Moshiken

Nail art

2012-01-09T06:43:00.000+08:00

My first try!

Home again!

2011-12-14T03:54:00.000+08:00

Landing comfortably in a cold but very green Sweden.
Met some new funny faces at my mothers

Some old ones had grown even more...

And we picked mushrooms, kantareller, in December!

Indonesian funeral

2011-12-06T01:42:00.001+08:00

We where very lucky because a wealthy family held big funeral in Ubud just before we left. In Bali a funeral is not supposed to be sad but full of festivity and people having fun. First they carried two big statues and also the caskets through the city to the sound of musicians playing and a lot of people had come to watch the show.

After that it was time for burning! They put the corpses in the statues and then they start to burn them. They use a special gas powered tool to make it very hot and cremate the bodies. They also burn all the other decorations and things that they carried through the city

Indonesian wedding

2011-11-30T05:19:00.000+08:00

We got a surprise on our way to dinner tonight! A wedding was happening nearby and they put up an orchestra in the street and there was a lot of dancing going on in the traditional Indonesian style.

Kintamani Volcano and Water temple

2011-11-25T04:57:00.000+08:00

We packed up and moved to Ubud and from there we took a tour to Kintamani Volcano. We went really early in the morning to see the sunset.

Smoke rising from the volcano

Toyo and Me + Volcano in the background

Afterwards we where pretty tired but we still had a lot more to see! First we went to a farm where they make the most expensive coffee in the world. Luwak coffee, that is eaten by the Luwakk animal and then processed, coming out the other way and then cleaned and roasted and sold for $100-$600 a pound according to Wikipedia.

making coffee

We also visited the water temple that is one of the biggest temples in Bali

And the smaller temple of Kungung Kawi

Rice terraces on the way back

Tulambenn Nudibranch Special

2011-11-20T05:49:00.002+08:00

So, reading my previous post you might wonder... where are the nudibranch? Answer, they are everywhere! I spotted and photographed over 30 different species in just a few days, here's some of my favorites

Chromodoris coi

Chromodoris hintuanensis

Nembrotha milleri

Nembrotha yonowae

Phidiana indica

Coral garden and Tulamben wall

2011-11-19T01:00:00.000+08:00

Tulamben wall was very beautiful but we didn't see anything special apart from this funky looking flounder

The coral garden was a bit more interesting, they ad a artificial reef and Toyo found some ribbon eels!

Ribbon eel

And this is how a real woman carry tanks! I need some practice....

USS Liberty Wreck, again!

2011-11-18T04:14:00.000+08:00

Since we got such a cool dive yesterday we went again early morning. Toyo wasted almost all our decompression time to look for the pygmy seahorse at 26m... but he found it again!
We where also lucky to see the Napoleon fish and Humpback parrot fish.

I realized there where no pictures of the actual wreck in my previous post so here's some wreck pictures

USS Liberty Wreck, Tulamben

2011-11-17T11:25:00.001+08:00

The USS Liberty wreck is just amazing! We had a local guide from Tulamben Wreck Divers for our first plunge and it was very well invested money. He showed us all the good spots and I saw a lot of new exciting things, including a incredible cute frogfish, just about 1cm big.

Pink Frogfish

Robust Ghostpipefish

Pygme Seahorse

Longnose Hawfish

Amed diving

2011-11-16T22:55:00.000+08:00

We spent two days diving in Amed Ghostbay. A easy dive accessible from the shore and tank hire was about 5$, cheap, cheap diving! And pretty good too, saw heaps of ghostpipefish and other funky things.

Ornate Ghostpipefish

Honeycomb Moray

Huge Stonefish

Lionfish

Leafy Scorpionfish

Pineapples

2011-11-14T19:42:00.001+08:00

Did you know that pineapples grows like this?!

I didn't, i thought they grew on trees, and from the other end!!!
My image of pineapples is forever changed. I'm pretty upset about this...

Anyway, We now moved to Amed in north Bali and managed to get pretty fancy accommodation. Outdoor bathroom, two floors and a big bed!

Bubblegum Nudibranch

2011-11-12T01:14:00.003+08:00

Toyo found it when we snorkeled at Gili Islands, cute!

Sagaminopteron psychedelicum

Muck dive 2!

2011-11-10T00:15:00.001+08:00

Both me and Toyo loved the divesite Telluk Nara (see last post) so much we decided to go back a second time. Again, we saw lots of cool stuff including the legendary Blue Ringed Octopus!!!

