Midsummer madness

Well it's been a few weeks since my last post, and time seems to be moving very quickly here, even if the pace of life is a lot slower than we're used to. I remember everything being a rush in the UK, whether it was driving, drinking (not together of course), eating, or relaxing, everything seemed to be time boxed and had some urgency about it. Here it seems that you can take you time over things and relax, if it doesn't get finished today, it'll still be there in the morning. If the guy in front is driving at 20, sit back and enjoy the view, don't bib your horn and search desperately for the first place to overtake him. It's refreshing, especially with Isabelle being so young to be able to take time and find a nice balance to things.
Work on the other hand has never been so busy. It's great because I'm enjoying what I'm doing, but it seems that the more you achieve, the more they want to throw at you, and if you're not careful you can quickly become over-booked or over-worked .You have to remember... This move is about better quality family time as well as better quality work time.
A couple of weeks back we took a brief vacation back to the UK to see family, catch up with friends and - most importantly some would say - to see Peter Kay at the LG Arena. We enjoyed being pampered by our parents, taking the three of us out to the Severn Valley Railway, Hatton Country World and the Monkey Forest, and it was nice to catch up with friends over a beer (or 5!) even if we did not get to see all of them. Our next trip back will have to be better planned to make sure we do not miss anyone out!
Isabelle particularly enjoyed the animal attractions, even if it took her a while to warm to the extremely noisy sheep at Hatton. I've never seen a child so excited and so scared at the same time, but she really enjoyed it once she had stopped crying and calmed down. To be honest I think it didn't help her that Laura was also scared of the sheep... I'm sure she could sense the fear in mommy!
The Monkey Forest was also a hit with Isabelle, and if you've never been it's a great half day for the kids. You get to wander around a monkey enclosure where the monkeys roam free. You're not allowed to touch them (actually if you can get close enough before they move away I'd be surprised) but you do feel a little like the lucky kid picked out at the zoo to help feed the animals in front of all the other guests. Isabelle was once again enjoying the wildlife, I just wish she'd cut the association between monkeys and "dadee!"
I'm starting to get a complex now!
Finally on our mini vacation we saw Peter Kay at the LG Arena and he was awesome. So very, very funny, but I wont bang on about him because I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen him yet.
Also by this point I think we were pretty done in after several days on the go constantly and were looking forward to a little R&R to get over our vacation back home in sunny Sweden (yes sunny... It was 32 degrees today!).
Last weekend here we had Midsummer which apparently is as big a deal to the Swedes as Christmas. There's no present giving (Laura was disappointed) but it's a time for family and friends to come together and watch people dressed in old clothes struggle to stick a big pole in the ground (a falic symbol so I'm reliably told) so that the older generation here can dance around it before the kids get too bored and start tearing around the field like they're high on coke and chocolate! Then when everyone is totally knackered after chasing their kids around and dancing like frogs (that has to be seen to be believed) they drink copious amounts of schnapps and eat herring whilst throwing logs around their back gardens. Confused?... We were!
At least we had a vacation day on the Friday to make space for these activities.

  


Well that's it for today. Next we have visits from both sets of parents to look forward to so I'm sure that'll provide me with plenty of ammunition for the next post. We're looking forward to having you here!

For everyone else, take care, we'll be in touch soon.

Love Ben, Laura and Izzy x x x 

Religious taxes and a weekend in Stockholm

Well we're pretty much settled in now. The house is almost how we want it, I say almost because to be honest I doubt I'd get away without a few more trips to Ikea, and we're getting used to the local supermarkets, although we haven't tackled the BIG store near Vasteras yet. Laura is getting out and about with and without Isabelle and we've even managed to get in the garden and start to weed and plant to try and make it nice for the summer.
We had a great weekend in Stockholm. We visited the Vasa museum which was excellent and well worth a visit if anyone is thinking of visiting Sweden's capital. The only issue we had was Isabelle getting fed up after 45 minutes and wanting to play outside. I can't blame her really the weather was beautiful and we managed a couple of beers by the harbor watching the locals and tourists milling around and preparing their boats for the summer season. The rest of the time we wandered around the old town and visited the royal palace (although I'm told the King of Sweden doesn't actually live there) and Isabelle had her first childrens meal in a restaurant! When I say restaurant I mean Pizza Hut (apparently it's just easier with children). We all really enjoyed Stockholm and hope to visit more throughout the summer, it's only a 1 hour 45 minute drive from Fagersta and not incredibly expensive considering it's the capital (I'm talking about beer prices here).

