This year's wishlists

The daughters’ wishlists for Christmas this year were very short and after an alteration, even shorter. Oldest daughter wanted an iPhone, a puppy and a jewelry stand. Youngest daughter wanted a puppy and a funky lamp or two. After having been walking our neighbor’s three dogs for several days, ”a puppy” has now been erased from their lists. Don’t get me wrong, the girls still love animals and dogs in particular, but they have realized that dogs do need a certain amount of attention and daily walks – even if it’s raining, hailing and snowing. The girls came to the conclusion that it’s better to ask the neighbor if they can walk her dogs when they feel like it and when the weather is good. The oldest also changed her mind about an iPhone, she already has an iPad. ”We already have everything and we’re too old for toys” said the daughters. I must say, that despite the lack of ideas on what to get for my girls, it felt good to hear them say this, to hear that I haven’t raised greedy children. They are happy with what they have even during the season when greed is almost expected from children and also sometimes from adults. 

My list is very short too. I don't want anything. Maybe breakfast in bed sometime and a weekend when I don't have to come up with the menu or cook or do anything house-related at all. That's all.

My husband always says he doesn’t want anything special for Christmas and then he’s always the one who comes up with the longest list. This year he wants a special camera that can be put on the head so he can take photos while skiing, windsurfing or any other sport when he needs both hands. He also wants a special watch for when he takes up running again. He also wants kite surfing lessons, windsurfing lessons and a dive trip to the Great Barrier Reef. I finished my Christmas shopping for my husband this morning and if he’s expecting to get anything from his list, he’s in for a big surprise. My youngest daughter suggested to me this morning that I should get him underwear. ”He buys underwear for you every year” she said, ”you should get him a pair of boxers so he can see how boring it is to get underwear for Christmas. It’s like getting socks. Who wants to get socks for Christmas?” 

Flowers from the Aussies

I believe that Australians are a happy people, they are content with who they are and the life they lead. This statement is not based on any scholastic research or something I heard on the radio, it’s purely based on my own observations. Why do I believe this? Because Australians give compliments. They say nice things to friends, acquaintances, colleagues, neighbors and even total strangers. Swedish people do not compliment each other very often, especially not if they are not feeling as they are on top of the world and therefore can afford to say something nice to somebody else and make somebody else happy. When I got my new car, our neighbors congratulated me and seemed happy that I - their neighbor - had a new car that I like although my car is much nicer than theirs. In Sweden, the neighbors wouldn’t have said anything to me, pretended like they hadn't even noticed a new car, just muttered ”it’s probably a company car” to themselves. 

Here, I’ve gotten many compliments from total strangers. A lady in the grocery store exclaimed when she saw me: ”You are absolutely stunning and what a gorgeous top you have”. The girls in our daughters’ school think that the daughters’ mummy is ”soooo pretty” and some days ago a girl said to my eldest that ”your parents are really sophisticated. They don’t look at all like any Australian parent I’ve ever seen”. And my own favorite; a somewhat backhanded compliment: ”your parents are really young. Was it a teen-pregnancy?”. Compliments are good, it feels good to receive them and it feels good to give them. In my experience, you have to feel good about yourself and be in harmony and balance with yourself to be able to see good things in others without being jaundiced. That is why I believe that Australians are happy with their lives and who they are. A couple of years ago when I was in Sweden, I was walking down a road with my handbag over my shoulder. A woman was walking behind me with her boyfriend and I heard her comment on my handbag to him, a Louis Vuitton. When they passed me she said ”it’s a nice handbag you’ve got there” and as they got further away she added ”I bet it’s a copy”. Ah Swedes, they sure know how to take back the flowers, don’t they? 

Friday night at a vineyard!

On Friday, I was invited out to dinner by a handsome man at a lovely castle with its own vineyard (actually, it was my husband’s office that organized a Christmas party for the employees and their spouses and it wasn’t a castle at all, it was an old barn but my version sounds more romantic and exciting). I was informed that the dress code was ”casual”. I get nervous when an invite says ”casual”, what is casual for me may not be casual for someone else. Men seem to have a more relaxed idea about the meaning of ”casual”, they think jeans – perhaps even shorts, a short-sleeved shirt or polo shirt. This is what I wear on cleaning day or when I wash my car. Yes, I wash my car these days, it comes with the ”living in a Western society” unless I’m willing to pay a handsome sum to get someone else to wash it for me. When it comes to parties, there are no such thing as ”casual” clothes. A party should not be a casual, it should be special. Luckily for me, my handsome date somewhat share my opinion and never wears jeans or shorts to a party. For the dinner at the vineyard, I chose an off-white asymmetrical dress that I have never had the opportunity to wear before as I’ve felt it was showing too much legs, with Middle-Eastern standards that is. After several busy weeks it was absolutely lovely to get my make-up bag and flat-iron out of the drawer and spend half an hour getting ready in front of the bathroom mirror. 

I was very pleased with the evening apart from when we just arrived and had to park in a large green field, possibly a pasture. My Ralph Lauren heels sank down into the ground and I had to walk on my tippy toes for 30 meters or so until I was on terra firma again. It seems as women all over the world share the same opinion when it comes to ”casual” dressing for a party, just as men all over the world share the same opinion in this matter. If it was up to me to decide, all men should dress in uniforms. Pilots, military men, marines, firemen, policemen; they are so handsome in their uniforms. Heck, even Luke Skywalker looks rather dashing and manly in his uniform and he’s not exactly eye-candy without the white suit and his laser sword. 

It’s Saturday evening and I have to end this blog here as I have other things to do like watching a movie and drinking something. I just want to finish by telling that Hugh Jackman has a holiday home about 20 minutes drive from my everyday home and he’s frequently seen around town. He doesn’t need a uniform, he’s handsome even when he has that wolverine-outfit in X-men. 

Casually dressed ladies

Casually dressed men (neither of them married to me, obviously)

It's all in a day's work...

Somebody asked me recently in an e-mail what I do when the Daughters are in school, is it hard to get time to pass? No, I have a very tight schedule. All the times I complained before that I didn’t have enough time although we had domestic help: I take it back, all of it! I realize that I did have quite a lot of time then and spending several hours at the beach club does not qualify as ”being really busy”. I had often scheduled a couple of hours a day for the beach club where I lay on my sunbed, complaining to my friend how busy I was with the girls and their homework, grocery shopping and cooking, I hardly had time to go check out all the sales and designer outlets. I’m now over my ears with household work and chores and the word ”busy” has gotten a whole new meaning to me. 

This is what I do: the alarm rings at 7.15, I get up, do lunchboxes for the girls, set the table for breakfast, dress myself, wake the girls, make sure they eat, make sure they put on their uniforms and get ready for school, I walk the girls to school, walk home, clear the kitchen, clean the house with dusting, vacuuming and mopping, tend to the laundry, iron, drive to the grocery store, if I have time I sit and work (yes, I do work a little) before I go to pick up the daughters in school, walk home, give them a snack like crepes or something that I baked during the day, help with homework, prepare dinner, clean the kitchen after dinner, make sure the daughters shower and get ready for the night before I kiss them good night and fall asleep next to youngest daughter only to wake up a couple of hours later and go to my own bed and sleep until 7.15 when the alarm rings and a new day begins. And so proceed my days ad infinitum. 

Sure my days are filled with boring domestic work, leaving me with very little leisure time but there is a silver lining: we are living in Australia. So we’re living the dream anyway, a better dream in my opinion.