Friday delight

I have always loved going to the circus and was absolutely thrilled when Graham surprised me with tickets to Cirque Du Soleil a while back.
Last Friday it was finally time to head out to the point and the O2 arena! It didn't matter that we got soaked getting there because the show was totally worth it. Cirque Du Soleil is originally from Montreal, Canada but is performing all over the world with different shows. We got to see Saltimbanco.



"Saltimbanco -from the Italian "saltare in banco", which literally means "to jump on a bench"-explores the urban experience in all its myriad forms: the people who live there, their idiosyncrasies and likenesses, families and groups, the hustle and bustle of the street and the towering heights of skyscrapers. Between whirlwind and lull, prowess and poetry, Saltimbanco takes spectators on an allegorical and acrobatic journey into the heart of the city.

Saltimbanco is a Cirque du Soleil signature show inspired by the urban fabric of the metropolis and its colorful inhabitants. Decidedly baroque in its visual vocabulary, the show's eclectic cast of characters draws spectators into a fanciful, dreamlike world, an imaginary city where diversity is a cause for hope" (http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/world/en/ie/intro/intro.asp)

It really is a fantastic, modern, acrobatic and engaging saga. I most of all enjoyed the mime artist which made me cry of laughter. Every detail in the show is planned to perfection and there is so many things going on at the stage at all times. A true Friday delight!

Love

-Lilly

Happy Midsummer's day!

Glad midsommar!

Today is a day when I miss living in Sweden. Midsummer celebrations is something special for everyone with a nordic heart. Last year Graham learnt to drink snaps and dance "the little frogs" around the maypole.

"Midsummer's Eve and Midsummer's Day (Midsommarafton and Midsommardagen) were formerly celebrated on 23 June and 24 June, but since 1953 the celebration has been moved to the Friday and Saturday between 19 June and 26 June. It is one of the most important holidays of the year in Sweden, and probably the most uniquely Swedish in the way it is celebrated. The main celebrations take place on the Friday, and the traditional events include raising and dancing around a huge maypole. Before the maypole is raised, greens and flowers are collected and used to cover the entire pole.

Raising and dancing around a maypole (majstång or midsommarstång) is an activity that attracts families and many others. People dancing around the pole listen to traditional music and some even wear traditional folk costumes. In addition, many wear crowns made of wild springs and wildflowers on their heads. The year's first potatoes, Soused herring, Chives, Sour Cream, Beer, Snaps and the first strawberries of the season are on the menu. Drinking songs Snapsvisor are also important at this feast, and many drink heavily. When Sweden got its National day (6th june) discussions were hold about making midsummer the Swedish national day because of the strong civil celebration this day.

Because Midsummer was thought to be one of the times of the year when magic was strongest, it was considered a good night to perform rituals to look into the future. Traditionally, young people pick bouquets of seven or nine different flowers and put them under their pillow in the hope of dreaming about their future spouse. In the past it was believed that herbs picked at Midsummer were highly potent, and water from springs could bring good health. Greenery placed over houses and barns were supposed to bring good fortune and health to people and livestock; this old tradition of decorating with greens continues, even though most don't take it seriously. To decorate with greens was called att maja (to may) and may be the origin of the word majstång, maja coming originally from the month May. Other researchers say the term came from German merchants who raised the maypole in June because the Swedish climate made it impossible to find the necessary greens and flowers in May, and continued to call it a maypole. Today, however, it is most commonly called a "midsommarstång" (literally midsummer's pole).

In earlier times, small spires wrapped in greens were erected; this probably predates the maypole tradition, which is believed by many to have come from the continent in the Middle Ages. Others argue that some form of Midsummer pole occurred in Sweden during the pre-Christian times, and was a phallic fertility symbol, meant to impregnate the earth, but as there were no records from those times it cannot be proven, and this idea might just be a modern interpretation of the poles form. The earliest historical mention of the maypole in Sweden is from the Middle Ages. Midsummer was, however, linked to an ancient fertility festival which was adapted into St. John's Day by the church, even though it retained many pagan traditions, as the Swedes were slow to give up the old heathen customs. The connection to fertility is naturally linked to the time of year. Many young people became passionate at Midsummer, and this was accepted, probably because it resulted in more childbirths in March which was a good time for children to be born.

In Denmark and Norway midsummer is referred to as the eve of Skt. Hans but it's only in Sweden that it has kept its original name.

