Monthly Archives: January 2017

A mix of pics

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img_20170112_111629  Not too long again the river that runs next to our neighborhoos was very very flooded!img_20170112_111424 img_20170117_083105  One morning on my way to school, this beautiful sunrise took place!img_20170117_083421 img_20170117_222618  It took a while for Ramses to get used to the new drinking fountain, at first he was afraid of it, then he slowly started to get near it, then he drank the spillwater Cleo had played with and now he is drinking from the running water like nothing.snapchat-453455119 We redid our hall, looks much nicer now. And Cleo approves!snapchat-646737467 img_20170119_163036 The same week as the sunrise (it might even have been the day after), we had an incredible sunset.

Review of “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” by J. K. Rowling

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harry-potter-02-the-chamber-of-secrets-j-k-rowling-2Title: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Author: J. K. Rowling
Series: Harry Potter #2
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 251
Published: 1998, Bloomsbury Publishing
My Grade: 5 out of 5 snakes

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

The Dursleys were so mean and hideous that summer that all Harry Potter wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But just as he’s packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature named Dobby who says that if Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike.

And strike it does. For in Harry’s second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor, Gilderoy Lockhart, a spirit named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girls’ bathroom, and the unwanted attentions of Ron Weasley’s younger sister, Ginny. But each of these seem minor annoyances when the real trouble begins, and someone, or something, starts turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects: Harry Potter himself?

MY REVIEW

Still as good as I remember it from my childhood. Similar to The Sorcerer’s Stone in that sense that something is always happening. But not quite as much, because this book gives more environmental descriptions. Most of it I remember from reading the book and watching the movies countless times, but I still got surprised here and there. For example, I had completely forgot how Moaning Myrtle died or how Lockhart ended his time at Hogwarts as a professor or what happened to Mr. Weasly’s flying car.

It makes me happy that a story so well-known by me can still surprise me and entertain me like I was 12 again. I am so glad I decided to finally reread these books (in its original language). My original plan was to read one book, read another one between. But these are too darned good to be skipped. I will read all of them in one go! I should be done in the beginning of March or mid-March depending on how much time my master thesis will take. Now it is time for the Prisoner of Azkaban, a rather dark book if I don’t misremember.

Review of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” by J. K. Rowling

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harry-potter-01-the-philosophers-stone-j-k-rowling-2Title: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Author: J. K. Rowling
Series: Harry Potter #1
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 223
Published: 1997, Bloomsbury Publishing
My Grade: 5 out of 5 owls

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

When a letter arrives for unhappy but ordinary Harry Potter, a decade-old secret is revealed to him that apparently he’s the last to know. His parents were wizards, killed by a Dark Lord’s curse when Harry was just a baby, and which he somehow survived. Leaving his unsympathetic aunt and uncle for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry stumbles upon a sinister mystery when he finds a three-headed dog guarding a room on the third floor. Then he hears of a missing stone with astonishing powers, which could be valuable, dangerous – or both. An incredible adventure is about to begin!

MY REVIEW

It has been 15 years since I read this book for the first time. Now was definitely time to refresh my memory. And this time with the original version in English instead of the Swedish translation. But back then, when I was 11, I wasn’t too good at speaking or understanding any foreign languages.

First of all, it was great to read it in English. I have the whole series in hardback in Swedish and that’s what I read growing up. I got too tired to wait for the translation of the 6th, so I read it in English first, and then Swedish as soon as it came out. But that is the only one I have read in English until now. I guess it is good that the Swedish books translates the names on, especially, the animals and things, because it makes more sense to younger readers. But I loved that I finally got the real feeling of the things in this book. The names of the quidditch balls still makes no sense to me though, but I have 6 more books to get used to it.

Second, this book was only 230 pages long, and there were so many events in it! Going from reading a rather heavy book with long descriptions, it was a relief to read a very straightforward, but still very well-written story. It was noticeable that this is a children’s book, but 25-year olds can enjoy it as well, obviously. I wish I had more time to read so I can sit longer times at a time to read. It took me a week to read this. Too much else going on right now.

I grew up with this story, and I know it almost completely by heart, but I got minor surprises here and there (including the full first chapter, I remember the book starting right away with Harry in his cupboard, not following the Dursley’s before Harry joined them?), things I forgot or wasn’t included in the movies (which I saw more recently than I read the books).

This is truly a book everyone should read! And this is definitely something I will read to my kids when they are old enough to understand longer stories. Can’t wait!

Kittens kittens kittens

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Since we bought the game Munchkin and got it from my mom the very same day last week, we went back to Science Fiction Bokhandeln to exchange it to something else. The zombie version of the game is a whole new game and can’t be combined with the base game, so we decided to get extra cards instead, we got steeds, sounded funny. We also got a whole new game called Exploading Kittens. Crazy game. We played it and it turns out that it is really fun. It is a card game and you are basically suppose to just lay down cards with actions on them, and then draw a new card. You lose when you get the card with an exploading kitten on it. They have a lot of interesting-looking games at that store, we might go back soon, hehe.

