2nd generation

Lucas came home from school last week all giddy and told us that they had been trying out instruments during music lesson, and he really wanted to start taking lessons in playing the clarinet!
So we thought, music is a very good thing to know, and a genuine interest coming from himself, needed to be fed. Of course he should be taking clarinet lessons!

So we had to pay a bond to be able to borrow a clarinet from school, so he can practice at home, and yesterday was the first day he brought the clarinet home.
He very proudly showed off how to open and close the case, how small the case looked - because the clarinet was actually in pieces inside it, how to mount the instrument together, and how to line up all the keywork - and we were even so lucky as to get treated to a little concert..!

Well, would you believe it, but he will actually be the second generation clarinetist in the family! Apart from piano and percussion, I played the clarinet for quite a while in my youth. I was even part of the 'Skara Musikskolas Paradorkester', the local marching band. Many, many good memories from those years, and I still have good friends I made through the 'Skara Musikskola' (=our local Music School). Can you spot me?

I'm really happy Lucas is taking to music, it warms my heart. (What it does to my ears at the moment... that's a different story, ha ha..!)

A long lasting friendship

Another old friend of mine came to visit us today, Jenny. Well, she's not that old, but we've known each other since we were 12. That's when I moved out here to the countryside and she used to live in another house along the same road, not very far from here.

We went for a walk together this morning around our old "hoods", and it felt like we had entered some sort of weird time warp! So many memories, so many laughs!

No rain today! Just lovely, lovely sunshine!

I'm really lucky to have some friends like these, that are prepared to make an effort traveling, for us to meet. 

Erika made a big detour to come here, while going from Växjö to Nyköping (Skara is not quite "on the way") then home to Stockholm; and Jenny lives outside Uppsala. She had traveled many hours on the train just to come and see us! 

Thank you both!

Circus Boel

As I've mentioned before, the current theme at school for Linnea and the rest of the Year 2 is 'Circus'. Of course Linnea disclosed all information to her teacher about my previous experiences with the circus - so, I was asked to come in to class and talk a bit about that. Today was the day, and 2 out of 3 Year 2 classes were gathered to hear what I had to tell!

I'd been preparing by asking my parents to scan through some photos that I could show, and both them and I have had a lovely trip down memory lane the past weeks, reminiscing over these pictures...

You see, my father is magician by trade.
He doesn't perform anymore but ever since I was all little, I've been his assistant on and behind the stage and even occasionally participated in some of the bigger illusions.
Look at this photo, aaahhh, don't they just look so elegant!

We used to travel around Sweden with the circus too when I was younger and that's why I have a pretty good idea of what circus life is all about!
Here are some of the photos I showed the kids at school today:

Fabulous snaps from the late 70s, early 80s!
Here's a slightly later one:

It was great fun talking to the kids, they were very excited and very attentive. They had prepared questions and were very curious. F.e they wondered what the elephant got to eat, how it was living in a caravan and if I got fat eating so much candy floss (I told them I was allowed to eat all I wanted!)!

And here's one last circus related photo, quite suited too - my parents were pretty elaborate and creative when it came to their gingerbread house building..! :)

Nostalgia is a thing of the past

At the swimming hall the other day, I also bumped into someone I used to know a very long time ago. He is actually probably my first friend.
This was quite a coincidence, as he doesn't live around here anymore either, but was back at the moment visiting his parents.

Jesper and I used to live on the same street in town when we were kids. We used to play all the time and were best friends. We got up to all sorts of fun together! That was, until I started school a couple of years ahead of him, and then thought he was too small to play with... :/

It was nice to catch up, some 30+ years later, both with him and his parents. I went straight back home with a smile on my face and dug out the only photo I have of us together from back then.
Look how cute we were in our clogs, stripey socks and suspenders! :)

Down memory lane

This afternoon Nathan and I took on the understairs storage cupboard in an attempt to find something we have been looking for for a while. (The understairs storage was the last place to look in, and yes, we found what we were looking for!)

We took the opportunity to rearrange all our empty boxes and other things under there, and the kids got hold of their "memory boxes" I have for them. Boxes filled with mementos, a little bit of everything from the scans from when they were in my tummy, to Kindy creations, special things they've made, special gifts to newspaper clippings with them and lots more.

