Christmas English style

Christmas Day  - Eat, drink and be merry!

I woke up to the typical English Christmas breakfast - scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and orange juice and Champagne. We enjoyed a romantic morning with candles, cuddles and present opening. You see, here in England you open presents on Christmas Day rather than Christmas Eve, so I was very excited since I'd been waiting for a whole day extra. Based on the amount of presents under the tree we'd both been good this year and Santa dropped loads of nice gifts off.

We spent the day at home and went to Clare's and Craig's for Christmas dinner in the afternoon. We had a fantastic evening full with food, Champagne, games and presents. They made us a polenta and brie starter and a lovely vegetarian mushroom pie with all the roast trimmings. Couldn't have wished for a better English Christmas day!

Some of the gifts that Santa so kindly brought.

E x

Christmas Eve

Food, food and more food mixed with dear friends, drinks and presents. Christmas in Brighton wasn't as bad as I thought I'd be. Of course I missed my family, my friends at home and especially the Swedish Christmas food, but I tried to make my English Christmas as Swedish as I could. We ate 'Julbord', played the traditional present game and drank mulled wine. Everyone enjoyed the Swedish food and comments like 'This is sooo much better than English Christmas dinner' and 'I love the gravlaxsås' were flying around when people went for seconds.

Our Christmas tree and the lovely buffet

Clare and Craig tucking in!

Christmas present game

The lovely Elf and the crazy Santa

 

E x

Burning of the Clocks

The music was pumping, colourful dancers and lanterns in all shapes and forms filled the streets of Brighton yesterday.

Every year on 21st December, the shortest day of the year, Same Sky – Brighton’s community art charity – produces a much-loved free event in Brighton called Burning the Clocks. The event combines a family lantern procession with a spectacular fire and fireworks show, bringing the whole city together to celebrate.

Burning the Clocks is a unique community event in which local people make their own paper and willow lanterns. After carrying them through the city in a lantern parade they pass them into the fire on Brighton beach, as a token of the year’s end. Then a dazzling fire show is set in motion, in which a massive fire sculpture is ignited, live music plays, and fireworks light up the sky!

E x

Swenglish party

Decorations, drinks, canapées, candles, games and the best of friends - all ingredients needed for a succesful Christmas party. We spent Friday preparing for the big Swenglish event that was taking place on Saturday and the evening ended up better then we ever thought! A great mix of Christmas jumpers and awesome presents for the traditional game. The pictures speak for themselves!

E x

The last month in pictures

 Mum and dad came over for a long weekend - Nice food, shopping, laughter, London and musical.

 Dinner at Wahaca, Covent Garden

 Making Christmas sweets

 Costa ready for his EDF reward cermony, looking as handsome as ever!

First of advent breakfast

 

November and the first part of December have flown by and now it's only a week left to Christmas eve. I've had my work Christmas lunches, our Swenglish Christmas party, the preparations for Christmas eve are done, most presents are bought and all the Christmas cards are written and ready to be posted. I've kind of got used to the thought of staying in England this Christmas, I am 26 after all so I should be able to survive one Christmas without my family. We are having friends over for traditional Swedish 'Julbord' and games on Christmas eve which will be good fun and we are spending Christmas day at our friends' house. Time to start new traditions!

 

E x



♥

E x

Glad Lucia!

I've spent the evening decorating the tree and watching Lucia, hello Christmas season!

http://www.svtplay.se/lucia

E x

Mo or no mo?

The evening could not have turned out better - Secret delivery, red curry for dinner, amazing friends and Prosecco. Even if they are currently swopping tash wax in the toilet I still like them! Maybe I should grow a mo to fit in? Or at least stop covering mine with make up. What's wrong with a little bit of facial hair?

Seriously, I don't have facial hair, at least not yet. Or do I?

E x

Mr Brainwash

London exhibition - Mr Brainwash - amazing show!

E x

I'm the luckiest girl in the world

E x

Crisp November day

Yesterday we all gathered to celebrate Matt's 30th, dinner and drinks out with dear friends. We started with gin and tonics at All Bar One and eventually we moved on to The House for the big birthday meal. It has been over a year since we all got together for a night out so the expectations were high and everyone were in their best mood. Nice wine got mixed with laughter and long conversations and plans for when we next could meet. All in all a very good night!

This crisp November day has been spent in the best way possible, a walk in the park, album making, chicken stew and a movie. I love spending time in our new place, pottering about, making things, moving things around, painting, unpacking boxes and finding the perfect place for all the things.

