Woman in Black ...and then 7 hours later

Long time no blog...

Right, things have been great. Have been too busy to write, or too happy to write, or just too bloody lazy to write.
All is well anyway. Been keeping busy and life is just really good at the moment.

Since last time, I've been to London twice. Once with Steve to see the "Festival of Rememberance" at Royal Albert Hall and once with Sarah to see "Woman in Black" at the Fortune theatre near Covent Garden. Both nights were excellent.
The Festival of Rememberance made a bigger impression on me than I could even have forseen. When the first video-clip shown on the massive screens around the hall ended with a father and one of his 28 year old twins, talked about the other son (twin) dying at a roadside attack in Iraq and how twin number 1 was going back etc etc...aaaah, the most tear-jerking real-life-story I've ever heard, I felt tears rolling down my cheeks. That then "Blake", 4 young guys singing opera/classic music, walked on stage and sang "Hallelujah" (by Leonard Cohen I believe) which I know and love from when Jeff Buckley sang this on the album "Grace", did not make it any better for me, I literally sobbed myself through the whole song. I looove that song:

Hallelujah (one of the verses)
Well maybe there's a God above
But all I've ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who'd out drew ya
And it's not a cry that you hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah


Aaaaanyhow.
That was one excellent evening with wonderful food and lovely music and it definately made you wake up to what Britains soldiers are doing for us. I want to go again next year definately. Me and Queenie, who was also there, are now best buddies. I am sure she waved to me.

The other LOndon trip, Woman in Black, last night....lovely evening. Caught the train with Sarah and wandered round the beautifully decorated Covent Garden in search for our restaurant. We ended up in a Indonesian/Malaysian restaurant and I have never had a nicer starter I think. Gorgeous food.
Then another little stroll to the Fortune Theatre for the play, and that was great. Very unlike anything else I've ever seen, as this was a horror story, with lots of bangs and screams. I was congratulation myself for not getting scared and was just patting myself on the back when this scream came from nowhere and I JUMPED up about 1 metre. Well worth seeing and an excellent play.

Hmmm...well, I got back from the theatre about midnight and Ellen woke up at 2am with extreme teething pain. She didn't go back to sleep until 5.20am and then only slept til about 8am. I am raaaaaaaaaaaaaaather shattered today. She has not been much better today, lots of crying, loud crying and we ended up taking her in the car and drove round for 25 minutes. She is quiet at the moment, but not sure how long the peace is going to last...

SO on that note I am going to have a glass of wine, chill out, put my feet up, eat some chocolate, pick my nose and rest in front of the tele to some rubbish no doubt.

Over and out from a veeery tired me.

Utmaning...

Jag har blivit utmanad, av Syrran

Regler:
- Länka till den som utmanat dig.
- Berätta 7 sanningar om dig själv.
- Utmana 7 personer i slutet av ditt inlägg.
- Lämna ett meddelande till dem du utmanat

1. Jag kan Englands kungar och drottningar baklanges och framlanges (med datum och allt!)
2. Jag lamnar alltid 2 cm mjolk i paketet av nagon anledning, tycker inte om den ackliga mjolken langst ned... Den innehaller "spott" enligt mig.
3. Jag alskar total tystnad. Det ger mig ett lugn i hjartat.
4. Nar jag dricker te/kaffe, later jag koppen sta i 2-3 minuter tills temperaturen blivit precis ratt. Gillar inte att "sorpla" dryck som ar for varm.
5. Jag har langa fingrar, forutom lillfingrarna som ar proportionellt alldeles for korta, tycker jag.
6. Jag gillar lukten av skoter, kataloger som kommer med posten och Ellens har (Inte alla pa samma gang)
7. Jag alskar barn och hundar

Utmanar Towe nu da!

Heard at Halloween

The church in Canewdon had been blocked off from any trouble makers this year, due to the trouble last year. Several police officers were standing guard at the bottom of the road, leading up to the church.

