Catching Up Medley 2

It's been a few weeks since my last post. A lot of things have been going on, both in my life and in the Home Free world. To begin with I was going to put it all into this post, but then I decided to separate the two. So here is what's been going on in my life the last couple of weeks;

I had a week's vacation/holiday/vacaciones/semester the other week because I had visitors here from Sweden. They didn't stay with us, but I wanted to have the chance to hang out with them as well as do my own things around the house. We had a fabulous week filled with field trips, adventure golfing, nice (and sometimes not as nice) food, beach, bathing, sun and lots of laughter. I got to spend 7 days in a row with my little sister and I can't even remember the last time that happened, I think maybe when I was 17 and still lived at home. That was like 10 years ago, or maybe 28. Wow! It was also the first time I spent that many days in a row with any of the other people that came here with her; her husband, their 16-year old son, their best friends and their 16-year old son.

One thing I did around the house was to finish building that table for our roof terrace. I am very happy with the result, but I think I might stain it before the end of the summer. I'd like it a bit darker than it is.

We were nine people seated around it without it feeling tight with space. I am very proud of myself. Next thing I'll build is either a bench to sit on by the table, or a desk for me. One thing is sure, I will build something more.

One of the places we went to is a town called Ronda which is set up in the mountains; it is thousands of years old with a whole lot of history. Ronda is divided by the El Tajo gorge (canyon, ravine) which steeps 100 m from the town. The views are spectacular from up there, and from down the gorge as well, although we didn't go down this time as it was way too hot a day to do that. The walk down is not too bad, but the walk up is a killer even without the heat. I didn't get many pics from Ronda, but I got this one of some of the view;

This is a pic I took a few years ago from halfway down the ravine;

Gorgeous isn't it!


As a writer I find inspiration in the fact that both Ernest Hemingway and Orson Wells spent several of their summers in Ronda's Old Town writing. Maybe I should take my laptop with me and go stay there for a couple of weeks sometime.

My family and friends all left a week and a half ago, I went back to work for two days and last weekend I got the worst stomach flu I've ever had, luckily I didn't vomit but it was still the worst. I am still not completely recovered, it will take a few more days to build up the energy. My boyfriend and son were quite worried about me for a while there, apparently I looked awful. I lost 3 kg (6 lbs) in 3 days, but I'm up most of it again. Hopefully I can keep the last kg off to make it somewhat worth the while. Tomorrow it's back to work, and in a few weeks my eldest nephew are coming for a 10 day stay. I think the plan is to go to Ronda again then, and we will go to Gibraltar and Tarifa, but I will tell you all about it when it happens. Maybe we will go down the gorge if we go to Ronda.

So, how about my writing? Well, I am writing on my book, even if not as much as I would like to. I find it hard with just getting to it, but when I do sit down and write time flies and I love it so much. If you support me on Patreon for as little as 1 dollar per month you can find the first 2 chapters (rough drafts) of my book there. Maybe I will put some more up there. My plan is to have the book ready for release before the end of this year. Your support would surely help inspire me! Thank you!

Also, I am trying to get my fingers out of my butt (i.e. stop procrastinating) and do my next assignment for the writer's course I am doing. It's been almost a year since I did the first assignment and I've been mentally stuck with this second one. If any of my readers out there know of any publications; magazines, e-zines and such; that publishes short stories (I need to be able to find them online, though, and they need to be in English) would you please give me a shout. It is part of this assignment. Thanks!

By the way, there is not many things better than listening to Home Free while traveling on a bus on a road climbing around the mountain, like a snake, with green valleys below you. Soothing and comforting. So, shockingly, here's a Home Free video to get you ready for my next post about what is happening in the world of Home Free. You can expect it within the next couple of days.

I hope you are all well and are enjoying life!

Love//
Carina

A Happy Goodbye

Today I saw my friend T for the last time before she moves back to Sweden at the end of the month. It was a goodbye, but it was a goodbye where we both felt alive and happy. We are both very grateful for the time we've spent together because we have both grown a lot through our friendship. Saying goodbye to friends becomes a natural part of life when living in a place like this, in a more obvious way than when you live in a more "normal" place. Friends will always come and go in your life, that's just how it is, it's a part of life, but for a lot of people that move here it is a temporary thing and that is why a lot of people eventually move back to where they come from; to study, to work or to raise a family. And, even though it is always sad to say goodbye to someone you've gotten close to it is only fair to remember what that someone brought into your life.

