Rubber ducky!

Was at Uppsala Castle on Saturday and was amused to find a rubber ducky by the fountain in the castle garden.

Santa Maria Tex Mex Tapas

Är med i Buzzadors kampanj för Santa Marias Tex Mex Tapas sortiment. Quesadillafyllningen består av kallrökt lax, philadelphiaost, koriander och lime juice.  Använde en tesked för att fylla cherry peppers med skinkvarianten av philadelphiaost. Var initialt skeptiskt när det gällde cherry peppers men de var förvånansvärt goda.

[TRANSLATION: Am part of the Buzzador campaign for Santa Maria's Tex Mex Tapas line. The quesadilla filling consists of cold smoked salmon, cream cheese, coriander and lime juice. I just spooned ham-flavored cream cheese into the cherry peppers. Was actually initially skeptical of the cherry peppers, but they were surprisingly good.]

The M of Happiness

"Look, it's the M of Happiness!" I declared upon spotting McDonald's Golden Arches during a car ride with the Brother and family. Weeks later, The Big Niece told the SIL that a friend's birthday party was going to be "EXTRA special [...] because it's going to be at McDonald's, the M of Happiness." I found it rather touching that my little throwaway comment stuck with her. Aww, impressionable young mind! :)

As I was pouring M&M's into a bowl today, I realized that there's more than one M of Happiness.

Let me eat cake!

Sweden's Princess Estelle was christened today. A number of bakeshops are selling special cakes or pastries in honor of the occasion, just like they did on the day she was born. On my way home from school, I stopped by Xoko to buy an Estelle mini cake*. Their version is a specially-decorated prinsesstårta (princess cake). Two years ago, Frödinge sold frozen princess cakes for her parents' wedding.

Finally found a fitting occasion to inaugurate my V&A Museum afternoon tea set. Couldn't resist buying pizza while I was there. Was choosing between anchovy&olive and spinach&onion confit. Anchovy&olive won.

In other news, presented my research project yesterday and served as an opponent today.

[*Well, two actually, if we're being totally honest here. :p]

Hooray for a public holiday

Met my friend S in the city today and paid a visit to Ladurée Stockholm, which opened last weekend.



Then we headed to Mood Stockholm where I got a pulled pork sandwich, potato salad and rhubarb nectar at Vigårda.

Late lunch

The salad dressing label reads "Guaranteed satisfaction or your money back from Ken." Wonder if Barbie is okay with that.

Have been busy

Will be presenting my research paper next week and the show I talked about in my May 3rd entry was filmed yesterday. What an experience! Will write about that soon, but won't post it until after the program has aired. There was no confidentiality clause in the agreement we signed, but they requested that we not spill the beans to everyone before the show airs.

Finally started using Instagram

...and Pressbyrån, a chain of convenience stores, in Sweden started selling pre-packaged Starbucks beverages this week. I spotted the ad at a Pressbyrån in Södertälje yesterday and tried looking for the product closer to home, but couldn't find it. Turns out, I was looking in the wrong place because I thought they were selling hot lattes. Made a second attempt today and there they were...just waiting for me in the refrigerated section.

Starbucks now has branches in the central stations of Gothenburg/Göteborg and Malmö, which are Sweden's 2nd and 3rd largest cities, but oddly enough not in the capital. Ah, well, absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that jazz.

Little Eina's going to be on the telly

I've always thought it would be cool to appear on TV at some point. When I was younger, I went to a few castings in The Philippines because commercial modelling was a thing for mestizo (mixed race, Caucasian and Filipino) kids. Never managed to book an ad job though and never imagined that I'd pop up on Swedish TV instead. Then again, I was on the front page of a Swedish newspaper once upon a time...it was a little community, but still, front page is front page (or was it just the front page of a section, can't remember). :p

Anyway, was on location for a few hours today to shoot the first segment. It was surreal to sit on a window ledge beside this international TV personality. I mean this is someone I used to watch even back home in The Philippines and I never thought our paths would cross and suddenly there we are chatting about my life. There'll be another taping day in a couple of weeks and the show will air in the fall. 

Some tredpidation about putting myself out there. The show is in the reality category and though it's not trashy or exploitative at all, I do have to open up a bit. I hope I manage to make a positive impression. There was a part where I was being  interviewed and I was thinking "What I'm saying makes sense to me, but am I able to communicate that or am I inadvertently leaving out  necessary information (because I'm so used to thinking along these lines) and not making any sense at all?"

Oh well, here's me overanalyzing, but that's what I do. Anyway, reality check: unless the viewer is someone who actually knows me or I manage to make a huge fool of myself, my participation will hardly register.

Dessert for dinner

It's a good thing! Well, not on a daily basis or anything... :p

Finally used the ice cream bowl from Mumsy. Have actually had Häagen-Dazs Baileys Irish Cream sitting in the freezer undistrubed for the past 3 weeks, but chose to "tart up" vanilla ice cream instead.

Minestrone

I prepared this on Sunday but I'd made so much that I ended up eating minestrone on Monday and Tuesday as well. I was starting to get tired of it, but now that it's gone, I miss it already. Great way to get my veggie consumption up.