E x

Pappa ♥

Grattis på Fars dag till den bästa av pappor!

E x



Monday blues

My long dragged out cold has turned in to fever and a horrible cough, however I will spare you all the petty details of my lame day and watch yet another crap movie instead.

I don't feel sorry for myself at all...

E x

I was made for lovin' you

KISS is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. The members are well known for their white and black face paint and flamboyant outfits. The group were at their prime in the late 70's with their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breahting, blood spitting, shooting rockets and pyrotechnics. The band has been awarded 28 gold albums, this is the most of any American rock band.With their makeup and costumes they took the whole world with storm! 'Starchild' (Stanley), 'The Demon' (Simmons), 'Spaceman' (Frehley) and 'Catman' (Criss) ventured to Southwick to celebrate Halloween with style yesterday!

Happy Halloween!

 

E x

Halloween - Tim Burton style!

Kiss, the Devil, Shaun of the Dead, skeletons, a mad hatter, Bettlejuice and many more gathered in the Pengilly Merino Mansion in Southwick to celebrate Halloween in Tim Burton style yesterday. The house was decorated from floor to ceiling, we danced to the early morning and sang all the cheese pop songs you can imagine. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

Enjoy your Sunday!

E x

Friday

I feels like it's going to be a wonderful Friday today! I can feel it in the air. Do something for yourself today,  treat yourself to something special. Allow yourself to love yourself for who you are this particular Friday. Wear your nicest dress. Spray a bit extra of your favourite perfume, wear your most fabolous shoes and your nicest coat, even if the heals are too high and the material of the coat is too thin for the season. Make fantastic plans with everyone you love, spend quality time with people you've missed. Buy something that you cannot really afford. Make plans for the rest of your life and don't be too scared to include your wildest dreams.
Make this Friday to the Friday of your life, be who you want to be, be proud of yourself and live like you want to live.

E x

Viva Forever

Guilty pleasure.

http://vivaforeverthemusical.com/
My dearest girl friends bought me tickets to the Spice Girls musical for my birthday. Not only do I love musicals, Spice Girls was also my favourite band when I was about 13. I guess that was the same case for every girl in my age, anyhow, it's going to be brilliant to go and see the show -Remember the cheese songs, the dance moves, the clothes and the hair cuts. Can't be anything but a fantastic night out with the ladies!

I wonder if I get to dress up in a leopard patterned bikini and massive platforms?

E x

Autumn

I love the autumn. The high clear air, the colours and the fresh smell make me feel more alive.
I think of all the previous autumns I have experienced, they feel so close, closer than the other seasons. Me and Costa meet in the autumn, we really experienced it. Experienced the colours, the wind and the seaside in the autumn. We fought the cold and drank wine in the beer gardens. We could sit for several hours, we just asked for an extra blanket when it even got to cold for two people falling in love. I remember every minute of this autumn. I know it inside out. I know how everything tasted, how he tasted and how the air, wind and autumn sun felt on my face. I remember everything I wore and everything we did. I remember all the nerves and the excitement, the feeling of being the luckiest girl in the world. How his arms felt around me and how groggy he looked when he woke up in the morning.

I think that's why I love the autumn...

E x

Stockholm - Lidköping - Göteborg

We started off our trip in Stockholm, walked through the old town, went shopping, showed Costa around the 'touristy' parts of the city, ate lovely food and supported my mum who ran Lidingöloppet, 30 km in a bit over 3,5 h and the happiest runner I've ever seen! Usually parents are proud of their kids when they perform well, improve, come up with new ideas or are brave enough to do something for the first time.
On this particular Saturday when my mum ran down the last hill going towards the finishing line, it was the other way around, I must say I was proud of her! Go mum!

 We stayed with my cousin in her cosy neighborhood on Södermalm and spent many evenings in the restaurants in this area of town, Nyagatan, Koh Phangan, Bara vi. Costa loved Stockholm and I think Sweden is growing on him every time we go there. Who knows, one day we might try out life up north?
We spent a couple of days in Lidköping, quality time with the family, picked Chantarelles in  the woods, looked through things from the olden days and enjoyed being spoiled.
Many of my friends who live in Sweden has 'settled down' in Gothenburg so we decided to spend a night there before heading back to the UK. Went for dinner and drinks and Temple pub and it was lovely to see all my dear friends again, we talked, laughed, tried to update each other on everything, planned when to meet up next and lauged even more.
The evening continued at Järntorget with Nadine, Mattias and Costa - 'They see me rollin' was the theme of the night.

All in all, a brilliant six days in Sweden.

E x