Royal Ibicencan visitors

Very special visitors showed up the other day, camping in my new sofa (!!), spreading their stuff around, most notably a Spanish hoof that showed up in my fridge... that tastes remarkably like pata negra. They can come visit again whenever they want!!!

Best Santa ever

Meet Santa. She was amazing. And incredibly fashionable with a faux fur vest... 

Reunion

Met up with my old high school friends for a lovely fish'n'chip dinner at Malmo's self-confessed first gastro pub... Was great to catch up, talk about the good old days and share a few laughs. Not so sure about whoever-it-was reminding us about the fact that 2011 is our 20th anniversary of starting high school. Gulp. Gulp again. But then again, come to think of it, just sounds like a good reason to have a party really.

White Xmas cubed

After many ifs and buts (read: 2 cancelled SAS flights, a 2am rise to make it to an easyjet flight at Stansted - I now love the low-cost airlines) I made it back to Sweden for Xmas and was greeted by an amazing landscape. The train journey from Copenhagen to Lund took well over an hour instead of the normal 30mins, but I was too busy enjoying the sun on the snow to really notice. And in Bjarred, my sisters beautiful gingerbread house was looking forward to hosting me for over a week.

Rudolf the kitchen godess

Don't think I would have pulled that off two years ago. I'm really making some amazing advances in life.

The sunrises...

I've actually gotten to enjoy quite a few lovely sunrises over London's rooftops, thought I'd share another one.

Picnic anyone?

It's not so bad not having furniture, means it's much easier to have picnics on your livingroom floor. 

Sunrise is the new sunset

I've entered a new phase. This phase is all about sunrises (may have something to do with winter approaching and sunrises becoming late enough to catch!!). This photo is taken from my (new) bedroom window at 7am this morning. Beautiful eh?!

Another b-day party

Back at the "big house", and the brothers made sure it was a good one, providing excellent tunes and BBQ'd mini-animals. Was a lovely evening, albeit ended up being pretty wet, with most of the party participants ending up in the pool, fully clothed... that's how they do things in Beefa 'parently.

Today I'm giving an ol' dream another chance of being fulfilled as we head out to try and catch the fullmoon rise from the ocean. Some of you will remember that we tried, and failed, in March. Better luck and all that and will let you know how I go.

And Happy Birthday Maria!!!

Happy birthday me!!

Ibiza decided to rain on my birthday, at least in the morning, and when it rains here it really really rains... So the place we meant to have my birthday lunch at was pretty much rained out (it was a scary sight seeing cars trying to make their way up the hill in the mud, skipping and sliding). Anyway, I'm happy about it cause we ended up going somewhere else where I had one of the top 3 meals I've had on the island. It was so good people were fighting over the food.

 

Gone shopping

Oups, has it really been over a month?!? Well, time flies and all... I did manage to squeeze in some nice times in London and back home in Sweden. I took my adorable nieces shopping. Seriously... cute... or what? I'm now back in Ibiza spending some time as a pretend business consultant for the world-renowned chef of La Grande Bouffe (check out his blog about rhubarb Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb)... There's only so much beaching and yoga one can do without going a little bit bonkers.

Best landlord(ess) ever

This lovely selection of local produce is what awaited me when back on the island. The figs are absolutely bursting and the eggs are scary yellow :-).

Yoga retreat

I'm just back in Ibiza after a (re)treat of a week with an amazing yoga teacher / woman. We did 6 hours of yoga and meditation a day (don't ask how we got it in), it was exhausting, but great and I learned so much that I now intend to implement on a daily basis... In addition, I got to hang out, eat well, enjoy great sunsets and nice walks. My tent (below) was nice, but oh so hot in the daytime, so any napping had to take place in my hammock. Met loads of nice yoginis (16 to be precise) as well, and one yogi (I trust he felt well taken care of last week).

Ibiza baptism

She wasn't feeling quite a part of the island yet, so before I took Ann to the airport we had a little ceremony for my 107. And she's now a proper part of the island, gecko sticker and all.

And there really is no end to the excitement, as tomorrow I'm off to a yoga retreat outside Seville for a week. Will share the fun next weekend! 

Exhausted, entertained and a couple of shades browner

An incredibly packed week later and I've waved off both Vanessa and Ann at the airport yesterday and the house feels terribly empty. We have been busy little bees, but I dare say that we've enjoyed much of the finer things this island has to offer... Such as Atlantis with no other people around (aim for starting your trek at about 10am and you're fine ;-), lunch and beaching at Es Cavallet, lovely fish at Es Torrent, (near) sunset at Benirras, the old part of Ibiza town etc etc. If I may say so myself I think I've turned into a pretty fine Ibiza ambassador (and yes, that's Vanessa jumping off a cliff in case you were wondering what on earth she's doing).

Congrats to the Crownprincesscouple!!!

Or Kronprinsessparet as we say in tongue-twister Swedish. Of course we had to celebrate the royal couple despite not being invited to the wedding. So we sat down at a lovely place in Ibiza town, had a glass of cava and some chocolates that travelled here all the way from Sweden, only to then be left in the back of my car and melt into an unrecognisable mess of lingonberry, blueberry, hazelnut and milk chocolate. Obviously didn't stop us from enjoying it with a couple of spoons instead.

Ann's here!

So we're doing the sights and the beaches and the views and the food and the icecream and and and. I've re-discovered how lovely it is being a tourist on this island and my little car has faithfully taken us up and down various little dirt caminos as we've tried to get off the beaten track.

Spiritual.

Very. This island. Promise.

Unemployed. Officially.

As my notice period is (finally) over today. I decided to celebrate it by taking up some work in Ibiza. Pitting apricots, or albaricoques as they are locally called. And the "pay" was a lovely lunch of pasta and beef.

Made it to Ei-Beefa

After a week on the road I've arrived at my home for the summer and its wonderful... The flowers are overflowing the island (thank you rainy May) and whilst it probably won't last for very long (August heat is here with temperatures reaching 30 degrees!) I'm enjoying watching and watering my little garden of roses, bougainvilleas and more (check out the view from breakfast table below).

Despite all the time off I've already had, the thought of a whole summer of NOTHING that I need to do is almost overwhelming, but I'm sure I'll be alright. There's plenty of exploring to do, beaches to visit, clubs to check out (starting tonight with an experimental no-booze evening at Aura, DJ'd by Boy George amongst others!), food to be cooked and eaten and books to be read. Oh and I need to have time to do some yoga as well. Actually, now that I think about it, how do people have time to work???!???

(And happy b-day mum!!!)