An odd looking man walks up to one of the police officers.
- Hello, can you let me through to the church please?
- No, said the officer, no one can pass, the church has been sealed off.
- But...but...I've driven 40 miles to get here tonight...?!!!
- Sorry, but I cannot let you pass, said the officer
- But...I've brought my wand.....?!
- ??

One of the other police officers chirped up:
- Who the hell brought Harry Potter along?

Happy Halloween from me

I found these extremely cute little "Munchkins" in Sainsbury's the other day, and carved them into little "mini-Jack-the-Lanterns". Perfect for tea-lights!
What do you think!



Was at work today and Steve left early to pick up Ellen. When I came home they proudly showed me her biscuits that she had "baked" at nursery. Steve said she had "pressed and prodded" the dough... and in his hand he held a piece of tin-foil with two very squashed little biscuits with chocolate bits in them. He little face lit up when she saw them and she almost looked proud of them! Haha.
Cooking...at 14 months old. Excellent. I'm still not cooking at 30!!!
No I lie, I did make an brilliant dinner the other week. Gordon Ramsey eat your hat.

Tonight its girl's night in. Lisa is popping over for some Hallowine!!!
So I am just heading over to the sofa for some serious chillin'.

My new gay lover...

Well, I have just been seriously traumatised.
I went to get the post out of the postbox, found a little parcel which contained a few lovely little crystals I had ordered, another letter was telling me my membership to the local farm/playcentre was going to reduced for next year, it had pretty little lambs on the letter and everything...and then...I just carried on opening my post...as you do. I tore open a letter adressed to "Mr Stephen Newman & Mr Asa Forsvall", thought nothing more of it, as I ALWAYS get letters to MR Asa Forsvall...

This one was different. The catalogue i pulled out of the brown envelope looked like any other catalogue so I just flicked my thumb through the pages to have a look at what goodies I would find... Then my STOMACH TURNED...It was gay sex, in the strongest worst most horrible sense of the word...I literally dropped the catalogue on the floor and splurted out something like: bbbbbbblaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhshhsgg. I felt traumatised, violated and sick!!!

I looked at the catalogue that was now lying on the floor. "New Concept" "Gay Sex DVDs".

New concept. Yes, send it out to straight couples and lets see what happens!!!

Anyway, if anyone wonders WHY I HAVE CHANGED MY NAME FROM ASA TO HELENA???????
Ask me again and I have a very good argument. Don't regret it for a second.

Barry Manilow rocks the Legion

Well today, Thursday, I am feeling veeery relaxed. My neck has been hyper-painful the last week, and Monday morning I could literally not move. So off I went to the chiropractor to get it sorted out. She banned me from doing anything straining and using computers. So Wednesday when I usually work from home while Ellen's at nursery, I was simply OFF. Can you imagine! A day off! OFF! Completely, just ME, chilling....now I never thought I'd be doing that again during the day.
I didn't know what to do with myself, so I went past a Tesco Express on the way home after dropping Ellen off, and bought myself some magazines and some chocolate. Spent an hour or so just reading them and feeling more relaxed than I've done since Ellen was born. Just lovely.
My neck is much better but I am going to sign off in a minute not to over-do it.

Anyway, last weekend, was a great one. The weather was lovely to add to the loveliness. We had a babysitter booked for Saturday night and Steve & I wandered down to "down-town-Wickford" to Bar Plazma. They were showing the Rugby Semi-final on big screen and I got all the rules explained to me and got super-involved in the whole thing. England ended up beating France! Excellent evening. On the pub-crawl back from Plazmas, we stumbled into the Royal British Legion club along Runwell Road and having entered through the door, we were met by a croaky voice singing "I waaaannna laaay you dooown on a beed of roooossses"...didn't sound anything like Bon Jovi (not that I mind..) and we realized HA! Its karaoke time!!! We downed a pint and scribbled our names down on a piece of paper and off we trotted to the DJ.
10 minutes later he called: And next up is HELENA, with a bit of Barry Manilow - here's "Mandy"... And I crawled up to the microphone. So exciting actually, I thought I'd be shitting myself. But nope, good old Miss Forsvall grabben the mic and started: Iiiii remember all my liiiiiifee.....
Managed to finish the song, without any false notes and no fainting attack! Great fun! Want to do it again soon!