They had such a great time looking through all their "old" things, took them most of the afternoon!

Cheeky cheeks!

I'm continuing my huge work with sorting all our old photos.
I have now reached June 2004 and just have to share this one, one of my absolute favourite photos of Lucas. He's 5 months here.

Retro

I've been spending the last few days copying old photos from my back-up hard drives onto my computer (now that I have the storage space for them all on here), to make it easier to find and navigate amongst them.
My master plan is to create photo books eventually, one for each year. Only having the photos on the computer doesn't really showcase them much.

This means I have gone through ALL our photos from when we started dating back in early 2001... My gosh, so many memories!

Here's a few retro ones, from the summer of 2001:









We haven't changed that much in ten years... right?

Water for elephants

One of the girls from my Book Club took a great initiative this week and organized a little movie outing for those interested. In the end there was 12 of us girls going, and we had a great evening.
We went to see the movie "Water for elephants", based on a book by the same title, that most of them had read. Although I hadn't read this book I decided to come along - a movie night is always fun!

When they told me the movie (/book) was called "Water for elephants", I thought it was going to be a movie along the lines of "Out of Africa" or something similar, set in the savannah, about wild animals maybe?
Well, I got positively surprised just before we went into the cinema when someone told me it was all about circus life.
As a former circus child, I got super excited - and I can tell you, the movie didn't let me down! It was magical!



I probably would have done a different casting with some less famous main actors, to make the story shine more, but that's just my opinion. (Plus, I thought these two had lousy "on-screen chemistry"...).
A part from that I so enjoyed how they depicted the whole circus setting. Even though it was set in the 1930s, there was a lot of things that were familiar to me. The cinematography and the costumes were really amazing - as was the third main actor, the elephant!
It was for sure a movie worth going to see, and I'm going to find myself the book and read that as well. The book is always better, no?

Ten years ago

Ten years ago was a Wednesday. Although it was in the middle of the week - it was actually party time!
The airline I worked for back then had a big party and me and a lot of my friends were really geared up for a good night.
I still remember what I was wearing (and I still have that dress..!). I still remember going to my friends before for a drink. I still remember getting the bus there. I still remember most things about that evening, it was indeed a very good night!

Amongst other things that happened, there was this pilot there who kind of stood out, because we didn't have any foreigners in our company and this one spoke English? Odd. Turned out he had been brought along by one of our pilots, and he actually worked for another airline.
However, he was dead annoying! He seemed to take a fancy to me and everywhere I went, he was just there - by the toilets, at the dance floor, between me and the bar - every time.

Nothing happened that night. I danced the night away, had a few too many "Brandbiler" & "Ragnar" and went home alone.
But, that was the beginning. That very annoying pilot who had crashed our party, that was Nathan. Ten years ago today, we met for the first time.
Ten years already - and look where we are today! ♥

Sweet memories

All the flights to Singapore were really full this weekend, and since it was important for us to get over there in time for the race we decided to try already on Friday evening to get seats.
To our great relief - we did! The Captain was kind enough to release the jump seats for us.

Two of us had to sit in the flight deck, which we didn't mind of course, Misuzu and I went out there. It's been quite a while since I last traveled in the flight deck and it was really nice to be out there again. Misuzu and I had the best view of the flight, for sure!





When the flight attendants brought out our meal I couldn't stop smiling..! It really brought memories back from my days in the air, balancing the tray on your knees while enjoying some coffee from a double plastic cup! Those were the days.. *sigh*...

Palm trees

The other day at the Yacht Club, I was sitting there looking at all the pretty palm trees, reminiscing a bit. I remember vividly the first time I saw a palm tree, in it's natural habitat so to speak.

I was 16 years old and was going on a school trip to Rome, with my latin (the language) class. It was the first time ever I went on a plane, and the first time ever I was going to stay in a hotel! If only I'd known then, that was going to be what I was going to do for a living in the future!
It was also the first time I saw a palm tree. Along the road side, from the transfer bus to the hotel. I was in awe.

If only I'd have known then I was going to live in the jungle when I grew up...

Reminiscing

I'm reminiscing a bit tonight, and can't help but show you these photos from Easter 2007, in the UK. I can't remember why they were laughing so hard, but we sure had fun: