Catherine’s Blog

Fragile Glass Doors

Originally uploaded by LPM

So, an era has come to an end. My little cosy little flat is empty of stuff and I have handed over the key. It certainly is much bigger without all the stuff in it but getting it to that stage was extremely stressful.
The past couple of weeks have been moving towards one point, that is the international movers coming into my home and packing up all my things. Before that there has been getting quotes and downsizing, lots of downsizing. The past few weeks has been quite tough emotionally because the fact this move could be very permanent has made its self felt. When in London last time there was always a plan to come back to Australia. My stuff was still here in storage and Joyce and Arnie had bits and pieces stored. I went through paper work that I have hoarded for years, cards from my 18th and 21st birthdays, postcards for dead friends, rowing medals and other memories residing in shoe boxes and envelopes. There was the hard choices of what to keep, what was worth keeping and dragging to the other side of the world. I have moved a lot in my life but this was by far the hardest move i have ever done on many levels. I will be forever thankful for family and friends that came over, sat through sorting and stopping me faff my time away, not getting things on because it was just too overwhelming. Poor Rikard spent a lot of time on skype going through clothes and paper work. My mother spent a Sunday keeping me on track. In the end though i did run out of time and pulled an all nighter just to get everything done for the movers coming in.
Having movers there was different to having them in London, in London I had maiko and mead, this made it easier. Here i had no sleep and stuff that was not going. Some things I did not want to go did go but very little, there was stuff left behind that I am undecided if that will go in a box via sea mail or will just be left behind. Watching other people pack my stuff was hard, and it had to try and distance myself about it all. I was grateful for the care they took with Grandma’s glass fronted cabinet. The one thing that breaking would also break my heart as well. Other precious items were treated with the same care, Nana’s sewing machine and my quilts.
Everything left and the ebay shoppers started arriving to collect my furniture, some of which I have owned since I was 16 years old and others my father made for me. A bit of wrench but in the end something that had to be done because taking them would have been expensive, a style and taste changes also Rikard and I need to forge our own space and having our own pieces and pieces we have chosen together will make for it being our place.
The next day was the start of big clean up, Joyce and Arnie came down to help as we put together a garage sale, cleaned where furniture had been and covering up those little marks that you manage to make when moving stuff. It was hard work but in reality the cleaning was not that difficult mainly just making sure that I got my bond back. The glazier arrived and took out the cat door, poor Tudor, the movers on Thursday and the general activity in the flat had really upset her. She was a little happier with camping on the floor in lounge.
Saturday was setting up the garage sale, which did not go as well as I would have liked. We got rid of some stuff but not as much as I would have liked. I organised someone to come the next day to pick up the leftovers. Mid afternoon Tudor was loaded into the car and we headed out to Caroline Springs. Tudor was not that impressed and made a lot of noise but settled when the door of her carrier was opened . She did not come out but was a lot less vocal. We arrived in Caroline Springs and Tudor was left to explore her new place. She has a much larger space than my flat and gave our new house mate a fright by not coming out from under the bed for a few hours.
I had headed out to have dinner with Joyce and Arnie. We were going to have Italian but there was a fancy dress party booked at the restaurant. We ate in a stone grill restaurant, very nice meal, we cooked our own meals on heated clay tablets. The meat was excellent, it would have to be considering the meat was being eaten straight off the heat.
Sunday was a busy day. Michael came over to our half way house and put in a cat door for Tudor. I am thinking of starting a business that specialise in temporary cat and dog doors for rental properties. There was furniture moved out as well and Tudor hid under the bed. Then I was off to flat to help with the floors before a having afternoon tea with Joyce, Arnie, MJ, Natalie and the boys. It was Mother’s Day. Later I headed back to the flat and waited for the final E bayers to pick up their winnings. I was left alone in the flat with a lone desk chair and the Laptop.
It was sad, I really liked the flat even though it was cold in winter and surrounded by mosquitoes in summer. I had lived alone when staying at Grandma’s but that was not my house. This time I had set it up myself, chosen the furniture and figured that I was there until I had found a place to buy. It was furnished in my style and cosy, little crowed but my place. Without furniture the place was shell, full of memories but a shell.
So, this could explain why I have not been around telling you my life that much? Eh. The emotional roller coaster has been pretty intense, very intense.

