friends come to visit

✽ as we arrived back in åre, cavalli was moving out, having finished his season contract. the good thing about that was that we scored his old bed, which is a real bed and much better than the two single mattresses on the floor that weve been sleeping in the whole season, and which i always wake up squeezed in the gap between.
also some good friends of ours from stockholm arrived for a few days visit. they all came out partying at nova (where i was working behind the bar) with jerry and for once, i was the sober one, watching in amusement their drunken shenanigans. karin had gone home smashed already, last seen with a big jaigermeister stain down the front of her shirt, måsen got wasted even though everyone was shouting him alcohol free drinks in secret. then on his way out he gave jerry a huge tongue kiss. sandra was jumping around on a buzz with her new kids ski clothes purchased at an absolute bargain. jerry flashed the crowd for no reason then buttoned up and tucked in his shirt and pretended to be a nerd. then he started annoying me so much behind the bar that i threatened to kick him out. jesper demanded immediate service even if there were heaps of other people waiting for drinks before him, and daffy got angry, thinking everyone expected free drinks at his bar and then bought a bottle of expensive champagne for them all anyway..
i was so bored when they all left!

surprise 50th birthday

❊ oh dear blog, i missed you!
jerry and i just got back from his mum's surprise 50th birthday cruise. jerry's sisters had planned a huge scheme for her; stole her mobile phone and her car while she was at work, pretended to call the police, lead her on a huge mission to the bus station, then lured her onto a bus that went to copenhagen. while she was stressing to death (and pissed off because no one had planned anything for her 50th) all jerry's brothers, sisters, in-laws, aunt and uncle piled onto the bus and broke out singing happy birthday. jerry and i had gone even further with the trick by dressing up in costumes (jerry an old man and me a muslim woman) and sitting a few seats back from her reading, newspapers. when she thought the surprise was over, jerry pulled down the newspaper and started screaming in accented swedish that they should all be quiet. yvonne looked at us both in confusion and asked 'who are you, i recognise you?!' ....she was so happy that we'd come as well, and the best thing was that she'd bought the whole scam and was genuinely surprised!

in copenhagen we all jumped on a cruise ship to oslo, that goes through all the norwegian fjords, and the partying began. after dinner, we started off drinking in the hallway outside the cabins and partied until we got complaints from the neighbours and then forced to leave by security guards. then we moved on to the kids play area and between rounds of shots, toasts and speeches, we took turns diving into the pool of plastic coloured balls. jerry's brother-in-law even stripped off to his underwear to jump in!

everybody got so drunk that we became a big trouble making gang, rampaging around the ship until finally we found the piano lounge. the pianist was sitting alone, playing to an empty bar. so we all piled in around the piano and began singing along rowdily to all the abba songs, making requests, dancing our arses off (i even pleaded to jump up and dance on the piano, but he said no).
we were having so much fun and causing such a racket that we drew in all the other guests walking past and im sure that piano man had the best work-night of his life! he let me sing 'hey big spender' and 'im a believer' to the whole crowd and i was drunk enough to get right into it. jerry's mum who never drinks, got totally smashed and even got hit on by a young guy in the piano lounge, until first jerry went up and threatened him with 'hey that's my mum' and then jerry's 's step dad, 'hey thats my woman'.

everyone had drunken D&M's, telling each other how much they loved each other etc and jerry's sister and brother tried to conspire with me to bring jerry back to live in his home town.
it was a fantastic night! ...unfortunately we paid for it the next day, hungover and sleep deprived to the shithouse, with three buses to catch (including an over-nighter) to get back to sweden and to good old åre....

problem box

bludgeing at work



































❆ the owners of beefalo put up a 'problem box' on the wall at work, for staff to anonymously voice their complaints and suggestions regarding the running of the restaurant. i was the first to slip in a problem note, my problem being that the instructions on the problem box should also be in english.
everybody began planning their piss-takes.
tjabu, one of the chefs, told me he was going to write all his problems in english so that the owners think they're written by me. he also told me he was going to make a complaint about there being a non-swedish speaking waitress so i told him i was going to complain about his daily sexual harassment and requests to squeeze my boobs etc.
jerry put in a complaint about each staff member: that jesper is cocky, that emil looks like a gay boy-band member, that tobbe has fucked up teeth, that angelica's boobs are too small, that cavalli is a red headed midget, that daffy is an onion and of course that jerry is sweet and charming and very good with guests.
they took down the problem box to review the comments and i don't think it'll go back up...
last night after work we all went out for drinks at wersens. although i vowed to not have any shots, to avoid getting shit-faced like last week, its just impossible to combat peer pressure... we had a really good night though, topped off by a visit to the kebab shop. why is it that kebabs (or falafel rolls in my case) are so internationally popular as the perfect drunken late night food..?!

