For calling or for walking...?

There was no way I could resist buying these pair of flip-flops for my Apple nerd of a husband when I found them at a market in Saigon some weeks ago.... (Please note that the Apple logo is in gold! Fancy, huh?!)

He got them for Christmas and yes - he wears them all the time...

Oh, Happy Day

He´s here now; the most wonderful man in the whole world. He´s asleep in my bed, jetlagged and tired, while I am far too happy and excited to lay down beside him. On the contrary, I just wanna run in circles like a crazy person and scream of the top of my voice out of pure happiness! Together again! Iiiihhhh!!!! Imagine that you can still feel like this after 14 years together. Isn´t it wonderful?! :-) Happy, happy, happy day!!! :-)

"Oh Happy Day" from the movie "Sister Act 2"

Our 10:th Wedding Anniversary!

On the 27:th of June, me and Janne are celebrating our 10:th anniversary..! I can´t believe it´s already been 10 years since the day we got married in S:t Olofs Chapel, a beautiful little red wooden church by the sea on the west coast of Sweden.

This was the happiest and most beautiful day of our lives. Together with friends and family who had joined us from Sweden, England, USA and Hong Kong, we had a wonderful ceremony and celebration which we´ll always cherish in our hearts. 

Unfortunately, we don´t have any digital photos from our wedding day to be published here (as digital cameras simply were not invented then), but I´m posting some photos from the beautiful little chapel (built in 1721) and its surroundings for you to see. They show the chapel, the altar and the view over the sea seen from the chapel.


The other day, I found the song that we chose for our wedding dance on You Tube; Dance me to the End of Love by Leonard Cohen.

Leonard Cohen has always been very special to us, and we love this song. When I found it, I was happily surprised to see that Cohen obviously had written this song with weddings promising eternal love, in mind. 

Darling; I´m dedicating this video to you. Thank you for always believing in me, supporting me and loving me no matter what. Thank you for always being there for me, wherever I am in the world. Thank you for standing by me in good times and in bad times, in sickness and in health. Thank you for 10 wonderful married years. What we have is truly unique, and I´m looking forward to spending the rest of our lives together! I love you more than words can say.

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Going to Kuala Lumpur

Yaay - today I´m happy for two things;

1) I have internet connection in my flat again! Which means that I have a fair chance of connecting with the rest of the world after two weeks of isolation.

2) Today (Saturday) I´m flying to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to meet up with my beloved husband who´s there on a business trip. He landed there this morning, I´ll arrive this afternoon, and we´ll have almost two days together in KL, before I have to go back to Phnom Penh for work on Monday morning. Less than two days in KL might not seem too long time to some people, and most would probably not bother to fly from Cambodia to Malaysia for a short stay like that. But for a couple like us who don´t see see eachother more often than once every three months, it´s a very welcome addition to all that time that we spend apart.
And oh, there´s one more thing that makes this visit to KL very special to us; We got married in June 1998, and went to Malaysia on honeymoon. We spent almost two months there and in neighbouring countries, and already back then we said that we´d really like to go back to Malaysia for our 10 year wedding anniversary. And now; voila - 10 years later - we´ll be back there (almost) right on time for some romantic anniverary celebration. Which I´m reeeeally looking forward to! ;-)

So now; time for some last minute packing - as always...

The spring is here!

After some crappy days, I´m now back on track and am finally able to enjoy the lovely Swedish spring weather. 17 degrees celsius, sun,flowers, and the first outdoors coffee break of the year...
...including Swedish coffee in cute Moomin cups, Ben & Jerry´s "Cookie Dough ice cream" and chocolate sauce.  

And - with the most handsome and wonderful man in the whole world by my side.

It just can´t get very much better than this, can it?! :-)

Reunited

These photos were taken my first evening back in Stockholm. My precious princess Polly Jean was sooo excited, and wouldn´t leave my side even for one second. So we spent the whole evening cuddling and bonding on the sofa.

