Dogs

I love dogs. I prefer bigger dogs. Tiny dogs are more like rats. I found people dressing their dogs ridiculous but after seeing dogs shivering I reckon clothes are quit good, especially for poor dogs who isn't supposed to be living in a freezing country like sweden. When I shot the model Sam in Australia he told me and my assistant a story about a woman walking her tiny dog along the water front, suddenly this shark jumps up and eats it. I just found it so unbelievably hilarious. I can still laugh my heart out about it today 1,5 years later. There are so many tiny dogs in the building I'm living in, I'm scared to kill them by stepping on them or whilst closing the door. Today I read a blogg post about something similar, it still gets me laughing. You can read it here (swedish)!

Luxembourg here we coooome!

Yesterday we paid our tickets. Finally a trip planned!!! Yeeeees! C and I will go to Frankfurt - Luxembourg in early May, seeing one of his best friends and beautiful Italian girlfriend. This is soooo good. I'm so happy! Hopefully we'll be able to go to Alicante as well. It depends on how my economic situation will be at that time. I'd love to go to Italy as well. And dreaming about winning on Lotto so I can bring my love to my home in 2007 - Sunny Coast, Australia. Just enjoy the days in the surf, at Riba Kai at the Sunshine Plaza in Maroochydore drinking ice coffee (milk, ice cream, cream, coffee), laying in the sand at the wakeboard park shooting awesome photographs, bbq in the sunset, getting dress in wonderfull dresses, drinking asti with Erika and dancing at Vibes and Fridays/Wharf Tavern all night loooong! Having a pizza slize and coke in the sand with the feet in the water watching the sun rise over the Pacific Ocean. My looooord I miss those parts!

Australia

Today, me and grand ma went for a lunch after school and another (!) trip to the cinema. Yes, third time in 8 days. We saw Australia (2008). I hadn't heard too much positive critics about it. But I really liked it. Very long though, almost 3 hours. It was kinda like two movies in one. After less than half I thought it was the end, but it all continued. I felt quit emotional a couple of times during the movie. It moved me, need less to day. Anyhow, I reckon you should see it, and at the cinemas if you get a chance whilst it still on!

Valentine

Alrighty. Valentine's day. Two years ago I was having my third week in Australia on Valentine's Day. Nathan took me out in one of his old cars. You know flowers, drinks, opening doors and so on. It was an absurd experience. The restaurant were full of only couples. No tables for more than two persons. It felt so weird, especially since there were no feelings between us. Not from my side anyway. But that's the only "real" Valentine's Day I've had.

This saturday I did spend time with my man, but not sitting in a row of couples on a restaurant - just by having a quiet night together. I had been planning some presents/surprices, but they all crashed. So I ended up with nothing to him. Not even a rose. That's bad. I got a couple of presents! My headphones has been getting worse and worse lately, since I haven't got the money I had to use iPod/Sony Ericsson headset. But in the box it was these beautiful Red Hot Koss Porta Pro headphones. My looord! Finally I can enjoy music the way I want to again - all the time, everywhere. And the red colour makes the match my mobile phone, my gloves and my satin coloured nails. Red Hot;)Since I love sweats I also got some heart shaped jelly candy.

Things I miss about Australia

I miss:
* The weather
* The party life
* The accent
* Lizzie
and of course: Aussiebum!


I love Frank dandy, Björn Borg and Calvin Klein undies on men but there is somethins special about Aussiebum!

I miss you

Friends. I know a lot of people. From/in all over the world. Some are close, some aren't. Some means a lot to me. Some of the ones that means a lot may not know how much they mean to me.

Since I went to Australia (and came back) I've felt like I've lost a lot of friends. Or at least lost contact with. I did gain friends as well. But some parts are just missing.

I've got almost exactly as many female as male friends. Two of my male friends, both first name is Marcus, Andersson and Hindersson is two of the ones who means the most. Maybe without knowing how much. I really miss both of them. I've been training with both of them in periods, and now it's really hard training alone. They had a big part of my motivation. And I miss talking to them. They are honest guys.

I miss you guys. Please return.

Copycat

Time for me to be a copycat. Read a blog the other day and the blogger wrote things that people may not know about him. I thought I could be a copycat and do my own little list of things YOU may not know about me.


When I started walking I had to constantly wear a helmet cause I kept on getting brain concussion by falling over, running into the table or sitting on the vaccum cleaner when mum draged it away without noticing me on it.

"My" first horse was a black Shetland Pony named Pretty Ghost that I was driving around and tought my little brother to ride on.

