Because That's What Forever Means.

Wow, it's been a few intense couple of days! Sorry I haven't updated you...

I knew London was magical and I was proved right on Sunday evening, walking through Kensington Gardens on our way to dinner! Anders led me in on a more secluded path and then he dropped down on  one knee and presented a beautiful ring with a magical question! When I regained normal breathing I think I got "I do" out and after some serious re-makeup we got a very good picture to remember it by! But I'm not worried that this memory ever will fade even the slightest, it was the most wonderful moment in my life!

I love you! 

Para Siempre

It's In Our Nature...

For breakfast today, we headed towards Marble Arch and Prêt à Manger, which a colleague of mine had recommended, and we bought: tea, orangejuice, sandwiches, a bowl of fruit and croissants--YUMMY! We then ate it in Hyde Park and I don't know why, but to me food always tastes better outdoors...

Yum!

After that we took a nice walk (and another cup of tea) through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens to get to our goal: Museum of Natural History! The funny thing is that right now they have a special exhibition called "Animals Inside Out", which is the "sequel" to "Body World" that Anders went to in Berlin last summer. It's about plastination, which is an advanced method of draining a body of all fluids and filling it up with a sort of silicone to show veins, arteries, muscles and everything else inside our body. It was a little freaky, but also extremely interesting! Though I really feel that the human exhibition had not been for me... Unfortunately,  photographing was prohibited, but we bought the book, so you'll get to see some of it...

The Book about the exhibition...

This is what the horse's head looks like when you fill up all it's veins with red silicone...

The elephant took 3 years to plastinate!!!

I'll tell you more about the man behind this, Gunther von Hagens, another day. Until then, you can read more about plastination at their website Body World of Animals.

We also saw lots of other animals and dinosaurs and I think it's a truly amazing place, luckily for me--Anders felt the same way! He even took longer in some of the stands than I did, a new experience... =)

Me, outside the museum of museums!

Anders! <3

Us outside Royal Albert Hall... <3

Mr. T...

After that, we went back to the hotel for an hours rest, then headed in to Oxford Street and ate Indian at  The Curry Leaf, which you can read more about in tomorrow's P & P's Gastroguide (too tired to write about the food right now).

We ended our evening with tea and a long walk through Hyde Park, a place I'm madly in love with!

Now some sleep, before another amazing breakfast in Hyde Park and a day at... London Zoo!!!

Cheers!

Morning Jog/Walk in Kensington!

Gooooood morning! I just got in from the most wonderful morning jog/walk in Kensington Gardens and the pale spring-sun! I'm in love with this place and I know it's silly, but here even the birds are fun to watch and I'm NOT big on winged creatures at home... =D I could stay here forever and after checking FB and the pictures my friends have uploaded--I sure don't wanna go home right now! Don't get me wrong--I love snow, but not in April!

Now I've woken the sleepyhead up, just a quick shower and then off for breakfast at Prêt à Manger and then: British Museum of Natural History!!! Woop woop!!!

Pass It Around!

Oh, just realized it's that horrible time of life... Time to get a new passport! =( Sad really, I am so pleased with the one I've got, the picture is actually good. But since I've added a surname since it was issued and since we ran in to some serious trouble on our way to Mexico back in December 2010, maybe it's better to get it fixed?...
I have to tell you about that incident, because it still bugs me! We were going to Playa del Carmen in Mexico and were to fly from Arlanda early morning--hence we were there earlier morning and all in good time. When we were supposed to check-in they told us it had to be done in certain machines, so we walked up to one of those, only to realize that I had spelled daddy's surname as I spell it: Bååth, but in his passport it said: Båth. This meant that the machine went bonkers and wouldn't except his ticket, so we had to do it manually at the check-in desk anyways... Daddy's ticket and passport was a no-brainer for the guy behind the counter, but when he examined MY passport he found a small tear on the first page's seam and refused to let it through. All of a sudden we were short of time, we had to go to the police-office on the other side of Arlanda, took a taxi, stood in line, got a new temporary passport (pink at that!!!) and payed almost 1000 SEK (£95/$148) and hurried back to the plane. The rest of them had already boarded and we RAN on to the plane with like 5 minutes to spare! I've got some news for you: that's NOT a good way to start a vacation!!!
The thing that irritates me is that the guy at the check-in said: "They will NEVER let you in to Mexico with a passport like this, it's too torn," and then when we arrived at customs in Cancún--they didn't even want to look at my NEW, shiny, pink passport! They wanted the old, TORN one!!! Gaaah!

