 1809. Before that God were mentioned in almost every Kings’ motto.

Swedes have had civil marriages since in 1863 and it has been very common for a long period. Recently the church marriages has increased, but mostly because of traditions and because it’s a beautiful or practical place - not from faith in God. To be married in a Swedish church only requires that at least one of the pair is a member of the Lutheran Church of Sweden.

The continue of traditions is very important for Swedes, even traditions that from the beginning were religious, but today the religious meaning is almost gone. We still hold those traditions. (Easter, Christmas etc).

Cut from Wikipedia:

“According to the most recent Eurostat “Eurobarometer” poll, in 2005, 23% of Swedish citizens responded that “they believe there is a god”, whereas 53% answered that “they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force” and 23% that “they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, god, or life force”.

Sweden ranks aside with France and Russia on having a large minority of its citizens who have no religion.

Independent of these statistics, it is generally known that Swedish society, collectively, is comparatively secular and non-religious.“

I remember being the only one that refused to go to the confirmation (in the seventies). My classmates did, but not for the right reason - not a single one of them believed in God - they only did it because it’s tradition and for the nice confirmation gifts they would get.

I’ve always been like that, not following the stream, but following my beliefs, even if that has made me the only one going against the stream. My conscious won’t let me do it any other way, it’s as simple as that.

I can’t lie. That’s also the reason for me telling you this, since I feel like it would be false not to tell you my opinion in the matter.

Personally I find it impossible, in this enlightened time we live in now, to believe in something so very abstract and none secular thing as a God up there in the atmosphere. It feels very unreal to me, who is a very realistic person. I face the reality I have in front of me.

I do think that a lot of things that religion hold as sacred, as in the commandments, are positive things, but I just don’t think that it has anything with religion to do - it should be natural to every human being without even being religious.

We are all humans and should look after humanity, not separate us through different religions.

I’ve seen many Christian blogrolls on the internet, but so far, I’ve only found one atheist blogroll. I think it might have something to do with the fact that many persons don’t feel comfortable to come forward with their atheism, since it’s so heavily attacked comparing to if you’re admitting your faith in God.

I believe that every one is entitled to have their own opinion and mine is that there is no God or Gods, so I’ve joined this blogroll, since I feel like that we have the same rights as Christians have to express our opinions.

Join

I expect you to respect my atheism, just as I will respect your faith in God.

I don’t dislike you if you do have a faith in God or harass any one because of their faith - but I might discuss it with you - all in very friendly terms. Just as I would discuss any other subject where we disagree with each others.

In fact, I do hope that you grab this golden opportunity to discuss this subject here and now!

I don’t believe in God, but I do believe in humanity, friendship and love over the borders :-)

Last Cyber Cruise Event:
♥ Key West Paradise, Florida
♥ Murphys law meets Mr Turtle on the Maui Cruise (14 Sept & forward)

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Shiver me timbers!!! Mar did tip us that it’s Talk Like A Pirate Day today!!!!

Last Cyber Cruise Event:
♥ Key West Paradise, Florida
♥ Murphys law meets Mr Turtle on the Maui Cruise (14 Sept & forward)

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After splitting for a while one of them seek up the other to hold hand again… Awwww…

NOTE: Otter = Utter in Swedish. Hence the double meaning in The Utterly Love :-)

In today’s cyber cruise stop’s:

First we have a last minute surprise stop over at Sanni: Key West Paradise, Florida !

Later on tonight we have some wonderful Chinese Dancing over at RennyBA’s Terella! Postponed, more info later!

Last Cyber Cruise Event:
♥ The Drottningholm Palace Church
♥ Murphys law meets Mr Turtle on the Maui Cruise (14 Sept & forward)

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The Drottningholm Palace Church was designed and erected by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder. It’s built joined to the Palace left side with a door connection into the Palace. It was completed by his son in May, 1746.

Both of them built several Palace’s during their lives, remember that he made Drottningholm Palace as a miniature Versailles? His son built the Stockholm Palace inspired by the Louvre. Sweden were very influenced by France at this time, they even did speak French at the court.

