New Blog Started!

Dear friends and followers,

I have some exciting news! I started up a new start for my passion about fitness. I decided to start it on another platform - Wordpress - instead, just to kinda try something new.

Check it out and feel free to follow! :)

Love
Joel

My Christmas

Every year I experience the very same thing, or rather I have the same idea and desire that this years Christmas will be the best. That I will feel the Christmas Spirit in great abundance and spend days on end feeling good while listening to Christmas music. And if there is something I've learned after years of this desire is that you harvest what you sow. It will never become that Christmas with the little extra added to it if you don't do your part in making it so. 

When I think of Christmas, I obviously have almost but a Scandinavian (mainly Swedish) Christmas to refer to, but I mainly think of two things - Darkness and Light.

Darkness because December is really dark here. At least we do have some sunlight here, but it is only between 9 am to 3 pm, and you mainly spend those ours inside at the office or in a classroom. If you live a bit more north in this strangely long country you wont get any sun at all. (sidenote: during my missionary service a few years ago I lived on the very tip of Norway, in Alta, just a few hours from the North Cape, go ahead - Google it! I lived up there for 6 months during the winter and that was dark!)

Novermber is a dark and simply dreary month, December likewise. But as soon as December hits thousands of lights starts glimmering all around you. We Swedes have a tradition of putting lights in every window of our houses and even offices which makes it quite a sight and seems to brighten up even the most sour day. I love it. That is a big part of Christmas for me.



These are the light we call Adventsljusstake and I actually happen to have one on my desk at the office.

Speaking of office and work, I only have 6 more work days left at my current position. This is only due to the fact that my contract is ending, it was a filler for a maturety leave. People ask me where I am going next but sadly and a little worrying I have to tell them that I don't have anything set yet. I have an interview tomorrow with a smaller company that seems pretty promising, but we'll see. Lets just say I would not mind if you kept me in your prayers tonight!

Here is an all time classic Swedish Christmas song. (I didn't realize how many Christmas hymns/songs we have here that does not exists in USA until Mollie came over!) I managed to find a pretty good English translation for those of you who dont know what in the world she is singing. 

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!
Joel

Nu tändas tusen juleljus                      A thousand Christmas candles are lit now
På jordens mörka rund                       On Earth's dark round
Och tusen, tusen stråla ock                 And thousands upon thousands also beam   
På himlens djupblå grund                    In the sky's dark blue ground    

Och över stad och land ikväll               And all over town and rural tonight
Går julens glada bud                           The joyful message of Christmas sounds
Att född är Herren Jesus Krist             That born is the Lord Jesus Christ
Vår frälsare och Gud                           Our saviour and God

Du stjärna över Betlehem                    Thou star above Betlehem
O, låt ditt milda ljus                            O, let your gentle light
Få lysa in med hopp och frid                 Come shining in with hope and serenity
I varje hem och hus                             Into every home and house

I varje hjärta armt och mörkt              In every poor dark heart
Sänd du en stråle blid                          Send a mild ray
En stråle av Guds kärleks ljus              A ray of light of God's love
I signad juletid                                   In sacred Christmas days

Honeymoon Day 14, Saturday July 7th - +1?

The alarm ran it's unpleasant melody at 4:40 this morning. No time to snooze, we just got up and packed the last of our possessions and headed down to the really hot and humid lobby. Since it was so early in the morning and since we were a few min late, we asked the front desk if the taxi had come by already. Nope, no taxi. I stressfully checked my email again to really confirm the plans. The email read:

"Hello Joel,

We have booked your request and will send a cab to pick you up on July 8th."

July 8th? THE 8th!? A mistake must have clearly been made! We must call another cab to pick us up immediately  My heart began to race, Mollie was mainly worried. I checked the airplane confirmation email that read: "Departure Malta: July 8th". That as well?! I was so convinced that I had booked the departure for Saturday so that we could have Sunday to recover before I needed to go back to work that very following Monday. Oh dear! ...

And so it was confirmed, even at the front desk, that our departure was July 8th. Meaning - WE GOT UP AT 4:40 ALL IN VAIN! Mollie could a tleast laugh at it while I just literary experienced a living nightmare of the confusion of loss of control. Back to bed...
Mollie fell asleep quickly, but I laid awake for the longest time not able to let go of the worry that "what if something else had been planned wrong etc...?" But asleep I fell.

The day became very much a "I-don't-care"-day. We were lazier than ever before and just took the day as it unfolded itself. Which was, by the end, quite nice indeed.

One more day of honeymoon isn't exactly bad news. At all, matter a fact! But it was just that we had so mentally prepared to leave and come home. Sleeping in our own bed, making our own food, having cold milk for the cereal, yea, that kind of stuff.