Blue Ringed Octopus

Waspfish

Zebra-snout Seahorse

Muck dive!

2011-11-08T21:57:00.000+08:00

We went diving off a pier in Lombok today, lots off interesting stuff! The site is called Telluk Nara, if you like small critters don't miss this divesite, it's just a short boatride away from the Gili Islands.

Ceratosoma tenue

Ambon Scorpionfish

Yellow shortfin lionfish

Ornate Ghostpipefish

Gili snorkeling

2011-11-06T22:55:00.004+08:00

I was amazed how much things you can see just snorkeling off Gili Trawangan. We saw lots of reef fishes and also found scorpionfish and nudibranchs!

A part of the newly built artificial reef is in the background

Very pretty nudibranch egg

...and a pretty sluggish nudibranch parent!

Recycled fashion

2011-10-28T22:14:00.002+08:00

I travel around a lot so that means I can't take many clothes with me and my wardrobe is quite limited. Also, me being me, I have a problem with throwing away perfectly fine clothes. So instead I tend to remake them when I have time!

The top is a recycled print from a T-shirt that I just loved but it finally got too worn out. But the print was still ok so I just put it on another top instead. And the skirt was previously a dress that got torn and then I put some extra frills at the bottom. Recycled from another top of course!

Stomach sick!

2011-10-27T20:03:00.000+08:00

Spent all the day on potty! Horrible, horrible experience... Toyo took picture. Me not happy.

Gili Trawangan

2011-10-22T19:03:00.001+08:00

We moved from the tourist inferno of Kuta to the much more relaxed Gili Trawangan, a small island off Lombok.
I really like the place, no motorbikes just horse carts running up and down the streets.

Kuta, Indonesia

2011-10-14T00:07:00.000+08:00

So we survived the flight and managed to squeeze our luggage under 30k each with all the diving gear (barley!).
I had pre-booked a room thru Secret Hotels and we managed to get it pretty fancy! Unfortunately we couldn't stay in the Deluxe room we got booked in so we stayed in one of the even more fancy villas the first night. I think we must have gotten a double king size bed at least!

Darwin

2011-10-01T18:25:00.001+08:00

In the morning we went to see some more waterfalls in the national park and also fond this beautiful snake curled up i a tree.

After that we drove to Darwin. We didn't really do much there to be honest, just relax and fixing things like visas and selling the car and so on. I liked Australia but I think I like Asia better... it's smaller and cheaper and a lot of people don't speak English but it feels easier anyway. I'm gonna miss the kangaroos and the beautiful stars and a lot of fantastic friends left in Exmouth.

Long drive

2011-09-29T17:40:00.002+08:00

After driving almost 900km from Kununurra we arrived in Litchfield National Park in the late afternoon. We used the last of the light to have a swim in the wonderful pools of Wangi Falls. It was wonderful to stretch the legs again!

A curious wallaby came by to say goodnight

Bush fires

2011-09-28T19:26:00.001+08:00

When we drove up to Darwin the smoke was thick in some areas and the land burned black. This is because at this time of the year the Australians sets fire to their country on purpose. They burn certain land areas to fertilize the land (some aussie fauna demands a good bush fire to sprout new seeds) but also to prevent really big fires from happening. The burning creates variation in the land and makes natural fire gates, thus the fires is restricted to relatively small areas and the vegetation can recover more quickly.

Windjana Gorge

2011-09-27T18:02:00.002+08:00

Finally some crocodiles! Those small freshwater ones are quite harmless but might nibble your toes...

Then we made our way through Tunnel Creek, a big tunnel under the mountain. It was pitch black inside and we had to wade through waist deep water at one point!

As a proper cave, it had loads of bats hanging from the roof

On the way back to Derby our guide showed us some bush-tucker food straight from the tree. Those pretty flowers gave us yellow tongues!

Broome

2011-09-24T17:49:00.001+08:00

This has to be the pearl capital of Australia, shops are selling pearls everywhere. Everything from quite cheap priced ones (as pearls go) to the ridiculously expensive sort! Silly me didn't take any pictures thou...
But I took a picture of the sunset at the beach, it's supposed to be the best beach and prettiest sunset. It was a really nice beach and the sunset was pretty but I don't know if I would have said the best one...

