This is officially my new favourite image… Anna sent me this card after a particularly good shopping experience here in the Big Apple, but what prompted the upload of this image today is the collection of South African goodies that John brought back after his recent trip. It turns out that he went shopping with my two favourite fashion and shopping gurus in Cape Town – Luanne and Donoven – to bring back a selection of ‘Fall’ outfits that cannot be rivaled by any NY boutique (yes, more than just a frock, she got!)!

Today I’m wearing an outfit put together by Lu – a beautiful Ginger Mary top/dress with black leather sandals. Add to this look some purple studs sent by Donoven and I think the ensemble is quite the stylish Afro-Chic look a South African walking the streets of New York should aim for! On Saturday evening John and I went to a birthday party and I wore a huge purple armband to match the shortest little mini dress (in purple and pink), selected by Donoven – quite the hit, I’ll admit!

Nicola sent Nik Naks, Melissa’s Beskuit, Chocolate Eggs and Strawberry Dentyne bubblegum (cannot get any of those here!) along with two books by great SA authors and 5 Afrikaans magazines. Cornele sent me a book by my new favourite author, Haruki Murakami, along with a beautiful photo of herself and my godchild, Michaela.

But that’s not all! John’s suitcase produced more goodies for the most spoilt girl in the world! He had pushed the boundaries in shopping-for-a-girl and bought me three tops from Woolworths, a beautiful orange long-sleeved work shirt and another eensy-weensy black and white dress-number. One of my favourite goods is a metal bracelet that John had selected.

As I said – most spoilt girl in the world, with friends who have GREAT taste. Thanks guys!

Last night we joined John’s childhood friend, Stevie (now called Steve), for his birthday at a somewhat ‘different’ location for birthday drinks – another borough of New York called Queens. (New York City comprises five boroughs – The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island.) There are over 8.2 million residents within an area of 830 km², making New York City is the most densely populated major city in North America!. Back to Queens and Steve’s birthday, however. We have, except for a brisk walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, never left the island of Manhattan to go to any of the other boroughs so when we got invited to go to the Beer Garden in Queens, we leapt at the opportunity.

And it was interesting – a bit like Joe’s Beergarden in Windhoek, but without the all of the charm and empty Jagermeister bottles lining the walls! Beer is served in pitchers and the only food available are burgers and fries, big sausages and fries or Portobello mushrooms and fries – all served with two slices of Rye Bread and sauerkraut. Delicious! The train ride out to Queens took us about 40 minutes and I doubt we’ll ever relocate that that particular borough, but it was good to see a variation to the Manhattan hoity-toity crowd.

So good, in fact, that we decided last night to organize a dinner/beer-drinking gathering with ALL the friends we’ve met over our (almost) six-month tenure here in the Big Apple. Though it probably won’t be on a school night…Steve’s girlfriend Anna says that these weekday outings make the week more fun. While I fully agree, they do make the mornings that little bit harder!

While still in South Africa, John and I did Muay Thai kickboxing at Quentin Chong’s Dragon Power gym and we both got pretty much addicted to our twice weekly sweat-hour. The impact it had on my body’s shape and muscle tone was worth mentioning too! So it stood to reason that we would continue with Thai Boxing once we arrived in New York. Easier said than done. It took us about 2 months (and countless phone calls and unsuccessful visits to a number of gyms) before we happened to walk by Charlie “The Cream” Cassis’ gym – Undisputed! Taadaaaa – we fell in exercise-endorphine-driven love with our new gym.

The biggest difference between what we did in Cape Town and what we do here is that Charlie teaches Kickboxing – he is 2 Time World Champion in Kickboxing after all! We attend two sessions a week – Mondays and Wednesdays. Each session lasts for two hours and include continuous aerobic exercise (running up and down 6 flights of stairs, push-ups, sit-ups, ‘sling-shots’ (ask me about that when you see me!) and squats) and skill – various kicks and punches. Another aspect of what Charlie teaches us is what to do in a street-fighting scenario. (I sometimes walk out of the gym (all sweaty, believe me!) and secretly hope that someone will try to steal my handbag…Just try to take it!)

Last night we were in the gym and had a particularly hard workout session – by hard I mean the sweat was running off my forehead, through my eye and dripping off my nose onto the gym mat. Nice, I know. (You would have probably also appreciated the red glow that maintained its colour on my face for the next three hours!). And today my body is so tired and stiff…

But hey, in the words of Charlie “The Cream” Cassis – No Pain, No Gain.

Not many girls are as lucky as I am – I have two favourite men in my life. And they both love me.

With John finally back from South Africa I was able to download the photos from our Sweden trip and share this fairytale one with you.
This is where Helena and Andreas got married and we got to spend the night of the wedding – a real fairytale castle in the south of Sweden!

My soon-to-be sister in law Caroline has started a blog called ‘A Consuming Passion’ and it’s fantastic to see someone with such a passion for cooking dedicate so much time and effort to creating beautiful meals. Martin is indeed a lucky man!

