Lots has happened since the last time :) First of all we went to Australia Zoo and had an amazing day :D It's a great zoo as they always take the animals for walks so you can have a closer look and say hi, and they also have really cool shows :)

Shortly I will update you on the trip to Coffs Harbour and Sydney, just have to collect some photos first :)

xoxo

It has been a busy time the latest week as I now have not only one but THREE visiters! It's like a bottle of Ketchup, first you get nothing... Then nothing... Then lots :) I have not hadone visiter from back home in the 2.5-3 years I have been down here and suddenly I have three and I get to be "tour guide" :) Which is a lovely job :)

During last week kept busy with the many shopping centres and beaches the Gold Coast has to offer and it was a lot of fun. Then Elin decided that it was time to see a bit more of this lovely country and she flew to Cairns to then make her way back down here with the Greyhound buses.

On Monday afternoon Malin and Mikael arrived from "the north" and I joined them for dinner in Brisbane and then yesterday we spend the whole day touring around Brisbane. We went for a walk along the beautiful Southbank, a ride along the river and walked around both the city and the botanical gardens before it was time to head down to the Gold Coast. Today I am taking Malin and Mikael to our Swedish Pride IKEA :D And after getting full of meatballs and other nice Swedish stuff like Marabou Chocolate, "bilar", "knackebrod" and maybe some "ballerina" we will head to the beach and tomorrow we will meet up with Elin for a day at Australia Zoo :D

*Highlights*

xoxo

Ok, to not write in like 3 weeks is being a bit too lazy I have to say... Was thinking that I should probably try to find myself a new routine, one where I include writing on the blog at least once a week... :)

Anyway, since I talked to you guys last the biggest thing that has been going on is that I FINALLY, after 2.5 years in this country, I HAVE A VISITER !!!! Which is so very exciting, to finally get to show someone form back home my life here :) Elin arrived last week and we have been keeping really busy. The first 2 days it was raining so I made an effort to take her to some of the awesome shopping centres around the Gold Coast... The only problem with that idea, is that if I TAKE her there, I obviously have to COME myself, which usually leads to shopping, which is not always the best, at least not for my wallet... :) Seriously, the next one we go to, I think I have to leave money and visa card at home :)

The latest 3 days we have had absolutely perfect weather and spend some time at the beach and some at the pool in the garden. I have also gone around and applied for jobs, as I have the goal of getting one... But it's a bit hard at the moment, because most companies are in the process of firing Christmas Holiday staff... But hey, all I need is one job, so I am sure I will find one soon...

Sarah and Elin on Collangatta Beach :) An absolutely amazing day on the beach... Though the only one not red after that day was Elin.... She was the only one that was good enough with the sunscreen.....

xoxo

Hey guys!

So it's been a while... Which is what usually happens when I go home for a visit :)

I have had a few days back in Australia now and things are pretty much back to normal. The focus now is on getting a job and then a new place, I think one year with the parent-in-laws is enough, I have enjoyed living here, but it's just time...

My trip back from Sweden went great, the only little thing was that my bag somehow got lost at Amsterdam airport so it ended up arriving the day after me. Which was quite perfect I reckon, because that way I could get through costums way faster, because I had no bags and I didn't have to take care of my 27 kg bag, instead it got delivered to the doorstep the day after :D Sweeet!

The visit to Sweden (and Gran Canaria) was awesome... Catching up with friends and family is wonderful and always hard to leave behind when it's time to go. Experience a bit of winter was nice to, since I had not had winter for 3 years! On the day I arrived back it was 36 degrees, let me tell you, it was quite a chock when I steped through those arrival doors!

A few highlights from GC...

A few highlights from Sweden...

My new laptop bag is finished :) What do you think?

Yepp, there has definitely been some serious mobilisation of this little one person army lately:) But now I have finally come to a stop for a while in Sweden. I will be staying until next year :P Sounds like a long time when you put it like that :)

Me trip from Australia to Sweden was a very long one, probably a total travel time of 37 hours I'd say. So I was reasonable tired when I arrived, and since I only had a 16 hour rest before it was time for the next trip I was even more tired when I arrived on Gran Canaria. It was Lisett, Alex and Petra that were going, and I came along as a "little" surprise. And that surprise was definitely a successful one :D I think dad almost thought he had lost his mind there for a second ;)

We had a lovely week with some nice weather, days in the sun and one adventure to Las Palmas and one to Mogan.

Some highlights

xo xo

In May 2012 I am going to a wedding at one of the wine farms in the mountains.

