Leif Boork is dead...

Yes, unfortunately it's the truth... Our beloved chicken Leif ”Boorken” Boork died yesterday after being a toy to one of the dogs on the island... :( We don't know which dog, but we are ignoring Spotty at the moment, since we believe he's to blame. RIP little chicken... :(

How to continue a blog after devastating news like this? No one knows... But I'll try... Yesterday we had some bad weather, so mostly we just hang indoors or under the roof on the veranda reading. Or playing PSP. Either works fine on a rainy day.
We had a nice dinner at Stefano's, the Italian some houses down. Oooh did I smell like garlic after that? But it was good ;)

Today we took the bus to Avarua one last time and watched the market which is there on Saturdays. Nothing to see really, but just nice to look at some people. After that we were off to Trader Jack's where we enjoyed some drinks. Yummy! I continued as we got home with some sparkling strawberry wine when I got home. Well it is Valentine's Day after all! Hugs to everyone! Even a kiss if you think you deserve one :)

Our last day on the island, as we're off tomorrow. To sum these days up, while being on Rarotonga, I guess we'd use words such as nice people, warm days (30 today), lovely water, strong currents in some places (scary really), falling coconuts, laughs about the network for phones here is Kokonet, fishes, dogs, cats, annoying roosters, chicken + hens (aaawwww Boorken...), soft, lazy, tropical showers, amazing scenery of thunderstorms over the ocean from front view on the porch, good food... Well, yeah. Henke said he could adopt the life here but I surely hope he won't, then he'll never lift a finger again... I mean if the police are open 9-ish to 5-ish... Haha!

Well o a o, next is from Auckland then :)

Pelle – you're nuts. Thanks for the pat on my head... :P Sara – you have to go on a trip like this! Tell Pelle you have to ;) Henke appreciated the song from Friday the 13th.Oooh yes, songs. Today's song was this one!

Lasse – I did a panorama shot from Rarotonga. Mostly water, but also the island Taakoka (vilken uppmaning!)

Mum – my head is ok (ok everyone, stop laughing), my shoulder took the worse of it (it's bruised)

Leif Boork

Today was a rainy day, so not much to tell. Took the local bus in to Avarua again so that Henke could do some shopping. Had lunch at the island-famous Trader Jack's which was nice. No need for dinner after that...

I gave the hotel cat some crisps, and after that she wouldn't leave... Just look at the pic.

Saw a funny-looking fish today. Looked a bit like a dog (!) in the face, I know there's catfish, but dogfish?...

Reason for the name of the blog? Well there's a hen going around here with three small chickens, and one of them is black and always a little more outgoing and braver than the rest. I asked Henke where it was, and for some odd reason he heard "Leif Boork" so from that time that chicken is called Boorken... And once upon a time Henke drove the real Leif Boork's son's face in sand... Trivia.

Thanks for all the comments! Except Pelle's... ;) Just kidding! Keep on commenting, please! :)

Yesterday's songs is this one and this one... Don't ask...

Palmtrees, hot and the blue lagoon

Well, we arrived on Cook Island on schedule. We weren't sure when we got on the plane how long the flight would be, so we didn't really prepare for anything. The first thing Henke does on the plane is noticing that you could put your own USB-memory in the seat-TV so he did. We saw one photo, then the TV crashed. The flight attendant tried restarting it three times, but no luck... Henke was offered another seat, but turned down the offer. He regretted that later, since the flight was over 10 hours... I got to see two long TV-shows + one movie :)
On this flight we were surrounded by children. One Danish boy behind me who started to kick my back (but stopped at once as I turned around and told him to stop) and then the Dutch child infront of me... Honestly, if everyone around you are sleeping, or trying their best to do so, don't you tell your child to be quiet instead of saying ”Hello” everytime he shouts (yes, shouts) out ”MUMMY”? Believe me, if I ever become a Mum, I will keep that episode fresh in my mind... :P

Anyway, back to Cook. We got to our hotel, Muri Beachcomber, by shuttle-bus and was positively surprised by the state of the hotel.We see the ocean from our veranda and we have our own little villa. Very nice and very comfy!
We were also met, as we got in, by flowers everywhere (even on the toilet!) and a massive rain outdoors. Yes, rain. Well of course.
But it stopped fast and then we had sunshine. Took a walk along the beach, and I must admit that the pictures and postcards from this island aren't fake. It is as beautiful as it looks. Paradise beaches indeed... And we got company, two cute dogs that wouldn't leave our side.