I believe that you go through life learning and growing, if you are willing to, and both T and I love to learn and grow. We first met a couple of years ago in a Zumba class and we spoke for a few minutes every class, but we never met up outside of it. Until one day when we had spoken about work and that I had been thinking about applying for a job at the company where she worked: She encouraged me to do so, and she offered to read my CV and give some pointers on it before handing it in. And she did. And I ended up getting a job there. Next month I will have been there for 2 years. She however moved on before I started there, she had her dreams to fulfill and live.

Anyway, after this we started to meet every once in a while, like 3-4 times a year, because we are both extremely busy people that just couldn't get our schedule to fit more often than that. It's a shame in some ways, but then again, things have a way of working out like they're supposed to. I guess we met as often as we needed to to fulfill our needs of each other. Every minute we ever spent toghether was fun and uplifting, filling us with positive energy and love to continue our different walks towards our dreams.

When I met her today I was feeling a bit down, and a bit fed up with this and that. When we said goodbye I felt like I can do anything I want to, and I will!

Now, that is a perfect friend in my world. I know we will keep in touch, and I know we will see each other again; she is now added to my list of people to see whenever I visit Sweden; and she will be back here for visits too.

So, for now, I can only say that I am grateful and happy to have her as my friend, and that I wish her all the best in life. I don't doubt for a second that she will get everything she wants, and whoever gets to have her in her life can consider themselves lucky and blessed. I know I am.

Thank you for coming in to my life, T! I will miss you, and I love you!

This song is for you!

Love//
Carina

Town of beginnings and ends, best friends and Swedish treats

I am in one of my hometowns, I have three in total, but this is the town where it all began; where I began; where I was born; and where my mother, sister and son were born. This is also where my grandparents died, except for my granddad who is still alive; and where my dad died. So to me this is where life begins and life ends. Even though I was born here, I didn't grow up here. I grew up in the town where my mother, sister and youngest brother live, where I was a couple of days ago; and I spent 19 years of my life in a third town before moving to Spain. That's where I'm going in a couple of days, where I have most of my friends and my other brother. But if I had to choose one of these three towns as my hometown it would be this. I have parts of me here that I don't have anywhere else. I have pieces of my heart here more than anywhere else in the world. No matter where the wind blows me this is the geographical place I would call home the most. But, since I don't have to choose all three of these towns are my hometowns, and now I have a fourth in the town where I now live.

Anyway, I came here on Saturday with my sister and our mum. We started out by dropping mum off at her brother's house, and my sister and I went to see our granddad, our dad's dad, our farfar. In Swedish we have different names for our maternal and paternal parents. Mormor is mother's mother (mors mor, literally meaning mother's mother), farmor is father's mother (fars mor), morfar is mother's father (mors far) and farfar is father's father (fars far). So, we still have our farfar with us. He is a proper sweetheart, and one of the kindest and funniest people one could ever meet. It sometimes breaks my heart being so far away from him, and I know it breaks his too, but I have to live my life and I know he is happy that I am finally happy. I love seeing him, though. He was my hero when I was a kid, and the first person who ever nicknamed me.

After seeing him we went to the graveyard to pay our respect to our farmor, and our dad. Of course, we don't think they are actually there but it's still nice to go there and say hi sometimes. Our dad doesn't actually have a grave, he wanted to be spread by the wind and that's where it was done.

We then went back to my uncle's house to celebrate his wife's birthday. She actually has the same name as I do, both first and last name, but we don't have the same middle names. One of my cousins and his girlfriend showed up as well and we were treated with Smörgåstårta. Smörgåstårta is a sandwich made like a cake with several layers filled with spreadable sandwich toppings, and topped with non-spreadable sandwich toppings, and you cut it like you cut a cake. It is a delicious Swedish treat!

After a couple of hours of fun family teasing and laughter I was dropped off at my best friends place. This friend, J, and I go back 25 years. We've sometimes had years in between contact, and yet it has always felt like it was only a few days or weeks ago since we last saw each other. This time it had only been a few months, though, since I was here in January. Still, it is always love when we see each other.

Last time I was here I introduced her to Home Free, and even though she is not a hard core Fry like I am she really likes them; and as part of the Paying It Forward mentality among the Home Free's Home Fries I will take her with me to a show in the UK in January. I can't think of anything more exciting than to see the Guys for the first time with her. I'm hoping my sister will join us as well. That would be even better! I can't wait for January to come!

Sunday was a lazy day with nothing planned, It was raining and cold, winter degrees and weather for me, so we decided on a film day where I introduced her to Pitch Perfect, and Magic Mike. We had crisps (chips for you US peeps) and dip for both lunch and dinner. Swedish crisps are THE best! And we had sweets and chocolate pudding. It was yummy! Swedish treats are amazing!