Dales Gorge, Karijini

2011-09-22T20:14:00.001+08:00

Dales Gorge, early, early morning

Easy steps to cross the water. Yesterday we had to wade through waist deep one!

Lots of small flowers growing everywhere by the water banks

They got some very big rocks, right Toyo?

Karijini

2011-09-21T10:35:00.004+08:00

We woke up early in the morning again and started exploring. The view from Hancock gorge is amazing but it was even more fun to explore it at the bottom! Because it was so early, it was only me and Toyo and a couple of cute lizards.

We also visited a couple of other gorges before setting up camp at Dales camping ground, but the first one was by far the most impressing. Maybe because it felt like we where all alone having our own little adventure. Before it got dark we took a walk to the Fortescue Falls and had a swim in the Fern Pool.

Last day in Exmouth

2011-09-20T17:57:00.003+08:00

Before leaving we had to have a look at the famous cape range national park. We woke up early in the morning to see the sunrise and it was a brilliant move. The sunrise wasn't that impressing but we saw LOTS of kangarous on the way and when we came down to yardie creek nobody else was there! We had it all to ourselves and some of the wallabys (small kangarous) came up really close.

They are so cute!!!

The fig tree cave

2011-09-19T14:34:00.004+08:00

Me, Toyo, V, Wez and Nikki visited the legendary fig tree cave in Exmouth today. It was awesome, the way there was a long rocky 4-wheeel drive and we saw lots of wild(?) goats on the way. We found the cave and climbed down a narrow rope ladder.

Inside it was dark except for the light coming out of the opening, filtered between the fig trees leaves. We turned on the flashlights and there was a big cave there with stalactites rising up from the floor. We even found some baby bats.

The rest of the gang

Last days diving

2011-09-16T20:47:00.000+08:00

I saw a new nudibranch species today. Aren't they just beautiful?

And this Sailfin catfish is not found anywhere else than on the Ningaloo reef. We see them often but they are so hard to get a picture of.

The day I chased a 1.5 meter lizzard

2011-09-15T18:12:00.005+08:00

This big lizzard walked straight in thou the front door when I was in the shop!
I couldn't believe it when he poked his big head in and then strolled inside, smelling the atmosphere with his long tongue. I just stared while he purposefully made his way to the back room with all the diving gear. Then I remembered the kitten I saw inside there earlier in the morning! So I grabbed a broom and thought "oh, no you big lizzard! You won't eat any kittens while I'm here". To say I chased it out might be a bit of an overstatement. I more carefully walked after it, keeping he broom between us. Thankfully that 1.5 meter lizzard was, like most animals, scared of humans. It all went pretty good until it hid under a couple of eskys, didn't want to move and started hissing at me when I came closer with the broom. But luckily it soon gave up and continued to stroll out of the shop again and then hid under one of the dive centre busses. Lurking.
That was one thing I never thought I would do in my life!

The sad thing is that Toyo actually saw it hunting and catching a kitten a couple of days later. He tried to save it but the lizzard had already bitten it and then the kitten went hiding where we couldn't get to it. I don't think it survived.

Me and my shiny suit

2011-09-02T18:15:00.001+08:00

Did I ever mention that diving here has gotten pretty cold, sometimes down to 23 degrees! So no, this is not a rave party just my diving suit, + the sunnies cause everybody knows you look cool in them...

A spooky home

2011-08-28T22:20:00.003+08:00

Toyo discovered a big turtle skeleton at Cod spot, Muiron Islands today. Do you see the little snapper hiding under it?

Whale song

2011-08-27T12:13:00.001+08:00

The humpbacks are in the gulf now which means that we see them on the way out to the divesites everyday!
And there is lots of beautiful whale singing going on under the water too. It is quite amazing.

The lighthouse

2011-08-20T18:54:00.002+08:00

We drove up to the lighthouse to watch the sunset. With us a bottle of good aussie wine and some cheese and crackers. No better way to spend an evening!

Emu chikens

2011-08-09T21:10:00.004+08:00

Mother Emu and babies are taking a stroll down by the Seabreeze resort.

Tilly, Dora, BEACH!

2011-08-09T17:19:00.000+08:00

We are babysitting our manager Kristin's house and pets (two dogs and three cats) while she's on vacation. We take a walk with the dogs on the beach almost everyday. Besides the cats purring, it's the best part of babysitting them!

