Aim for the Stars and Land in the Tropfest

Swedes are not the only ones to have an affectionate relationship with Sweden and recognise a certain amusing aspect of homo swedus. Local Sydney filmmakers have caught the Nordic vibe and created a little black and white short film all about the quirky Swede. Check out this Tropfest finalist called Den Sista Galaxonaut, directed by Alexander George and Tyrone Lindqvist. This film follows an extremely competent and successful guy called Sven Larsson who was the first man on the moon (at least according to George and Lindqvist). Though not a winner of 2011 Tropfest, it is definitely the winner in my books. Any guy called Sven is a winner, simple as that.

Illustrated Fashion

People love fashion, people love art. Sometimes the two come together and make a perfect match. Such a happy marriage is just what funkis fashion in Australia has entered with Swedish Artist Stina Wirsen. Since graduating from Konstfack, the College of the Arts in Stockholm, in the early 90’s, Wirsen has created an interesting body of work, all ranging from stamp-designs for the Swedish Post Office, illustrating for a broad range of Swedish companies, to portraits and fashion illustrations. Wirsen now spreads her art over the boarders of Sweden and creates fashion with Funkis downunder. Check out the stylish t-shirt available through Funkis in store and on-line. Hopefully there will be more illustrated threads coming our way in Australia.

Be Cool Back at School

The school year has kicked off and there are few things more exciting than getting some new stationary to bring to school. Or if you don’t go to school, still get some new stationary just to get into the swing of things from outside the school grounds. Nothing wrong with being a student in spirit only just to be able to update the stationary stash!
Forget all the freebies you got from various sports groups, banks, insurance companies, hairdressers, politicians, dog walkers, nursing homes, fast food outlets and the likes. The logos tend to be ugly and the quality is normally rubbish. Have you ever tried to sharpen a freebie pencil? You can hang over that dustbin until you get led poisoning and dislocated discs trying to sharpen the crumbling resemblance of a pencil. And just when you put your finger on the tip to check the strength, it will break off. Again. In one word, infuriating. And you always have that sneaky feeling that some endangered rainforest has been biting the dust in the process... So take control of your stationary look this season. Head to Kikki K and make use of some of that back to school rebate the government is offering to Australian families. Who is eligible? Who knows, but worry about that later. Stock up on pens, pencils, paper, notebooks, calendar, friend book and all the other essentials for a successful and stationary rich 2011. With good well-designed stationary à la Kikki K, at least you’re off to a stylish start, ready to tackle the new year ahead.

No Age for Road Rage

The year has already clawed its way to the third week of January, a side glance and weeks are lost in that black hole called life. New year came and went with no resolutions on the horizon. Except for the reoccurring one; a resolution to have no resolutions. Still, there was one family friend who repeated a resolution that has been a standard one for him and his wife, the resolution not to have any road rage. What a healthy resolution, in my opinion. If you can remain Zen about your time on the road, life will feel so much easier. See yourself as a fellow traffic producer, who clogs up the road space as much as everyone else. Then see yourself as part of the solution, not just the problem. You can be part of both on this account. Give people the benefit of the doubt that they might have a broken indicator, don’t know the road rules, rushing to get that international flight ready for take off, visiting a dying relative in hospital, just lost their job, their girlfriend or the plot. Or in a worse case scenario, all of the above, in which case, really stay out of the way.

The solution is to feel smug about your superior road knowledge and behaviour, shake your head condescendingly, and say to yourself (very important, don’t shout out the car window or mouth any obvious nastiness) “look at these clowns, aren’t they just a funny bunch of amateur drivers, where on earth did they learn to drive”. Just let the whole thing wash over you, water off a duck’s back. Because it’s actually proven, anger doesn’t get you there any faster. It just gets you there angry. And who wants to feel angry.

So next time and the time after that and after that and after that, when you feel the urge to start abusing drivers around you, take a deep breath and just DON’T do it. Turn up the radio, play some good music, listen to an audio book or just have some time to reflect. It’s not going to cost you much, if anything. If you have to be on the road, why make it more unpleasant than it needs to be. Energy comes in limited supply; so don’t waste it on something as pointless as road rage. Open your arms and say to all around you; “welcome to the age of no road rage”.