Swedish android

Originally uploaded by anglerud

Today is Rikard’s birthday, well, yesterday where I am and I may have gone all out with geeky presents! Having bought geeky presents in the past this was interesting because the aesthetic and programing language and out look are quiet different.
The first was a soft Andriod in Swedish colours, the photo is at Rikard’s desk. Next there was the IDE computer cable belt and last, the Tux, I don’t do windows T-shirt.
Sadly one package has gone missing.
I think he has had a good day but it is very hard to spoil a body from afar, I can not wait until we are in the same country for his Birthday.

I need to try and keep up with blogging, I have sunk into a bad habit of writing blogs when driving or in the shower, in my head and losing the motivation when sitting in front of the keyboard.

My life is not exactly that exciting.  I wish it was, I get up in the morning, switch on the PC and hope Rikard is online, chat to him and watch him smile and chat about his new job.  He is so happy, it is wonderful to see a man who is passionate about his job and bounces in his seat about it.  Then is drive to work, a long day with maybe a couple of small victories in it, morning tea saying good night to Rikard.  Come home, and pop onto the computer and try to get things done and chat to Rikard over Skype whilst he works.  That is the sum of my days, my weeks may have an outing but that is about it.  I am finding it quiet lonely and very habit forming, that going out it becoming increasingly worthwhile in my head.

Tonight I had dinner with Joyce, she had been down in Melbourne to see Black Swan.   We chatted about many things including the new plan for moving which involves the wonderful Mardi and invading her place.  The concept of shifting and dealing with Tudor and flying out and where Tudor should stay was doing my head in.  The juggling of it all was becoming a horrific nightmare.

Joyce is well, we have a couple of family things coming up.  Dad has his 70^th birthday present coming up, he is doing hot laps at the Phillip Island Grand Prix track.  Joyce says he is very excited which is good because we would like him to have a good time!

The following weekend I have wedding, in Gippsland, the first one since Rikard and I got married.

So, looping back to Rikard, his work have sent him to Zurich for six weeks to learn about the application he will be supporting.   I miss him, I have been going through photos of his trip here.  There are some lovely memories there, of course there is the wedding and then thee is scuba diving, swimming with the boys at Phillip Island, looking at the milky way, seeing little penguins,  riding the tram car restaurant with international guests.  Finding great whiskey bar, drinking posh gin, seeing live jazz, spontaneous food journeys and watching Tron.  Learning Swedish whilst driving and watching Rikard getting more comfortable around the camera, both activities giving me a lot of joy. The warmest memory is the chats at night as we allowed Tudor settle and caught up on our day.

It is not that long till I see him but there is so much to do before I go and missing Rikard a lot is not making the job easier.

We really did not have a honey moon, more a mini break so to regroup. We got up the next morning, had a spa in the huge black spa and packed up the debris that was spread all over the place. We may have been nursing wee hangovers so went in search of coffee and greasy brunch when we hit the road. Then it was on the way to Warrnambool.

Highlight of the drive was stopping in Whittlesea at a tea shop. It was really like dinning in your Grandmother’s front room. It was very funny but Rikard said the coffee was quite good which is a good thing. We continued the drive, singing to the driving music and generally just chatting. We went through Timboon. There are not many places that do single malt whiskey in Australia but the Timboon railway distillery does. We had been there before but we had to go back as Rikard really liked it and we bought more.

Then it was off to Warrnambool with a smug Whiskey toting Swede. We were staying in just a motel but it had a big bed, TV and shower. We had a nap and then headed out for dinner. We went to Bojangles, the pizza place. It was lovely, really top notch pizzas with amazing toppings and within walking distance of the hotel. I had pear, caramelized onions and walnuts whilst Rikard had pizza and blue cheese! We were thinking of finding music and more beer but we were tired and were old people and in bed before midnight.

