WCB #120 - Welcome Wee W

The cousins have arrived! Since I'm not sure these four tiny beings are the only ones to arrive though, I'll wait with welcoming them in a more proper way, let's just say they all seem happy and content - and one of them has a very exciting colour, as in colourpoint, the other three are in various shades and patterns of red.

In awaiting a decent picture of the small ones, here are the proud mum and dad cat, Tyra and Pelle.

This week's WCB is hosted by Puddy & Katie at A Byootaful Life, with the theme being favourite things, if you'd like to share... See you there!

Awaitings

Something I've learnt the hard way when it comes to cats, kittens and breeding, is that no matter how much you plan, hope and wish nature, life, destiny, whatever you want to call it, have a strong tendency not to grant those wishes and hopes. Even if there's always exceptions to that rule-of-not-getting-your-hopes-up-too-much of course.

But since I've had just too much of plans and hopes turning into nothing, or worse than nothing, when it comes to this particular area in my life - though I suppose it isn't very far fetched to say that's also something of a life lesson in general... - I've learnt as much as the plans are best kept light, happy-go-lucky if possible and when opportunity knocks, say yes, grab it, who knows what amazing revelations might come from it!

So when it turned out that - after years of different breeding plans, hopes and wishes, nothing or worse than nothing came - one day it happened that, how inconvenient as it may be, not only one but two litters where on their way - I just said yes, thank you, this is going to be great!

At least until the cat litter, corn gruel and cat food consumptions reach new and exciting heights, the constant pitter-patter of tiny paws racing through the house, up and down the corridor, starts to get slightly annoying, *thousands* of wee cats seemingly everywhere, doing very important things, stretching, climbing, scratching and using their newfound abilities, showing off, demanding attention...

And then, ah, the much awaited day of moving to new homes finally arrive - and then it's rather sad to see them go, those plush, adorable, cuddly, teddy bear-looking ones who've actually enliven the household, and its old, lazy, tired inhabitants for some months. Whose sheer existence and amount of energy, mischievous whims and sweet natures seriously have outmanoeuvred the importance of having a TV...

So, perhaps needless to write, awaiting is my main business - while whisking around in the kitchen, trying out various new things with an equally varied result... - at the moment. Any day now, there'll be tiny cousins of Viktor, Vilgot & Viola arriving. Tummies up!

Royal Light

I've never ever managed to get any decent pictures of the Royal Palace in Stockholm - and I'm fairly sure it hasn't anything to do with a subconscious political reason and statement. Oh yes, I do have a lot of principles and views, political and otherwise, but when it comes to photography I tend to just see the beauty in most things around us instead of contemplating making a statement. Even if those have a tendency to as if by magic appear by themselves now and then...

Today though, I think the complete "wrong" light conditions - on a most glorious and enjoyable Autumn day in "Venice of the North" - from a photographic point of view made for a rather nice composition with the palace as piece de resistance. By no means a very obvious picture, you have to use a bit of imagination...

Free Soups

Thanks to Anne I had the opportunity to go to the restaurant expo the other day, open only to people in the business. So on that particular day I had drastically changed my occupation... Can't say I was impressed by the whole event, at all - and not only because it was a whole lot of semi products and far from enough vegetarian and/or healthy alternatives, since that I was quite aware of before hand.

For me the Sollentuna Expo Center really is quite a shabby, second-rate hall for exhibitions. Whatever the arrangements - for me it has been cat- and pet-shows, handicraft, design, and food expos - the hall is never ever a good one, lousy ventilation, crummy and incommodious. They will be moving to new locations in Kista next autumn though.

This time it was also a very strange lack of interest in visitors when it came to the people in the different exhibition cases. They seemed all too happy to chat with eachother instead - silly me who thought the very obvious reason to attend an expo as an exhibitor was to show oneself and possibly get new customers...

The food sampling I did myself is not worth mentioning, mostly quite unsavoury as far as my tastebuds were concerned. Home with me came some different samples of flour, spices and boxes of new (?) flavours of Campbell's soups, ready to eat. Let's just say I had a severe case of pain in shoulders, neck and arms yesterday since we're talking several litres carrying around for hours... And somehow it felt *very* important to get them all home with me...

