Author: Lene Fogelberg

Greetings from Singapore

Written by Lene Fogelberg on July 10, 2014. Posted in Blog. 8 Comments on Greetings from Singapore

Two and a half years ago, when I first set foot in Singapore, I fell in love. The warm ocean breeze coming from the green sea, the palm trees nodding gently to the soft music floating from speakers hidden in the flowers arrangements on the sidewalk, the skyline of the city pointing upwards like pillars of rock crystal shimmering in the sun… This place is like a dream!

My husband and I are here for a week, having vacation, doing some research for my WIP, and looking forward to meeting up with our girls coming back from Sweden (They are visiting with friends and relatives; since the longing back home grew too strong to resist, we found them last minute tickets, and I mean last minute.) 🙂

This is great research! 🙂 Walking around Marina Bay, taking pictures, not knowing yet what is going to end up in my manuscript, just inhaling the ambiance…

My husband said at one point: “It feels like we’re getting to know this place, after all the times we’ve been here… It feels like home.”

I couldn’t agree more.

♥Lene

Happy summer(?) writing!

Written by Lene Fogelberg on July 3, 2014. Posted in Blog. 10 Comments on Happy summer(?) writing!

Summer is here!

This is at least what my “body-clock” is telling me. Growing up in Sweden gives you a very precise sense for when to expect snow, darkness and cold or light evenings, birds chirping and warm winds from the ocean. It is in the way Swedes think and speak and plan the year. “We’ll go on vacation in Denmark in the summer…” “We need to fix the roof before the winter…” These are typical Swedish things to say.

This is one of the reasons I love living in another country. Things you have taken for granted your whole life is turned upside down. “What do you mean ‘summer’?” our Indonesian friends ask. “When is winter? We don’t know what you mean!”

It is actually getting confusing. Our girls attend an Australian school and right now they are having winter break. Summer break is in December. Here in Indonesia we are finally entering dry season after an unusually long and wet rainy season. We also just started Ramadhan, which will culminate in Lebaran, which is the Indonesian equivalent to Christmas; everyone going to their home town, gathering with their families and eating traditional food.

And in the middle of all this, here we are, a Swedish family having summer vacation, because that’s what we do in July. 🙂

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Summer, Winter, Dry Season, let’s do it all at once! We are a Swedish-Aussie-Indonesian-American family by now and any season is good for writing! 🙂

Happy Summer/Winter/Dry Season everyone!

♥Lene

Writing & Balance

Written by Lene Fogelberg on June 27, 2014. Posted in Blog. 8 Comments on Writing & Balance

This week I have been thinking about balance concerning my writing. Slowly I am working out a new schedule for myself: writing during weekdays and blogging during weekends is the goal.

Normally I’d be writing when my girls are in school, but I picked (of course) the possibly hardest weeks to try to carve out a new schedule; the summer break, so what’s really going on here is vacation: late breakfasts, lovely long chats by the dining table, movie nights everyone cuddling up to each other in the couch (last night: King Kong) and shopping dates with my girls… 🙂

But before I know it, school will start again and I’ll be alone with my laptop and my manuscript, and I might as well get the mindset of the new schedule straight away. Almost halfway through the first draft, I am really enjoying my new manuscript; a contemporary novel set here in Jakarta. I just need to find the perfect balance, like the fisherman I spotted in his narrow canoe in Nusa Dua, Bali. Slowly he drifted across the lagoon as the sun rose, no hurry, he had all the time in the world, there and then. It was magic.

That magic is what I am after. To be present in every moment, writing or not. This is, I believe, balance worth striving for. And eventually the manuscript will be written, a lot of chats around the dining table will have taken place, and I will feel grateful that I got to be there.

♥Lene

Happy midsummer!

Written by Lene Fogelberg on June 21, 2014. Posted in Updates. 8 Comments on Happy midsummer!

Happy midsummer everyone!

As the monsoon is pouring down, we feel right at home celebrating in the traditional midsummer rain. 🙂 Our home town Gothenburg on the Swedish West Coast is located right by the sea and the weather in the early summer tends to be unsteady, except for midsummer when it always rains, that’s at least how the joke goes. It is a hilarious sight; people dancing around the maypole and hurrying indoors to escape the rain, then coming out again at the first ray of sunshine. “Göteborgare” are incurably hopeful and optimistic, no matter how heavy the rain we are sure it will stop soon, ready to bring the smorgasbord into the garden, determined to make the day into a true midsummer celebration.

