6pack and fight

It's 3.30 in the morning and I have just crawled into bed... Very spontaneously after I got home at 24.00 hours, from a work function, I decided to go out. So just 3 hours ago I had my first alcoholic drink for the evening... Several drinks and shots later, some dancing, a newly acquired/stolen red boa (or I think I prefer to say that the guy (who ever he was...) let me have it - he did...!) and a bar fight (!!), I'm now lying in my bed with a spinning head...

M1NT, one of the most exclusive members-only clubs in the world, is situated in my house. Not that it gives me access or anything... anyway, as I just got to know a member (a nice guy from Oz), I got let in... And caused a bar fight!! Can't believe it...!! But I guess that's what 6 packs together with too much shots and other substances can cause...
The 6pack was on a, apparently, famous South-African surfer dude, the drinks etc. where in my Aussie friend, and all of a sudden some kind of unexpected jealousy arose over a foreign babe in HK... And that's obviously the recipe for a fight...

My new friends got thrown out of this exclusive club, but decided to keep on partying elsewhere, and I decided on going home...
So here I am, head spinning, it's time to sleep, so I bid you all a good night.

sleeping beauty/dead beauty

Once upon a time, in a land of the Far East, a tall blond girl was sleeping in her bed. As the beautiful rays of sunshine accompanied by happy chirping of the birds outside woke her up, she smiled and thought - what a beautiful morning!

Little did she know of the very unpleasant surprise she was about to get as she stepped out onto her balcony...

They say it's the early bird that catches the worm, but apparently it also plunders orange trees... The sight that met our now awake sleeping beauty was truly horrific. One of her beautiful orange trees (the one with yummy sweet tasting little oranges) was totally demolished! It had been turned into a dead beauty... The birds must have had a real feast, and then they must have decided on just leaving the party for someone else to clean up...



Our girl, first absolutely gobsmacked and of course also upset, usually has a very delicate tongue, but now she shouted - f---ing birds - I curse you and your happy chirping!

The end.

sense it

Live it, love it. I’m talking about Hong Kong.

And I am sensing and living it and even though love is a big word, I think I do… I really enjoy myself here. Although I can’t say that I do all that much really…

And sometimes I wonder if I'm boring… If starting a new life in a cool city like this requires more of an effort...

If I should be going out every night, meeting new people, hooking up with guys and just playing it large?!

But I feel that's just not me, I mean it's not like I don't go out, because I do, we're out for drinks and dinner a couple of times a week. And last Saturday was LARGE (champagne, cocktails and shots, well you can figure out the rest…) and great fun!

But I'm just not the biggest party girl every week that's all...I enjoy living a "healthy" life, going to the gym and eating good dinners.

I enjoy the way I live now, and if that's boring, well so be it.

hollywood

Madonna sings:
Everybody wants to go to Hollywood…

And as I walk the very pretty street stones of my street (which to me are just as pretty as the stars they put into Hollywood Rd, Hollywood, California) I think that she’s probably right.

Or at least I think if people, all around the world, knew what a lovely street my street is – Hollywood Rd, Hong Kong – everybody would like to go there.

Just next to my house I have a beautiful old little Buddhist temple, where people gather to pray for good fortune. (On Sundays, when most people visit the temple, so much incense are burnt that the air is thick of sweet smelling smoke). And as I continue my walk I have beautiful antique shops on both my right and left hand side, and thereafter the street is lined with many great bars and restaurants. As I see it, what more can I or anyone ask for?!

And a lot of people do go to Hollywood.
Both in HK and in America.

I know, cause I’ve been….

rapunzel

This is no story about my adventures in HK, so if that’s what you are after, you should stop reading right now. I know that my blog description might be misleading that way, so I do apologise for that. This is just me thinking out load…

The last week has been truly boring. I’ve been sick and have more or less spent all my waken hours in my pretty dotty sofa. Reading books and watching movies. (I’ve had a head ache, temperature and sore throat, so nothing life threatening, but never the less, it has made me feel totally drained of energy and after 4 days at home I’m still not good. Very frustrating indeed).

