Bits and pieces of cheering upness

It's been a while since we posted a blog. Working hard as usual. Trying to get many things finished before the Christmas break. After a short cold spell of subzero temperatures a few weeks ago and a light dusting of snow, it became a bit warmer but much more dreary. The maximum daily temperatures raised again to around 5-7 degrees but it rains almost every day and the grey November dreariness gets to you after a while. Luckily there are always things to cheer you up a bit. Below are some of the "cheering uppers" of the past month.

A little bit of snow - always makes you feel better

Halloween with scary movies and lots of sweets

My tomato plants made it through the summer before the first cold came (although I had to bring them inside for the last bit) - I was crossing fingers the whole summer- the cherry tomato's tasted very nice

The Uppsala light festival is a very nice highlight. Every two years Uppsala kommune have a light festival to counter the November dreariness and lighten up the lives of residents. This year was very nice again with a 4 km route and 15 interesting light displays:

A clock light display in the central plain "Stora Torget"

A interactive light display on a building where you can play music on a keyboard which lights up notes on the building

Artsy display on the outside of a school

"Water spirits" rising out of the Fyris river (Uppsala Castle in  background)

Water spirits on the Fyrisan

This spooky display on the outside of a row of buildings and their windows can be activated through the internet

A Christmas tree rising out of the Fyrisan

Colorful tunnel

Lighted glass sculptures next to the old water mill

A natural light display - the moon on Uppsala domkyrkan

The lighted roof of the Gustavianum museam

On a bridge crossing the Fyris river you can declare your everlasting love...

Maybe this is the original intended way?

Panoramic view of the church and the river

The best highlight of November was my anniversary gift. A gift of freshly baking bread when you wake up in the morning. This amazing bread machine. You just put all you ingredients in the night before, set the timer, and go to bed - and in the morning you wake up to the most wonderful smell - fresh bread. And it tastes wonderful - soft in the middle and a crunchy hard crust. We just tried the plain white, but there are hundreds of different bread recipes, cake recipes, pizza dough, tart crusts, buns and croissants to try - it can even be used for jams and compotes. What a wonderful present - thank you Ronnie!

So even though the month of November was grey, dreary and sunless, there were quite a number of lighter moments. From now on things will get better though, with quite a bit of snow predicted from Thursday onward,  the advent time that's starting after next week, kicking off with a Christmas market and fireworks next weekend, from then our town would be lighted up by Christmas cheeriness - and after that we are going to the summery beaches of South Africa for Cindy's (Ronnie's sister) and Cois's wedding in the south-coast town of Mosselbay!

C&R

The steady approach of winter

Last week the temperature dropped below 0 for the first time this season and I started to wear my gloves while cycling to work in the morning (I should have started to wear my hat also – the result - frozen ears). The autumn colors continue to amaze me. Below are some pictures from the banks of the Fyris River that runs through the city about 100 m from our apartment.

C&R

Starting our 4th year in Sweden

On the first of September we celebrated the end of our 3^rd year in Sweden. That week we also welcomed our friend form SA (see previous post) with particularly Swedish style food (see below). 

Very typical Swedish food to welcome Christoff - Prinskorv (small sausages) and köttbullar (meatballs)

Very typical Swedish food to welcome Christoff - Godis (assorted candy) and knäkebröd (crackers/hard bread) 

Showing Christoff all the sights was a nice break from a very busy time workwise. With all the people now back from their summer holidays and the new year starting for schools and universities, September is always a very busy time with lots of things happening. It is also the start of autumn and more and more yellow leaves began to appear everywhere. We had a very wet and rainy summer (with even one thunder shower! – very unusual here, the fifth time I heard thunder in Sweden), but a few weeks of nice weather towards the end of August. The last week or two however, became noticeably colder and autumn arrived in its full glory. 

Double rainbow after a very rare thundershower

When I was younger I disliked autumn and preferred the new beginnings and happy floweriness of spring. Nowadays I kind of like the sweet melancholy of autumn. I started to notice the usual signs associated with autumn here in Sweden; the cidery smell of apples rotting under the apple trees, the chestnuts ripening on the trees, lots of bugs flying around trying to stock up and procreate before winter starts, stalls selling chanterelle mushrooms and blueberries from the surrounding forests, bushes full of fat ripe bright-red rosehips complemented by red hawthorne bushes and trees everywhere. I really like the colorful autumn with the anticipation of the approaching winter. We hope for a nice, cold and snowy winter. Our first two winters here were ideal with lots of snow and sub-zero temperatures during the whole winter (people from SA- yes - this means that the temperatures did not go above 0 for the whole winter- not even in the days). The last winter here was not as nice, however, the continuous snowing and melting caused a lot of sludge and the lack of permanent snow made the days much darker and dreary. This year, some weather experts predict a cold winter due to sunspot activity and the lack of ice in the arctic (ironically), so we really hope that the predictions are accurate and our fourth winter will be a white one. Here’s to three years in the land of snow and ice! Skål!  

C&R

Christoff in Sweden

At the end of August we had visit from a South African friend, Christoff (seen below).

This is the second time we hosted people from the south (the first being my parents in September 2010). It was very nice and to have him here and since he worked in both groups where Carina and I worked he had some nice gossip to share :)

We had less time to spend with him than with my parents but managed to do many of the same things we did with them. Below are a few pictures of the time we spent with him.

The first few days were very rainy.

Dala Horse at Skansen. 

We cycled quite a lot. The photo below is of Christoff with the "easyrider" we borrowed for the week (we clocked 30 km for this day).

On the way to the lake we often stopped to look at the river. One of us three tried and failed to walk on water :) 

At the Viking museum at Gamla Uppsala

Both Christoff and I wore the chain mail. For some reason Carina declined...

View of city hall in Stockholm

This was a very nice holiday and we enjoyed Christoff's company. We hope to see him (and other visitors from the south) here again.

R&C

p.s we also recently celebrated our 3 year in Sweden and Carina will write more about this later...

Guinness

Ireland is famous for many things. Two of these we experienced a lot of: 1. American tourists and 2. Guinness. Although the former made their unique impact during out trip, this post will be about the famous beer and the food we had in Ireland.

We spent one afternoon going to the famous Guinness storehouse. The brewery's visitor attraction is on the site where the original fermentation plant was constructed in 1902. It is one of the top attractions to visit in Dublin and we can recommend it. In the attraction center you learn all about the history of Guinness, making beer, how to pour the perfect pint and see the 9000 year lease of the brewery site. At the top of the 7 story building you get to enjoy a pint while looking out over the city of Dublin.

Carina after a quater pint sampled in the storehouse.

The perfect pint.

Drinking Guinness and enjoying the view.

During our trip we ate in a number of nice pubs and restaurants. Below are a few pictures of some of the places and dishes (some accompanied by Guinness).

The Central Station pub. Note the famous Danish beer advertisement in the background.  

A delivery in preparation for the weekend.

Proper pies for lunch.

Chowder during our trip on the "Ring of Kerry" with a lovely view.

The Danny Mann pub in Killarney.

A Murphy's beer. A stout produced by the Murphy's brewery, now owned by Heineken 

Writing a postcard after dinner. 

After a week of gluttony we had our last supper in the hotel room. It was fish and chips. 

In general the food in Ireland was very good and it is interesting that Guinness was such a good accompanying drink to many of the meals we had. We recommend a visit to Ireland for anyone that loves a good stout.

R&C

p.s. below is a picture of one of the breakfasts that I had in Edinburgh. It is a nice balanced Scottish breakfast including haggis, beans and blood pudding.