Stockholm Stiletto Run 2008

I have now left the kids to have some quality time with Mormor and Morfar. This morning I took the train to Stockholm and met up with Kamilla to visit Erika.
A girls weekend, yay!

We left our bags in the lockers at the Central Station and went to browse the shops for a bit. Didn't buy anything though, believe it or not.

We went to Kungsträdgården to support another friend of mine, Jenny-Ann, who was going to participate in the Stockholm Stiletto Run. It was a run in 12 heats and a final - with 100.000 SEK shopping money as a prize.
Here she is, just before the run:



The stilettos are getting measured, they had to be at least 7 cms:



The run was 100 m, and the girls were really fast! Jenny unfortunately didn't win her heat to make the final, the winning girl ran in under 17 seconds! Jenny did a good job though - here she is in action, to the left in the pink shirt:



Here is the supporter club:



Tonight we are all enjoying some wine and lovely salmon pasta at Erika's house, and of course some girlie talk and Swedish pick-and-mix candy. Mmm - that's the recipe for a good night!

080808

I don't think anyone could have missed that today is the first day of the 2008 Bejing Summer Olympics. 080808 at 08.08 they started the opening ceremony, because for the Chinese, the nr 8 is the lucky number. I watched a little bit of it this afternoon, but failed to see both Sweden and NZ marching in, and missed the fireworks too. Ah well, will try and catch the summary of it all later tonight.



I wondered a bit about Brunei's participation in the Olympics, so I googled and found the following information on Wikipedia: "Brunei, as Brunei Darussalam, first participated at the Olympic Games in 1988, with a single official but no athletes. The nation has sent athletes to compete in every Summer Olympic Games since 1996. Brunei has never participated in the Winter Olympic Games. Brunei has never won an Olympic medal."

I also read in the news, that Brunei was excluded from the 2008 Olympics - today! Apparently, the International Olympic Committee excluded Brunei from the games after they failed to register any of its athletes. They had until midnight ahead of today's ceremony, but missed the deadline.
I feel so sorry for those two athletes involved, a 15-year-old female swimmer and a shot putter. Must be absolutely awful to see your Olympic dreams get crushed because of the decision of the your country's Olympic Committee not to register you.

The second cousin

Today we hung out a bit with my cousin Stefan, and his daughter Irmeli. They live in Uppsala, but were home to visit the grandmother (my aunt) for the weekend. So for once we had good timing. We don't normally see each other very often, as you can understand.

Irmeli is a month older than Linnea, but much smaller in size. She is the only second cousin on my side of the family. All three of the kids had a ball on the trampoline - Lucas was a dangerous monster-monkey (?), and the girls "ran for their life"!



Then we went to the toy store for a quick look, but Lucas was only interested in one thing, as usual...

Play date

Today we said goodbye to Nathan who took off home again; first back to UK, and then on to Brunei tomorrow.
Lucas told him several times that he is going to miss him, and of course we all will. Luckily we will be home too in under two weeks this time, and Nathan will be busy working and sorting out a few things with the house until then.

While Mormor and Morfar took him to the airport, the kids and I had a play date not far from there, at an old school friend of mine. Karin and I graduated together, and she now has two kids too, Olivia - a month younger than Lucas, and Valter - who will be 2 next month.

We saw them this winter as well when we spent time in Sweden, and then the kids played really nicely together. That was not exactly the case today... Seemed like the chemistry was totally off - it took them a good two hours of fighting and arguing over toys to establish some kind of balance. Then finally, about when it was time to go home, they were far too busy playing and having super fun on the slide:

A(nother) perfect day

Today was Nathan's last day of this vacation, tomorrow he is heading off back to Brunei again. The last few days have been quite quiet, because of the rain, but today finally the sun came back and we decided to spend the day at Skara Sommarland.

I took Lucas there two years ago, but since the others hadn't been there before we had a lot to discover.
Even though the weather was great, it wasn't too much people. Some queues but never too long of a wait. Lucas went on a lot of different rides, but poor Linnea wasn't allowed, cause you had to be 100 cm tall for most of them. She didn't agree at all with the fact that she wasn't big enough:
- I'm NOT too little!!!



