More snow - lets go down the slide!

Happy Times with Santa

Wild & Crazy on Christmas Eve

Please tilt your head as the video of Noah going down the slope is not upright.

Winter Wonderland!

The days leading up to Christmas have been very exciting. Santa or Tomten as he is called here, is expected to make an appearance tomorrow and Noah knows that he will knock on the door and bring him presents. As soon as Noah sees a pictures of Santa he knocks on the closest thing that's next to him and says "Tap" which is what he calls Tomten.

Also we are lucky to have snow. Noah, as you can imagine, loves it all. He eats it, plays in it, goes down the slopes and tries to walk in the deep snow. I myself haven't seen snow since I was 7 or 8 years old, so I enjoy it as much as Noah.

Even though I miss my family over the festive season, it truly feels like Christmas in this winter wonderland. The temperature got down to -17 on one particular day......that was uncomfortable. But for the most part it has been great to go out in -5 to -10 degrees to see the snow covering the roads, trees, cars and houses. It feels like something out of a fairy tale, I must say it is a very special feeling.

Once we have established ourselves in Sweden it will be hard to leave behind the snow of winter. Inside the comfort of the house we are warm and cosy, so its not so hard to admire the weather conditions outside and celebrate it by baking, drinking warm drinks, eating great food and sharing time with family. Next Christmas and December will be very different; we will both be working, Noah will be in day care, and less time to appreciate the atmosphere.

I'm sorry to say that I don't miss the 35+ degree heat, hot car seats, mountains of sunscreens and trying to escape the heat. The Swedes that prefer Australia over Sweden may be proven right in the future, but the novelty of our first white Christmas will not wear off for some time.........you're crazy to give this up!!

Here are some of our finer moments of the past few days......in the snow!

Christmas Market

In Götene, 6km from Lundsbrunn there was a Christmas market on the weekend with lots of fun to do for little kids. Big hits were the fire truck, the horses and the trainride around town...

Curious George in Town

This Sunday, one of Noah's favorite characters was visiting a shopping centre in Lidköping, a town about 16 km from Lundsbrunn. Mormor, Noah and I took the shopping list and drove over snowy landscapes to Lidköping to greet "Nicke Nyfiken" (the Swedish name for Curious George).

Nicke's first stop was a the shoe store where they also have a little play table for the kids. We came a bit early and Noah was happy to play and wait at the table. In fact, so happy that when Nicke finally came through the doors, whilst the other kids ran up to him, Noah leisurely sat put and continued to play - not at all interested in his furry friend.

Luckily, Nicke was staying for a while and after about 20 minutes, Noah finally warmed up to him. He walked up to the big monkey, gave him a high five, a big hug, smiled and said: "Nicke!". After that, it was only "Nicke, Nicke, Nicke!" and Noah followed him everywhere, gave him toys to play with and wanted to hug him all the time.

When it was time for Nicke to leave, to our surprise, Noah was happy to wave bye bye and to come with us for some grocery shopping. Having Noah with me, who is a real boy and doesn't likes shops, I would need Nicke to pop around every time we go shopping ;-).

All I want for Christmas is....SNOW!

The wish came true - it has been snowing for the past two days! Today it was enough snow to bring out the pulka; a short, low-slung small toboggan. Lets just say the sled was a big hit, with both the boys! Check out the video below!

Celebrating Santa Lucia

13 December is when the Swedes celebrate St Lucia! This is done through the tradition of Lussevaka – to stay awake on the night between 12th till 13th and guard oneself against being taken by Lucifer lord of darkness (!) by having an all night party ;-). This is still carried out today mostly by the younger population having great parties. (When the light then arrives with the morning you are safe again.) But since Shawn and I are no longer that young and strong for an allnighter we settled for the more traditional celebration;
A procession/a ceremony where a girl is elected to portray Lucia... Wearing a white gown with a red sash and a crown of candles on her head, she walks at the head of a procession of women, each holding a candle and singing Christmas songs. There are nowadays also boys in the procession, playing different roles associated with Christmas. Some may be dressed in the same kind of white robe, but with a cone-shaped hat decorated with golden stars, called stjärngossar (star boys); some may be dressed up as "tomtenissar", carrying lanterns; and some may be dressed up as gingerbread men. With Noah's new found love for ginger bread cookies, you would think that the latter would be the natural choice of costume but we went for the tomtenisse outfit this year. Worth mentioning, is that when Noah saw the boys with the cone-shaped hats he bursted out, with a smile on his face: "GLASS!!" (icecream) so maybe that will be his pick next year!!

Today, we took part in the Lucia celebrations held by the church down the road from us. Below is a short video from the kids Lucia procession. We have been practicing at the weekly sing/play group but Noah was too amazed by the experience to take tune.

The Final Product

Our Master Piece - the ginger bread house.

From saffron buns to ginger bread cookies...

Noah LOVES baking, I dunno where he got that from ;-)... It's always fun to bake and eat the final product but Noah also finds great joy in quickly put a piece of dough in the mouth when nobody is watching and then give off sounds of pleasure and awaits our, again, "surprised" faces. "Nice" he then clarifies.

A few days in the big city

We spent 5 days in Göteborg or City of Gothenburg which is the official English name. It was a very cold week, with -7 one morning. Even though we have winter clothes we weren't prepared when it came to the shoe department - next on the list: get a pair of winter shoes each! Luckily Noah had 2 big bags full of clothing and winter shoes waiting for him when we first got to Sweden, all handed down by a dear friend of mine, so he stays warm at all times.