In Sweden and parts of Finland the tradition of bonfires are not part of midsummer but of the "Valborg's" evening festivities when winter leaves are burned for summer.

An old Swedish traditon is that unmarried girls should before bedtime midsummer´s eve pick seven kinds of flowers and jump over seven roundpole fences and then sleep with the flowers under the pillow. During the night they will dream about the boy they will get married to." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midsummer)



Photo borrowed from "if photography" and my husband Graham Byrne. http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/if-Photography/137275399621543?ref=ts

Good mood food

Good morning,

Donal Skehan is a young chef from Dublin who started his food blog in 2007. It is so well worth a visit. My first encounter with this inspiring chef was through his book "Good mood food - simple healthy homecooking" which I got from my friend Diarmaid as a Christmas gift last year. Donal has also lived and worked in Sweden which gives a lot of his recipies a swirish twist which I obviously love!



Smile- the sun is still shining!

-Lilly

Beautiful day

Good morning,

The sun is shining from a clear blue sky, I have a big smile on my face and a beautiful wedding ring on my finger.
Apologies for the poor update of this blog but life has been very busy recently.
In a good way that is. On Saturday 5 June, me and Graham said "I do" to each other in Savsjo, Sweden. We had the best day of our lives and couldn't ask for anything more. I can now confirm that a lead up to a wedding is very stressful indeed and there were times when we discussed the possibilities of eloping instead. Looking back I am so glad we didn't. I know our parents would have been sad and having our loved ones there with us on our special day was perfect. I'm trying not to be too cheesy here, but during the day I could literally feel love all around me.
We did the wedding our way, all the way and I am so proud we did. 5 June is our date and I think all our guests will remember it for a very long time too.

Robbie, our dear friend and photographer is 2/3 there with editing. I'm really excited and can't wait to see "our album". Luckily he has given us a sneak peak of a few so I know they are good already.



This is me and "the lads" - Graham, Ross, Robert, Dad, Martin and Pat.

Enjoy the sun!

Lilly

After rain comes sunshine

It's been a long week filled with fever, coughing and sniffling both for me and Graham. It really takes time to get up from a dip like this, but I'm sure we'll get there in the end. We have so many things in our lives to be grateful for and 2010 is really our year! Roll on 5 June!

On Sunday evening we decided we had to get up from the couch and out of the apartment no matter what. Off to the cinema we went to see Avatar in 3D. Well worth it!!

xxx
Lilly Elisabeth

We all smell

Today going home after work, we as always got on the bus at Pearse Street. The bus is pretty packed because it's rush hour. We're all rushing to get home and most of us will once at home run around the kitchen for a little bit and get a rushed dinner together. We'll eat in silence watchin Gerry Ryan's "Operation Transformation" and think to ourselves that I should really get a grip and start eating healthy and exercise more. Today on the bus, just as we get upstairs to sit down, I notice there is a very unpleasent smell to put it mildly. A little embarrassed I try and look around to find out where this stinking is coming from. There he is. In one of the back seats, surrounded by empty seats in the otherwise packed bus, sits an older man with a hair and beard that can almost be described as Santa like. Except that it's dark grey of dirt. Judging from his apperance he has been sleeping rough for quite a while. I have to admit that we had to get off to change buses as I started feeling nautious from the smell. It's now nearly 11pm and here I am in my warm bed, not being able to sleep, thinking of that man who might just had been on that bus to get some heat before heading out in the cold and wet night. I smell of shame.

Thanks for the smile!

To the little girl who was building this adourable little snowman outside Doyles pub - Thanks for the smile you put on so many stressed, cold and frustrated Dubliners this afternoon.

Furious!

I am angry and have a big knot in my tummy of anxiety and fury. Someone has had the nerves to climb up to our first floor bedroom balcony, clip the locks and steal our two bikes. It makes me furious when I think about it! Extremely unnerving too. Happy bloody Christmas....

Harissa Paste

I love Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his RiverCottage.
Whenever I can, I watch the program on Channel Four. As myself and Graham, my fiancé, live in a two bedroom apartment just out of Dublin City we unfortunately cannot grow or produce our own local food. We can however act out our, sometimes mad, culinary dreams in our tiny little kitchen. And this is what happened last night.

