(no subject)
Tuesday 15th December 2015
Another week passed, still quite busy. Alas, this week the only incentive at the end was tacos for dinner on Friday **sigh**. The weather wasn't especially notable, except for some misty rain mid-week that made cycling to SFI pretty miserable.
SFI continues to be somewhat frustrating. I hate doing the 'diktamen' exercises, where we are randomly paired and one person has to dictate a section of text from a sheet on the wall by the door, a line at a time. It is SO frustrating because the Arabic-speakers can never understand or convey the vowels properly, despite all my efforts to be clear. I can only hope that the teacher in the next group I end up in will be better, though I don't know how long it will be before I 'graduate' to the C2 group.
I finally ran out of wool for the scarf I've been knitting for Per. Mum has bought me one more ball to add once I get home for Christmas, though it will be hard doing that and keeping it secret from Per! It will be worth it to add some extra length though. I just need to remember to pack it! I have ended up frogging two projects in the past week or so, both of the lacework items. Dammit. I need to learn to count properly **sigh** I have started two other projects in the meantime, since I need circular needles of the right size to restart the other two. And more suitable yarn for one of them too. A circular blanket, that now needs a circular needle with a longer cord, and a hat to match the first shawl I was making. It's going to be tricky, since I am not really following a pattern for it, just sort of improvising. I imagine I shall have to restart it a couple of times before I get it right. If at first you don't succeed! Meh...
We had a nice dinner of Swedish style tacos on Friday night, after coming back from doing some grocery shopping. I had suggested that we re-watch Avatar, since we've both seen it and wouldn't have to pay 100% attention to it. I could get on with swearing at my circular blanket.
At the weekend our free time pretty much finished. We had a leisurely morning, but then had to spend time getting ingredients for cleaning, washing clothes, making mince pies, going to the gym... Sunday was little better, since we had to be up earlyish so we could get breakfast and then go out to Uddevala to feed some cats belonging to a couple of Per's friends, then down to Gothenburg to get a picture frame from Ikea for the cross-stitch I made for Per's dad, and finally to Per's dad for his julbord. Whew! We were there a little early so we helped by taking the dishes of completed food upstairs to the lounge table where people could serve themselves before taking their plates to the dining table. It was a really nice selection - I actually preferred it to the Farmer's julbord to be really honest. Instead of Risa la Malta, there was äggost with cinnamon and sugar, plus Lucia buns, skumm-tomte, along with the mince pies and coconut tarts that Per and I had brought.
On Monday the chaos was in full swing. During work in the morning I got notification that the package I was waiting for from the US had arrived, not in Sweden, but in Providence, RI. So, back to the state it started in, and it was eventually delivered back to the sender later that day. I spent some time arranging with her for the package to be sent back out, but this time to Mum. Maybe the Swedish address confused the half-wits who work for the USPS sorting offices, who knows. I have heard nothing further from the seller though, so I am getting suspicious! In any case, I will not get the damn earrings before Christmas. Thank-you USPS, you suck donkey balls =_=
I only had one SFI lesson because the teacher had some kind of meeting at 2pm, so I was able to get some cleaning and sorting done before going out to the gym. Per I and then went out to Överby to get the car washed and buy a few things in ICA so I could make almond and white chocolate truffles as a thank-you for Per's dad. Time was ticking on by then, but at least it did not take very long to cook the fresh pasta ravioli for dinner. We only watched the rest of the episode of Arrow we had started the week before, then I made a start on the almond truffles, making the almond butter myself with the mixer rather than using a pre-made jar. It turned out...OK. Ish. Maybe. I think perhaps I should have crushed the Rice Krispies a bit, because the balls I formed with that mixture were only ball-shaped in the very vaguest sense of the word. While those were chilling in the freezer, I melted the chocolate and then got as many as possible coated. I wasn't able to do them all, but I did make a full cookie-tub full, so that should be OK.
Tuesday was a repeat, but even more frantic. When I got back from work in the morning, I spent that time folding up clothing that was washed and dried at the weekend, and when I got back from SFI I was putting the recycling in bags, ready to be taken away. Per and I were due to go around to the new apartment at 5pm so we could talk to the current occupant and take measurements. That went pretty well, and the lady showed us the storage space and laundry room in the basement too. The storage space is pretty huge, compared to what we have now, but the laundry room is tiny! There's only one washing machine and the dryer has half the capacity of the one we currently have access to. Ah well, I guess it couldn't all be great. And we did get an explanation of why the kitchen is such a funny shape - the lift shaft eats into the apartment's area.
After that we were supposed to get something very quick to eat before going out to visit Alex and Johan, but she had contacted Per to say that she had a headache so they wouldn't be up to entertaining guests that evening, leaving Per and I with time to eat grilled chicken from ICA with salad before getting our bags packed. Urgh, I hate packing, and thank goodness we had all that extra time to do it in!