There, logging off now.

Horrible Hornet

Yesterday Steve came running into the livingroom explaining that he'd just caught a giant wasp. He'd taken some photos before letting it go in the garden. See below...
We googled "giant wasp" and got the description of a Hornet (in Swedish: Vespa) and that was most probably what it was. It was enormous. I am not leaving the house ever again if those beasts are out there.




Wikipedia told us the following: Hornets are the largest eusocial wasps, reaching up to 45 millimetres (1.8 inches) in length. A Hornet's sting is harmful, but the sting toxicity varies greatly by hornet species. Some deliver just a typical insect sting, while others are among the most venomous known insects[1]. Allergic reactions can occur. Depending on the severity, these may result in death!!!!!????? Nope, not leaving the house...

Tired tired eyes

Good afternoon to you all,

I am so tired I can't get over it. Went to bed at 9 o'clock last night and was snoring away by 9.02... Ellen was kind enough to let me sleep til 7 this morning, so I got plenty of sleep last night. But here I am at a quarter past 3 and can hardly keep my eyes open.

Have just eaten Kexchoklad and some Salt&Blandat. Yum yum. Gave me a tummy-ache though. Gah.

Working today, from home, and Ellen is at nursery again. So nice to have the house to myself and my god, its so quiet.

Just going for a quick break away from the screen. So bye for now.

Breakfast, injections & IKEA

Good morning,
Well not quite.
Went to the pub to do the quiz last night and when we got back Ellen decided she wanted to howl the place down for about 1 hour. So I think we finally got to bed about 1 in the morning. Steve got called out on an emergency by work about 4am I think, it was dark and cold anyway, and all I could think was "keep your voice down so you don't wake the baby", what an evil person I am, when my beloved has to get suited and booted at 4 in the morning to go driving a bus from Pitsea to Gillingham. Christ. But no "does he HAVE to shower???!!! He'll wake the bloody baaaby!!!".
Aaaanyhow.
About 5 minutes after Steve's left, Ellen started crying. Its pitch dark and I scrambled for my phone to check the time. It was six o'clock. Hang on...where did those 2 hours go, I certainly didn't feel like I'd slept for two hours. Nope, it was definately 6am and Ellen was ready to party.
So not such a good morning.

Then while we were eating breakfast I completely startled myself, made me jump and everything, by remembering it was today Ellen was going to have her final injections. I checked the time. 15 minutes til our appointment, chriiiiiist, schwiiiish schwoooosh nappies, clothes, wipe her face, t-shirt on, wipe her nose, trousers on, wipe her face again, in the car, GOOOO! We made it. Just. She got a little sticker that said "I am protected from bugs". She didn't eat the sticker like last time...my big girl.

I hate my pillow. Its not even worthy of being called a pillow. Just flat and hard and awful. So when the little one wakes up I am venturing off to IKEA in Thurrock. I haven't been there in ages, so why not. Its raining outside and its just horrible. Cold and wet and miserable. But liking the fact that you can actually wear jeans again, without sweating your socks off.

Finally, two timewasting shots of our breakfast.
I had the lovely Rachels organic Vanilla Yoghurt with cranberry & melon cereal, while poor Ellen was stuck with a squidgy banana and a Raspberry Fruit Tumble yoghurt.

My new buddies

Gerry Giraffe, Leonard Lion, Pete the Parrot, Horsie the horse and Mr Piggerson...
Ellen loves these little creatures and we spend hours putting them in and out of the farmhouse.

Snot

Aw, my little Ellen has got a cold, a baby cold.

So a big AAAAAWWWWW for her.