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And speaking of kittens, mine are also crazy. We turned the couch upside down the other day. No wonder they have no toys to play with! This time we tried a not-so-permanent-solution and put duct tape along the floor between the feet of the couch. Hopefully that works! So far there are actually still small toys not under the couch, yay!

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A couple of days in Sala

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It was a while ago now that I visited my grandparents in Sala (middle of Sweden). Dad, Karin, Jesper and I drove up there on Thursday and spent two nights and came back tonight. On Thursday it was extremely cold everywhere and when we arrived at 8pm it was -19°C (-2 °F). That was cold, it hurt in my nose when I breathed. The cold was still there the day after, so when we went for a walk around the lake it was -12 and the wind made it even chillier. It was not fun! The lake, Långforsen, was frozen over and people went skiing on it. With the snow it was pretty though.

We also took the car to show Jesper what was worth showing in the small town of Sala. The silver mine, obviously. A little bit of downtown, but that is it, nothing else up there, haha! I think Jesper wants to go there in the summer to go down in the silver mine. I kinda want too, it was so many years ago I was there.

The day ended with a good dinner, a burning fire in the living room and some time spent in their sauna.

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Today was much warmer, only -2 °C. The sky was blue and the walk around the lake was so much nicer today. I was only cold after a while, and that was only my hands after taking too many pictures. So here are basically the same pictures as above, but with a blue sky in the background.

img_20170107_122425 img_20170107_123435 img_20170107_123446 img_20170107_125208 img_20170107_123525 img_20170107_123544 img_20170107_123959 img_20170107_124255 img_20170107_124325 img_20170107_125712  Jesper, me, dad, and grandpa.img_20170107_131835 img_20170107_125855 img_20170107_130255 img_20170107_130524 img_20170107_131541 pano_20170107_125421 img_20170107_153003 On the way home it was extremely foggy, sometimes it was impossible to see the road ahead. While the sun was setting it was sooooo pretty!

Spontaneous book purchase

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Yesterday Jesper and I went to my favorite store, Science Fiction Bokhandeln (~The Science Fiction bookstore). I think it actually might be his too, since he always wants to go there. I have a long list of my favorite books that I want to have on my shelf (I have most of my library in the .epub-format), and yesterday I ticked one whole series off. Throne of Glass, one of my favorite series of all time. Next on my shopping list is Silo by Hugh Howey.

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The book bag also contained the main game of Munchkin. So we are prepared for game nights at our place from now on. A funny thing happened later when mom came over to pick up the keys (so she can feed our cats when we are away at my grandma’s for the weekend). She also brought the game of Munchkin since her group of friends couldn’t figure out (or was it something else? Can’t remember) how to play it, so I was promised it. What are the odds that she brings it over on the same day we decide to buy it? I really like coincidences, they are fun! Anyway, so now we have to return the oen we bought, and get another version instead so we have twice as many cards. I think Jesper wants to get the Zombie version. No surprise there.

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One day in Denmark

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This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my travels. This full post can be found here.

Today, Jesper and I did the most spontaneous trip abroad ever. We went to Denmark today and we decided it late last night. We have decided to do more stuff together this year and it has started well so far. Yesterday, even though Jesper was hungover like an egg, we went out for dinner last night and then went Pokemon hunting after spending the day on the couch watching Storks and Secret Life of Pets. It was a good day.

Also, New Years Eve was fun. We had some people over for dinner and games. And for the first time since my 24th birthday I actually had a little to drink. And I didn’t feel sick, so three 4% ciders works. Good to know. It got late, but it was a really fun evening.

So, back to today. We took the ferry at 8 am over to Fredrikshamn in northern Denmark. Three hours on a ferry actually made me a bit seasick. It was a relief to get out on the ground where we did a little bit of shopping. They had some fun home decoration shops. We drink a lot of tea, so we bought some tea, and a cute teabag plate. We also got an ice cream scoop, some small glass bottles for sand from future beaches. We then had a fika at a café which was also close to a Pokéstop and from those 40 minutes we learned that Fredrikshamn is full of electric Pokémons, weird I have to say.

We actually only stayed in Denmark for two hours, but now we get to scrape another country on our scratch map. Stena Line is by the way very cheap right now, so we barely paid anything for our tickets. What cost a little bit was the buffet on the ferry back. We had the best seats with an ocean view and it was a nice dinner.

Now we are both very tired, it has been two eventful days in this new year so far.

img_20170102_114909 img_20170102_115351 screenshot_20170102-125053 img_20170102_122331 img_20170102_133222 img_20170102_154041 img_20161230_235433 And here is a picture of my two cats doing this exact thing again. Ramses opens the book shelf, jumps in and Cleo is outside and very jealous.