Beautiful wind!

Ahhh there are some nice gusting wind in Abisko at the moment. I love the wind and it looks so pretty when the dry snow is blowing in the wind. It is such a refreshing feeling when you step outside as you get hit by this instant cold. Most people of course dislike the wind as it makes it feel so much colder. But I reckon it is cool stuff, I suppose I have a thing for extreme weather aye he he he.
Yesterday my umeå email account got de-activated for some odd reason. So my uni email is not working, tried to resolve it today got a new password and voila I was logged in but only for a few hours.... Called the IT-guy in our department and he said they were cleaning up some of the email accounts or something like that, he was rather vague in his explanation. Anyhow he was gonna check it. It is sort of funny as I always check my email, it doesn't go a day without me checking it. The morning radio programme was discussing how people actually are "addicted" to checking their emails and the need for this was an indication of low self-confidence. Well, this is obviously wrong right? Anyhow, I am happily gonna keep on checking my emails (that is, if I ever get logged back in!) and I reckon I am boosting of self-confidence =)

Skiing weekend

This weekend has been a very relaxing one. On friday evening we (Camilla, Laura, Eric, Carola and Björn) enjoyed some fried white fish (sik) fillets and potatoes. They had been caught locally here in Torneträsk. It was very yummie. And for desert Camilla had brought some cakes that her mum had made, sponge cake with a cloudberry coating on top very nice indeed. Saturday I spent cleaning my flat which was very dirty yuck.

Then I went for a skii to the tourist station and out on Torneträsk which now has a thick layer of ice (probably about half a meter I think). The weather was so so, nice temperature around minus 10 but overcast. There were a few skiidos on the ice as well, they were out there to set up nets under the ice. The skiidos looks like so much fun I reckon. Then in the evening on saturday I cooked myself a nice meal with my chillies from Santa Fe mmmm hot and spicy. I also made a walnutcake which I have far from finished so will bring into work tomorrow. It was snowing during the most of the night and when I woke up today we have about another 40cm fresh snow outside and the sun was shining so it was time to put on the skiis again =) But before that I caught Benny on skype and he was not at his best as he had come of his motorbike, poor thing. He had spent saturday night in hospital but was back home today with a broken shoulder, in pain and bruised. I hope he will recover quickly. It is hard when something like that happens when I live on the other side of the world, feel a bit useless as I cannot do anything to help him. Anyhow he seemed to be in good spirit, considering what he had been through.

So now I have just got back from another journey on my skiis and today the sun was out so very nice to be out and about. However, as usual I have problems with keeping my bum warm!




























Coming back to my house in Abisko. I wonder when all the snow will melt....

ASLO crew

Spring was in the air in Santa Fe and the Swedes make the most of it of course, by sunbaking.
















Jenny, Samuel and Alice browsing through the conference programme at lunch

Santa Fe buildings down town

Santa Fe

Plane for 20 people took us from Denver to Santa Fe. Scary little plane I must say...












The Rocky mountains pretty cool view from the plane though.











Santa Fe













Up on the high point at the cross of the Martyrs





Sunset over Santa Fe















Had to try the margaritas... but meh don't like them










But the local beer on the other hand was a jackpot - santa fe pale ale mmmm
Alice and I enjoyed them.












So many colourful things in this little town and everything has something to do with chillies











Dried chillie you saw them everywhere outside houses as ornaments. Very nice touch indeed.














Yep I was there and even had a sign for me he he he.

Shark snorkelling

I got the most amazing gift from Benny for xmas as I got to go snorkelling in the big aquarium in Perth with some grey nurse sharks. In the tank there were also big turtles and sting rays. You can see me floating at the top in the photo with some nasty beasts just underneath me. However we found out that grey nurses are really not a threat to humans as they only eat things they can get in whole in their mouths but still a shark is a shark. This has deffo been added to my list of cool things I have done in my life. Thanks Benny!

Australian landscape - on our way to Snowy Mountains

Antarctic re-union in Sydney

Joe, me, Macca, Murph's wife, Murph and his little baby, Benny, Eddy and Sandra (Eddy's wife).

Hiking in the Snowy Mountains, Australia

Sydney Opera house

Rottnest Island outside Freemantle WA

Quokkas - Rottnest Island was named rottnest (meaning rat's nest) because of these funny creatures as the dutch explorer that found the island thought they looked like rats.













Lots of people feed them (you are not meant to I think) so they are real friendly and they took a real shine to me of course =)
















One of the many beautiful bays on Rottnest



No cars allowed on the Island so hiring bikes essential to cover some ground. I got mega heat stroke after this whole day in the sun. Aussie sun is so strong compared to in Europe.

So it has been awhile since I posted something but had nothing cool or new to report. Got back from Santa Fe, New Mexico yesterday and on my way to Sweden the airlines somehow lost my luggage. So now I am waiting for it to turn up... never had any luggage disappear before. I blame it on the US he he he. Anyhow the conference was a success and I got some new cool contacts and Santa Fe is a lovely little town with a lot of mexican influences so it didn't really feel like being in the US to be honest. I have finally got some feedback on a very dragged out submission of one of my manuscripts that was part of my phd-thesis and yes finally there is a journal that will accept it. I have to do some major changes though but I reckon I can cope with that.
The sun is back in Abisko and you can really tell that the lighter times are on the way, the days are getting longer for each day that passes. When I left work today I saw some amazing northern lights, I think they look so cool. It was pretty intense but only green colour. Never seen any red or purple here as I did down south. It is rather chilly outside around minus 17 which is a big change from the spring like weather I experienced in Santa Fe. I was planning on going to Umeå next week to analyse some of my samples under the TEM however looks like they have no film which means I cannot take any photos of my infected bacteria. I will wait a bit and start up something in the lab. I have got some new motivation from talking to "like-minded" virus people at the conference and will try again to see if I can isolate a virus unique to Abisko lakes. It would be so cool if it would work.
I find it real tireing to travel now, I must be getting old. I woke up mega early this morning (2am) and could not go back to sleep so stayed up reading until 4am then tried to sleep but without any luck so back up at 5am so a very long day at work today but surprisingly I did manage to get heaps done. I hope I will have a full nights sleep tonight though. I am probably still suffering a little from jetleg I reckon.