La dolce vita

I've been celebrating my brother's 50th birthday. He is the successful one in our family so the party was held at a fancy spa on the west coast. With photo restrictions which I find very appropriate. I would not like to think I'mk in somebody's blog or family album - wearing a swim suit and a funny face.

This is part of the view from the place:

I can't believe people actually go sailing in conditons like these, 4 degrees C in the water and 3 degrees C in the air - and a brisk west wind.

And this is part of the interior.

This is another kind of celebration;

The snow is gone (nearly) and the creek is overflowing. And today as I went lunching with Jeanette I wore these boots. So spring is actually here - cheers!

I like to move it. Sometimes.

Friday night in the jungle. Sound of beating drums fill the air. Everybody gotta move their butts. Not much of a dancer really but I like to move and will hopefully one day be able to make my ass vibrate like that of an African woman - traditionally built, as Alexander McCall Smith puts it.

Junior has a more Asian style, judging by the hand moves.

This is our local drummer. Extremely local, he shares my bed. Do you dance? My height always made the gym teacher have me lead in gym class, when we practiced dancing and also made me painfully aware of myself.

For some reason all (honestly, every single one) of my gym teachers were Polish, educated at the ballet academy in Warsaw (not a 100% sure there) or possibly Moscow, and they had us dance a lot. I really wanted to play volley ball or at least do long jump, and instead found myself being told "ven ve come to corner ve turn and turn and count to fife and bend". All the way to the floor.
The irony is, now I really enjoy to see dance, classic or modern. And a little late I appreciate the effort made of those dancers in exile who had the hopeless task of teaching dance to very blasé teenage girls in a sleepy little town covered by grey woollen skies.

Ordinary day - special day

With a constant smile I work in the kitchen...

..I mop..

...and do the laundry...

...all things ready before the magic moment of turning 16!

Happy birthday Ylva!

P.S: In case you noticed the up-side-down bottle in front of the washing machine - it's there to prevent people from stumbling over an old pipe in the middle of the floor. Get rid of the pipe? Guess so. Someday.

Buttons, Alice and Italia

This week I have accidentally deleted a post. If you read it, I just wanted to explain to you why it's gone.

Today I went to a really special place - and forgot my camera. Took some photos with my cellphone but now I can't find the installation CD to transfer them...aaarrrgh.

Please be patient and bear with me here, I'll be back soon. Look at this meanwhile.It's a tea jar from the 20's - filled with buttons.

"This box with it's content of buttons was given to me by Granny on my 14th birthday, 22nd of July 1978. Her mother had it before her." I wrote the note while she watched and I'll never forget her loook and the kiss on my forehead. Her name was Alice. The fun and extraordinary is that her mother was named Italia, a name that never has been common anywhere else than Italy, as far as I know.

I want my time machine now, so I can ask my too many questions now. Where would you go if you had a time machine - to the future or backwards?