With Love from Brazil

It's my BIRTHDAY and I at least look toned

I have never been off-skates for this long before. My last practice I went to was with Shock Exchange the day before I left NYC. I was even a tad sick then and sat out the last few minutes of scrimmage.

Since then I've been a busy bee and catched up on work in Sweden, hung out with friends and family. And now I'm in Brazil, and it's nice here, it is warm and my body is happy with me. 

Me and my brother have taken some surf classes, and I regret to tell you that I'm now leaving roller derby to pursue a career in surfing... Or nooot! I am not very good, I guess it's good to get to suck at things sometimes... 

Ah, well... at least I'm trying to regain some fitness that I lost during the Holidays and by being sick. I'm also adjusting and about to tackel some major things in life. I can't wait to be back on skates, it will hurt so good. Oh, and I'm as tanned as I can be... And I still have FOUR more days to complete my transformation to a tanned beach babe. (Not that looks matter, but they do)

A free day in BERLIN

So on Monday I stayed in Berlin to just hang out with Titty and Anna, and sadly enough Titty got sick... so I had to hit town with Anna and Kosmic... and after almost carting Kosmic off to the wrong airport (Berlin has two main airports) it was just me and Anna running out and in in stores... I tried on hiiiigh heels and then we had some Aisian food before we headed home to Titty who was in bed with the flu. To make my life a little more exciting I missed my flight, since i for some crazy reason had looked on my arrival time in Stockholm and assumed it was my departure time from Berlin. So I had to spend some hard earned savings on a new ticket home, because staying another day was not an option, I had a late night date waiting in Stockholm and a job e next day that enable me to go on those travels...  

Best shoes EVER.... I did NOT buy them!

In Paris - transit

Burgers and red wine... when in Paris.... 

So on my way to coach in Montpellier I spent one night in Paris with my best friend Em. Em has NOTHinG to do with derby, we know each other from back in the day when we both competed in snowboarding... Now neither of us really snowboard anymore, but we are friends for life. She's probably the person in the world that knows me the best! It was great to get to hang out with her and to catch up on what's happening in both of our lives. We haven't seen each other since we went to Barcelona with my mother in May, and as we all know, lots of things have changed since then.
We went out for food, had some red wine, I insisted on the red wine since we were in France, I mean, she lives here, and I don' 't but I like red wine.

In the morning we went to the bakery and got the baguette and the croissant - just like they do in the movies. Back at Ems 17m2 we made coffe and had a mellow and supernice breakfast.

Best friend EVER!

The bread is still WARM from the bakery! 

Making New Friends

Frederico and Johanna...

There is no time for resting!

So I went to Brazil for about 10 days - and of course I wasn't going to just sit around on my ass and do nothing... (even if the 7 books I brought sort of indicated that).

I acctually manged to get up and run six days out of the nine and the rest I went for really long walks. It was superduper awesome to run along the beach.  I did 30 push ups per day and 60 sit-ups after the runs... or sometime during the day... I hate to feel like I have to start allover again after a vacation. I also tried to surf, and I am not very talented in the area, but at least I did not drown and I have an urge to really do it again with some more focus. The hardest part is to get out there, and then to stay on the surfboard, and sit on the surfboard, and to catch the wave... well.. one day... one day... I WILL try again! An extra thanks to Frederico for the few but sort of helpful intructions, and letting me use his board. Oh, and also a shoot out to Johanna for the aimless discussions we had about everything and nothing sipping caprinas...

...well I did not work out on New Years Day since that day I spent feeling like I was ran over by a tank...

And what about my books?
 I have to be honest - I only had time to finish one, and that was the Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. It was quite an interesting book and I am suprised I have not read it before, there are parts of it that I really dislike, and there are parts that are quite amazing... but the book is very well written... 

And for Natal, Brazil: I am in love - I will for sure go back, the food was amazing, the people were great and the nature, the nature... just so breathtaking that words are not even ale to begin to explain...

On top of the beach outside Pipa

Beach of Ponta Negra my morning run strech... 

In Natal, Brazil

This has nothing to do with Rollerderby - it has to do with vacation! I have a great time with family, with sun, long walks on the beach and lots of food and more food... And of course some drinks...