It really was a shame, I felt so sorry for her, but what can you do? I guess they need to have a limit somewhere... She could go on the trucks, and the airplanes, and then she and I had an ice cream when the others were on some of the big rides, so she got something special too!
Here they are, on a selection of rides (I'm sorry if it's hard to spot them/us, not the easiest task to take pictures of a ride in motion):











We also went for a bit of a splash, Skara Sommarland is mostly known for it's big water land. The kids played happily for a while, even though it was horrendously cold - but then Lucas wanted to go to the hot pool... :)







The best 5 kr we spent all day, was on the tombola. Lucas chose nr 20, and we won!!! Not only won but we got the the Starprize - 2 kgs of chocolate! Mmm... Marabou...



We finished the day off with a trip on the little train, the four of us together. The kids were still in good spirits, even at the end of this long day:

Glow in the dark

Lucas got new pyjamas when we got to Mormor & Morfar. He was very happy, because they were "Spiderman-ones", well, kind of... they had a spiderweb on them. And, they are glow-in-the-dark.
So every evening Morfar has to charge them up before Lucas can go to bed. Luckily he's got just the right thing!

Here comes the rain

It's raining, it's pouring...

Rain almost non stop for the last few days. A lot too, not so much fun anymore. They said on the weather report that today and tomorrow, we will receive the total normal amount of downpour for the whole of August. No more days in the garden at the moment, we are back inside dressed in jeans and socks - in front of the TV, PSP and Archos. Which is cool too, it's holidays after all.

Crayfish Party 08

Today the whole family on Mormor's side was here for a Crayfish Party. It's a typical August feast in Sweden, and even though Nathan had crayfish "the Swedish way" a couple of years ago (when we bought them from IKEA in the UK...) he had never attended a full-on Swedish Crayfish Party.





We had the crayfish with all the right attributes - lovely bread, nice salad, Västerbottenpaj (= a pie made with really strong cheese), colorful lights, and beer. We had skipped the snaps (= aquavit) since they all were driving back home afterwards, unfortunately. Normally you would have "a little one" with each claw, acompagnied by some cheerful singing!



Lucas was very hesitant, just like last time (he is not very adventurous with his food even on a good day). He liked the look of them, and played a bit with one, but didn't want to taste:



Linnea on the other hand seemed to enjoy them. She just wasn't patient enough to wait for them to be peeled, so she gave up after the first five-six crayfish:

Last day of summer?

As I'm writing this, it's Saturday night, and today has been the first bad weather day we have had all our vacation. It's been slightly chilly, and even been raining! (Actually, I kind of enjoyed the rain, but don't tell the Swedes... the weather is a really touchy subject this time of year, well, any time of year in Sweden. I will devote a post to Swedes and weather some other day.)
The weather report don't show much improvement the next few days, so we have to make our plans day by day.

Yesterday might therefore very well have been the last day of summer this year. Yes, you never know, this might have been it! :)
Luckily the kids enjoyed the day out in the garden, playing tag, playing hide-and-seek, chasing around, chasing bubbles...







'



And here is the lovely husband, enjoying the kids:

Choo-choo!

After having re-packed our suitcases for the 5th (!) time this trip, we spent all day yesterday on the train. Or more correctly, on four different trains, to get from Kolding up to Skara, in Sweden.

Now it's time for the second part of our holiday, in a way. The more relaxed part where we wont be doing much at all. We have finally unpacked the suitcases, and have no big plans whatsoever for the next couple of weeks. (Maybe we will go to Astrid Lindgrens Värld, but only if the weather is staying nice, and it doesn't look good according to all the weather girls on tv...)
Nathan is only staying one week before his vacation is up, and me and the kids are here until the 18th of August.

Pretty nice.

Trendspotting

Every season, people decide how much they want to follow the current trends and fashions. They get affected and inspired in different ways. Sometimes I think it's all depending on where you live and how much there is a need to conform.

I found out, that if you want to fit in fashion-wise in Denmark this summer, you need to own at least one of the following items:

- "Gladiator style" sandals
- Any kind of bohemian style shirt in any shade of white
- Denim jumpsuit
- Unisex aviator style sunglasses, preferably with gold metal rims

I saw these fashion items, over and over again on the streets in DK. It almost felt like the summer uniform of the year! (I bought a white shirt, that's how far I stretched, you will never see me in grown-up-dungarees - hello Teletubby...)