A bit later we jumped into our bathing gear, had borrowed snorkelling gear and took off in to the turquoise water in the lagoon. Henke had never tried a snorkel before, but he got the hang of it fast. My snorkel wasn't tight enough, so I had to get up and empty out some salt water every now and then. We saw a lot of sea cucumbers (at least that's what we think it is) in various sizes, some long, spiky, brown cucumbers and fishes. Very nice colours on some, even the Swedes were saluted with blue and yellow fish! :) Henke was looking at a big one swimming by some smaller fish and, oups, one of the small ones was turned into food. That same fish got very close and personal with me later on... He wasn't scared at all, I guess he wanted some warmth or something, haha. Henke was glad it wasn't him, because he would've panicked (doesn't like water nor fish so...).
We had walked into the ocean not paying attention at all, but when we got back with snorkel on we saw that there were sea cucumbers all over the place. We must've walked on some of them, poor things. Now Henke is regretting wearing the snorkel since he now knows what's under the surface.

Today we took the bus into the town Avarua (the biggest town on Rarotonga) where we bought some groceries and had a look around. We ate lunch while being there. Henke enjoyed a smoked ham, potatoe, asparagus and blue cheese pizza while I was supposed to have a Greek salad with chicken, but the waiter forgot about the chicken... So I asked for bread with different sauces instead (was too hungry to wait for another chicken...) and he came out with just warm bread... Haha, not much going right there... I got it later though, some sticky hommous (really good!) and guacamole. Yum!

Once we got back I booked a 30 minutes massage for tomorrow (yay!). Then we sat on the porch for a while before I got the brilliant idea to sit out on the veranda facing the lagoon and ocean instead. Was enjoying the sound of the waves, looking up in the palmtrees and then suddenly I was wet and hit in the head and shoulder – by a coconut! Ouch! Could've been the end of mrs Medvik Hultin there... Got some ice on the head and I guess I'm still the same nutter so nothing dangerous (my shoulder hurts though...). The funny thing is that I looked up to see if there were any coconuts ready to fall, but they were all yellow and not mature. The one that fell was yellow indeed, but someone had been eating on it... :P So I warned the others coming to sit there after me, told them to wear a helmet :)

Well that's it. It's raining again, so I took a break. Still humid and the temperatures are like a very warm Swedish summer's day (around 25-30 degrees I guess).

O a o

Well, just to tell you about today as well, since we couldn't go out and publish the blog yesterday. Today it's Wednesday and I had my massage. A lovely outdoor massage done by a beautiful Cook Maori woman, listening to the sea breeze, birds, roosters and a lawn mower. :) Felt good, although not on the spot where my bruise from the coconut is...
What else have we done today? Not much... We walked about a kilometre to get to the better beach for snorkelling, but when we got there it was too much coral to walk on without reef shoes, so we walked back along the beach to our hotel, where we jumped into the ocean. Less sea cucumbers today, but that might be because the lagoon had more water in it, or?
I've become the talk of the complex here, everyone knows I was hit by a coconut... Oh well, haha! Landlady told me that they would ask the gardener to shake the palmtree to see if anymore fall down... :P Too late!

Sorry Mum for scaring you... A bit slow on the internet here, but we're ok :) And your warning came to late. Hehe
Song for the days on Cook so far have been, hold on Björn - sing it!

Ok, o a o once again.

Last day in L A

What to do on the last day in LA, when the weather is so-so, you haven't seen much really of this hu-uge city and you have to be back at the hotel by 6.15 pm? You take the Metro and then hop on a bus to Santa Monica of course. Have to have a look at the beach and Santa Monica (since Tessan told me that you really can't miss it).