I started swimming when I was 5 yo and was in a elite group when I was 8 yo and had to quit cause I hated to compete and was afraid of deep water - so I could only train in shallow pools.

I loved Spice Girls and knew every single dance to the first two albums, so when we moved and I changed school I could no longer be Mel B cause they already had some Spice Girls at that school, so I became their dance teacher instead.

I don't eat soup.

I have jumped out of a plane.

Once I climbed up to the five meter springboard. An adult had to carry me down cause I was shaking too much to get myself down.

I lived in Australia for more than 10 months and never tried surfing or went to Sydney Opera house.

I have been working with the royalties horses and driving four of them at the same time on Djurgården in Stockholm.

Some of my dream jobs throughout the years: command/officer, sports journalist, cabinet/pattern-maker/carpenter, fire fighter, life guard, riding police officer, champagne expert.

I have been writing lyrics in english since I was 12-13 yo.

The first time I crushed my front teeth I was swimming into the bottom of a pool. Second time by biting some sort of toy while chasing my brother at our grandparents house. Third time on a bike, into the ground - pretty badly wounded noose, lips and chin. I remember they talking about that some sort of plastic surgery might be needed.

I love 80's music like Earth wind and fire, Village People, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Whitney Houston, Simply Red, Temptations, David Bowie, Boney M, Michael Jackson and of course: Alphaville

Great video

One of my absolute favourite songs and video from last year is Yves Larock with Rise up. It just makes me so happy. I miss running at the sunrise, along the morning surf at Alex Headlands Beach to the rivermouth at Maroochydore.


Enjoy!

I miss Australia

Some days I just can't find a way to not think about or miss Australia. The country that I lived in for almost one year. The year of 2007. A weird year. A good year. A bad year. A very different year. A hot year. A wonderful year. A crazy year. But the only thing that I want to go back for would be to see my friends and 'family' - Lizzie, Erika, Viv, Shaun and his family, the girls at TAFE - Claire, Renee, T... you know who you are, the ones that really matters. I would like to live in that climate again, but not necesserily in australia. Will I ever go back? Go back to Sunny Coast.

One tv-series that I followed as a maniac was the amercan serie "Life" it has finally arrived in Sweden as well! I just loved it! And the commercial before the program started they used Delta Goodrems song 'In this life'. This youtube clip with the song that I found is from the Mourning Show on Channel 7 that I watched every morning. Listen to the wonderful accent! Im afraid that Im about to lose my aussie accent - I hope not!

3 months

Three months, 10 hours and about 15 min ago I landed outside Arlanda Airport, Stockholm, with flames out of the plane motors. I have been back in Sweden for three months. It feels a bit unreal. The year in Australia almost feels like a black hole somewhere years back in my life. I was so filled with anger, sadness and disappointment when I decided to leave forever four days before the Christmas break flight to Sweden. I am still filled with a lot anger, sadness and disappointment when I look back. What was my plan when I moved to the other side of the world and what happened?

The good side of the year: I met wonderful people that I'll always remember and love and hopefully keep contact with - Lizzy and Erika is the two diamonds. The two rocks that kept me hanging on in tough times, even though might had a hard time themselves. And I got so much life experiences - manage to live on my own and meet people, all alone, with no help (at the beginning) or contacts on the other side of the world - the first time moving from home.

Today I am alone for the first time in my familys flat. And I am happy. It feels so good to have some time alone. Even though I right away thought about having a friend over. But Im looking forward to quality time this weekend with people that means the most to me now. Back home.

You know. You loose contact with a lot people when you are away for a year. Its not hard nowadays to get the contact going again, but what keeps me away? What am I afraid of?


Sam Sparro - Black and Gold is still the favourite tune. It has been going for more than 24 hours on repeat, with a tiny break up with Mustasch songs tonight.

Over and out, sleep tight.

Australian Idol

Tonight the last part/group competition for Swedens competition to choose the alternative for the Eurovision Song Contest. One of the performances tonight started off with a trumpet player (rest of the song was crap) and I started thinking about Australian Idol 2007. My favourite Carl Riseley had only been playing trumpet until just a short while before I auditioned for Australian Idol. His mission was to bring swing back. This is one of my favourite perfomances from him (he finished on third place):



And in the first round when the people in Australia could choose their favourites by voting, he definatly opened my eyes for him by singing Home with Micheal Buble:




Another really good artist was 16 (!) yo Matt Corby. He sang more or less the same sort of songs until he sang Evermores - It's too late. I loved that song before. I reckon he do a better job of it, believe it or not. Matt ended up on second place after Nathalie. Here is It's too Late by Matt corby:

Favourite Aussie Commercial

Here comes some commercial that I saw in Australia (more to come!):

