Video blog: Just dropping by to say HELLO!

Totally un-glamourous.......directly from the sofa, cosy clothes and all, after a day at work...I didn't even bother to powder my nose....or plan what to say for that matter.......just to be sure you get to "meet" me and not, let's call it, a polished version of me ;))

Will try to make it a monthly thing and in the future with some content that you would normally read here, unless I realize that it will scare away all you readers! Ha ha haaaa!

xox

Auf Wiedersehen, Schaffhausen!

So it's a fact.....I have moved out of our Schaffhausen apartment (Chris still has a few more days there;)) and on Friday, it is time for us to move into our new home in Essertines-sur-Rolle. Soooooo exciting!!!


Today I'm blogging from the train back to Rolle. I am extremely tired.....tired but happy! Yesterday we had our moving out party and all though it's always sad to say goodbye, in a way it was also a great feeling to realize that the room was filled with people we will be seeing again, so it's not really goodbyes after all........this may sound like an "Well of course it's not a goodbye" to some of you, but you see, when you are an expat (or let's call it a "non-local" "non-permanent resident"), you simply can't always take that for granted....


We had a nautical theme and we spend the whole Friday evening and Saturday preparing. It was soooo much fun!!! Here some pictures to give you a flavor!

I baked some marine themed cookies

....and put them on "a beach" (well, it was brown sugar and cocoa powder ;))

....and I also baked some Cupcakes (of course)!!!

Can you find Nemo? ;)

Setting the scene.....one last time in Schaffhausen

We were "Popeye"

....and Olive =)

Sub's.....but these were special Yellow Submarines ;)

"A beer anyone?"

Mingling

.....like out of a movie =))

Some great, not drunken, sailors ;)

.....and the evenings Theme Quiz

I hope you all had a lovely weekend!
xox

Welcome back, Dear Appetite!!

So another weekend has come and gone. This one with more uncertainty for me than most as I have been recovering from the stomach flu from HELL since Monday night... When I say that my appetite is back however, I'm not only referring to the appetite for solid foods, but rather the appetite for life!! Partially, it was the contrast of being so miserable this past week that makes the RIGHT NOW feel so good.....but I think it's also the feeling of finally having managed to offload something else, namely negative energy....heaps of it!! Everything from bad and sad past memories to irritation and anger....heavy things....things that stick until the bandaid is ripped off....things that stick until drastic solutions are implemented.....solutions like a permanent change of environment.


I feel so good in this new place and at my new job. I feel inspired, fresh, happy and ready to tackle whatever new challenges life has to bring!! I mean it!! You wanna rumble? Bring it ON =)) My batteries are fully charged and I feel like I could move mountains!! 


I don't think I have EVER looked so much forward to moving into a new home. I can't wait to seep in the atmosphere of our new village, to walk the surrounding forests, to get to know the local people and culture and to familiarize myself with the nearby villages and cities. I wanna sip on lip-burning-hot-chocolates in the little cafes....visit all the little antique shops, try the local cheeses, chocolates and wines and read a newspaper on a park bench by the lake. I wanna go running in the the vineyards in the morning before the fog has lifted and get my shoes damp as a consequence. I can't wait to see this place when it snows!! Especially watching it fall from the inside of one of the little charming restaurants while having a simple, candle light dinner. I wanna go skiing again and come home, exhausted, and cook a divine cheese fondue and swallow every single bite down with the help of a nice, white wine......


This Saturday, I was in dire need of fresh air and an environment that would bring me views other than our bedroom ceiling which was getting all too familiar and so, we decided to walk around in Lausanne in the afternoon. It was an enchanting afternoon, with golden leaves slowly and silently falling down from the trees while sunshine peaked through their branches and I must admit that I think I have fallen a bit, all though light heartedly, in love with this charming little city. I feel as if the emptiness that "my culture and shopper heart" has endured for the past few years has lifted and my cravings for variety will finally be silenced here. It is not big and stunning like New York....or as fresh and beautiful as Stockholm.....but it somehow feels like home.

Lausanne

Chris, enjoying one of the many views we had of Lausanne this afternoon....

There are no words that can express how happy I am that there is Starbucks in Lausanne!!

I bought a new winter coat.....and as you can see, I love it!!

Such a beautiful fall afternoon...

We found a new promising cheese store =p

...and we were ridiculously happy with the range of goat cheeses!

I wish you all a nice ending to this weekend and lots of happiness in the coming week.
xox

Reflections of an awkward business traveller.....