Tomorrow you'll have to do a big OOOOHHHH for me, when I probably catch whatever bug she's got and feel like ratshit!

Good night

Holidays, Nurseries and time to myself

Got back from Crete late Sunday night. Had a lovely time, thank you very much. Spent our time on the beach, by the pool, eating too much, drinking too much, sleeping too much, wandering about in Elounda looking for cute little tavernas with good cocktails, road-tripping to Souda Bay and generally just lazying about.

My favourite cocktail that was frequently ordered: Screaming Orgasm - in other words lots of Baileys, Kaluha, Amarula, Cream and got knows what other super-unhealthy substanses. Steve stuck to his beers and Ellen sipped Pineapple Juice.

Below a photo of the area we stayed in, Elounda. Lovely lovely hotel.



Well, I don't quite know what to say about this photo...

This is Steve and Ellen in the back of the hire-car, while we stopped for a snack on the way to Souda Bay. Three hours drive there, so it was an all-dayer. Ellen seems very pleased with her chocolate biccie.

And finally another shot from the hotel, looking out over the Cretan Sea.


And today was a big day. Ellen (yes...did I mention I had a daughter?! This blog seems to be all about her, rather than me...) had her first day at nursery. Bless her little white cotton sockies, she was so brave and I waved her goodbye about 9am this morning. Picked her up at 4pm because I missed her so much, and couldn't possibly wait another minute. She'd eaten aaaaall her lunch and been soooo good. Talk about proud mum! Its just the strangest thing seeing your tiny little baby (who is now a tall toddler, but I can't really see that...) sitting in a chair, chewing a ricecake and having an independant life, without me. She's her own little person.

Oh, and did I mention she had her own little hook! A little hook on the wall with her name on it, and a little picture of a duck. I was over the moon with that, almost pulled out my phone to take a picture of it, but stopped myself before I made a complete fool of myself.

Anyway, it was so nice to have the house to myself, to have myself to myself...not having to carry someone round, not having to change any nappies, not having to pick up squashed banana from the floor, not having to sing "If you're happy and you know it" about 50 times...I could go on.
I really enjoyed working again, altough I feel a bit rusty. But a few more days and I will be back in it I am sure.

Oh, did I mention Indy my younger dog has lost weight. Oh yes, we call him "Slimline Mindy" nowadays. The dog-sitter we used while we were away loved jogging, and apparently got Indy hooked on it too. So his bottom is no longer the size of Bournemouth, but more the size of a ridgebacks bottom! Weight Watcher of the year!

Me & Jessica are like this....

I decided about 5 months to cut my hair...
This morning I finally got round to doing it. Ahhhh, it was heaven.

I'd been scanning the web for some lovely hairdo's and found these two (below) that I printed out and brought with me. Good old Jessica Simpson & Sienna Miller. I asked the hairdresser if I could have Sienna's face as well, she said of course. So I'm back home with Jessica's hairdo and Sienna's face...



BEFORE:

AFTER:

Birthday Party & Cricket

Spent yesterday in the garden, mowing, strimming but mainly building our new garden pagoda. It took a while but amazingly we finished it. Steve was dangling off a ladder putting the finishing touches on.






About 3 o'clock our friends came round for a barbeque and some drinks. Really lovely day!

Here are some pictures:

Dentist again

Went to the dentist on Monday morning to have a filling fixed. It had worn away and I had to have 3 injections to numb my mouth before removing the old filling. My mouth felt so swollen and my tounge was just ridiculous, I could hardly speak. My mother-in-law suggested I drank my tea through a straw, which worked a treat, but apart from that the whole day I felt horrible and the injection makes me feel totally depressed.

Anyway, that SAME afternoon, the new filling gave up on me too...
So the whole day of suffering was for nothing and I had to ring up Tuesday to make a new appointment.

So today is the day, back to the dentist at 1pm to sort it out again. I am dreading it and the thought of those 3 injections...brrrrr....makes me shiver.

