3 x M - update take 2

Mikaela & Julien = sant

The civil marriage took place in the castle of Martigny, Valais, which was a real beautiful surrounding for such a happy day. The only warm and sunny day in two weeks of rain, it was a great day, starting at 8 a.m. with the marriage among close family and the two witnesses, Jean-Baptise (see picture) and I, continuing with breakfast in the castle next to an open fire, then lots of pictures and climbing the castle for the breathtaking view, and finishing with a 4h long lunch up in the mountains at 1400m. Then back to Geneva for me to finish off the day with Anki and some other friends at the Lake Parade, while the newly wed went to a close friend's wedding dinner to continue celebrations with yet another wedding :)

And the final M day, the biggest day and most incredible day took place a week later on Saturday 14 July in a castle in Tuscany not far from Florence. A very busy day for the wedding party, running around in every direction, getting hair fixed, helping the bride into her dress, and then off to church for a beautiful ceremony in Italian (perhaps that's what made it so beautiful for a non-believer like myself) putting tears into most the guests eyes. Singing by an opera singer with a beautiful voice and the bridesmaid of 4 years old (M's little sister) climbing on me and being sooo cute in her beautiful dress did only add to the magic of the moment.

And then back to this magnificent castle for a drink and huge table of anti-pasti, followed by a 4 course dinner in the garden under the stars. Finishing of the night with a few hours dancing, we were happy to all lie down next to the pool the next day for some well deserved rest.

Magnificent! Tack Mikaela

3 x M - update

3 x M as in 3 times celebrating Mikaela - her hen party in Geneva, civil marriage in Martigny and wedding in Tuscany. A lot of fun and quite a lot of work for me who had the great pleasure to be her maid of honor and witness and to share this big event with my oldest friend met in Geneva. From the choice of the wedding dress, and then shoes with multiple trips to Annecy (including quite a bit of non-wedding related shopping as well) to the big d-day it has been an eventful spring and summer. For me, the most work went into organising the hen party which with some help from the weather goods and luck as to timing went really well and was a great day and a good memory for all the gals i hope :)

The day started with a kidnapping of M in bed, still half asleep it took her a while to understand what was going on. With a small nibbling of breakfast in the cars, we headed of to an hour of cowboy imitation through horse riding in the forest between Messery (where M lives) and Excenevex, France. A cool hour which we all enjoyed, though some might have found it a bit more scary than others. It was ended by a gallop by M in the closed-in area.

Next came a few hours of playing tarzan, jane and cheeta - though without any tarzan present ;) Adventure forest meant a lot of climbing, some tricky parts, quite a lot of screams and much laughter. M as Jane was a great hit!

After all this excitement and activities it was time for a well deserved lunch at the one sand beach of Lac Leman which happens to be right there in Excenevex. A delicious lunch prepared by Mikaela's older sister and almost extra mother, Heidi. A dip in the lake later and we were off back to Geneva for some rafting canoe on the Arve which, though we do not have any photos, was a very impressive experience and frankly quite scary sometimes giving us a real adrenalin chock :) But the day was not over with this. Back at Aude's place where we then spend the evening and night, M got changed into an old dress her mother used to wear in the 50's, her rollerblades, some accessories and the task to ask people down at la terrasse (one of the busiest places in Geneva on a beautiful saturday apero time) for their love recipes which were gathered in a book then handed over to her at the wedding. She was impressive, really taking her task serious and we advanced approx 5 m in 20 minutes while she asked any interesting persons or group of people around for their thoughts - going up to people us others girls considered staying clear off and getting advices from them.


After a bottle of rosé as ammunition it was then time to head back to Aude's for some well deserved dinner and drinks - two of M's favorites sushi and capirinha - and some dancing, singing, laughing and good times. though the plan was to head out afterwards, once we finished dinner at 2 a.m. and after a day full of activities we were all happy to climb into bed and sleep like babies.

