Is this it? Every time we settle down somewhere for a longer period of time we are so excited. Excited to get a period of normalcy, to settle into a routine, to have a kitchen so we can have our Saturday bake mornings (cakes, cinnamon rolls, chocolate chip cookies…), relax, watch moves, unpack and not worry about what’s next for a bit. The longer this bit can be extended to, the better we always say. We experimentally imagine ourselves living there for longer, settling down, a year, or even two. Maybe our son will try out the local experimental expat school? Become trilingual, make friends from all over?  The school sounds so good on their website. We decide to check it ot, view a coupe of long term lets and look at what else there is to from a logistical viewpoint.

This honey moon doesn’t last long. Initially, we eagerly explore every new place, overly excited like kids, we chat with the locals, walk all over town the first few days, eat the food, check out the shops, go for long walks. Soak it all in. Try all the local dishes, pastries ice creams. We splurge and thoroughly enjoy ourselves. I imagine, just like regular holiday goers do. The ones who go for a forth night or so.

Then tedium sets in. We start questioning everything, Is this it? Maybe not tedium, but a longing for, well for more. The traffic sucks. The school was more pseudo than science, meaning extremely alternative, to the point that what they teach plain is not true, it is not science and nothing we want to expose our son to. The food is still lovely, but getting monotonous. The bugs are killing us, practically surviving off of me alone. I am dotted with bites, itchy ones. There is not much to do on a daily basis. We have walked all over town. Many times. Sure there are lots of day trips and over night trips, but where are the playgrounds, the friends, the very things that makes one want to stay?

This happened in Ubud, in Hoi An, in Thailand. We enjoyed all these places immensely But we just could not fathom longer stays, a few weeks, maybe even a couple of months, sure. Then what? We have seen it all. We do not do yoga. We are not into scented candles and incense. We are not into homeopathy, organic weird drinks and alternative mumbo jumbo. So now what?

We are still on he look out for our utopia. Our place to settle for longer. So many places have some of what we desire, so many fall short. Our wants are unrealistic. We are perhaps simply spoiled. Or, is it maybe just that we deep down want to keep moving? Experience more, see more, taste more, rather than settle down? Not so deep down even, we are ready to move on, to travel again. the planning has just begun. The anticipatory, exciting, adventurous planning. Where to next?  After all, we can always come back.

To all of you insipid women and men out there who proudly take photos of yourselves holding up banal signs saying you don’t need feminism cause you are independent and smart and things are good, how abut thinking for a second,…maybe IT IS NOT ALL ABOUT YOU? eh? Ever thought that far?

Every day this happens. Every single day. Every singe day thousands of girls get their Clitoris cut of. Why? Because they are girls. Everyday women get beaten to a pulp. Why? Because they are women. Everyday women get denied jobs, mortgages, health care. Why? Because they are women. Everyday girds are denied an education. Why? Because they are girls.

It really is that simple. It is a fact: Women and girls are not treated equally to men. Fact. You still think you do not need feminism? You really are that selfish? Open you ears and stop believing that simply because you have it god, all women have it good.

You think feminism is too strong, that it is all about bra burning and man hating? Stop thinking that. Do your homework. Just read up a bit. Feminism simply aims to establish equal rights, yes equal, nothing more, nothing less, for women as for men.  Equal right socially, economically, politically culturally, personally for all humans. Who in their right mind can not sign up for that?

We haven’t been to France in years, not since 2009 in fact, and we have missed it sorely: the baguettes Americains, the pain au chocolates, the salades au chévre chaud, even the snooty waiters and sour coffee. Well, we are finally going back again. This will be the first time our son sets his foot in France, even though he is actually a third French and carries a French passport. So he will, in sorts, be coming home! We will be driving from Malmö, down via Amsterdam, into France and then, we shall see. Our goal is to find a house! An old, rambling house, somewhere nice, somewhere we can call home, somewhere we will want to stay for  a few years and if we ever move on we can keep it as a vacation house.

We are so eager to start a new renovation project, to restore something that needs and deserves a gentle restoration. We can’t wait to bring something back to its former glory.  We hope this will work out. We have a long list of houses to look at, starting just in the south of the Loire, through the dordogne, down in Charentes, Aquitaine and finally Languedoc. It will be quite the trip. As per usual in France the most difficult aspect will be finding good accommodation on the road. We are quite wary of old, outdated, dirty French hotels. And no, we are not prejudiced, we have done road trips in France before, and we know from experience what the state of some accommodations are like. You would be surprised at some of the worn, dated, crusty looking hotels and B&Bs we have come across. It does seem however that even France has been touched by the Internet and modern accommodation through Airbnb (as much as I hate their sucky, nonexistent customer service) and its likes have popped up, making finding comfortable and clean accommodation much easier. At least I hope so.

I cannot wait to look at houses again. It has been a long time (well a year to be precise) since we had a house. The last one however was no fun, little charm, nothing spectacular. This time we want to find something worthwhile, something grand, something fun to really care about and make spectacular! Let’s see, who knows what we will discover. Vive La France! Vive les baguettes and pain au chocolates!

We have spent two weeks in Hoi An. After a stressful, eventful, tiring couple of months we needed to destress, relax so we decided to do nothing for a couple of weeks. We got a great deal on a wonderful, brand new hotel in Hoi An, with  a sweet pool and an awesome, decadent breakfast buffet and sweet, friendly, helpful staff. Perfect for doing absolutely nothing.

