Munching on fried octopus rings that the uncles purchased from one of the local seafood stalls now. Marvellous cholesterols. I can’t even be bothered to think in terms of health and nutrition at this stage – my dietary habits have gone down the drains over here. Oh well, cool beans! Doesn’t happen every day, after all. Once I’m back in Stockholm I’ll say adíos to oil and sugar again, ha. Until then, buon appetito!

I hear the the sun is showing its full face in S-town as well so you guys have a fantastic Saturday back home. Eat something delicious for me.

In a minute,

//M

I’m quite bummed at the moment, my phone decided to go nuts on me today and stop functioning so I’ve been somewhat isolated in the, uh, technical sense of the term. Not happy, not happy at all. Having said that, the day hasn’t been a complete letdown — I finally put my lazy bones on hold this morning and got my passport fixed, about time. That’s one thing out of the way then, next up is getting an ID card… ugh. Money, money, money, incomes and outcomes, all day, every day. Or, as in my case, more outcomes than incomes, now isn’t that typical.

Stopped by a Chinese place with ma mère over lunch afterwards before heading homewards, got treated to buffet and sushi again, Asian cuisine is heaven for the taste buds. Why do my phones always screw around with me, anyway? Can’t wrap my head around it… you know what, on second thoughts I ordered a new mobile subscription from Tele2 a few days ago, I even received a package from them in the post now that I come to think of it, ah. Apparently it’s not my phone that’s a gone case then, it’s me and my goldfish memory. Go figure.

My eyes are itching like madness again, the pollen levels in the air are high right now. I think my body might have grown immune to the usual anti-histamine meds that I’ve taken over the years, it’s quite annoying. I crashed out completely for an hour or so when I’d returned home, my usual lack of sleep combined with the allergies finally decided to catch up with me and catch up it did — I’m feeling quite groggy right now, like you do after a daytime nap. Well, I’m gonna ask J to check my phone in a second, having a technical wiz for a little sister is not a bad thing sometimes, not a bad thing at all.

In a while,

//M

01-05-12 @ the ship with J & R

Happy 1^st May to you ladies and gentlemen! What’s the scene at yours? Wouldn’t you know, I had the surprise of my life yesterday night when my Ma announced that we were going for a cruise to Åland with the relatives. Not a very nice surprise though, since my immediate thought centered around uni and the upcoming seminar on Wednesday, which I couldn’t afford to miss (ha, how ironic isn’t that, the procrastinator thought about school) hence my initial reaction to the cruise was dread because, well, I didn’t want to miss anything that was obligatory. Anyhow, turned out that we would be back by evening already, so it wasn’t any kind of 48hrs cruise like I’d thought. Phew.

I did the most unnecessary thing ever in the morning though, in my opinion. See, we had to get out of the apartment really early in the morning, around half past five, in order to board the ship and I had a proper breakfast in the kitchen since I didn’t wanna starve till lunch. I had whole grain porridge with milk and chopped apples and raisins and everything (porridge keeps one full for hours, you know). Well, turned out that my uncle had booked breakfast buffet for everyone on the ship anyway. Go figure. You can’t even imagine my anger.  Seriously, if I’d known, I’d have starved myself willingly till then, because cruise buffets make my heart melt. Like, the only reason I even go on cruises is because of the food.

Having that said, I did the hobbit act à la Lord of the Rings and had a second breakfast nevertheless, even though I was… not hungry. What can I say, a girl gotta do what a girl gotta do. Ha. Love Asian cuisine to death but nothing comes close to a Swedish breakfast – it’s the best breakfast in the whole world, hands down.

Cheerio,

//M

It is so warm and sunny outside, can’t wait to get out and take a walk in the open. I was about to give up all hopes on the April weather, but there you go! Got up from bed around 9 and made myself a bowl of porridge with chopped fruits and raisins, even though all I wanted to do was sleep. But oh no, it’s time to become an early bird again. I’ve started reading Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart now, which means that I am reading three books parallel (Nicholls’ One Day, Brashares’ Sisterhood Everlasting). This is stupid. Can’t help it though, mental restlessness has taken over me completely, hence the constant change of books. I’ll be back to normal soon… I think. I hope. Knock on wood, knock on wood.