The second day, Sunday was wonderful. We headed off to the dive shop. Yes, the dive shop. My treat for Rikard and the main reason for going to Warrnambool was for Rikard to go SCUBA diving. The smile on his face as he suited up said it all. He had Colin dove for about 45 minutes. I thought Rikard’s face would split he was so happy, he bounced and chattered away. To see him so happy was lovely.

It was midday and we had not eaten, we found a cafe that was serving all day breakfast. The servings were huge but hit the spot. Rikard had a good coffee and still smiled, a lot. We took the car, went out to the cliffs and had a wander in the sun. It was fun to watch Rikard weld the DSLR and get joy out of taking photos. We watch waves break, dragon flies dart and plovers swoop. It was a relaxed ramble in just lovely weather.

We needed a drink and found that the whalers had Wifi, live music and Prickly Moses on tap. We went home and dressed up and headed out for a posh meal, including seafood. I don’t eat fish and Rikard of course grew up on fish. We went to Breaker’s and I had lovely Duck and Rikard King Dory. It was a lovely meal. We then tottered around the corner to have a look in the Victoria Hotel before going onto the Warrnambool, well, that was the plan.

The Victoria Hotel is a typical country pub, deep fried bistro food, locals with their own chairs and a sign forbidding the serving of shooters. This last thing created an interesting moment when Rikard ordered a measure of whiskey, we convinced the new girl behind the bar that he was not going to shoot the Chivas Regal and we got a drink. There was a session music session happening in a room off the main bar and Rikard was surprised to discover I knew a lot of the words of the traditional stuff. We stayed until closing, it turned out to be a great night.

The next morning we headed back to Melbourne. The floods that started on the boarder had come down to the coast and some roads were cut. We stopped at cheese world and bought cheese. We both have a soft spot for cheese. We pottered around the little museum attached to Cheese World.

Then it was off again, heading to Colac on the detour. We crossed a creek that had burst its banks but not gone over the bridge. We stopped, took photos and contemplated the devastation that we could see. We got back on the main road and headed towards Colac. We were heading towards the Otway Estate, the makers of Prickly Moses. Very fine English and European style beers. We had a very nice platter for lunch before we went beer and wine tasting. It was the first wine tasting Rikard had ever done, he is more a beer and whiskey man.

Then it was back into Melbourne. I really should have taken more days but it was hard enough to get the days I did.

Last Wednesday Rikard and I did the trip to the airport again.  This time it has very difficult, we really loved being together and going back to waiting for the green skype icon to pop up has been really hard.  We both are finding difficult.  Tudor is missing Rikard as well, very clingy and wanting to chase me across the bed.  I think she misses the morning sleep ins.  I will admit to not missing the snoring.
Sunday was the hardest and there has been some moping in Melbourne and sitting on the couch feeling sorry for myself.  There are lots of little reminders of him and the bed smelt of him as well.  But come today and I have done more around the house and made inroads into some important plans.
We know this is going to be hard, there are lots of things to plan, visas, tickets, shipping and of course downsizing.  Selling things, like the car and white goods, all bought with the thought that I would be here for the long haul.  I bought a car for the next ten years, not 18 months.
There are some lights in the tunnel of the long distance relationship, and that is the new job.  Rikard started his new job yesterday.  He seems to be in love with it, he has a nerf gun, a linux work station and email with Currie as his last name.  He is almost as excited about the new job as getting married.  His excitement and joy are infectious.    I am so pleased that he loves it because it is one of the big reasons I am heading back to the UK without Rikard living here for and extended period.