Some of you may recognize it as the church where Mr Lifecruiser and I got married. Normally you don’t have to pay to be married (within your parish) in Sweden, but this church is a bit special, so you have to pay a fee to get married. They only hold services here for the parish the last Sunday every month.

We had another church in mind at first, but unfortunately it closed for renovations just at the time for our wedding. Since we had a rather small wedding with just the closest friends and family, we wanted a small church and that’s not so easy to find in Stockholm.

The Church weddings has been on the way back again now for several years in Sweden, it has been away for many years, since not many of us Swedes attend church services nowadays at all.

To choose a church wedding for us Swedes today, is more a choice of a nice tradition and not of faith.

This day when these photos are taken, there had been a wedding ceremony and the wedding couple came out of the church while we were passing, making us remembering when we ourselves did that…. Awwwww… These lovely memories!

Funny thing is that we didn’t know - then - that exactly 260 years earlier than our own wedding, in August 1744, the Swedish Crown Prince Adolf Fredrik and his bride Lovisa Ulrika of Prussia’s got married in the same church!

We had choosen our 18th century styled wedding clothes without knowing this. The Drottningholm music we did choose as our entrance music without knowing this, was composed and played especially for that crown prince wedding by Johan Helmich Roman (1694-1758), a Swedish Baroque composer, more known as the Swedish music’s ancestor.

Though their festivities lasted four days - I’d have loved to have that long festivities at our wedding too! We’ve said that we want to have our wedding feast once more, but without the wedding ceremony, because we had such a fun wedding :-)

I can’t resist to mention that this was the Swedish King that died of digestion problems in 1771 after having eaten 14 (!) servings of his favorite dessert: Semla! Or maybe rather all the other things he had eaten before the Semla: lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, kippers and drinking champagne - now thats a king in my taste!

No wonder that Mr Lifecruiser is so fond of Semla…. *giggles*

Personally I love that it’s rather small and round. Even the church benches inside is placed in a circle, which makes it more unique. The church visitors get more centralized and closer to the wedding couple.

The church organ, a Cahman with only 6 head voices is from 1730 built by Swedens most famous organbuilder and still in use - which can be quite challenging to play on and get it to sound right, since you miss 2 voices. You can get a glimpse of it in this photo.

One very big and impressing lamp is hanging from high up in the ceiling with lots, lots of candles in it. It don’t look big at these photos, but it is! I can’t recall how many it is or how high up this is, but I do remember that they only light them at special occasions because it’s so difficult to light them at that height!

They have a very old and precious baptismal font which they still use.

When the Royal family is attending the church, they have their own balcony.

Another noteworthy item is the traditional church tapestry with the symbol with the three Swedish crowns on it, which was made by King Gustaf V of Sweden, who even was born at Drottningholm Palace and was our king 1907-1950.

Personally I find it difficult to imagine men doing broderies (especially back then!) and I don’t like it very much either, but it sure is unique ;-)

See Lifecruiser’s Drottningholm Palace Church photos in large as a slideshow.

Last Cyber Cruise Event:
♥ The Drottningholm Palace Park
♥ Murphys law Maui Cruise (Post 2)
♥ Maui - with Murphy’s law (14 Sept & forward)

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Welcome to the park at Drottningholm (= Queen’s islet) Palace, which actually is the offical permanent home of the Swedish Royal family, even if there is another palace too in the Stockholm city.

The King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia decided it would be the best for their children to grow up outside the big city, as the wise parents they are :-)

Here are some postcards with the Royal family pictures, The King and Queen, Princess Victoria (which is going to be our next queen!), Princess Madeleine and Prince Carl Philip, so you know how they look - in case you should meet them… *giggles*

The Palace is situated 15km (9 miles) west of central Stockholm on the island Lovön and it’s the one closest to the mainland, connected to the other islands we’ve been visiting lately.

Not only the Royal family enjoys the green lush there, but also a lot of Stockholmers go there to have a picnic in this lovely park. As you can see, the park has a lot of ponds and canals which make it even more refreshing.