Heading out to the city for lunch with my homegirl N in a couple of hours, love it. I think we might go for sushi, we’ll see. Oh right, I finally got myself the haircut that I’ve been babbling on and on about! Not the biggest deal in the world, but gosh how long it took me to actually do it. Ha. Anyway, I’m off to the library now, gotta catch up on some school reading before I start panicking over the workload (what a joke, I am already panicking). I’m a little nervous about next week, new course starts on Wednesday, there’ll be so much to do. Once a procrastinator, always a procrastinator… or?

Spot you later,

//M

Salmon and tabbouleh, I broke my no-carbs-at-dinner-rule tonight but I absolutely adore Mediterranean cuisine (mind you, I chose whole grain). Tabbouleh is so childishly easy to make though, can’t even classify it as cooking. Bulgur with a bunch of chopped raw veggies with salt and pepper and olive oil and voilà! Piece of cake. Oh wow, just writing about this is making me hungry all over… again. You know, on second thoughts, a sushi buffet is actually what I’d love to have right now, so… anybody passing through the hoods with some take-away sushi at this instant, you’re welcome to knock on my door. Just saying.

Hmm, did I maybe jinx the weather by praising it in my post earlier today? Nah, who am I kidding. Of course I didn’t. We’re talking about the Swedish weather here. Ha. 1) Sun 2) Wind 3) No sun 4) Grey sky 5) Drizzle 6) Rain 7) Getting soaked in the rain, when heading back from the piano. My coat doesn’t have any hoodie, I need to purchase an umbrella.

By the way, I just had to share this, spotted it a few minutes ago and ugh I’m so repulsed, this is TIME’s latest post: Hand Sanitizer: The Latest Way Teens Are Trying to Get Buzzed – the title says more than enough but read it if you’re more keen on the details. Seriously, that’s plain retarded. Who comes up with these lame ideas? I want to feel sorry for the kids who ended up in the hospitals, but I can’t. This is disgusting. People need to get a grip. Meanwhile, others prefer a cup of herbal tea with honey so I’m off to heat up some water pour moi now. Hahaha. I sound like such a grandma.

Over and out,

//M

Collage/snapshots ELLE Feb 2012

Came across this thing while paging through the Swedish Feb issue of ELLE a few days ago. Oh my days. There is no bigger spinach freak than me residing on this earth and if this is pizza, you bet that I’ll start eating it on a regular basis. Hmm. Maybe I should try baking one of these this week? 

//M

Candy heaven à la Easter. Typical kids or typical kids? Sorry about my very uncoordinated updating but I just realized that this post has been lying among my drafts all this time. Anyway, J & R treated themselves and our baby cousin to all these sweets and finished everything within an hour or something. I had about 3 bites before I cringed. Seriously, ew. It kind of tasted like plastic in my mouth, ha. I love chocolate but you know, other candies just don’t appeal to my taste buds.

Ta ta!

//M

Today @ Jensen's
-

Jensen’s Bøfhus. Is it just me or have I only been writing about food-related stuff lately? Oh well, so be it then lol. One of the best things about M is that she’s got the similar kind of thinking as myself when it comes to food most of the time… well, we both decided to switch out the standard fried potato on the steak menu to the salad bar buffet instead and oh what a good choice it was! They’ve got the most wonderful salad bar in there, no complaints (the snapshots above are taken with Madeleine’s HTC by the way).

I have this thing of making random combos with my fruits and veggies you know, because I get so easily bored of eating the same thing again and again, so the steak plate was finally accompanied with Portobello mushrooms and feta cheese with sliced apples and galia melons (I say finally because I had other combos before the pictures above, ha). Gotta love buffets!

Later skater,

//M

Google images

I went to the kitchen with the intention of having a proper breakfast and returned with chocolate and a cup of tea instead… honestly, that’s the first thing I saw on the table. See, this is why I tell everybody to never keep chocolate in the house. I never get tempted when I’m in stores and cafés and such, but if I see chocolate at HOME, I’m screwed.