A few weeks back, we watched an episode of River Cottage. I think it was a Thanksgiving/Autumn special. Hugh was making hot and heart warming all sorts of food, with emphasis on HOT. So yesterday evening after work, we went home and started making Harissa Paste. This is a North African Chilli paste that literally blows you away. It's yummy yummy but should be consumed with moderation. ;-) We had previously purchased little jars in IKEA for this in mind. I must say they look absolutely fab filled with this red, spicy paste and makes lovely gifts. Oh, do I have to say that I was met by the strongest smell of chilli and spices this morning when opening the kitchen door?

Christmas build up

And so another weekend has passed...Saturday evening was spent with introducing Irish family to a traditional St. Lucia celebration. The Swedish embassy together with Sony Ericsson had organised St. Adolf Fredrik's youth choir performing a St. Lucia concert in St. Patrick's cathedral in Dublin. They did an absolut magnificent job and I was not the only Swede with a tear in the eye at the end of the concert, rightly called "from darkness to light".

On another note, I sadly have to let you know that IKEA in Dublin doesn't stock julmust! ;-( Much to my delight they do have glögg and pepparkakor! (a sort of mulled wine and gingersnaps) My Christmas build up would be very dull and incomplete without them.

-Elisabeth Lilly

Cravings for Julmust

We are getting closer to Christmas and I have the strongest craving for the popular Swedish Christmas drink Julmust right now...

Julmust
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Julmust (Swedish jul "Christmas" and must "must") or Julebrus (Norwegian jul "Christmas and brus "soda") is a soft drink that is consumed mainly in Sweden and Norway around Christmas. 45 million litres of julmust are consumed during December (to be compared with roughly 9 million Swedes), which is around 50% of the total soft drink volume in December and 75% of the total yearly must sales.

Must is made of carbonated water, sugar, hop extract, malt extract, spices, caramel colouring, citric acid, and preservatives. The hops and malt extracts give the must a somewhat beer-like taste, but much sweeter and, since it is not fermented, it contains no alcohol.

In Sweden, julmust outsells Coca-Cola during the Christmas season;in fact, the consumption of Coca-Cola drops by as much as 50% over Christmas.This was quoted as one of the main reasons that The Coca-Cola Company broke away from their contract with Pripps and started Coca-Cola Drycker Sverige AB instead. Coca-Cola Drycker Sverige AB produced its own julmust, albeit very anonymous with The Coca-Cola Company's name very subtle on the label. Their julmust was never advertised until 2004, when Coca-Cola started marketing their julmust under the brand "Bjäre julmust", but they bought the syrup from Roberts AB. Under 2007 the "Bjäre julmust" was only sold at McDonald's restaurants and it had completely disappeared from Coca-Colas range of products to Christmas 2008.

Those outside Sweden who are curious to try julmust might be able to purchase and sample a bottle from a nearby IKEA store.However, availability is not guaranteed; one is most likely to find it in stock in early December. Kristall Beverage Inc. in Massachusetts, USA bottles julmust for sale in the USA.In November 2004 PepsiCo marketed a product somewhat similar in taste to julmust in the United States called Pepsi Holiday Spice. It was on sale during the 2004 and 2006 Christmas seasons. Recently Julmust has also become available at some Cost Plus World Market stores.

An Post

Today's question;
Why in the name of God doesn't An Post (Irish post services) accept Visa cards??? Very very annoying!

Sometimes it feels like I'm living in the backwards country of all times....;-(

Apology - Ursäkt

Ok. I officially suck at blogging.
But I'm going to try and give this another go. I won't promise anything but I will try my best to regurarly give you an insight of - "life of Lills".

Ok. Jag erkänner att jag är usel på att blogga. Men jag ska försöka att ge det här en chans till. Jag kan inte lova något men jag ska göra mitt allra bästa för att någolunda regelbundet ge er en inblick i mitt liv - "life of Lills".

Elisabeth "Lilly"

Sometimes you need to stop and just be...

I think too much sometimes. Overanalyzing they call it. I hate when other people are doing this, and am consequently rather ashamed of my own habit. Sometimes you just have to take a deep breath and let yourself just be. Things will work themselves out. Trust the people you love. “It’ll be grand” as the Irish person would say. Easier said then done though.

Graham sent me this today;

What does man love more than life,
Fear more than death or mortal strife,
What the poor have, the rich require,
And what contented men desire,
What misers spend, and spendthrifts save,
And all men carry to the grave?

The answer?
-Absolutely nothing.

Take care,

Elisabeth "Lilly"

London update

Alright, so here is the photo update from my London weekend that I promised. I know it's a lot later then the previosly said "yesterday", but sometimes late is better then never.