However, at times I have also taken the few steps required to get from my sofa out onto my lovely little balcony. I’ve stood there, looking down at the street beneath me, at the people walking there, I've missed being active, going to the gym, seeing and being around people (pathetic I know after just a few days...) and consequently at times I’ve felt trapped …like Rapunzel. (You know the story about the girl with long hair stuck in that tower…). Only thing is that I don’t have that long hair… and no prince neither standing at the bottom of my house, ready to rescue me and sweep me off my feet, shouting: "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair"…

And I sort of wish someone would be standing there… Now, don’t get me wrong, I like my own company a lot and I’m happy with my life (I’m an independent, stubborn Swedish girl), but having someone special is always nice… And it’s been quite a while now since I was touched, both on the inside and outside. A year ago I was deeply in love, but unfortunately I had to let that love go… And since then, I haven’t been able to let anyone in there.

Anyway, being all alone at home without hardly talking to anyone at all surely gives you time to think, a lot. However, I’ve been told by a friend that he doesn’t think I think enough… But I’ve also been told by another person that he thinks my mind travels with a thousand miles an hour. And I think that’s probaly more correct. It’s just that if I held on to all the thoughts that go through my mind, I wouldn’t have time to do anything else. And what a shame that would be, when there is so much fun out there to see and discover, so many amazing people to get to know and so much to learn. So maybe I come across as shallow at times, but I honestly don’t think I am.

What’s on my mind? Many things, all the time...

- Great book, I really think that author has a point.
- No, no one loves me (i.e. no text messages or missed calls when I check my phone)
- Gee, my arse is really not looking that good anymore.
- I need to start getting more engaged in my work. A real shame it’s not as challenging as I thought it would be…
- I wonder when I will meet “Mr Right”.
- I wonder if I all ready met him…
- No, no one loves me (i.e. no comments on my blog)
- I wonder if anyone reads it? Except E of course…
- I wonder if my grandma can see me here and I wonder what she thinks of me moving here (as I look up into the sky…). Hi! Wish I could have spent more time with you…
- Do the phone-lines really work? (Well at least some of my friends seem to think that they don’t, just because I live in an other country now...)
- God, I am really starting to look "old".
- I wonder if M still would think I’m the most beautiful woman (well not with this arse of course, and besides I already know that he met the girl with the best ass ever on his central America trip…)
- Why do I still think of him?! Just let it go girl…
- Now what should I do for my holidays… Where and when to go, who to see. Only 15 days. Weddings in Finland, Greece and Australia – there are no possible way I can do it all…
- I just wish this sore throat would go away.
- Maybe I should go to work anyway…
- My god, how can they run the company so un-organized? And how can they ever be as success full as they are…?
- I just feel frustrated all the time about all these toys that I thought I was supposed to do something with… and here I am and don’t seem to get anywhere with them.
- Yes! Beijing in the end of May will be such a great long weekend!!
- I wonder what I do wrong in my relationships… I’ve been told that I am so special, but apparently not special enough…
- Should I buy myself a new pair of jeans?

Thoughts, thought in just a minute or two. That’s what’s on my mind, that’s how I work, that’s who I am. Like it or not.

welcome to my home

On several occasions I've been asked to send pictures of my apartment to people.

But I haven't... As it wasn't ready.
But now it is.
And as I aim to please, I will now open the door...
So let me take you on a tour of my home:

• the living room
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

This is what you step into when I open the door. (Love my dotty sofa and the rest of my "treasures" that I brought with me from Sthlm).

As the tour continues you will find:

• the kitchen
  (very small, two steps and you're in and out again... but hey it looks good!)
  

• the bathroom
  (not much bigger...)
  

• my bedroom
  (comfy bed and great view)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

(Am actually very pleased with how this room has turned out; with bamboo stick as curtain rail, earthy colours on all the accessories, functional and damn fine storage boxes in bookshelves laid flat on the floor - might sound weird but they function as bed base as well as they are great for storage, and to top it off: grandma's old painting with Swedish girl skinny dipping).

and

• the extra room/my wardrobe room
  (a bit oriental in style, even if you hardly can tell from the pic...)

That's it....
It's not big, but I love it!

from the land of

The guy at the counter at IKEA looked at me with widened eyes and with an expression of surprise when I said that I didn’t need assembly service. Whether the look originated from the thought:
- “is she silly/crazy – who does she think she is – she’s blond i.e. stupid and will never manage on her own”
or from the thought
- “now that’s unusual, most people do”
I do not know… but I hope for the later.