We chose Hoi An because we love Asian food, we love spring rolls, noodles, the veggies, the wantons, all of it, and the story going around is that Hoi An is the mecca of Vietnamese food. The stories we heard, the blogs written about Hoi An and all its food…Well we had to check it out. Also, the architecture and history of the place certainly appealed to us.

We were in for a rude surprise. Hoi An’s food fel flat for us. For starters they love their Cilantro and I detest cilantro. Every single spring roll, fresh or fried, was full of cilantro. Every single damn dish had cilantro in it. When I nicely asked for spring rolls without cilantro they substituted the cilantro with fennel, without fail. To me, those two are the same kind of spices, both have a somewhat stale, used used sockish like taste. Adding to the injury, salt is not the thing in Hoi An. Everything was lacking in salt, making the food bland. Yes bland. I know everyone raves about Hoi An food, but we did no taste it. We tried so many places and yet, well, nothing struck us as amazing, as innovative or as plain great, classic cooking. There was no way around it, the spices and tastes of Hi An did not agree with me.

We went to all the recommended restaurants, we tried the Bahn Mi featured by Anthony Bourdain and whilst ok, it was nothing spectacular. We ate at the famous Morning Glory, Mrs. Vy’s famous restaurant.  Whilst no restaurant in Hoi An blew us away in a positive way, Morning Glory blew us away in all the wrong ways. Boy was it bad. The service was awful, we waited and waited and waited, the portions were minuscule, the prices were, comparatively huge. The chicken soup was all grease and no meat, It was a full blown tourist trap that in no way lived up to the hype. It was quite dirty too, with menues falling apart and old food on the floor, and nasty bathrooms with no soap, never a good sign.

We did find many small, nice, pleasant places, holes in the wall as well as real restaurants that we liked. For instance Ms. Ly (both 1 and 2) and the lovely courtyard Hai Cafe, that is a quiet and calm retreat from the touristy streets of Hoi An. We also ventured out to the expat watering hole Dingo Deli so our son could have some much requested potatoes. It was nice. Expensive, but nice and if you need western food, a great place for well made burgers and fries. The reason we initially even went was for their much touted play ground. Our five year old was in need of some fun. Alas, it was not much to brag about and there were never any kids there (not Dingo Deli’s fault of course) so it was a bit of a disappointment. One positive aspect of the food scene was the pastries and baked goods; the tartes with nuts and carmel at the Cargo Club rivaled any I have had in France. Simply delicious and very, very affordable.

All in all, Hoi An is beautiful. the colors, the old town, the houses, the small cobbled streets, the lanters, the light, the river, the flowers, the colors. Absolutely stunning and extremely picturesque. By all means enjoy Hoi An, we did, but don’t have too high hopes in regards to authenticity or any culinary adventures.

I really do not appreciate it, or understand the presumptuousness, when people promote homegrown diet and exercise plans with all kinds of pseudo science claims, such as proclaiming ‘I am celiac intolerant’, ‘do not eat evil bread’. No you are not. It it is not. This is what celiac disease is, you are just fat and bloated and eat too much, of everything. Or when some newly evangelized nut claims drinking aloe vera will boost their immune system and make them live forever. News flash, immune systems can not be boosted (and you would not want them to ‘boost’ either since that is what they do when a foreign pathogen is invading you, you do not want that on a daily basis). You can live healthily and maintain your body well, yes, but you can not boost anything,

The fact is, there is ample scientific evidence as to what is healthy and what is not. The are plenty of very well educated researchers out there who do know what celiac disease is and what it is have and to live with it. The world does not need homegrown experts touting all kinds of drivel. Sick people do not need to be fooled into buying expensive supplements, fads and trendy (always expensive somehow) new diets. Sick people need science. If you do not know what you are talking about, based on empirical evidence, research and years of studies, shut up.

When it comes to daily life, of course do what makes you feel good, eat what makes you feel good, what works for you. But do understand the difference between what you like, what suits you personally and what science. They are not the same. Do understand the difference between correlation and causation, and do not base health recommendations on anything that just happens to work for you, because that says nothing, absolutely nothing, about what de facto works.

I know how I feel best, I don’t eat (too much) candy or (too much) bread or pastries or cookies. Usually I eat stuff like that once a week only. I adore all that stuff, and if I could I would stuff my face, but I feel better the less of it I eat and I can control my weight better not stuffing my face with it (duh). This is not science, it is my own trial and error and what I have come to experience personally. What I believe. Yes, believe. It is not based on science, it is based only on my personal feelings and beliefs. I will never claim anything else. I will, when prompted tell everyone how I lost 25 pounds (steadily gained after a few years on first undiagnosed Haschimotos/Hypothyridism and then on a regimen of, for me non functioning thyroid medication) started feeling much and lighter and more energetic. I will never ever claim it is method or the truth. It is only what I did, what worked for me. It is not science since it has not been proven or tried, it is my personal lifestyle choice and I will never claim it is anything more, nor less.

Dabbling in science health and medicine is stupid. It can be really dangerous. Either you know what you are doing, ie you are an expert, or you don’t. If you don’t, do whatever hell you want with your own body, but do not dish out advice as if you were an expert, it is dangerous and irresponsible.