Oh Wow

Long time and no updates.
I have been a busy bee.
Once we came back from holiday in Italy I just did some laundry and repacked and was off to Italy again for a conference trip with work. We went to Milan and Lago Maggiore. Stayed at fierce hotels and partied and some nice places.
Star Rosa Grand in Milan and Hotel Iles Borromes by the lake.
It was very nice. A co worker and me (we both love our shoes) managed to do the enitre shopping street of Milan. She picked up a fabolous pair of Jimmy Choos and I found a Prada knitted sweater. When in Milan - buy Prada.

And now to save money I am officially not shopping. I haven't bought any clothes, shoes or make up since I came back from Milan on Aug 1st and I am not allowed to buy anything until we go to New York.

We did however buy a new bed since it was a special offer and the old bed is not comfortable any more.
Eventually we decided to buy a Jensen bed - it is supposed to be very good for the back. They buidl it on demand which is cool so it will be delivered once we are back from New York.

I have booked 2 really nice hotels in New York The GEM in Soho and the Alex. I also booked us dinner at Riingo, Marcus Samuelssons restaurant - will be fierce. Loves it she does!

Now I should get back to work. I have to arrange a herring plate for one of our bosses from Paris. I am not only a PA I am also a cook and a waitres. Love my life sometimes....

Take care

Love/E

Song of the day: Airplanes - B.O.B

December chills

London was great! I could so live there but I've heard that a 1 room apartment in the basement is about 3000 euros/month.
We arrived on Thursday and went to the hotel. The room was so small, two people couldn't pass eachother... but the location was good: in Bloomsbury, just a few mins walk from the British Museum.
Had lunch with a friend, whos apartment in Spain we will be spending Xmas in.
Then hit the shopping streets. Picked up a fierce Furla bag, my first green bag ever :)
Had a huge hamburger for lunch (I'm not really taking my detox seriously) so when sis arrived later that night we only stopped by the hotel bar for a drink and then to bed.

Henri arrived sometime in the middle of the night.
Next day we did some shopping on Shaftbury Av, some really cool shoe stores.
Then Mr S and I went to shoe heaven aka Manolo Blahnik store and bought shoes. Met up with sis and Henri for a musical "when in Rome..." We saw "A Christmas Caroll" it was good but I prefer the play as there are all the classic carolls in the play.

Saturday was the big shopping day: all of Oxford street and Regent street where closed for traffic. Bought 3 dresses - one for the comapny annual Xmas party.

Then we had dinner at L'Oranger - absolutely lovely French restaurant. Quite expensive but money well spent. Funny fact: for the ladies they have menues with no prices in them... Sis got a bit upset but what the hell. Again "when in Rome..." so the men payed!

Sunday we went to Tate Modern and saw the exhibition "POP Life" good but strange.

Now I have to get some tea and get back to work

Take care

Love/E

Song of the day: Morning After - Timbaland

Working day and night

I have been too busy with work to have time to live lately.
Feels like all I have done is going to work, coming home from work and sleeping.
I don't even want to think about how many hours the average Joe spends working in one life time comapred to many hours are spent on doing important things such as living, eating good food and buying shoes.

Today I am so tired... but I have myself to blame. Yesterday I was invited to a "Winemaker's Dinner" at an Italian restaurant - 4 course meal and 4 different wines plus champagne. God, I love champagne. If there was a fire at my place what would I save: my champagne bottles or my shoes (Mr S in an adult, perfectly capable of saving himself) it's a toss up...
My all time favourite is Billecart-Salmon cuvée Elisabeth Salmon rose - if you haven't tried it do so. It's expensive but money very well spent.

Met sis' new boyfriend - there is a story I will tell sometime very soon. He seems like a nice enough guy. And they seem very serious, are going to check out an apartment this week end and all. I hope se won't become one of those I hate with a life style - styled home and shiny hair.
Ah yes it seems like I will be going to London in december - yyeehyyyaaa!

Now I must get back to work

Take care

Love/E

Song of the day: Starting something - Michael Jackson

Things I've seen...

Am back from London and at home in bed. Caught a cold, possibly on the flight back home. There was this woman who was seriously coughing her lungs out all the way from London to Stockholm - not very nice.

But I have seen some lovely things. Am already looking forward to going back with sis in May.

British museum - interesting saw among other things the mumies and the Rosetta Stone

Covent Garden - quite an odd place but I bought a nice dress there

Musical - Priscilla - Queen of the Desert, my favourite movie ever and we got some last minute tickets in one of the shops close to Picadilly Circus. It was LOVELY!

"Life is an adventure - Dress Accordingly"

A pub called "The Old Cock" - I laughed for an entire block :)

Harrod's - ah yes, everything one needs to live

Harvey Nicks - liked it but the Istanbul version was better

Manolo Blahnik store - Now, looking back I can agree on the fact that 995 pounds is a lot for a pair of shoes but I still mourn them. Mr S bought his first pair of Manolos - he is more and more becoming one of us...

