Passion fruit!

A hot tip: grow your own passion fruit! The plant is nice and clingy, it will climb just about anything! And the flowers are absolutely beautiful. But the best part is the fruit! Our plant is three years old and got it's first fruits this summer. They were small but very tasty.

Passion fruit is an absolute favourite of mine. It gives almost any dessert that extra little something to make it pop. It appears as though the passion fruit holds some medical purpose too..

Here's a yummy and really simple dessert for ya:

Slice a few bananas length-wise.
Mix a couple of passion fruits with crème fraiche and a little brown sugar or honey. The mix should be fresh, not too sweet.
Spread the bananas in an oven-proof dish and cover with the mixture, add a little extra brown sugar on top. Put in the oven for about 15 minutes, 200 degrees Celsius. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream.

Su Jok Massage Ring and Stick

Su Jok is a modern version of traditional acupuncture, with roots in Korea. My parents went to Tylösand Spa and came back with a massage ring and stick from their shop-of-weird-stuff.

These are small mean-looking wire tools that you are supposed to roll on your fingers or between your hands or feet until they're all warm and tingling.
It's effect is related to that of acupuncture or acupressure, with zones in the hands or feet corresponding to different body parts. I am not sure about what I think of all of this, but it does feel really nice and soothing for tired hands and feet.

Beach reading

I just finished the tales of the Otori, by Lian Hearn (a pseudonym).

"Brought up among the Hidden, a reclusive and spiritual people, Takeo knows only the ways of peace. But he possesses the supernatural skills of the Tribe - preternatural hearing, the ability to be in two places at once, to become invisible.

When his life is saved by the mysterious Lord Otori Shigeru, Takeo begins the journey that will lead him to his destiny within the walls of Inuyama. It is a journey of revenge and treachery, honour and loyalty, beauty and magic, and the overwhelming passion of love."

These three books will not haunt you night and day until you finish them, like the books of Dan Brown did (I think The Da Vinci Code was said to be "unputdownable").

Still, they're very much enjoyable.
You can read a bit, put the book down, go for a swim and go on later. Set in a Japan-like environment, with stories of war and love and just a little magic, they're a soft introduction to fantasy.

My experiences of fantasy so far are a bit of Tolkien (who, of course, beats the **** out of pretty much any other writer when it comes to creating worlds inside your head) and Robin Hobb (another pseudonym). I've liked it and will probably encounter this genre again.

Summer nails

A favourite of mine: Lumene Super Gloss & Quick Dry, color "Satin Clouds".

One coat: A healthy pinkish shade with just enough color to barely be noticed.

Two coats: Very nice to match the tan (the tan that I would have, had I not been working all day)(and had the weather not turned from amazing summer to thunderstorms and rain).

Here's a little color sample for y'all.

Madeira trip report: GARDENS

Madeira is very green and has lots and lots of weird and beautiful plants and flowers. There are innumerable gardens to visit, here are the ones we tried

Jardim Botanico - Lots of cool plants and a great view over Funchal. Buy the fennel candy from the souvenir shop. Funchal is actually named after fennel,"funcho" in Portuguese.

Monte - the town park (municipal gardens). Down the stairs from the square and you're in paradise!

Monte.
Palheiro Gardens - beautiful but expensive, entry fee is 8 Euros.

Madeira trip report: NATURE

Encumeada. Don't miss this one! Way up in the mountains (easy to reach by car) there is a wall where the clouds run down the slope like a waterfall. If you're there at the right time (which is fairly often) you're in for an amazing experience. It is a bit of a gamble since you never know when, but try it out!


Pico do Arieiro.With it's 1819 metres, Arieiro is the second highest mountaintop on Madeira. It can be reached by car, and from here you can walk (a long and scary walk) to the highest one, Pico Ruivo (1834 m). I didn't go there. Of course it wasn't because of fear, I just didn't feel like it ;) Too much trouble for fifteen measly metres! The Pico do Arieiro is amazing. There are two miradouras, or viewpoints, from where you can see almost the whole island!


When we had lunch on the north viewpoint, we were attacked by really friendly and hungry lizards! They crawled all over us and ate the crumbs of our sandwiches (they were also fond of my nail polish and tried to bite my finger off. Luckily they had no teeth..) I later learned that this was the Madeira Lizard, an endemic species. Very cute.