Creamy vegetable and classic tomato, both quite nice in flavour, and I say flavour singular since they both basically taste the same. Yes, nice, creamy flavour, but I wouldn't buy them myself since there are just too many weird extracts added and I like to, if possible, know and understand why a certain ingredient is added. Simple is often best when it comes to food, I think, generally.

So the main thing I got from these soups - apart from a serious case of muscle soreness - was inspiration for varying and extending my own soup repertoire. And now is really the perfect season for rootveggies and enjoying warm soups in what might turn into heavy autumn weather any day now.

My Life as a Closet Trainspotter

Commuter-train competent (P som i pendeltågskompetent), that's apparently a way to describe me. *Thanks, Anne* It kind of has an appealing ring to it, don't you think? It might even be a most pleasant epithet to add to the CV. Since it possibly stands for environmental consciousness, being unchained from strange phobias that has to do with people, lots of people, rush hours and crowds, pretty flexible and being able to making the most of the time, delays or no delays.

I wouldn't go as far as to say I can be waken up in the middle of the night and being able to give an account of the c-train timetable, but surprisingly often I do get all sorts of interesting details right when it comes to timetables, which train carriage being the most suitable for getting off at a certain station and so forth - at least on the northwest side of Stockholm. Come to think of it, it's really the same thing with the subway...

This is rather strange, not to say very odd, can it actually possibly be that I'm a closet trainspotter...? This is really most disturbing, am I deep inside one of the truly weird nerds, not just the average cat nerd, but a truly distinguished oddball? And have I just decloset my oddball self in blogging public? Does this mean I have to wear the no 1 most nerdy yokel attribute imaginable, a peaked cap? Is my life as I know it over, or is it possible to get back in the closet with all that c-competence?

Every Seventh Year

When I was a child I was a lens louse. I loved posing for the camera and the camera loved me. The older I got the less inclined I became being in front of the camera, and the camera most certainly slowly and surely fell out of love with me. Our relationship just wasn't what it used to be - and soon we really begun to hate eachother. A lot.

Today there are few things I hate doing more than posing for the camera, and the camera definitely loathes me. I look more than awkward in front of the camera, it just isn't the person I see in the mirror. Far from. Hello there, goblin, who are you?

So I shy away from having my picture taken - and when I can't I just hate seeing the end result, and it really isn't any fun, at all, when those darn pictures are shown around amongst family and friends. Major case of shudder.

The photos you really by no means whatsoever can get away from, like passports, ID-cards and so on, they're just the worst, and you have to live with them for years and years... I actually sort of liked the picture on my previous passport, ok I looked a bit like a scared bunnyrabbit but it was sort of endearing at least. On my new passport I look like a female, and very zonked, version of the grandfather in Kalles klätterträd (Charlie's Climbingtree).

I loved that TV-series when I was a child, still do, but I never really aspired to look anything remotely like a cartoon character under the influence of illegal substances when I grew up and had to have my picture taken. It's so beyond laughable, it's just tragic.

But, every seventh year or so, the unknown fairy godmother of picturetaking whisks her magic wand and *abracadabra* I actually manage to look pretty decent on a picture or two. Just a shadow of the former loved-by-the-camera-lens-louse, but still something I can live with without getting a mini version of a panic attack every time I have to show it in public. Oh how I wish that magic picturetaking wand could be whisked my way a bit more often...

Two Weeks Notice - Viola

Time to introduce myself I think, I'm Viola. Viola Vindolanda to be precise, which I prefer to be. I'm black, stylish and spunky. One might call me the cat realm's equivalence to the fashion and clothing business LBD, I'm the LBC (Little Black Cat) - something you can never ever be wrong with having in your home and by your side. I'm an IT-cat that never go out of style. Yes, I know I'm only 14 days old, but I'm destined for something grand, of course.

I'm a little pretty princess, as opposed to those furballs that apparently are my brothers, the only two things they seem interested in are eating and sleeping. Whilst I like a bit of action, come on, there's a whole wide world out there to be discovered and conquered!