I know I don't really have to get a dress just yet, but I found a dress a few weeks ago, and now it was on sale too, so I just had to get it! I ordered it from the States, but it was free shipping and the bill ended on 59 AUD, which is like 380 SEK, I reckon that is a bargain for a long beautiful dress like this. I can't wait for it to get here, unfortunately I will have left for Sweden before it does, so I will have to wait and see it until I get back.

But here it is, what do you think?

Now I just have to manage to stay at my 50kg so it fits when its time for the wedding.... :P

Its been a while I know... But seriously I have been sooo busy... Busy with enjoying the start of a very long Summer break :D Last Thursday I had my last submission and now I am just enjoying a few weeks of Summer before I come to Sweden :D

This weekend was spend down Coolangatta way, like most weekenda are. Me and Carlos went to Currumbin Rock Pools to start of the weekend, and later on met up with some friends and went snorkling :)

Anyone who has ever been snorkling can imagine how much there is to see in a place like Australia, but this was the first time Carlos had gone snorkling here, believe it or not! And when he saw how much there actually was to se he turned into an excited 5 year old :)

Most of my days now are just waking up and deciding if I am going to the beach or staying around the pool :P

The baby bird has grown heaps and is almost as big as the adults now, although it does not have their radiant colours just yet.

Here is a picture from the Currumbin Rock Pools

This week has been a quite good one... I started it off by having my last presentation, which went really well :)

Then on Tuesday it was a big day here in Australia, it was Melbourne Cup! Which is basically A horse race in Melbourne and then to join in they have heaps of horse races all over the country, and people dress up and go to the races. Pretty much everyone does something for Melbourne cup. And as I had not yet experienced Melbourne Cup Day the proper way, me and my friend Nieve decided to go to the Horse track in Southport. We had an awesome day with a whole group of friends and it was a great experience, especially it being my first time at a horse track :)

Another exciting thing that happened yesterday was that the little bird decided that it was time to leave the nest box, and I was obviously there with the camera straight away :)

It is now about 3.5 weeks old and actually looks like a bird, but it still depends on the parents to feed it. This morning it had its first little flight :)

Yesterday I also managed to finish one of our big group assignments, we spend 7 hours straight at Uni getting it done, no food break no nothing, we just wanted to be done, and now we finally are! All there is left to do now is some miner changes to my last project before submission and then its summer holidays until end of February!!!! wiihiii!

xoxo

wow.... It has definitely been some intense work this week. But yesterday I finished and submitted one of my final projects, so that is one down and two to go... The next thing on the list is a project presentation due Monday at 10am. So I got my weekend cut out for me... Almost done now though!

One of the hardest things with starting a life so far away, is creating a full life. Yes, I have got Uni, my boyfriend, my classmates, but compared to the busy life I have always lead, my life down here is not nearly as busy. So on Tuesday this week I decided I needed to add something to my everyday life and I am now a member of Gold Coast Tennis and first practise was from 7pm to 8.30pm Tuesday night. I enjoyed it so much! I had forgotten what it was like to go to pracise and to start a different sport then badminton makes it even more interesting because there is so much to learn. And my background with badminton was quite obvious to my 3 coaches :) Hopefully it will be to my advantage, but I will just have to wait and see how it goes :) Super fun though!!

Here comes a rendering of my latest project

Hello lovely people :)

Hope everyone is enjoying autumn back home, you'll be happy to hear that we are now entering the storm period down hear, so my weather wont be as perfect as it usually is ;) Storm season is quite an experience. The other day we had a crazy rain and thunder storm. We also got a bit of hail and I am not talking about the kind we get back home... When it hails here its not little flakes coming from the sky, its huge things that sometimes can be the size of a golfball and can ruin your car for example, in other words not a very safe weather to go outside in.

Anyway, sorry to be a bit inconsistant with my writing, but you know how it is, life is a busy place to be ;) At the moment there is not that much to tell really, just 4 weeks left of this semester and I have got lots to do, the way it usually is at the end of the semester. So if I can just get myself motivated for the last few weeks, it should be all good :D Trying to stay positive and really believe that inspiration and motivation will come to me :)

I do have one exciting thing to tell you, which I have been keeping a secret now for a week, cause I did not want to jinx it. I am now a mum (bird mum that is)!!! My two birds have had eggs a couple of times, but the eggs havebeen infertile, but a week ago I started to hear some funny noises from their nest and when I looked inside I saw a little baby bird in there :D Sooo excited! I was scared that something would go wrong and that it might die, but the parents seem to be taking good care of it and its now about 8 days old:) Still have not managed to get a photo of it though :( But I will work on it...

Here comes a nice warming picture that I took at the beach this weekend though :)

xoxo

... Too bad it was not one of those good "first times"...