The busride took 50 minutes, but the amazing thing about LA is that the fare on buses and trains are the same no matter how far you go (1,25 dollars, so basically nothing). Copy that Sweden!

Anyway, the closer we got to Santa Monica the more blue sky we saw. I like! When we got there we got some sun, but it was very windy. No swimmers nor surfers. But it was pretty. Went out on the pier, Henke found some pinball machines, but they were too dirty to play. Had a go at The Addams Family but didn't go well. Couldn't take the right ramp at all, and Thing wasn't working. Boo-hoo!

Walked up one of the promenade streets, looked in the shops and listened to some good singers, guitarists and breakdancers on the way. Then the bus back home in time for the taxi to pick us up. Now we're at LAX waiting for the plane which will hopefully get us to Rarotonga. Saw that it's raining there as well, so woohoo for that :P

Last minute reflections. Los Angeles is huge, definately need more than five days here... The water smells of chloride, the food portions are huge and fatty (isn't LA supposed to be a bit healthy?), people are nice and one weird comment from Henke was "Wonder what IHOP stands for?" right after he read out loud "International House Of Pancakes"... ;)

Better steal Jason's subject on Facebook right now, as it suits very well: "If women with large breasts work at Hooter's, then why doesn't one-legged women work at IHOP". Good one Jason!

OK, time for departure. OaO

What a day!

This day will be written by two persons, since Henke and I split up and went in different directions. Henke was off to Six Flags Amusement Park and I was supposed to go to L A Zoo. I say I was supposed to, because I was a good girl and looked up how to get there on the internet before going down to the hotel. I saw I could take the Dash bus and it would take me to Griffith Park, where the zoo is located in the northeast corner. When I got down to the hotel desk I asked if I was right and the Russian woman behind the desk was more like "Well, there's San Diego Zoo that's big and all, if that's what you want" and when I said I wanted to go to L A Zoo since I didn't have a car, she just said "I don't know anything about that. Want to see Santa Monica instead?". D-oh!
Since Griffith Park is a big park I didn't dare to go on my own, since I didn't know where I'll end up with the bus. Instead I went ahead and booked a sightseeing tour with Guideline Sightseeing Tours and the bus would depart at 2.20.

Had some time to kill before that, and since it was raining I went back to my room and talked on msn to some nice people. One of them was Ulrika who told me that the house next to my parents' house burned down to the ground! You can see a video about it on her baby brother's blog here. Scary! Texted my parents to hear that they are OK, but they still haven't responded to it :( HEEELLLOOOOO!

Anyway, got down to take the bus and was met by a nice Englishman named Richard and the little bus took off. Besides me there were three Canadians, two Dutch and two Brits + two crazy American girls from Pittsburgh (amused us all through the trip together with Richard who was a brill). I don't regret going on this trip - it was money and hours well spent! Loved it!

First stop was on Hollywood Boulevard to have a look at the stars and all. Happy I was there yesterday so that I could focus on taking pics of other stuff. It was interesting to know that the stars have to fill in an application form to get their stars on the street. 8-10 new ones every year and they also have to pay 15,000 dollars to have one... You get to choose where you want it and Jay Leno, for example, is outside McDonald's, because that's where he got arrested before his luck changed and he got famous... :) They'll close part of the street from Feb 16th, since the Oscar's up.

Passed L A Ink also, unfortunately passed, so no pics of Kat ;(

Then we went on Sunset Strip over to Beverly Hills. Got to see Ozzy Osbourne's old house (now owned by Christina Aguilera, she was playing tennis), Dr Phil's house, the founder of Guess (he had nine Jaguars outside his house + some other cars...) and Angelina Jolie's favourite bungalow. Was told that, if living in Beverly Hills, you must have your own gardener on a payroll. If not BH will get you one and send you the bill. Reminded a lot of Wisteria Lane, because of the perfect gardens... Saw the park where George Michael was arrested... And close to Rodeo Drive was a house by my favourite - Gaudi!