I finally got my first paycheck from my new job this week and I was surprised to find out that here you pay tax (1.2% no less) to the church. Yes religion is still allowed to take money from the poor citizens of Sweden which I find absurd. In a country where 70% of the population are members of the Church of Sweden but less than 4% of those actually attend church (thanks Wikipedia) you'd think that the tax would be an opt in system instead of the current opt out. Needless to say I think we'll be holding onto our 1.2%... As soon as I can convince myself that I'm not going to burst into flames as soon as I cross the church entrance.

Also this weekend we got out into the back garden and started to tidy it up. Laura visited the local garden centre with Sara (one of our friends here) and managed to spend every krona she was sent out with (she can't convert it into pounds but she has no trouble spending it!) While I had to cut the foot long grass - it gets longer every time I tell this story... this is my 5th time -  using a 1950's man powered lawnmower. No electric mower here, sheer brute force and a lot of cursing finally clipped the grass to a reasonable level. Now I have to do it every weekend otherwise I'll have to go through the ordeal all over again (it is a good workout though). 

Finally Isabelle is now taking a couple of steps, she's saying a few more words - flufers instead of flowers is her current favorite - and she knows when she has an audience... little madame! She'll stand up by herself, wait for us to say good girl or clap her efforts to try to get her to move forward, then she'll give herself a round of applause and sit back down beaming to all like shes just conned you out of praise and you're the butt of the joke. If she wasn't so cute there'd be trouble... but how can you stay mad at a face like this...

 

OK that's it for now. We're back in the UK for a holiday next week so we'll look forward to seeing you all then. Oh and I hope you all enjoyed your bank holiday today. Here we get a half day Wednesday, day off Thursday, day off Friday and a day off next Monday... Are we glad to be here?... Damn straight we are!

Lots of love

Ben, Laura and Izzy x x x 

First week

Well it's been just over a week since we've moved out to Fagersta in Sweden. We're settling in nicely to our new surroundings, although I think the change is a little easier on me and Isabelle than it is on Laura. I of course have the advantage of already spending a lot of time here. I have some friends at work and I get out of the house everyday and talk with other people... It's only at work of course but it still helps with the transition. Isabelle, being only 16 months old is totally dependant on Laura and myself anyway, so as long as we are around to clean up and feed her she is more than happy. She settled into her new room a lot quicker than we could. By the second night she was sleeping through like she'd been in that room her whole life. Laura on the other hand is at home everyday (week days of course!) taking care of Isabelle. Yes she can go out for a walk (the weather since we arrived has been fantastic, apart from a very brief snow shower we've had blue skies and 15 - 20 degrees) but not knowing the area and being unsure of the language is making her think twice. I think I'm going to have to force the issue if she continues to stay indoors!

Our furniture eventually turned up which has made the house a lot more homely. Our very first night was very upsetting pushing together two single beds and rattling around in an empty house, it didn't help that all the surfaces in the house are hard so all the sound echoed around the place like we were living in a shell of a home. Luckily we only had to live like that for one night but I could tell by the look in her eyes that Laura was starting to wonder what I'd got her into. A weekend trip to Ikea has also helped to make the place a little more homely. We took the 60km drive on Saturday which only took 40 minutes to get there (there is a severe lack of traffic here)... I remember it taking longer to get from Streetly to Birmingham city centre on a Monday morning so the 40 minute drive isn't too bad plus the scenery is amazing. Vistas of lakes and forest that make us feel that we definitely made the right choice in moving here (not that there's anything wrong with the views on the way into Birmingham... Newtown anyone?) 

The language is going to be a little difficult to understand. Luckily most people here speak very good English except for one or two very important people - anyone who works in a supermarket and the guy who owns the pizza takeaway around the corner. On the first night as the house was empty and we had been travelling all day we decided to try the local pizza takeaway (seeing as it's one of the 4 dishes that Laura will eat!). I started with Laura's order - Margherita is easy and always the same in any language. For those of us who have a more adventurous taste things get a little tricky. Nothing (and I mean nothing) on a pizza menu in Swedish looks anything like the English version of the word. So I'm trying to explain to the guy behind the counter who is looking increasingly more and more uninterested in what I am trying to describe before he finally utters two words that I understand... "Kebab pizza?"  The thought of a kebab pizza was not as agreeable as the pizza itself, but I'm sure I put on an extra 1/2 stone in that first night alone! (I've now taken to miming animals to the guy which seems to work and makes him laugh so we're all winners in the end).

