24 going on 36

I know this isn`t considered polite but how old are you? Not in your birth certificate but inside your head? I used to be 24. Sometimes younger but never older. At 24 life was good! I was in love, had a good job that I enjoyed, lots of friends and fun and exciting things was happening all the time. I had a bounce in my step ……Life was easy and the future promising.

Being 24 inside your head is a bit confusing at times. It makes you jump whenever you pass a mirror and the fact that your eldest turns 17 in a few months time makes you a very young mother. Seven in fact. Highly unlikely eh? Other disturbing facts contradicting the 24 theory is the way your body is sore and stiff in the mornings and how the bouncy step feels, well not so bouncy anymore. And you need reading glasses! And the way you misplace them all the time, the reading glasses I mean. Now that indicates that your mind isn’t as sharp and 24:ish as it used to be doesn’t it ? This miss placing glasses thing is dead annoying if you ask me. I spend more time running around looking for the blasted things than I do wearing them. Why can’t they come with a homing device, or GPS or you could phone them maybe? Now there is a thought. Why can’t you just phone them like you do when you miss place your cell? I do that too you see. A lot! My daughters gave me one of those strings you put on your glasses so you can wear them around your neck. They called it mums senility string. It gave me a librarian goes school mistress kind of look. I think I had it 14 days or so then I lost the glasses including the string and they were never found again. ( Could be something Freudian about that though...not wanting to look like a schoolmistress….) The pair after that I accidentally sat on. I used to put my glasses in my back pocket of my jeans you see. Not recommendable. From that day on I gave in, started to buy cheap ones at the gas station and to wear them on my head. That way I always know where they are. Almost! I am ashamed to tell you that once or twice ( more often if you ask my kids) I have been known to run around the house desperately looking for something that was already sitting on top of my head!

With all these facts staring me in my face I have decided to reconsider the age thing. So now I am 36. Sometimes younger but never older!

Take care
Jeanette

It`s a small world

Me and my eldest visited a few vintage shops the other day. A treat after having been so sick. While strolling around in the shop I saw a woman in the distance picking up a multicolored beautiful hand knitted bedspread / shawl. I gritted my teeth and followed her around for a while. Maybe I would get lucky and she would have second thoughts and put it down again. Then she turned around and I saw that it was Anna from Helylle, my blogfriend! It’s a small world!! She showed me her findings and I told her about my teeth grinding. And we laughed! Anna is a very nice person who makes you go all warm inside. So glad she turned out to live in Sweden and in Malmö and two blocks away from me. Thats cyberspace for you! She told me that she was always on the lookout for kettle holders and that she just might make a kitchen curtain out of them.

Well Anna, I got there before you! He,he!





In another shop I made my best buy this week! A lovely orange, red and brown coat in exclusive British tweed. Circa 1950. I have been looking for a winter coat with a bit of color for a long time now. I like color! It makes a dull grey morning more fun! My spring/autumn coat is a greenish yellow by the way. My eldest loved the coat. The youngest said “Yuck, why do you have a dead beaver around your neck?" and since it wasn`t pink ( she is having a pink period now) the color was SO totally wrong too. My husband jumped backwards when I showed it to him but were otherwise silent. Don’t know if it was a dead beaver issue or a color issue. He is not that colorful my husband, when it comes to clothing that is.

The price you ask? A stunning 11 euros!

Now is that great or what?

Take care
Jeanette

Hexed

Do you recognize these two ladies? Well, by some strange cosmic mischief I think they sneaked down in my packing when I was getting ready for going to the white winter land. Oh, they didn’t show themselves at once, they are far too smart for that. They waited until we were relaxed and had fun….

How you know that you have been hexed?
1. Did your daughter get sick with the flu on her first skiing day?
2. Did you yourself get sick 3 days later?
3. Did you spend most of the holiday in the rented cottage caring for the ill or in bed yourself?
4. Did you loose a big filling in your molar tooth when feeling sorry for yourself and eating a big chunk of chocolate?

If the answer to all four questions is yes then you have been hexed! Believe me. I know!

