What can I say about minus 30 degree? Haaa...you can have tighter pores, red cheek, and burn more calories!!! And also you can use outdoor as your free freezer!!
How long can I stand being outside when it´s minus 30? I think the most 1 hour, with proper cloth and protections! I think the cold up in north Sweden is slightly different from South of Sweden. I heard it´s much colder when it´s minus 10 compare to here..because of the wind.
At this time of the year, it´s what the Swedish called "Grey period" as it usually are quite cold and not so bright. So it´s important to keep ourself busy with activities so we don´t think about the negative effect of the climate.
So far ,we seem to be lucky because it has been quite sunny for a few days now, hopefully the sun will bring out some light into people´s heart.

I am quite lucky because I have the opportunity to organize some fun events for the Language café. Like today, I set out a simple challenge for my café visitor with chopstick game. Some of them never even seen chopstick before and are so curious to learn. We really hit it off and had a wonderful time . Nothing motivate me more then to see the smile on people´s face..and they are merely just trying to do something at their best with full of enthusiasm!

I organized a valentine´s day craft event at the Language café today! Never had so much fun for a long time! I brought along with me some of the left over products I had in my ex-business. I can´t believed I had so much stuffs left! It´s good with this event so I can get rid of stuffs in which I dont need and at the same time made others happy! I really like my job, I get free hand to do & organized anything I desire..
I was so glad that the idea of this event are so well appreciated, this make me really glad! Here´s some memory of today at the Pyssel "Craft" session...

http://www.languagecafe.n.nu/valentinedaypyssel

I received some private emails from people asking me how I survived the winter here.
Well,honestly speaking, winter has´nt been one of my favourite season but I am begining to like it.
I noticed every year, I learned sometime about the season. I have spend 13 winter here in North Sweden..my family in Singapore consider I live in Artic circle ..it´s hard for them to imagine themself living here and I think it´s only normal reaction.
Living in this winter wonderland had been a life time experience for me. So far I experience minus 37 degree, I am proud I survived that and it´s a really specialy experience. Imagine if you have a wet eye lash,you can not close your eyes when you are outdoor, because if you closed it your lashes will get frozen and you might not be able to open it!

Also when you breathing in & out, the warm air from your mouth combine the extreme cold air and form ice around your hair and if you have a mustach or beard..you probaly look like Santa after half hour walking.
My mum often said "If you live in a enviroment you did´nt like, learn to like it!" I think I could like Sweden after a while because there are many wonderful activities I could get experience from, like cross-country ski, dog sledging ice fishing, frozen lake bath, drag racing, riding scooter, hiking or simply lying on snow on a madarrass enjoying the sun!

The only way to experience this is to come and feel it yourself. To some people who not used to the cold, I sugguest you visit north Sweden in March because that is the most sunniest month of the winter season.
Unlike other tropical country, I think winter in Sweden for Asian can be very challenging, everything seem to take it own sweet time and will eventually land on it´s position ..it´s just a matter of time!

I just realized that sometime in life, it´s so easy to lost balance, I mean emotionally balance. Perhaps it´s mid-life crisis that made me so emotionally unstable sometimes. Luckyly I have a job that keep me occupied and make me feel needed somehow. I can not imagine now having any things to do or contribute. How should I keep myself emotionally balance? I think by doing thing according to piority is the key..analysis what is most important to you and divide the time accordingly..To me, spending time to do things I love & happy is very important. It makes me feel alive! I notice I need to eat right, keep my body fit thru excercise, sleep well, a work that make me feel fullfilled, spending quality time and constainly communicating with the people or pets I love and care about, whether it is thru MSN, Facebook, Skype..that I think is pretty important for me as I am a very audio & communicative person. There´s only 24 hours aday, out of this 24 hours, we had only 14-16 hours to meet this need, minus 9 hours of work & travelling that is not much time left actually! As I was driving to work today, this word suddenly appear in my mind" What do I really want in life?" "What is happiness?" then I started to think about things that make me unbalanced, to be honest...this feeling is not so great! Then I started to think about the things that make me happy..and try to delect the things that make me feel less unhappy..it´s a choice! Why can I always think of things that make me happy more often? Sometime people around us or the situation can effect us, and this is so true, we let ourself be effected and put ourself in a victim position.
I remember about Law of attraction, and try to put that in use...just to overcome the bad feeling I had this morning. While heading toward the traffic today, I imagine myself passing thru the orange light at the last second..it happened. Then at the parking place, it´s often full near the exit..so again I imagine I found a place quite close..know what? I found that place and it was exactly where I imagine it...that same spot in mu mind! Who say LOA dont work? It WORK!! Especially when a mind has strong desire. Try this yourself..you dont have to have big plan to see it work, just start with small thing and see what happen..when you accomplish the small goal...the big one will come..unexpectly!!
I like to thank god today, for making me see thing more clearly, so I can put what´s that is most important in my list accordinly. I had a wonderful time helping Nelina with her school work today..she asked me "Mama, would you be angry if I got the wrong anwser?" I smiled at her and I said "Älskling, it´s very good we make mistakes sometime, that´s how we learn..from mistake." I made many stupid mistake and bad choice before, I know exactly how it feel when she mentioned that..sometime we are too afraid to make mistakes. Mistake? Bring it on!!!!

