All work and no play makes Vikx go cray cray......

28th September - 30th September 

Oh how I wish I could give you an update where we did something exciting, like ermmm extreme dog sledding or moose wrestling, but alas this will not be the case. 

You see as well as working full time, learning to skate and play roller derby again and running a house/zoo. I also am studying to get a degree, and this has meant that Uni work has had to come along with me on holiday. I have a deadline of the 23rd of October for 2 assignments. One is done and needs fine tuning the other, I just started this week. 

Currently at 600 words done out of 3000 so only 2400 to go! YaY Go me -_- 

So yes on Sunday the 28th not much really happened. We popped out at about lunch time to have a quick look around some factory shops. I got 2 new scarves which I have forgotten to take a photo of. One of them is black with red lips AKA rocky horror style and the other is white with red lips.  

I saw a top I really liked but it was £40. Now I really did like that top but no way on this earth was it worth £40. She says after just buying some leggings from the States for £36. Humm they are handmade and stuff..... oh well. 

Here we see Mag modeling the top for me....(he will kill me for this im sure)

We went in to this one shop and the prices where nuts. 

Ok so the jumper in question is designer but it works out at over £130 just for a jumper. Needless to say we left pretty quickly! 

After this we had dinner early, so grabbed a pizza whilst we were in town. If you can call it a town. Headed home ate and then I carried on with the uni work. See nothing exciting at all. 

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29th September 

Again today was going to be another day for me to put what research I have done into words. Whilst mag did something. Not quite sure what he did as each time I looked at him he was sat on the sofa :p 

We did pop to the local ICA so I could pick up my new debit card. My replacement arrived at home and then was sent over to me here! \o/  So that was a little break. Since I knew we would not be going out much I wanted to wander around the ICA a little. This place is about the size of a Co-op so yeah the wandering did not take that long. 

Go back home and started to work. Had a meltdown part way through and look the laptop up stairs and worked up there alone for a while. Got a fair bit done. One to part C on question 1. Il get it done. Just need to put the time in to it. Hence why doing it on holiday is not such a bad thing after all. I mean its not like I am at work or anything is it! 

Mag and I shared some noodles which he cooked and that was our evening. We were a tad disappointed in the TV schedule as Kitchen Nightmares was supposed to be on the carry on from last weeks episode we watched, but they ended up playing the same one again. I got bored and went to bed. Still trying to find the rest on YouTube so we can find out what happened! 

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30th September 

Took a break from the uni work to head over to jönköping to look at the A6 centre and to get some bits from City Gross and Ikea. 

We both wanted to get some wall decals we saw in Ikea. So after we had lunch at a really nice buffet. We headed on over.

Photo to the left is the first of 2 helpings I had. We have 

Beef meatballs 

New potatoes

1 slice of ham and pineapple pizza

and dauphinoise potatoes. 

After we both realised that our eyes were far far far bigger than our bellies (especially mag) we walked next door to Ikea. Since we knew what we wanted and where we could get it. It was a pretty simple and each mission. In fact I was walking so fast mag asked ME to slow down. This never happens. 

I would love to put a photo up of what we got but one of them is for a friend. Once I have put the others up at home and I still remember to do this blog I will put a photo up!! 

After Ikea, we headed to the car to drive over to City Gross. I love this place. Big Blue and Yellow supermarket! 

I decided to take some photos of the store of the more popular items they have there. Mainly tea, sweets, home brewing and ermm something else which right now for the life of me I cannot remember!! DOH. 

One thing that I noticed was their Energy Zone, an area purely for Energy Drinks. All kinds, and no I did not try any of them at all. It is once in a blue moon I drink energy drinks these days. 

As you can see, it's pretty well displayed. They have the usual Monster and Red Bull but there are some more unusual ones in there too. For example Burn energy drink, Which is produced by Coca-Cola apparently. 

Here is a little photo of mag with the basket!

