Much Ado About Nothing I know About

Have you ever been in a situation where someone is talking to you while you are doing something and under normal circumstances you would be able to both do that something (eg. folding clothes or stirring something in a pot) and listen to the person talk at the same time but this time that person decides to go into a topic you have no idea about and they are super enthu about it so suddenly the clothes or the pot becomes so much more interesting and your mind starts flying off into space?

Well, that happens to me more often than I dare to admit. And it happens when the husband starts talking to me about music.

Don't get me wrong, I love music. I love listening to music, dancing to music and singing off key to music. And I certainly can talk about music if the situation appears BUT the husband... he's on a whole different music plane.

The man is a musician who used to play electric guitar in a band and who loves rock music as much as he does chocolate and has an in depth knowledge of the history of rock, the technical aspects of playing and performing and of producing music. So I NEVER talk music with him, not that it stops HIM from talking music with ME.

You know, after the first ex a lifetime ago, who loved rock music and told the most outrageously lame rock jokes (remember Rock Never Dies, Praisie? haha!!) I told myself never a rock enthusiast ever again.

Never say NEVER. Not only did I fall in love with a rock enthusiast, this time the man has an even wider, deeper knowledge and love of the music I call noise. Hai...

Every once in a while, he would start quoting some bisarre sounding lyrics from some little known song by some rock group that I hadn't known existed till that very moment. And it can be a little sad when the husband starts rambling some lyrics with a twinkle in his eye and an expectant laugh to me and for the life of me, I have NO IDEA what the significance of that lyrics would be and the silly man actually acts like I should have known all along. It's times like that when I have no idea to get truly annoyed with him for wasting minutes of my life with such inane trivia or to laugh at the patheticness of the situation.

How can I laugh along with him if I don't see the funny in it or even who the heck he's talking about? He's talking about artistes and groups and songs from the 80s! Talk about blast from the past.

Of cos if he had been discussing this with his own band members, each and every one of them will be laughing till they turn blue while their wives look on in disbelief and slight embarassment, or maybe that's just me?

I listen to BEP, Britney Spears, Beyoncé, Josh Groban and Michael Bublé. How am I supposed to know Kiss, Metallica, Toto and Pink Floyd and the names of every single band member, alive, dead or booted out??

So when he starts rambling about music...I secretly roll my eyes and wish the phone would ring just so he would have to stop talking and answer and hopefully forget his train of thought. Just wanted to vent...I just had to go through another rock music trivia with husband dear. Sigh...

Belated Birthday Party

It is tradition (Sweden is always about tradition) in the Sjöberg family that when someone has a birthday, a party is expected and all the family is invited. This is a whole new concept for me cos my family stopped having any sort of birthday celebrations when I entered my teens. Sure I've had dinner gatherings with friends to celebrate my birthday even until now but that's just another excuse for all of us to meet up and enjoy a good meal together. But with family? Hmm...a new and strange concept to me.

It doesn't matter how old one is, a Sjöberg (at least our branch of the extensive Sjöberg clan) is always expected to plan a party which is just another excuse for the entire family to gather which is also another unrelenting tradition in this Swedish family of mine.

So even though it was more than a month AFTER my actual birthday, I still planned my party like a good Sjöberg does but of cos me being me, I did it my way...which is definitely NOT traditional. But before the party, I was gonna experiment with my brand new Kitchen Aid stand mixer (my very expensive birthday present from husband dear) and baked cake after cake just to test out the machine and also to try my hand at frosting cakes.

My first attempt was a simple madeira cake (they call it sugar cake or sockerkaka in Sweden) in my new teddy bear cake tin and very simple lines of frosting to outline it's face and big belly.

Fine, I'm not the neatest of frosters or bakers but for a first attempt I thought it looked alright.

Husband dear said that the belly outline looked less like a belly and more like the male anatomy of the southern region. Hmm...upon hindsight I have to actually shamefacedly agree.
TOTALLY not my intention. Serious!!

