Aaaargh - this is me and my laptop at stats time

http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/attachment.php?attachmentid=55242&stc=1&d=1142920093

New car for my 21st birthday

I've realised that my 21st birthday is approaching with alarming speed. With my driving lessons going very well I hope to pass my test in the next 2 months. The parents have agreed to get me a car for my 21st - which is great. Ill be able to get to placements etc and wont have to pay too much to get my own run around. Ill go in and pay half or a third of the cost. Unfortunately I wont be able to have it with me in central London. Now Ill compile a list of my dream cars.

• Volvo 240 - apparently the handling and steering are heavy and clumsy. I would probably need a pile of cushions to be able to see out of the windscreen. But as a positive its cheap to buy and cheap to insure. Plus my dad had this

• Old style Volskwagen Beetle - cheap, easily insurable but doubtful on handling and ride quality. More achievable than a volvo.

• Vauxhall Corsa - The most likely of all my choices. Im currently learning to drive in it and its quite nice. Vic had this when he first passed.
• Koenigsegg - well its nice to dream. Probably an insurers nightmare what with me being a first time owner and under 25. Plus my dad will say no - after his heart attack.

Hmm I know what my parents are going to say or more specifically what my dad will say "ehh kati, they were all out of cars at the salesroom. But your uncle has this very old rover with bullet hole accessories - Im sure you'll like it very much and think of the insurance".

Valentines day

Today we went to a Swedish restaurant in Bethnal Green for lunch. It was amazing, really cosy (actually extremely tiny) with nice service by mini Swedish waitresses and nice food. We both had gravadlax with a dill/ mustard sauce to start followed by reindeer sausage. It was great. A highlight included Martin breaking a wine glass. ^^

On the way home Martin revealed his hidden romantic side; after about 3 years of a relationship we are way past the fuzzy, pink hearts and flowers stage. He bought me my favourite chocolate riche truffles and suprised me by purchasing 2 bags as opposed to 1. Which was completely unexpected. He also bought flowers which is another strange alien experience. We called into Kings Cross as I wanted to buy photo frames and he suggested going to the very expensive flower shop there. This was a place where bouquets cost around £30 and can reach the £80 mark. I almost died of embarassment when he asked "I have £3. What can I get for £3?" My face was bright red. But the result were 3 beautiful dark red gerber daisies. He said he got the idea to do that from Breakfast at Tiffanys. I should make him watch more girly films for inspiration.

I had to carry them home. And we got aaaawed in the street by an older couple. I think the flowers must have looked quite sweet.

Toilet roll gate.

My flat mate has a toilet roll he carries to the bathroom and uses for himself only and takes out with him when he is done. How petty and small minded can you be? And to think I was buying toilet paper for the whole flat. I will be taking his approach from now on.

http://www.depechemode.com/tour/tourblog.html

I swear we were there...

Valentines horoscopes

Pisces

Friendship could turn to romance in the first half of January, if you're so inclined. A secret love affair adds excitement and intrigue to life from late January through early February. Your enhanced good looks will attract lots of romantic attention between February and March. Use your allure to seduce the object of your affection during this powerful phase. A family reunion that takes place any time from late April through mid-May will make you feel loved and appreciated. An attentive admirer will sweep you off your feet in late Spring. If you're already in love, the two of you will return to the early phase of your courtship during this romantic time. Getting engaged or married is favoured during the height of Summer; set your sight on the days between July and early August. Your sex drive will be at an all time high between August and September; it will be hard to contain your desires during this time. The month of November could be spent locked in your amour's arms.

Scorpio

2010 abounds with plenty of romantic opportunities, starting in mid-January and continuing through early June. You could fall deeply in love with a starry eyed dreamer. If you're already in a relationship, you may decide to buy a home together or even start a family in the first half of 2010. Whatever your relationship status, falling in love will feel like an incredible rollercoaster ride this year. A glamorous overseas trip is favoured between late May and mid-June and you could find love at somewhere scenic and historic by the water at this time. Spend the month of August with your amour at a secret hideaway, far from prying eyes. Your allure will be overpowering from September through November; don't be surprised when you tempt an old love back into your web of intrigue. The holidays will also give you a sexy glow that drives your amour wild. It will be impossible to keep admirers from your door throughout the month of December. Your amour could give you a sparkling token of their appreciation at this time.

Wildly optimistic horoscopes here.

Who has that much to do really?

Got woken at 6.30am this morning by Guy. Heard his alarm go and saw lights in the hallway switch on and off. Seriously. We are not in till 10 today. When asked, apparently he has a lot to do. He also doesnt sleep till 1 or 2 in the morning. No one has that much to do. Irritating little fool.