Now this area to the left is great. Its all for home brewing and not just beer! Those little glass bottles are flavouring for booze. Not sure how it works but they are all pretty colours and flavours. I could have spent ages going up and down there but mag wanted to get a move on. Ooops. Hopefully before we go home on Friday I can get some more photos.

Another thing I have come to notice is their love of Tea. They have so many types of fruit tea its awesome. Smells great to. I love walking down the tea aisle Same for coffee. 

 

Now what I noticed about this tea section was that they had their own loose tea pick and mix. I took a little while smelling them all. My favourite was green tea with passion fruit. Oh it smells yummy. 

The photo at the top is the coffee aisle. This is on both sides. So there is the instant kind and then the kind you can put into a coffee machine in the tab form, and then there is of course the bean kind! 

Last but not least one of the biggest sections in the supermarket 

SWEETS!!!! 

Yes that's right, the Swedish do sure love their sweets! There are 7 aisles in total for sweets. I only took photos of 5 as A) there were people on the other 2 and B) it was only a pick and mix the same brand you get at a tesco...

The photo above is the chocolate bar aisle. So we have things from Lindt and Marabou. Their flavours are all pretty much the same at home. I guess Marabou is their equivalent of Cadburys.  

The photo below is an area just for liquorice, not normal liquorice though. This was like gourmet stuff. Not really my cup of tea at all. 

The photos below are for the mints, Fishermans Friend, which mag has told me is not your friend. Really have no idea what he was on about, and also the gummy sweets like Haribo. They do not appear to do large bags of Haribo that often. Instead it is normally the smaller bags, but on offer so you can get a few of them. I think I would prefer that than just one big bag of the same. 

It also has typical Swedish sweets on there like Ahlgrens Bilar and also the Swedish version of midget gems. What they also have is the more gimmicky sweets for example a gummy pizza or gummy laces. 

Last but not least, the one aisle I regularly look at. On here we have the more "normal" and commercial sweets. SO your Daims, and Pollys and Dumle. Japps, which is pretty much a mars bar! 
Non Stops, which are a mix between m&m's and skittles! I am yet to try them. They sound different. Apparently the coating is fruit flavoured. 

Well I hope you enjoyed the ramble and having a look at some parts of the supermarket. I was not brave enough to make a video!

I shall leave you with some photos of the drive home 

TTFN 

More cakes and a designer ice cream!

Following on from the post the other day where mag and I tried some of the nice and not so nice local cakes. Here are the last 2! 

First up we have the muffin, which is not quite a muffin but really wants to be a muffin. 

As you can see it really wants to be a muffin but it has a massive hole in the middle. Like wheres the top gone. Where is the dome?!

Oh well, it looked tasty. I cut it open and the cake part was very moist and looked lovely think the jam was raspberry. That tasted good too. All in all it was not bad. Certainly up there with the doughnut impostor. 

Vikx - 8 out of 10 

Mag - 7 out of 10 

Would recommend this one if you see it!

Next up we have a love heart pastry thing. 

 Oh how I wish this one was more exciting. Sadly its not. This review won't even be exciting. I mean I have no idea how to make a plan ass boring cake exiting. 

OK on to the cake, its all pasty with a custard filling. Cutting it open, we found that there was a decentish layer of filling inside, although I feel there was too much of a gap between the top and the filling ending. The custard was pretty generic too. Nothing overly exciting there. It turns out the Swedish really love their custard! You can buy it in all sorts of forms, pre made in cartons etc. 

Mag really enjoyed the cake. I can't say I did!! I mean if I had to I would eat it.

Vikx - 4 out of 10 

Mag - 6 out of 10

Last but not least the designer magnum! We spotted this the other day but declined to by it was it was pretty expensive. Roughly £2.50. Not too far off what we would pay at home but still. Ive got things to save my money for! 

Here its is a Dolce & Gabbana ice cream! 

The flavour is pistachio and with white chocolate and chocolate chunks.  

