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Let me introduce something very Scandinavian: the semla.
It’s a kind of pastry made from wheat buns spiced with cardamom. You slice the top of and put it aside, then hollow out the bottom part. Mix the scooped out bread with milk and almond paste, fill the bun with the mix, put whipped cream on it and then place the bun-top on it like a lid (or a hat). And then dust some powdered sugar over it all.

It might not sound all that special, but it’s absolutely delicious! Semlor (plural) are probably my favourite pastries in the whole world And now is the right season for them! Semlor are traditionally eaten around Fat Tuesday/Shrove Tuesday so a couple of weeks before and after the stores are full of them.
Every year I try to find the balance between eating as many as I can before they disappear and not eating too many and put on weight It’s a thin line…

In other news, I finally got my procrastinating ass to make an appointment with an optician and order new glasses, and now they’re here:

Photo taken at work. I'll show you my office some day

My eyesight hasn’t changed much in the past 10 years so I don’t need stronger glasses or anything, but the actual glass in my old ones was so full of scratches it felt like I was constantly walking through mist. When I put on the new ones I was all “Whoa… HD”
These new frames are slightly bigger than my old ones too, so my field of sight is almost twice the size it used to be. I can’t believe I didn’t bought new ones sooner…

As I think I’ve mentioned earlier we went to the movies on Christmas Day to see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the US version. I read the books by Stieg Larsson some years ago and I’ve also watched the original Swedish movie, so I was very curious to see what this would be like.

This English-language adaptation of the Swedish novel by Stieg Larsson follows a disgraced journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), as he investigates the disappearance of a wealthy patriarch’s niece from 40 years ago. He is aided by the pierced, tattooed, punk computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara). As they work together in the investigation, Blomkvist and Salander uncover immense corruption beyond anything they have ever imagined.
Written by Anonymous

I thought it was a good movie and I liked it for what it was, a cool action/drama film with lots of sex and violence. It really is well-made and thrilling and flashy and all that – but with the Swedish version in the back of my head this felt waaaay to much “Hollywood” for me.

I can’t help but compare the two versions, and while the Swedish movie didn’t have nearly as much action and effects it had more grey realism, and by being more realistic it felt much more grim and disturbing.
Or maybe it’s just that I’m Swedish myself and that’s why it, by nature, feels closer to home than anything Hollywood can come up with?

With that said, Rooney Mara was excellent as Lisbeth Salander! Her appearance is exactly the way I had pictured Lisbeth in my head. Noomi Rapace who played in the Swedish movies was great too, and I kinda liked her performance better, but she’s a bit too… I don’t know, pretty I guess. No matter how they dress her up and how much make-up they slap on her face they can’t hide that she’s a breathtaking beauty, and while reading the books I imagined Lisbeth to be a bit on the ugly side. I can’t choose between them to be honest, they both play the role to perfection. Different, but perfect.
Daniel Craig was also a bit more charismatic than Michael Nyqvist who played the Swedish Mikael Blomkvist. Altough it was a little embarrassing that he couldn’t pronounce his characters name properly

Noomi to the left - Rooney to the right.

Now, I’m curious to know why they decided to make the movie like this when there’s already a Swedish version? I would’ve understood it if they had taken the plot and the characters and moved it to the US. If they had changed the names and settings and made a truly Americanized version with American characters and places – but this way, with all the Swedish names and places still intact (and it’s even filmed in Sweden), I can’t help but wonder if the only reason they made the movie was a) money and/or b) so that the American audience wouldn’t have to bother with the subtitles..?

Did everyone have a nice New Year’s Eve?
We had a small party at home with a bunch of friends and at 00.00 we all crowded together on the balcony to watch the fireworks. It was a nice and calm evening
Unfortunately I woke up to a sore throat, a running nose and a throbbing headache on Monday. I’m still feeling rather crappy to be honest. Way to start the new year I was going to write some clever 2011 summary post but I can’t be arsed with that to be honest, so I’m just going to answer the same meme as I did last year and go to bed…

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Hey, I survived the weekend! Hope you all did too
I had a nice and calm Christmas at Markus parents. It was just me and Markus, his sister and parents. And the dog. The cat stayed with a friend for the weekend and the snake was home alone.

The tree + presents. On the wall is a photo of Markus as a kid

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