A REAL COOL DAY :))

I chose the sea...

it has been quite some time since i last wrote anything here, more than a month actually, reason being that i have been first too busy at work, then sick, and finally off on vacation and not wanting to use a computer in the heat more than for a few minutes at a time... however, forced by circumstances to stay two extra days at my father's place in slovenia and seeming that it is raining i thought it was time to fill in some missing information.

first however, why am i here? well, following on my father's notorious lateness we left portorož where he lives and i spent the last week an hour later than planned, meaning that we lost our extra hour of precaution. then the actual drive took about 20-30 minutes longer than what stated on viamichelin, and finally and worst when arriving at the right exit in venice there was a choice between two roads - one going to aeroporto and the other to some city we have never heard of and not the city where the right airport was supposed to be situated - hence we followed the signs to the "airport". only arriving at it did it say the name which was not the right. a lost 30 minutes, the exact time needed for me to arrive in time for my flight to stockholm so hence i missed it as they refused to let me through even though the airport was tiny and there were almost 30 minutes left to take-off grrrr. on top of that, the next flight is only tomorrow and it is fully booked as are all their flight out of venice until 1 august. so now, i'll have to go down there, an almost 3h drive one-way, tomorrow to wait and see if by chance someone does not turn up and then can fit me in.... so, not sure how i will get out of here nor when, and in the meantime, after having looked on all possible flight out of venice, milan etc and realised that no good options existed, i decided to try my chances on wednesday and enjoy my extra day at the beach - but for some reason the bad luck keeps following me and today, after a week of not one cloud, it is raining :((

oh, well, enough of the negativism- at least i got to see venice for the first time in my life. the plan was in fact to go there for a few hours during the day before hitting the airport, but then i chose the sea over the city and decided to go for a last swim in the most lovely water in the world. finally i guess i got both ;)


so, please keep your fingers crossed tomorrow that i get a seat on the plane to stockholm!

who are those people who would have dared?

do you think that those people exist who actually dare go up to a cute guy or girl and start talking to them? and i'm not talking about a situation when someone is drunk on the dance floor or in a bar, but rather in normal situations, normal circumstances, like ordering a coffee (well a smoothie in my case since i hate coffee, even the smell of it) at the airport after checking in, trying to kill some time while waiting for boarding and seeing a real good-looking man looking in your direction. are there actually people that would have gone up and started to talk with this guy? or even, chosen to sit down next to him? i was contemplating the latter option, but then it felt a bit too much and there were comfortable sofas a bit further away, so the best i did was sitting down in a place where though at a certain distance at least we were facing each other... and he looked a few times. and i looked a few times. and our eyes crossed several times and we even dared keeping the connection for a bit longer than usual once. but that's the best we managed. hmmm and what if that was the man of my dreams? would i have found out if i had actually been cool enough to start chatting with him? perhaps, i would have if the place had been more full and sitting down close by was one of the only options, but now i had plenty of seats to chose from and then sitting down next felt a bit to risky... stupid girl, the worst that could have happened would have been that he laughed in my face which would not have been very bad, and even that seems quite a stretch as people normally do not react that way. but then again, who knows, perhaps meeting someone at the airport leaving a city you are not even planning to come back to anytime soon and not even boarding the same plane might just have been a sign that it would have been way too complicated ;))

but still one has to wonder, who are those people who would have dared?

at least i got a few days in Budapest, luckily in a nice hotel since that is where i spent most of my time since this was a work trip including a day starting with a breakfast meeting at 8 a.m. and ending at 1 a.m. when i just couldn't take it anymore. but i had a nice lunch in the beautiful park next to the hotel (see pic), a walk from the hotel and through the city at night (see pic), and 3-4h on the last day, walking around seeing the castle, the parliament (way too big for the size of the country, reflecting hungary's history - see pic), one of the biggest markets, several bridges, the main shopping street (and no, i didn't actually shop for once, though i was very close to buying some shoes - as usual - however, the only thing i finally bought were some hungarian spices, ajvar and sausage miam).... and taking quite many photos and walking very fast in 36° heat and finally enjoying my day off after a catastrophic morning when nothing worked. And quite importantly, i got to the plane in time, i got back to geneva only one hour late, ensuring that i was here for the hen party that i was organising for the next day (when i actually managed to not hear my alarm but that's another story).