It certainly looked pretty, but what matters is how it tastes! I forgot to take a photo of the first bite :( 

What I did not realise was that the ice cream was rock freaking solid. Not like a normal magnum which you can bite into and hear the fantastic crack of the chocolate. Oh no this was bite in, get some chocolate and then leave your teeth embedded in the ice cream.....

Once I left it for a little while to soften, I was able to take a bit and see what was inside. The ice cream was creamy, with chunks of pistachio and chocolate. Now the mix of white chocolate on the outside with the milk or dark on the inside was a bit odd. 

Both mag and I agree that it would be much nicer if they chose just one type of chocolate and stuck to it. Instead of mixing them all together. In fact mag only ate his half after I ate all the chocolate off it first! 

Over all for the price, I would say its totally not worth it. I feel like you only really paid for the fancy box. Why not just shove it in a normal foil bag like the rest. Or is that not good enough for ones designer ice cream... Hummm

I can honestly say we will not be trying on of these again, unlike the fantastic strawberry and white chocolate one we found. That one we would eat again! 

Vikx - 3 out of 10 

Mag - 7 out of 10 (only without all the white chocolate on it) 

TTFN 

Mag drags me to every sports shop in Goteborg and I get soaked.

26th September 

Hey there!

We headed off to Goteborg, to have a wander around the shops and as the title states see if we can find mag a new helmet.  

We head off and just as we set out the door it starts to rain, and oh boy did it rain a lot. I fell asleep for most of the drive. Mag said it was pretty nasty on the roads. The only photo I got of the drive was the one below. Those clouds look so inviting eh! 

Once we had parked the car and made a mental note of the floor we were on. Off to trotted in to the nordstan shopping center. It was pretty busy as they are having some sort of special weekend when all the stores are giving big discounts on their Autumn Winter range. This also meant we were greeted by very loud music and a massive stage, for a fashion show. Urgh. 

Mag had the great idea to head to the lower level and see what was down there until the show had finished. It was so much quieter down there. We had a look in a game shop and then in a shop which sold games and then hoodies and things. Nothing really interesting to see. Oh apart from a ton of minecraft items. 

We got a bit bored wandering around the store so went off to find a jewelry shop I went to last year and got my thumb ring. Thankfully we found it really easily. Walk out the main door and its down the street a little! 

The shop is called Avi & Lena, it has all many of silver pieces in there. I honestly could of spent hours just trying on all the rings! I was after a ring for my index finger, been looking for one for ages now but just could not find the right style. I narrowed it down to just two, then the lady said that she has one a bit like my thumb ring. ( I mentioned to her that I went to the shop last year and got my thumb ring) She showed me a double love heart ring, it was so nice. They only had three left and none of them fitted :( She offered to check in the back and came back with one more! I held my breath as I tried it on. It was perfect. Looks really good too! 

You can just about see the thumb ring, its not as shiny as the new one. Really should give it a good clean. We will be heading back there next Friday before we head home. So if im good and have some money left over might get another one!! We shall have to see. 

After leaving the shop, mag had to look in yet another games shop! I decided to sit outside in a little seating area. Started to feel a bit funny. I was not sure if it was down to there being too many people around or I was hungry. I let him know as soon as he reappeared and off we went in search of food. Mag knew exactly where he wanted to have lunch (for a change) he wanted to go the chinese buffet we went to last year. I guess it made an impression on him! 

We got our seats, mag went up to get some food for me. He appeared with the plate to your right. A good mix of food, chicken, salad and noodles! I made a massive mistake when I went up to get my own food, I ended up picking a massive plate of battered FISH! In a panic and headed back to mag with just this fish on my plate, and put it all on his and ran off again to get the noodles I wanted and chicken! We both had enough after one and a half plates. So decided to call it quits on lunch. 