Getting ready to commit

Originally uploaded by LPM

Time to commit the ceremony down into electronic words as it has almost been two week since it happened!
We stuck with the Swedish tradition of turning up together and that meant we spent the day together as well. Rikard really enjoyed watching the dress being put together as well, so there was no surprise in the dress but I am sure he preferred it that way.
So, to begin, we may have had a late night getting stuff done but I did take the day off and it was a nice slow start. We got up early and headed to Melton to get our hair done. We got up to rain and were pleased we had bought a golf umbrella as we loaded the car. That umbrella got a lot use.
Hair was relaxing, mine cut and tease and made look like it had been done, Rikard, cut and spiked. We headed off into the rain to pick up balloons and something for my hair because it looked great but needed something! We were in Spotlight picking up balloons when I found a gerbera, purple one. Done and dusted.
So then it was driving up to the wedding venue. We headed up, picking music and chatting whilst it rained. We were hoping the rain would clear up in the mountains. We rang the place we were staying in and hit are first major fail. She had lost the booking. Cue a small melt down in the car. This was not good, it had taken me ages to find a place that was cheap and would take us for just one night. The woman was very apologetic and called an agent that found us a room. We had no idea where the room was and there had been a flurry of panicked phone calls beforehand we would have stayed in a leaky caravan.
We arrived at the wedding venue, the other wedding in full swing and Kim was there to make sure things were under control. Mardi the wonder woman was also there having picked up the international guests Oisian and Yoke (pronuned Yok-ee). I handed over all bits and pieces that had to be done and then Joyce arrived. Along with the celebrant, Joyce, Rikard and I stood in the fine mist wondering if we could do it outside. In the end we decided to go with Kim’s experience and would make the choice at 3.45pm.
We finally dragged ourselves away from the venue and headed off to find the place we were staying. It was Loft in the Mill. We arrived to very friendly staff that were wonderful when I burst into tears because I realised that we had left wedding favours behind. They then calmly went around options and helped out to get the said favours to the reception. Huge call out to my neighbour, H, who went in and got them and put them in a cab. Then it was time to retire to the room. Well, it was a big surprise, not quite what we were expecting. The room was called the King Arthur suite, that should have given us a clue. It was all decked out in black, white and gold, slate floor, huge bed and black spa bath in the room. Yes, a black spa bath! With a great big sword on the wall behind it. Not quite our taste but at that stage we did not care.
We got ready and answered phone calls, next time I will turn my phone off because it got a little frustrating in the end. My dress fitted like a dream and had the silk rustle when I moved, Rikard looked handsome in his new shirt and waist coat. The combination of Currie women sewing was very good indeed. The bouquet was very cool, natives and succulents so very different and purple, green with Swedish blue and yellow. Rikard has a matching button whole.
We called Kim agree that the fact it had cleared, blue skies was a very good omen and we were going ahead with the outdoor ceremony.
We had to wait a quite a while for the taxi but we were only ½ hour late in the end, leaving a lot of room for chat on the for internet broadcast. We arrived to Kim and MJ who was the photographer for the day and a full complement of guests waiting on the grassy knoll. The walk down was narrow and a little hairy but my sensible shoes and study man stopped me having a spill.
We arrived to guests and Oisin welding the webcam and then over to the celebrant. We found out later that a lot of people where watching the webcast in their PJ’s in London and Sweden!
So we did the ceremony, we had written most of it and there was in English and Swedish. I spoke Swedish too! It was perfect, just the most wonderful thing ever!
After the ceremony there was the group photo and the nibbles came out and we were whisked away for photos. Kim chased the mobile photographer and fed us nibbles and bubbles.
We joined the group in the grassy knoll and had more bubbles before moving up to the reception area.
There was then food and company, the reception room was small but well laid out and lots of entertainment for the small children as well as the adults. The food was very good and it was lovely to see friends and family.
We had a break for speaks and Rikard, Joyce and I spoke. Joyce once again proved she was a wonderful speaker and I proved I should not adlib!
We finished food and then it was cake and dancing. People started to drift off, leaving Goths and international guests as the last ones standing. We were the final ones to leave, tired but very happy, good friends, good food and many, many special memories.

Thank you to the staff at Coonara Springs restaurant and Loft in the Mill for making our day great.

359/365 God Jul.