Anyway, I gladly accepted the delivery service though and thought to my self:
– whatever. How is he supposed to know that I come from the land of IKEA. A land where all kids know how to assembly furniture from IKEA before they even know how to speak….

perfect Saturday

Some days are good, other not so good, but perfect Saturdays are the best! And to me, this is perfect:
Sleep in a bit, get up and eat breakfast.
Go to the gym – stability ball, and try to keep your balance… (damn hard…).
Have a huge late brunch (big orange juice, one plate with muesli, yoghurt, fresh fruit and honey, one plate with scrambled eggs, toast, fried potatoes and onion plus grilled tomato, and even if you are full after that, share a lovely warm brownie with ice cream with your friend and have some hot tea – yum!!) in a cosy restaurant.
Do nothing.
Go and catch an early movie with your friend (and eat some popcorn).
Realise that shops are still open and buy that beautiful bag you’ve had your eyes on for a while!!
Meet up with two more friends and have a few drinks outside on their veranda.
Walk home with a smile on your face.
Go to bed knowing that tomorrow will be a lazy Sunday.

the challenge

So I was challenged…
And now have to write 6 strange/weird things about myself on my blog…
Great… So if you didn’t know me already,
you will after this …

1. I have to have a chewing gum and some lip balm after I have eaten, other wise I do not know what to do with myself.


2. I love my home absolutely clean and tidy. However, I seem to have a hard time making my bed in the morning. I don’t like it because it looks messy. And I hate messy.


3. I like to do it like “Al Bundy”. Sliding one hand down the lining of my pants while watching telly that is. Don’t know why, just a very comfortable position. Try it!


4. I have a compulsive disorder. I pick my face. More or less every night. And look like shit after doing it. Hate myself for it, but just don’t seem to be able to keep those fingers off my face (even though I’ve been told several times that I’m destroying my complexion by doing it…).


5. I can burp so loud I almost sound like a cow.


6. I’m starting to get obsessed (and not in a good way) with the fine and not so fine lines in my face… And I wonder why on earth they are there as I’m only 25,9 years old…

fruit

I eat much more fruit here in HK then I ever did in Sweden. More or less all thanks to the fruit/vegetable market down the street from where I live. You can also find flowers as well as fresh fish and meat there, but am a bit reluctant to buy anything dead on the street… However, I really like the buzz there and the fruit selection is great, it’s fresh and it’s cheap.

Popped by yesterday on my way from work and once home I filled up my fruit bowl with apples, bananas, mangos and pear-apples. Lovely!

birthdays

This week I've got two birthday-girls to congratulate:

Lotta L-K (14th) and Anna H-E (17th).

Hip hip hurray on your special day!

Hope you have a really great day and hope that you get a real yummy cake as well!

retail detail

On my way home from work yesterday I walked by the H&M store again. The red carpet was gone but not the people. It’s a concert-like turnout for the store! At 7 in the evening on a Monday night, the store was absolutely chock-a-block with people and the line to get in to the store was over hundred metres!
That’s what I call a success...

And I think Madonna might be helping. Her new clothes line, designed for the retail chain has been advertised all over the city, and had its launch here in HK together with the launch for the store – two weeks before you are able to buy her line elsewhere in the world…

Whatever the reason, Hong Kong is drawn to H&M.

annual dinner

The colour red was the theme of our annual dinner.

Accordingly I put on a short red leather skirt and red fake eyelashes, attached some red wig hair to my ponytail and to complete the red look, red lipstick and red eye-makeup was applied.

(The close up shows Phobe (winner of the nights best-red-theme-dress-contest), me, Tiina and Marietta).

The annual dinner consisted of:
- 12 small courses (unfortunately, most of them did not tickle my taste buds too much…)
- games
- a lucky draw (I’m now an owner of a tiny little MP4 player)
- a million clicks on every ones cameras (the Chinese go absolutely crazy with their cameras…).

The hours passed pretty quickly and after the dinner a big group of us continued, to a hotel where you pay by the hour… or for a full night I guess, depending on how much you want…

But it’s not that kind of hotel… it’s a karaoke hotel. Karaoke is extremely popular around here, so naturally an entire hotel full with karaoke rooms are a very cool and popular idea. Did my best ,together with most of the other Scandinavians, singing ABBA’s Dancing Queen, but must admit that the original is better…

However, after a while we moved on to the bar area of HK, Lan Kwai Fong (where the presence of “gweilos” (white people), like myself, seem disproportionate given that we constitute less then 2 percent of the population…) and it was buzzing as always... With my short red leather skirt and red make up on, I felt slightly out of place and uncomfortable, and indeed did get some stares throughout the night.

