Bell’s Blog

Hooray! I fixed my blog!

What? You didn’t notice? *sobs* I has a sad…

No… I felt like writing something last week (I know!!! Procrastinator right?!) and I came to see what I last wrote, but there was a FATAL ERROR! Oh No! I’mma gonna die if I don’t fixit!! No… really, there was a message about a fatal error… something wrong with wordpress gallery… probably because I havne’t updated my wordpress in such a really long time, but I’ll deal with that another time. In the mean time, I’ve simply removed wordpress gallery, and so there is no photo  cycling widget in the sidebar.

HOWEVER…. now that I’ve fixed it and blog can once again be viewed, I forgot what I wanted to blog about! Haha! Oh well *shrugs* This then, is a quick update for anyone who actually noticed it wasn’t working. And hopefully there will be other news coming soon

Toodles!

I bought a new “Pet” today. Well it’s actually a plant. Ok… a ball of moss… and if you want to be really correct it’s algae. WHAT?! You think I’m crazy don’t you? Who in their right mind would buy a ball of algae?! Hah!!! That’s where you’re wrong! You see… Marimo is a very special kind of plant (algae)… It is rare and native only in freshwater lakes of Northern Japan, Iceland, Scotland and Estonia. In Japan it’s somewhat of a national treasure even! In Iceland they hold the status of a protected species. BUT what I’ve done buying one is not illegal. You see… Marimo forms when this specific species of algae gather together  and move about from the gentle movement of the water in the lakes. So the native and naturally formed balls are protected. But stuff in Japan sold as souvenirs or at aquarium stores all over are hand rolled from loose bits… So It’s totally legal!

In any case… while I’m happy with being a marimo owner… I actually did a bit of a silly. A few weeks ago I ordered a small fish tank (only 11 liters) from a French company that guarantees 2 years no maintenance… Meaning you don’t need to clean out the filters or change the water etc… or so they claim. We’ll see. Anyway, I bought it with the intention of having some guppies or small fish in there… I’m limited only to 10 fish due to the size of the tank. From the front it looks like a normal tank but on the side it’s only about 7cm wide… Kinda sad huh? Doesn’t matter… I can put about 10 fish in there and about 3 plants. Damn they were hard to put in!!! >_< At the point in time the tank is not ready for fish yet… It won’t be ready until Monday at least.

Anyhow… Long story… I went to the pet store to look at aquatic plants. And having my heart on the cutest little ball of algae… I went about picking my other plants. However, I’m out of practice… haven’t owned fish in years and years… I forget that there are plants for cold water and plants for warm water! >_< Oh Dear! Imagine my horror disappointment when after setting up my tank with plants I read online that marimo MUST be kept in water under 25° C! Sadness!!!I had to fish it out and put it elsewhere… now my tank has an empty spot where it used to be but since it’s too hard to rearrange the plants, I will leave them be.

Dear lonely marimo now lives in its temporary home… aka measuring jug on the window sill. It needs to be in cold water and on very hot days I actually have to put it in the fridge! It needs some but not too much light. I will need to change the water once or twice a week in the summer and maybe every couple of weeks in the winter.

Meet Marimo San (not really its name and unfortunately it’s not completely round either)

If it is happily photosynthesizing it will form little beads of oxygen on the surface (very pretty like little jewels!) And only a few minutes ago in fact I went to have a look and saw that it has floated up to the surface of the water covered in shiny beads or oxygen! ^_^

It is also said that If you take good care of your marimo… it will make your wishes come true. *wish wish wish*

For those of you who know where I work… that’s good, but keep it to yourself. For those who don’t know where I work, let’s keep it that way These are pictures that would probably be best not seen on facebook. This is an exclusive blog-followers-only presentation.

At my work place we have a nice rooftop terrace that’s open for staff use in the warmer months. We’ve got outdoor furniture, sun shades and huge umbrellas if we choose to use them. But most just wanna go and bask in the sun during breaks… and that’s what we mostly do. On some days – usually Saturday when we all finish work at the same time – we hang out after work for a couple of drinks and chit chat and wind down… which is nice.