A Spoonful of Heaven

For obvious reasons there hasn't been a lot of kitchenwitchery for me as lately. But now it seems like I'm more or less my very self again, so as a first tentative step back in k-witchery business I decided to make what sounded like a very simple and tasty dessert - a chocolate & coffee mousse with raspberries.

And my oh my, it was not only the simplest thing to whip together - I didn't even have to use my magic wand, the plain old electric whisk did a good job - it was also a spoonful of heaven! Nearly as delightful as a trip with the broom I'd say, if I had to compare with something more tangible. And those fresh raspberries, mmm...

Movietime

Some movies that have been flickering in front of me as lately, being more or very less memorable...

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - in my opinion the weakest of the so far five HP movies, or is it actually possible one might have become a bit tired of the concept... 3/5

Orange County - and I don't mean the series, which I quite enjoyed, but a twerpy comedy that left me with a big yaaawn 1+/5

Dragonfly- or Öyenstikker aka Gryningsland being its original title, a sad story about raggedy people, an eternal triangle that never really grips but only scratch the surface. And I would probably have appreciated the movie more if one of the actors hadn't been one of Sweden's most overrated ones, Mikael Persbrandt...+2/5

Try Seventeen - even before Elijah Wood became a hobbit I concider him to be one. Ok now and then he can act, but for me he will forever remain a little boy, perhaps endearing, but still a boy. Hence any kind of love stories with him can't in any way be seen as credible 2/5

Pauline & Paulette - awardwinning Belgian dramacomedy about Pauline, a 66 year's old retarded woman who's cared for by her younger sisters. The main character is absolutely brilliantly played, a both moving and sad film in all its simplicity, +3/5

8½ woman - in general I find Peter Greenaway's weird and wonderful movies completely fascinating. Not to mention accompanied by Michael Nyman's alluring music. But sometimes they're *a bit* too thick for me, and others they're mainly just odd and boring. 8½ woman was the latter kind of movie, juvenile weird and without the slightest hint of wonderful -2/5

Dodgeball, A True Underdog Story - guess what, I had no idea dodgeball meant spökboll, ghostball, as its called in Swedish, before I saw this educative movie... One of my favourite games at school's gymclass, but never played as fiercely and with as many balls as in Dodgeball though... A completely hilarious movie, from main characters to supporting actors, -4/5

Quills - an intense, witty, in parts amusing but mainly brutal and sad movie about the marquis de Sade and his time in the asylum Charenton. Main character played by brilliant Geoffrey Rush, supported by other great actors like Kate Winslet, Michael Caine and Joaquin Phoenix, -4/5

Hitch - I very much enjoyed this romantic comedy, so much better than I had anticipated. Fun, endearing, giving food for thought *imagine that!*, unfortunately the end was hotch-potched together in a sloppy way, hence the minus -4/5

The Prestige - a movie I had really looked forward to watching, and then it turned out to be so utterly predictable! How tedious... But it was beautifully made, and with good actors, even if it was far from their best performances... 3/5

The Last King of Scotland - another film I had very much looked forward to see, and as it turned out being very disappointed of. The only shining thing about it was Forest Whittaker, who won a welldeserved Oscar for that chilling performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Other than that it was just too sketchy, but for a few scenes, 3/5

The Kid Stays in the Picture - a documentary about an, apparently, legendary Hollywood producer and his life in the movies. I know many rave about it, but I just didn't get it... Yes, it was kind of fun to hear the story behind The Godfather, Rosemary's Baby and Lovestory, but all in all, a dull movie which made for a lot of fast-forwarding... -2/5

Full Frontal - I believe Steven Soderbergh is inconceivably uneven as a director, he has made absolutely brilliant movies such as Traffic, Far From Heaven and Syriana, and the übercoolish Ocean's-trilogy. But also quite the opposite *ie crap* ones like Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Out of Sight and this Full Frontal. What can I say, what a waste of time, of talented actors, why oh why...? +1/5

Frida - a really fascinating life story, stunningly colourful and dramatic, but somehow this screen adaption of Mexican painter Frida Kalho never really touched me, I'm still not sure what I think of it... 3/5

This Year's Love - an English movie pretending to be a romantic comedy, but really it's just a completely sad story about a more or less raggedy group of people in London's Camden Town and their search for love. Good actors, but more than rather depressing I'd say... -3/5

Pitches in Denmark, part I

We'd just reached Copenhagen - previous post - and one endearing features of Danes are their love for bikes. Even if the way they throw themselves out in heavy traffic on bikes might be consider more than slightly death contempting... Not really my cup of tea, riding a bike under those circumstances, but I do like the environmental and health aspects of it all! And the Christiania bikes are just lovely, often with these little moppets riding in front. It all seems so sweet, in a very liberating, non Swedish way...