Westminster Abbey

Ellen is happy with her lunch in Notting Hill

So am I!

View from the London eye.

View from the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. An absolute favorite!

Torsten in Greenwich.

This massive bronze cone can be found at the Peter Harrison planetarium in Greenwich. The shape is related to the stars and is unique to its location in Greenwich.

Torsten and Ellen at the Camden Lock market.



Dali exhibition that I unfortunately never had time to see. Next time!

Big ben by night.

Big Ben and part of the parliament again.

Look at me, not keeping this blog up to date at all! I guess when you are happy and content with life, time just flies by. Mike, my Irish dad in Tip, called me early this morning. He started the call by saying; “I had a missed call from you”, to which I of course replied; “No, I didn’t call you”. Yep, you get the point, he did succeed with his plan to make me feel really really guilty for not being in touch for such a long time. Ok, mental note to sit down this evening and plan a weekend for a Tipperary visit! I better add it to my calendar as well, as my mental notes for some strange reason seem to erase themselves at times.

I’m just back from a long weekend in London with my darling friend Ellen. She gave me the flight ticket as a present for my 29th birthday back in March. We had a fantastic time and my feet are still sore after all the running around we did. I’ve been in London before, once with my class during Uni and then a handful of times while working for EF. However most of the latter ones only consisted of passing through airports to get to Brighton or Oxford for meetings, hence my mega excitement for going there for almost four full days.
With just enough planning to keep the German in Ellen at ease, we managed to get together a schedule that allowed for some chilling but also to get around to the sights and places we had talked about. They say a picture can tell more than a 1000 words so my thought was to post some of my typical tourist shots here for you, but typically I forgot my camera at home when leaving for work this morning.

As I mentioned before I cannot trust my mental notes!!! Scary when you come to think of it, I’m only 29 and struggling with remembering things. Any tips?? One old supposedly good trick is to tie a string around your finger as a reminder that you have something important to remember. I can’t nonetheless see how that would be any good to me as I quite often, if not even all the time, have just that feeling that there is something I should have remembered but can’t for the love of God figure out what. I must say it is one of the most annoying feelings in the world! Anyhow, tomorrow I will have photos here as a note now is entered in my phone. ;-)

It is now only 30 days to go before mine and Graham’s holiday to Sweden. Mum and dad are going to Budapest for a week and we have promised to dogsit Whiskey. Nothing is set yet but we’ve been talking about going camping for a few days and then a visit to Stockholm. It’s Graham’s first time so there will be plenty of meet and greet with family and friends too. He is particularly looking forward to taking part of the famous frog dancing on Midsummer’s eve!

Take care.
Elisabeth “Lilly”

I miss my Whiskey

Good morning all,

I know I said before this blog was going to be in Swedish solely. As always I have severe difficulties in making up my mind and after a few requests from friends I have thus decided to alter between Swedish and English. Scatterbrained as I also am, I’ll hopefully be able to use one language at the time. To keep everyone happy, I’ll simply tag the blog posts with either “Svenska” or “English”.

Writing in English like this is however without doubt quite scary. Don’t get me wrong, I do consider myself being fluent in English and I generally don’t have any problems in my daily life expressing myself. If anything, I do talk too much! (ask Graham ;-))
Although when it comes to public writing, usually at work, I get very self-conscious. Nevertheless I have decided to give this a go. Please be patience with grammar and spelling mishaps...

It’s Monday morning and all my Spring 2009 students have now left Champlain Dublin. The sun is shining and I’m feeling very very relaxed. It’s soon lunchtime and I’m getting childishly excited to be able to pop out to the nearest bicycle shop to see if I can get a helmet. Yes, I have bought a bike!!!

The plan is to sometimes take the bike to work. Just thinking about me cycling in traffic here is actually scaring the shite out of me, but I’m trying to suppress those thoughts for now. The plan is of course to save a little bit of money by skipping the bus fare, but most importantly to get healthier. Not very happy with myself at the moment; my fitness level is literally below zero. As myself and Graham are living just next to Phoenix Park, I’m also hoping to go for a spin there from time to time. I’m not a fan of running or jogging or anything alike so cycling, walking and swimming will be my way of getting in shape for the summer!

I’m really missing my little dog Whiskey today so went through all my photos of him and found this adorable video from last Christmas.
Back to work....

Take care,
Elisabeth “Lilly”