tjugofyra!

Well, we made it ... twenty-four (tjugofyra) days and twenty-four blog posts!

Ok, ok, some were slightly lack luster, but we managed to break a very long dry spell with our longest ever continual run of blogging!

And behind door number twenty-four ...



While we have opened the door to some pretty sweet little Body Shop items, in the end, we most enjoyed the blogging and sharing little pieces of our daily living with you. So thanks for reading along and letting us know you were out there.

Today we celebrated Christmas, including some very exciting little bits around the 'tree'. We promise to send more info later, but for now, we need to throw the last few items into our suitcases and ready ourselves for an early morning departure to snowy Chamonix! Yes, that's right -- it is SNOWY in Cham: more snow to date this year than in the entire previous season (live webcams here). I couldn't have asked for anything better.

Merry Christmas and our love and very best wishes for a safe and happy holiday to you, friends.

Catch you in 2012. j+r



Wait! I have to make good on two little promises:

For those of you who knew about the little secret I had up my sleeve for my dear love ... here is his smiling mug:

And Eva, here is what your sonny looks like, in his fancy new ski pants (and assorted hi tech jackets):

tjugotre -- traditions

We have learned a lot of new traditions over the last year and a half. But we have not forgotten the ones we grew up on either.

Today was my last day of work. And after work I decided I needed to do one last bit of baking - a tradition from my history: a loaf we would often have Christmas morning to go alongside clementines and classical music and time round the Christmas tree with my family before setting out for a snowy walk. 

So I thought of you, my Nicholls family, as I rose the dough and rolled it out and the smell filled the house. Not sure it turned out quite as sweet as mum's (we might have sneaked a little taste tonight), but it was certainly a sufficiently good replica for me!

Mum's Christmas morning loaf

Another  tradition I grew up with was the annual Christmas ornament. Even better - the 'annual ornament book' mum kept for us over the first ten or so years of Duncan's and my lives. These little red and green construction paper bound books have stories from our first ten years, and an explanation of why each ornament was selected. The books are stored with the ornaments and a card containing tinsel for the tree - the same tinsel mum and dad have been using for 44 years - in old cardboard boxes in the basement. I have missed flipping through those books these last few years, but it is fun to think back on all the ornaments mum has picked out for us. I also must confess I prefer a real tree to the artificial kind, but I am remarkably content with our strange Christmas tree substitutions and single box of assorted red ornaments this year!

Somewhere in the middle of this advent calendar blogging extravaganza we asked for you to share some Christmas memories with us. Since it seems we have strong food and ornament kind, it seemed fitting to ask you for the food and the ornament kind of memories - and it was great to read your notes! Thanks. In the same way some of you have commented that you feel closer to us for hearing about the events of the last month, so have we been transported closer to you. 

So, here's what you had to say was best on the tree: 
-  The lights

-  Röda glaskulor (red glass balls)

-  I love them all! We try and buy at least one special one per year. Last year's - a Christmas pickle!

-  The favourite this year may be the tiny Mora horse, reminding us of a fun weekend with you in 2010.

-  Handmade ones that Graham's mom makes. They hold candy!

-  My first ornament, which is one of those engraved 'baby's first christmas' ornaments.

-  Hand made glass icicles, other glass icicles and real tinsel
-  Not the favourite, but the most memorable is the one that has a horrible picture of me in grade 6 on it, that my family insists on placing front and center on our tree (high enough that i can't reach it, but is still very visible)

I love the range of things that adorn your trees, friends! I also appreciate that there were lots of good stories to go with your choices. Nice to know I am not the only sentimental one out there ;) 

This resonated through many of the favourite food choices too -- guess mummies the world over are good at imprinting their culinary talents on their offsprings' tummies! 