Last night I drove to Brisbane to stay the night at Carlos place. Since I was planning on going back in the morning I decided to drive up instead of taking the train like I usually do, as it is free to park during the night. I read the sign and it said that you had to pay between 9am - 7pm. So I happily took it easy when I woke up the next morning and left at the same time as Carlos was leaving for work... You can imagine the look on my face when I realized my car was not where I left it... Turned out there was another sign saying No stoping between 7am-9am that I missed...

The sign looked like this

So after realizing that the car had been towed away I called the police station to figure out where I needed to go to get it back. Then I called the towing company to get the adress, took a taxi that costed me 16 dollars, paid the guy 202 dollars to get the car, only to recieve an additional 100 dollar fine that needs to be paid within 28 days... Talk about an expensive mistake, but it is safe to say, I will NEVER make that mistake again and hopefully this story will be something I can laugh about later, not just yet though...

Except for that little fiasco things are good, only have another 4 weeks left of this semester and its gonna be quite busy weeks with 3 big design projects to finish, so I am about to get back to studying, want those projects to turn out really well as they are about 50% each, one project for each course...

xoxo

On Friday I handed in the last project/analysis before a nice one week break :) The project was about analysing a famous house. I was analysing Glass House by Philip Johnson. Here are a few images I made of it.

The weekend has just been relaxing on the beach and trying to learn to surf... Its not the easiest thing to learn, but I'll get there, although it is a bit scary.

Last week I was at the beach in Surfers and this is a picture of yet another skyscraper going up... They just keep on coming!

This week will mostly be relaxing in Brisbane, but I'll probably fit in going to the beach and some studying of course.

Hopefully we'll go to our favorite caf'e too at some point, Shingle Inn :)

... you get sticky and hot just from walking from the car to Uni in the morning...

You know Summer is on its way when you get honked at or get a comment from a passing car 1-3 times while walking to Uni...

You know Summer is on its way when you rather buy a cold water then a coffee on your break...

You know Summer is on its way when the temperatures are starting to go above 25...

You know Summer is on its way when you realize that you only have 7 weeks left to the Summer holidays...

You know Summer is on its way when your wearing only a singlet and shorts, but wish you could wear less while in public :P

Yepp, you get the point, Summer is definitely on its way on this side of the planet, but me, I'm actually really really really hopeing for a white, cold, beautiful and proper Christmas back home :D

Today we had another physics quiz, which I think went pretty well, and next week I have 2 big submissions before enjoying my mid-semester break :)

xoxo

Last week I had one of those urges to create, as you do sometimes :) So I did what I usually do, go on the computer, pick an image and start drawing. Here is the result.

I framed it and gave it to Carlos, so now its standing on his desk in his apartment :)

This latest week really feels like there is not too much to tell, just a regular week really. Had Uni all days except Thursday, been to the gym a couple of times, spend wednesday night til Friday morning in Brisbane, had a small quiz on Friday which I got 5/5 on :D and right now I'm spending a lovely and sunny Sunday in Brisbane. On today's to do list we have food shopping and washing for Carlos and then go and relax in the sun in the Botanical Gardens. I should really get some studying in too, which I will at some point :)

xoxo

So this weekend was my birthday, and what a great one it was :)

It started with breakfast in bed and "Negerbullar" like its supposed to. Carlos had found the recipe and for the first time in his life made Negerbullar:) So a great start to the day.

Later on me and Carlos went for lunch in the city and then went shopping for my present. He had already got me a little something that was coming in the mail, but he wanted to get me something more. I really needed a watch so we went around and had a look at heaps of different ones. In the end I found my favorite which was a gold Armani watch that he got me :D I have never been much for expensive stuff, and this is definitely the most expensive watch I have ever had...But I love it, and I chose it because its a little bit different.

After shopping we took the train down to the Gold Coast and had dinner with Carlos parents and later on they sang for me and we had mudd cake.

I really could not have asked for a better birthday, enjoyed it soo much.

On the Sunday I we met up with Nicki and Nicole. Carlos and Nicki went surfing and me and Nicole went shopping and then went to my favorite cafe, Max Brenner, which specializes in chocolate :D We had chocolate fondue:D

After we got tired of shopping, or really when there were no more stores to go into :P We went down to the beach and met up with the boys. Nicki had brought a kite so we ran around on the beach flying the thing.

That was pretty much the highlights of the weekend. Today "the little something" that Carlos had send to the house got here. I got really surprised by the size of it and I got even more surprised when I opened it and saw that it was a guitar!!! I hadn't been able to bring my guitar from Sweden when I went for my visit last so he thought he would get me "just a simple one" so that I could have one in each place...

I have to say that this birthday I feel like a have gotten really spoiled, but I am appreciating it soo much... I guess that is the one day of the year you really should get spoiled :D