Or maybe have a romantic moment in the pavilion? *giggles*

The Palace was rebuilt in the late 16th century (after a fire burnt down the first building) by the famous Swedish architect Nicodemus Tessin the Elder, though he died in 1681, so his son Nicodemus Tessin the Younger continued his work. It has hosted several Royal Swedes up to now.

Drottningholm Palace was also Sweden’s first contribution to The World Heritage List in 1991, not only because of the Palace which is considered a Swedish Versailles, but even for the garden, the Palace’s antique theatre and a unique Chinese Pavilion hosted on the grounds too.

The oldest part of the gardens were created at the end of the 17th century under the direction of a former Swedish queen, Hedwig Eleonora. The father and son Tessin led the project that created a baroque garden right outside the main palace, flanked by thick tree avenues.

The many bronze statues in the park were created by the artist Adrian de Vries, one of the Northern Europe’s most prominent renaissance sculptors. Some of them were spoils of war from Prague and some of them, like the Hercules and the Neptune statue is from Fredriksborgs Palace in Denmark.

Queen Hedvig Eleonora’s garden included a series of cascades as a back drop to the Water parterre. These were built between 1685 and 1705 and designed by architect Nicodemus Tessin the younger, inspired by similar designs in France and Italy. The old construction were dismantled in 1820 and were reconstructed another way as late as in 1961.

The Royal guards are allowed to answer if you ask them questions and they’re even allowed to smile, which I find very nice instead of all that stone dead faces!!!

Drottningholm Palace Theater, an antique opera actually, is perfectly preserved from 1766 and one of the main reasons for being at the world heritage list.

We’re not going in there today though. It’s probably not allowed to take photos there anyway, as anywhere else in the Palace.

Some one that’s into big cannon’s?

…or maybe some other interests…? *giggles*

After admiring all this, I got hungry! No surprise…. *giggles*

So we went to The Drottningholm Pavilion Restaurant for some beer and lighter meal and to just sit down and enjoy the nice sunshine and people passing by.

I had a Groque monsieur and Mr Lifecruiser Roastbeef with horseradish and onion, but do you think that we remembered to took any photos of it? No! *giggles*

So, anyone that want to have a taste of Swedish Princess Kisses? *giggles*

We also has some more photos at Flickr:
Lifecruisers Drottningholm photos in large
Lifecruisers Drottningholm Slideshow photos

Last Cyber Cruise Event:
♥ Murphys law Maui Cruise (Post 2)
♥ Maui - with Murphy’s law (14 Sept & forward)

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A local girl at the Canarian island of Fuerteventura in Spain, taking care of the captured fish that day.

PS. EvNucci is back! So she started now to guide us at awesome ♥ Maui - with Murphy’s law - be prepared for more to come!

Last Cyber Cruise Event:
♥ Gaustadtoppen and Rjukan waterfall: Norwegian Natural Treasure
♥ Mountain Life – The spirit of the Norwegian soul

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Meet Captain Lifecruiser face to face

All photos is from this summer. Not scared away yet? Keep on reading :-)

I’ve lived all my life in the capital of Sweden, Stockholm. I grow up with 2 older sisters and one brother, which is very educational. You learn to make allowances, teamwork and to share what you have with others.

Though my older sisters said very disappointed the first time they laid eyes on me: “She looks like a chicken….” (Not at all the little cute doll they had hoped for!)

No wonder chicken is no favorite food of mine! *giggles*

I love all animals. All my childhood I spent with dogs and horses. When I became a teenager I switched that to boys… *giggles*

I spent 20 years of my life on an IT career: IT helpdesk operator, Helpdesk Manager, Technician for IT Networks, Remedy Application Developer, Server Management, IT Project Manager and the last one: IT Consultant. For several years I had 3 of those positions at the same time! No need to say I worked too much.

My back put an end to that in 2001 and since then I have got other health issues too that I’m very bored talked about. I only mention them because you shall understand why I’m not always visiting your blog. I’m stubborn, butt sometimes even I’ve to admit that I’m defeated.

I had a 27 years long relationship that was ended before I met Mr Lifecruiser, no kids though. I believe that you must be able to take care of your child in a proper way and that never was the case. Sad yes, but I refused to be selfish. Doing the aftermath, it was a wise decision.