waterfalls

jerry and i had our day off together yesterday and with the sun shining outside, we decided to go on a little trip to the waterfalls for a photography shoot.
it was such a fun little adventure, hiking up the icy hills, holding on to tree branches for dear life, sliding down the slippery cliffs on our arses and discovering spectacular ice caves. with my ugg boots and jeans soaking wet, we finally found the waterfall and it was breath-taking!
i had forgotten how nice it is to get out in nature! little adventures like that are what make you feel alive!

later on, we had a romantic dinner at 'grappa', an authentic italian restaurant in town that i'd never been to before. by soft lamp-light, over amazing food and wine, jerry and i chattered about the past, the present and the future and i was reminded of how lucky i am to have met somebody as wonderful as jerry... ♡

overnight trip!

free chocolates!
















❅ yay!!!! an overnight trip to ostersund!! feels like the big apple compared to åre!
we woke up early in the morning (dead tired from coyote ugly last night!), packed our bags and took off in the car, collecting a petrol-station breakfast on the way. jerry instantly spilled coffee all over his beige slacks, starting the day on a really good note.

we were so excited to get out of åre for the day that we pre-planned the day's itinerary:

appointment number one: eyelash extension touch up. these lashes are an expensive addiction and a life sentence, but i love them! while i was being lashed up, jerry waited in the beauty parlour like the good and dutiful boyfriend that he is. ♡

appointment number two (added in): H&M to buy new pants for jerry.♡♡

appointment number three: the jewellery shop, to get my engagement ring resized and engraved. i left it to jerry to decide what to inscribe and he chose 'jag alskar dig' ('i love you' in swedish)...what a sweetie! :o) ♡♡♡

appointment number four: check in to the same little hotel downtown where jerry proposed to me...... getting more and more soppy! ♡♡♡♡

appointment number five (spontaneous): stop in at the corner shop to buy lottery tickets for the jackpot. lately we've been brainstorming 'get rich quick' ideas and winning the lottery seems to be the only legal way. we chose all the lovey-dovey numbers; the day we met, our first date, the day we got engaged, etc....aaaaaw!!! the chinese woman in the shop for some reason took a liking to us and shoved a handful of chocolates at us as we left. ♡♡♡♡♡

appointment number six: see alice in wonderland at the cinema. i thought it was fabulous, jerry thought it sucked...then home to tv and a picnic dinner in the hotel room. ♡♡♡♡♡♡

cheap thrills

❊ i was so excited to receive my victoria's secret monokini and frilly top in the mail. the fact they were free made them even more exciting to receive!
the top is adorable, but unfortunately the monokini is way too small and makes me look like a string ham. plus, for some reason, the 'cheeky bum' brazilian style bottom doesn't look the same on me as it does on the model in the picture!!? ;o)

today's daffy's birthday. i bought him a cuban cigar as a present and slipped inside the packet some trick candies that taste like fish. we're waiting eagerly for him to pop the first one in his mouth. i also bought a fake pooh (thats soft and everything!) which ill slip in his bed tonight. aah, cheap thrills, cheap thrills.

i was supposed to start swedish classes this week, which i was so looking forward to, for something to drag me out of the boredom of this village, but this morning the school called me and apparently i have to be a swedish citizen to be able to do the classes...? WTF!? that doesn't make sense!... ah, it feels so hopeless, trying to learn this damned language...

happy saint patrick's day anyway! i learnt the whole history of saint patricks day in an irish history course i took at university, but like everything else i learnt at university, its gone with the wind... i wont be drinking st. patties beers, but ill be serving them- tonight is coyote ugly night again at beefalo!

amy winehouse

❉ aah, today im back to my normal self again! thank god. yesterday i felt exactly like amy winehouse.

i woke up fully dressed in the previous night's party clothes, including big costume jewellery, over-the-knee boots and stockings ripped to the shithouse. that fearful and clueless feeling washed over me as i realised i didn't remember the night and i turned over to jerry with my regular morning-after-party quote: 'oh no! what happened? did i embarrass myself?' .....(yes, was the answer in case you're wondering.)

the party had been in honour of jerry's friends from stockholm who are visiting and you'd think i might have tried to make a good impression, as his bride-to-be.... it's time i grew up and started exercising some self control!

luckily my colleague angelica had been equally as ridiculous, so we were in it together at work, moaning and groaning at ourselves the whole day and waiting for the first opportunity to go home to bed.