The good thing is that I only got three bites of the chocolate (that’s all that was remaining) because right afterwards my mind starting thinking about the amount of sugar it’d contained. Chocoholic vs Health Freak, not the best combo on earth people. I swear if chocolate was a vegetable, I’d have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. There was actually a time when I used to have chocolate every single day for about 2-3 months straight when I was around 14 years old… and I still didn’t get any holes in my teeth, how amazing is that (that felt so weird writing though, have I been 14? Crazy bananas). Eventually I reduced it to thrice a week and now I’ve reduced it to, well I don’t know. I haven’t had any chocolate since last year (that’s a little crazy, now that I come to think of it).

You know what? I just realized that it’s the 1st of April right now. You doing April Fool’s prank on anyone? Well anyway hello there April and hello 2012′s first chocolate!

#TeamChocolate,

//M

Having my first sweet dessert for 2012 right now! Good stuff. Hmm. I’d almost forgotten the taste of  sugary treats.

//M

Wake up folks it’s Monday! Had a good weekend? Mine’s been alright I guess. Eventless and melancholic but alright. I feel like having fish today as well (ate salmon yesterday) so I’ve made myself some sandwiches for brunch with shredded tuna, cottage cheese and chopped veggies. Can’t ever say no to the sea food stuff ♥ I’ve also heard that grapes are super full of sugar or something but you know what, I’m just going to cut myself some slack and have a bunch of them anyway. I haven’t had any chocolate whatsoever (which is my main source of sugar) for ages and ages so grapes are totally fine for now lol.

Otherwise? I’m off from school today so I need to prepare myself for the upcoming seminar tomorrow which means that my day is pretty much RUINED. I go all jittery and nervous like a kid before every single seminar. It’s ridiculous. Boo-hoo. We’re reading a lot about gender related issues now which is fairly interesting but the book that I’ve got is NOT. For one it’s only focused on women in Europe from the 1700s and onwards which I feel is a bit restricted and secondly, the text is just too slow… TOO SLOW. Oh well. Bite me.  

On a brighter note my homegirl N is coming back from Paris today after a mini-vacation, expecting a call from her as soon as she’s landed in Stockholm. I know she’s had a fabulous time over there and I cannot wait to see her and all the beautiful pictures from the city!

À bientot,

//M

The best part of the day summarized in pictures. Met Mikaela after AGES in town today and then we waited for Madeleine to quit her work before heading homewards. Mikaela is THE definition of a globetrotter. Her dad’s a diplomat so you can imagine all the places she’s lived in and been to. Do I envy her or not! She just got back from Brussels and it doesn’t stop there. She is CONSTANTLY on the go and without exaggerating some of her life stories could be episodes straight taken out of Gossip Girl (I’ve actually dubbed her the inoffical gossip girl of Stockholm). I don’t get to see her very often because she’s away so much of the time, but when I do she’s always her wonderful jolly self. What I love most about her though is that she’s such a goodhearted and hard working girl and last but not least, extremely funny and down to earth. She’s a blast.

We spent the afternoon at Madeleine’s cosy apartment  afterwards and wrapped up an early dinner coupled with loads of talking à la girls. Ha. I can’t write about everything that we talked about but it was nothing less than LOVELY. Being the extreme pessimist that I am, they’ve got to put up with my cranky personality a lot and so they did without losing their patience a single time. Awesome. Better girls than these are hard to find! ❤

Needless to say the meal was DELICIOUS. My appetite’s been kind of gone for the past couple of days due to various reasons but now it’s slowly coming back bit by bit… (knock on wood). Madeleine fixed a couple of lit candles on the table for us, making it all winter cosy. Perfect. NONE of us are too keen on junk food so deciding on a meal was a piece of cake for us (FIGURATIVELY speaking of course. Ha).
Ka-ching!

We had fresh tagliatelle with stir-fried minced beef and a really neat salad to go with it (carrots/bell peppers/tomatos/tatsoi leaves/red onion/feta cheese/chilli-and-lime flavoured cashew nuts/olive oil + boiled eggs on top). Nerds much? Why yes I guess so.