Den här är speciellt till dig mamma!

Manta rays!

2011-06-30T09:15:00.000+08:00

First time I saw them close up today!

We had a number off them swimming around the boat and even if we didn't see them on scuba it was the perfect end of the tour to do a snorkel with them! They played around the boat and where amazingly beautiful, our skipper reckon it was eight of them swimming around. I could have stayed in the water all day with them...

Nudibranches in Exmouth

2011-06-01T22:58:00.005+08:00

I keep finding more and more of those beautiful creatures every time I dive here!

The variety of them is stunning! If I find a new species to add to my photo album, that makes my whole day. The day the last those two pictures where taken I was dancing around the boat because the second divesite, "whalebone", on the Muiron Islands trip was crawling with them! I must have seen at least 50 nudibranches and got a whole of nine new pictures to add to my collection. It was an amazing dive.

Humpbacks!

2011-05-22T12:08:00.006+08:00

They are here!

My first time seeing humpback whales, they came quite close to the boat and cruised alongside us all the way back to the anchorage. It was another great day at work!

My first Whale Shark!

2011-03-22T15:51:00.000+08:00

Diving again!

2011-03-20T22:52:00.002+08:00

We are finally back on track working in the Exmouth Diving Center. Been out on the boat, seen some awesome new nudibranch and lots of sharks! And we also have a room to live in so now we're just waiting for the season to start up so we can make some more money and then life's going to be pretty sweet.

Exmouth Navy Pier

2011-03-18T21:49:00.020+08:00

The Navy pier is rated as one of the top ten dive sites in the world. I'm not sure I would agree, it's a great dive site for sure but I expected a bit more...

Wobbegong

Nudibranch

Batfish (photo taken by Toyo)

Cod

We also saw a lot of other things like white tip reef shark, octopus, some HUGE cod and a lot of schools of fish.

Exmouth

2011-02-24T07:53:00.014+08:00

After being stuck in Carnavon for almost a week due to cyclones and flooding we could finally make our way up to Exmouth. There was still some water on the ways but not very deep.

In Exmouth we where the first to check into the caravan park after the cyclone struck and everybody had to be evacuated to safer accommodation. There are so many parrots here!

Monkey Mia dolphins

2011-02-17T20:44:00.000+08:00

The dolphins where amazing but there was a bit too much people around. I expected it to be more fun stuff to do but actually there's not a lot. Fun, but not really worth the extra couple of 100km driving.

Shark bay

2011-02-16T21:00:00.001+08:00

No sharks, just Emu walking beside the road

And a whole beach of seashells!

It's pink!

2011-02-15T19:55:00.004+08:00

A pink lake!

At the campsite in Kalbarri, I'm exhausted after driving the car for the first time in almost two years!

Going north

2011-02-14T09:04:00.013+08:00

Before heading north we went to Perths aquarium, AQWA, and Toyo could finally see his leafy seadragon. Unfortunately it was too difficult taking a good picture of it... So now we're off to exmouth after having some good rest and proper beds thanks to Nick and Pete who let us borrow our old room for a couple of days!

The road is silly easy to drive but very boring and sometimes beautiful for miles and miles.

Apple fun park!

2011-02-08T22:23:00.003+08:00

On the way home we stopped by Donnybrook, people here where paying 200$ a week to camp in their own tents outside a hostel that arranged jobs. With waiting times up to three weeks or more with no guarantee...
That kind of says everything about the work situation down south. So we decided to try our luck up north instead. They had a pretty fun playground thou!

Albany

2011-02-06T16:46:00.003+08:00

We didn't find any farmwork but a pretty funky pelican!

New heights

2011-02-05T22:07:00.008+08:00

As we didn't get enough of high scary places yesterday we went to the Valley of the giants. A walk 40meters up among the treetops that actually weren't that impressive after climbing the Pemberton tree the other day but still good fun.

Happily back on ground level again!

Lake cave and scary stuff

2011-02-04T23:20:00.002+08:00

WARNING!
Following pictures are taken with me being up at a 62m high tree climbing on iron pegs with limited security and are not recommended for viewing by my mother for obvious reasons.

What the hell where we thinking?

Valentines day

2011-02-03T23:15:00.004+08:00

A perfect evening with gorgeous sunset, wine and cheese at Moses Rock.