Madeira is a Mecca for trekkers, since it has irrigation channels, "levadas" all over. Not only do they provide water, but very beautiful walks thanks to concrete maintenance paths. The levadas go high up in the mountains, in the countryside and even downtown!

This is a levada we walked, Waterfall Risque. Amazing views! Try it!

Madeira trip report: SWIMMING

Madeira seems to have it all - except beaches. Two hours away by ferry is Porto Santo, an island that seems to have gotten all the sand for itself. I didn't go there but it's supposed to be really nice.
However, if you wanna go for a swim there ARE options. Here are two spots we tried and liked.

Calheta - two man-made beaches opposite of eachother. Watching over the beaches is a giant mountainwall with a waterfall.

Porto Moniz - natural lava-rock-pools that have been enhanced with concrete to become a real beach paradise. It was kinda windy, though.

(Lido, right near Funchal is a saltwater pool-complex which I did not visit, but it's supposed to be good.)

Hey, hey! Remember! Every part of Madeira has it's own micro-climate, maybe because of the mountains... Fear not if you wake up to a cloudy Funchal. Just go a bit west or north and there is a good chance the sun will shine!

Madeira trip report : SHOPPING

Yep, the shopping was nice even though the Euro has made everything more expensive. Mango, for example, is still a good bit cheaper than in Sweden.

Here's where to go.

Madeira Shopping, Sta Quitéria, Funchal. The big mall I told you about. It's really nice and hosts all the major shops.

C.C Forum Madeira, Estrada Monumental, Funchal. On the very same street as our hotel. This is a new (from the looks of it) outdoors mall that has about the same shops as Madeira Shopping.

The capital, Funchal, is well worth a visit. Very beautiful and picturesque, narrow streets and beautiful buildings. If you want to find the shopping here, go to Rua do Aljube and Rua dos Ferreiros. However, it is pretty much the same stores here as in the malls, I didn't find much individuality here.

If you want to check out some local life, visit the market. It is situated in the east of Funchal, right near where the lifts take you to Monte.

This is a Madeiran specialty, the Espada, often served with banana!
The market has a large fish department, and a somewhat less smelly part where they sell flowers, fruits, baskets, birds, books and a whole bunch of stuff. Be sure to watch the fruit prices, because I am pretty sure they fiddle with the scales sometimes. At least when youre a gullible tourist..

Oh, I learned something new about the brands here. They're very much intertwined. Mango is the only one that seems to stand on it's own, but Zara, Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius and Oysho (dont miss Oysho! they've got awesome underwear and some nice clothes too!!) are part of a huge group called the Inditex Group. That I did not know. It seems like they're all able to keep their individual profile intact though, so all is good.

Madeira trip report

Madeira truly is a paradise island with lots of stuff to see and do. Conveniently enough it is also quite small, so getting around is kinda quick. Thanks to lots of tunnels through the mountains, it can be even quicker. But then you miss the scenic route..

The inhabitants are very friendly and helpful, and the tourism has not struck Madeira as hard as, say, the Canary Islands. One thing that surprised me was the great knowledge of English. Almost everyone spoke impeccable British English. (I found to my great joy that they don't dub the TV- programmes into Portuguese, they have subtitles instead. Maybe that has something to do with it?)

view over Funchal

SLEEPING & EATING:
Stayed at the Florasol west of downtown Funchal (capital) - the staff and service is real nice, try to get a room in the tower if you can, ours had two balconies with sea view. The hotel restaurant is good (there is another restaurant at the pool deck that's supposed to be great), but the breakfast isn't much to hang in the Christmas tree, as we like to say in Sweden..


The eating experience was a real disappointment. Everything is deep-fried and the vegetables are overcooked or from cans. Beware of most restaurants!
We found the needle in the haystack though, every later attempt to try a new restaurant brought us right back to this one:

Trigal in Funchal (on the corner of Rua dos Aranhas and Rua da Carreira)
Great prices, an exciting menu (compared to lots of places here), fresh vegetables, yummy pizzas and awesome garlic bread! This will keep you fed all week long! Oh, except they're closed Sunday...

will be back after a short break
next: SHOPPING!

I am off to paradise island (I hope...) Madeira for a week of sunbathing and novel-reading.
Cya!

