9. Blog Advent Calendar: Tell something about one of your favourite songs

Well, it is soon Christmas and I have been listening to one of my old time favourite songs, which I have already mentioned a few times on the blog: Fairtyale of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl! One of my favourite memories of somebody singing is from a bus ride in Bosnia in January 2001 when an Irish friend (Irish O) and a Scottish friend (E) sang this song as a duet, just like it should be!

8. Blog Advent Calendar: Tell something about one of your favourite pieces of clothing

I remember a friend of mine who described myself and his own girlfriend as ¨cardigan girls¨ when we were back in university. That’s almost 20 years ago but it still describes my dressing style quite well! One of my favourite cardigans is a off-white cable-knit zipped Ralph Lauren cardigan. An American girl asked me last year where I had bought it as she really liked my cardigan and had tried to find it on the RL website. I had to disappoint her by telling her that I had bought it in an outlet in Puerto Rico 2-3 years ago. I think that I paid roughly $15 for it!

7. Blog Advent Calendar: Tell something about one of your favourite photos

This is one of my favourite photos, of my grandmother and I (May, 2003).

We are sitting on a log overlooking the sea by my grandmother’s summerhouse on the East coast of Skane. My grandparents always had a log above the beach to sit on in the evenings, but very often people would use them as firewood… I

It is now almost two years ago that my grandmother passed away, just before Xmas, and we still miss her dearly.

When I found the kitchen towels that my grandmother had embroidered with my initials the other day, the Xmas present label was still attached to them. By the way, I think that the towels themselves were weaved by my great-grandmother but I am not sure…

6. Blog Advent Calendar: Tell something about the blogs that you read

I read a lot of blogs, but nowadays I don’t have as much time to comment as I would like. Most of the blogs that I follow are written by other Expat & Ex-Expat Swedes, but I also read interior design blogs. What all the blogs have in common is that they are written by Swedes! Hm, maybe I need to broaden my blog horizons?

PS I have a 1,5 day team building with the office this week so I have had to schedule some of these posts…

5. Blog Advent Calendar: Tell something about who you were a year ago

A year ago I had only been a mother for 3 months! Motherhood was actually easier than I expected, probably because V was a very easy baby. No colic, he hardly ever cried – well, except for when changing his nappy and giving him a batch, big drama every time! And for his second and third month he would only sleep on top of me, which meant that I didn’t really lie down when sleeping for 2-3 months.

I expected to be a more worried mother but I think that I have been pretty relaxed. It can be confusing when receiving different baby advice from Belgium, Sweden and Spain but I have tried to use comment sense and do whatever felt best for V and us.

A year ago V and I were just returning from our first visit to Sweden and on our way to Spain to visit V’s Spanish family for a whole month. Even though I think that I have been a relaxed new mother, that month in Spain was one of the hardest times in my life because of the cultural clashes between myself and my mother-in-law. I wouldn’t recommend anybody to spend a full month with your [Spanish] mother-in-law when you are full of hormones after just having given birth and while breastfeeding, if you don’t get along really really well with her…

4. Blog Advent Calendar: Tell something about a person that you admire

I will have to say that I admire O! He has been working so hard on renovating our apartment since end of August, and yesterday he finally finished laying down the wooden floor in V’s room! Now we – what am I saying, “we”?? I mean O has to paint the walls and ceiling, assemble the wardrobe and then I will finally get to DECORATE! I feel guilty about not having been able to help at all, but I have been responsible for minding V… Unfortunately I can’t show you any photos of V’s room yet as I still can’t upload photos to this old laptop.

The floor is untreated oak, and you can see part of our bedroom floor in the photo below.