Today is a new day, and it will take me down memory lane, but more about that in a couple of days!

Today's video choice is a Home Free original, Any Way The Wind Blows. This has been one of my favourites since the first time I heard it. This is kind of how I have lived my life, I've gone where wind has taken me. And it's also how my dad's life ended, he went anywhere the wind took him.

Have a great day!

Love//
Carina

Mixed up bags, love and laugther

The first two days of my trip were great! But, it started out a bit stressful and it could have ended fairly bad, but luckily, thanks to some very nice and caring strangers, it didn't.

Here's what happened; 

I had a big suitcase to drop off before going through security check yesterday morning. My flight was due to leave at 6.30 am, boarding was closing at 6 and I arrived at the airport around 5 am. Plenty of time to drop the bag off, get through security, buy a cup of coffee and find my gate. At least it should have been plenty of time, but when I dropped off the bag it was about 2,5 kg overweight. So, I had to move things over to my hand luggage, which had plenty of weight left to use, but not much room in it. Not thinking straight I didn't think of the fact that I actually had a proper cabin bag packed in my big suitcase as I will need it to bring things back home with me. Anyway, I had finally squeezed as much as I possibly could into my hand luggage, and the weight on the big suitcase was fine. So, I dropped the bag off, and I saw the girl at the check-in desk put the bag ticket on it. Everything was cool and I walked my way through the terminal, and almost all the way through the next terminal and I was almost at the security check when some people caught my attention. These strangers told me that there was something wrong with my bag. Obviously I had no idea what they were talking about, but they went on to explaining that my bag had been taken off the belt after I had left, they described it and told me that I'd better go back there to check on it. So I did, and they were right! My bag was standing on the side of the belt and the girl asked me were the ticket for the bag was, I told her that she had put it on the bag, and she started to discuss something with a couple of other staff members. They printed out a new ticket for the bag, put it back up on the belt and all was good. When walking back to the security check the strangers that had been so kind to actually go look for me to let me know about my bag found me again, and they told me that when I had seen the girl put the ticket on my bag the first time it had actually been one their bag's ticket, and they had spotted the mistake. I thanked them and rushed on. It was now about 20 minutes til boarding and I still wasn't through security. And with a hand luggage that was filled with electronic things that I had to take out of the bag, and the bag now being even more stuffed due to the overweight, it took some time. But, I did make it, but didn't have time to get my coffee. But, wow, that was a bit more exciting than I expected. Or wished for! Now, I could only hope that my bag would actually arrive as it should too. 

The flight itself was completely uneventful, I watched a few episodes of One Tree Hill, and some Home Free Videos (I am one of those people that get to try out YouTube's new features of add-free videos and downloading videos for a trial period, and it's great), and we landed 20 minutes ahead of time. My bag was one of the first arriving on the belt. Phew! We made it!!

My sister and our mum were waiting for me and we drove straight home to one of my aunts and her husband. Surprising us by being there was my cousin A, his daughter and her boyfriend. My cousin A and I were very close growing up and we had no idea he was going to be there. It had been almost 10 years since I'd seen my aunt and uncle, and about 5,5 years since I'd seen my cousin. A while later my other aunt, her husband and their eldest and youngest sons showed up. The eldest one is also my godson, and I had not seen him in 25 years, he was only 2 the last time we met. The youngest of the two I had never met before and he is almost 21. It was almost 10 years since I'd seen this aunt too, and her husband probably almost 18 years. But, you know, it's funny, because it was almost like we meet on a regular bases. We had so much fun and we laughed a lot, and I am so happy for my family and the fact that we have so much love for each other even after years and years without contact. Thank you to all of you for making my life better! 

Next stop was going to the town where my sister, my mum and my youngest brother live, the town I grew up in. I went to see my brother and his two elder sons very briefly. His wife and their new born son weren't at home. And then I went to my sister's and got to see her sons and husband too. It is always very nice to be here with them. 

The rest of the day was quiet, and I had an early night after a very long, but very amazing day. 

That was yesterday, today was a day of no real plans, one of two on my trip. I slept in a bit, and then had a nice lazy morning with my sister chatting before we went to meet up with our mum again. We took a walk to my mum's husband's grave and then we went for a coffee and a chat in the centre. 

In the afternoon I went to my brother's again and I got to meet my newest nephew for the first time! Such an adorable little boy. I got sit with him in my arms for hours, and I fed him and he fell asleep and slept comfortably there. And I am in love! This was one of the reasons for making my trip now, to see him when he was still a newborn. He's just over a month old. So precious. All my nephews and my niece are, of course! I've now got 6 nephews and 1 niece. 