Another week passed, still quite busy. Alas, this week the only incentive at the end was tacos for dinner on Friday **sigh**. The weather wasn't especially notable, except for some misty rain mid-week that made cycling to SFI pretty miserable.
SFI continues to be somewhat frustrating. I hate doing the 'diktamen' exercises, where we are randomly paired and one person has to dictate a section of text from a sheet on the wall by the door, a line at a time. It is SO frustrating because the Arabic-speakers can never understand or convey the vowels properly, despite all my efforts to be clear. I can only hope that the teacher in the next group I end up in will be better, though I don't know how long it will be before I 'graduate' to the C2 group.
I finally ran out of wool for the scarf I've been knitting for Per. Mum has bought me one more ball to add once I get home for Christmas, though it will be hard doing that and keeping it secret from Per! It will be worth it to add some extra length though. I just need to remember to pack it! I have ended up frogging two projects in the past week or so, both of the lacework items. Dammit. I need to learn to count properly **sigh** I have started two other projects in the meantime, since I need circular needles of the right size to restart the other two. And more suitable yarn for one of them too. A circular blanket, that now needs a circular needle with a longer cord, and a hat to match the first shawl I was making. It's going to be tricky, since I am not really following a pattern for it, just sort of improvising. I imagine I shall have to restart it a couple of times before I get it right. If at first you don't succeed! Meh...
We had a nice dinner of Swedish style tacos on Friday night, after coming back from doing some grocery shopping. I had suggested that we re-watch Avatar, since we've both seen it and wouldn't have to pay 100% attention to it. I could get on with swearing at my circular blanket.
At the weekend our free time pretty much finished. We had a leisurely morning, but then had to spend time getting ingredients for cleaning, washing clothes, making mince pies, going to the gym... Sunday was little better, since we had to be up earlyish so we could get breakfast and then go out to Uddevala to feed some cats belonging to a couple of Per's friends, then down to Gothenburg to get a picture frame from Ikea for the cross-stitch I made for Per's dad, and finally to Per's dad for his julbord. Whew! We were there a little early so we helped by taking the dishes of completed food upstairs to the lounge table where people could serve themselves before taking their plates to the dining table. It was a really nice selection - I actually preferred it to the Farmer's julbord to be really honest. Instead of Risa la Malta, there was äggost with cinnamon and sugar, plus Lucia buns, skumm-tomte, along with the mince pies and coconut tarts that Per and I had brought.
On Monday the chaos was in full swing. During work in the morning I got notification that the package I was waiting for from the US had arrived, not in Sweden, but in Providence, RI. So, back to the state it started in, and it was eventually delivered back to the sender later that day. I spent some time arranging with her for the package to be sent back out, but this time to Mum. Maybe the Swedish address confused the half-wits who work for the USPS sorting offices, who knows. I have heard nothing further from the seller though, so I am getting suspicious! In any case, I will not get the damn earrings before Christmas. Thank-you USPS, you suck donkey balls =_=
I only had one SFI lesson because the teacher had some kind of meeting at 2pm, so I was able to get some cleaning and sorting done before going out to the gym. Per I and then went out to Överby to get the car washed and buy a few things in ICA so I could make almond and white chocolate truffles as a thank-you for Per's dad. Time was ticking on by then, but at least it did not take very long to cook the fresh pasta ravioli for dinner. We only watched the rest of the episode of Arrow we had started the week before, then I made a start on the almond truffles, making the almond butter myself with the mixer rather than using a pre-made jar. It turned out...OK. Ish. Maybe. I think perhaps I should have crushed the Rice Krispies a bit, because the balls I formed with that mixture were only ball-shaped in the very vaguest sense of the word. While those were chilling in the freezer, I melted the chocolate and then got as many as possible coated. I wasn't able to do them all, but I did make a full cookie-tub full, so that should be OK.
Tuesday was a repeat, but even more frantic. When I got back from work in the morning, I spent that time folding up clothing that was washed and dried at the weekend, and when I got back from SFI I was putting the recycling in bags, ready to be taken away. Per and I were due to go around to the new apartment at 5pm so we could talk to the current occupant and take measurements. That went pretty well, and the lady showed us the storage space and laundry room in the basement too. The storage space is pretty huge, compared to what we have now, but the laundry room is tiny! There's only one washing machine and the dryer has half the capacity of the one we currently have access to. Ah well, I guess it couldn't all be great. And we did get an explanation of why the kitchen is such a funny shape - the lift shaft eats into the apartment's area.
After that we were supposed to get something very quick to eat before going out to visit Alex and Johan, but she had contacted Per to say that she had a headache so they wouldn't be up to entertaining guests that evening, leaving Per and I with time to eat grilled chicken from ICA with salad before getting our bags packed. Urgh, I hate packing, and thank goodness we had all that extra time to do it in!