Busselton Jetty

2011-02-02T23:07:00.007+08:00


The gate was open so we sneaked in and managed to walk almost all the way out thanks to some nice gentlemen that kindly decided to pretend we weren't there.

Waking up on the beach

2011-02-01T22:37:00.003+08:00

A ten meter walk from the tent...

After that a stroll in Leeschenalut National Park, we saw a lot of kangaroos!

And too many spiders, Toyo had to take this picture for me...uuuh...

Penguin island

2011-01-31T17:31:00.001+08:00

They are so cute!!! I want one, I wonder if it's possible to adopt one from the recovery center?

Or maybe I can catch a wild one if I hide and wait?

A very happy wild penguin

Sunset from Preston beach, me, Toyo and Marianne had a awesome start on the road trip. The locals had a movie night and we got free barbecue and slept on the beautiful beach! And we saw our first kangaroos!

Rockingham wreck trail

2011-01-27T22:50:00.001+08:00

Australia day

2011-01-26T21:40:00.010+08:00


Marianne, that hired my apartment back in Sweden is now also traveling in Perth! It was great fun to see her and celebrate Australia day together, it's a small world.

Seadragons!

2011-01-23T13:42:00.000+08:00

We finally found them! They're awesome!

Diving Rottnest island

2011-01-07T20:10:00.001+08:00

Diving in cold waters = loads of seaweed

Diving the oil rigg

2010-12-27T09:44:00.002+08:00

Outside Lancelin on the western Australian coast lies the oil rigg Key Biscayne that sunk and turned upside down creating a amazing dive lying on 20-45meter depth. Diving Frontiers took the staff diving there for x-mas and I could take Toyo with me as well! It was awesome!

Starting with a straight drop down to 40 meters

Big marble rays where cruising the sunken rigg

Cameras make safety stops a lot less boring!

IKEA

2010-12-24T08:12:00.000+08:00

A little bit of Swedish taste and traditions, Merry Christmas!

Lussekatter och kanelbullar!

2010-12-19T16:06:00.000+08:00

Me and Toyo baked a lot today! I used this (Swedish) recipe as a base for both the cinnamon rolls and the saffron buns, so I used all the measures from there and just split them into two different bowls. Half an egg each, half the sugar for the cinnamon rolls and no saffron. Then I used this (Swedish) recipe for the filling and baking times etc. for the cinnamon rolls.
And they turned out delicious! Very full and juicy. Maybe I have to bake again soon, it's Christmas after all.

Christmas came to fast and at the wrong time

2010-12-15T10:25:00.002+08:00

Time passes so quickly here. Not because we do a lot but because everything is just not going as we planned.
We both got jobs that's been promising both Toyo and me more working hours... but it looks like that's just not going to happen. We tried to apply for other jobs but most jobs here require some experience or are simply more than 1hour away with about three bus changes (this always seems to be the case no matter where we move because Perths communal transport system is the worst in the world.)
The lucky thing is that we have a nice house to live in and at least we make enough money not to spend money but it's not a lot over for saving. I'm ok thou, having saved a lot in the past. I would borrow Toyo some money but he don't really like the idea...

We are thinking about our next step, it will most likely include buying a cheap car because that would make a lot of things easier.

Update: I just got three more days work so maybe I'm gonna get a bit more busy at least!

Go wikileaks!

2010-11-29T19:40:00.000+08:00

The politicians gets a taste of their own medicine. Just as EU is discussing the ACTA agreement of saving all citizens phonecalls and emails in search of "terrorists" wikileaks publish document after document with sensitive diplomatic conversations.

I guess the politicians just have to do what they want all ordinary citizens to do, keep their conversations of phone and off line to be private.

Lunch

2010-11-28T16:36:00.000+08:00

Toyo made swiss rösti for lunch today. He says he can't cook. I think he lies.

Update

2010-11-27T20:15:00.000+08:00

So this is a fast forward about what happened since we came to Perth;

Toyo ended up working in a sushi restaurant because the first dive shop (Perth scuba) wasn't serious and didn't intend to pay him a decent salary (less than he earned in Thailand!!!) . He tried for a second dive shop as well but they could only give him a divemaster job. So that kind of sucks but we stay here for a while and save some money anyway.

I somehow got a job in a diveshop as retail staff/divemaster without trying very hard at all for some reason. I mostly fill tanks all day and rarely go diving but I only work part time and the days go fast and I learn a lot new things about equipment so I'm quite happy. I already know how to do hydrostatic testing and by the end of this I hope I'll be able to fix most minor equipment problems which would be great!