My next attempt was for a full sized cake in my brand new heart shaped cake tin (yes,I went crazy cake tin shopping when I was in Singapore. There are no baking supply stores anywhere here!) I think this 2nd attempt turned out much better and the frosting tasted great too. I used a white chocolate frosting that used less icing sugar which made it fractionally less sweet. But found a cool trick to reduce sweetness in frosting. Just add some salt!

I actually really like frosting cakes although it takes a long time for me since I'm still just a beginner. There's a certain calming therapeutic sensation that comes with focus needed to frost. And husband loves the fact that whatever I bake is all for him.

But of cos all that baking and frosting was in preparation for baking my own birthday instead of buying one. A very untraditional thing to do. Plus the fact that it was banana cake (which one CANNOT find in any bakery here) with white chocolate frosting. But hey, my party is all about twisting tradition right?

And since I love butterflies, I decided to draw out a butterfly outline and put in colourful sprinkles just to give it some colour. It was either that or write out something. But I think my cake turned out quite pretty although one can tell it's an amateur job.

Birthday girl cutting the cake, another untraditional thing cos usually the person sitting closest to the cake cuts it but husband dear moved the cake to my side so I could cut it. Here I am, happily brandishing my knife next to MIL. See the fear in her eyes?? Hee!

So anyway, that was the cake for my party. Something else I did for the party was I actually kind of transformed the flat into a restaurant of sorts. I made 5 different Asian dishes, 2 types of rice and served it buffet style complete with condiments and sauces. And another thing that is strangely untraditional in Sweden? We had ice to go with the drinks. I know I know...you're thinking ICE?? But they don't have ice here. Nobody sells ice. We went to the supermarket to ask for ice and since it's such a rare request, we got it free.

Unfortunately I did not manage to get any pictures of the buffet table since it was quickly ravaged through. But the guests loved the food and even more the variety. Surprisingly, it wasn't as much work as I thought it would be. So the menu?

Chicken Rice
Steamed white rice
Prawns in plum Sauce (also known as Prosperity Prawns)
Oyster Sauce Beef
Pan Fried Breaded Chicken
Chicken Satay
Spicy Baked Chicken Wings

And after dinner and cake, we played PS2 although not for as long as we had hoped. Oh and the cat was thoroughly freaked out during the entire party and stayed well away from open spaces. Don't blame her.

So there we go, I'm a certified Sjöberg, parties and all, but with a twist. Always with a twist.

Operation Save Sussie

Husband had a 3 day weekend so we had a grand 'ol time just enjoying each other's company and playing on our PS2 (I'm starting to get pretty decent on Guitar Hero) or simply being.

Anyway, on Monday, we decided to go into town (seeing how small our 'town' is, we call going into the nearby BIG town, Orebro, going into town.) and set off before lunch. It was a nice day out and by the time we came home, it was evening.

Our cat, Sussie, would usually meet us at the front door when we come home even when she has been sleeping. In which case, we can tell she's still got the sleepy eyes as she stretches and greets us at the same time. It is quite rare that she doesn't come out to at least have a look before sauntering off to a quiet corner. But that night, she didn't come. Although we both thought it strange, we shrugged it off and knew that she would make an appearance eventually. So we settled in the livingroom and ate dinner, watched tv and talked. But after an hour and still no Sussie, I started to get worried. This was very unlike her to hide away and refuse to come out, especially since we didn't have any visitors so I started calling out for her. The good thing about my kitty is that she always comes when me or husband dear calls her. But she didn't come this time which of cos set off even more alarm bells in my head.

So we started looking in all her usual hiding places. We crawled all over the apartment searching under sofas, the bed, toilet, closet and still nothing. We opened all the cupboards in case she had somehow locked herself in (she's a VERY curious cat) but still no Sussie. Not even a tiny pip from the cat could be heard. I started getting a little hysterical (yeah, the melodramatic in me kicking in full force) and husband pulled on jacket and shoes and started searching outside for her. I began opening windows and looking out while shouting out her name. A number of people looked up at me, probably thinking I'm a crazy lady.