To be really "in" - you also need to drink Kusmi Tea, the trendiest tea at the moment. It must be mentioned in every interior design magazine I've flicked through these past few weeks, and every blog I've read. Everybody seems to be drinking Kusmi Tea in Scandinavia (or at least, has it on their shelves because the tins are very pretty)! I didn't buy any, but now I regret even though it was horrendously expensive, cause the tins really were cute. I have to see if they have it in Singapore..!

Another thing I noticed that everybody in Denmark is really in to now more than ever, is organic food and eco washing products. Every house we stayed at, had "Neutral" branded washing products, both for their hair/body, dishes and clothes. That is, products without any additives, color or perfume.
Denmark has always been ahead when it comes to being environmentally conscious, but now it's like it's almost compulsory - which is good, of course! I was just (positively) surprised at how well they have managed to convince people that eco and organic is the way to go. Sweden and UK (and in some ways even NZ) are still far behind in making every little person pull their weight, and let's not even begin to talk about Brunei...
Go Denmark!

Can't take the heat

Today it's been slightly overcast and therefor a bit chillier. I don't mind at all. Actually, I can't take this heat very well. I'm just like my Dad, neither one of us are made for heat, we prefer it between 20-25 degrees max.

It must be strange to hear, considering where I live and that we have 30 degrees plus, every single day of the year in Brunei. But you know, it's a different heat - and here, there's no getting away from it.
It's hot in the day, in the evening and in the night; and here no one really have A/C, like we do back in Brunei. It's hot for such short periods in the year it's hardly worth it here.

Back home, we don't feel that have to be outside enjoying it every day either, as you do here "in case the good weather stops tomorrow". Here in Scandinavia, the summer heat and the sunshine is so precious that you need to enjoy every minute of it.

We have all felt a bit under the past few days. Lucas, Nathan and I all have sore throats and Linnea has a bad cough. Add to that the hot, hot weather, and the fact that we have been on the go now for two weeks - no wonder we are feeling slightly worn down.

Tomorrow we are spending most of the day on the train, going up to my parents place. It has been a blast these past few weeks - we have had so much fun and seen so many of our friends - but, it's also going to be nice to finally be able to pack out a bit, and get organized, and not do much for the next few weeks. Just wind down and relax.

Some more photos

A little mix of photos from Nathan's camera. First in the summer house, Lucas giving Konrad a ride on the swing:



The boys having herring and snaps, well, not Lucas, he had ice cream:





Going for a ride with Lars in the Nihola:



At the playground, cool swing:

My friend the Baroness

My friend Kamilla has just recently moved over to Jylland, to live with her boyfriend. The "big city girl" has now become a farmer girl. She is born and bread in Copenhagen, and have lived there all her life but now, she is in for something else. Her boyfriend lives on a big mansion with 320 ha land (& forrest etc) attached to it, in the middle of the countryside. A very different world to what she is used to!



Yesterday when we went to see her new home, we got the big tour around the grounds. We went to see their ducks that they had planted in an artificial pond. Duck hunt starts on the 1st of September... quack, quack:







Well, she is not really a Baroness of course, but for us and the rest of our friends, she will now be known as Baroness Kamilla!

Next stop Kolding

On our little tour we have now reached Kolding, in Jylland. We have spent a couple of days with our friends Lars & Dorte, that used to live in Horsham as well (and then moved to Berlin, and now back home to DK). Their Lukas and our Lucas, is almost exactly the same age, and were best friends back in the Horsham-days; and instantly found each other again. The fact that they don't speak any of the same languages didn't seem to bother them at all.
It was so nice to see them all again, and since the weather was still fantastic, we had a bbq outside the first evening, and the kids had a dinner in the nude:







Yesterday they took us out on their boat, for a little trip down around Lille Baelt:











The weather was fantastic, just like ever since we arrived, so we had to stop for ice cream at a quai along the way. Nathan got the job to jump ashore:











It was messy business, but oh so yum!