And also I love that Toyo is working for a sushi restaurant because he brings small bits home <3
I almost feel a bit bad because I think it worked out perfectly for me but it wasn't really what he wanted... but anyway. Maybe next place we go to will be the opposite, you never know

new glasses

2010-11-25T22:22:00.000+08:00

My eyesight is getting worse again, ten years with nothing happening and suddenly I felt my eyes got tired all the time so I did an eye checkup. Gone down another -1 on both eyes apparently.
The good thing is that I got a reason for buying new fancy glasses!

And with the dollar being super cheap I ordered them all the way from the states and it worked excellent. So here's my new favorite site for buying glasses and lenses; http://www.coastalcontacts.com/

Australian chaos

2010-10-27T20:10:00.000+08:00

We just found out about a little nice thing called tax-numbers and applied for them, found a place to stay, our bank cards, one pink and one black are under construction, arriving next week, jobs are going so and so...

Toyo found a job in diving but they want him to work for free as an assistant a whole month!!! Which of course is totally ridiculous so now he's looking for other jobs as well. Maybe we won't stay in Perth as long as we thougth. He's not happy about it and I understand him. Anyway they don't even have the seadragons here that we want to see, they live in really cold water south of here so maybe we actually have to go there and pay for diving to spot one of them at least once. Neither of us want to work in a water temperature below 20+, it's too damn cold!
I haven't actually started searching for jobs yet, I'm trying to catch up with my studies a bit and finish some of my sewing projects. I'm still good for money so I can take it easy and if I need some later I just find a job then, it's easy enough I think.

I have A LOT of pictures from Japan and Ayers rock and I'm gonna but them up here as soon as possible, they're gonna be put before this post time wise because I want the dates to be correct. So be patient my dear readers and have a look below. Maybe something new will pop up soon.

Ayers rock

2010-10-17T17:58:00.002+08:00

Last day, sunrise at the rock

Some ancient monster turned to rock

The water hole but no animals come here anymore

Ayers rock is really quite a sad story. Tourism and disrespect has scarred it bad, a lot of people climb the rock not knowing or caring about how holy it is for the aboriginals. And as there is no toilet facilities close by a lot of people find them selves forced to do their morning business at the top of the rock after the two hours climb. Thus the waterholes have been contaminated.
Most of the paintings have also been more or less destroyed and even thou people die every year climbing the rock a lot of kids go up there too. They go there, do the climb, go somewhere else without caring about the stories. I don't see the point, without the stories it's only another big rock.

Kata tjuta

2010-10-16T16:35:00.001+08:00

Next day we went to Kata tjuta, a series of domes close to Ayers rock.

It looks like there should be some small furry creatures living inside those holes

Flowers in desert

Lovebirds? I got back last of everyone trying to take a picture of those cuties

Our driver hit the breaks hard while driving, ran out of the car and I thought we hit a person or something. It turned out that she spotted this little funky lizard on the side of the road.

Sunset at Ayers rock

Kings canyon

2010-10-15T22:55:00.000+08:00

We ended up on one of those tour things including everything, a bit expensive but well worth it! It wouldn't have been the same walking around by ourselves without somebody explaining all the amazing facts and stories about the place. It was a long drive to the Kings canyon the first day and because it had rained loads the day before we even had to get out of the buss and push it through water one time!
And we thought we we're going to the desert....

Climbing up for a better view

A rare desert waterfall

Funky pigeon

A small river in a usually dry landscape

The fact is that after 14 months of no rain, last x-mas mother nature decided that it was time and apparently it hasn't really stopped raining since then, not for a long time anyway. So the desert is quite green and nobody has seen anything like it in a long, long time.

Last day in Japan

2010-10-13T20:09:00.001+08:00

Featuring fluffy bushes on the way to the airport

Flowers in Japan

2010-10-11T22:05:00.000+08:00

A sea of pink and purple flowers. Beautiful!

Camera case

2010-10-08T22:51:00.001+08:00

I finally finished it after many mistakes!
It's completely handmade and my own design from scratch.

Biohazard 4

2010-10-05T18:56:00.000+08:00

I saw it this week! I liked it, but they got a bit overexcited with the special effects and 3D and could have put in some more story instead.... why does it always end up like this with this kind of movies? First one got a story and then the rest just gets less and less of it. Definitely worth seeing in 3D thou!