On Saturday after a few beers one of my colleagues discovered a new addition to our sun-deck… which was a cabinet on the wall with sunglasses inside. Fair enough… it’s often quite bright out there and we all enjoy the sun and don’t enjoy squinting.We tried them on. Its probably not immediately obvious from these pictures but some of the more “normal” looking ones are actually multi coloured or childish or studded with “diamonds” and what have you. These are some photos taken from my phone of what we got up to…

Oh yea, gimme some lovin

Isn’t she pretty? No I will not tell you her name

Oh god I’m FAT!!~

Looking cool

Apple of my eye

Dame Edna… is that you?

A little man-love going on

*Smooches*

Nothing like a little serenade with rainbow glasses

If you’re lucky, she’ll break up with her beau and I’ll tell you her name

And there you have it. We had fun. We all get along. I think that’s very important at work. We should be able to have fun around each other and get along in and out of work. We should be able to laugh with AND at one another. Of course we were still “at” work but off the clock. It was fun fooling around. Still……Don’t ever give me beer again.

Half the ordeal is over. I have 3 more days of work (including today) to go and Then I’ll be packing my bags for Sweden! Well.. .Possibly Sweden And Estonia AND Finland. Not entirely sure how things will pan out just yet. At this point in time we think it’s not worth spending the entire 8 days in Stockholm… partly because it’s so bloody expensive. There’s plenty to do there naturally… boat cruises, sight seeing, old town, museums… and particularly if we can afford it, I’d like to try some island hopping.

But another option we’re looking at is possibly taking an overnight ferry over to Tallin in Estonia… Tallin has the best preserved medieval town center in all of Europe! And Europe have pretty much the ONLY medieval towns left in the world… (in my opinion) since everyone else has gone and knocked everything out and replaced history with modernity. Kinda sad… I think heritage like this should he preserved for future generations to appreciate where everything came from. Out with the old and in with the new… that seems to be the motto everywhere else in the world, especially in Asia and America. which is why I love it here in Europe. I do have a soft spot for old towns, castles and fortresses, and narrow cobblestone alleyways… oh so quaint!

Of course though… the ferry isn’t all that cheap on its own. But we can save about 100 Euros each if we go for a return package which means we only get to spend one day in Tallin. Bummer! We planned on spending at least 2 nights there. But with that in mind, we have more time to do something else… like book ourselves on ANOTHER return ferry trip to Turku in Finland! Turku is the old capital if Finland. And to be honest, while I’m quite looking forward to taking up that option as well… I haven’t done much reading up on what’s to do there. I know nothing about our destinations. If I didn’t google/Wiki them up, I wouldn’t even know where they were!!! Geography Phail! Nevertheless, I am excited.

If those plans go ahead… I’ll be flying to Sweden only to spend hardly any time there at all. But I think it’s a reasonable tradeoff. Kwang and I will discuss it again later tonight. It’s hard since we can only talk at night right now. *sighs* We’ll see

Kwang left this morning for Stockholm. He’ll be there for a week for a conference. I will join him in exactly 1 week’s time, next Friday. In the mean time I’ll man (or woman) the fort (apartment) and suffer on my own. It does not promise to be a good week and I do not look forward to being on my own during this time.

My first obstacle is over… This morning not long after Kwang left, I went to the dentist to get some old amalgam(?) fillings removed because they were old and had cracks in them, which according to my dentist can result in micro leakage (?) causing cavities underneath the fillings (which incidentally is exactly what happened!), so they had to be replaced. These trips to the dentist are getting extremely exhausting. At least I won’t see my dentist again until the end of May. It comforts me to know that there are not too many more to go… perhaps another 5 fillings… that’s probably 2 more appointments… assuming no new problems crop up. Then I’ll make an appointment nearer the end of the year to get my wisdom teeth surgically removed, followed by a week off work for recovery.

Speaking of work… NOT NICE! My only respite would be that no one in this country works on Sunday… otherwise I’d be on full gas! I’m working non-stop until Friday, when I fly away to join dear hubby for my long awaited Swedish holiday. I’m thankful for the fact that I’m leaving on Friday, as my boss had initially written me down to work a full 6-day week… that is including Friday and Saturday! How sucky would THAT have been?

For now… I will rest, and eat something soft before getting ready to go to work. Yes… I had a dentist’s appointment this morning but I’m still going to work in about an hour’s time. Yay My Life….