Originally uploaded by LPM

Christmas and New Year has been lovely and it is high time for a round up.
Christmas started on Christmas Eve, Michael had offered his place because it was mine turn and he felt the unit was a little small. So I found a goose and it was all systems go.
We arrived a little late but it was all good and we set about creating a feast. For starters we were having Swedish meatballs, using Rikard’s grandmother’s recipe and Rikard regaled us with the best Swedish chef impression including a ladle and lots of gesticulations. The topic of course was meatballs but articulated in Swedish with lots of hamming it up it was very funny.
After the meat balls Rikard made St Lucia buns, a traditional Swedish sweet bun that are bright yellow from the saffron in them. It was at this point that Rikard felt Christmas like, it had been hard for him to get in the mood in the summer time and the buns were Christmas for him.
The main meal of goose with carrots and parsnips in maple syrup, mashed potato, roasted potato and sweet potato and finished with green beans. Of course there were Joyce’s famous chock full Christmas Crackers, which meant bits and pieces flying across the room a number of times and lots of fun with the things that lit up.
After dinner there was the rolling out to the lounge area to open presents, which resulted in a large amount of wrapping paper and squeeing from most people. Rikard got a fine haul from all and liked his hand made apron that will complete his Swedish Chef routine. Joyce gave me a Loreto ring, with the school crest on it.
Then it was time for dessert, Michael had requested that Joyce make her chocolate mousse. I had forgotten how good it was, nom nom nom. I have no idea when she last made it but it was bloody good.
We pottered around after dinner, going through the setting things out for Santa, a carrot, milk and a wombat shaped Swedish gingerbread biscuit.

Joyce and Arnie headed back to Ballarat, Rikard and I following later. We got a little side tracked in Ballarat, heading up to Black hill lookout to see Ballarat by night. I had forgotten how pretty it is.
Christmas morning was a well deserved sleep in, we have been running around like crazy people. Rikard spent a lot of time exchanging gifts and I will say I was spoilt.
Joyce and Arnie were taking us to the Christmas buffet they have been going to the past few years. We had a great time, eating way too much and possibly finding a waiter who did not let our glasses empty. Rikard and I really enjoyed ourselves. We headed home and Rikard and I slumped into the recliners to watch “Nightmare before Christmas”, there was a large chunk of this missed as we napped. We then gave into the napping and headed to bed for a little bit. We just pottered around in the evening.
Boxing Day was braving the sales and picking up some bargains. We found excellent coffee which made Rikard’s day. We recreated a family photo which meant a lot of giggling as I climbed up on the lion!

The next day was an early start as I took Rikard and Joyce to see the Boxing Day Test Cricket Match. Rikard came back very sunburnt. Tsk Tsk.

Fast forward to New Years Eve, Rikard and I went to a Steampunk event and had a lovely night, it was like a mini White Mischief. There were some fantastic acts (and terrible one), the Plague Doctor burlesque, pirate band and the semi naked female fire eater were just wonderful. Astounding.
The night was a lovely finish to 2010. The rest of the weekend was spent pottering around and celebrating Ewan’s 5th birthday.
There will be a 2010 round up soon.

318/365 silky thoughts

Originally uploaded by LPM

Wedding dresses, I am not sure about others but I certainly had a strong idea what I was going to wear. Most people seem to know and have been thinking about since they discovered weddings and stuff. I had fabric stashed away and when I knew was going to get married I asked my mother to bring it out.
Second time is quite different, I had no idea, I had my dress of my dreams, I was so pleased with it and I all I knew was I was not going to wear a suit. I have had some people suggest a suit because it is the second wedding, goodness, why? I am not 60! I knew three things, it was not going to be red nor white and there would be no corset this time. My favourite corset maker is in the UK and the time frame was too short. I also am very wary of it being the same as the last dress. So really I had no idea. I said as much to Rikard and it was him who suggested purple. That was all I had, I chatted to my favourite designer and she suggest a renaissance gown floating layers. I realised later with the layers even in light fabrics it would be hot. With the wedding being in Summer not melting is quite important.
Yesterday Joyce and I went shopping. With no real idea besides purple. I had been in Ballarat the night before to attend a lovely dinner to make her a life member of Lisa Lodge. This is a charity that helps out abused women and their families as well as young people in trouble. She has worked hard for this charity for the past ten years. It was amazing to listen to these people talk about my mum, she is an impressive woman.
We drove down to Melbourne in rain and mist, it was a horrid drive and little scarey at times but we got down there and dropped off some papers before hitting the shops.
Joyce and hit five different shops, at the second we found the fabric. Dupion silk, purple shot with black, it was not too heavy in colour but a dark rich purple. The downside? Only 2.6m of fabric. Not near enough for a dress. So off went, armed with some other suggestion of shops.
We ended up in one of the more posh fabric sellers in Melbourne, lots of brides picking out white satin and lace. I felt very out of place in my layered black dress, striped blue and black socks with doc mary janes, looking for a dark purple dupion silk. The fellow there was very nice though.
We found a little shop, stuffed with silks of all sorts. They had something similar, not as much red in the purple but still a dark purple shot with black. We left and tried a couple of stores but in the end we will go back to the small silk shop and see if they have enough fabric.
We also sat down and looked at patterns and shapes for the dress. I am a lot over weight at the moment and that has made the choice quite hard. There is little out there designed to make the short and squat look all the less so. Hard cold facts. We have found this pattern, I think. We have found something that looks like it will work. I am not willing to draft a pattern myself, my skills are too rusty.
So, we are at the start of this process, a little daunting but it is a start.