They call it a medium size...


Trying to take a picture in 3D! The trick is to have a bit unsteady hand

Waterfalls and Nikko toushouguu

2010-10-03T22:38:00.001+08:00

Next day we first took a walk around a lake in the morning but I had to charge my camera, otherwise I would have some pictures of the waterfall. It was very beautiful but we later went and saw two other ones and I had my camera with me this time!

Ryuzu waterfall

Kegon waterfall

After that we went to Nikko toushouguu (a famous shinto shrine)

It has a lot of different buildings, you can't see them all in the picture

All of them are carefully decorated with a lot of details. Below are some famous ones

The sleeping cat

The three monkeys (one cannot hear, one cannot talk, one cannot see)

Japaneese lanterns

Hiking in Nikko

2010-10-02T19:05:00.002+08:00

Me and Toyo and his older brother and parents went hiking/sightseeing this weekend!

We got lucky with a sunny day and took the cable car up in the mountains

A small Buddah shrine on the trekking track

After climbing even higher for an hour or so we where above the clouds

Over 2000 meter up, no trees can live here

Amazing views from the top

Then the long climb down, no easy track

This is the same lake as in the picture from above

Then a more easy walk among beautiful autumn colored trees

A foot bath in a hot spring is the perfect way to end a long walk

After that we took the cable car down again and went to the ryoukan, a traditional Japanese hotel. I soaked a long time in the onsen (hot spring), then we had a wonderful dinner and after that some more bathing in the onsen. I was waaaay to tired after the trekking (more than 6 hours walking...) to take any pictures and we fell asleep before ten'o clock.

odd day allergy?

2010-09-28T13:40:00.000+08:00

I finished eating my medicine from the hospital now and I'm only taking the nose spray every evening which is quite nice... I also had to go to the pharmacy to buy some more medicines thou because my nose start running a bit every second day or so. Which is really odd., the good thing is that a small pill makes it go away. You're actually supposed to take three of them everyday but I just take one when I feel it starts itching.
I still have no clue of what it is, my best guess right now is odd days in the calendar.

Toyos wallet finished!

2010-09-24T14:46:00.001+08:00

Front

Back

Took some time but now it's finally finished. The backside pattern I borrowed from a book but otherwise it's all my design. Toyo painted the Manta ray.

Japan weather

2010-09-16T21:11:00.000+08:00

A couple of days ago the temperature suddenly dropped about 15 degrees over one night. Suddenly I`m not sweating all the time and I even managed to go out jogging in the cool morning air. And I get to sleep with a big thick blanket because it get`s really cold nighttime. Just one week ago I couldn't sleep without aircondition . It`s nice, but I`m not sure if I think it`s right.

Chocolate balls

2010-09-15T21:35:00.001+08:00

Just like home but cuter

Shopping and seamonsters

2010-09-12T19:29:00.000+08:00

We went shopping today and I bought a top that I want to remake, I have an old T-shirt with Totoro print on, the print is fine but the T-shirt is starting to fall apart. So I'm gonna put the print on the new top! Pictures coming later... it might take a while because I'm busy with Toyos wallet and then I'm going to make a new camera case.

Later we went to a restaurant and ate the biggest shrimp I've ever seen!

Shinjuku

2010-09-10T23:11:00.000+08:00

I walked around for hours and found a lot of pretty stuff but.... they where either wrong color for my current small wardrobe or to warm for Australia or too pretty and not made for being squeezed in a backpack...
However if you wanna do some gothic/lolita/punk shopping in Tokyo I can really recommend Closet child (second hand clothes, a lot cheaper!) and Marui one (OIOne) where you can buy the brand new clothes, a bit expensive but very pretty. Well worth a visit only for looking around. They have other stores as well so make sure you go to the right one.
Otherwise Harajuku is the place to go, that's where I bought this. Nyah!

Momo found catfood

2010-09-05T23:16:00.001+08:00

Too cute to be true

2010-09-04T21:52:00.002+08:00

It's not really made for traveling, but I had to have it!

I need a panic button too!