Parents visiting

My parents have left now, they departured for Sweden earlier this week. It´s been absolutely wonderful to have them here. My fathers 60:th birthday celebration in Kep on the 6:th of February turned out great . We had a delicious lunch at a small restaurant by the sea, where my father could enjoy seafood -his favourite - directly from the sea. After that, we had a drink at the beach, watching the sunset. In the evening it was time for the birthday cake, delivered from the city of Kampot. As my fathers birthday happened to be at the same day as the Chinese New Year, he got a Chinese cake, which turned out to be, well... a bit...different...


Dad at our bungalow veranda in Kep

For present, I gave my father a Khmer cooking class, which he took in Phnom Penh the weekend after. It was a full day of Khmer cooking; spring rolls, Fish Amok and dessert as well. He really enjoyed the cooking class, and was quite exhausted but very happy after a full day of dicing, chopping, frying, and eating.

My parents seems to have really enjoyed their stay here, and it was of course a bit sad to see them go. Unfortunately, they had bad ending of the trip, as my mother who had been a bit ill from stomach problems the last couple of days in Phnom Penh, actually collapsed on the flight between Bangkok and Vienna, due to dehydration and negative side effects from her blood pressure medication. She was taken to a hospital in Vienna, but could continue her travel back to Sweden already the same day.

Apart from this unfortunate end of the trip, I´m happy to report that they´ve very much enjoyed their time here in Cambodia. Especially my Dad, who´s absolutely fascinated by the street life, the traffic and markets. For my mother, it´s all the friendly people, the warmth and kindness that they´ve met here, that has made the strongest impression on her. I´m very happy that they made it here, so they now can relate to my life here, and that we now can share experiences and memories from Cambodia together.


Mum and Dad at Veranda Natural Resort

So thank you Mum and Dad for coming all this way - hope to be able to welcome you back again sometime! And Mum; hope you feel better soon!

Congratulations, Dad!

Today is my father´s 60:th birthday!

Dad and Polly Jean

Here´s the birthday plan: We´ll start the celebrations with a nice birthday breakfast at a French restaurant, and after that take a tour along the riverside up to the buddhist temple of Wat Phnom to look at the Chinese New Year celebrations that starts today. At lunchtime, we´ll leave by car to the small coastal town of Kep, which´ll give my parents a view of the Cambodian countryside on the way. We´ll arrive to Kep in the afternoon, and check in at the very beautiful and atmospheric Veranda Natural Resort, where we´ll stay until Saturday. The plan is to arrive just in time for some drinks on the beach, watching the beautiful sunset. In the evening there´ll be a delicious dinner, and I´ve asked the very helpful staff at the Veranda to assist me in getting us a birthday cake - which they´ll bring from the city of Kampot 20 km away as there are no bakeries in Kep - and I´ll bring some birthday candles from Phnom Penh to decorate it.

We hope for a nice birthday, and that my father will truly enjoy it!

Parents on their way

Right now, my parents are on their way to Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen. In some hours, they´ll start their journey Copenhagen-Vienna-Bangkok-Phnom Penh. I´ll pick them up at the airport tomorrow evening. I´m really happy to welcome them for two weeks in Cambodia. It´ll be their first time in South East Asia, and I´m really... eehhmm... wondering what they´ll think. (No, I didn´t use the word "tense". I did not. Or did I..?). My parents are very excited and of course quite a bit nervous about the whole thing, but I´m pretty sure they´ll really like it. On wednesday it´s my father´s 60:th birthday, which we´ll celebrate by the coast in Kep. I´ve taken some days off from work, and it´ll be lovely to spend some days together with my parents there, sipping drinks and watching the sunset. Their second week they´ll go to Siem Riep to do Cambodia´s number one must-see-sight; the Angkor temples. And here and there, we´ll have some days together in Phnom Penh, too. I hope they´ll enjoy their vacation and get some really good memories to bring back with them to Sweden. And who knows, maybe they´ll become as addicted to South East Asia as Janne and me, which would mean that this´ll only be the first out of many visits to come. Well, who knows how it´ll all turn out... I guess that I´ll have to get back to you on that.