My line of work occasionally/periodically requires a lot of traveling and most of the time, I travel alone. After numerous occasions of dining alone in hotel restaurants, I can't help but wonder if there is anyone out there who has the perfect solution to make them feel less awkward about that? Seriously.... What is it?? I feel pretty confident, I am not scared to speak in front of a big audience (especially not if I know my subject well), I am 32 years old, I've been around.......so why, WHYYYYY do I always feel so incredibly weird and awkward, dining alone? It's not as if this is something rare or out of the ordinary....in fact, quite the opposite....
Anyway, eating is a must (well, at least for me!! I'm not exactly one of those "poking-in-my-dinner-kind-of-gals" ;)), so confession time...... When I'm dining alone, I usually.....


Order room service to spare myself of this whole awkwardness
This is my most frequent solution.....a bit like sticking my head in the sand....I know....


Play with my iPhone, pretending to look extremely busy 
This is my favorite....rather practical as the iPhone is small and the only risk is dropping it in my soup.

Bring my laptop and work while I eat (or at least pretend to).
Very impractical and sometimes not a possibility for a 2ppl table + you always run the risk of running out of battery which would make it even worse than simply eating alone without any tools or distractions!


Try to finish as fast as possible 
You know...to make the torture short! Normally this means eating too fast and it has its consequences sometimes.....let's not go there.


Read a book 
Hmmm.....l must admit I'm not a fan of this solution as I find it extremely hard to concentrate on anything but the food....if it's good!


Read magazines
That is when they are available, because I never remember to bring any...


Avoid eye contact with other people 
Because for sure, I wouldn't want any company that I didn't choose myself!


Make faces with the food
Basically, this means playing with my food. Normally only a solution I use for breakfast as during any other meal, I'm simply too hungry for this activity. Of course, this won't exactly give the surrounding restaurant guests the impression that I'm vey refined....but I don't really care as first of all, I'm not and secondly, It's fun!


Does any of the above ring a bell to anyone? Do you have the perfect solution to remove this awkwardness? If yes, could you please be a sweetheart and share it?? 
Thanks in advance.


xox
The uncomfortable solo traveller:

For the Swedish readers.....

Hej kära Svenska läsare!!
Tell me what you like about my blog in the below widget (click the blue button "Posta bloggkärlek" to comment). You will be helping me out by motivating me and at the same time you will be competing to win an exclusive dinner for two in this initiative from Disney Channel to spread love and good vibes in the blogging community.

Tusen tack för hjälpen!
xox

Life spins madly on....

View of the Mont Blanc

Oh my..... I have been such a busy bee lately, hence the neglect of one of my favorite hobbies....namely: Blogging! Anyway.....I hope you are all doing great!! This post will be in the update format as I have simply toooooooo much to write about and this will help me narrow it down ;))

Currently, I'm:

Chris and me in Vallee de Joux

Happy about: Many things. Chris's sister visited us in Rolle last weekend and that was great! We did a very nice hike together in Vallee de Joux. It's just 30 min's away from our new home and for the first time, I realized that we actually have a view of the Mont Blanc from our new area!! ....yes, I get impressed by such things easily as I come from a very flat part of Sweden ;) 

Am also happy that I took time on Friday to see a few of my ex-colleagues for lunch. It was lovely to see them again.

The top of our hike

Disappointed about: My run this morning..... I ran 5 km's and every step felt absolutely horrible =(( My back hurt, I have a problem with my left heel (fluid inside) and it was even hard to breathe. Not exactly encouraging considering that last week, I signed up for a 10 km run in Lausanne on October 30th. Oh well....still a few weeks to go.

Looking forward to: Yesterday evening, I spent quite some time on web shopping....so now I'm very much looking forward to receiving a package that I have ordered from Shopbop.com!! .....it contains plenty of goodies! Mainly tops, but also a very nice bracelet from Juicy Couture =))))))

Listening to: I have been in a period of "The Weepies" for a long long time now.... Lately my most played The Weepies song is "Same Changes". Love it!! Am also listening a lot to Adele's "Set fire to the rain". I'm so stunned by her voice.....it's amazing.

Hoping: That I will manage to be fit enough to run 10 km's at the end of the month.... I'm really not a runner! I would classify myself as quite sporty, but was always more interested in team sports or athletics than endurance sports. Wish me luck ;))

Charm bracelet from Juicy Couture

Wondering: Believe it or not, but Christmas is really just around the corner.....and hence, I'm starting to wonder about Christmas gifts! Yay!

Thinking about: My amazing friend Patricia!!! If you are reading this, you'll know why!!! I love and miss you sweetie and I think about you all the time. xox

Planning: The interior decoration of the new apartment... Am not able to describe how exited I am about moving in!! =p We have bought some new furniture lately and now we are getting rid of some old ones....