2010-09-03T08:42:00.003+08:00

I wonder why nobody talks about that soon all our telephone conversations, SMS, e-mail, internet connections and just about everything are going to be recorded and stored, available to the government. Does that sound like a democracy to anyone?!?!
Already two big customers of the intelligence FRA, who monitor internet usage, is the government offices and the foreign department. And this is something both big parties in Sweden want and they don't talk about it! The law is called "teledatalagringen" in swedish.

You can read more about it, in swedish at henrikalexandersson.blogspot.com
I read it here first, thank you for keeping me updated Henrik.

Now some people will still argue, if you got nothing to hide....
Well if you got nothing to hide then I suggest that you shit with the bathroom door open for the rest of the week and see how it feels!

I would also love to know what this costs, how many nurses and polices could we employ instead of monitoring, mostly, innocent people?
The two big political blocks have some differences in politics but not so much. They both gone crazy with the possibility's of internet;

It's easier sorting out words like bomb and terrorism from internet traffic than to go out and talk to troubled kids trying to get them on the right track.

It's easier hunting pedophiles downloading or watching pictures on the internet or closing down websites instead of working together with other countries to hunt the perpetrators down.

It's easy to criminalize sharing of art, especially if private interests does most of the job for the police.

So if you want the politicians to not privatize the police and stop playing monitoring computer games and get back to reality - vote for the Pirate party

More sweets

2010-09-02T12:52:00.001+08:00

Beans and rice, called ohagi

asakusa

2010-08-29T13:18:00.000+08:00

When we finally woke up we went to buy some snacks for Toyos father in Asakusa.

Sweet potato and bean snacks... looks yummy but a bit too strange for my taste

Tokyo

2010-08-28T19:24:00.000+08:00

We had dinner with some of Toyos friends at a restaurant two of them owned. The food was delicious!

...then we went drinking in a bar with a very charming sculpture

And then we did karoke all night of course! Got up three o'clock next day...

uuh... no happenings

2010-08-27T12:29:00.003+08:00

I spent a silly amount of money on hospital bills and have spent my days organizing and putting receipts together and now I hope I get the money back soon.
Otherwise not much has been happening, a really lazy week with some yoga and Toyo is off to work all day. But I started making a wallet for him and hopefully I can finish it soon!
Currently listening to Terry Pratchett's "wyrd sisters" on my ipod...

Fireworks

2010-08-22T21:19:00.004+08:00

A small local festival at walking distance from the house. Still, the fireworks are more impressing than any I've ever seen at new years eve back home.
Honestly I haven't really been crazy about fireworks before but going to all those festivals I think they're amazingly beautiful. And this one was the smallest so far.

Chocolate cake

2010-08-21T19:57:00.003+08:00

I did it! I managed to make a decent chocolate cake in a Japanese oven/microwave.
At first attempt I baked it like in a normal oven... which was tasty but not quite right. This time I baked it 14 minutes instead and with another kind of sugar that is less fine grained. It turned out delicious!

We ended up eating most of it before I remembered to take a picture.

Festival

2010-08-20T15:59:00.003+08:00

Actually this is from wednesday but yesterday was too hot so my brain melted and I failed to edit the pictures.
Anyway, it was a lot of fun, I found a lollipop and there's gonna be another festival this weekend too!

Cute overload

2010-08-19T20:53:00.001+08:00

http://cuteoverload.com/
<3

I think I need a pink cadillac with baby bunnies

Vanilla icecream and plumwine

2010-08-18T21:18:00.000+08:00

Delicious!

New header!

2010-08-17T14:01:00.001+08:00

Still haven't decided if I'm satisfied with it or not...

Ice shaving party!

2010-08-15T20:33:00.000+08:00

Full house with cousins and their kids going crazy, very fun but tiering day.

Shaving the ice...

add some strange colourful sauces and ice turns into delicious candy!

Water/ice fight

Cute!

Ota festival

2010-08-14T13:47:00.000+08:00

I was supposed to meet up a friend for Comiket but I didn't hear from her and didn't have a number to call so me and Toyo went to a festival in Ota instead. It was amazing, I'm sorry the sound quality isn't better but at least you can get an impression of it.

Better pictures of some of the paintings

100¥ store

2010-08-12T16:16:00.001+08:00

Remake

2010-08-11T19:29:00.003+08:00

I decided to remake one of my necklaces as I thought it was a bit "too much", unfortunately the main piece snapped! (cheap crap, see arrow)

So I had to remake it a bit more than I planned but I'm still happy with it