 -  my mom's panneforte

-  Vin d'orange

-  Julskinka och lutfisk (Christmas ham and rehydrated salted fish in a white sauce)

-  My mom's candied almonds. My dad's homemade eggnog is a close second. I also quite enjoy almond snowball cookies

-  Almond paste icing,on anything, or just on a spoon

-  Christmas cake

-  mandarin oranges

-  Baked brie and other fun party finger food

-  Pretty much anything homemade and chocolate 

I had to think a long time before I could come up with my answers to the questions. in the end, I decided that I most liked the blue lights on the tree. I am open to white lights, or even a mix of the two (when push comes to shove), but I love the shadows from pine needles in front of tiny bulbs, and I love the hue of the blue lights illuminating a room. As a Swedish alternative, I love the lights in the windows - especially the advent specific ones - and how they light up the streets through the dark winter days and nights.

adventsljusstakar

As for my favourite thing to eat ... I finally decided that mum's Christmas cake was my real 'must-have' item. Not only do we eat this at Christmas, but we also had it for our wedding cake, as did my parents. A big thanks to my parents who baked Christmas cake in July so we could bring one back with us this summer!

I am also really fond of Christmas ham. And I especially love Swedish Christmas ham! I tried my hand at it last year, and it was the best ham either of us had ever eaten (thanks to the fine cooking lesson I had from Camilla, who was out cross country skiing when I rang her slightly perplexed over what to do with the massive thing). Yesterday Richard did the first stage (a long simmer) and then we finished it together. Yet again, we ended up with one yummy ham.

Since we are heading to France in the wee hours of the 25th, we bumped our Christmas dinner to last night so we could enjoy the left overs today and tomorrow. Works for us! We had some definite blending of traditions for the dinner, pairing the Swedish julskinka (Christmas ham) with squash (much more a Canadian item - not too many veggies to the julbord here), several other veggies (again, a Canadian thing, all those veggies), fresh bread, and then an Israeli couscous warm salad with squashes and lemons (definitely not a traditional item for any Christmas celebrating country, I'd hazard a guess). All the same, a delicious plate to celebrate with!

Well, this is becoming quite a tome. Guess that is what happens after hardly being able to speak for a week!

 
So, now on with the second to last door from the advent calendar (yes, Tim - that is what all the crazy product shots are from!).


Here is Richard getting ready to open today's door ... (and complaining about how light the calendar has become!)



And here is Richard modeling the miraculous effects of the 'Deep Sleep' mist spray. Wouldn't that be great if it delivered as much!!

One more door tomorrow, and one more blog entry.  We will be celebrating Christmas on the 24th as per Swedish tradition (that means gift opening tomorrow morning!) and are looking forward to talking with many of you tomorrow round your respective Christmas trees tomorrow (three cheers for wifi and portable electronic devices and Skype!).We will keep logged into Skype for most of the day, so feel free to give us a shout if you want to chat or show off your tree :)

tjugotvå

Puree.  What the heck is body puree?  I don't know.  We'll just plop in on somewhere.

We've (okej, I've) had a pretty relaxing day around here.  We made julskinka (Christmas Ham - but I don't even know how I'd begin to transcribe the pronunciation of skinka into English characters) and spent a nice evening chatting with Tim, a friend/colleague of Jennie's from the Netherlands.

As such, we have neglected a proper post for the jour .

So enjoy a few pictures of what we ate last week at Högbobruk's julbord.  It was all delicious.  And then we'll chat again tomorrow.

... now wash it down, and sleep well.  Of course, on a stomach that full?  Not bloody likely.

We are sadly on track to hit 6 degrees here tomorrow afternoon, and it will be above freezing to some degree the whole day... get ready for some slush.  Here's hoping the lovely white layer holds on through this thaw

tjugoett and lynxes

How excited was I to see these tracks today.  Yes, the lack of question mark is because this is a rhetorical question.  I was very excited.  Among my various nerderies is a great love of wildlife, and yes, I especially know cat tracks when I see them.  These belong to a Swedish lodjur, or lokatt, if you prefer:

picture stolen from the vast ether of the internet

Yes, a lynx. 

Lynxes are not common critters here, and so the idea that there is at least one prowling my local trails is incredibly cool to me.  Some estimations say there are only about 1500 lynxes in all of Sweden.  I recognize that my chances of ever seeing a lynx itself, and not just its prints, is really really slim ... I don't think anything sneaks up on a lynx, least of all me.  But still - so cool, and you never know.  It almost makes me want to run the 10km loop again this week, even though the trail is pretty snowed over and it kind of kicked my butt today.