And still no Sussie.

Husband searched all the corridors, basement and ven parking lot but nothing. Our apartment building is constructed such that the stairway is in the middle of the building and there are doors opening into the stairway for every corridor that remains closed throughout the day. So the possibility of Sussie running off somewhere was rather slim but worried as we were, everything was possible.

And still no Sussie.

I began opening kitchen cabinets (just in case) while husband was outside. When I opened the cabinet below the sink where we keep the trashbin, I saw right at the back of the cabinet what looked like a hollow space leading into the back of the neighbouring cabinets. I started wondering if she had gotten in there when husband came back in from the cold. Seeing how big and brave the husband is, I instantly suggested that he go down on all fours and look into the hollow space.

I handed him a flashlight and climbed into the cabinet (not fully of cos since as mentioned above he's BIG) and that was when he caught sight of our little black cat. Sussie was found!! YAY!!!

But there was one problem. She was stuck.

My curious kitty had apparently gotten into the cabinet and walked into the hollow tunnel like space without realising how small the space is. The space is very narrow, about the size of the cat itself, but quite high. By the time she reached the end of the 'tunnel' which is longer than my arms length, she couldn't turn herself around and so she essentially got stuck. As curious as my cat is, she's not exactly the sharpest knife in the kitchen so for the life of her, she could not figure out that to get out, all she needed to do was walk in reverse. When I peeked in, she was literally pressed up against the end wall of the tunnel and could only turn her cute little head to look at me. I guess she must have thought the best thing to do was walk as far in as she could, pressing herself even more against the unmoving wall instead of walking backwards back into the open cabinet.

Hai...smart cat.

As relieved as I was and frightened as she looked, I couldn't help but laugh my head off before formulating a rescue strategy to get my silly cat out of there.

First, we needed to get her turned around since she's so far in, I couldn't even reach her. So Mathias handed me a stick for me to prod her so she would (hopefully) turn her body around. Narrow as the tunnel is, it is also high so could actually turn around by standing on her back paws. Anyway, I prodded and prodded and finally she did turn so she was facing me. I bet she must have been relieved to be able to rest on all 4 paws on the ground instead of being pressed face first into a wall. Haha! That was hilarious.

Anyway, by this time Sussie was too afraid to move or even make a sound so it was up to me to try and get her out. I tried treats and other cat food but she wasn't interested in eating at all. It looked like she had hurt one of her eyes as it was very runny and we became worried again. Mathias said we would have to go to the vet since she's hurt but my first priority was Operation Save Sussie. Since she wouldn't move by herself, I decided that I will have to pull her out myself. Afraid that she would scratch or bite me, I pulled on gloves and got down to work. I first pulled at her collar but she wouldn't budge and the collar snapped open. (Don't worry, it didn't hurt her. Turns out the collar snaps open with the slightest pull). Even though she refused to come out, I was glad that at least she didn't move backwards deeper into the tunnel.

I was getting desperate so I decided to go for it and grabbed hold of the back of her neck and pulled and pulled till she couldn't fight back and I grabbed hold of her and pushed her into her box and locked her in while husband dear called the vet.

Sussie eventually calmed down and turns out she didn't injure her eye but probably got some sand or dust into it while she was stuck and it cleared up when I placed a small bowl of water into her box in case she needed to drink and she accidentally tipped it over her face. Cool! Eye cleared!

When we had ascertained that she wasn't injured, I opened the box door and she ran off under the bed where we left her to lick her injured pride. But Sussie was soon back to herself and within half an hour, she was back to jumping up on the sofa and onto us.

And such was the little adventure that little Sussie got herself into. And to be honest, I don't know how long she was stuck in that space since we were away all day. Poor cat!