So, this time I'll do it properly: the right names and no tears in the seam. But getting ready for that picture is gonna take some time, I'll have to live with it for 10 years... So I've just applied a facial-mask and I'm gonna fix my eyebrows, I'm seriously considering using the hair colour I bought how last week and dye my hair myself... Need to get the make-up right, we all know the light in those places should be classified as a means of torture...
Well, I'll share the result with you when the passport arrives! Until then:

Will it pass, do you think?... =)

Reboot System...

First fail, erase and rewind, no reason to dwell over it and beat myself up about it. Just move on and try again.

So, here it goes:

Weight: 106,3 kg (234,35 lbs)

Measures:

*Chest: 119 cm (46,8 in)
*Waist: 99 cm (38,9 in)
*"Tummy": 116 cm (45,6 in)
*Butt: 124 cm (48,8 in) -- Bring it on Kardashian! =)
*Thighs: 77 cm (30,3 in)
*Calves: 44 cm (17,3 in)
*Overarms: 40 cm (15,7 in)
*Underarms: 31 cm (12,2 in)

There it is, no more, no less. It's a start and wise from experience, I'm not gonna give you my goals yet. I'll give the first week a silent start... I'll try to keep the carbs to a minimum, but I'll never ever be one of those girls who sacrifice everything for my weight, not even short-term. It's just not who I am and you're all free to think whatever you want about that, but keep it to yourselves. Before you comment, think carefully if I'll gain from it or not, I don't need any pressure just yet. I promise to holler from the rooftops when I do, ok? =)

Tonight we're going swimming with a wonderful colleague of mine, who's kind of in the same position as I am, but he is doing GREAT! I'm so impressed by him and mostly his self-control, I've got none of that! It'll be great fun but it's also my worst nightmare. Bikinis were never my thing.
Long story short: I was chubby as a kid and pretty badly bullied (more about that another time) and when I was 12 I started to feel really bad about myself. So, I detested going to the beach and such, basically I just didn't go. But then we were supposed to go swimming at school and to make matters even worse: we were going together with the other class... Since I really hated it I tried to worm my way out and I've always been taught to trust in grown-ups, so I tried to tell my teacher in a really low voice how I felt about it. Maybe he didn't hear me that well, but his reaction was this: he laughed out loud and said (loud and clear to all the kids): "What's the matter, can't you swim?!?" After that, I didn't go to the beach or bath in public for about 15 years. I'm not kidding. 15 years. It has also made me hate summers, and this even though I was not even overweight until I was 26. But that incident all those years ago has stuck with me and it's still as clear as ever.

So, I hate it, I don't really want anyone to see me in a bikini or swim-suit, not even Anders. But, all means to and end, right? Maybe I'll get my revenge next summer, strutting my stuff on a beach somewhere? I'd really, really like that... If not for myself, then for that poor little scared 12 year old that was laughed at by teachers and classmates. I owe her a lot. She got me here, and as badly as I feel about my weight, I'm glad she didn't give up and end it all. She just as well could have.
So, I'm doing this for her, and all other girls out there who suffer people's idiocy every day.

If you only think about one important thing today, please make it this: words hurt. Deeper than you ever could guess.

Finishing off in a happier mode: I've worked all week-end and "my" guards did a great job! They were fantastic and that makes my job a lot easier. So, yesterday I brought them cookies and cup-cakes to show my appreciation, nothing fancy, just cookies. I gave them to their boss and asked him to tell them how great I thought they'd done.
In the afternoon one of the guards asked me to come to where we hand out the keys and when I looked in to the cabinet, I saw the most beautiful bouquet of flowers! He pointed at me and smiled and left... I got flowers for doing a good job, when all I really wanted was to let them know how great THEY were. My eyes watered up in an instant and I was really sentimental and wicked proud for the rest of the day!

So beautiful!