Tuesday ta-ta,

//M

Bedtime reading/eating
The fam just got back from a couple of relatives’ place and brought along some food from there so I’m having curry beef and fried rice for dinner (a typical Bengali dish which I eat extremely rarely because, well, I’m not the average meat eater. But it’s going to be good, I know!). Found an old copy of ELLE lying around in the shelves at mine so I’m going to check out a Pete Doherty interview that the magazine covered back in 2009. He is such an entertaining character. Like an overgrown kid or something. Haha. But that’s fine. If being adult equals restrained and boring behavior then I prefer Doherty (minus the drug addiction of course). I must say that the photos of him for this session were awesome, they’re all in black and white. I happen to be ridiculously scared of cats but the pic below is just so RAD. (Rankin 2009)

● 

Uni-update:
The first EH1-seminar over and done with ッ  ka-ching! I was nervous like a little kid (as usual yes) but it went pretty well and during the discussions I got to know a few more people around my age which feels ever better. My seminar partner for the next assignment is a supersweet Turkish/Swedish girl with blazing green eyes and dark hair (this I’m pointing out because I think that dark hair and light eyes make an absolutely fab combo). We’ve gotten along really well so far and the only unfortunate thing is that one of her course books still hasn’t arrived for her yet (the one that is actually needed for the seminars) so we’ll have to share my copy of it for a while. Like I’ve said before, Internet deliveries are unreliable. Sigh. Let’s hope she gets hold of the book real soon.

– Ciao amigos,

//M

#IMG282 - dinner time

BONSOIR people ッ  about to have my dinner in a minute and then it’s back to studying… boo. I wrapped up a quick dish of salad (broccoli/tomato/bell pepper/basil/red onion/lime/olive oil/spices) with a piece of pan-fried salmon fillet and some leftover chicken from yesterday (sans carbs). YUM. I appreciate chicken but nothing seriously compares to fish and/or seafood – l.♥.v e that stuff! Fave items no doubt.

Do you have any particular preferences as to which place your food comes from? Land or water?

Bon appétit ッ

//M

VOILÀ. My cakes from (and for) New Year’s Eve ツ  a bit delayed but here they are! In the first one there are three tiers of chocolate layer cake underneath the frosting and basic yellow cake under the second one for variation.

The (mostly) darker colours used on the “HBD”-cake gave it a rougher and edgier look overall compared the one beside it I think. On the second cake I opted for a softer and fancier theme with a flower-y decoration on top and it took me about 1½ hrs in total till both of them were finished. I had so much fun playing around with the colours/ingredients and finally ending up with these two! Fun Friday.

Ingredients:
Fruits used: kiwi/banana/strawberry/blueberry
Others: Aladdin ♥s/Noblesse/M&Ms/gingerbread/layer cake/whipped cream/vanilla sugar/jam (mixed berries)

You figure out where and how I used them on the cakes ツ

Ciao!

//M

KNOCK knock and a 6:45 AM morning to you ツ  slept well? I’ve been up since 5 because of an absolutely ADAMANT abdominal ache of mine which is refusing to leave me alone so here I am with Arabesque #1 playing on YouTube as my morning company. Super creds to my music teacher P for introducing Debussy to me — there is something magical about French composers and compositions ♥ can’t wait till piano lessons start next week. Took a couple of pain killers just now so crossing my fingers to feel better soon.

BRUNCH over breakfast wins any day but since I’ve been up for a while I decided to make me a proper breakfast for once. I ♥ Asian cuisine in general but in terms of breakfast I’ve always had a soft spot for the typical Swedish ones, there’s such a fresh feel and taste to them which other breakfasts just can’t compete with I think. I had yoghurt with müsli, dark crisp bread topped with cheese and capsicum plus a cup of tea (see above) and just FYI the flavour of the week is LIPTON® Green Tea with Mandarin Orange Flavor lol ツ  oh M, you would’ve been proud of me.

“Green tea was discovered five thousand years ago in China by Emperor Shen Nung. LIPTON® Green Tea is packaged in our unique pyramid-shaped bags, along with the tart bite of mandarin orange flavor. Savor the flavor of 100 years’ tea expertise in every cup” (quoted from HERE)
— tea-lovers out there y’all better send some thank you prayers to Mr. Nung right NOW! :)

So long early birds,

//M