This week

This week has been busy busy - with my first Swedish lesson and Soas cricket meeting and drinks and seeing old and new friends. Uni has been non stop too with back to back work and Ive found I scored a (disappointing to me) 63% on the exam. Next week I have my first driving lesson in about 2 years with instructor Jimmy - motivational slogan "Any idiot can drive - look how full the roads are". I can tell its going to be an interesting experience for me, especially as I dont like being told what to do.

my dream car

I tried to fit in going to the gym but rejected the idea when I realised it was pointless in light of the rubbish I had eaten during the day (for the record - 6 oreos, a packet of double chocolate marylands, 3 chocolate teacakes and 2 large pies). In my defence that was an especially difficult day with 3 hours of reproduction and oestrous.

Right now Im awake too early on friday, watching Mad men on Dvd. How good is that series though? Im in love with Joan Holloway. Hot stuff ^^

One more resolution..

....Drink less tea. I must have had 5 cups yesterday, that can't be good. Need to get away from "I MUST HAVE TEA NOW, I NEED TEA, I'VE DONE 5 MINUTES OF WORK - GIVE ME TEA!!"

Sports gripe

Looking at on sports directs sale- hmmm... Chavs really are the worst thing to have happened to decent sportswear. I have never seen such bad trainers. Black and hot pink? Neon green and white? And why do cricket whites only come in mens sizes? I may have to brave Chav Central (Sports direct Camden) and go in, in person.

The most funny article

A Birmingham radio DJ discovered hell hath no fury like a woman scorned after his wife sold his £25,000 luxury sports car on the internet for 50p.

Tim Shaw's wife, Hayley, put the Lotus Espirit Turbo on eBay after her husband propositioned glamour model Jodie Marsh live on-air on his Kerrang! FM show

Mrs Shaw, 27, said the flirtatious interview had been the "last straw" in their relationship.

The car sold within minutes of it being posted on the internet site.

Mr Shaw upset his wife when he announced over the air that he would leave her and their two young children for Ms Marsh.

The item description for the car on eBay read: "I need to get rid of this car immediately - ideally in the next two to three hours before my husband gets home to find it gone and all his belongings in the street."

Mrs Shaw, who admitted she had sold the car after a few drinks, said: "When he said he would leave me and the kids for Jodie Marsh, that was it for me.

"I am sick of him disrespecting me and this family for the sake of his art. I didn't care about the money, I just wanted to get him back."

Mercy dash

She added: "There is no hope for a reconciliation. There have been a few things but this was the last straw."

The controversial DJ was suspended from the Birmingham-based Kerrang station after he broke into programme director Andrew Jeffries house during a live prank in which he caused damage to the property.

On another occasion at the station he choked on a sausage while simulating a sex act and he has been investigated in the past for pretending he was doing a live mercy dash to rescue a suicidal listener while working at Birmingham's BRMB station.

Mr Shaw was unavailable for comment but a spokesperson said: "We are not going to make any comment on what happened as this is a personal issue and not work-related."

A post dedicated to one of things i love most..

Baked potatoes. I love potatoes - here is my shortlist for top toppings/ fillings for a good baked potato.

For it to be a real baked potato it must be baked or finished in an oven.

Salsa (preferably chilled)

Chilli, grated cheese, and a bit of chopped onion

Plain yogurt, coriander and diced cucumber and/or red onion

Sautéed mushrooms

Cheese and beans

Curry

Tinned ravioli

Bacon, sour cream and cheeses

Chilli con carne

Brie, Stilton or grated mature Cheddar

Butter with black onion seeds and a little salt

Slices of smoked sausage

Video of the day

Relationship advice

I just had the best piece of advice from Guy - he asked what Martin was doing at uni, I said I spoke to him earlier and I had no idea what he was up to. From this I can surmise that both of us take in very little about the others chosen careers. From this afternoons conversation he said something about Charlemagne and other similar dead people and I babbled erratically about different types of exudate in acute and subacute inflammations. Therefore, it would be just as productive to talk to a wall, a bear or a chair and save on money on the phone bill.

I have decided to use my pingvin teddy as my substitute boyfriend - hes small, cute, warm in bed and possibly more intelligent than Martin (also doesnt answer back or mock me)- what more could I need?

What do we both have in common really? Scientist/ historian? Swedish/ English? Cricket/ football? Climbing/ martial arts? No shared interests - hmmm....I have my pingvin.

Feeling better

Much more productive today
Am going through lectures in depth
Have paid my phone bill and am now watching a programme called "The Root of All Evil? - The God Delusion" Its about the opposition between science and religion. Presented by Richard Dawkins who writes well about philosophy and religion but I find his scientific writing patronising and inaccesible.

Uhh Sick

Last night I hallucinated mice running across my floor - suprisingly life like mice with whiskers, legs and noses.

New dress

Bought off ebay. :) Deep mustard yellow/ ochre colour. Me happy :)

In love...still

Is in Love - but sick

At the moment I am sick and miserable in bed, I have no idea what it is that Im sick with - something extremely unpleasant I think - but I am extremely grateful for Martin leaving the DVD of Torment (1944) here in London.