When the going gets tough, Christmas keep coming

Here we are again, Christmas around the corner, faces in brown bags hyperventilating while trying to figure out how they will have time to fit it all in BEFORE that special time called Christmas. Breath in, breath out, it will all be fine.

The answer is, just make a little list, not the wish-list sort of list, but a tick-the-boxes-kind-of-list. I love them; they work so well for me, very satisfying, even if you don’t get past one tick. Still, one tick is one tick off a list…

So, when we stare down Christmas in the white eye, feeling like a bunch of lemmings charging for the edge with no chance to swerve that final drop off the cliff towards certain Christmas impact, my advice is, embrace it!

Back to the list, write down the five most important things about Christmas that is absolutely imperative to the whole idea of Christmas.
My guess is that presents might be on that list. That’s fine; I’m not judging anyone.
Just remember, online shopping as a wonderful thing, go out there and go crazy. Why not spend your dollars at a place where your gift keeps on giving. Head to Oxfam, great gifts, great organisation.
When it comes to presents, and when children are involved, it is easy to overcompensate. Start making a little list (another one!) in your head and figure out who else except you will give that child another item that will gather dust in the near future. All of a sudden you have a whole chain mail, a pyramid scheme in your head! You really don’t have to buy more than two. It’s true, and the chances are your child will end up with 40 gifts regardless.

For everyone else above the age of 18, buy tickets to a show and make an outing of it, together! And if you really can’t stand each other that much, buy tickets to separate shows and avoid any further family feather ruffling. Hot tips, Sydney Festival, theatre or concerts. We all love them.

Socialising, family and food will probably also be on that list. At least I hope so. Family, do what you need to do and don’t whinge about it. Once a year, it can’t be that bad (surely?!). If it is, don’t bother, make changes that works for you, as well as the consequences of those changes. Friends, remember, the world as we know it won’t stop after the 25th, there is always time to catch up after Christmas. Food, very important. As the years goes by, my Christmas foods get more and more creative, and sometimes have absolutely no relevance to Christmas at all, if I remember right, Christmas Eve dinner last year was lamb roast and potato gratin with sparklers in a rice pudding. But guess what, it was a great night, lots of laughter and dancing and happy children, and there was no pressure to judge if I had got it right, because I was so wrong. So for this year, I’ve got open slate for what to dish up on that smorgasbord. It might be a tad more traditional, I feel. But as my husband fondly says, festive Swedish food is almost all the same; it’s potato, fish and meatballs, in different creative variations.

My top 5 list goes as follows:
1. Presents
2. Christmas tree
3. Lussebullar
4. Christmas food to some extent (think, ham, or herring, or salmon in some constellation together with other foods)
5. Family and friends – the number one out of the five

Wishing all and everyone a Merry and Happy Christmas, and just remember, there is more than one way that’s the right way,
just do it your way!

It’s in the Bag

Having spent the last three months traveling and packing/unpacking, squeezing, throwing out, smuggling extra weight into the unsuspecting children’s bags, walking onboard with two pairs of pants, jumper, jacket and scarves just to relieve the bags of some weighty overweight, I feel that bags have been given too much space in my current traveling situation. I keep on fantasising about the trip I’ll make with nothing more than a passport, credit card, a book and a notebook… maybe some clean underwear, 1 change of clothes, a brush, a little wash bag….. a pair of bed socks, another change of clothes, make that three… some high heels (for some special occasion that might arrive out of the blue), a pair of good walking shoes, presents for the family, a cardigan (it might get cold), that summer dress I never wear but I might wear more often somewhere else, a second handbag, a hairdryer and a pair of clogs, sunhat…., correction: sunhats to be safe, nine pairs of jeans…..