I met Mr Lifecruiser in Dec 2003 through an internet meeting place. We’ve built a rock solid ground of friendship, love, understanding and having fun together and that will go on for at least 40 more years to come. Then we’ll sit down and negotiate about the next 40 years… If we still remember anything… *giggles*

My biggest interest nowadays is to travel, since I had done practically none in my earlier life! I plan to go on with the real trips we’ve already done, not only the cyber cruise trips I’ve started here on The Lifecruiser Ship!

Besides health issues going on, I’m temporarily tied up of some duties, butt soon….

♥ I live, enjoy, love life today - you’ll never know if it’s too late tomorrow…

Anyone else who would like to participate???

Step 1: Post a short article with you photograph(s).
Step 2: Include links to other people that have displayed a photo, or include their photos in your post, adding a reference. Include a link back to Airey’s post: The Face Behind The Blog Collection.
Step 3: Tag as many others as you like in your post to spread the meme.
Step 4: E-mail Airey and he will list you on the original post. (This step is not required but unless you do this step, the whole point of the network is gone.)

If you want to do a link exchange with your The face Behind The Blog post, leave me your link in the comments and I’ll add you here :-)

A-Team Cruisers Faces:

♥ Mar’s Face
♥ Renny’s Face

A-Swab Team Cruisers Faces:

♥ Chase’s Face
♥ KayKay’s Face

Other Lovely Faces:

♥ Leanne’s Face
♥ Jen’s Face

PS. EvNucci is back! So she started now to guide us at awesome ♥ Maui - with Murphy’s law!

Last Cyber Cruise Event:
♥ Gaustadtoppen and Rjukan waterfall: Norwegian Natural Treasure
♥ Mountain Life – The spirit of the Norwegian soul

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2) We’re absolutely thrilled! Jumping up and down of excitement! Corking up the champagne bottle! Spraying the whole place with gigglewater!

3) I was pretty sure of which one I wanted to hire already before, butt as I’m very nit-picking I simply had to check around a bit at other blog designers too. Just to chill down my conscious…

4) And…. after checking around at blog designers all over the blogosphere, I finally came back to the number one choice I had in mind all the time from the beginning, so I could have saved myself a lot of work…. *giggles*

5) You’re all dying to know now, I know, so let me just say: Leanne, the goddess of blog designs has accepted!!!

6) If you don’t know her: Leanne Wildermuth, the extremely talented, humorous, super duper master photographer, painter, blog designer and blogger Leanne. Haven’t you seen her work? Oh, cruiser, then you have missed one of the big in the blogosphere!!!!

7) She makes so wonderful paintings, very realistic ones of animals, people, candy or peoples pets - Debbie ordered of her cats remember? I tell you these are real eye candy!

8) Don’t take a look at Leanne’s portfolio, because she’s a true artist by nature and you might get stuck there for ever!!! And the photography makes me green of envy!!! Especially of the Hummingbirds….

9) I love the fact that she has very reasonable prices too, considering that this is handmade pure artist work. No fast art exactly. She is so dedicated to her work and also use to show the proceeding in some of her ordered work at her blog. It’s amazing to follow one of her paintings from scratch!

10) The blog makeover will be started around the beginning of October, so some time in the middle of October she should be ready with it - if nothing unexpected happens.

11) I had a loooong list with whishes, so I hope she don’t think it’s too much steering from the Captain ;-)

12) Leanne was also the one that started the meme Thursday Thirteen and how fun haven’t that been to all the participants? Talking about spreading bloggers love hah?

13) More details about the blog makover will come later!!! Especially when all the FUN begins!!! Oh, and of course we will have a blog warming party to celebrate the new ship interior!!!

PS. Don’t forget to jump over to RennyBa’s Terella and experiencing ♥ Gaustadtoppen and Rjukan waterfall: Norwegian natural treasure! (by Diane!!!!)

Last Cyber Cruise Event:
♥ Mountain Life – The spirit of the Norwegian soul
♥ Edinburgh Castle, Scotland

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