My cooking skills have increased a bit since moving in with John – where dinner used to consist of a packet of Salticrax and some watered-down Oros, I’m now producing meals that are a bit more filling, nutritious and way tastier. Lucky for me John is also quite tolerant to my non-professional cooking experiments and has more than once swallowed and smiled, even when I couldn’t! (Love?)

My love for writing and reading is probably the closest thing to ‘a consuming passion’ and my reading has reached new heights over the last couple of months. I’m averaging 6-8 books a month now and feel a bit like a word muzzler – ready to consume anything that comes my way – except for The Economist…we’re still working on that one.

So reading Caroline’s blog really inspires the cooking part of my brain and occassionaly I find myself considering the monsterous task of producing hand-rolled jam tarts or beautifully crafted gnocchi. Lucky for the kitchen and John’s taste-test requirements these urges tend to pass pretty quickly and then I realize that I am damn good at making tuna salad and boiled egg. For now, that will just have to do!

I’ve been pretty slack about updating my blog with the Swedish experiences, but with John currently in South Africa (he has the camera with all the photos on!), I’ve had a convenient excuse. Andreas’ friend Bob sent his pictures from Sweden to us this week and I had to share this one great experience with you in the meantime.

Two nights before the wedding in Gotenburg, we went for dinner with John’s parents in Stockholm and then met his brother and a bunch of his friends at the ‘Icebar Stockholm’ – essentially the same concept that was in Cape Town at the end of last year. It’s a bar – entirely made of ice! The actual bar counter is a chunk of ice, the bar stools are ice (with furs on top to ensure a dry bum) and the tables are made of ice. Most impressive was that the glasses you drink out of are ice too! So your vodka cocktail gets served in a square chunk of ice, with a test-tube sized hole inside.

At the entrance, each guest receives an ice poncho with gloves (cause how else could you hold and drink from that ice-glass?). We spent about an hour in the -5 degrees bar before my toes unwillingly curled up from cold and it was time to leave. Unlike Colleen who managed to convince Mark to swop shoes (he was quite the mod number wearing her gold bejeweled sandals!), John just wouldn’t accept that my black heels would do anything good for his image. My toes took a while to thaw… Quite the cool experience!

Sweden is everything I could’ve imagined and so much more! The beauty of this country is not easy to describe and what I really like about being here is that I think the South African culture is much more aligned to life in Europe than life in the States. It’s clean, the air offers the freshest air, water from the tap is icy cold and tastes so pure and clean. It’s like heaven on an island.

We have had a couple of busy, busy days – on Sunday after I landed, we had lunch at John’s parents’ place and then packed the car to head out to their summer house, about an hour outside of Stockholm. This place is absolute paradise! Boats bring people to their various islands and the peace and quiet is only sometimes disturbed by the motorized engine of a little boat, or by the yelling of happy children (do I wax lyrical?). We have been tremendously lucky with the weather – sunshine and long warm days. During our 2 day stay on the island we went out on the boat, John’s 60-odd year old dad succeeded on the wakeboard during his second try (!) – yours truly still has not managed to get up on that stupid board – after two episodes of trial and only error – we slept like rocks, ate like the lucky people we are and had a tremendous amount of fun.

It was also John and my one year anniversary! I received a beautiful silver bracelet from Tiffany & Co (Yay!) and a voucher to pamper-day at a spa two hours from New York. (I know…how spoilt and lucky can one girl get?)

We came to Stockholm on Tuesday afternoon and I’ve been out exploring the city while John works during the afternoons and early evenings. Last night his parents treated us to traditional Swedish food (naturally I had meatballs, creamy brown sauce and Lingonberries) and then we met his brother Andreas with some of his friends at the Ice Bar Stockholm. Overpriced drinks served in ice-glasses inside a freezer room…quite the experience!

Our return date is fast approaching and I would be just too happy if someone offered me an extension on this trip. I’m having such fun!

Just a quick one to say I got it – somehow the gods of travel were on my side and they granted me (in one day!) the necessary visa to enter Sweden with! (Those Swedes are a nice bunch, right?).

So tonight I’m having dinner with Justin and Annie and tomorrow there will be some last-minute dress shopping (what to wear to a Swedish wedding?) and then at 11pm tomorrow night, my plane leaves New York, taking Sue, for the first time internationally, out of the City.

After many teary nights picturing 3 weeks without John while he’s off in Sweden and then on to South Africa, I finally got confirmation this morning that I’ll be allowed to travel with him! So, ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow night at 11pm Sue leaves The City for a glorious 10-day holiday in Sweden. The main reason for this trip is Andreas and Helena’s wedding (watch this space for some wedding pics of the gorgeous couple!) and it will be the first time for me to meet the full Sjolund family and friends.

At the moment I’m rushing around trying to get all the documents, photos, copies of our wedding certificate, medical aid cover and the works together to submit to the Swedish Consulate tomorrow morning – all in an effort to obtain a Schengen Visa IN ONE DAY! (These usually take a minimum of 10 days…major thumb-holding required by all, please???) (I am willing to succumb to tears, if needed.) This girl will stop at nothing when the opportunity to travel to a new (and highly exotic) location is presented.

I almost feel as though reporting about another city on the sueandthecity blog is cheating, but hey…whatever it takes!