Let’s face it, that walk on, walk off trip will never happen. Another utopian dream that has no actual relevance to the way I lead my life, but that’s ok, what’s wrong with arms that drag on the floor and a back that looks like a silhouette of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. So would it be true to say that one’s handbag is a reflection of how we travel in a suitcase? To some degrees I think this might be the case, and this is completely based on hard evidence – my own handbag. In it you will find the usual paraphernalia of diary, wallet, keys etc, but next to that will be a teaspoon-in-waiting for that yoghurt I might buy, or not, an article I feel I will have time to read, sometime, 40 different napkins from 40 different cafes, they will come in use, a pair of lost kids socks (oh, there they are… still!), 1 shoe, just to know the right size should I come across a shoe store with those special shoes my son keeps telling me to look out for, a really funny comic strip I once read and thought is the perfect cheer-me-upperer that might be needed at a crucial moment, and the list goes on and on.

So for this kind of living I need a sturdy handbag that can deal with a lot. I usually lean more towards the ones that are made out of safety belts and carry a stamp of approval from NASA. A handbag is not just a bag; it’s a vital vessel in your life. I don’t change handbags the way some people do, I normally settle on one that I like and then I love it to death. I will use it well beyond what is hygienically appropriate in most Western countries as well as esthetically pleasing to the eye. But they say that love is blind, and in my handbag case, this is definitely true. I keep the image of that first moment of having my new handbag and that impression will stay with me for a long time, perhaps too long, according to some less handbag love struck people. But hey, it’s my bag and I can wear it for as long as I want.

So my newest love is a Finnish beauty by the name of Marimekko Olkalaukku Messenger Bag. It ticks every box. But then again, you can always trust Marimekko to get it right. The amount of stuff I can fit into it is fantastic, and still, it looks in great shape and wears its weight lightly. Deep pockets and a trusted design classic from the 70’s, what more can one ask for. Over the shoulder or across the chest, it’s your choice. And if the Messenger bag isn’t your bag, there is plenty more to choose from, check out funkis for more goodie bags!

Raspberry cordial = liquid gold

There are many ponderings I ponder on a daily basis and one of them is if raspberry cordial is more valuable than melted gold. When you are confronted by the almost vulgar price of 9 dollars a punnet (of 200 lousy grams of half-hearted berries) in Oz, it is easy to see that raspberries might just be berry gold. And I would like to claim that it is, for more reasons than I can really fit in this blog. Let’s start with the name in Swedish….. Hallon. It is a kind of breezy, laissez-faire kind of name that just sits so right on the tongue. Let’s taste it again, Hallon. This delicious berry with such a delicious name also looks so delicious. Plump little red cushions that all hang together in a perfectly perfect shape of berry plumpness. A delight to the eye as well as the tummy. Then I just love the fact that it grows like weed and people just can’t give it away for love and money when the season is right. I remember my mother stalking the neighbourhood to please release her of a kilo or five, only to be met by slammed doors in her berry face, as they probably had just managed to shift their own surplus raspberry stash somewhere else. It is the berry of abundance.

And this is what brings me to the comparison with liquid gold, in two words, raspberry cordial. The cordial sans competition. The nirvana of cordials, the Holy Grail of berry juices, the complete cordial experience. I reckon you haven’t lived if you haven’t drunk some homemade Swedish raspberry cordial. And the key to this love jus is captured in those three words; raspberry, Swedish and homemade. The homemade bit goes like this, passed on down through generations, at least two. Doesn’t sound that impressive but there you go.

Mamma Ingers Raspberry Cordial

Makes 8 litres

5 litres of berries (fresh the best but you could use frozen as well)
3 litres of water
4 kilos of sugar
35 grams citric acid

Powder the citric acid over the berries in a big bowl.
Boil water and sugar.
Pour water and sugar over the berries in the bowl.
Let it rest for 24 hours.
Siv the mix and pour straight into bottles. Keep cool in the fridge.
The cordial can be frozen, just don’t fill the bottle to the top, keep upright.

Make plenty of it, so for the rest of the year, you can dig out the liquid gold from your stockpile, relive the summer hallon feast of flavours and savour those little moments of glory that just makes life worth living. But please, don’t take my word for it, go hunt, gather and make for yourself and you will thank me for it for the rest of your lives.