During autumn, the Swedish man hunt for moose & wild pigs, while the ladies hunt for blue berry! Last Sunday the Asian ladies gathered for some berry plucking & lunch together. This round we met at Sieow Chew´s place. I classified her place, the middle of nowhere. Now, I understand why people like to live in the woods far aways from civilisation.
This is all because of the fragrance of the crispy fresh air, the sound of silence and timeless lifestyle. A place deep in one´s heart called home.
The best time to pluck blue berry in north Sweden is actually beginning of August,but still there were some left. I told the ladies that blue berries is a great anti-oxidant, has many benefits for fighting winkles, overweight, cancer, deities and skin problems. I used to have some problems with pimples around my nose & mouth area, after 1 week of blue berry smoothie breakfast, I noticed blue berries helped clear up 90% of my skin problems. In USA, doctors recommend that everyone should eat at least one decilitres a day to prevent cancer. At first, the ladies attitude about plucking berries was "let´s just pluck a few & get the hell out of the mosquitoes society" but after they heard about the benefits about winkles & cancer they said "We will never miss a single berry, we make sure we combed the whole of Swedish´s wood!" I gave them some tips how to pluck & how to clear the leaves attached, they were so enthusiastic!
While they were plucking berries around the house, Joyce & myself prepared lunch.
I think the Swedish will be shock to know what we Asian women eat for lunch. We had woked 3 different types of Asian own grown vegetables, fried 1 big plate of black pepper crab, 2kg of BBQ Char siew pork, 1 big plate of vegetarian sausage with tofu, deep fried sotong & Thai fish cake. For dessert, I baked 2 large blue berry pie & red bean buns. I just don´t get why & how come these ladies can eat so much & still weight below 50kg???
After lunch, I went home to freeze my berries. In order for the berries not to be crushed among the other food I have in the freezer, I packed them in a old milk paper packet. This year, I plucked more then 20 litres of blue berries and it´s taking over my whole freezer, because I am fighting against winkles I can´t help it lar! The most I get another freezer or eat lesser meat & go food shopping more often lor.

Wondering why I have´nt been writing for a while? We have been busy, the summer here is too short so we take advantage of every minutes of the sunny days to do fun things! I feel our lifestyle has been 360 degrees. No more sitting in apartment wondering what to do, where to go,who to visit. Ever since we moved back to Mattias´s hometown, we feel much more happier. I have more friends, there´s always social gatherings, we hardly need to plan any activities ahead, there´s always something going, there´s always someone´s parties, or something to do around the round (We have painted the kitchen , bedroom and the garage door.), nature activities like sailing, fishing, mushroom & berries plucking, these activities are often last minutes never pre-planned, we just flow with whatever comes like a boat flowing along the streams. We welcome all opportunites, wherever it takes us, it´s often full of surprises!
Nelina need her extended families, it makes her much happier. They love her dearly and we are so blessed with their supports and care, I would´nt ask for anything more.

Know how I normally spend my Sunday? I am often at the local auctions. I enjoy looking at antique and stuff people sell at garage sales. Sometime, you can buy useful stuffs at very good price. Auctions & Loppis (flea market) can be quite fun. I prefer to go there by myself so Mattias will not give me the "Do you really need this" look on his face. At auctions, the Swede is quite "kaisu" they will arrive at auctions 1 hour before to view the items & bring their own beach chair to chope best position. The bid normally start from S$4 plus a "bidding fee" S$2-4. You can find all kind of stuffs there, (what normally Asian would´nt buy, because they thought it´s "sway" (bad luck) to buy second hand. I normally wash the stuff I bought at auction or flea market with "sun water" the minute I come home. Here´s what I bought lately, enjoy!

