Updates...

Last week Shawn was in Adalaide to play cricket, and came back on Thursday. That evening we drove down to Fremantle for some dinner at the beach and the craziest thing happended; I ordered steak! I never eat a big piece of meat but for some reason, that's what I wanted to eat! Bub must be growing...

In Fremantle after dinner

Over the weekend, there has as usual been lots of cricket but also time to buy a cot, a midwife appointment and relaxing dips in the ocean in the evenings.

There has also been election here on Saturday. The 2007 election for the federal Parliament of Australia took place after a 6-week campaign in which 13.6 million Australians were enrolled to vote. (You get a fine here if you don't vote! )
The opposition centre-left Australian Labor Party, led by Kevin Rudd won the election against the incumbent centre-right coalition government, led by Liberal Party leader & Prime Minister John Howard who had been in power since the 1996 election.

Lets see what Kevin has in store for us!

Thank God for Steve!

After two long weeks with discouloured hair, today I finally got to meet the man who was going to change my life to the better. Steve is Nooshin's hairdresser and she has always talked warmly about him.

So, there I was, meeting Steve this afternoon, and when he hears about the hairdisaster he says: "I don't know how they managed to stuff it up like this, seriously, this hair colour doesn't suit you at all, your face looks completely washed out!". "Thanks" I said, "you're the only one so far who is honest enough to agree with me on that." To me, this was a great start of the appointment, there and then I knew he would be different.

After three hours, Steve had given me a new haircolour and a new fab haircut that will be easy to manage as a new mum, hence no blowdrying or styling required. He was amazing and so artistic in his way of dealing with the hair, that I was watching him working rather than reading the magazines. This was the beginning of a new relationship and he is now my offical hair guru!

A Baby Shower doesn't have to be pink or blue

On Sunday we held a little 'get together' in the backyard, a combined baby shower and housewarming. The afternoon was lovely and the weather was perfect. About 30 people turned up, most of them at the same time so our little backyard was crowded to say at least!
Shawn kept the bbq going, cooking up some of his famous chicken wings and skewers, whilst I mingled and showed people around in the new house.

We (or I was...) were so concerned that we didn't have enough food and drinks, however we ended up packing doggy bags for people and I also brought the final leftovers into work to get my colleagues to finish it off :-).

I had decided to do a traditional Swedish "fika" as dessert so 7 different type of cookies was served which of course was waaaayyyy too much after the buffet in the garden. Luckily cookies are freezable, so we have heaps of pastries to enjoy whenever someone decided to pop by to say hello. So feel free to come by at any time if you're having a sweet tooth!

Since time flies when you're having fun, we totally forgot to take photos. But we had a great time, and we also received some beautiful gifts from our guests. Thanks heaps to everyone!

For those of you who couldn't make it, instead of pictures, please see below for what was on the menu. This is all just to tempt you and make sure you'll come by next time we throw a party- especially those of you who are overseas freezing your butts off as we speak :-)!

Life is full of surprises

Spent Sunday and Monday indoors as the temperature rose to a staggering 39 degrees. Never knew that you can get a heat rash even though you're not in the sun, but I got one on the cheeks, which luckily is fading as the weather is cooling down again.

The nursery is ready and the only thing missing is some baby room furniture and the baby itself of course. It's a weird feeling knowing that a third person is permanently moving in with us very soon...

This afternoon I had an experience that completely stunned me, and I'm still a bit stunned actually....
When I was studying at university I had a fall out with a good friend. She treated me, without any reason what so ever, really really bad. A few weeks after the fall out, I got the opportunity (the one we always wish for and never get) to tell her how I felt about what she did to me. She pretended as if I had just told her that the sun was shining, smiled and walked off. I couldn't believe it! How could anyone act without regret or shame when someone just told you that your actions really hurt them?!? I was extremely upset and it took me about two years to fully except it and get over it (I know, I'm a bit slow...).

As I was walking on my way back from lunch today, I bumped into this old friend. We were heading the same way and she started chatting to me.
She told me that she is about to move interstate soon and that she was happy to see me. She continued and said that I always seem to pop up in her conversations and she has been wanting to apologise for her bad behaviour. She said that she felt terrible about how she treated me, that it had all to do with her own insecurities and I didn't deserve what she did to me. She asked if I could accept her apology.
"Of course" I said. "It's all good. I was very hurt by what you did and it took me a long time to get over it, but of course I forgive you". Then the most unexpected happened: she started to cry!!

I didn't know what to do, I was so stunned, standing there in the middle of the street with her crying her eyes out! So I said with a smile: "Don't you know not to cry in front of a pregnant woman? Because then I start to cry too!" Sometimes being pregnant comes in handy...
It seemed to do the trick, she stopped crying and smiled and said: "Well, you don't understand, this really made my day. This has been buggering me for so long and I didn't want to leave Perth without apologising to you...you're a really good person and I'm so sorry for what I did".

Well guys, what do you say? How often does these things happen in real life? I have certainly gained some trust back in the human race, and that there still is a chance for us to make earth a better place!

Updating the blog with a picture from today, with some friends from work.
(For all of you who have requested pictures of the "ginger look", here you go :-). If you don't think it's that bad, keep in mind that my hair was originally almost as dark as Carmen's, who sits on my right side.)

Cath, Janet, Carmen and I at Neds Cafe for lunch

9 weeks to go

I think it has finally hit us that the arrival of little bub is not so far away. Mainly because little bub is not so little anymore, or at least I'm not... pictures below are taken this very morning.

The last week there has been a drastic change in the quality of sleep, for both of us, hence why pictures are taken 'headless' (and also because of the ginger hair colour...). Shawn has told me that I usually grunt when I toss and turn in bed, move the preggy pillows around and try to find a more comfortable position. Most of the time I'm not in deep sleep anymore and therefore I have started to hear the grunting myself and I can tell you, it's not a pretty sound...

On another note, tonight we're going to try out our new BBQ for the very first time, exciting stuff! Heading down to the markets soon to get some bits and bobs for the dinner and when it cools down tonight we're gonna light the BBQ up.

Maria's modelling career is over

For the last few years I have been a regular model at Toni&Guy for colour and cut. I have always been really pleased with the results as I can choose the colour/style while the stylist practices certain techniques.
Yesterday I had an appointment for colouring. Since summer is around the corner I thought it would be nice to go a bit lighter by lifting the base colour a few shades and then put a few highlights in as well. Normally it takes between 2 to a maximum of 3 hours, since the stylist is in training. This is all good, especially being pregnant and having a day off, it gives an opportunity to relax a little. However, I think yesterday was my last modelling session ever....

Something went wrong and the colour didn't turn out as it was supposed to. (No it's not because I'm pregnant as they use other products on the hair when expecting.) But instead of admitting that it had gone wrong and they were going to try to fix it, they just apologised for it taking so long. It's really quite amusing that they tried to play it cool, especially since I, by looking in the mirror, easily could figure out that something was wrong. My hair was of the same colour as a carrot....

Well, time passed and my parking ran out so one of the girls had to run out on my behalf to issue a new parking ticket...

Started to get hungry...

Some more time passed and we were up to the third colour application (at this point I was looking like Gwen Stefani), and the parking house was closing for the evening. This time I had to call Shawn who had to come down to the salon to get the keys and re-park the car and hand me some fruit to eat. I was starving!!

Finally, after a total of 6 hours (!!!) in the chair and five different colour applications, I was able to leave the salon. "Very fashionable!" the stylist said as I walked out through the door.

This morning Shawn said to me with a grin on his face: "Good morning Ginger! ". I think that more accurately describes my new look...