Food in a pub - I ordered a hamburger and it tunred ou to be a good way of ruining both my mood and 200 grams of perfeclty good Angus beef. Too bad!

Fish and chips - at Harrod's Sea food bar lovely and with 2 glasses of Chablis and a side of Alexander McQueen bag

Docklands - cool bar but bad service. If I order an anti pasto it mean I want it before my main course. I don't want to hear from the waitress "Oh you actually wanted the anti pasto" while bringing my main course...

Street life - very nice. All sorts of people in all sorts of places. We lived in Kensingon which was nice but if I ever move to London I have decided to live at Old Church road, it's filled with the nicest red brick houses with small gardens.

London Eye - high, too many people. Nice view though

Dali exhibition - Love Dali, very good exhibition

Taxis - big confortable and cheap

Metro - Tried it one day, possibly the worst day since 3 of the lines where closed for upgrading so there was a bit of going back and forth. Most of the time we walked actaully. Never tried the buses but they look cool.

Restaurants - so many restaurants so little time. I prebooked The Boundary a very cool place in up and coming district of Shoreditch. Not too expensive, very high service level and good food.

Bars - Met up with girlfriend I from work and her London buddies and tried some bars in Soho. Cool night life!

Chinese food in China town - so good

Indian food - really nice

I like London so now when I have seen most of the tourist stuff I can spend my next visit just strolling around and getting a feel of the town.

Tke care

Love E

Song of the day: When It was Good - Flipsyde

Love rules

So finally they are getting engaged Crown Princess and her man.
They look fierce together and so so in love. I'm glad for them.

I, on the other hand, am working my ass off and looking forward to the return of the light and the sun. Still haven't had a chance to wear my new shoes since the ground is still covered in snow. God, I really hate snow unless I am skiing on it and that I haven't done in ages.

At the moment I am terribly anooyed by Linda Skugge and the likes of her. I read some of her columns in CHIC magazine. SHe writes about how women who have kids are so much better, sexier, smarter than those who don't. And living in the suburbs is so right and everything else is not real and people (women) who don't have kids have no connection to reality and cannot be stressed out since they don't know what stress is.
I should not let insecure women like her get to me but seriously...
Isn't it hard enought to be a woman these days without having to turn on eachother? Instead, can't we just respect eachothers choices and be happy for eachother? I admit: screaming kids on a plane or in a restaurant annoys the hell out of me and I do believe that some places just are not the right place to bring your children but that does not mean I cannot be happy for a woman who wants kids and gets pregnant.
I have chosen not to have any children - that is my choice and I am content. So many times have I heard "oh you change your mind" -Hello, I'm 35 almost 36 I don't htink so or "you'll regret it eventually" - Well then I'll get a dog and a young lover to keep me occupied

What if I would go up to a pregnant woman and say "Oh you'll change your mind" or "what if you'll regret it". They'd probably slap me.

Would it be more fun if we instead embraced our differences? If we were all the same - imagine what the world would be like?!?!

Now - back to work

Take care
Love/E

Song of the day: Flo - Rida - Round and Round

And then the snow came

again....

It is seriously white outside.

I bought new shoes in Copenhagen that I am dying to use but I can't while it's snow up to my knees outside.

Copenhagen was very nice. We stayed at a good hotel, The Phoenix and had our Valentines day dinner att a very good restaurant Ego - really really nice food and atmosphere.

Saturday we spen mostly checking out the shops: Illum, Birger Christensen, Magasin du Nord. Sunday we met up with Mr S' son and his very pregnant girlfriend. She is.. nice nothing more nothing elss just nice. Not very funny and not vey interesting just nice. I always thought he would go for someone a bit more... of everything. She has a very annoying habit of talking about him when he is sitting just next to her "A thinks this" and "A likes that"- hello, he is 27 years old and can answer a question by him self.

This week I have been very cultural: Tuesday I went to the opera and saw Swan Lake and yesterday I saw Cabaret. Swan Lake was wonderful but Cabaret was quite disappointing.

Now I have to do my nails...

Take care

Love/E

Song of the day: The Wrestler - Bruce Springsteen

Istanbul 2008

Back from 2 weeks vacation in Istanbul. It was very nice, well worth a visit. Great shopping, good food and a lot of stuff going on day and night. I believe that there are cars and people moving around the city 24 hrs a day at a insane pace.

We stayed at an apartment in the tranny district. The Girl-Boys were very nice though and quit fun to talk to for a while.

I did some serious shopping, I fear my credit card bill... In Istanbul they have a Harvey Nichols-store that was fierce. We also found a 80.000 square meters shopping center Istinye Park where I bought a pair of Jimmy Choo's, I also bought 2 pairs of Mahnolo's (in my defense I can say that they were 50% off) and one pair of Salvatore Ferragamo.