We slept until noon, cuddled, then headed out to a place we spotted earlier, a restaurant called Badass Burgers just to get away from the pizza-pasta diet. Ashame that the burgers looked a lot better than they tasted. Not to mention the fries. Hm... an expensive dissapointment for sure.

We stumbled around in St. Julians for a little while. Mollie felt quite sick after the lunch and we needed to buy some water, but for that we needed either cash or purchase something for at least 10 euros for any store to accept the credit card. Gah! We so carefully managed to rid ourselves of all the cash and change we had yesterday. Sigh...

Laid in bed for awhile before we ended up on the first place we went swimming when first arriving to Malta two weeks earlier. It was basically across the street. We laid out in the sun until it became unbearable, then cooled off in the super nice water and repeated the procedure a few times. It was really wonderful!

We watched a movie on TV before we headed out for a nice restaurant just down the street, that we also visited a few days ago. This restaurant is now our favorite place! The personnel was super nice, the food - healthy(!!) and very high quality and the place itself simply a pearl! Too bad we figured out how good this place was on our last day.

We told the owner about this and he was very delighted to hear it! He asked us, in his cool Maltese accent, where we were from. He told me that I didn't look like I came from Sweden at all - I had a too good of a tan for that. Guess if that made my night? The place was called U Bistrot if anyone's roads ever cross Malta.

We went for a last stroll and topped off the dinner - and pretty much our whole honeymoon - with a big scoop of Nutella and cookie ice cream.

Honeymoon Day 13, Friday July 6th - Goodbye!

The Saga Comes to it's End

A nice breakfast at a restaurant - Finally! Cold mild, hot boiled eggs, juice - the whole kit! Never again skim milk powder mixed with luke warm water and Cheerios. Die!

Took a small lay-down-and-let-the-big-breakfast-settle-abit nap before we settled off to The Point - Maltas biggest shopping mall. It was just a short busride away with the pulic busses that are almost freezing inside thanks to the good AC(!) The mall was actually quite big but nicer surely exists. But then again, this is Malta and this whole island is quite small, so...

After a few purchases, we very quickly ran out of energy, but had the hardest time finding an actual restaurant there! There were just snacks and dessers everywhere! We found something you could call lasagna and Mac n'cheese, but it was quite iffy. More shopping and Mollie clearly thought Joel was the best husband in the world for buying her so many things for her! Joel felt quite good about himself too.

Later in the afternoon, got home, got changed and headed out for a daily snorkel-and-lay-ouy-on-the-cliffs-untill-we-get-burned adventure! We went further away (this time using the newly discovered bus system!) and had a great time! The waters got surprisingly deep to Joels delight for he could once again practice his deep-diving skills. He got down to a good 10-12 meters today again! It was with ease and was a fantastic thrill! Mollie just had to accept the fact that she could never be as cool as Joel down there. But then again, we have confirmed it so many times now that if Mollie doesn't move a muscle while in the water - she floats and survives. If Joel does the same - he sinks and dies. Who's cooler now, huh?!

We layed in the sun and jumped into the water every now and then to cool off. On Joels last swandive into the mediterranean sea, he (of course) came too deep and scraped up the side of the stomach on a big boulder! Good thing the boulder wasn't as rough as the average cliffs! Brr, don't even dare to think about what could have happened!

We stayed for a little bit longer but the bleeding wound was definately bothering Joel. Another freezing busride later and we were back at the hotel in Balutta Bay.

We went back to that nice pizza place again, but over-ate! Urgh, our stomachs! On the wat back we walked for the last time on the promenade along the waters and enjoyed the perfect warm but not hot temperature. We stopped at the Swedish Candy store - Candynavia - and had a nice fun chat with a really nice fellow who just became the owner last week. He is a Swede who basicly left Sweden with his family for something new. Interesting adventure for sure...

Spent most of the evening packing and relaxing, eating som Swedish candy. Man, what a honeymoon its been!


Ps. We went down to the Neptune Diving Center to say goodbye to the crew there (well, mainly to Martin). He just cracks us up so bad! He is so nice, relaxed and proper in his way of speaking that he just makes us smile and laugh the whole time! We have our own inside joke now, everytime we go down under water and does something really awesome, we just sit still, clasping your hands and simply rolling your thumbs for a short break of lifting your shoulders and hands and with your body language saying: "What? This is nothing!" Ha ha!

Next Day: Honeymoon Day 14 - The End

Honeymoon Day 12, Thursday July 5th -The Blue Lagoon

We morning-cuddled today. Mollie likes waking up like that - Joel rolling over and softly holds her. It's the best she says. Joel loves to watch Mollie in the mornings first five minutes, that is when she is the most beautiful. Pure, natural beauty!

We ate those disgusting cereal this morning again. Man, we are sick of them! And the luke-warm skim-milk powder... (What idiot came up with that idea?!) Had to wait about 15 min for the boat to the Camino Island. Excited, and on a crammed boat, we set of for our final destination (not like the movies!) - The Blue Lagoon.