I think Im in love with Alf Kjellin. Its a real shame men dont look like him anymore. I also think that there is nothing wrong with the name Jan-Erik.

Ive been on a bit of a DVD buying streak at the moment and have True Blood, How I met your mother and Mad men sets in my collection. Plus a few very cheap Bergman classics on which I am now hooked off Amazon.

video of the day

And the Swedish word for the day is....

...Husfru.

Which is what I seem to have become over the course of the day. I have cleaned every inch of the appartment from top to bottom. Worst of all its not my place - yet I still felt a compulsion to sanitise it. We are back to England in 2 days and it makes me a little sad. Back to working and stressing. Sigh, and not seeing Martin so regurlarly. Hopefully the next set of holidays will come round as quickly as Christmas did.

Now he has gone out to see weirdo Simon and shy Christoffer but he'll be cooking later on - pork chops and gouda. I intend seriously work on my mission to become a Svenska Hollywoodfruar and do nothing for the rest of today. Maybe some light reading and internet window shopping. I Feel so lazy though. Meh never mind, I deserve some lazyness in my life. Think of Anna Anka and do nothing ^^.

I am watching Swedish Hollywood Wives. Oh dear...I have reached a new low.

Kiran will be learning Swedish as of 19th January ^^

In order to a) assimilate better, b) Take a new challenge, c) Learn my 6th language and d) perhaps most importantly annoy Martin I have signed up to language classes in Victoria, London. Im really loking forward to a new challenge.

Course Content for Module 1 (10 x 2 hours)
Topics: Greetings, personal introduction, numbers, countries, languages, nationalities, weather, telling the time, daily routines, weekdays
Functions: Introducing oneself and others, giving and asking for information, talking about the weather, talking about your daily routine
Grammar: The alphabet, indefinite and definite articles, word order, personal pronouns, verbs in the present tense, prepositions of time, sentences with negations, translating "it", pronunciation and stress.

After 2 more modules of beginner I can move to intermediate and advanced of CEFR

Plus its pretty useful and quite cool to be able to speak Swedish. Im a big advocate for making my own changes and in the past year I suffered through not allowing myself to do what I really wanted to. I think it will benefit me not to be constantly surrounded by vets and to take things i want to do further. The only other course apart from this I want to enrol for is the rock climbing course in Swiss Cottage. Yaaaay, an exciting, independent year ahead I think.

I blog from the bed..hi. ^^

God loves everyone...even ginger kids

After staying awake a bit too long last night Martin and I went onto the website makemebabies.com and the result was well....here.

I think this is terrifiying - where has the ginger hair and that massive forehead come from?? This child has not inherited any of my features at all. Plus his eyes are too close together.



Better but those teeth need surgery.
No words necessary.

You would hope considering that Martin and I are not hideously unattractive we would produce normal looking children.

New years resolutions

1. Be nicer to people even those I dont like very much.
2. Get rid of toxic friends (people I cant stand and do nothing for me) hence, be more selfish
3. Concentrate on work and revise more effectively.
4. Complete essay for endocrinology society prize.
5. Complete applications for intercalate
   
6. Be a better auntie to both nieces in England, and those on the other side of the water
7. Take care of appearance -Remember to get eyebrows threaded more often; Keep hair short (no more long hair) and dress better.
   
8. Do things I enjoy more often - reading, drawing, listening to music, shopping
   
9. Take climbing course, go to the gym more as well
   
10. Learn Swedish properly (Already booked on a course for january)
11. Start up ladies cricket league in London
12. Become editor of uni magazine
13. Book trip to America to see Mathilda, Malin and Jonas.
14. Travel in Europe more.
    
15. Get a guinea pig
    

New year 2010

So, here we are on the other side of 2009. Unfortunately with all the here and there-ing and to-ing and fro-ing the blog has been somewhat hard to sustain. But now Im back and hope to make up for the non existence with a couple of posts. Martin has a few pictures from Christmas so hopefully those will go up and that'll explain Christmas in Sweden. As soon as his camera is retrieved from the abyss.

Last night was New Years eve and it was great, though predictably I was the only girl there (therefore, my new years outfit was wasted on the company present). As per usual I was dragged off to a 'man party' involving too much drinking, playing tekken and bonecrushing man hugs. I even got a kiss off John which was pretty bizzarre. Weirder than this was my first taste of snus. Needless to say I did not like it, it stung my mouth - I am not much of a smoker and I am even less of a snuser. We woke up quite late and hungover (well Martin was) but he was gentlemanly enough to buy pizza, coke, grill chips and dip. Thus making him the best boyfriend in the whole world. He is though, I probably dont say it enough, even though at the moment he is glued to the tv watching Ivanhoe.