3. Blog Advent Calendar: Tell something about your best friend

Who is my best friend? I don’t have one best friend, I have several:

• my oldest friend Å whom I have known since I was born (as she was born 1,5 months before me), she lives in Copenhagen
• my first friend in Eslöv when we moved there in 1990, L, who nowadays lives in the south of France
• my best neighbour O whose family used to live next door to my parents, O and I lived together in Geneva. He now lives in Oslo, Norway
• O’s and my best friend in Puerto Rico, Swedish B who still lives there
• my dear English friend A with whom I went to school with in England in 1988/89, who lives in Australia
• my French friend P No 1 with whom I studied in Italy, she lives in Geneva
• my Irish friend R who was my first friend in Brussels – she now lives in Italy
• my two Spanish “brothers”; my first Spanish friend R who now works in Sudan and my first Spanish colleague M who has moved back to Madrid from Brussels
• last but most important: my Spanish husband O

O 6 years ago
I guess what I can tell about all of these very dear friends of mine (and many others who I haven’t mentioned) is that they all have or still live abroad!

2. Blog Advent Calendar: Tell something about your town

Since 2002 Brussels is “my” town, and I really feel at home here. This is where I met my husband O, where I gave birth to our son V, where a lot of my friends live and where I have my professional life.

The Brussels town hall at the Grand’ Place, where our friends are getting married in May next year!

I also have a hometown in Sweden, where my parents, my brother, my aunt and my grandfather live (my sister lives in the neighbouring town), but my life is in Brussels.

Brussels is messy, dirty, frustrating, crowded and… well, also European / International, heterogeneous, challenging, open-minded, full of history, green (lots of parks), relatively affordable and I [almost] always defend it when other people complain about Brussels, because this is where I have my home!

1. Blog Advent Calendar: Tell something about yourself

Hm, who am I? An ex-pat European Swede living in Brussels since 2002 (2007-2010 in Puerto Rico), married to a Spaniard, mother of 15-month old V, a book lover, traveller, fascinated by languages, unfortunately quite lazy, social but can be shy, a collector (of books, photos, music and memories…), maximalist (the opposite of a minimalist??), a traditionalist liberal… Oh, and I work as an administrator in an European research project for environmentally friendly aircraft but I guess that is what least defines me!?

My initials embroidered by my grandmother on a kitchen towel

Blog Advent Calendar

I found a blog advent calendar over at my friend Anna’s blog, and thought why not? At least I will try to blog everyday, with scheduling posts and trying to be brief, it might be feasible…

1. Berätta om dig själv. / Tell something about yourself
2. Berätta om staden som du bor i. /  Tell something about the town where you live
3. Berätta om din bästa vän. /  Tell something about your best friend
4. Berätta om en person som du beundrar. / Tell something about a person you admire
5. Berätta om vem du var för ett år sedan. / Tell something about who you were a year ago
6. Berätta om bloggarna du läser. / Tell something about the blogs that you read
7. Berätta om ett av dina favoritfotografier. / Tell something about one of your favourite photos
8. Berätta om ett av dina favoritplagg. / Tell something about one of your favourite pieces of clothing
9. Berätta om en av dina favoritlåtar. / Tell something about one of your favourite songs
10. Berätta om vad som finns i din väska. / Tell something about what is in your bag
11. Berätta om hur dina framtidsdrömmar ser ut. / Tell something about your dreams for the future
12. Berätta om någon som du saknar. / Tell something about someone that you miss
13. Berätta om din favoritsak i ditt hem. /  Tell something about a favourite thing in your home
14. Berätta om ett fotografi som någon annan tagit på dig. / Tell something about a photo that somebody has taken of you
15. Berätta om en av dina favoritböcker. / Tell something about one of your favourite books
16. Berätta om hur du var när du var liten. / Tell something about when you were a child
17. Berätta om hur en perfekt dag ser ut för dig. / Tell something about a perfect day for you
18. Berätta om en plats du absolut vill besöka innan du dör. / Tell something about a place that you definitely want to visit before you die
19. Berätta om en vän som bor långt bort. / Tell something about a friend who lives far away
20. Berätta om vad du önskar dig i julklapp. / Tell something about what you would like as a Xmas present
21. Berätta om någon som du älskar. / Tell something about somebody that you love
22. Berätta om något som du är beroende av. / Tell something about something that you are addicted to
23. Berätta om ditt bästa julminne. / Tell something about a favourite Xmas memory
24. Berätta om fem fina saker som har hänt under den här decembermånaden. / Tell something about five nice things that happened this December