Seeing the lynx tracks on the 10km spår also and almost makes up for the fact that I subsequently and inexplicably decided not to take the camera with me when I set out on the 6km track, thus missing prime photo opportunities involving both deers and my friendly, neighbourhood, always-seems-to-be-hunting-on-the-six-km-track owl.  In retrospect, I will never assume that "well, I've clearly filled my cool photo quota for the day" is a wise perspective to take.  Ah well.  Hopefully everybody will be out again soon.  Back to some pics.

 There were a lot of trees doubled over by the snow - and there had been one other person (and their dog) through on the trail since it had snowed last Friday for the first part of the 10km track.  It was beautiful.

In the forest and under the canopy, in some places there was no snow at all ... then I'd come into a clearing, and double wow.  One wow for the loveliness, and another for the deep drifts that I would be slugging through.  Good fun ... for a few kms, at least!

 

I hit the halfway point feeling pretty good.  Even with the deeper wading sections of snow and stopping for pictures, I was only about five or six minutes behind my usual pace.  

awesome watch from Jennie; awesome gloves also from Jennie; awesome jacket from Jennie ... "Awesome by Jennie" ... and hint of banana by my hungry self

Considering I'd been feeling sick at the end of last week, I probably should not have banked on feeling as great on the back five kms as I had on the way out, but hey, I've developed some confidence in my conditioning.  And with the exception of say, today, usually that confidence has been well-placed. 

the skinnies across the swamp, just past the 5km point

Underneath the snow, things were really pretty wet.  There was definitely some melting going on before it dropped down to the -1 or -2C we are sitting at currently ... and there was enough water sitting around that it hadn't succumbed to freezing yet.  Even taking the skinny bridges, my feet were soaked and squelchy for the rest of my run.  

It was about a kilometer after the bridges - at the point where the trail is furthest from Hemlingby and civilization - that I saw the lynx tracks, in amongst deer tracks, small dog tracks, some rodent tracks ... which as all of those animals = lynx food, it does make sense that one of the pretty kitties would also be in the vicinity.

again, thank you Google 'bilder'

It was also about this time that I realized being sick for a week, being a wee bit tired at the end of term, and running through some reasonably challenging conditions with soaking feet was beginning to catch up with me.  I grew zonked.  

Still, by the time you hit the 7km point it isn't too bad all the way back in ... especially when you can't help but hope that there might be a lynx around every corner ... and you realize for the billionth time how incredibly lucky you are to have a place like this just a few km from your haus.  Jennie looked at the picture of this stream and asked me where it was today; she has passed it on the trail dozens of times, but as it is right at the bottom of a tricky hill descent that shoots you right into a rugged rocky section, your attention can turn from one of those to the other without pausing to look at the stream in between.  It is a nice stream, though.

All in all, I had a really good day. 

And after stretching and some food I feel good, so I'll definitely be back out there again tomorrow.  Nice.  I've been experimenting with the number and weight of layers that I run in, and while I'm pleased with some changes I've made on the bottom half, I've been drenching myself on the upper half too often ... there's just such a balance between starting cold enough, and starting so cold that you just go from cold, to cold and slight wet, to really freezing.  Today I just went waaay over into soaking and freezing territory, so I need to work on that.  I'll try lighter top clothes morgon.

Oh yes, before we go: miracle oil behind door nummer tjugoett:

I have no idea what this miracle oil is supposed to do.  Guess I'll start lathering and find out.

tjugo

So, we've hit the twenty digits, as it were.  In bad Swenglish you would say it "shoe-go", or sometimes "shoe-gi", especially if it is twenty-one through twenty-nine.  Said properly it is another sound/shape that doesn't exist in English, but it's still an easier action than trying to say seven.  Seven is a killer.

 

Today's gift is peppermint foot rub.  It isn't exactly a product that either of us are jumping at, but hey, now that we've got it, we'll put it to good use.  As Jennie expressed to me this evening, really the best part of the calendar has been that we're writing again ... but that was before she used the new bodywashes this evening.  Yes, she tried both kinds. 

Sadly, Jennie's voice is still fluctuating between a whisper and sounding like this guy:

"WHERE have they hidden the lime and coconut body wash?!"

Very soon now she needs to be healthy for Chamonix, so it will be another early night for her here.  Our Saturday morning departure is coming up quickly!