306/365 Looking at paper

Originally uploaded by LPM

I do like creating things and wedding invites seem to give me an odd little thrill. Rikard and I spent a long time discussing paper and size. We had chosen a color scheme of purple and green earlier, with Rikard asking for natural colours.
I spent a couple of delicious hours scoping our detail paper to use with cream card stock, discovering the joy of scrap booking paper. I found lots of different styles, including some with steampunk themes and others in the purple and green colour scheme. It is interesting discovering new things about your partner, mine was that Rikard has definite ideas about colour and design. His Scandinavian roots show as he dismissed a number for being too busy. In the end he was drawn to dragon flies and the original paper did not work well but I went in search of dragonflies and found the perfect one. It is purple and green and the dragonflies have intricate patterns that have a Victorian feel to them. It is really a Catherine and Rikard design, deceptively simple with layers of detail.
The next bit was a photo, photography is important to me and a photo seemed to be a good idea, a photo of us but there are not many of them. So I had a poke around and there were some nice ones but one stand out one but it was dark, we were pink and looking haggard. Enter Natalie, the retouch wizard, she brighten, smoothed and de pinked and there was a beautiful photo.
It took forever to find someone to print them well, I almost went mad finding someone who could do it, and found a lovely lady in a pharmacy who did a wonderful job.
So, cue sticky fingers and proof reading. All of the wedding related stuff is bilingual so there was a flurry of emails of the invite being translated into Swedish, rewritten in English and translated again.
Tie it up in pretty bows and it is done.

311/365 Little brother

Originally uploaded by LPM

Wedding celebrants are an interesting breed, they seem to gather in lots of nooks and crannies on the web offering lots of interesting bits and bobs. But we were looking for something different, a Swedish speaking celebrant.
We started with the Swedish church in Melbourne but they do not do secular ceremonies and both being atheists a church wedding was out of the question. So the hunt was on. The priest suggested the Swedish embassy and I duly wrote. The answer was returned in Swedish. There was one Swedish speaking celebrant in Australia, Stig, and he is based in the Gold Coast. I was not beaten yet and began to look for Scandinavian language speakers. I place a request on a web site and got lots of answers, people willing to learn a few phrases and others suggesting a translator. They were all missing the point, it is quite important to Rikard to have the Swedish but not that important when he speaks better English than me. Scandinavian language search was proving fruitless.
So, we moved onto Dutch speakers. We found a couple and we sprung a conference call to the celebrant and she listened to Rikard speak Swedish and it seemed to work. Dutch is quite similar to Swedish and the written language looks similar. Well, that is what Rikard says and I am inclined to agree with him, he is the expert on that in our relationship.
We are yet to meet Gemma but she has been helpful with paper work and hopefully we will have a wedding that is styled for the pair of us, incorporating both Swedish and Australian customs.

Other things in my life, summer is well on it’s way and Michael had a birthday. The main focus for this week has been an invite list and wedding invites.