Laughing about: My incredibly stupid idea to go for a bike ride before work, actually at 06:30 in the morning without lights or reflectors on my bike. NOT cool!!! I couldn't even see if I was going on the road or not, it was sooooo dark. On top of this, the cars couldn't see me. A very scary experience that I will not repeat again!! In fact, I'm happy to still be alive....

Boletus and Safron Risotto

Inspired by: Work funny enough......am really enjoying this new challenge and can't really stop thinking about all the projects I could eventually dive into!! I haven't felt this feeling at work for years. I was also inspired by a Mushroom risotto, cooked by one of my new colleagues.....so I decided to give Risotto a go! Mine was with Boletus mushrooms and Safron and it was actually really delicious! Not the last time I make Risotto....

Worried about: Work again..... Hahahaaa!! No seriously... I'm just worried about making the wrong priorities while learning. I haven't been a "beginner" for long time now and it's quite hard learning something from scratch. 

Remembering: The delicious Thai dinner we had on Friday at a new restaurant here in Schaffhausen called Nam's Thai Restaurant. Absolutely GREAT!!! Go there if you can!! I had Papaya salad, followed by a very genuine and superbly cooked Pad Thai.

Pad Thai

Wishing: That I had more time to take photos. Another hobby neglected lately! Everything is so gorgeous now that the leaves change colors....

Sad about: That it's Sunday as I have to again leave Chris behind for another week of work.... Distance relationships are much harder than I imagined! Am happy that we are soon together in one place again. Am tired of packing and un-packing, hello's and goodbyes and Schaffhausen's vs Rolle's. Gosh, how do people do these things permanently?? Impressive.

Feeling: Very very tired from working a bit too many hours lately, but at the same time, I'm very very happy with my life!!!


In a few hours, I will be leaving Schaffhausen behind to board a plane to Milan where I will spend the next couple of days. Am going to go straight to bed as soon as I'm in my hotel room..... I am (weirdly still) ridiculously exhausted from the run this morning.


I wish you all a fantastic ending of this weekend and en even better start of the new week! Hope to "see you" here again soon.
xox

About insecurity.....

For some strange reason, many people are really seriously believing that if they are not constantly happy, strong, shining, successful, perfect and absolutely pleasing YES-sayers, they are no good.....to anyone. 


....and why is it that, normally, the people who feel like this are in the eyes of others the most intelligent, beautiful, strong and wonderful people, who we think can move mountains?


Could it be that these people have faced more than enough challenges in their lives so they have lost sight of the fact that they have already won? Are they so used to constantly battle and convince others that they don't know how to exist when this pressure is off? Do they see this lack of struggle as unhappiness or uselessness as for them, taking their guard down means not feeling alive or, I don't know, not being worthy perhaps?


It is as if everyone else is convinced of how amazing you are and the only one left to be convinced is yourself and this is the one single person who will never ever let you win....so why bother? 


It is a basic rule of the world to just agree that the majority wins as if we have to always wait for complete consensus, nothing moves forward. Well, if you are one of the people who feel as I described above, let's make a pact, shall we? We all think you are AMAZING and we completely outnumber you, so we win and the last person (meaning you) will need to learn to go with the flow....admit defeat.....and who knows? Maybe one day, you'll learn, not only to accept yourself, but to love yourself - just like we do and you will have won either way...... You are unbeatable if you let yourself be ;)


xox

What a week.....

The past week was sooooo crazy busy! Not only in terms of number of things to do, but also including countless of hours spent travelling to both Milan and Schaffhausen back and forth......and this is probably also why my creativity outside of work right now is around zero! 


Meaning, for once, I have nothing to say to you besides "Hello! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend? Please bare with me while I'm trying to get some energy back!" ;)) 


In the mean time, I'm trying to look at this from a positive angle, a bit like the lady in this picture.....and with that said, I'm going to get myself another piece of chocolate..........
xox

Mountain Biking: A beginners tale

If you have been following this blog, you will know that a few months ago, I bought myself a Mountain bike. Am I an experienced Mountain biker? Nooooo! You see, before I came to Switzerland I barely even knew this existed as a sport. You see, I come from the middle of Sweden where we barely even have mountains and then, riding a bike is simply something that takes you from point A to B.....and mostly only used as a back-up if for some reason, you can not take the car ;))


The reason I bought a bike was actually not a pleasant story in itself. I hurt my foot playing soccer and slowly realized that biking was the only sport that didn't hurt during the healing process......it was that and quite some convincing from my Mountain-bike-adoring-boy(man)friend and I am SOOOOO happy I made this "investment". 