And speaking of holidays, as of this afternoon I was officially done school until January 9th. Nice.

 'tis the season for teacher gifts.  A nice live flower collection, and some schnazzy cholkads!  Quality over quantity, baby!

It feels good to have a term in the new position under the utility belt, as it were.  I am quite happy with how things have gone, and generally feel that the 'success rate' with my ideas/activities has been at the percentage I could have optimistically-yet-realistically hoped for.  Sure, I still have (already have?) something of a laundry list for my "wishes for next year", as the category was called at my review meeting last week, but I'm pleased.  Certainly it is nice to be through the "I can actually do this" feelings and first times.  Because this has been such a big part of what I have been up to, at Jennie's suggestion I will do another post about some of the stuff I've been doing with teaching.  In the spirit of being "in for a pound", I've decided on a slightly more in-depth write up on what teaching is like over here, the differences from Canada, and what kinds of things I've been up to than I feel like whipping off tonight.  So that will wait for another day.

For now, let's just share a little more of what's really important at this time of year: gifts and presents.  Heh.

Just in time to go into storage for some months - we are finally holding below-freezing temperatures with snow on the ground, and besides, 'tis Icebug weather - I can stash away a couple new pairs of runners.  On the left are Montrail Fairhavens, which are billed as a hybrid road/trail shoe, and as that's pretty much what most long runs tend to be around here they are my go-to shoe.  Their size 10.5 converts to "44 and change" in Euro sizing (which is what I usually trust for fit), yet I find they are a snug fit on my usually size 44 (and no change) feets, especially once you've been on the move for four hours or more.  They have a nice level of cushion, and do more than okej on the technical stuff - pretty ideal shoe for me.  On the right are some La Sportiva Wildcats, which are much more of a rugged shoe - less cush, stiffer ... a lot like my beloved, yet departed and discontinued Montrail Odysseys.  When I know that a run is going to be mostly tough technical terrain, or say in snow, when I appreciate a little extra stiffness from a shoe, they are awesome.  Thus the Wildcats will probably see action before the Fairhavens, but from the course description of the TEC I still think the Fairhavens will be the way to go when the time comes.  I enjoy debating these issues with myself ... often for hours on the trail.  Good times!

Of course, Christmas is also about family and friends ... and sadly, the time has come to retire a friend.  Rob, it's time to call it a day.

The Rob I am speaking of, naturally, is my laptop Rob.  Laptop Rob was generously bartered to me when we moved to Sweden by actual Rob, our excellent friend who was featured in a photo series last week by Jennie.  

Laptop Rob has been my primary home and work computer for almost two years now, and he has served me well.  When I was taking him to school on a daily basis last year, some of my kids asked why my laptop said "Rob" on the bottom of it (actual Rob is a very thorough and responsible individual, and had labelled everything), to which I replied that Rob was the name of my computer.  Replete with interesting stickers - some of which I am quite glad the kids don't recognize or understand - Laptop Rob has been popular with students and muchos beloved by me ... but sadly, Rob's time is coming to an end. 

some Rob on Rob action!

 He wasn't a spring chicken when our time together began (the kids adored my "vintage" laptop), and not for the first time tonight, when Jennie croaked about "that noise" and wondering where on earth it could be coming from, the answer was Rob.  He has become loud.  He lags through movie trailers on me.  Last week his sound capabilities spontaneously died for several days, and then came back as randomly as they had disappeared.  Virus checks have all come back negative, and while I've cleared out this and defragged that, slowly but surely Laptop Rob is telling me it is time.   

As it turns out, I had begun planning for this eventuality a little while ago now, and it seems that the timing of my scheme has worked out perfectly.  I will say no more of it until Christmas, but here is a wee teaser photo of 'the plan':

Heh heh heh.  

All right - as the slightly less tired and sick party in our apartment right now, I am off to do some dishes and then get ready for some sleeping.  Jennie is already there.

I have a busy day of sleeping and running and then lots of wonderful nothing planned for tomorrow, so it might be a good day for the teaching run down.  We'll see.  In any case, you know we'll be back again so long as the calendar lasts.

Later, gators!

nitton

I may have to battle the Jennie for this one.  Girly?  Maybe.  But it looks and smells delicious.

