farewell august, welcome september 2019

Let's try something new. As I fear my computer is getting worse - I should probably be grateful it has worked reasonably well, but quite slow, after its crash in May - I'll post this blog-post little by little, update it slowly today and tomorrow. Slow blogging and no instant gratification. So please, stop reading now and welcome back. New little "chapters" will be added continuously over the weekend.



August has been a lovely month in general. And the weather wonderful, as the rest of our Swedish summer this year. I would lie if I said I wasn't afraid it will only get worse from here on, so many scary tipping points all over the world this year. But for now, I'm grateful for our amazing summer, and I've savoured every possible detail from it.



Rounded the month off with a special outing. Visiting the Kvistaberg Observatory, located in the neighbouring suburb but rarely opened to the public. This weekend there's the annual Art Run in the municipality were local artists of very varied talent level get to show their pieces at various places. And the observatory (owned and operated by Uppsala University) is opened for viewings too.



Despite extremely poor information and communication regarding how to get there with public transport (because as usual everyone is suppose to to have access to or wanting to go by car...) and its opening hours, we managed to get there and after waiting for over one hour (alongside a bunch of other visitors) someone turned up and gave a half-hearted talk. But it was cool to finally see the place. There are three observatories and telescopes on the premises, but we only got see the youngest, which too has been discontinued alas.



It's nice to do something special, have a little outing, feed the mind and soul something extra, on the very last day of a month. I think I need to make a little habit of it. Say farewell and thank you to the month that was.



Had secretly hoped that I would finish more than 5 books (which was my monthly goal again) in August, but there have been so much other stuff occupying my life and mind, that didn't happen. But five I did, and as I've written about my long battle with lost reading mojo that's more than good enough anyway.



And as I was preparing for a hygge moment finishing that last and fifth book in this glorious caturday, I suddenly realised that my old, rarely used coffee press can indeed be used for rooibos tea too. Which means I can prepare a pot of tea and drink it in one of my smaller, pretty mugs instead of always relying on the large ones. Might seem both trivial and obvious, but apparently not for me. A nice little insight to get on the very last day of summer.



Looks like my planned, let's-try-something-new-and-add-little-chapters-to-the-existing-blog-post-idea during one weekend didn't quite worked. Have too much backlog regarding the photos and feeling tired after quite a busy, but really good, week.

So, to keep it shorter than intended and save things for another post, perhaps?

Here goes short -

:: Had an intention to use more shoes with higher heels regularly. But as comfy as they are, I chose to rekindle with them on a day when I though we'd walk reasonably little just to walk softly into another heel height. Turned out to be one of those days this summer when we walked for hours. It kind of put me and my calfs off the idea of more heels in my life.

:: Went to see an exhibition on women's vote in Sweden, it's 100 years old now. Only 100 years. And still there such a long way to go for true equal rights, even in Sweden. What women and girls suffer through all over the world in less democratic countries even today, no wonder the whole planet is in such peril. The lack of women's rights, human rights as well as animal rights are closely connected with climate change and a disregard for sustainability issues, as everything is connected. Of which we are reminded every single day, yet sadly so little, by comparison, is done to change that.

:: Have had some really lovely encounters with vegan pizza, burgers, sticky chocolate cake, chocolate mousse pastry and truly magical pralines. And I've bought some great artisan bread from various (new to me) hipster bakeries. Which is a category that has truly blossomed in Sweden these past, I'd say, 10 years. But I'm not complaining, great bread should be easy to find. I really really don't like massproduced supermarket bread with all its unhealthy additives. Everything is better when carefully and skillfully produced in smaller quantities, with fewer and healthier ingredients.



:: I had another encounter with a jar of Maria Nila colour refresh, this time in the colour Cherry Red. And it worked great with my grombre, just like the Pink Pop I tried in April. So it looks like blues and purples don't work at all for me, but red hues do. It's really difficult to get the nuance to look right in a photo, but this will give you an idea.



