One, two, three, four...

From Russia with love.

Inventive title, I know. While I'm in Portugal I thought I'd show you some photos from Russia... We took over 1000 (that's just me & Mike, I've not even seen all of mum&dad's, Joanna's and Dennis'...) so this is just a snapshot, if you will. Ha ha ha.

Scary scaffolding...




My new home. Funnily enough it's the same colour as my old room back home. Or, it will be until my parents redecorate it... sniff. I suppose it has had a good 15 years of being lovely bright blue!




Me and my friend Bear. (The Swedish word for bear is also a man's name... bit of trivia for ya!)





Wonderful restaurant. I have to admit I've forgotten if this was the Armenian or Azerbadjani one though? Ohyes, the walls are textured. They looked yummy.




I was only kidding earlier, this is my new house.

I see a red door and I want it painted black, no colours anywhere I want tthem to turn black.

My parents are redecorating my old room at home.

I think I'm meant to be upset about this. Or sad? It's a gorgeous colour - I picked it when I was 10. Parents thought it'd be too bright. But it's great.

I'd keep it that way!

But I think 15 years of various pin holes from a variety of posters (everything from Spice Girls to Nirvana, from Ozzy to Tigger...) has taken their toll on my poor walls.

Thought I had a photo but it appears not - how odd!

Webs.

One frosty morning I'll take photos of some of the spider webs on my route to work. They're gorgeous in the morning sun.

I'll avoid taking pictures of the spiders though. Cos no one wants to see them!

Leningrad sky.

I'm quite pleased with how this one turned out. I'm not a photographer - far from it. But I enjoy it. When they turn out nice!

I managed to snap quite a lot of good pictures during an evening boat ride in St. Petersburg. big skies.

The electric company.

So the other day we started wondering why we haven't received an electricity bill this quarter. Checked the online account and it said a bill was due to be issued the next day.

Fine.

Fastforward until today, over 2 weeks later, still no bill. Mike rang the company and they said the bill isn't due until November as they never issued our first bill (which we were supposed to get a month after moving in).

I suppose we'll just have to wait and see... who knows, we may be one of those households that never gets any bills ;)

xx

And why not?

In Russia, police hit bins with batons.

Party til the break of dawn.

Tonight I'm out with work colleagues. Should be nice - I don't go out enough.

And yes, of course I do get enough of colleagues at work but I'm sure I can stomach it for one night ;)

Will be nice to see some of them in a different setting!

Me-grain.

The other day I came home from work with a stinking migraine. It was hurting to the extent that I took one of my tablets (which I really don't like taking) and was in bed asleep by half past 7.

My parents rang around 10 and of course I woke up. Spoke to them for near enough an hour. Then back to sleep.

This was Monday night and I don't think my head's recovered yet.

The joy! I'm sorry to be moaning but will it always be like this? I'm now exercising (walking half hour each way to and from work, sporadic gym sessions even!), not eating bad food, getting fresh air, decent hours in bed. It's just stupid now.

Rela-la-laxa broder, ta en paus och softa.

I'm rarely stressed over things. I try not to let things get to me. If stuff needs doing I try to be sensible about it and not let it overwhelm. Sometimes I even succeed.

We're going on holiday a week today. We've got accommodation for 7 out of the 12 nights. Maybe I should be stressing over that?

No. Life's too short.