On our way we saw the prison used in the movie Count of Monte Cristo. Cool, I guess... On the boat we saw the most random couple - two type of people that simply did not look like they were married at all because of their different styles - yet with the most adorable kids running around. We also saw a black skinny girl with a massive amount of black, small curly hair (not a fro but more like how Cleopatra would have her hair (if you have the same imagination as me..)) with a cute swimsuit that Mollie didn't ask where she bought. We love watching people :)

Super thrilled we finally reached Camino and the Blue Lagoon! It was just like the pictures! People cramming under umbrellas and parasols on a tiny beach and spread all over the red, sharp cliffs. Surprised how they actually managed to place all the chairs there...

The water was just like a huge, warm swimming pool with blue/teal, crystal clear water! It was a true paradisaical moment jumping in! The red cliffs were really not meant for barefoot walking, man they were rugged! Had to watch every step.

We snorkeled around for a good while. Into caves, avoiding jellyfish (Mollie's biggest fear in life!), dove down to the bottom, (well Joel did and Mollie trued but just deemed to float no matter how hard she tried.) Joel was constantly looking for deeper waters to try and see how deep he could (dared!) to swim down to. Made a lot more friends, Joel can never shut up and Mollie is always good at catching on. On our second snorkel adventure - after a quite iffy kebab from a small stand - we managed to use up the last 2 pictures that we had left in the waterproof disposable camera. Got 2 good pictures of Mollie, that is, if they turn our good(!).

Swimming in a cave! Awesome!

Joel found a huge towel at the bottom and tied it around his neck and pretended to be a super hero, but under water. Later even found a smaller towel, the size of a handkerchief, and tied that around his ankle. He thought he looked like the men from the movie "300" when he later stood on the cliff in his red little swim trunks, with the 'cape' blowing in the wind. Then he peed his pants. Oh well....

We eventually found greater depth, among quite more rough water. Nevertheless, Joel could finally put his diving skills to the test! Since he sinks so well he basically stood at the bottom, arms crossed, at around 10-12 meters down. Looking up and seeing a small figure of Mollie much further up at the surface was quite the experience! No tubes nor fins.

We got up and dried of in the sun. Tried to coach some people to jump of a cliff that Joel previously jumped from. Made many new friends! We saw a girl drop her iPhone down the cliffs and it bounced and tumbled  for about 3-4 meters before it eventually landed 1 "bounce" from taking a dive into the blue. Miraculously enough it didn't break at all! Not a crack! Just some smaller dents on the rim. Now that is like winning the lottery of luck!

Happy and totally pleased about the great day we started walking back to the boat, stopped and got some ice-cream, and simply enjoyed the place and atmosphere. Joel thought he heard a familiar sound and thought "Could that be...?" and hurried to look up the time. "IT WAS!" We started sprinting the best we could with our flip-flop sandals on the terrible uneven and sharp cliffs. It was 2 minutes to 4, the boat would leave at 4! We barely made it! Needless to say the ice cream spilled all over ourselves, ha ha!

Mollie slept like a baby all the way back. Joel wanted to but was simply too restless. He walked around and watched people instead. Quite the hobby he got going on there.

Maltese people drive like there is no tomorrow! For real! With all seriousness - we think we are going to crash everytime they drive us somewhere! They drive like there are no rules at all, barely made it back to the hotel alive...

Went and got a really nice pizza and just relaxed for the rest of the evening. For the longest time we just sat by the side of the street in St. Julians Bay (for it is always busy there) and watched people walking by. We spotted and discussed different clothes and outfits and saw quite some funny (and most likely drunk) people as well! Like that one cute (but crazy) young teenage girl who started dancing. And I tell you what she could do her moves! In the middle of the street in front of the cars, ha ha! She totally stopped the traffic and people could hardly get mad because she was so cute and skilled!

We saw some love-boats going around, we saw someone having placed a lot of mats by the waterside for people to rent a water-pipes (a.k.a bongs) and hung out (read laid around) with their friends. Except for that smoking part, that looked quite cozy.

Next Day: Honeymoon Day 13

Honeymoon Day 11, Wednesday July 4th - The Worst Day!

We hate busses. Everytime we hear the sound of a bus we dislike it immediately! All these bustours have gottes us around a lot, sure, but we are sure sick of them. Today was the worst day so far of our lives together.

Got up before the roaster (well, the honeymoon one atleast), Mollie thought she was pregnant and barely slept all night just because of worrying. We ran to the nearest pharmacy as soon as they opened just to find out that she wasn't pregnant. Phew!! I mean, sure I want kids! .. Just not right now.