This was pretty much bad timing as we headed towards the door, we saw everyone running inside soaking wet. Yes thats right there was a torrential downpour. We just sucked it up and headed off. We had to real destination which did not overly help. So we walked a bit and then walked a bit more. I got fed up and took my glasses off (couldn't really see where I was heading) 

We stumbled across a naughty lingerie shop next door to a exotic sex shop. We both guessed they may be owned by the same people. We then found a piercing studio and then a massive make up store. We then walked along the river for a bit. Please remember this is still in the bloody rain... I'm totally soaked by now. My nice hair I had done in the morning just looked like a flipping rats nest. 

See nice hair....Wish I had a photo after our trip. 

Anyhow, back to the walk. We then made our way to the indoor market had a brisk walk around there and went back outside again in the rain again. By this point we were soaked and gave up on trying to keep dry, the rain did stop for about 10 minutes. We just kept on walking down all the random streets going past clothes shops, toy shops, bingo places you name it. Again I wish I took more photos. Stupid rain. 

We happened to stumble across one of my favourite beauty shops, so had a good mooch about in there. Found about 3 nail varnish I would love and sniffed a stupid amount of perfume! I was very good and did not buy a thing! Waiting till next Friday. 

See all the pretty colours!!!!! 

We left the shop, empty handed (just thought I would add that in again) I was tired and mag wanted to go to a different part of town. Over the river to look at a sports shop. So we hopped in the car, and drove on our merry way following the satnav...and we got lost. Like totally and utterly lost. I kept joking that we would end up in some sort of ghetto..I don't think mag appreciated my humour. 

After mag gave up, pulled in to a random parking space. He had to use the data on his phone to get the right address! Why he didn't have it before hand no idea. Once the correct address was put in the nav we were once again on our way. They really like their tunnels here, we went through about 4. One of them had pretty blue lights in it. 

We got there, I found open free wifi and decided to stay in the car. I did not feel like going into another THREE sports shops. I let the boy go off on his own and chatted to mum. Only issue was if I moved the tablet only a little bit I lost the signal. Next thing I know I see a rouge mag approaching the car. He needed my help! 

He had found a helmet and needed my help to make sure it was correct, fitted in all the right places etc. I grudgingly agreed to go and help. Off I went. 

To end the story on a happy note. The helmet was in fact perfect. It was the right price, fitted well and looked good. We had one happy Mag!! Never seen him spend money so willing and so fast! After paying we went to walk back to the car only to see it was once again CHUCKING IT DOWN. It was like I was cursed or something. Swearing happened. I took a deep breath and went for it. Not running just walking hunched and briskly to the car. Mag suggested I wait by the curb and he would drive over. I turned down this, as by the time he had got the car over to me I would still be soaked. Got in the car soaking wet, cold and feeling a bit sick. Not good. 

I warned mag I felt like I was going to throw up. You know just that feeling you get that starts in your tummy. He suggested I went to sleep to help me feel better. I did just this once we got out of town. 

I woke up just as we pulled on to the road outside the house. Perfect! I also felt much better! Win Win! 

We didn't bother with any dinner since we ate out for lunch

All in all that was our day. 

TTFN 

Walking = Pizza right!?

25th September 

We were hoping the weather was going to be kinder to us today, at 7am this morning our hopes were dashed when we awoke to what sounded like someone throwing marbles on the roof! 

I plucked up the courage to peek out the blind, and low and behold it was chucking it down and haling. bugger. 

We chose not to leave early and stayed in till about 11ish, by then the rain and hail had stopped, the sun was trying its best to break through the clouds. 

We headed out head to one of the local nature walks, which happens to have a castle near by too. The castle is located at Torpa Stenhus - http://www.torpastenhus.se/. The castle had sadly closed to the public just the week before, but we had a little wander around outside. 

After this we marched off ready for adventure on the red cow walk! Yes thats right our walk was a cow! I was only 2.5K but with the weather looking so uncertain we did not want to be out for hours on end in the middle of a forest walking in the rain. 