Jack´s import is the one and only Chinese grocery store I frequently shop in Skellefteå. The company is run by two Hong Kong brothers who migrated to Sweden in the early 80s. At Jacks, you can sense the true atmosphere of genuine imported food from Singapore, Malaysia, China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand etc.

It's the fun of exploring the aisles,I never know quite what I'm going to find.
Foods like chilli,lemond grass,banana leaf,lime leaf and even the whole durian are frozen. Other frozen food like siew mai, shrimp dumpling,tang yuan,wontan skin,spring roll skins,Asian fish, whole duck, Asian raw prawn, raw sotong, fish and beef balls,wontan noodles are getting popular so they are often well stocked.
What I think missing for me is frozen curry leaf and pandang leaf.My husband is a curry lover, so I often cooked curry at home. My daughter love Hainanese chicken rice, I brought some frozen pandan leafs from Singapore 2 years ago & it´s still use able. Pandan leaf is very important when it come to cooking chicken rice, without it is like cooking curry without curry powder. In Sweden,it´s a law that all Asian imported food labels must be translated into Swedish. I don´t know if that is necessary since most Asian food consumers are Asian. The most common Asian food among the Swedish are dark soya, sweet chilly sauce and the most sambal olek. I notice the Swede are not very used to spicy food. In Singapore we used at least 50 grams of curry powder when cooking curry, here the local used only one tablespoon.
When I am feeling homesick, childhood tibit like ginger candy, sour plum, preserved fruit, Japanese wasabi sweet pea,prawn crackers,crispy banana could really help to comfort me! My favourite tibits is dried jack fruit, it´s so tasty & cripsy!

I need some supply for my Asian party on the 29 March, so I brought a can of condensed milk for my bubble tea, a packet of spring rolls skin for my Malaysian popaih and soya bean sauce for my popiah filling.
Here´s are a few price examples of some groceries I brought at Jacks.
A can of Longevity brand condensed milk - 22sek (4.40 sin dlr)
A packet of dried beadcurd - 25sek (5 sin dlr)
A packet of instant noodles - 5sek (1 sin dlr)
A bottle of Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce - 45sek (9 sin dlr)
A bottle of Thai soy bean paste - 29.90sek (6 sin dlr)
A bottle of Mitsukan rice vinegar for making sushi - 45sek (9 sin dlr)
a bottle of Lee kum Kee Hosin sauce - 36.90sek (7.40 sin dlr)

My visits there has always been pleasant because the owner Daniel & Jenny are both extremely friendly towards me. I feel at home there, it gave me the opporunties to train my broken Cantonese and having a converstations with them can really brighten my day. They normally wont let me leave untill I´ve taste their lunch or a quick chat over a cup of Oolong tea.

When I was a child, I don't remember one incident that I have to do house work in order to received pocket money from my mum, my friends would considered me very lucky and I get (5sek) $1 sin dlr for pocket money everyday but I think I only had $0.60 sin dlr as my pocket money all the way till Primary 4. What did I do with the money? I brought dried instant noodle as snacks and ting ting (white candy with flour) from the Indian mobile candy man. If I saved up to $3 me & friends go enjoy a meal at Marine Parade A&W . During that time, hanging out at A&W with a Conney hotdog and root beer in your hand staring out the window at your friends passing pass is big time! Otherwise I will go to the movie with my best friends Calley. We had watched Grease a coupled of times,sometime romantic film from Taiwan or Hong Kong or just hang-out at Orchard Road MacDonald eating ice-cream. I will always remember my first roller-coaster experience at Great World, that´s why until now no one can can ever put me on that spot again.
Nelina is turning 11 in April, soon it´s time for her to moving towards independence. We want to help her practice in managing money while she still have our guidance. We thought earning money thru helping out with house chores not only give her the opportunities to contribute to the family but also prepare her for taking responsibilities.We started this practise a couples months ago and so far she is doing fine.I think some rules has to be straighten out so there´s no misunderstanding and that she understand not every tiny little job she will get paid for. For example, since Filippa is her cat, she is responsible for feeding and remove poo everyday. Also it´s her own daily routine to make her bed & breakfast every morning etc..

