Summer is on its way...

...so they say, but who the h*** believes them?! They are always wrong. But like we say in Sweden: "There is no bad weather, only bad clothes." I.e. if you're cold when you're outside, it is because you don't wear enough clothes or clothes with bad quality.

Well, anyway, just wanted to update our blog a little bit. We have had friends from England over. L and K came for a weekend. It was great! Barbecue, lots of wine, lot of laughter, not too much rain, good food. Monsieur took K for a bike ride with Miss Sunshine:


We were supposed to go to Copenhagen, the five of us, but since the bbq we had the night before ended very late and after a few bottles of wine, we were not really up to it... L and K had to go by themselves two days later instead.

Monsieur is studying Swedish and will soon be fluent in my beautiful language. He just doesn't know it yet, and sometimes he looks like he wants to give up... He is, however, doing great - Swedish isn't an easy language to learn, that's for sure.

We will be back soon again with more news and more photos. Take care all of you!

By the way...

...we are still here. Monsieur arrived two days ago, I am busy, busy, busy with work, Miss Sunshine is busy, busy, busy just being Miss Sunshine and being with dad. And mom. The whole family is united. Almost. Xena la blonde isn't here. She's outside Paris. We thought about giving her all the necessary vaccine way too late, otherwise she would have been here with us since May. Hey, you can't win them all.

Summer in Sweden... Hat is a must. And scarf.*

Sister-in-law left Saturday. She was here for 4 weeks and it was great. She got to see a lot of southern Sweden - Malmö, Stockholm, Fåsjöhyttan (yes, that's were my uncle lives, in Bergslagen, and it's beauuuutiful) and Falkenberg. Important places that should be seen, especially, or only, in the summer. She was lucky, she had two weeks of brilliant weather. 30 degrees Celsius, no wind, only blue skies. And then autumn came back... Well, as a Swede, born and raised, you're kind of used to it. It sucks, but you're not surprised. Not at all. It's Swedish "summer". But as a non-Swede, non-Scandi, non-Brit, it must be pretty tough to live here all year long. First you have winter, then spring arrives for a moment, actually quite a long moment, then summer blinks and winks to you, and then autumn arrives. Here in the south autumn is loooong, winter very short, spring long, and summer as described above.

Summe in Sweden at its best - 30 degrees and sun.*

And now I have spoken too much about nothing and really have to go back to my movie. Just wanted to say hi! if there is someone actually reading this blog. Otherwise I say hi! to my invisible friends and guardian angels.

*The two photos are taken in the same one or two week period... From summer to autumn and back again...

News

Hey! We're still here! And we haven't forgotten about our blog, but time has been short and we've been away and Monsieur isn't here and...and...and... ;-) Well, here are some nice photos from our trip to Stockholm. My lovely sister-in-law is here, helping me out with Miss Sunshine, and summer is here as well. 25 degrees every day. Not bad, not bad at all. But we are missing Monsieur a lot. :-(

On our way to Stockholm we stopped for a *- - -* and had a banana next to a home for old people and next to a small river. Nice. My dear friend O took the picture. It was a long trip and I was 40 minutes late for my meeting in central Stockholm, but we arrived safe and sound. Or almost - the car was damaged: a stone flew up from the road and hit the windscreen, which had to be changed.

Saturday we went to Lycé Francais in Stockholm. My best friend Mulle's daughter attend that school and they had a happening. There was, of course, a huge playground that Miss Sunshine had to try out.

And talking about playgrounds, next to the library in Stockholm there is a really nice playground with tricycles you can borrow.

The very last day in Stockholm we found a sightseeing boat with reasonable prices. One hour 120 SEK for all three of us.

We had a great stay in Stockholm, but hey, it is good to be home again. :-)

Helper

Miss Sunshine has started to help us with different things:

Do the dishes... It's...wet. Surprise, surprise! But it's fun. :-)

Gardening.... Even more fun, especially when you mix water and dirt...

Casque

Miss Sunshine a un nouveau casque. Et un nouveau porte bébé. Et elle aime le deux roux. La vitesse, les cheveux dans le vent. C'est magnifique, formidable, super et encore super!

Malmö

Here we are again, this time in Malmö, my lovely home town. It greeted us with great weather, 26 degrees Celsius and no wind. Summer! That changed yesterday. The sun is still here but the wind is back, the chilly wind we have here in the south. Summer was short this year... Just kidding, this was only the beginning, the real summer arrives later. Around July, hopefully... Until then we are prepared for everything - rain, hail, storm, snow...

That is, however, nothing compared to the weather in other parts of the world. Last week's news were filled with reports from Burma after the tornado. Tonight I saw the horrible and sad pictures from the area hit by the earthquake yesterday in China. I realize how lucky I have been growing up in a part of the world where the catastrophes are few. But who knows, with the climate changing it might happen here as well in a near future.

Well, back again to Malmö and our way back to tranquility. The trip back went well. 13,5 hours drive, not included breaks, Paris - Malmö via Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Denmark. Miss Sunshine had fever the whole way, and since it was her third day with fever we went straight to the doctor on arriving to Malmö. Of course she got better as soon as we entered the doors to the doctor...

The worse thing on the road are the lorries
which persist to overtake other lorries.
They block the whole traffic!!!
And for what?
Arriving one minute earlier than if they hadn't?!

Saturday night we went to V:s birthday's party. Lots of good wine, straight from France, and good food, and great company. Laughing, singing, dancing... Sunday was picnic day with really old friends. Real pros - they had chairs, tables, and parasols with them. We had blankets and sat in the shadow... We've got a lot to learn... ;-)

We tried archery Sunday.
That was fun. But difficult. Not my future sport.

Monsieur is leaving us on Thursday for 1,5 months. We have decided not to think about it. This will not make it easier on Thursday, but it makes it easier for the moment. Miss Sunshine is close to her dad's heels all the time. I think she knows that he's soon leaving. Children are not stupid, they sense things straight away. Well, well, 1,5 months pass quickly. And we always have Skype. It makes it a lot easier. But not easy.

Fishy

Had a barbecue last night. It was lovely. We had fish. Dorades in French, don't know the name in English. Should look it up but I am lazy. I think it is something similar. Here they are anyway:

Miss Sunshine was ill, but could help her father barbecue. You know, barbecuing is a serious business. Don't disturb the ones who are in charge - they might give you the evil eye...

Miss Sunshine, far away from her normal "sunshiny" self.
Well, high fever can break anyone down.

Finally the fish were ready. Four huge ones for five persons. Perfect! A nice white wine to that and an extremely tasty Terrine de chocolat truffée à la fraise for dessert. Can it be better???

We are now preparing for leaving France and heading north to Malmö and Sweden. The weather is outstanding, both here in France and in Malmö. Summer already in May? Hmm, there's something fishy going on. Climate change big time. But, hey, after a long, dreadful autumn and winter, the Swedes are worth it. We, howevere, have been in Spain and have had nice weather most of the time, so we can't complain. Anyway, we are leaving tonight if not Miss Sunshine's fever rises. If so, we have to wait til tomorrow. But on Saturday we have to be in Sweden, because we have the wine for the party we are invited to....