birthday

Solo birthday

/ Bipasha / 7 Comments

I was home alone on my birthday this year, but instead of being sad and lonely, I decided to be happy and entertained! My formula for a happy solo birthday?

  1. Start the day with a good cup of tea. Good tea in a gorgeous cup 🙂
  2. Dress up. Got something new in the wardrobe? This is the day to pull it out. This deep blue tunic, a fusion between an Indian style Kurta & a western shirt quite suits me, I think. Plus those pretty trinkets – gifts from my little sis ❤ You look good, you feel good! 
  3. It really helps if the sun is out smiling for you, that’s a bonus!  
  4. A hearty lunch is serious business. Good sushi always wins 👍  
  5. Make time for yourself. If you’re on your own, it’s very important to do something that you really enjoy. So I left office a bit earlier than usual and visited the Östasiatiskt (East Asian) museum. Yes, I’m into museums 😎    
  6. Take some pictures of the sights along the way… Stockholm never ceases to dazzle.
  7. If you have teammates as nice as mine, you might get a cute surprise cake, too!
  8. End the day with dinner with your best friends. Plus Spanish tapas make me so happy. Feel the love!   

I missed you a lot, Mr.A, but I still managed to make myself a very happy birthday! I got my gift early, though. After all, our Berlin trip was my birthday celebration 😊

No-bake cheesecake

/ Bipasha / 1 Comment

I never imagined cheesecake could be easy, until I actually got around to make one myself. Of course, you already read the ‘no bake’ in the header which means I half-cheated, but hey, I had to do what I had to, to get me a cheesecake! Or rather, it was for Mr.A, for his birthday 🙂

This recipe teaches you how to make a great dessert in 4 easy steps. Plus, it does not have eggs in the mixture, unlike most baked cheesecakes, so it’s a great dessert option for vegetarians, too. I followed the instructions carefully, but made a small change. I mixed some chocolate chips in the cheese mixture before laying it out on the biscuit base. And before serving, I drizzled a bit of chocolate syrup over the top. Mr.A fell in love with this one, and I was quite pleased myself. I did eventually try the strawberry topping as well – he liked it even better with the strawberries but I couldn’t, even in my weakest moment, betray my loyalty to chocolate. In any case, that one went down so fast that I never got a chance to click any pics…maybe next time, since now I’m such a pro 😉

More foodie posts here!

Birthday coupons for Mr.A

/ Bipasha / 7 Comments

It’s birthday season again! Mr.A turned a year older & wiser on 9th Nov. and as usual I got kinda crazy with ideas about how to make it special this time around 😀 I usually knock myself out making him fun & absolutely useless things for his birthday, and am thrilled how he loves them, too. Heehee, it’s the silly things that tell you how perfect your are for each other!

I have been wanting to make him some personalized coupons for a while now. I thought about it last Valentine’s day but a birthday is as good an occasion as any.

I used the pixlr express app that I have downloaded on my  Chrome browser. It’s a great app for quick picture editing and I use it quite often on my blog. I took a blank .jpg file as the base. I wanted to apply a similar look for all my coupons but with different colors. I also wanted to keep it simple & sober. Browsing though the various looks I arrived at background -> ink -> blackfive. Adding some text, I came to this template that I used for all the coupons, applying different filters to change the background color. Next I added some fun freebies for Mr.A to redeem at will.

I added a bolder border before printing them out, then cut them out, punched a hole in the top-left corner of each & stringed them through a piece of ribbon. Done! Try this fun idea for a dear one, you could allow your imagination to choose any kind of treat. Btw, Mr.A loved this gift – success, yeahh!

Aerial tour of Stockholm

/ Bipasha / 9 Comments

A couple of years ago some of our friends gave Mr.A a special birthday gift, but what’s more, it turned out to be a bonus gift for me as well. Tickets to a chopper ride for two over the city of Stockholm, no less! Having already accomplished a sky dive the previous year, we both knew very well that neither of us had an insane fear of heights and were very excited about this adventure. We waited nearly a year to fix the perfect day to make it happen. On any given flight, I always make it a point to look out and take in the city from above. It’s just one of those things I enjoy. Since a helicopter does not fly as high as an airplane, the sights become so much clearer and way more vivid.

Join me on an aerial tour of Stockholm…

The chopper was a fine black bird. Since the motors bellowed & thundered, we had to communicate through the headphone-and-mike things hanging from the chopper ceiling. It felt so cool, I tell ya!

        

I got the lucky front seat next to the pilot!!

The chopper took off from the Bromma airstrip & the first landmark to catch our attention was the Solvalla horse racing track.

The iconic Stockholm City Hall

Riddarholmen island & the distinct black spires of the Riddarholmskyrkan

Picture perfect Gamla Stan, with a closer look at the Tyska Kyrkan or the German Church.

Slussen

Skeppsholmen

Gröna Lund, the exciting amusement park on the island of Djurgården

Kaknästornet, the TV tower, which for a long time remained the tallest building in Stockholm.

The cruise terminal for the Tallink & Silja Line fleets.

Friends Arena, the shiny new stadium with a  retractable roof, which houses football matches and concerts, both very popular in Swedish culture.

What’s more, we spotted our apartment as a big bonus! It’s in one of the green buildings towards the lower right of the picture. Yes, you are most welcome to visit!

An adventure, a joy ride in every sense of the words 😀 So much fun! Hope you enjoyed the tour as much as we did.