Sympathy please

Sunshine

Oh what a morning. The sun is shining, the birds and chirping away and Ellen let me sleep til 7.30am!!! Can you believe it. For weeks and weeks, its been 6am and a minute later. So hurrahhhhhhh for today!

Today I am going to check out a nursery for Ellen. Its just up the road and if I am going to start working once or twice a week, we need to find somewhere for Ellen to hang out. Will see how it goes.

Then, got a friend over with her 4 month old son Archie. Going for a walk in the sunshine and possibly a spot of lunch.

Its Steve's birthday today. Going to make some breakfast in 30 minutes and wake him up with some pressies and breakfast in bed. We're going out for dinner tonight so that will be nice.

Last night we went to the pub for the pubquiz. Usually Wednesday's quiz is way over our head and we hide under the tables when they read out the scores, but last night we were rockin'. The two of us came second with only 1 point less than the winning team of about 15 people...or something like that...
I was knocking back Whiskey and Cokes and that obviously helped my brainpower..!!!

Anyway, its time for me to get cookin. Birthday boy is waiting!

Over and out

Fizzier than a fizzy thing...

Just thought I'd let you all know I am super-fizzy. Excited. Buzzing. Sprudlande hyper exalterad.

FIZZ FIZZ FIZZZZZZ

New Look - thank you very much

The sun is shining today, can you believe it. And no, I am not in the part of UK that is flooded (thank you all for asking) We have had a crappy summer, but no floods thank god.

Shades on, ipod on, pram out, Ellen into pram, off we went. Took a walk in to Wickford to meet Lisa and little Lauren for a quick chat and drink. Then we wandered in to New Look and can you believe it - they have introduced a "Tall" range. 36'' legs and all sorts of jeans, trousers, tops and god knows what. I would like to thank Mr God for being so kind to me.

Feeling really tired today for no reason. I fell asleep at 8pm in the sofa last night and woke up at 10pm when Steve got back from football. Then slept all night til 7am. Still tired. Why? No idea.

Tomorrow I've got my favourite BodyCombat again. That always wakes me up. Punching people's noses in, oh yessss.

Tonight I am going to eat Piri Piri Chicken, drink some wine and watch "Bachelor". Its chill out at its maximum. Brainless tv-watching and nice food. Then night night from me.

Good night to us

Finally our little sweetheart daughter has got the hang of this sleeping business!
She used to wake up anytime from 6am onwards and would normally not sleep past 7am. NOW! The last few days she's slept til 8am!!! Whoooopppie scoooopie! Lovely lovely!

Makes such a difference to your morning, when you actually get up feeling like your "supposed" to be up, not like you're the only person in the world up at that ridiculous time in the morning.

So thank you little Torro for letting us sleep. Torro=Ellen by the way. Don't ask. Silly nickname - Long story

Tomorrow if a Golden Train...

GOLDEN TRAIN
Don't you wake up yet
give me some time to watch you asleep
Oh angel of mine And I,
I will be fine as long as your near me Oh angel of mine

Was just sitting channel-surfing during the weekend, and happened to turn to VH1. Jo Whiley was kind enough to put Justin Nozuka on. Golden Train...volume went up, I was speechless for a while...loved it. Very nice thank you very much. A nice little listen.

Teeth - what a pain...

We're now on the 3rd day of Ellen growing teeth. Number 5 & 6 have decided to grow at the same time and they are now just cutting through the gum. Ellen is pretty much inconsolable. Constant moaning and crying, and every 30 seconds or so she gives out this super-highpitched scream. My eardrums are suffering. I took her to the supermarket to get some food, she likes sitting in the trolley chewing on my groceries. The highpitched screams didn't stop, she made people jump with fright. Quite funny actually, as it just comes from nowhere and is sooo loud.

