A very mixed bag

Greetings from the other side.

Another couple of weeks have passed (give or take) since my last entry on this blog. It has been a time of ups and downs, I must say. On the whole though, I don't have much to complain about.

Granted, I say that even though yesterday my father-in-law had to put his best friend, and long-time partner, Bamse to rest. I am of course talking about his dog here. That kind of puts a sour note on everyone's day. We all miss him. :(

A couple of weeks back, we also had a day where things just seemed to go wrong for us. It started when my fiancee was in the kitchen as an oven form suddenly exploded right next to her. There were big pieces flying everywhere and it kinda felt like a miracle that she wasn't hit by anything. The reason it had exploded was that she had accidentally put it down on a hot plate on the stove. There was nothing in the form yet, but she was planning on using it for cooking something in the oven. Anyway, she was visibly shocked by what had just happened, but I was just relieved that she hadn't gotten hurt.

The second thing that happened on that day was that the hose that leads away the water from the washing machine came loose and we had sudden flooding on the bathroom floor. After that we had to keep watch over the hose, and sure enough it came loose one more time before the machine was finished.

Now, please don't think that it has been all bad. There have been good things happening as well!

For example we've had a planning meeting with my future brother- and sister-in-laws and their spouses (unfortunately one was away on a trip and couldn't make it). Feels like we got a lot done, which was good. There's a lot that goes into planning a wedding, even though we are trying to keep it relatively simple and we are going for a more rustic theme. I am sure it will be good once it is all done. :)

We have also collected the addresses to everyone we want to invite. Again, we are going to keep it relatively simple, so we are not aiming for a huge thing here. But we should probably end up somewhere around the 60 people mark when all is said and done. The invitations should be sent out in the not too distant future.

Two weekends ago we went to visit some friends of my fiancee. It was the first time she had seen them in a while, so she was really looking forward to it. It was nice to meet some more of her friends, and as always it turned out to be really good people. :)

I have to say, I've been sick since last week. The fever is gone, but I still have a bit of a throat problem and a runny nose. My head hasn't completely cleared up either, which is a shame. I hope it will get better soon though, as we are getting visitors from Sweden this weekend. :) I am really looking forward to that!

That's one of the things I guess I miss most being over here, my friends and family back in Sweden. I know they technically aren't that far away - only a 4½ hour boat-ride - but still. Anyway, it will be good to meet a couple of them again. :)

I think I am going to go lie down for a bit before lunch.

See you all on the other side!

Welcome to the new year!

Greetings from the other side.

And thus I return from the holiday season, bringing wishes of well-being and happiness for you all. I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years together with family, friends, loved ones, etc. I also hope that the new year will be a good one, for everyone on this blue marble in space that we live our lives upon. May this new year at least see the beginnings of an end to wars, abuse, poverty, loneliness, and all the other things that ails the world. At least that is what I hope for, and pray for.

The night before yesterday I sat up until 4 or 5 am playing a tabletop roleplaying game over the internet with my friends. It was so much fun, and I have missed it dearly. I don't get to do that too often these days. Then I ended up getting about 4 hours of sleep, before I got up because I had to be at work the next day. Granted, I didn't need to be there until 1 pm, but I had some other stuff to do before-hand as well. It is safe to say that I was pretty knackered by the end of the day. So early night for me last night and then I slept for about 10 hours. I guess my body needed it. It's good that the weekend is here now.

So, my last post was on December 20, which you can find here. Since then I have had my first Christmas here in Finland, and it was a fun and enjoyable time together with my fiancee and her family. Next year we will be celebrating Christmas with my family in Sweden, and then probably do an every-other-year kind of thing. Anyway, focus on this year, and this was the first time I had ever celebrated Christmas away from my family, so it was a bit of a strange feeling. In the end though, it was an enjoyable time surrounded by good people and a warm atmosphere. It is definitely something I am looking forward to do again another year! :)

Even the family dog, Bamse, got excited about Santa's visit and all the presents. Sadly I don't have a picture of him at that moment, but here's another picture of him taken on the same day at least:

He's a big Newfoundland boy, and at 10 years of age he is currently older than the average life-expectancy of dogs of his breed.

There were a few new food-items among the Christmas food that I hadn't tried before. I honestly don't know what to call most of them in English,so I won't attempt to. I will say however that I enjoyed everything that I tried.

Oh, and I also worked during Christmas service on Christmas Eve, as well as during mass on New Years Day.

Christmas Day was spent taking it easy and having lunch with my fiancee's parents. On Boxing Day (Annandag Jul in Swedish) we went to visit my fiancee's sister and her family.

In the days before New Years both my fiancee and her mother got ill. We had intended to celebrate New Years with my fiancee's parents, but in the end we went over for dinner and then went home again. My fiancee went to bed early and I stayed up chatting with friends online for a while. Luckily they are both feeling better now. Though her mother had to go to the hospital and was diagnosed with pneumonia, something which she has since then been going to the health clinic 3 times a day and gotten regular doses of antibiotics intravenously. My father-in-law and myself have luckily managed to stay healthy so far.

All in all it has been a good time, and I can look back to it with fond memories. Now we have a new year in front of us. Let's do the best we can out of it! :)

I wish you all a happy new year. May the new year bring happiness, peace and love to all.

Until next time.

See you all on the other side!