Fly birdie, fly.

You and me - always - and forever / You and me - always - and forever / ba ba ba ba ba / it was always / ... /

On Marley and Me/I, from David Crystal's excellent blog.

Interesting. I remember heated discussions about this back in college (high school for you Americans...), but I can't remember what my stance was.

So, clearly it was an issue very close to my heart.


Any grammarians with views? And what about in Swedish?

Sunday.

Yesterday was a typical Sunday. Slow. Lie-in. Some bad TV (Back to the future 2. Seriously). Supermarket. Looking at glasses. Some yummy food:

Roast veg couscous with grapes. This is so easy. And so gorgeous. For those who speak Swedish as a second, third or 14th language, here's an approximate translation:

4 dl couscous (uncooked)
400g cherry tomatoes
200g green grapes
small aubergine
a couple of red peppers
raw chorizo (we used 6 small ones)
a fennel or cauliflower (definitely fennel!)
a leek and/or onion
couple of parsnips
150g feta cheese
greek yoghurt.

Now the recipe says don't cook the couscous first, but I did and it was great so that's what I'd recommend. Spread the couscous over a largeish (deep) baking tray, cut all the veg and stuff and cover the couscous. Crumble feta cheese on top. Pop in the oven for near enough an hour. Serve with yoghurt (recipe says 'and coriander' but I say coriander should never be eaten so I'd say 'and basil or other fresh herb).

We've just put in whatever veg we've had in the fridge really so don't worry if you're missing any of the ingredients above. Don't miss the fennel + grapes though!

Check out Om jag var din hemmafru for more great recipes (and use the google translate function...)

Blog: HelloMiami.

Don't you feel you're wasting your life when you see someone as talented as this: http://hellomiami.blogg.se/index.html

I do.

Bloggtips.

Only in Swedish, sorry. But you can use Google translate! :P

http://blogg.joannaforsberg.se/

It was different in my day.

When I was in my teens, it was not considered cool to spend a lot of time online. LunarStorm (lightyears ahead of the FaceBook trend...) was about as far as people went, and even then it was definitely not cool to put too much time and effort into it. People would edit and play around with their profiles, put emo pictures on and send each other messages. But chatting, surfing for the sake of it, blogging? Hell no.

I loved it. I spent every waking moment online. We had a two-hour-a-day limit on time spent online (or in front of the TV; like we couldn't do both at once - plus our homework...) but we broke it. Most days. I'd stay up way past bedtime chatting on Yahoo and ICQ, in fact until I heard dad get up the next morning. I'd sneak to bed, hoping he hadn't heard me still up.

Sorry Mum & Dad - I'm pretty sure you already knew though!

But now, I've discovered all these Swedish blogs run by the gorgeous, popular, perfect girls... And it sure as hell wouldn't have been them blogging when I was that age! But then I suppose these days (man I sound old) blogging can make you a celebrity. And you can make money off it.

So that's why I do it. Half-hearted as my efforts may be...

;)

On writing.

I would like to write again. I say this a lot, I know. But as you'll have noticed from my lack of activity on here I've not had much time for any kind of writing, unfortunately.

What would I like to write? And why would I like to write? If I had the choice - as we so often wish we did - I'd write something that made a difference. To someone, anyone.

A lot of what I read at the moment (online, that is) is mindless. Rubbish. Surely I could do better? Some is witty descriptions of their every day life, and is actually amusing. I could do that? Not much, but some, of what I read is commentary on current affairs, to do with mental health or in other ways 'interest'-blogs. But what am I interested in? More to the point, what am I interested enough in to write insightful, entertaining blog posts about?

I recently promised someone I went to uni with to read and comment on a short story he's recently written (I haven't done this yet, but will tonight. Promise!). He's clearly carried on writing. Maybe not continuously since he left Lancaster back in, oh 2007? - but he's writing. And of that I am jealous.

So, where is my inspiration? How do I stop being such a grumpy sod complaining about not writing, and just make myself write?

Over and out.