Sunday No Love

So turned out it wasn't totally a lazy weekend, I did go out and get some elderflowers to make the cordial. Let's see in five days if it's at least edible. The weather has been scorching hot but right now at 6.30pm, it actually looks like there's going to be a storm. No wonder weather is a popular topic around here, it keeps changing like Britney and her panties! Does she have it on, does she not? Okay, outdated joke. Bear with me, it's Monday tomorrow but the World Cup final is tonight so I'll probably have to go to bed later than I usually do and the thought of not getting enough sleep makes me grumpy. Coffee will not help anymore, I'm sort of allergic to it after the nasty headache a couple of weeks ago. I really love World Cup but I've had enough with people's posts about who's winning and who's not as well as Paul the Octopus hype. They get redundant after five minutes and it's not like those who don't know the result are actually interested in the game and those who do most likely did watch the game anyway. Oh, and I have to write a complaint e-mail to our Newcastle property agent. He verbally agreed to pay the bank surcharge with the deposit refund but he didn't. I'm easily pissed off by people who do not follow through on their words but I always wait for a few days before saying something so that I'm not clouded by emotion.

d.e.s.k.t.o.p r.a.t.i.n.g

Unfortunately for them, it's still pretty cloudy over here.

La la Land

I started my Saturday morning when I heard hubby trying to get the camera. He loves taking photos of me when I'm asleep but I'm a light sleeper so he doesn't get the chance that often. I got up around 9.30am only because hubby was pulling my blanket off the bed just so he could do the laundry. I had a video call with my family for over an hour while having a fat egg banjo and a steaming cup of roiboos tea with honey. It was my parents' birthdays last week and I had a carrot walnut cake delivered with some roses. I wish I could have the cake though. It's going to be a lazy weekend, I can feel it in my bones. No work at all, not even going out and feeling the sea breeze. I'm just going to stay inside with a nice book and have one whole cake with sparkling juice. 

Oh I just love this song. It reminds me of well, what else....my la la land!

Food Talk

I only had one ice-cream this week, that was progress. But I had a barbecue (since all chickens here are halal!), cheesy nachos with guacamole salsa and a moist carrot cake with cream cheese topping. I'm hopeless, sigh.

Despite my calorific fascination, I actually eat less here because Danish cuisine is extremely bizarre like raw herring marinated in vinegar and curry cream. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, trust me. I suppose that to me is like durian to them. Nasty! I love their pastry though. And rhubarb! I'm getting them fresh from the forest.

a.l.l.o.t.m.e.n.t

I absolutely adore their elderflower juice and the cordial is so easy to make. You just have to pick a basket of elderflowers, can be found literally everywhere including by the roadside but getting them from the garden or forest gives it a distinct flavour. Then these flowers are boiled with water, sugar and lemon. Leave it to cool and store it in the fridge for five days and voila, it's ready!

l.a.u.n.d.r.y. e.t.c

I was going to continue with the pastry but this food talk doesn't really help with my so-called health regimen, does it?

Weekend Love

I came to appreciate the weekend now that I'm working again. It meant so little for the past ten months as a full-time student and I was shamelessly complaining when the whole week was cramped with lectures. As much as I love my work right now, weekend is still a luxury I look forward to. Being able to sleep in, having late breakfast and video-call with my family, catching up on some reading & language lessons....the list keeps growing and the days keep diminishing!

I've been consuming a lot of fat and sugar these days including.... 

Two ice-creams at work (weekly tea)
One homemade ice-cream at the midsummer fire festival
One homemade soft-ice by the lake

....in just a few days which might explain how I could fall asleep in the forest after a run! Imagine that...who would doze off after running? Someone who has been eating a lot of fat and sugar that is. But hey, the ice-creams were worth it!

o.u.t.t.a.k.e.s

Close to Ideal

It's a lazy, rainy Sunday afternoon. At the risk of sounding cliché, I'm writing this by the window overlooking the flowery garden with a steaming cup of chamomile & lavender tea while hubby is wrapped in a blanket on the bed watching the idiot box switching from one channel to another. It's a satellite tv so tons of channels to choose from, with additional channels from Russia, Norway, Sweden and Chile. There is a generous streaming of American and British shows so you could've stayed indoor all day and thought you've had a beautiful day. Outside, it's a clean coastline with people smiling and greeting each other. It's a bubble I don't wish to pop. There's no beggar, no indication of poverty or pollution, no sign of immorality. For the first time abroad, we both feel like we could happily settle down and raise a wonderful family here. That's mostly what the expats here feel and eventually do.

My workplace is amazing. The staff work in their own room with freedom (you can arrange your own time to fit your children, etc.), lunch buffet is provided, weekly breakfast or tea together (our department had ice-creams last week!) and they have a strong network with other offices be it in South Africa or Vietnam by communicating regularly with their counterparts through surprise, surprise...Skype! They're casual but results oriented and everyone feels like they belong. Every evening you can see parents biking or jogging with their kids, something you don't see often in Malaysia with teenagers loitering with their equally aimless friends and parents working long hours. It tires me just to think about it.

I love my country, but we could really learn a few things from a region so developed and yet stain-free like Scandinavia.

A Year Wiser...and Happier!

The past 48 hours have been amazing. A massive thank you to Kak Aliaa and hubby, our host in Manchester. That Old Trafford tour would remain in our memory book for a very, very long time. The birthday card and with our friends singing the birthday song, it was a perfect start of my first birthday celebration abroad. Instead of the usual party and dinner, I spent my birthday in a forest and even spotted a couple of wild deers! Denmark is a different experience, they don't even lock their doors here. Coming from Malaysia, you'd understand I need some time to get used to this level of trust and morals. I'll write more soon. With all the love in the air, I feel kinda lazy tonight so I'll just post the song that I keep listening to when I feel like on top of the world and some photos that would easily translate how I feel right now.

Adieu

Today seems too quiet. The house is almost empty. I find myself doing the same exact thing I always do on the night before leaving anywhere; staring at the ceiling and trying to capture the final moment, thinking how this would be the last night lying in the room. I've done this a number of times and yet it doesn't seem to get any easier. Goodbye is still the hardest part of life.

i.a.n.'.s