Thursday 1 January 2015

New Year, Leftovers and a Giveaway

I woke up this morning around 9:30 (shortly – it seemed! - after having gone to bed around 1:30), and could not help but start the day with some philosophical bemusements (is that a word?!) – possibly helped along by listening to a philosophical discussion about Time on the radio while doing the washing up from my New Year Eve’s party the night before…

2015 dishes

Now here’s my question to you: How come every New Year seems to start with leftovers rather than the clean slates we always seem to be longing for?

2015-01-01 New Year

A walk around the neighbourhood and seeing all the left-overs of pyrotechnics just proved my point – and reminded me further of politics. (Fiery political discussions here in Sweden during the autumn also included a lot of questions about who laid vs cleared the table for whom.)

I got cheered up when I opened a leftover Kinder Egg with my afternoon tea, though, and found this:

2015 dragon

The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. Something was moving inside; a funny clicking noise was coming from it. --- All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The baby dragon flopped out on to the table…’'
---
‘I’ve decided to call him Norbert,’ said Hagrid, looking at the dragon with misty eyes.
(Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Ch. 14)

At least this is something that’s never been on my blog before: A newborn dragon, fresh from the egg!

Naughty little fellow – he coloured my thumb green while we were getting acquainted (turned out he has a tiny green felt pen inside).

Then I taught him to ride the blue-and-orange bicycle I built yesterday (found in another Kinder Egg). And I who thought I would find no use for that. Silly me!

(Yes, we had a fun New Year’s Eve.)
Winking smile

A Giveaway

It so happens I find myself with three spare wall calendars for 2015 (made from my own photos), and have decided to put these up for a giveaway.

(I did the same thing once before, in 2012, to celebrate my 3rd Blogoversary. Can hardly believe three more years have gone by since then!)

All you have to do to have a chance to win one of them is to be a follower of this blog and to leave a comment on this post before next Saturday - 10th January (CET). I’ll then write down the names on separate pieces of paper and have a lottery and announce the winners here on my blog. (If I have an email address I’ll also let them know by email.)

Good Luck!

20 comments:

  1. have not heard of kinder eggs, will be asking mr google about them. the baby dragon is adorable but looks a lot like a baby hippo to me... he sure rides the bike well...

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  2. ok, now i know, it is a chocolate egg with a toy inside. who knew. i sure did not.

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    1. Yes :) One of my friends sometimes buys these for us for New Year Eve, just for a bit of silly fun. We were five & she bought a pack of six; we had one each yesterday and I got the leftover one and saved it for today...

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  3. Of course I would love one, but I can't imagine the postage. A wonderful post to start the new year! Are the eggs a New Year tradition? We do not have anything like this.The contents are very very cute and you should definitely keep them! Your table is beautiful! And your sink is somewhat like ours. Isn't someone assigned for cleanup of the fireworks, or are these all private?

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    1. The eggs are not a widespread New Year tradition, Ginny - just in our little group.
      The fireworks are/were private. It's not really allowed in among apartment buildings like this, but it's one of those "toothless" laws, so people always do it anyway. The remnants will no doubt be cleared away by the estate maintenance team on their next workday.

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  4. Happy New Year.
    We also make our own calendars using our photos. Like you it has become a careful juggling act to make just the right number. I don't need another calendar!!! But your thought is a lovely one!
    We have big public fireworks displays here for New Year's Eve. No cleaning up afterwards, except for the professional pyrotechnicians. Even then there are occasionally accidents.
    You are far more playful then me, with your KinderSurprise chocolates and toys. They do make good tree decorations, don't they?

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    1. Regarding the fireworks, I wish we had the same policy here, Louise. Actually there ARE rules and regulations; but the tradition of private unauthorized fireworks at New Year is just too widespread.

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  5. Happy New Year, Monica. Lucky you to have such a pleasant new year surprise. As the lucky winner of one of your calendars last time I can testify to their beauty. Good luck to your followers.

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    1. Thanks Pauline & I wish you a happy (and lucky) new year too!

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  6. I'd love to have one of your calendars, Monica - your photos are always beautiful!
    How funny that you should be having Kinder surprise eggs! Of course you know that they are German and VERY popular here (and have been for decades). We buy them very rarely nowadays, but when we do, it is always fun to find out what's inside. I have a little powder-blue fox looking at me as I am typing this - he hatched from a Kinder egg a few years ago :-)

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    1. Actually Meike, altough these Kinder eggs were bought in Sweden (and can be found in ordinary grocery stores here), my friend who brought them (and has done so once or twice in the past as well) is of part German descent. She was born and grew up in Sweden, and her father was Swedish, but her mother (who was also with us on New Year's Eve) grew up in Germany, and they go to Germany often to visit relatives.

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  7. I enjoy your blog, but not sure I've ever signed up as a follower...but I will today if I haven't already.

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    1. Wanda, as I recognize you as one of my frequent commentators, it probably would not even have occurred to me to double-check if you were also officially following... But a boost in the official statistics is of course welcome, so thanks for signing up! :)

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  8. Kinder eggs look like fun!

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    1. Simple pleasures are often the best, Rae! :)

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  9. You made a good point about each new years starting with left over rather than a clean slate. That happens in so many ways and I'm spending the first few days of 2015 having a renewed cleanup and clearout. Kinder Eier as I first knew them in Germany in the '80s amused our children for many years. Then they came to the UK as Kinder Surprise. I always thought that they were German but I was told some years ago that they originated in Italy and were made by Ferrero Rocher (sp?) which is now a worldwide name. I'm not sure which is accurate though.

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    1. I did not know all that about Kinder Eggs, Graham, but Wikipedia seems to agree with you about the Italian origin!

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  10. Firework laws here are very complicated but basically private ones aren't allowed to be set off in public places. But, as in Sweden, nobody seems to take much notice. It was a very loud entry to New Year this year which I mind less than the weekly birthday party ones we seem to have in our neighbourhood.

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    1. Back in my childhood fireworks were more common on Easter Eve than at New Year (at least where I lived then). Now it's the other way round. (Not all that common for birthdays, I think.)

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  11. The winners have been drawn and you'll find the result here

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