And look.. they have shopping too!

Black is the new black

I bought a pair of cheap pumps on Wedins the other day. They were an awful blue but the model was really nice. So I got myself some Boston shoe color. Two layers applied with a sponge, and the awful blue shoes turned into a tasteful black.
Now for the test drive.. Will they last through scratching or walks in the summer rain? Time will tell. The color turned out really nice though. So for now the status is : Recommended.

Bombay

After the concert I and bf went to one of my favourite restaurants in Gothenburg, Restaurang Bombay on Andra Långgatan. It's a lovley Indian (duh!) place with cheap, VERY yummy food. They have a great lunch offer too.

According to Göteborgs-Posten the service sucks, while we agree on the food part of the review. I have never had a bad experience with the service, the staff is very nice and helpful. However, I do think that the restaurant may be too small for it's popularity, it is always crowded and that might bring a little stress into the minds of the waiters. Nothing to whine about.

Now to the food..
We ordered Chicken Tikka Masala (picture) and Begum Bhara. And, of course, lots of naan.

The Chicken Tikka Masala is subtly spicy, it's not overwhelmingly strong when you eat it but after a while your nostrils start running. Which must be seen as a good sign. Read about Tikka Masala here.

The Begum Bhara is chicken in a cognac sauce with nuts and ground meat. It was milder than the tikka masala and complemented it very well.

My favourite Bombay dish is a dessert. The carrot cake is amazelicious. Not so much a cake as warm, runny dough poured over vanilla ice cream. It is very spicy with pieces of ginger and nuts. You cannot visit Bombay without tasting this.

Lager 157

Today a couple of friends and I went to Lager 157 in Gällstad, near Borås.

It has lost some of it's former glory, probably it does so in the same pace as becoming increasingly popular. Stuff is not as cheap as it used to be, which is kinda bothering me.
However, I am very pleased with the move and redecoration, it looks less like a warehouse and more like a boutique.

The finds today:

A light turquoise t-shirt from Abercrombie & Fitch

A couple of scarves

A pair of boxers / shorts? from Swedish brand Velour

Not bad.

When I got home though, I got a bad case of post-shoperative-angst. I rejected a t-shirt at the last moment, which I very much regret. It was a très soft and very cool tie-dye C&C California tee. Here it is:

I now absolutely love it because I cant get hold of it. And the price was ridiculously low compared to that on the homepage.. 220 SEK versus $ 62.00. I am such a fool!

It may be discussed whether I am a fool because of not buying the tee or whether, in fact, I am a fool because I am so stuck in the consumer-trap. I have absolutely no need for another t-shirt, no matter how soft or cool it is. Damnit. Sometimes it hurts to be clear-sighted.

Vacatierra

Yesterday I went to Musikens Hus for the finals in the Emergenza Festival music competition. Ten bands were playing, and I was totally swept away by one of them.

Vacatierra rocked!! A bunch of kids from Kungälv who apparently have been winning a lot lately (see here and here). The music was impossible not to move to, energetic hip-hop-ish soul with elements of pretty much everything (including amazing backup vocals). And I have never seen such well synched stage behavior and audience contact at a rookie concert before. They are definitely on the road towards big-ness!

Now if you kids could put some music samples on your webpage, so people get what I am talking about!!

White nectarines!

This is a little known fact in Sweden (at least I did not know until my friend pointed it out to me).
There are two kinds of nectarines, yellow ones and white ones. I never picked the white ones before, because I thought they were less ripe. This is wrong! Abroad I have noticed that they are sold separately, which would be nice to see here too.

To those of you who weren't aware of this most valuable piece of knowledge: look for nectarines that are WHITE and red on the outside. They are much more aromatic (smell them in the store) and have a sweeter taste, even in a state of crispiness where most yellow nectarines would find themselves tasting bitter and powdery.

Read more about this phenomenon here.

Tack Anna! Nu har jag också beach hair...

Idag gick jag äntligen och köpte saltvattensspray från H&M, efter att ha läst hyllningen på Annas (o Malins) blogg.

Jag avskyr nytvättat hår, det flyger och är mjukt och lent och oformligt. Helst ska det ha gått både två och tre dagar sedan man tvättade det sist, så att det håller sig där det ska vara och är lite trassligt och gôtt. Men det känns ju inte alltid så fräscht att vänta så länge kanske.