During the drive in, I noticed that they had cows in some of the fields and horses. I was hoping I would get to see some and say hello. The two cows above where right be the fence until we walked up. Then they walked off and refused to come over. Meanies. 

As you can see the sun did come out for a little while. In fact just long enough for us to enjoy this walk. 

I had a go at taking a panorama with my phone too, never used this feature before, and im pretty pleased with it! 

 

Further down the walk, I saw an area which had a few horses. One of them was a foal, just as I saw about to take a photo the little beggar laid down!! You might be able to see him or her peeking up above the log! 

After about 10 minutes of me talking to them and making daft horse sounds, and approaching different part of the fence one of the horses started to walk over! It was very unsure at first, but I had a little chat and fed it some grass. It did try and bite me until I told it otherwise and said I was a friend. 

Here I am feeding it some grass. 

Mag got a bit bored waiting for me to stop talking to the horse, so I thought id better walk on a bit more with him. 

After our walk we headed back to the town next from where the house is and had another walk around the factory shops here. I managed to find a new hoodie for 200Sek which is about £20 or less. Really nice. Will put a photo up another day. 

Since I was shattered, we both agreed to have dinner earlier than normal and it would be Swedish pizza, now their pizza is just fantastic its the pizza of your dreams!! 

Mine is the one on the left - Super (pretty much kebab meat and salad on a pizza) 

Mag's is on the right and he had a Gallstad special - kebab meat with pickled chillies! 

Both came with white sauce on them called Sas, we have no idea what is in it but its amazing and I wish I could bottle it up! 

After pizza I did some uni work, managed to start my next assignment got just under 300 words done and part 1 a done. So that's a bonus! 

Tired now will update tomorrow  :) 

TTFN 

Vikx goes mad(er) and buys a few Swedish cakes!

So each time I walk around the bakery section of a Swedish supermarket I have to stop myself from drooling everywhere. I mean it does not just smell great everything looks great to. Dieter's nightmare I tell you! So yesterday I went and got a mini selection of their best sellers. 

After our bread and cheese we cracked open the cakes. Now I got 4 cakes and 1 biscuit type thing. We only tried the biscuit and 2 of the cakes (not that much of a piggy!) 

Sadly I forgot to make a note of their real names. So for now (until we go back again) I will use the names I created. Here we go 

Weird Pine Cone Cake...(tis the best I could come up with)

When I picked this up at the supermarket it was heavy like really heavy. Along the lines of a newborn would be about right. Anyhow didn't let that put me off. I was excited to try this, it looked tasty. I thought it may have fruit hidden away inside it. Something like the pear hidden inside the pastry on GBBO. 

I was very disappointed upon cutting the cake open, to find that it was in fact just one big solid lump of cake, and to add insult to injury it was not even nice cake. IT WAS ALL COCONUT....I mean come on. It was gross. I had to spit mine out. Mag ate his and the rest of my half. He said it reminded him of a bounty bar just with less chocolate. 

Vikx - 1 out of 10 
Mag - 5 out of 10

Up next we have the Doughnut type thingy

Now this looked good to me, it had sugar on it and it was giving me a cheeky little glimpse of filling. Sort of flirting with me!! HA 

Check this beauty out! OK so its appearance may not have been that fantastic, but the taste OH MY. It was good so good, drool inducing good..Check out the amount of filling in this bad boy! 

Now it can only really be described as a light doughnut.The dough seemed very much like a doughnut but it was lighter and do not have that greasiness to it. Which at times I find the cheaper doughnuts do. 

 The filling was the real surprise, it was vanilla creme patisserie, and a good hefty amount of it too. I could not recommend this cake enough. (can you tell I liked it) 

Vikx 10 out of 10 

Mag 8 out of 10 (did he not eat the same cake?!)

So thats the cakes we tried last night, some good some clearly not so good. I will do another post about the last to soon :) 

TTFN