Cadbury


Lynx (Axe)

Victim of Stupid people

Yesterday I was out for real for the first time since I got back home to Swe from Australia. We went to a place called Mango, the club called Ace. For about 1,5 yrs ago I hated the place so much that I said that I wouldn't go there again. But yesterday I went to there to catch up with some mates and my new colleague. The place looks much better now, they've changes some stuff. I thought the drink were alright in price, about 1,5 times the price in Australia though. And the music was better than before. Everything was really good until after 1am, when they, as usual, let too many people inside and it all becomes quite caotic. I can't handle too much people at the same time in a small area. It freaks me out. And the type of people going to Mango is not the 'touch-someones-shoulder-and-say-excuse-me-to-pass', no they are 'crash as many peoples bodies as possible and spit and step on their shoes'. I was so furious when I left that I was about to hit someone. Hard. And the worse thing is the stairs and the toiletques. When I finally had the chance to not fall in the stairs and pass the toilettque some idiot had of cours but a door handle straight out (the kind for big doubledoors) so I got that shit in my stumach. It still hurts. A lot. Sorta like my accident at Vibes on the Sunny Coast in Australia


Anyhow. I'll never go to Mango again.

Song of the day:
John Butler Trio (AUS) - Better than

Party like a rockstar!

I have to start off with this WEEK song: LaZee - Rock away But keep reading, more to read;) Wine, moving, Aussie Loo's, Skärholmen centrum

LaZee is a Swedish (!) hiphop/rap artist. Awesome, not my style but I love this song.

Wine Recommendation of the Weekend:
Brolio - Italy SEK 104kr AUS N/A. Lovely, rather heavy red wine, perfect for a nicer pasta with meat or some sort of steak. 4 of 5 dices

This weekend I've been helping J to move. Everything has been working perfectly. It's just a bit tight in the new wonderful unit. From 37 square metres to 22. Believe it or not, he actually have: hall, living room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom - on 22 square metres! Awesome design. I love the bar chairs - from Bolagret of course! My body feels pretty tired today, but I've got my biceps back!

We had lunch in Skärholmen Centrum today, it's a really great place since they changed almost it all! You can find anything you need there, including a awesome food court (and Bolagret!). Anyhow, I needed to use the loo. It was also unbelievable nice! And then I remember all the loos in Aus, they were everywhere, as good as always nice and they were always for free to use and always toilet paper!

Now I have to work for a while! Going to bed early tonight, I reckon.

I truely miss you, Erika! Hope everything is all good back home at the Sunny Coast!

TV Shows

I have never really been in to watching tv and tv shows. But when I came to Australia I started watching tv and movies like never before! My favourite series are Life an american actionish crimeseries and through my swedish friend Carro I started watching Rove every sunday evening @ 9 PM.

It took me more than a couple of episodes to like it, but as soon as that I just had to watch it every sunday! My favourite episode are when the comedians Hamish and Andy arrives to a Brissie Caravan Park after two weeks in a caravan driving from Perth (western australia) to Brissie "The Caravan of Courage" (I think they drove like 600 km/day). So they decided to broadcast from the caravan Park. With gusts like Good Charlotte and James Blunt e.g.

I never really liked James Blunt and thought he was a pretty boring person until I saw this:

Traffic

During my year in Australia, I spent a lot of time complaining about silly and stupid things in Australia compared to Sweden. One of the biggest things were about the traffic. At least on the Sunny Coast the intrastructure was terrible, but mostly about drinking and taking drugs and driving. But! There is two things that are good in Australia in traffic but not excisting in Sweden:


1. Talking in mobile while driving. In Sweden you can talk and drive without any legal problems. In Denmark e.g you can only drive if you use a headset. In Australia you are not allowed to talk in the phone while driving at all!

2. Bicycle with helmet. In Australia you have to wear a helmet when you bicycle. In Sweden you have to wear a helmet until you are 15 yo. Silly. Either permitted or not.


Song of the day:
Moi Lolita - Julien Doré

Roll the Dice

Hi and welcome to my new blog! This is a blog that hopefully will be filled with tech, music, photography, wine and other big and small things in life!

My name is Sophia, Im one of those swedish blondes who went to Australia. I spent one year (almost;)) at the Sunshine Coast in southeast Queensland studying photography and partying of course!

At the moment I am back in my home town Stockholm. I'm writing in english to keep my english going and give my Australian friends a chance to know what's going on in Europe.

Why 'Roll the Dice'? Music is an enormous inspiration in my life and the inspiration for this blog to be came from Finley Quaye - Dice.



Happy reading and listening!