Har letat efter något som får håret att bli så med en gång efter tvätt men resultatet har inte varit tillfredsställande. Tills idag. Flaskan är rätt liten dock, undrar just om man kan göra eget saltvatten till håret eller om det är för elakt?

Nu är inte jag den som stylar mitt hår nästan någonsin, men man blir nästan lite sugen när man kollar in den här sidan(det finns även en kändisavdelning om man är lagd åt det hållet). Många många gallerier med inspiration, får nog ta fram locktången snart...

Se hit torrisar!

Apoteket kanske känns lite osexigt att gå till när man ska gå och handla krämiga krämer. Men, det går inte att förneka. De har sina pärlor.

Locobase Repair. Tillför kroppseget fett och ska vara riktigt bra för problemhy har jag hört. Själv faller jag inte in under den kategorin, men sol och salta bad kan ställa till en del ändå. Krämen är jättebra för läpparna bland annat, funkar bra under både läppstift och -glans.

CCS Fotvårdssalva innehåller 10% karbamid som binder fukt. Jag begränsar mig inte till fötterna utan avhjälper även torra sommarsmalben och armbågar med denna eukalyptusdoftande salva.

ACO Time Shimmering Bodylotion Q10. Mitt senaste Apoteket-fynd. En skimmer-kräm som ger musikvideo-textur till huden. Krämen luktar dessutom gott och håller fukten länge. Jättefin på tex lite brunbrända armar, jag hoppas på svenska sommaren!

Santa Inés

Jaha. Så har systern tagit studenten, och ingen tur med vädret fick hon. Tio och en halv grader. Men det har varit hemskt skoj ändå, försäkrade hon mig när hon blåfrusen anlände efter lastbilsflakandet. Här hemma hade vi buffé med allehanda godsaker, vilket leder mig till tipset.

Santa Inés lådvin från Chile. Nu är jag ingen raffinerad vinkännare och tänker därmed inte
förirra mig in i massa beskrivningar som hänvisar till flora och fauna, men DN skriver såhär:

"Det chilenska Santa Inés är ett mer klassiskt rödvin med mer karaktär och mindre knäckig druvsötma. Doften är öppen och tydlig med fin mognad och en bra, lite örtig ton av de båda druvsorterna, cabernet och carmenère. Smaken är lång och tydlig i en förvånansvärt och föredömligt sträv, rejäl och mycket matvänlig stil. "

Hursomhelst, jag vet vad jag gillar och inte. Det här fetdiggar jag. Väldigt "rik, lite eldig" smak, kanske jag ska våga mig på att säga.

Where to get it? Ja, det är ju som det är.. Systemet.

Quick English translation:
Yummy bag-in-box red wine: Santa Inés from Chile. Try it out.

My most recent time-waster

"Desperate Housewives" is dark, Tim Burton-esque (it should be, Danny Elfman made the theme) and very entertaining.
It takes place on Wisteria Lane, a perfect suburban street with green lawns and great neighbours. At least that's the way it seems...

The main characters differ very much in style and personality, not unlike Sex and the City. Instead of meeting at a local bar or café to do the heavy gossiping, they meet at home, playing poker. The juicy news can be anything from infidelity to cold blooded murder. However, they all keep more or less dark secrets from eachother too (which the girls in SATC never did, they found support in eachother). In this series, it's all about keeping up appearances.

I have to add this to my list of "What to see if you have to watch TV".

Te och bestick

Det här började med ett tips om mitt favoritte. Grönt te ska ju vara riktigt bra för hälsan har man hört, men ofta har det en omisskännlig arom av halm som knappast kan kamoufleras med honung.
Mitt absoluta favortitte, "Grönt & Skönt", är just grönt, men med väldigt fräsch och klar smak.
Teet ska smaka hallon och citrus, men detta är inget som dominerar eller ens märks om man frågar mig. Grönt & Skönt finns att köpa i lösvikt hos butiker som samarbetar med Te-specialisten.

Hursomhelst, när jag letade fin bild på teskedar, kom tipset även att omfatta en jättefin bestickserie jag har skaffat från IKEA. Den heter "DATA" och besticken är sådär tunga och sköna i handen, och har ett tunt, lite lyxigt handtag. Rekommenderas!