bridezilla

I am not a bridezilla!! (indignant face)... I'm just very excited, very far in advance. Jerry only called me that because he didn't like my idea of Marie Antoinette inspired bridal party attire. I don't mean I want his groomsmen to wear silver wigs and powder their faces white, I just like the pastel colour theme with big flowers, feathers and fans.
It's so much fun all this creative design and event organisation! Now I understand how girls get so obsessed with it. A huge special party that you'll only have (hopefully) once in your life, celebrating the most beautiful thing (love), where you get to dress up and be the centre of attention around all the people you care about most in the world. Of course we love it!
I'm enjoying every detail; table settings, guest list, hair styling, invitations, photography...the hours I've spent just browsing wedding dresses on the Internet! On her bridal website, Vera Wang asks me 'which type of bride are you; the traditionalist, the modernist, the sensualist, the minimalist, the exhibitionist....?' Hmmm.. Which shall I be?!.... 'You're a bridezilla' jerry assures me.
Oh, party planning is fabulous fun! Maybe I could become a professional wedding planner...? or maybe I shouldn't get too ahead of myself. It hasn't come crunch time yet!
If only I had a female housemate to throw my ideas at. Discussing bridesmaids colours with Jerry is like flogging a dead horse.
Can a bride do a mini tastefully?...Shoes or no shoes for a beach wedding? To give him some credit, Jerry did offer an opinion about my dress. When I suggested that I'd like some colour in my dress, he stated that 'his bride will be wearing white'. He also insists that a priest marries us but I insist I don't want any religious rubbish in my vows. And then there's still the tense issue of the surname change....

hair-dressing

❀ last night's after-work mission: to successfully apply professional-looking blonde highlights to jerry and jesper's hair.
tools: 1 packet hair dye, 2 plastic bags, 1 chopstick.

i was a little stressed about the mission since both clients are highly image-sensitive, vain to the point of narcissistic and a little bit psycho. plus it was very late at night.

with the plastic bags pulled tight over both heads, (cutting off circulation on jerry's), i poked holes using the chopstick and pulled the hair through, then smeared on the bleach. pretty simple really.... the biggest fear; of the highlights turning orange instead of blonde, was pretty unavoidable really... half way through the mission, with two tense clients looking like peter andre, we were already planning early morning supermarket runs for purple shampoo. jesper was nearly glueing his beanie to his head.

but miraculously, after a thorough washing and blowdrying, both heads came out looking fabulously sun-kissed, bonnie and blonde.....like a real pro job! i was quite impressed with myself! if waitressing doesn't work out for me, there's always hairdressing! ;o)

in the pre-wash anxiety, i was taken back to a home-job hair incident many years ago.... after home bleaching my own hair for several years, i decided, for a change, to apply a strawberry blonde tint, inspired by a drew barrymore picture in a magazine that i'd seen. considering myself a totally capable hairdresser, i decided to do the tint myself with a packet dye.

my hair turned dark mulberry purple and was so damaged, dry and brittle that whole clumps had even broken off in short tufts that stuck up in spikes on top of my head and needed waxing down. the colour was totally blotchy 1990's white trash and clashed so badly with my skin that i was really considering the shave for a cure.
i was actually in tears, sitting on my bed, with my three female housemates sitting with me for support, all with similar expressions of shock horror mixed with stifled laughter. my mum ended up paying for me to go to the most expensive hairdresser in melbourne to get it fixed and they made me sign a document saying they would not be held responsible if all my hair fell out!

funnily enough, that didn't stop me dabbling in hairdressing! i continued bleaching, dyeing and cutting my own hair, (and anyone else's willing) until this day!

dull

☂ the last two mornings we've spent in cosy cafes, eating swedish smorgasbord breakfasts and playing on our laptops, with the outrageous wind, rain and snow blowing a gale outside. what a shocking contrast the weather's been for me!... it's enough to make anyone sink into melancholy actually. luckily for me, jerry's been cheering me up by being so (atypically for men) enthusiastic about the wedding planning; what we'll wear, how we'll decorate etc etc.

how much fun to organise a wedding!!! every spare minute i find myself daydreaming about it! i'm on such a different planet that combined with the jetlag, i've become totally confused at work, forgetting orders or mixing them up and generally being a retard... all of a sudden, waitressing feels like rocket science. at least it's a break in the dull monotony!

i think everyone's feeling the monotony lately actually...jerry and tjabu, one of the chef's, attempted (but failed) to eat two cans of cat food for 1000 euros; daffy jumped out of our third-floor window into the snow on a blow-up boat and wrecked his back and then on sunday jesper and emil came in to work on their day off, ridiculously drunk, dressed as a prostitute and a superhero....

maybe its the weather. its enough to send anyone to the madhouse... i'm counting the days to thailand, that's for sure.

free blessing

♡ with all the lovely well-wishing about the engagement, i just feel absolutely warmed to my heart... and i need all the warming i can get here in cold åre, with the snow falling outside and me already homesick again for warm sunny australia....