And after a group of older men had stared a bit too long, and I had blamed it on my somewhat “slutty” look, Marietta (pretty drunk at the time and clearly upset that a colleague thought she was 30 when she actually is 23…) sighs and fully seriously says: I think I rather be 30 than a hooker…

Which I decided was the best comment all night.

h&m

A lot of people showed their interest today (10th March 2007) as H&M had a grand opening here in HK. With this store H&M is making its first foray into Asia, pretty exciting really, for a proud Swede like me. The red carpet was rolled out in 68 Queen’s Road Central and as I walked by (20 minutes past 9 this Saturday evening) people was still lining up to get in!

birthdays

Blueberry Pecan Streusel Happy Birthday Cake
To the birthday boys of this week:

Kalpa (8th), Rein (9th) and Olsson(11th)!

Happy Birthday guys! Hip hip hurray! (and the best thing about it, is that you all are older then me.... :-))

I know that my gorgeous friend in Orebro will complain that he didn't get a birthday cake on his birthday the other week when you guys are getting one... So, Magnus here's a special one for you!

chicken feet

I've done it! And I'm not doing it ever again!!

I've tried chicken feet... meaning I now have a piece of a chickens foot in my stomach... meaning I had it in my mouth, I felt it cracking in between my teeth and I swallowed the shit...

But I've done it! And this is worth repeating - I am not doing it again!

monday again…

The weeks go really fast…. Mum and Dad returned back to Sweden late last night. It really has been great having them here. Fun to introduce them to my “new life” over here and show them around.

So dearest parents - I say thanks for two very enjoyable weeks and please come soon again!!

During our last days together we didn’t do all that much, but still we had a very nice time. Splendid food has really been the main thing this weekend.

We started off on Friday night when I took my parents to a great Japanese Teppanyaki restaurant; an absolutely beautiful dinner was had. (We sat around the chef as he prepared the food for us and I think we all were very impressed. We weren’t as impressed with Mums stick eating skills though, but she has promised to practise, so next time there will be no fork at the table for her).

Saturday was a glorious day, so relaxing in the sun was all we wanted to do. A great brunch was had at lunch time (after my PUMP class) and a nice Italian dinner in the evening. We finished off our culinary tour of HK on Sunday night with Spanish/Asian tapas and yummy chocolate cake.

what’s the price?

• a taxi ride from work to home - 27 HK$ (cheap!)
  
• a very beautiful antique Chinese round box that I want - 18000 HK$ (speaks for it self…)
  
• a lunch at the Vietnamese place or Thai restaurant just around the corner from where I work – 40HK$ (good food to a very good price)
  
• my monthly gym fee – 799 HK$ (definitely more than I pay at home, but here they provide water, a selection of DVD’s for the treadmills, clothes to work out in, towels, shampoo, conditioner, soap, lotion etc and there’s a nice café within the facilities where you also can check your email…)
  
• a movie – 70 HK$ (like home)
  
• a freshly squeezed orange juice - 10 HK$ (perfect!)
  
• a litre of milk – 22 HK$ (bloody expensive… almost x4 more than I pay at home…)
  
• a 90 min foot and body massage (thai) -160 HK$ (so good and such a good price too -love it!! No wonder it has turned into our Friday-straight-after-work tradition…)

(A quick calculation for you all…. A HKD value is about the same as the Swedish krona (27HKD is like 24 SEK I think. so very cheap taxi ride...), to get the approximate value to a AUD you have to divide the HKD price by 6. If this was London my taxi ride would be like 1,5 GBP and if I lived in the US it would cost me 3,5 USD to get home).

Ciao and have a great weekend!
(Guess what I am doing after work since it's Friday...)

renewal

It was due time for a change. And this look is better, don't you think?! More simple design. Anyway, I like.

And talking about changes, I need to do something about my hair, but I don't know what to do... Look, it just hangs there, with a few curls here and there... Any suggestions?!


By the way, did a test on Internet earlier this morning, and got to see my "real" age... (all I needed to do was answer some questions about how much I weight, how much I sleep and exercise, what I eat etc etc. The test-program then calculated my age according to my answers). (Yes, I could easily have cheated, but as I am a very honest person - I didn't. I promise).
And my "real" age is..... 25,9! :-)

This is fantastic news and really great to know, as I usually tell people I'm 26 when asked... Cause now I don't have to feel like a liar anymore! I'm actually telling the truth!

And according to the test, if I start taking vitamins daily, eat more beans and fish and a few more things, I my real age will be 24 in just two months...!! Man, I'm starting my new diet today! Who knows where this will take me...

Talk about Renewal.

I am 26, I feel 26 and I look (?) 26!!