Do you ever get angry at the world? (written 27/05)

Angry at people and the way the world works? I do. I get angry and even more so, i get disappointed. Not only about big things either like wars, genocide (i'm currently reading a very interesting book, though a bit too centred around the American response, about the history of genocide throughout the 20th century: "A problem from hell: america and the age of genocide" by Samantha Power), female circumcision, deprivation of rights, mass stereotyping and cultural misunderstandings, world leaders, starvation.... No, I also get angry about smaller more personal stuff.

Currently, i'm more and more disappointed by the people around me, and yes, i do understand that it is mostly my fault for expecting too much from people and consequently allow myself to get disappointed... perhaps this is what growing up means? but still... how not get disappointed when you try to organise a cool important day for a common friend, you put in hours of work, you manage to get places to open earlier, you try to calculate everything to manage a day full of memories for an affordable price, and some people pull out last minute threatening all your plans. It's not that important, I really do agree, but it's a source of disappointment and not really because of all the work, but mostly because you realise that not everyone values friendship the same way, that many are those who come along only as long as they do not have anything more interesting to do, who do not sacrifice anything for a friend, for one day in their lives...

I'm disappointed when talking about the death of a good friend and how it affects me, how it felt to meet up with his girlfriend for the first time since the accident, how spending the evening with her brought back everything when i have tried to pretend he is still alive, when i have hid behind my "wall of feelings" – and then the other person changes the subject to discuss the weather! Now, i understand that it can be difficult to be part of such a conversation, but still!

I'm disappointed when people that i thought were friends turn out not to care, when they disappear at the worst moments in your life - when you've just broken up from a 5 year long relationship, when the guy you like a lot (and the "friends" are aware of it because you confided in them) leaves the country, when there is the slightest complication and for one moment you forget your smile, forget to be happy, party and talk about more important stuff than feelings, such as shoes, shopping, hair, the next party..., when you feel a "friend" slip away and you ask them if something is wrong and they answer "no", but then turn around and tell common friends things about you behind your back....

I'm angry with life because there are great people out there, there are people who are real friends 'come what may', and for some reason these wonderful people seem to be the ones that life turns on bringing them grief, sickness, worries and even death.

I'm disappointed because i used to be a dreamer, an optimist, believing the best in people, and i can feel that i'm changing. I liked to dream! and it makes me angry that i'm loosing this ability to see the best in people, expect the best, but i'm also getting tired of getting disappointed.

I'm sad because most of my best friends live far away, the guy i like lives far away, and one of the best guys i ever met just left for a place even further away long before what should have been his time. I miss your smile my friend.

"Bada bada bada"

Last weekend in Geneva was warm and sunny, even though not as warm as today where it is 30° outside at the moment... in the shadow! Warm weather in geneva of course means going down to the "beach". Now the beach here is not the kind you might expect if you normally travel around the pacific islands, or even greece - there is no sand here of any colour. Instead we have geneve plage made out of grass mostly and with swimming pools, the wake board centre where they have put nice wooden floor to lie on, the popular and cheap "les bains de paquis" which is in fact a pier and hence made out of concrete, lots of rocks around the lake where you can make your own pick and where getting into the water is on your own risk and peril, and a bit further away from the centre a few other grass beaches. The only sand beach is of course fake, and minimal, hence the name "Baby plage" :) Anyway, a warm sunny day still means going down to the lake or onto the lake if you are lucky enough to own a boat or have good friends who own a boat which is even better, but which might not always be that easy to programme except if you chose your friends after their money/boat possession.... which perhaps is something i should contemplate but has not yet been my case ;)