This is one of few years that we are not at home in Sweden for midsummer, but the monsoon makes sure we feel right at home! (Tonight I think we will go to our favorite Italian restaurant…)

Greetings from Swedish-Indonesian-Italian midsummer celebrations in Jakarta!

♥Lene

Go Indonesia!

Written by Lene Fogelberg on June 15, 2014. Posted in Blog, Updates. 4 Comments on Go Indonesia!

Soccer is a huge sport in Indonesia. Even when traveling through the smallest village on an island you will see young boys playing soccer between goals of bamboo, shouting pretend names to each other such as Zlatan, Ronaldo, Neymar. As the boys grow up, some of them still dream of playing in the big leagues and today was a big day for 22 boys from all over Indonesia. One of them even from a remote island.

They were chosen from the four best teams playing in the soccer cup KompasGramedia Liga here in Jakarta, after two matches this weekend. Based on skill, endurance and attitude, the coaches decided which boys will represent Indonesia in the world’s largest youth soccer tournament: Gothia Cup in Gothenburg, Sweden. Last year the Indonesian team made it as far as to the final, where the Mexican team secured the gold. This year the Indonesian team wants to repeat the succes, and why not aim for first place? These are seriously talented young people!

Final words of encouragement from the coach.

The audience cheering on.

My husband, representing SKF, the company sponsoring the team’s journey to Sweden, congratulates the first goalkeeper selected. The Indonesian custom greeting to show respect is to touch your forehead to the hand of the person you are greeting.

T-shirt, goldmedal, backpack for the trip, and of course an Indonesian flag was presented to each of the selected soccer players.

Celebration!

Confetti all over 🙂

Indonesian TV on the spot.

And here we have the whole team going to Gothia Cup 2014 in Gothenburg, Sweden!

Go Team Indonesia!

♥Lene

Jakarta’s hidden jungle

Written by Lene Fogelberg on June 14, 2014. Posted in Blog. 2 Comments on Jakarta’s hidden jungle

Selamat sore!

Good evening!

Here is a picture that didn’t make it into the Gallery Backstreets of Jakarta, but wanted to join in as well. 🙂

It is amazing that this small road can be found in a city that would fit the entire population of Sweden! I love how the flowers climb the wall, the frangipani tree stretches toward the sky and the leaves of a curious banana tree squeeze through to peek down at the street. In the distance a school girl is slowly walking home, her red backpack bright against her white hijab. Soon she’ll pass the small stand where a vendor is selling fruit to thirsty passersby.

It is already afternoon and when the evening prayer fills the air the street will be deserted. I will be gone too; click, the picture is taken and I turn to walk back to the car.

But the wall of flowers stays on my mind; it reminds me that this is originally jungle. Long before the houses and the paved street; the frangipani and the banana trees were friends who climbed the rocks and the mountains together. They remind me that we are guests here, that the jungle let us have this piece of land for a season, but the jungle care nothing for claims of land and ownership. The jungle owns the land by force of nature and the grass don’t mind what side of the street it is growing on. It just grows.

♥Lene

Backstreets of Jakarta

Written by Lene Fogelberg on June 12, 2014. Posted in Galleries. 4 Comments on Backstreets of Jakarta

Yesterday I brought the camera going through Pejaten and Kemang in the south of Jakarta. These small backstreets are only minutes away from the busy main roads, but still they feel like a different world. I almost forget about the crowded streets and imagine myself in a village — the laundry hanging out to dry, the small shop with the living quarters on the second floor, the mangoes ripening in the trees, the school girl walking home, the woman coming back from grocery shopping, the man selling food from his orange cart and of course the motorbikes — everywhere the motorbikes.

♥Lene

(Click on a picture and the gallery will show in a lightbox)

Glorious mess!

Written by Lene Fogelberg on June 11, 2014. Posted in Blog. 8 Comments on Glorious mess!

Or Things I learned from an Indonesian tile floor.

No need for perfection.
No need for sama-sama (the same).
No need for matchy-matchy.
No need for new and shiny.
No need for regularity.

Instead:

Many different makes a beautiful whole.
Function increased; you’re not only walking on the floor, but also smiling.
There are as many ways to put together a tile floor as there are people (and tiles).
It’s not in spite of, but because of its uniqueness that it makes my heart sing.

Lesson learned:

I will carry with me the theory of the tile floor. I wonder in which areas of my life this will be applicable. Parenting? Writing? Choosing what clothes to wear? This is going to be interesting… 🙂

♥Lene