Happy travelling, Mum and Dad - see you tomorrow! :-*

Congratulations, Darling!

Today, my beloved husband turns 4..-ehh, hrhum... I mean 32. 32 it is. For sure. 32. Congratulations, Darling! To celebrate this, I´d like to share a couple of photos with you of the most wonderful man in the whole world...;


Janne on a terrace in Nafplio, Greece...


...and on a beach in Athens.

Aaahh! Isn´t he handsome!?! *proud*

On top of that, I´m also happy and proud to tell you that the two of us are celebrating our 12:th engagement anniversary today! We got engaged on Jannes 32... -eehhrmh.. 22:nd birthday back in 1995. Which means that I was only 22... ehh, hrhrum.. I mean 12.. or... eehhh... anyway, never mind.

Congratulations Honey, and congratulations to Us, too! I love you!

Polly Jean and Janne - media stars!

Today, I´m extremely proud to see my loved ones; Polly Jean and Janne, being interviewed in Expressen, one of the biggest evening newspapers in Sweden! :-)
We´re told the interview will be broadcasted on some local tv channels as well, but frankly it´s just very small channels so you´d be very lucky to catch them there.

For those of you who don´t understand Swedish, the theme for the whole thing is that Polly Jean has her own page on Facebook. (And yes, of course it was me who set it up and now poor Janne has to cover for it while I´m abroad....) The interview is a part of the coverage on that Facebook has become such a huge phenomenon, and that now even pets has their own pages on Facebook. The interview explains that we first set up the page to introduce Polly Jean to friends far away who are curious about Polly Jean but never have had the chance to meet her. But quite quickly, Polly Jean started to get friend requests from dogs - and a pig! - from all over the world; Bolivia, England, USA, South Africa etc, so her page kind of started to get a life of it´s own... Well, I guess you´ve to take a look for yourself to see...
To see the interview on webb-tv, go to: http://www.expressen.se/webb-tv/index.html?serialid=5938
To see the article, go to: http://www.expressen.se/husdjur/1.844549/nu-har-hunden-polly-blivit-basta-van-med-en-gris

And last but not the least; thank you Martina for coming up with this totally wicked idea and for talking us into putting Polly Jean on broadcast. I guess that´s one of the reasons that you really deserve my nomination of you as "my most creative friend" on Facebook.

Wedding Anniversary

Today, on the 27:th of June, me and Janne are celebrating our 9 year anniversary. I can´t believe that we have been married for 9 years already..?! It´s diffucult to comprehend that almost a decade has passed since that wonderful day when we walked down the aisle at the little red wooden chapel in Tylösand.

Today, I sent Janne 9 red roses, to tell him how much I love him and to thank him for 9 wonderful years together. The roses were delivered to his office two hours later. It´s quite impressive that thanks to the modern means of communication, you can send flowers from Cambodia to Sweden in less than two hours, isn´t it?

We´re already planning for where to go next year, when we´ll celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. Perhaps, we´ll go to Singapore and Borneo where we went on our two months honeymoon in 1998. It would be pretty romantic to revisit some of the places that we visited back then, don´t you think?! :-)


Thank you for 9 wonderful years together, Darling! I love you more than words can say.

Birthday Bitch

Today, wednesday the 13:th of June, our beautiful English bull terrier Polly Jean turns 2 years old.


According to the report from Janne, the birthday celebration started early morning, with Polly receiving a so called big "boomer ball" from me and Janne. It is supposed to be impossible to destroy, even for a bull terrier. (Well, I guess we have to see about that). Polly showed a great interest in the boomer ball, so it was brought to the doggy day care where Polly spends her days when Janne is working, for Polly Jean and her friends to play with. There'll be more celebration in the evening, with Pollys magic three P:s ; Pizza (Polly will get a children's pizza with ham and cheese), more Presents and a small Party to which, among others, Polly's friends "Whoopie" the Grand Dane, and "Morris" the miniature bull terrier, are invited.