This time around, for various reasons, we did stay in Roskilde and not in Copenhagen. I think that leaving Copenhagen, and just heading a few miles outside, it's strangely enough a whole different Danish world, a very different mentality. I've felt that before, but it hasn't really been as tangible as I felt it to be now. Or perhaps it's just me being that city girl at heart...

The town of Roskilde is probably most wellknown for its annual rock festival Roskildefestivalen. And it's enormous cathedral, built in the 12th century. The cathedral hosts concerts all year around, and we managed to go to one of the organ recitals - which made me think a lot about Until I Find You... - with, let's say a very varied quality of the pieces played... The acoustics were just lovely though. Other than that I generally only see Roskilde as a good basecamp in exploring the Danish countryside, not very interesting in itself...

But then there's the exception, and it has to do with food. Outside Copenhagen I think it's really difficult to find decent vegetarian alternatives, so it was with great surprise and utter delight I met one of the best meals I've ever had there... It was unfortunately just too much food to even remotely being able to enjoy every little piece of, but simply everything I took a bite of was divine tasting. So I'll just take it from bread to dessert, without to much superlative fuss, which everything deserved -

Walnut bread

Freshly squeezed orange juice and a most inventive salad buffet

Creamy, chanterelle pasta with garlic, basil and parmesan - I don't much fancy chanterelles, which most often are badly prepared and really slimy in consistency, but now I at least know how they ought to taste, and oh my were they good...

Grilled peaches in raspberry sauce with sabayonne icecream - the icecream was homemade and absolutely fantastic, there was a blueberry one on the other plate that was nearly too good to be true...

A *slightly* round tummy and a blissful smile on my face walking back to the hotel - a simply amazing dinner indeed! The place of such culinary delights? Hotel Prindsen in Roskilde.

The one and only - apart from stopping and a bit of shopping in Copenhagen - thing we had pre-planned to do when in Denmark this time was to visit Möns klint, the impressive chalk cliffs of the island Mön. So one day was spent on Mön, mainly at the cliffs. And with doing really heavy workout, because if you want to get as much views - and photo opportunities - you have to climb a l o t. I insisted on going down to the beach too - which turned out to be far from a good idea...

Let me introduce you to the most hellish stairway to the beach of the cliffs at Mön - it took about 20 minutes to get down there. And on our way down these winding stairs we met all stages of exhausted people, some crying, others huffing and puffing at what seemed like the verge of a heart attack, some with a very strange, tense facial expression, not to mention the poor dogs some were accompanied by...

It was just a question of which stage of exhaustion oneself would be in while having to climb all those steps returning up again... Finally reaching the beach it turned out it was just a muddy, chalk mess and not a lot to see, nor taking pictures of. So it was just a case of getting back up again - which was really no fun. At. All.

If it's of any interest, my stage of exhaustion was the tense-facial-expression-and-lactic-acid-legs-one. Luckily enough there were some benches to relax on beside the stairs, I'm no sure if I'd made it alive otherwise. But I did finally see the daylight at the end of the stairs, and not the other kind, and I felt quite satisfied in a rather exhausted way, having made it.

Situated nearby the cliffs is the lovely small castle and gardens of Liselunds slot. Really fairytailish in the tiniest way.

Lunch was had at the little gem of a restaurant right beside the bridge heading into the main town on Mön, Stege. Café Laika was its name, tiny dining area inside and a large wooden deck on water, basking in the sun, absolutely lovely. And so was the food *hurray for decent veggie alternatives*, delicious hoummus sandwich.