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TwentyThree
Closer to mid-twenties than the teenage years. Besides that nothing is different. Go figure ;)
Had an almost great birthday. Was awesome to go to pizza hut buffet with Kirsty and Kyle (Kyle is Kirsty's boyfriend and has same birthday as me).


We then went and saw "Unstoppable" in the cinema. Exciting film based on a true story (believe it or not). A run-away train through the state of Pennsylvania. It is down to the ever-so-cool Denzel Washington and Chris Pine to save the day. How will they do it and will they make it? Well that's for you to find out if you decide to see the film. Here's the trailer.

After gym (yes I went even on my birthday), I went to the train station to get my bike. I found it destroyed. Front wheel had been taken off and breaks destroyed! Who goes through all that trouble to mess with someone they don't know! I hate losing faith in the goodness of people.

The evening I spent baking cakes to bring to work the next day. I was very popular at work today. My cakes were awesome!!

A "Miserables" wintery weekend

Another great weekend has gone by and I know sit exhausted in my bed ready for sleep. Friday, Kirsty took me to see Harry Potter, finally! It was just like I expected. The acting remains not brilliant, the movie technique improves with every movie and each movie is darker than the previous one. Overall, I really enjoyed watching it.

After gym on Saturday morning I went into London and met up with a friend. A little stroll around in a park, a visit to the science museum (this is my kind of museum), food and then watched a musical. We had no plans of what to see, but since all tickets were riddiculously expensive, but there were available tickets for Les Miserables for £18, then Les Miserables was the choice for us! And a good choice it was. Absolutely loved it!!!! Fantastic songs. Really powerful show. I will give you a little taster bellow. The story, for those who doesn't know, is about a man who is an ex-convict and the life he lives to better himself. It takes place in France not too long after the French revolution and life is quite rotten for the people. There are still up-risings and one student "revolution" is part of the storyline. In the clip below the students are preparing their attack.

Sunday I met up with another friend and enjoyed a nice Tapas meal in London, before heading back to Suffolk. Travelling back was easier said than done. Sundays are horrible days for travelling in general, but this Sunday was particularly bad because the tube strike started at 6.30pm which means that London becomes impossible and you need to make sure to be out of there by then. Everyone seemed a bit confused so me and this Irish lady decided to just stick together as we were going the same way. We took tube, bus and train together. Travelling in total 3,5 hours (this should take roughly 1hour). It was one of those really funny random moments when you get to know a complete stranger. It made travelling a lot more interesting :)
Here's some pictures of wintery London. Enjoy...

Make-Over

Make-over ala' Blog! What do you think?

I'll be home for Christmas...

Ticket has been booked and paid for! I will be leaving England on the 15th to return to Swedeland. Now hopefully, somehow I will be able to fit all my stuff in my one suitcase (20kg) and one carry-on. Why is this always equally intense? Weighing your bag at the airport always feels like a lottery. BINGO is anything below 20.

Cambridge Winter Head

The UERC Crew on Saturday 20th November

I took Friday last week off work and went to Colchester. Met up with Rob for Lunch, went to Starbuck with Lizzy and then in the evening all the rowing girls went out for dinner at Zizzi’s (Italian). I had a gorgeous calzone pizza and cherry tart dessert.

Stayed the night at Emma’s and then went up stupid o’clock the next day. 6:20am all rowers met at the University and then we headed to Cambridge and the first race of the season. I first agreed to cox the men’s first VIII and then I rowed myself in the women’s IV+. Stroke seat. It was the first race ever for quite a few of the club’s members and everyone did really well on this cold, misty day.

Sunday I went to gym and then did some Christmas shopping in town. My sister is definitely getting spoiled this year that’s one thing that’s for sure!
Work is more interesting now. It is keeping me busy and hence not as bored. Only three weeks to go now. Minus 3 days holiday! So actually not more than 12 days!

I have that christmasy feeling...

Winter is here.
Stepped out the door this morning and it was a different outdoors world to yesterday. Everything was white and glistering like diamonds. My breath came out as a steamy cloud in front of me. A chill went down my spine. Cooold! I now feel in a really christmasy mood. As I was youtubing some Christmas songs, I encountered this awesome American acapella group called “Straight No Chaser”. All of their songs are really good and entertaining, but these two Christmas songs were the first ones I heard.

12 days


The Christmas Can-Can


Enjoy :)

Movie Review (2)

"Due Date"
Starring Robert Downey Jr. & Zach Galifianakis

eee

So here’s the delayed movie review I promised. Exactly one week ago I saw “Due Date” in Dundee with my friend Ida and her housemates. If you like “the Hangover” you will like this film. It’s easy and entertaining and will put a smile on your face. It takes no intelligence or effort to follow the plot. See it on a rainy day when all you want to do is relax and smile.
Peter (Robert Downey Jr) is on his way back to his wife in time to see his child being born when he has the bad luck to run into Ethan (Zach Galifianakis). This is the beginning of a long list of accidents and unfortunate happenings.