From there to Farmer's Market, a place for regular people and celebrities. What a fantastic place! It felt a lot like walking around in the fantastic movie Big Fish... Neat, old music in loud speakers... Went around with a big smile. A lot of paparazzis stood outside the Cheesecake Factory, and it was for Katie "Jordan" Price and her Peter André + kids.

From there we went DownTown, a lot of skyskrapers and the fantastic Walt Disney Music Hall.

I'm so happy that I went on this tour. So many nice places I've seen and great people on the bus. Loved every second!! Richard told me to get some Emergen-C for my cold, so Henke went and got some for me. Hope I'll get rid of it soon!

Over to Henke... :)

Hei efribaddi I chav bean in tachsicar wit armenian driver, so I no know speeking or spealing any no longer.
Anywho... My day started with me being taught all the secrets of being an armenian taxi driver, while being driven to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Quite an interesting conversation. For a moment I thought I was sitting in a cab from GTA IV. (If you played it you'll know).

When I arrived at Six Flags the weather wasn't all that good, with dark clouds hanging over the californian landscape. This turned out to be the best thing that could happen, since the place was practically deserted. This meant that the time I had to stand in line for the rides where close to nonexisting. The longest I had to wait for a ride was like 5 minutes (for X2). It felt really nice to just walk past the signs saying "waiting time from this point is about 60 minutes". It's good to be king. :-)

The rides where sick. Sick sick sick! My favourites were (are) Batman, Tatsu, Goliath and X2, all of which I took at least two rides in.
X2 was the first ride I took, since I had seen it on tv a couple of times and it seemed like a sweet ride. I wasn't all that wrong. Watch this clip (not by me) to get an idea of its awesomeness:
Tatsu was überfast! You were placed head forward, almost like Superman, and went on an obscenely fast and curvy ride.
Goliath was TALL and gave most scream for the buck. Classic rollercoaster with an extra speedy edge.
Batman had everything: Speed and superdupertwisty turns. Really intense! It competes with X2 as my ab fav, but X2 takes the gold, just for being so badass cool.

I ran around the entire park like a sugar speeded 10-year old, trying to ride all the good stuff. It took me about 2 hours, then I had to do it all over again. Poor me.

All in all I was more than happy with my little escapade. Riding some of the sweetest thrills made by man for 6 hours... Life is good!

Hollywood

Well one can't go to L A and not visit Hollywood Walk of Fame, right? I didn't think so, so off we went today. And yes, it's still raining, and yes, I still look fashionably hot in my one-size-fit-all-fat-Americans-and-me-rain coat with the NBC-logo on the back... Well spent 3 bucks nevertheless, it kept me dry.

Took the underground train once again to Hollywood-Vine station. It's funny to see that the people designing the stations built it for Cali weather, not this kind of weather we're having now. Rain came in through the roof, buckets were placed all over to take care of the water...

L A is strange... I mean, the varieties of the houses in the street is enormous. Haven't seen downtown L A yet (don't know if we will), but just going on Hollywood Blvd was an experience. Some houses looking as if we were walking in the slum, block after block, and then suddenly came Guinness World of Records, Ripley's Believe It Or Not and the Kodak Theatre. Also a fashionable open mall with huge elephant statues in it... And some blocks later we were back in the slum... Strange.

But it was fun looking at the stars in the street, and then seeing the hand- and footprints from some stars. Cool! :)

We have noticed that L A is a city where you take the car everywhere. They even have drive-in pharmacies for f*** sake! And it's hard to find somewhere to eat, if you don't want pizzas or hamburgers... Guess it's easier in Santa Monica or downtown. We'll see!

Found a big shoe store today as well... I got myself a nice pair of Anne Klein's, in a nice blue colour, and Henke bought himself a pair of Puma's.

Oh and there's something fishy with our Mastercards... We can't use them! Glad they have ATM's otherwise we'd be in trouble. Some shops are OK to pay things with the cards, other says "Have you told your bank that you were coming here? It doesn't work, are you out of State visitors?"... D-oh! Why???