A few weeks ago, a friend and I also signed up for a beginners Mountain bike course and that was such great fun!! Before this course, I would have never imagined in a million years that I would ever ride down a set of stairs.....or ride down a steap hill.......or jump with the bike for that matter....but after this day, we both did. Ah...but just to clarify - I'm not talking about major stunt things or extremely cool tricks, just simple technique exercises that, from an unexperienced Mountain bikers point of view looks MUCH harder than they are.


If you're thinking about starting or if you recently started Mountain biking or just want to feel safer on your Mountain bike in general and if you live in (or around) Schaffhausen, I give my highest recommendations to take this course!! We used Saltamontes.ch Mountainbike Schule. The teacher, Marco, was really great (the poor guy even had to study bike terminology in English, just because of me! Now THAT'S service!!) and the whole course (which was basically a full day with a lunch break in between) was really a lot of fun, easy-going and very very useful!! We also got some needed help with the general configuration of our bikes, which was also great.


Here are some photos from our day! Yeah yeah, some of you may laugh, but remember that everyone was a beginner once ;))

xox

An update....

Dearest readers,
I hope you are all having a lovely weekend so far? I'm back in Schaffhausen for the weekend and the weather here is amazing!! 28 degrees and full sunshine! Unfortunately, I did not spend this day by the Rhein, but instead had to do some shopping and also spend some quality time in the gym... I'm not sad about this though! In fact, I feel great! 


The first 6 working days are behind me! A mix of joy, confusion and excitement ;)) It is not easy to give a proper judgement after such a short time, but must say that my first impression is GREAT! The people are so friendly and everyone looks so peaceful.....not exactly what I'm used to ;) Hopefully, once I get to know my job better, I can feel as peaceful on the inside as they all look on the outside. 


I had completely forgotten what it is like to be a beginner and I keep battling in my head between "trying to find shortcuts to learn things faster a'la Matrix style" and "to just go with the flow and not be bothered by not knowing everything"...I know the latter is the sounder way.......but as you can hear, even after 32, I'm still learning ;))

Our new coffee maker from Spanish maker "Ascaso"

Currently, I'm:

Happy about: My new job, my new colleagues (who all seem so great and also a lot of fun) our new apartment, the new region in which we will be living and last but not least, about our new coffee machine from Ascaso (it's gorgeous!) ;))

Disappointed about: Myself a bit.... I need to learn that, at least sometimes, silence is golden! Ha ha ha! Can't go into too many details here unfortunately......

Looking forward to: Meeting the team in Milan (Italy) next week!! .....and right this minute, I'm also VERY MUCH looking forward to soon eating the thai-curry that Chris is cooking downstairs! He makes a killer thai-curry ;)) Am also looking forward to having brunch with Chris's family tomorrow morning.

Listening to: Lissie's Catching a Tiger album in the background. Still a favorite!

Hoping: Sincerely hoping that the fact that our new home is the next door neighbor of a cat shelter won't be a problem......as in terrifying cat meowing noises in the middle of the night =o/

Laptop bag "Audra" by Tory Burch

Wondering: What my niece looks like now!! I haven't seen her for months......she must have grown tremendously!
Thinking about: Buying myself a new laptop bag. I found one from Tory Burch called "Audra" that I'm loving but am not sure if I should go for it yet....... What do you think?

Planning: Ooooohhhh! Many fun things!! First of all, we are planning our moving out/farewell party in October. We will have a Nautical theme and I'm really excited about that! Am also planning a potential trip to the US with a friend (exactly when and where is still TBD). We should also soon finalize the plans of going home to Sweden before, during, or after Christmas.

Smiling about: Having signed Chris up to compete in a running competition on behalf of my new company ;))

Inspired by: The beauty of the Romandie.....it is truly like a fairytale land.... Walking around in those surroundings make me feel so full of bliss and it also relaxes me...

Wishing: That the weekend was a little longer than just a couple of days..... It's not exactly joyful to spend the evenings during the week alone. Am really counting down the days!!

A new favorite from Betsey Johnson!!

Sad about: Not having had enough time to write "Thank you" notes to all my ex-colleagues who gave me some beautiful goodbye gifts and cards!! Also a bit "sad" about having had to spend over 4 hours in the car yesterday, driving back here. I ended up in the middle of the traffic jam..... 

Thankful for: All the positive, inspiring people in my life!!

Wanting: To buy this necklace from Betsey Johnson ASAP!! Gorgeous, no?!!

Feeling: Fabulous!! As if I'm BACK again!!!

Cheerio

xox