And a few bags, a 3-peice good for work type of suit.

All in all we had a great time: got lost in the country in the middle of the night, had a horrible dinner experience at The Supperclub (possibly the worst food I have ever tasted, we left before dessert), wonderful dinner experience a 360.

The only downside is sis and her temper. She is extremely dependent on others, can't be alone for one minute and does almost anything to get her way. I will speak to her about this soon but I have to find the right moment. At somepoint she managed to annoy everyone. Too bad since I really think this vacation with friends concept is a great one and wish we can do it again next year.

As soon as I can I will upload some pics from Istanbul.

Take care

Love/E

Song of the day: Shikidim - Tarkan

To shoe or not to shoe

that is the question.

Friday I left work early, officially the office closes at 15h00 so I left at aroud 4. Was meeting up with friends for an AW activity. Our aw's are (in)famous for moving from a drink after work into dinner into more drink into waking up the next day thinking: I will never drink again...

Spring has arrived so I felt like I deserved to buy a new pair of sunglasses. I have fallen for the pressure and I paid 180 euros for a piece of plastic simply because this piece of plastic looked good on me and it was Max Mara :)

Then I did a quick stop at NK where I had seen a pair of fierce shoes by Michael Kors. They are red and my grand mother always used to say that only kids and prostitutes get away with red shoes.

I tried them on and decided to put them on lay away. As I walked up to the counter I saw The Shoe black with huge stones on :) Loved them,  I bought them and went happily on my way. Some might say that Friday was a good day for me and som might say I have a shopping issue...

I would say: If you think you can buy happiness you are shopping in the wrong place!

Take care

Love E

Song of the day: Angels - Robbie Williams for baby girl Engla who so tragically had her life ended way too soon.

Let's talk about food

I like food, or correction I love food. It could be said that a hobby of mine is cooking and eating.

I love trying out new restaurans and I get grumpy in a very childish way if I don't like what's on my plate.

My boss asked me for a restaurant tip yesterday so I sent him to Proviant, he was very pleased. I haven't been there in a while but since one of the head chefs used to work at Edsbacka (one star in the Guide Rouge) it can't be that bad... He loved it and he is a hard-to-please- Frenchman.

Since Easter is coming up I thought I'd make some lamb, spiced with garlic and fresh herbs (very classic). The trick is to put in in the oven for about 1,5 hrs (depends of course on how much meat there actually is) and set the oven at about 150 degrees celcius. The meat will be deliciously rare and almost melt in our mouth. Serve it with some red wine, preferably Zinfandel or Cabernet Sauvignon.

If you read a receipe it always says: Serve with a fresh sallad and some nice bread. Itsn't that kind of obvious: I mean who would serve an old brown sallad and old bread?!?!!

Why state the obvious??

 

Work is busy but good. I'm in charge of arranging the annual summer party and the annual company trip. I do tend to spend a lot of time on this, maybe more time than I should and defineely more time than I have, but it's fun. And I feel like it has to be really good otherwise they will think of me as the new girl who messed up their party...

I'm working on redefining and toning my body. It's not as hard as it sounds really. I've just changed my work out routine. I still do kick boxing but I also do Pilates now. It's really really hard!

I so hope I can find Jimmy Choo in Paris since I have a serious craving!

Take care!

Love E

Song of the day: The Sinner in Me - Depeche Mode

Some pics

A few pics from sis' camera


Me after dinner

The shoes - very nice :)

The hair style, I did it myself :)

More to come...

Love/E

Fall is...

a good time for a fresh start, I think. But also a good time to remember and recollect.

9/11 came and went. Here in Sweden most people remember the murder of Ms Anna Lindh but obviosly also the Twin Towers in NYC.
I think most people remember what they did and where they were when these two events occured.
When the Twin Towers were attacked I was working and listening to the radio. At first I thought it was some lunatic who had flew a small plane, somethink Cessna-like, but the I realised the it was a passenger plane and it was some sort of an attack.

On 9/11 this year they aired a documentary about the families and how they coped with the money they got from the 9/11-fund. It's amazing what money can make people do...

When Ms Lindh was murdered I lived in Nykoping and followed the news all that night. First thing I did when I got up the next morning was turning on the TV and they reported her death. She and her husband lived in Nykoping - her husband was the mayor.

This fall will be a huge new start for myself as I'm starting a new life as married. Wedding are fun, great parties and a lot of love in the air. Marriage is fun too, maybe not party all the time but once you remeber to keep the love in the air it's all good!

Found a pair of shoes for the party and they are fierce! Black and shiny and just enough bling to make me happy :)
Now I'm all set: got the shoes and the dress to go with it, the bag to clutch and the perfect match in Mr S :)

Take care
Love/E

Song of the day: Be my Baby - Vanessa Paradis