The evening was spent watching telly and chatting with my sister and her family.

And now it's time to sleep, it's 1.30 am and I've got another long day ahead of me tomorrow with more family and also friends to meet. Different town, different people. And I'm loving it! I will tell you all about it on Sunday in my next post. 

Oh, and I want to share a video with you. This is Home Free's latest video, and it feels like it fits perfectly into my life on this trip. This video is made with Lego, and it is brilliant. There are even tiny little Lego Home Free Guys, and a cute story line, and you can actually read the emotions of the Lego couple in the video. Weird, I know, but it's really cute. Also, cousin A had a huge Lego collection when we were kids that later became my brothers', so it fits. 

Here's Crazy Life, the title track from Home Free's debut album. 

Enjoy and I'll see you soon!

Love//

Carina

About Friends, And Something About Butts

One of the greatest joys of my life are my friends. I love having friends, and I've got quite a lot of them too. Sometimes I read about what people consider being friends or friendships and I get amazed by how many people that have a restricted, or even single minded, view of it. Here's my take on friendships;

I think friendships can have almost any shape or form, and I think friendships are not only the handful few that are closest to you. To explain I'm going to give you examples of friendships out of my life, without being too specific. 

I have some friends I consider being my very best friends, those are the people that have been with me through thick and thin, or I have been with through their sorrow and joy. These friends will be there when I need them, no matter how long it's been since I last spoke to them, saw them or was in any kind of contact with them. They are a part of me, and they always will be.

And then I have friends I can talk to about anything in my life. The already mentioned friends belong in this group, but there is a few that I can talk to in my day to day life that also belong in this group, but not necessarily belong to the first group. 

There are also friends I can talk about some things to, but not all things. These friends are just as great as the other friends, we just don't see eye to eye in every aspect and there is no point in sharing things from those areas of our lives. We are, after all, different individuals and there is no need to be able to discuss everything with everyone.

I have friends of all ages, from all sorts of different times in my life, and from all sort of different walks in life. I have friends that I have met in person a long time ago, that I currently see, that I will see in the future, and also friends I will never see. Either way, they are all my friends. 

I have friends I know almost everything about, and I have friends I know almost nothing about except for what we have in common. And it's equally important to me. They all have a purpose in my life. 

I have friendships that will last for a life time, and friends that have come and gone, and friends that will come and go, and I will keep making new friends for as long as live. Again, they all have a purpose, some are meant to be there forever, and some are meant to be there during a certain time or event in my or their lives.

I have a friend with a blog. She writes too, and you can find her blog in my blog list up to the right. Her name is Michelle and she writes song lyrics, poems and ditties. The blog is called "Life In My Words - by Michelle". Michelle wrote a ditty inspired by our friendship and what it means to her, and I love it, and it means a lot to me. I feel kind of the same way. On days when I feel like not writing I think of her, and I get inspired by knowing that she is waiting for something new from me. Anyway, thank you, Michelle, for giving me support, inspiration, confidence and a kick in the butt when I need it! 

You can find her poem here, it's the one called A Friend. Enjoy! I am very proud to have inspired it! 

And speaking of butts, here's a Butt Medley for you to enjoy. Seriously, it's all about them butts, but it's certainly not serious, but it is about butts. Just watch it. Butts!

Love//

Carina

A Walk With A View

After work today I went for a walk with my good friend T and her new dog B. We walked on the long beach along the Mediterranean Sea (it is actually the longest beach in southern Europe, on the mainland), the was dog skipping, playing, in sand around our feet, absolutely loving every second of, and the waves were hitting the beach just next to us. It was a bit cloudy, but the temperature was very nice and we wore long sleeve, thin jumpers; no coats or jackets were necessary. It was lush, beautiful, lovely, fun and energizing. It always is on our walks. Refreshing for body, mind and spirit.

T and I talk about life, about feelings, being in the now and about the future. It's always a very good time when we see each other, and time always fly. Too quickly. But I always leave our meetings feeling happier, stronger and more alive.

Today we went out on one of the piers along the beach, and I filmed the view, all around, from where we were standing. It is T you see in the clip. This is about a 25 minute walk from my house. This is one of the big joys of my life. The Sea, and the mountains in the background behind the houses. The sounds, the smell, the taste, the feelings. It's all giving me life.

Film clip from the pier in Carjaval, Fuengirola, Spain

The African coastline is just out of sight from here, but on clear days you can see it from the mountains behind us. I always think that is so cool.

By the way, next I'll try moving it slower. :)

Love//

Carina