Happy Birthday, my beloved Birthday Girl! I love you so much!

Mothers Day

Today Mothers Day is celebrated in Sweden. So I´m sending a lots of warm hugs and kissen to my mother - I´m thinking about you today!


Congratulations on Mothers Day, Mum!

Missing Polly Jean

Until now, everything here has been so new to me; a new city, a new job, new people - a totally new life. I hardly haven´t had the time to think about what I´ve left behind at all. Until yesterday morning, when I enjoyed my saturday morning breakfast at a french café near my hotel. Suddenly entered a black laborador, taken for a walk by his master to the bakery to buy some fresh baguettes for breakfast. As I saw the dog and its master together, I was overwhelmed by the feeling of missing my precious princess enormously. And my eyes was filled with tears. The night after, I dreamt that I was at home in Stockholm, cuddling with Polly Jean. It was a nice and sunny afternoon in Stockholm, and we spent it together playing in the garden, and after that we took a nap together on the sofa. Just as any regular saturday. The dream was so real; I felt the warmth from her body and she licked my face - but thank God I didn´t smell her breath. :-) The dream was so real that I didn´t understand where I was when I woke up. It took me a minute or so to understand that I was at a hotel in Phnom Penh, and not at home with my dog. And of course, at that moment I missed her a lot.

Not many people understands how much the pets; boths the cats and the dog means to me and Janne. But I don´t care. I just feel sorry for them, not having experienced the friendship and love that the pets has brought into our lives. Knowing that they have a great life although I have moved 10.000 kilometres away, getting the best care possible by the best master in the whole world, Janne, makes this adventure possible for me. Without his love and care for them, I strongly doubt that I would´ve accepted the job here in Phnom Penh, and definitely not with a peaceful mind. So for this; helping my dream of moving to Asia come true, I´m more grateful to him than I can put in words.

Despite what I now have told you, being away from Janne and the pets is actually a lot easier than I had expected. The new techniques of communication is of course to thank for this. Today, me and Janne spoke with the help of the iChat programme in our laptops, which makes it possible for us to both speak and see eachother. We spoke for nearly an hour, until Polly Jean, who was sleeping with her head on Jannes lap and snored so I could hear it all the way to Cambodia, decided that it was time for a walk. It feels so good to be able to speak and to see eachother; what an enormous change since I did my first field study in Thailand 12 years ago, when we communicated by letters and telegrammes... Now I can listen to Polly Jean the bull terrier snoring and Smilla the cat meowing all the to Cambodia. That is definitely a lovely cure for a longing heart on the other side of the world!


Me and Polly Jean

Happy birthday, grandpa!

Today it´s my beloved grandfathers 91:st birthday! Happy birthday, grandpa!


My grandfather and Polly Jean, august 2005.

My beloved grandpa is one of my best friends. Through life he´s always been very supportive to me, and he has always encouraged me to travel and to see the world. "-Travel while you can!", he always says. "-There´s so much to explore and experience out there, do it while you can." So when I had decided to accept the position in Cambodia, Grandpa was the first to know. When I called him up, I was a little bit nervous how he would take the news, though. It turned out that my nervousness had been a total waste; Grandpa was as supportive and enthusiastic as always. "-That´s good news, Maria. I´m happy for you. This is what you´ve always wanted, and finally you get the chance to fulfill your dreams." "-I hope that I´m not worrying in any way", I said. "-No. I´m not the slightest worried. No, no", he stated and continued" "-I know that you´ll do great. You´re always taking good care of yourself when you´re out in the world somewhere, and you´ll be just fine this time, too. I know it for sure." And that was it. No worries and no questions. Just pure and simple strength and support. Just what I needed at that time. For this, and for so many other things that me and my Grandfather have experienced together through the years, I´ll always be thankful to him.

So congratulations, Grandad. Today is your day. And I´m so thankful for having you in my life. I love you so much!