St Patrick's Day in Sweden is a very low key affair. There is nobody around today wearing a sprig of green, no St Paddy's parades or people drinking green Guiness in the pubs (except maybe the Irish pubs). The expat community and English speaking clubs hold quite low key functions, but apart from that it is ignored here. I feel the urge to go around and pinch everybody I see NOT wearing green today, but as that would be almost everybody, I think I'll pass on that one.

I've been absolutely flat out like the proverbial lizard with things to do, some of it work and some of it pleasure. We also have a hectic weekend coming up with dinner and an overnight stay with our friends Bosse and Anne and then a 30th birthday party for Lars-Göran's eldest son on Sunday. I think I'll need next week to recover.

This week a friend also sent me the first 110 pages of his manuscript for the book he is writing and I've been busy in the evenings reading and editing the text. It's such a fascinating read that I've been up late several nights with it. I won't give anything away at this stage, but will let you know how it all goes if and when he secures a publisher for it.

I have made a number of quite good online friends here in Sweden. Many of them are also expats who have left their homeland and follwed their hearts to Sweden. It's taken a time of carefully sifting to extract the core of witty, intelligent and supportive ones I want to interact with and we all have a great time communicating with one another. I really have come to appreciate this small group of wonderful friends that I've built up over the past couple of years. In a discussion about an unrelated topic, one girl from Florida mentioned a longing for cornbread muffins. I said I'd never heard of them and within two days, a terrific woman from Wisconsin, who now lives over the other side of the country in Dals Ed sent me a packet of the muffin mix to try. So I baked them the same day.



They smelled delicious, so we tried them straight from the oven, still lovely and warm. I figured they would be not unlike a corn based scone and then decided that there was almost nothing that couldn't be improved by the addition of Vegemite, so I added a dollop of the black gold



I'm sure by now that Sandy (no, not the one in Melbourne) is having kittens by now as there does seem to be some kind of misunderstanding about how wonderful Vegemite is, with several people comparing it to eating ass. Which only makes me wonder how they'd know....

Anyway, just to rub it in, especially to Liz in Flyinge who bandies about words like "travesty" when I mention corn bread and Vegemite in the same sentence, I offer you an evil grin.



And I'm rather excited about getting myself a Mock for my mobile phone. Don't laugh. Phones have feelings too and they get very cold in my coat pocket waiting on the railway platform. For the train that is always late. Or cancelled. Or diverted because of ice. But we better not start on that little story.

I think the range of designs is great, though my heart is set on the one pictured here, though there were a couple that I liked. I had to have it as soon as I saw it. And luckily Kate from Australians Abroad has come onboard and is negotiating shipping them overseas through a Melbourne based supplier. The friend in Sydney who told me about them thinks they are cheesy, but I really love the idea and it will be great to have that reminder of the flag every time I get a call.

So you all have to ring me so I have an excuse to show off my mock when it arrives. Now I really must go and get organised for tomorrow's fika in Stockholm and scan the bottle shop site to select some Australian wine for the weekend. Cold weather....hmmm...a nice red wine I think.