So Saturday, which was my day with my cousin Susanne and her little boy Anton, after a lovely "almost home made" gaspacho soup while little Anton was sleeping, we made it down to Geneva plage, one of the more child-friendly beaches in this town (let me mention by the way that on the way back up through the park de la grange, i suddenly understood how come my cousin can be so thin and how she became so thin that quickly after having had her first baby, pushing a pram is hard work!!! - now she's not as thin anymore at the moment but the reason for that will soon be very evident ;)) Our main objective of the day according to 18 month old Anton was to "bada bada bada", hence to swim swim swim.... Luckily for us since the weather had been really cold the week proceeding this "bada"-day, and the lake hence very cold indeed, geneve plage includes swimming pools even for little ones. Thus, after having found a nice empty spot next to a tiny tree (and, as it would turn out soon, next to another group of swedes with a small child - these people are really everywhere...), having spread out our stuff and had a nice a bit over-washed ;) fruit salad, it was time to "bada bada bada"!

or at least so we thought.... after a first approval of the almost warm water, it soon appeared that water is actually quite scary business... and especially not very nice to get into your face.... and just when it looked like little anton would overcome this initial hesitation, he tried to clap his hands in the water and splash around him like his old-cousin did (yep, i'm the old cousin....sounds so old!!! an aunt or something sounds younger, so i'm usually just referred to as cousin helena, luckily),

anton lost his balance and dived head first into the water. now, he only stayed under lets say an approximation of perhaps 1 second before his lovely mum pulled him up into her arms but that was enough for one day and from then on "bada bada bada" meant being splashed a bit by water while sitting on mother's hip, and running around next to the pool (a real good idea of course, but guess he's not old enough to understand the idea of slipping and falling into the pool...). In fact, the idea of swimming/bathing was a lot more appealing than the actual act of doing it. It seems like "bada" is something best done hypothetically, at least for the moment, but then again the summer is just starting..... ;)

Barcelona in April - better late than ever

For my 30th birthday, my dear brother gave me one of the top gifts ever - a long weekend with him in Barcelona!!!! The reason why this was such a cool gift, was not only that I love Barca and was very pleased to go back there again, 7 years after the first time. The main reason why i loved this gift was that it meant that i would spend some quality time with my brother!!

Now, those that knew us when we grow up will remember that from the age of approx. 5/8 years old (and yes, he's the older one, even if some people have had the tendency to doubt this lately) we were like cats and dogs! Not only did we fight about anything and everything, we were also quite mean to each other, and no one ever knew better than him how to drive me crazy through teasing. I admit, we did have our good moments as well, and we did share some cool times on vacations in Slovenia and so on, but most of the time....cats&dogs, or should i say brother&sister. However, once Robert left for a year in the States, or actually, once he came back we started to change our cats&dogs relationship into something a bit more relaxed, and we slowly grew closer. In fact, the more years we have spent a part (him in the army, away studying elsewhere in Sweden, me in the States, and then in Geneva for the last 10 years), the closer we have become until my dear brother is now nagging me about when i'll be moving home again...

So, I was excited about meeting up with him in Barca and have some fun together in this cool city of Gaudi. And fun we did have, even though it was the only place in Europe were it was cold and rainy that weekend, we did have lots of fun and even managed to get some sun towards the end. Shopping, la segrada, bars, restaurants, the port, la rambla, a cool nightclub, Barca against Mallorca at Campo Nuevo with some 60'000 other people screaming, cheering, enjoying the match in the cold - the dream of my brother and yes, you were right, it was an incredible experience, just walking in to the stade, feeling the athmosphere, watching one of the best teams play in real, and sharing this with my brother who was pleased like a child! it was really really cool even if the match wasn't the best one (well at least barca won at the end), even for a non-football fan like me, it was still worth it !!!

So all that which Barca is well known for and....of course....what did you expect?... some disagreements ;) It would seem that spending 4 days together just the two of us was perhaps a bit long, at least to start with when we for the first time in years, perhaps forever had to spend that much time together. So yes, we got into some fights, we still know how to get to each other better than anyone else (we are siblings, what do you expect?, it's the law of nature ;), and we are both as obnoxious, knowing that we are right. But those moments passed, the sun came back up and my memory from Barca is that it's a real cool place and being there with my brother made it even better!

Tack lille storebror för en underbar present/helg!!! Du är bäst :)

.... And yes, we promised that we will make more trips together in the future, though perhaps the next time we even allow other people to come with us - so if interested.... ;)

More picture can be seen at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lna_la_fee_verte/