Favourite quote: “He enjoyed coffee. Now he is being enjoyed as coffee. Circle of life”

Trailer:

The Scotland Story

So as you know I spent the weekend up with my friend Ida in Dundee, Scotland. Here’s some stories and pictures I want to share with you.

Thursday evening after work and gym I took the train to London. Even though I gave myself plenty of time to find Victoria Coach Station, I still ended up feeling stressed. Go figure! That’s just part of travelling I suppose... As I was stepping on to the bus I had a plan: “Sit next to someone who has already taken the window seat, this way I can choose who I sit next to + get more leg room + can go to toilet whenever I want”. And it was a good plan... but what I did not take into consideration was that I had no power to affect who decided to sit in the row behind. A lady “size bigger” whose snoring was heard in the entire bus decided to sit there. I had my iPod on full volume and I could still hear her. As you might guess, that was a pretty much sleepless night. Boy was I happy to crash three hours at Ida’s room while she had classes!

In the evening we had a nice pub dinner, followed by watching the firework display in a park. I suppose you wonder why fireworks... Friday was “Guy Fawkes Night” aka “Bonfire Night”. For those non-English, I will leave Wikipedia to explain to you: http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_Night. We ended the evening with watching “Due Date” at cinema (I will review this film later this week).

Saturday we went to St Andrews. This name might ring a bell to some of you. It’s the location of a very famous Golf Club but also a really good university. It was really nice weather, but very cold. It was definitely noticeable that I had travelled 10.5 hours north. Did some shopping, touristing and eating, and then headed back to Dundee for a night out. Was a very good night.

Sunday lunchtime, another brilliant day in Scotland, we went to “Dundee Law” for Ida to show me the amazing view. It was really pretty as you can see in the pictures. You can’t really see how cold it is though. Very frisk! The rest of the day we spend strolling around Dundee Centre doing some shopping. Come evening it was time for me to head back to the country of St George. Guess the extent of my bad luck. In Glasgow the same “size bigger” woman stepped onto the bus and took the seat behind me AGAIN! I still managed to sleep bit longer due to exhaustion. Monday morning in London, I ended the weekend with a nice breakfast with Sophie before the last step of the journey... the very-much delayed train to Ipswich. The rest of the day was spent in bed.



Conclusion of Scotland experiences: funny sounding people (sometimes very difficult to decipher exactly what they mean), good-tasting tap water, cold, pretty nature, and they have their own funny-looking version of the pound. Would love to go back and see the Highlands (in Scotland) at some point. Thanks Ida for a wonderful weekend!

The Long Journey North

Tomorrow is a day of mixed emotions. On the on hand I can’t wait to get to go to Scotland and see my friend Ida in Dundee, but on the other hand I just can’t be excited about the 1,5hour train + 10,5hour bus journey (see earlier post for map of my ridiculous journey). My ipod better last me the whole journey! I'm sure it will all be worth it though. I will work the full day until 5pm, go to a BodyPump class, get on the train for 7:30pm, and take the bus from London 10:30pm... finally arriving in Dundee the next morning (Friday) at 9am (if on time!). For now, I just wanted to share this Michael McIntyre sketch about Scots with you. It’s awesome; he is one of my favourite comedians. Enjoy :)


I'm going to get my hair cut this evening. Will add picture later.

The good times

Who does not love the feeling of leaving work on a Friday afternoon? A whole weekend ahead. How we love those days – those two, way too quick days.

After leaving work Friday I headed for the gym. Time to do the gym challenge, but for real this time. The rules were a little bit more specific. No rest in-between the different steps of the challenge (if rest is taken this time will be added to the final time)

2km rowing (level 10 = highest). Result = 08:00.2
3km run. Result = 14:58
5km cycle (level 3 = very low). Result = 08:37
Final time: 31:35.2

To my disappointment, so far no other women have participated. Hopefully by the deadline 7th November, someone has challenged me.

On Saturday I first went to gym, then prepared to head into London. Although, in typical Emma-style I forgot to do the most important thing... make sure there was money on my card! Luckily I had enough cash to pay for the train. An emergency call to the bank of mum and dad saved my evening in London. I met up with university friend James. Dinner, some drinks and a funny stand-up comedy show made it a very good night. Not much for celebrating Halloween, but oh well! The picture below was taken with flash by mistake. I had turned the flash off earlier so no idea why it happened. How I wish it had not. The comedian made a funny remark on my behalf because of this.


Sunday was a day for relaxing. Walked to town and got some Xmas presents for my sister. Good to start early. Christmas will be here before you know it! Also got a really nice blue H&M dress for myself :) Yay!