On our way back to Sweden

The bout yesterday was great - but more about that later. We are now driving back to Turku to take the boat back to Sweden. We decided on a spontaneous mushroom picking stop - and it resulted in wet feet and some chanterelles! I was super excited to run around in the woods, I love nature, I just don't get to spend enough time in it. I often get trapped in the city - in the concrete of the city - and this lifted my spirit and made me just laugh to myself. Good thing I bought two pair of shoes at the flea market yesterday... When we get to Turku and the boat I will have dry shoes!

This could be a "funny mushroom" Glenn is the expert!

Kantarelli - I have an eye for those

Trolskt is all I can say!

Leaving Barcelona

Time flies when you are having fun - now back home - straight into a training committee meeting.

It's been a great time with family, food and slow Internet... And a tiny bit shopping... I think I even spotted a derby girl in the city yesterday, she had a HRD bag... We all stared at each other...

At one point I found a bear! Or can I say I became one?  I really enjoyed Barcelona - but at the same time I'm really excited I'm back in Stockholm... I love the lovley Stockholm... I just have to wait a little longer to skate around in a bikini!

I love my mothers house

Sometimes pictures say more than a thousand words... 

Sister hurt her knee

My little sister had to go to the emergency room for a twisted knee... Nothing terrible - she will be fine after a few days on crouches. She does have a good story to tell, and it was not my fault - it was dad who raced her down the hill... But then she was having lots of fun with the wheelchair at the emergency room... Kids heal and forget fast!

Me and snowboarding are finally friends again...

It was AMAZING to snowboard again - i miss it - and i finally feel like I have à healthy relationship to snowbaording. We can have fun together - and I wanna go again, and again... and again... who wanna come with?

When I quit snowboarding it was like breaking up from a long relationship - and even today I have a hard time to talk about part of the life I lived back then. To be honest, I was a very unsecure 20-something, I wanted so much, I felt so much and most of all I never felt like I fitted in.

I truly loved snowboarding, and I was good, really good, but I never became as good as I wanted to, and I was good, and that took it's toll on my selfesteem, and so did the constant struggle to proof myself as a girl in a very male-dominated world. I never felt pretty enought, I always felt like a gigant and still I LOVED to snowboard, the way the early crisp wintermorings made me feel.
There was somethign about the peacefulness of snowboarding, the physical demanding part, the limits that I had to push and always standing strong. I never cried, I was a little manic, I was so many things and at the same time I never felt comfortble in my own skin. It was a time of searching and longing to belong.

And then we went snowboarding...

I'm not kidding - Loony is way to good at snowboarding :-)
It's only her second time, and except from when she yelled at me in the lift, I think she did amazing. Fearless!

Vacation in the North...

So me and Loony are in the North of Sweden at a skiiresort called Åre. We just got here today and decided to go for a walk in the ski-hill... Yeah, we probably looked like two giant toddlers... We kept on throwing ourself downhill and rolling in the soft but heavy and knee-deep snow...

Had an amazing dinner and now we are on our backs watching TV and feeling the excitement of going snowboarding tomorrow... It's Loonys third time!

Burnt out and now a new candle...

Me and Rotation at the Fairytale fountain

So the past weeks been just terrible -nothing special - but the effect of taking on to much work finally caught up and I hit a wall... not very pleasant... but I went to Berlin with Malou and hung out with Heavy Rotation and Resident Shevil... We just went to watch a bout (Berlin A vs. Copenhagen and Berlin B vs Hamburg) without being signed up to do anything.... we went on a real vaccation, with very minimal responsibilities. It was really REALLY nice, and I feel like I have new powers and I can stop being bitter about doing tooo much work that I by the way probably took on myself.

wroooom I am an airplane

My knee was hurting and I didn't get to do as much skating as I wanted in Berlin, but I guess that was for the best. We did get some time on the old Templehof Airport - it is quite cool to be able to skate around on an old airport... wrooom... i am a flight.... WROOOOM.. I totally recommend anyone going to Berlin that's bringing their skates to go to Templehof and take a lap or two... bring a picnic and soem friends... have a weinschorle and get a tan... oh, and we also go interviewed by NPR!