Thursday, March 27, 2008

Back to Work... Urgh!

So it was back to work today, jetlag and all.

I landed at Perth International Airport at 01:40 on Wednesday morning. It was then out through customs and off home to unpack gifts and say hello to the family. Mum was cooking pierogi for me at 03:30 and I ate all of them. I finally went to bed that morning and woke up a full 12 hours later. I was going to be rooted after sleeping through almost the whole of Wednesday.

I didn't sleep well last night, woke up at 04:00 fresh as a daisy. So I read a book "A Modern Girl's Guide to Getting Organised" and eventually got ready and headed to work for 07:30. By 09:00 I was starving and getting restless. I had lunch with Robin around noon which is great also because he works so much closer to me now :)

After lunch I got two phone calls and an email out of the way before I started losing functionality. I was on the decline. I needed sleep. I drove home and crashed out immediately to be later woken up by dad at 16:30 offering bacon and eggs for dinner. I can't eat. I'm sooooo thirsty!

It wasn't all doom and gloom today, it was actually a fairly easy day at work. I got in early and cleared some emails, gave everyone the rundown of the trip to Sweden and Norway, opened up my new titanium Akrapovic exhaust and milled around the office for a bit.

I'm looking forward to spending the weekend with Robin, my family and finally finishing the R1, complete with neons and new muffler. If I get really adventurous I might even change the map on the Power Commander. Here's to nice weather for the weekend!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Påsk Party

Glad Påsk (Happy Easter) everyone! It's Easter and the party atmosphere is all around. Well, at least in the Aussie camp in Örebro.

Last night the lovely Reynolds family hosted the Påsk celebrations. Julian fired up the BBQ with the "Outback" BBQ, Bar-B-Mate and all the winter gear on.

Pumpkin put together the salads and brought the beer, Erika made some cakes and the rest of us just set off fireworks and enjoyed the beer.

North end of the tableSouth end of the table
Skål!

Obviously, when it's -7°C outside, there's no need for a beer fridge. You just keep them outside under the patio. After dinner, we were chilling out in front of the telly...

... and letting off fireworks. Lucikly they're legal in Sweden (but only really used on events like Christmas and Easter).

Saturday, March 22, 2008

The Lookout

Svampen, the Water Tower in Örebro

Holding 9 million litres (that's 9,000m3) of water, Svampen is the main water source for Örebro. With the views and the cafe at the top, I had to go and check it out.


It was a lazy 15 second ride up the escalator to the top so I was glad that I didn't have to conquer many flights of stairs to get there. Once on the top, the wind was howling and it was very cold. Wind chill would have brought the outside temperature down from about zero to -5°C easily. It was frosty and it didn't take long for my hands to go numb from taking photos at the top. Sebbe and I bailed to the restaurant instead from some traditional Swedish food.

The view
Lax (salmon) and potato

The weather was average all day so we did some more shopping at the Marieberg Centrum (I bought some Swedish face towels, trackpants and a cool winter headband) then crashed out to watch the Ice Skating Championships on TV which are being held the southwest of Sweden, in Göteborg.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Walking on White

It had been snowing (in Örebro) on and off for the last two days, but yesterday when it snowed it had stayed through the night and it was still on the ground. The nights have been cold here, with temperatures around -5°C at night and not much higher than +1°C during the day. Nothing quite like a nice crisp morning with a big fluffy jacket and heated car seats.

Sebbe took me out to the town park which also doubles as a Botanic Garden in summer. He even let me drive. At least I didn't change gears with the door handles.

It was awesome to walk on white snow and hear the creaking under my shoes.

Chomping some nutsThe Örebro Castle (Örebro Slott)

We spent most of the day hanging around town and doing some tourist shopping with a quick stop in the office as well. I bought a new jacket too. ^^^ See? Furry bits :D

One for Robin

Monday, March 17, 2008

I Got Snowed On; Proper

Last night Pete was packing to head to Ireland and I had Vegemite and cheese on toast, a cloudberry cider (4.5%) and I was ready for bed. It was an awesome Spring day and it was refreshing to see so much sunshine.

When I woke up this morning to open the blinds I couldn't believe my eyes. It was actually snowing. And not just a little flurry here or there... it was really snowing proper.

I was so excited I had to text/email people straight away. I had never seen snow before (well, not the "falling from the sky" type) so it was nice to see it finally. It wasn't that cold outside, so I sat on the balcony for a few minutes and just watched it fall onto the street below. Sweden had turned on a marvellous display for me. Sunshine and snowboarding on Sunday and sweet, soft snow on the Monday.

It's a beautiful Winter day. Snow galore!

Forecast for Örebro

The view from Pete's placeStomping around
I maketh the man; a snow man

Snowboarding

OK, so I didn't go snowboarding as a ninja, but I did have a crack at it today and it was awesome fun.

Pete, Sebastian and I drove to Romme Alpin this morning, about 2 hours drive north of Örebro. I woke to sunshine which was a refreshing change for my trip so far, as it hasn't been sunny until now. And what an opportunity to go boarding!

Driving into Romme Alpin
Kitted up and ready to go!
Practicing my technique
The view from the chair lift
Playing silly buggers on the slope
Having a stab at itMe and Sebbe (and Pete's fat fingers over the lens)
Gah! My chops are sore!
I got some lessons from a pro
Another hard day's work
Sebbe and Pete
The weather had been awesome the whole way up to Romme Alpin and almost the whole way back except for a band of rain and hail which we passed about 80km from Örebro. We drove through it for about 10 minutes after which time the sun came out again.

In summary: Snowboarding is very cool. I will update with the bruise tally during the week once they have had enough time to flourish with colour.

Cheers to Sebbe for the lessons and to Pete for being the official photographer.