Here´s a list of what she could do to earn pocket money. We are not rich, the rate is according to what we think is reasonable & affordable.

Vacuum floor one floor - 7sek (1.50 sin dlr)
Wash dishes with hand - 5sek (1.00 sin dlr)
Remove dishes from dish washer - 3sek (0.60 sin dlr)
Remove cloth from washing machine and hang them -5sek (1.00 sin dlr)
Fold cloth - 3sek(0.60 sin dlr)
Clean and tidy her room once a week- 10sek (2.00 sin dlr)
Sweep snow from the entrance -3sek (0.60 sin dlr)
Pick up post/newspaper - 1sek (0.20 sin dlr)
Set dinner table - 3sek (0.60 sin dlr)
Throw rubbish - 1sek (0.20 sin dlr)
Help out in cooking 5-10sek (1 - 2 sin dlr)

Here´s my interview with her on this topic.

What do you think of this idea?
I think it´s good! I have learned how to do house work and earn my own blood money.
It´s not so fun , a lot of hard work but the rewards made-it-up.Better than nothing.

How does this practise make you feel?
I feel that I could do more than I thought. It feel great! I like to feel that I could be of help. Sometime, money is not everything.

What do you plan to do with the money?I want to save as much as I can so I can afford to own a mini lab top, a digi camera would be nice so I can add video to my blog,or a brand new bicycle - my friends have new one, mine is too old and I have outgrown. I would like to save 50% of my earning in a bank so I can use it when I grow older.

How much do you earn a week & what did you do with the money?
Sometime in a week I could earn up to 100kr or more(20 sin dlr), sometime just 20 - 30kr (4-6 sin dlr). I´d just brought myself a bikini last week and it´s nice being able to decide how I want to spent the money.

Did you buy Lördag godis (Saturday candy) with the money ?
No, my parents don't usually eat candy,so I don´t have this habit. I prefer fruit,it´s nicer and healthier. I like mango, pear,oranges,strawberries and other exotic fruit. BTW, I can eat 5-8 clementine in 5 mins.

Recently, I received many emails from my new Asian friends living abroad. The most common questions are : How I feel living abroad, and how I tackle homesickness, craving for food etc. To me living in another country can be exciting depending on how you look at it, but it can also lead to homesickness.I think it’s always a good idea to have a positive attitude towards it. Since everyone have different tolerance of pain – for some people living abroad might be a happy beginning but for some it might be a horrible experience.

I have been living in Sweden for 11 years now, to be honest I still do fight of homesickness. I threw away my pair of city girl high heel to exchange for a pair of Swedish country boots to live with the person I love and married. Believe me, my drastic change in lifestyle is not always a smooth ride but I have learned how to tackle homesickness now.
My tip to handle homesickness is to stay in touch with loved ones from home.There are plenty of ways, especially now with various internet services available, it´s important that you stay connected to family and friends constainly.In my case, I am using Facebook.It´s the world's most popular online social network, Facebook has changed the way we keep in touch with friends and family old and new. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, Facebook will bring you and your loved ones together in the same online space. Among its most useful functions are those which allow you to leave notes on your friends' walls, send private messages and share photos and invitations. So you can keep up with what your loved ones have been up to on a daily basis. I have made many new Asian friends living overseas from thru Facebook, this is very effective coz you might also find some of your friends back home on the site and you can ask them if they know anyone in your new place. Remember, it only takes a smile to be a FRIEND and it´s nice to be able to give each other a pad on the shoulder sometimes.Facebook is free & anyone with internet access can join. Here´s the link http://www.facebook.com

It´s important to keep yourself busy – do something that makes you happy like watching funny video or learn new things, visit my site to chat with me or exercise helps depression and reduces stress level. Find someone you can go for a walk with on a regular basis.
Finally, always keep a positive attitude – Others can cheer you up but not all the time. So, you need to decide to be standing on your own feet and choose to think and act positively. Believe me, that´s the only way out. If you are able to take your experience as something that is part of growing up and its part of who you are and no matter what,life still move on whether you like it or not. Who knows, you might be surprise what life has in store for you!