And after a couple of washes (it's suppose to last 5-10 washes I believe) it looks like this. But nb, the main thing of this photo is that I woke up like this. It was such a surprisingly good curly and totally effortless hair day. Which is a rare rare RARE thing.

:: I've also done my first little dabble with genealogy. Only got 3 generations back on both mum and dad's side, it's so easy to get sidetracked... But I'm looking forward to do some more digging. And there are so many resources online these days, and in Sweden several authorities offer services for free.

:: Attended a super interesting panel discussion on Can fashion be sustainable and circular economy. It was just so inspiring and though provoking and I learnt a lot of things I had no idea about. Even if I still find it so incredibly ... distasteful when they invite companies such as H&M and other fast fashion brands to discuss sustainability and how dedicated they've apparently become to that lately, despite still making dirty money polluting the environment with massproduced crap made by factory workers that aren't fairly paid. It's just such completely embarrassing greenwashing. The moderator did a great job though, not shying away from difficult questions, like they usually do.



And last (now that I omitted things that made August into a lovely last month of summer), but far from least - I have an interview booked for this week. For a position that's honestly quite the dream job. The interesting thing is that I kind of slipped in on a benevolent banana skin through the back door via recent meetings. It just feels so very right, in every aspect. Like the job ad pretty much being a carbon copy of what I said I was looking for and offering in my recent LinkedIn article.

I'm actually very excited (as illustrated by Ågot), so dear Internetz, kindly send fabulously good vibes and positive thoughts that the meeting will be great, that we will click and match irl just as perfectly as on paper.



Thank you from the bottom of my grateful heart, August, for being such a wonderful month. I'm sad to see you go, and with you a beautiful long summer. But you have made a lasting impact on my life, that's so very special of you.

And dear, September, you have a lot to live up to in the footsteps of your predecessor, but I'm sure you have all amazing things within your 30 days, right? Right. Welcome, welcome, welcome.

the things i do while i'm looking for my new dream job

Stockholm Pride has been. And apart from the love is love, kindness and equality vibe that's in teh air during that week, I always enjoy taking rainbow coloured pictures near water. This year we were at magical Millesgården for a really sweet exhibition with illustrator Lena Andersson's adorable drawings and work. A perfect place for a little rainbow gang to pose.



The exhibition is on until September 22 and well worth a visit.



Car-pooled to the retrieval plant the other week. It was such a bliss to finally get rid of years of broken old stuff that's too heavy to take on the bus. I should make this a regular thing. Not that I got that much heavy stuff to get rid off currently. But a good cleanse of stuff in general is liberating.



The cats were less than happy though, since I threw away one of their favourite chairs (nasty old thing). These were the scenes after I had pulled it apart, making it ready for throwing away. As if there would never again be a better place to lie on.



The season for cherries seem to get shorter by the year, but I have enjoyed the reasonably priced ones I've seen. Ah, cherries, on my top three of best fruit and berries in the whole wide world, alongside raspberries and pineapple. Closely followed my mango.



I was so excited when I saw that Fjällräven had turned their beloved Kånken into a little messenger bag (the big one made in collaboration with Acne last year has alas leather details). For those days when your dress doesn't have pockets (which is such drawback, I know, but still it happens) and your good with a smaller bag or wear it with the Kånken to have your most essentials close at hand. (The pretty red bag from Matt & Nat is of another style, for other days and occasions...).



Granted I thought it would be the same size as the Kånken Mini, but as you can se the Kånken Sling is much smaller. I deliberated if it was a keeper or not, but I decided it was. Even if it isn't big enough to fit both umbrella, sunglasses, a big wallet (I need to downside to a mini one) and all the extras I usually carry in my backpack. And a keepcup is definitely out of the question. So either you have it for very special occasions, with the backpack or with a cotton tote bag.



One interesting sighting of this summer - which has been so so much better than last year, thank goodness for that, at least a little grace from global warming effects - is that there have been so much butterflies, as well as (too many) mosquitos and flies. And since the mosquitos lovez me... But at least, touch wood, the tics have been very few and far apart. And last week I got my final TBE-shot, so now I'm fully vaccinated, hooray.