The ball we were supposed to go to tomorrow, with Sarah & Barney, isn't happening for us now. Have been up from about 5-6am three mornings in a row now and Ellen hasn't gone down easily in the evenings either. Its been 9 o'clock most evenings and after that we've pretty much collapsed in the sofa and then gone to bed. Managed to go to BodyCombat Wednesday though which was great fun.
Really fancied dressing up for the ball, getting drunk and partying all night. Instead, I will be partying with Mr Calpol (Swe: Alvedon typ) and Mrs Teething Gel...

Thank god its Friday though. Tonight its me, Steve, Baileys, a film and nighty night from us.

Ho-Ho-Honda!

AH! I have got a new car! Upgraded my old Jeep to a 2005 Honda CR-V, beautiful light silvery-blue colour with aaaaah so many nice features. A little cooling compartment on the dashboard, air-con (that works...unlike the Jeep), arm rests, big mirrors and great visibility. The only things that's maybe a "downgrade" is the boot-space. I like to get the two dogs and the pram in the boot but not sure I can fit them all in now. Gotta be dogs or pram...or shove the pram in the backseat I guess. We'll find a way!

Back to manual after being automatic for a few years, and my gosh it goes! Just thought about pressing the accelerator down and whooosh I was in Kent!
Really like it, its slightly smaller than the Jeep and a bit more girly I guess.

Here are some pics. (not the actual one as its raining outside and I am not venturing out just to get some soggy photos...)

Mr & Mrs

So...Sarah finally got her Barney as her lawful wedded husband and oooooh what a lovely wedding day it was. Gorgeous bride and everything was wonderful. Thought I'd just share some photos with you all.
Haven't got time to write captions at this moment, but I will hopefully get round to that later on. Enjoy.

Garden then and now

This is our garden being prepared for grass-seeding...











































And here is the finished result...well no grass yet

Get down!

Well well well, don't ever tell me I live a boring life. Last night I went for a walk with the dogs and little Ellen in our garden, well field... I sat down at the top of the field and enjoyed the warm air while the dogs played in the long grass. Suddenly the dogs went absolutely nuts and ran past me barking like nutters. A bloke was walking towards me and when he saw the dogs charging towards him he suddenly stopped and looked rather worried. I held the dogs back and he told me the main road was cordoned off. He said he had parked his car on the other side of the park cause he couldn't get through to his house, due to the police and fire brigade was there cause there was a guy sitting on one of the pylons. So he'd decided to take a short-cut through our garden (the bastard). We could just about see the guy on the pylon in the distance, sitting high up on the electricity pylon and dangling his legs, while holding his head in his hands. He looked like he was about to jump. From the road some of the passers by shouted "encouraging" things to the poor bloke:
-Get down you prick! (I am sure that would make you feel better...)
The power had to be cut to make it safe for him and the rescue-workers who were about to get him down. After about 20 minutes they got a high ladder up to him and got him down.

Girls and motors

Good afternoon,

Just been to MOT my car (swedish equivalent of an "besiktning" I guess) and I always feel so stupid and alien as soon as I come into a garage.

The men ask me questions I have no idea what they mean and I just look completely confused.
We ended the conversation with:
- All done for you
- Great, thank you
- It's an oily dog though underneath...
- Oh...is it...?
- Yes, doesn't it leave your driveway oily?
- Ehm...nooo, not that I have noticed. Why is it oily? (stupid stupid girl, don't ask questions...)
- Well its a C series isn't it?
- Ehm...
- A diesel...
- Yes!
- Well we've had a few of these and theres a indent in the CTC filter.
- ...right...
- So you might just wanna keep an eye on that
- ...of course (where the fuck is my CTC filter?)
- Just keep an eye out for the oil levels...
- ...ok...


And then the two guys started gasbagging between the two of them about C-series and oily things and motor stuff...basically...and I really felt like they were talking a different language. Didn't get a word. Ellen looked as puzzled as me, but I think she was just tired from all the engine noises and smoke.

So relieved when they handed back my keys and I could drive off to my safe home, safe from gearboxes and grease.