Well that's about it for now other than to say that work is going well (although there is a lot of it!), Laura is getting used to dividing the SEK prices by 10 to get a rough GBP price and we have booked our first weekend away to Stockholm which we're really looking forward to.

Oh and one piece of advice for anyone else thinking of moving out here... the Systembolaget (beer shop) closes at 3:00pm on Saturday and is not open on a Sunday... At all!! Don't forget or you'll end up like us - having a very dry weekend!

Lots of love

Ben, Laura and Izzy x x

1 Day to go...

So here we are, the final 24 hours before we fly out to Sweden to begin our new lives... well for the next 2 years anyway! It's been manic since the last post as you can probably imagine. I've been to Sweden for a week working, the whole family have been to the Lake District for a vacation and we've had more goodbye/send off's than we probably deserve, but it's all been great fun. Somewhere in between all these things we've also had to find time to pack and ship our life over to Sweden... to say we just want to get over there now and get started would heavily understate how we feel at the moment.
The week in the Lakes was a great distraction from the pre-move build up. We had a fantastic time with Laura's family and our only regret was that we couldn't spend more time there. On a more personal note I also wish I was a lot fitter so that I could manage to take Isabelle on one of the fell walks! We even purchased a baby carrier backpack to help with getting her around (little legs don't travel as quickly as we'd like) but a 2 stone child that wants to stop and talk to every sheep that we saw... and we saw a lot... doesn't make for an easy walk!

Still we caught some sunshine, got a little exercise and sunk a few cold ones at the end of each day. We all love visiting the Lake District and hope to go back soon.

Following the Lakes was the removal company fiasco. We were ready, all packed and prepared to ship out our furniture. I'd booked the day off work so that I could be there to make sure they didn't forget something important (just imagine if they forgot the TV!) and on the afternoon we find out that they are running late... 1 whole day late! So I have to book another day off work to wait in for these guys to turn up and take our stuff. Luckily the weather was fantastic on both days which softened the blow but still, you'd think they would have known earlier on the first day that they wouldn't make it to Birmingham at all. Maybe this is the sort of laid back Swedish mentality that we need to get used to?!?!

Finally this weekend we've been saying goodbye to our family and close friends. Needless to say, there were a lot of tears and I hope that everyone keeps their promises to come and visit.We would love to see you all out in Sweden (not all at once of course!) and will make sure we have a room available for your visits. We really appreciate all the help and support of the last few weeks and know that it is never nice to say goodbye. So instead I think we'll leave this post with "See you soon" - We love you all (you know who you are) and look forward to welcoming you to Fagersta.

Love Ben, Laura and Izzy x

5 weeks to go...

So the count down has started. In 5 weeks time Laura, Isabelle and I will be travelling to Sweden to start our new lives there. It's kind of exciting really, a little nervy but mostly exciting. At the moment we have loads of things planned for our 2 year stay... visits to all the major Scandinavian cities, seeing the Northern Lights, maybe even the Ice Hotel. If we manage to get half of what we planned done within the time period then we'll have had a brilliant time.

We will of course miss our families and friends back in the UK, that is the hardest part about leaving. But we are looking forward to being able to spend so much more time together as a family, especially with Isabelle being so young and Laura and I so aware of how much time she spends being looked after by other people (we do appreciate it though!). I guess these are the demands placed upon today's working families, so we are really appreciative of the opportunity given to us by my employers to be able to take advantage of this move.

The packing has started (I have some boxes at least) and the farewell parties are planned so there is little else for us to arrange right now. Although I'm sure Laura will be telling me later to get my finger out I'm pretty relaxed about the whole process (those who know me may point out now that I'm pretty relaxed about most things... almost horizontal really).

So the plan is to keep you all informed and up to date with our fun and adventures via this blog. I guess if I stop writing then we really aren't up to much, but hopefully there'll be enough to keep me ticking over.

That's it for now... We hope to see you all before we go.

Ben, Laura and Izzy x