It was a petty costly affair though, and given the devastating consequences of getting TBE, it's very strange indeed that the usual Swedish health care doesn't cover these costs too. There are so many more unnecessary things it covers, it's baffling.



Remember the sunglass clip-ons I got for one of my new glasses back in February? Well, for some reason, somewhere, I must have misplaced them recently and I can't find them (yet, as the search is still on). So I thought I might pop by the optician and ask if I could buy a new pair. A simple plastic design, as they were included in the very reasonable price for my glasses I couldn't imagine a replacement pair would be very expensive. Boy, was I wrong, the price would be 1/3 of what my glasses cost. Thanks but no thanks. Seriously.

So I'll keep on looking for my misplaced ones, and really, just a quick google search I find the equivalent much more reasonably priced. There are many things worth paying for, while others are just ridiculously overpriced.



I posted a list of 12 (old and new) books I recommend for summer (or year around really) reading on LinkedIn the other week. On which these two appears, the above book is by much loved Swedish artist, painter, feminist, body activist Stina Wollter (I attended a writer's talk with her in June and it was amazing). Only in Swedish, obviously, so far, but I highly recommend you read it.



And the first book in the trilogy by Sylvain Neuvel, "Sleeping Giants" had me mesmerized. Can't wait to read the other two.



Last week I was inspired by pic A to do an even shorter blunt cut. But the result turned out like pic B. And all of you Swedes who grew up with the TV-show Hedvig & Helge know what I mean, the rest of you have to google. The cut was also a bit shorter than I had planned, as I was trying to multitask by talking on the phone at the same time. Yes, true story.



However, after a wash and slight styling it didn't look too bad. And the funniest thing of it all is that after years of being super-reluctant to cut my hair short, and having been pretty sad when I let my hairdresser cut it shorter than usual, is that I basically don't miss it at all. And I can still make a tiny ponytail, if I should so wish.



And I got myself five little jars with the vegan Maria Nila colour refresh. As I am curious if any of them is as great, or as crappy, as the pink resp blue colours I've tried before, I only went for small jars instead of the bigger bottles of the previous two.

I tried the Lavender one the other day, but alas it added only a very faint hint of colour to my sun-bleached grombre hair. But it was a nice nourishing hair pak at least. Fingers crossed the next colour will be as great as the Pink Pop.



Realised it's really quite easy to use public transport to get from here to Sigtuna. It doesn't have to be more time-consuming than 1 hour and 20 minutes from door to door (and if you didn't have waiting time between train and buses it would be even shorter). So I had a little fne outing with little mum last week, with fika at Tant Brun and a stroll around town. I'm looking forward to the fact that it will now be a no biggie to get there for the annual Christmas fair.

More on Sigtuna and its history as the oldest town in Sweden, in this old blog post.



On my above visit to Millesgården I was smitten by this handmade glass ring with coloured water. It wasn't easy to chose colour but in the end I went for a pink + pink one. It's such a nice summer statement ring. From Pylones.



After weeks of deliberation I also decided to get myself this amazing pre-autumn classic shirt dress. It haz pockets. Obviously from Marimekko with its Unikko pattern. (I admit to a slight addiction.) And isn't the pale pink-beige colour combination adorable? It will look great both on cooler summer days with a tan, as well as colourful stockings and cardigans come autumn and winter. For many years.



I've also become a sponsor to this beautiful boy named Benjamin. A young bull at Swedish animal sanctuary Gotlands Djurfristad. May he live a long and happy life there with his friends. As opposed to all the billions of his species that are needlessly oppressed, abused and killed for food we don't need.



And that was a few things I've done lately while I'm still looking for my dream job - and now there's even a reversed job ad up as an article on LinkedIn on that. And if you care to like, share or do something other positive and amazing to spread the word on my quest, that would needlessly to say be much appreciated. Onwards and upwards.

Now I'm looking forward to the vegan cooking class this week, that will be so much fun I'm sure!