my brothers gave me the sweetest engagement blessing: the new iphone application 'dreamwalk' that they invented and launched on monday, has really hit it off in the US with 1200 users already! on the treasure map in åre, they posted a prize just for us! we went in and found the prize and it was a ' free blessing' (worth 17.95 kroners!) with a lovely picture of us! i was so happy at the sweet thought of it that i nearly cried.

one more share in the 'dreamwalk' company has just become available so jerry and i have snatched it up straight away. i'm so sure this application is gonna be a huge success... it's already had great reviews. and i've said it before but i'll say it again: we will create a Russell dynasty! ;o)

jerry's still hassling me about changing my name to forsberg when we get married, even though i told him from the very beginning that i would always keep my own name. it's not a feminist statement, it's just who i am. but since it seems to be so important to him, i compromised and said i would consider a hyphenation.

and i'm finally going to start swedish classes. i always meant to but was just lazy... so now i'm finally gonna do it. i'm in the process of tracking down the teacher of the class in the town next to åre, and hopefully i can start asap. i'm doing it for love, but also for some mental stimulation! i think it'll be fun!

:o)

surprise!!!

✽ after 40 hours and 4 flights without sleep and with a horrible cough and cold, i arrived at östersund airport expecting to find jesper waiting for me. i'd already had a cry at stockholm airport when jerry told me he'd broken his leg, not so much in sympathy for him but because he wouldn't be picking me up. in my emotional state i'd even told him i wished i'd stayed in australia longer since i wouldn't be seeing him for a few more days anyway!

so i was over the moon when my baby was standing there at the gate with a big smile on his face, dressed (for some reason) in his best shirt and slacks. he told me his leg was only sprained, not broken and he was free to go after we picked up his things from the hospital.
we took the back entrance to the hospital rooms, which looked oddly more like a hotel, but i supposed the swedish medical system is pretty first rate...
jerry opened a door and i walked in to a room lit up with candles and scattered with rose petals. i turned around and jerry was on one knee, (not sprained at all!), asking me to marry him!
of course i said yes with a thousand kisses.

he'd been looking for rings but was too scared to choose one so the next morning he took me down to the jewellery shops to show me the one he'd liked the most.... and i loved it!!
it feels strange to wear a diamond on my finger. i never thought of myself as a diamond sort of girl, but jerry insisted that diamonds are forever and it definitely adds a girly touch to my stubby man hands.

as a side present he'd bought us both tickets to thailand in may so we can check out a spot for the wedding. we'd decided a while ago that if we got married it'd be nice to do it in thailand which is mid-way between sweden and australia. our friend toto owns a beach there and offered to help us organise a wonderful beach wedding...

so right now i'm pretty sure i'm one of the happiest girls in the world :o)

♡

the wedding

❀ what a fantastic wedding!!! so, so beautiful! it did rain as we arrived and i thought donna would freak out but she was very cool about it. it's supposed to be good luck anyway. we just moved everybody under the balcony and it was still a really sweet and intimate ceremony. after all my assurances to donna that she wouldn't cry since she'd be in 'stage mode', in the end i couldn't stop my own eyes from welling up at the sight of her coming down the aisle.... she truly was a beautiful bride.

there was such a lovely atmosphere the whole day and night, with everyone happy drunk and dancing the night away to sam and sam's live music. everybody loved my speech and i even got up on stage with donna to sing a song! in fact the whole wedding was more like a big show, with all the singers and performers we have in the family. my cousin dale was a hilarious MC, mum did her tina turner impersonation, my uncle did his famous head-stand, my cousin nick did his hilarious ad-lib 'la bamba' and the newest addition to the performing group was donna's little boy who got up with no shame whatsoever and sang his own rendition of 'fireflies'.

the highlight was the throwing of the bouquet. donna was under strict instruction to throw it in my direction, i bullied all the other single-girl competitors to stay out of my way with elbows and threats, and was still surprised and ecstatic that i actually caught it!! when i told jerry the next day, he said 'hmmm, that's scary'.... um...wrong response!

after the wedding we camped out on the reserve, surrounded by eucalyptus trees, koalas, kangaroos and kookaburras, as well as the hoards of flies, an ant-nest under my tent and a big nasty grey spider that chased me around while i tried to pack up the tent the next morning.

i was full of mixed emotions leaving. although i was missing jerry desperately, i also had such a lovely time that i would have loved to have stayed just a bit longer... the sunshine especially, i've never appreciated as much!

after nearly 40 hours of traveling, i'm finally at stockholm airport, waiting for my last flight and just found out that jerry has broken his leg skiing, is in the hospital and obviously isn't picking me up from the airport...in fact i may not see him for a few days! ....great. :o(