Yesterday's "I-will-never-get-out-of-your-head-song" was this one. Today's was a much better one (ironic), look here. Hope it sticks on you! ;)

Oh, and we also stopped at Starbuck's today. I got myself a crispy marshmallow bar (I thought a bar was a quite small thing, but no...) together with tall non-fat, non-sugar Vanilla latte while Henke went for a tall black tea and a choc chip cookie. Yum!

Today's pic include the Chihuahua's doo-doo, my drinks on Starbuck, Henke with his favourite star (ironic again) and some comparision when it comes to shoe sizes between my own size 7½ (5 UK, 38 Swedish) and Will Smith's... :)

OK, have fun and be good everyone! I have a cold and will crawl under the duvet now... That's what happens when you are wet an entire day... :P

oAo

Sunny L A?

Well yesterday was nice. Henke was in the need of shopping shoes and I could do with some shopping myself, so why not visit an American mall? So we took off for Glendale Shopping Mall. Found a bus to take us there and I must say that U S busdrivers are so-o nice. Since it was our first time riding a bus here we had no idea that you have to have the exact money, so when I was waving a 20 dollar bill he just told us to hop on anyway. And going back we didn't have exact again, so the bus driver said nevermind and let us go anyway. Nice! :)

Anyway, in the mall I was the one ended up shopping... Stuff I really need... Or maybe not... I know that some of you girls are curious to know more, so I'd better tell that I bought a pair of black high heel shoes, two gorgeous dresses (don't know when to wear them, but...), a bag from Roxy (Quicksilver's girl brand), scrapbooking stuff and such...
Henke bought... Nothing.

Thought of eating something that's good for you at breakfast and lunch, but it didn't go so well... :P I went for some bran flakes with raisin in milk, but they'd sugared the raisins... Henke took the omelette and what we believe was small sausages (looked a lot like a Chihuahua's doo-doo). Fruit served was served in its own juice, so it wasn't fresh fruit... Oh well!
For lunch we ended at some interesting food place with a big yellow M... I tried a Big Mac, and it tasted a lot like at home, besides more dressing in it, medium fries are bigger than home, and so was the medium coke. Henke was happy, he tried a Angus burger with red onion, bacon and cheese and all other stuff that makes your heart pump slower. :)

Anyway, yesterday was lovely. Sunny and warm. Cali weather! Lovely watching the palm trees and I don't know if they've got the birds here, but I could swear it was a humming bird we saw!

Another thing we've reflected over that so far there are more hispanics and thai people, than Americans. All is written in English and Spanish. Interesting!

Today we went by underground train to Universal Studios. Wow. W-O-W! With a big grin on my face I walked around taking pics. My new camera seem to eat batteries, but besides that it worked fine.
We started by seeing Shrek 4D. I remember hearing about it from Stefan & Andrew and it was just as they'd said. It was fun! 3D doesn't work fully on me, but Henke had fun. I had too :)
After that we went on Studio Tour, where seated in a bus, was shown all the studios, saw the crash scene from War Of The Worlds, visited Wisteria Lane (Desperate Housewives),was attacked by the shark from Jaws, almost stabbed by Norman Bates and much, much more. So cool!!
Then we went on the Simpson's Ride. A rollercoaster standing still, but not quite... Impressive!
When we got out of that it rained. And rained. It was pouring down! Sunny L A, my ass... :P Like they said in the morning show - good for the farmers...
So we went and to The Mummy Ride, which was awesome too.
Off to Backdraft-show where we were shown how they made the movie and stuff (too bad William Baldwin wasn't there...).
We also went to see the Special Effects show and the guys hosting it were absolutely hilarious! We loved them! So much fun!!

All in all Universal Studios was great fun. We were surprised that there weren't so many visitors, not that we were complaining...

Now we're back (after quesadillas and burritos at some Mexican place)at the hotel and won't go out. Need to get the warmth back. It seems as we're lucky with the weather as usual, since the rain will be here until Sunday (when we leave...). Oh, and Henke bought a T-shirt and a cup today - yay!