The movie Force Majeure

Yesterday the Swedish movie “Force Majeure” (called “Turisten” in Swedish) won six honors including best film and best director at Sweden's version of the Oscars, Guldbaggegalan. Force Majeure did not get an Oscar nomination but picked the best foreign film honor at the Critics Choice Awards, it won the Jury prize at the Cannes 2014 film festival. It was nominated to the fest foreign language film at the Golden Globe awards. Well, I can go on forever with all the prizes and nominations the film has taken home lately and you now will believe that it must be an incredibly fantastic movie….

Together with my boyfriend I saw the movie last Friday and we were both very disappointed. It was honestly a boring movie. The whole plot it about one scene; the second day in the alps for a Swedish/Norwegian family that during lunch threatens of a controlled avalanche and the dad of the family panics and runs away, leaving his wife and kids behind. No one is hurt and the father quickly returns to the table. The rest of the movie talks about this scene, the father’s reaction and his disappointed wife. That’s it, for two hours. And this movie wins I don’t know how many prices and I just can’t believe my eyes as for me this movie was absolutely nothing special. My boyfriend, colleagues and some friends agrees with me but anyway the movie wan it all and all I can say is, congratulations Force Majeure!

xoxo

Tapas night at Sthlm Tapas

Time for our (almost) monthly girl's dinner out and for a change, from all the thai places I normally choose, we decided to go for tapas this time. We choose Sthlm Tapas in Vasastan and we were all very satisfied with our food choices. "Pulled mashroom slider" was my favorite tapas of the night :)

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Celebrating dad's birthday

 Restaurant Dalanisse

 Birthday cake - My homemade Lemon cheesecake pie

 My "sister" Stella :)

Me and my lovely boyfriend

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Spanish dinner at Vinvalvet 1644 with my colleagues

Some time ago I read in a newspaper about one of Stockholm’s coziest restaurants, Vinvalvet 1644. A combine wine cellar and tapas restaurant and obviously I felt the obliged to try it out. I invited my colleagues and yesterday eight of us went for a lovely evening at this cozy little place on the south island of Stockholm. It was very nice and cozy and the food was very good, just slightly pricy.

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Show jumping day

Rinda and I

Yesterday it was time for my second riding lesson at Färingsö riding center. My legs have been aching for over a week since last time but I was looking forward to the lesson anyway, especially as my best friend Erika would join for her trial lesson. We arrived at the stable together, found our horses for the day and started to clean them up when I suddenly hear someone saying “we’re jumping today, right?”. I run over to Erika in chock and gets the confirmation, it was time for the first show jumping lesson!

I look at my massive horse that I had been given (Rinda was her name) and suddenly I feel very nervous and almost scared. In some kind of way I manage to saddle my horse and get us both inside the indoor riding area but I was still scared of… not even sure what I was scared of but I guess I felt scared of falling off the horse when jumping the fence. But I didn’t. We jumped around 60 cm high fences and I felt proud when leaving the stable last night.

Horseback riding is for sure like a drug. I just want more of it!

xoxo

Good Kitchen day

Baked croissants for breakfast and made pulled pork for dinner which took us 7 hours to cook

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Sushi at Bromma blocks

My 8 best books read in 2014

Nowadays I don’t read as much as I used to. I simply don’t find time for it. Both while living in Italy and London my commute to work was quite long and I read on the train and I also found time before getting to bed and during the weekends.

It takes me some time to get to work in these days as well, around 30-45 minutes, but the commute involves both walking, few bus stops and two train stops which makes it harder to read a book. Instead I have started to listen to audio books on my way to work and then I read normal books the few times I find time at home.

Well, as I said, I don’t manage to finish too many books nowadays, in 2014 I read/listen to in total 14 books. The fault in our stars was my favorite of them and 7 other books joined my top list of 2014. The pictures above are in no particular order.

1.       The fault in our stars – John Green (“Förr eller senare exploderar jag” in Swedish)

2.       Fifty shades of gray – E. L.  James

3.       Jag ska inte dö idag – Pamela Andersson

4.       Svek – Karin Alvtegen

5.       Anne Franks dagbok – Anne Frank

6.       Cirkeln – Mats Strandberg & Sara Bergmark Elfgren

7.       Jag vill inte dö, jag vill bara inte leva – Ann Heberlein

8.       Svikaren – Katarina Wennstam

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Back in the saddle at Färingsö ridskola

My sweet horse for the evening, Comet. 

As most of you already knows I am a big horse fan and I have been missing horseback riding ever since I stopped riding in 2006. I have been thinking about bringing horseback riding back into my life for a while, but I have felt that the riding schools are too expensive ( around 7000-9000 SEK (€900) for one semester) and I believe I no longer have enough knowledge hiring a horse all by myself. But suddenly I came to an end with the thoughts and decided to sign up at a riding school regardless the price. On Monday I went for a trial lesson and to see onto what lever I could start.

My commute to the riding school, at Färingsö, is extremely long. It took me two hours to get there from work… While I was walking along the dark road from the bus station down to the stable, I was freezing and almost scared, I just wanted to turn around and go home again. Arriving at the stable I just felt confused, I had no clue what to do, what horse I would be riding or where I could get changed. But then a kind and warm hearted woman arrived and helped me with everything and when I finally found “my” horse for the evening and was standing in his stall I felt my heart melting. This was what I had been longing for for all these years.

The riding lesion went well, it was lots of fun but exhausting. I don’t have the right muscles anymore and already after 20 minutes of riding I thought my legs would fall off. More than once I felt like slowing down my horse, take a break and just tell the instructor I couldn’t make it but I didn’t.

Now, two days later my legs, back, abbs and shoulders are still aching but I am glad. Very glad. I have paid my semester fee and I am back in the riding world.

xoxo

Weekend in Nynäshamn