Late night last night. Nice dinner with friends. Very late finish.
So today has felt like a Sunday.
I think I will attempt to start my week tomorrow instead.
Early night tonight.
Damn, it's already close to eleven, why can't I just go to bed already!

A little sentimental reciting on a Friday morning

Oh, glorious Ocean Beach, lovely, long, temperamental Ocean Beach that stretches from north to south and never seem to end. The tip of the city, as far as you can go, will embrace you and sooth you with it's crashing waves and the thick fog slowly making it's way out towards the horizon. You are so small in comparison, and the air is so fresh and it is the best start of any day, to be there, to breath and to wake up.
In the morning, the surfers, the joggers, the dog walkers. The fishermen setting up their gear, hoping to catch something, and maybe they will, because who am I to know anything about fishing? The hobo's are packing up their belongings and heading in to town. The fires from last night are safely put out. The hobby-photographers and an odd tourist, before breakfast at Lois.
It is so very hard not to get incredibly sloppy and sentimental when walking along the dunes. How I missed Ocean Beach while I was away.

Happy Birthday, Richard. I love you!

It's a bed thing, after all

After 3 years in this country, there are things I am still clueless about. The rule of overtaking across more than one lane being one of them, the art of pointless conversation in a public elevator being another. Yesterday I found something else I have been blissfully unaware of since moving here: the esthetics's of bed-linen. Being a Swede, I come from the land of functionality and no frills (quite literally 'no frill's'). My bed consists of a mattress, a mattress-top, two pillows and a duvet. That's it. Easy does it.

For years we have been meaning to buy a new, bigger bed. We finally got back from holiday feeling revived enough to take on a trip to IKEA and are now proud owners of a new king-size bed. Yesterday I went to Macy's to buy sheets. Sheets is what makes a bed what it is. A haven for peace and calm. Sheets are important, no doubt about it. But at the end of the day, sheets are sheets, nothing else. Although they can vary in pattern and color, they are pretty standard in shape and size. You shouldn't need a degree in sheet engineering to be able to make a bed. Or so I thought.

At Macy's, a new world opens up to me. There is a whole floor dedicated to bed-orientated consumer products. I feel instantly lost (and also get lost, too, literally) between shelves of densely stacked Martha Stewart and Calvin Klein, and even more confused when I pick up boxes of deliciously wrapped high thread count cotton sheets and start reading the contents. Am I the only person in the world who doesn't know her 'shams' from her pillows or the point of a dust-ruffle? Who will question the meaning of flat sheets if they are not meant to wrap around the mattress (why would I want to be under it if I have a duvet??) and question the exact position of the decorative bed cover. On top of the bed? On the floor next to it? In the cupboard?
Beats me.

A very nice lady helped me through it all, item by item. After 30 minutes I could tell she was getting a bit annoyed by my complete lack of knowledge on the subject. After 45 minutes she started shouting at me: No! No, you do not put the flat sheet around your mattress top. It's for you to sleep under, not on top of it!

An hour and a half later I finally leave, with some gorgeous, discounted linen sets, nicely wrapped in Macy's bags and when I get back I manage to make my bed by using at least half of the contents of one package. My bed now looks like it's had a make over by Trinny and Susanna.
Pure luxury.

I might write a book on the topic.
I am a bona fide expert now.
Ask me anything - I have the answer.

Burning Man

Richard is going to Burning Man. For those if you who don't know what Burning Man is, according to it's own website, it is "an annual art event and temporary community based on radical self expression and self-reliance in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada", or, in other words, a week of sex, drugs and rock'n roll, with the added bonus of dressing up in moon-boots, ski-goggles, togas to then go absolutely nuts rolling around in sand and call it a community happening in the desert without the ability to shower for a week.

From the start I have been more than encouraging in him going. Admittedly, my reason is slightly selfish. I have no desire to dress up like Jodie Marsh on crack and dance to bad house music whilst having my hair covered in Nevada dust, but since I am a nosy person, I so really want someone I know to do it while I enjoy the peace and comfort of my own home, and to then have that person relay the whole experience to me - while I am still comforted by the amenities of my own home.

Since the event is going for a week and my husband was feeling like the family-man he thinks he is, at first he planned on going from Friday to Sunday, just to check it out. "I'm not gonna go nuts, or anything."
After some long talks with the friends he's going with, some of it including plans on bringing up Bailey's, ice and baby-wipes for some kind of black market currency in case of want for food or cold water he's suddenly feeling more and more caught up in the whole happy vibe and is suggesting going up Wednesday and stay until, maybe, Monday.

So, my question is: who is up for a long week-end in New York, alternatively Sonoma Mission Inn, girls only, anytime after Labor Day, and is it possible to get lost in the desert, and, if so, will this be my opportunity to get rid of my hubby once and for all, with a fool-proof alibi?
Only kidding, Richard. Go, enjoy, have fun, trade Bailey's, wear ski goggles, get clean with baby-wipes and go crazy in your moon-boots - you deserve it! And I love you, too.

new and old from one of the best in Sweden right now

What´s in a name?

Our names have been a source of endless variations of nothing close to what they actually are, today we heard the best one when an insurance company cold-called and asked for Habati Gregory.
Richard is thinking of starting to use it.

home sweet home

tomorrow we head back to SF after 6 weeks on the road. I can't wait. We've had a great time, relaxing, eating, hanging out with friends, but enough is enough. A girl needs her crib, that's for sure.
I'll see you back home, and the blog will hopefully read as normal in a few days, too.

Take care

school

I am supposed to attend my swedish "hogstadiet" school-reunion today, but the set up is softball, and it's raining. Need I any more excuses for not going or would that do...?

this is what I listen to in the car Oland - Lund. Two great swedish musicians, great music, great tunes

Likes and dislikes

Best this summer: My halterneck top from SynergyOrganicClothing. I picked it up at a trade fair before I left, and it has been the one item that I couldn't have been without this very warm and sunny summer. It's been used and washed over and over again and it's still looking super-great.
Apparently Ruby on Haight Street is a stockist, guess where I'm heading next week?

Shame on you: Havaianas, for not only messing up our order of flip flops, but for still refusing, nearly 3 months later, to refund us for the three pairs we never received. Not only am I not wearing the lovely flip flops I planned on this summer, I am out of pocket and never, ever attempting to buy a pair of Havaianas flip flops ever again. Their call centre is a shambles, run by very inexperienced people and they seem to think it is OK to ignore any kind of basic customer service.

I need to get back in to San Francisco mode. We're heading back in less than a week. So far, I have learnt that it is possible to relax on holiday, but you will need your husband for support and general help when you have had a very late night drinking wine and port with good friends.

The youngest of the Royal children, princess Madeleine, has announced her engagement to her boyfriend. There's a 12 page spread in the tabloid today. I wish them happiness, but you'd think there were other things, more important, going on in the world than the size of her emerald cut diamond ring....
Just like that, I have become very Swedish again.

A Swedish police man is being interviewed on TV about a double murder.
- What can you say about what has happened?
- Not much. At this time, we don't know much at all.
- Is this a gang-related murder.
- At this time we don't know anything more than that we have found two people. They are male. And they are dead. Anything else would be speculation.

A force to be reckoned with...

I have been gone too long

You know you've lived in California too long when you no longer think it's OK to wait for 30 minutes before they take your drink order, to have them served after food arrives - while the waiter apologises for the delay because the kitchen was too hot for the chef to work faster than he did.