There have been a few fruity jokes leveled at me over the years, and to the parties who don't mean it in good fun, I say to you that I do not care.  I still remember getting back from a six day canoe trip and getting to use the vaunted "Senior Staff" showers (individual stalls - and rooms!  Not just a dozen hoses draped over the walls!) for some reason or another.  The counsellors who had led the girl's trip which was out simultaneously were also there, and one of those fine ladies lent me her Body Shop shower stuff because ... well, I don't really remember why.

But I do remember thinking that it smelled and felt incredible.  To that point, Irish Spring has been the lap of bath product luxury for me.  And it wasn't bad.  But it couldn't hold a candle to the fruity stuff.

In other news, as I was preparing ye (me?) old army bike for winter commuting purposes, I was reminded of a simple fact: Nokian (summer) tire, made in Finland, carbon offset, etc - mounts and unmounts awesomely.  Lousy Golden Boy tire, made who knows where?  Difficult, pain the rump to unmount.  Plus, Nokian tubes (despite costing twice the price of the cheap crap) hold air waaay better, and just generally kick arse.  So worth the price.  Don't buy crap.  It just isn't worth it, on so many levels.

I also finally got my "iRunFar" bumper sticker mounted up; a wee bit o' cutting and pasting (you know, the actual kind - not the computer kind) and I found a way to display it nicely on top of my pump and storage box, and still keep everything functional.  All that remains now is to, you know, keep working on the whole running far thing!

Check it out, and happy nineteen to you.  As is usual for her, Jennie's head cold has dropped into her chest, and taken her voice along with it just for fun.  I had hoped to run today, but was waaay too tired to give it a serious go.  Napping was good instead.  Let's hope tomorrow I feel up for a lap or two around the Hemlingby; it should be interesting footing as the snow continues to melt down.

Toodles!

arton

This is where things get complicated; eighteen is arton.  But eight is åtta.  It's tricksy. 

I (Richard) failed my Swedish speaking exam on Thursday.  This was not even remotely unexpected, but I am still not happy about it.  I did okay on the reading, and I did well on the listening ... but the writing and the speaking components were inte so bra.  Not so good.

There are plenty of reasons why this happened, but at some point, it's not about the reasons.  I made lots of other stuff happen this term; I have been really pleased with my training, I have been really pleased with how being department head has gone.  But I just couldn't make the Swedish (and the Swedish classes) happen on the level that I wanted to ... I just ran out of time and space for something, and this was it.  

I have until mid-January to figure out how to remedy that situation, because I really do want to get better with the language.  I want to make my Swedish happen.  Ah well.  For now I just need to finish up getting better health-wise, and then there's one and a half days left at school, and then it's break time.  Fruit salad helps with everything:

... delicious.  

It isn't particularly late here, and yes, I have taken advantage of feeling sub-par by doing a whole lot of movie watching over the past three days, but it is time to get a couple things done before we head to bed early over here.  The observant reader might have noticed a certain beloved old army bike inverted between the artton ... yes, a little bike work is required tonight.  For the first time in a long, long, long time, it didn't rain when the weather reports had called for it:

... it actually snowed.  Now, it is still 2C outside, so who knows what this is going to look like tomorrow, but no matter what it's finally time to get the snow tires on my bike.  Jennie's been hooked up for a few weeks now (a conveniently-timed flat made that an easy decision).  Last year I could only find one snow tire to fit my bike; this year I visited the shop across town, and he had no fewer than six Nokians in my size sitting around and ready to go.  Yes, six tires for a 70's wheel diameter that I don't think anyone uses any more ... but when you have dozens of 70's era bikes still all over town, it makes sense.  

Snowy trails to you!  Last day of classes tomorrow for me.  To give you an idea of what it's like teaching here, I am going to disappoint my one class of year nines (that would be grade ten to you North Americans) because I don't have my "terrible author names" ceremony ready to go with the unusual writing competition I am going to hold with them first thing back in the new year; terrible author names to go with their terrible first sentences.  They are so keen.  They are great kids, and I love teaching them.  

Okej.  To my Nokians.  Jennie croaks her hellos also.  Snowy trails to yous!