Tired from all that stress, we had to sit and wait for over an hour to get a short bus ride down to the harbor and ferry. We were going to the place we had looked forward to the most - The Blue Lagoon. Mollie was so exhausted she fell asleep on a couch in the lobby even though some teenage girls were really loud and played really annoying music the whole time. Poor girl...

The bus didn't come. The super interesting Maltese lady that was our host in this matter (she was really dramatic about everything) called the bus over and over again, and eventually and after a lot of fast-speaking and irritated-tone Maltese someone came to pick us up. On our way there, obviously really frustrated by everything that had happened so far this morning, we got the message that the boat had left without us. We were so frustrated and tired of waiting and all this mess!

Back to the hotel and tried to talk sense to the dramatic lady again about our right to get compensated. We "chatted" (read argued) for about half an hour and they were "kind" enough to let us go with the boat the next day for free. Oh, well how gracious of them! Not. *big sigh*

Exhausted and super frustrated we went back to our room and Mollie took a nap. Joel was to overwhelmingly frustrated to even be close to sleeping, but it was a nice lay down for him aswell.

Well, we wanted to get a tan and snorkel around so we went out and walked to a new place that looked quite peacefull. There was not a thing to see in the water. Gaah!  Moved on...

We finally found a good spot and actually enjoyed it very much! It was like balm on a wound to be able to relax and have some fun after this morning. We were in the water for a good hour and felt so alive and thrilled to be in the waters again! Diving and snorkeling and the ocean has after this last week gotten a whole new dimension! A whole new world has opened up. Joel is beginning to love the sea! Saw a couple of really big and fast fishes down there today pretty close to us! Mollie clinged on to Joel's arm for dear life! Joel's snorkel leaked and messed up his mouth really bad because of the heavily salted water.

We walked along the rocky beach (cliffs!) untill we found a good place to lay out in the sun. We got fried! The first really bad sunburn so far! We did some more snorkeling to cool of and Joels tongue was baaad after the salt!

On the way back joel was going to jump froma bridge that some other kids were jumping from. Mollie was ready with the camera to film it. It was high! Joel bailed out. The other kids yelled Chicken! after him but he just turned around, bent over and symbolically smacked his rear to them.

What a day!

Next day: Honeymoon Day 12 - The Best Day!

Honeymoon Day 10, Tuesday 3 July - Gozo

The Azure Window, and yes, that little speck up there is me.

Gozo
We went on our last open top-bus today (well technically we have a few lest but have no desire at all what so ever to go on them..) to the Island of Gozo. It was a little bit more fertile and lush than Malta in some places, but other than that and it being much smaller, there's not much of a difference.

The water surrounding the ferry was more blue than I have ever seen water be and the desire to jump overboard just to be in it was abit overwhelming. The bus we hopped upon on Gozo was scorching hot! We drove on Europes absolutely worst roads, it was nothing less that a rodeo trying to not bounce out of our seats and fall of the tall bus... ridiculous. We both tried our best not to be annoyed the whole time. But easier said than done. We got annoyed and jumped of at the Capital and walked around small narrow streets up to a citadell. We had an excellent view from there but just about died in the sun. There is a reason why the streets are empty during the day and packed at night, exept for a few dumb tourist tumbling around under the deadly sun - that would be us!

Starving, we went in to a restaurant called Citadella, but after having to place ourselves at a table (the place was about empty with just 1 other table of guests a lot further away) and after 10 min not receiving any menues nor assistance, the waiter finally showed up, and quite grumpy, and handed us the menues. After 10 more minutes we were fed up with the place and just left after placing a few coins on the table for the water. No one happy!

We continued to walk through a bazaar of almost no people and ended up on a small pizzeria with a wonderful and nice man who served us simply yet fantastic pizza! The best we had had duing these past 10 days in this strange land! All was well again! Joel got a nice bag at the bazaar woth mollies approval and Mollie got a pair of blue aviators with Joels approval. Everyone happy! (If you couldn't tell by now, we get really grumpy and low if we dont get food..)

Joel was wearing a sleeveless shirt the whole time and by now he had started to develop quite the interesting tan (read Burn!) line. We got some really nice ice-cream, ran to the bus (by the way, Mollie loooves running to busses! Not.), just barely managed to get on it, and off for more bumpy and winding roads under the hot sun.

We jumped off at the Azure Window - a huge vault-shaped cliff. It was amost like walking in a sauna, thats how much Joel was sweating! Joel climbed and walked out on the edge of the "Window". It was crazily high! Mollie got kicked out from a café because she didn't buy anything there. She didn't like that the least. We got some more ice-cream at the café right next to the place where Mollie got kicked out from. We walked down to the water and put our feet in the surprisingly hot water. Wish it would have cooled us off better...

Head home again, and the busride reminded us of a milkman route - picking up and dropping off people everywhere and nowhere and it basicly took all night. Ended the night with a bread-like dinner with lit candles everywhere.

Next day: Honeymoon Day 11