But apart from that we had a lovely time. The ride on the night train was nice. I love going by train. The rest of the family wasn’t really jumping up and down with joy, they are more the flying kind of people but me I was overjoyed. I think that when you fly it goes to fast. You sort of leave your soul behind and don’t really catch up with it until you are flying back again. If you fly by the same route that is….By train your soul travels right along with you. Anyway, we got to celebrate my husbands’ birthday and had a great dinner in a mountain hotel looking out over a beautifully lit Åre. He said that the yellow Bob the Builder helmet was the best present by far but I am not quite sure. He could be telling a fib there. I managed one day with my camera in the amazing winter scenery before I got sick and that was great.

Looking up the mountains and the ski slopes made me even more convinced that I am NO skiing person. How anyone in their right mind can want to risk their life on a pair of tiny pieces of wood is beyond me. But Emma and my husband did. All week. And was very happy about it too.

Not poor Johanna though. She only had one day in the slopes. But she was so terribly sick that she didn’t bother much about what she was missing. And when I got sick too I new exactly how she felt. All I wanted to do was to go home to my own bed.

Teleportation would have been a good thing.

Beem me up Scotty!

I want bore you with details of the train ride home. Don`t remember much about it. I was that sick. But luckily it was a night train too so I could lie down all the way. Today is the first day that I feel really back in business again. And tomorrow it’s back to work. Can’t wait! I have missed it!

So my friends, do I sound like I feel a little bit sorry for myself? Well I do. But my husband said he had a great birthday and that is what is most important.

But if you see a wisp of purple hair or a broomstick while packing be sure to check it out. It could be a hex coming your way. And you don`t want to be hexed now do you?

And remember - don’t drink and fly folk’s !!

Take care

Jeanette

Dear Friends

A very happy New Year to you all!

Thank you all for your love and support during my dad’s illness.
He is now back home again and doing so much better. So much better in fact that we are daring to take a little trip not to the beaches of Ay Nang but the white slopes of Åre. We are hoping to celebrate my husbands’ birthday ( he is turning 50 !!!!!) with lots of skiing, good food, hot chocolate and maybe the occasional glass of wine at the after ski. Strictly speaking, if you want to be strict when it comes to after ski, which I don’t since that is the only likeable thing about skiing, I am disqualified from the after ski party since I don’t ski. I don’t ski for the same reason as I don’t skate, don’t ride a horse and definitely don’t ride a skateboard. You could get hurt. Or to be more precise… I would most certainly get hurt! Standing on moving objects is not my kind of stuff. I just haven’t got it in me.

My dad liked to go ice-skating when we were kids. He used to take us skating almost everyday after work during wintertime. My dad was very good at it, my sister was quite the little Ice-princess (can you sense some jealousy here??) but I absolutely sucked! I never got the hang of it. My sister sailed gracefully over the ice putting her right foot and left foot forward in a beautiful synchronized movement but I could only increase my speed by using my right foot. Never ever the left one even how much I tried. It looked; I don’t know what it looked, stupid I guess! I can still remember my dads strong voice calling out to me “bend your knees Jeanette, bend your knees”. Did I bend my knees? Nope! Did I fall over? Yes! Did I hurt myself? YES! YES! YES!

On Christmas day I followed my daughters to the skating rink at the town square. I stood there watching them amazed at how I, Mrs Spineless could have gotten two daughters so totally fearless when it came to ice (or skiing, or riding a horse or a skateboard for that matter…. ) It looked so easy! And before I knew what had happened I decided to give it a try too.
Could I move more than my right foot? No!
Did I bend my knees? No!
Did I fall over? Amazingly No!
Do I want to do it again? NO!!!
Still not my thing. But I was very proud that I tried though.

The fearless daughters of Mrs Spineless!

Yep, thats me. Hard to see though due to the flop, flop, flop movements of my arms desperately trying to keep myself from falling over! Strange that I didn`t levitate!

So my friends, on Saturday we are off to the white winterland……

See you in a while!

Take care

Jeanette