The days in Göteborg turned out to be very fruit full for Shawn has he got through a pair of interviews at a big gym chain in the city, got shown around by the owners of a brand new studio soon to open as well as an offer to do a practicum at a friend's naprapat clinic. He'll get around to write about it soon..but pretty much it means that Shawn will be moving to Göteborg on his own in early January! Noah and I will move to the city when I get a job.

It was lovely to spend some time with Annelie & Tony, especially since we got to celebrate Annelie's 30th birthday together. We also managed to catch up with Susanne & Janne (the naprapat) whom also are friends with Frida & Fred in Australia - small world!

One night we paid Liseberg's Christmas market a visit. Every year during the month of December, Liseberg, Göteborg's themepark, hosts Sweden's biggest x-market. Most of the rides are open too and Noah got to try out four of them. But after a couple of hours we had to head back to the apartment, all due to the cold weather or maybe more correctly; due to our poor choice of clothing :-).

Back in Lundsbrunn, we are now starting to prep the food for Christmas, and I'm back in the virtual world keeping an eye out for jobs!

The three of us at Liseberg

Digging it...

"Postcards" from Lundsbrunn

As Shawn wrote, another busy week has past. It's an emotional journey to say at least, to sell off everything you have and arrive pretty much green in another country with just a suitcase in your hand. It's exciting. It's scary. It's fun to explore and learn how things work in this new place. It's sad as you miss people you left behind. It's lovely to meet new people. It's mind wobbling knowing that the whole "homeless & unemployed" thing is now for r e a l. And you can feel the pressure all the time. Big time! You're so focused on finding a job, a home for your family and get into a routine as soon as possible, that you hardly have time to notice that the sun slowly starts to go down around 2pm. The eyes are on the computer screen, all day... Suddenly an exciting job comes up! You get so happy and worked up - you want to send them THE BEST application that they will receive and it's hard letting go of the cover letter and actually press the send button. Shawn is lucky in the sense that he knows what field he wants to enter whilst I browse around and look for pretty much anything that sounds decent and that offers a fixed monthly salary.

For leisure, we look for housing! This is a chance to relax, dream away and also learn a little more about towns, different suburbs, housing costs and so on. We occasionally watch a DVD on the laptop in our room at night (good thinking to store up on movies when we visited Thailand). And of course on the weekend, we're accompanied by a bag of Karamellkungen smågodis. To those poor souls that have been unfortunate enough to not try Karamellkungen yet; It's Sweden's No1 brand of candy, a top quality flavoursome pick and mix candy. An average Swede consumes almost 12 kg per year (or so it's been said)!! Today Noah got to try his first piece (it's Saturday and kids in Sweden only get to eat candy on Saturdays, hence the nick name lördagsgodis = Saturday candy). He licked it and then said with a smile on his face: "Nice!". Then he had another taste and confirmed with us: "Nice". "Nice". "Nice". When the piece was all finished, he wanted more (no surprise there) and he asked in gibberish for more and pointed at the bag. We explained that we were going home for lunch and that since he is 1 year old, he could have 1 piece (cruel or smart?). Somehow he understood that and threw a tantrum. Shawn tried to hide the bag in his pocket without any luck. At least we got Noah to speed up his walking as he chased pappa all the way home :-).

Here comes some pictures from the last week. Enjoy and have a good weekend everyone!

Leisure walk - outskirts of Lundsbrunn

Baking Christmas saffron buns

Blowing bubbles and playing in the forest

End of Week 2!

A lot can happen in a week....and a lot has happened. Our moods have been up and down, wondering what we'v put ourselves through but when the all is said and down we still come to the conclusion that we have done the right thing.

Step 1: Operation finding jobs, is looking decidedly better than a week ago. Maria has managed to apply for some positions that she feels confident in being a strong candidate. Even though the job market is supposed to be in bad times at the moment, the feeling is the things are on the rise for Europe....slowly! For me, things are slightly better, I have managed to snag a meeting with one the managers of Nordic Club in Gothenburg's Majorna facility. I'm really pleased and the feeling is that they need someone very soon. I don't want to jinx it but if I were to get a position there I think I would start immediately. The founders of Crossfit Gothenburg also want to meet me, which I'm stoked about. They are 2 policemen who are just about to open up to the public. It's a chance to get in on the ground floor on something I really want to be doing. I'm pumped to meet them and discuss a possible arrangement. They are keen to show me around and get me on board in someway.

Noah is adjusting better. Today at the playgroup he played well with the other kids and was just happy to be around some small people. Last night, after a long day stuck indoors, Maria, Noah and I ventured into Gotene to run some errands. We were in a shop and there happened to be some kids playing in a small designated play area. He was SO happy and ran off to play with them. However, when it came time to leave we had to stay an extra 5 minutes to accommodate him. After that 5 minutes there was a MASSIVE tantrum. He really misses being around kids and we can tell two things. 1: He will love dagis. And 2: He will LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE DAGIS!

Just Around the Corner

It's been a good week here. Again the focus has been on finding employment but the pressure has eased knowing that there is work out there. The feedback from conversations that we've had with various people has been positive. Maria has managed to apply for a few jobs over the past couple of days and the research I've done suggests that there are plenty of gyms out there, not many PT studios but opportunities to work in the gym environment. I think for both of us it will a case getting a foot in the door somewhere and then we will be fine.

On a social note, we have made a friend. One of the mothers from the play group invited us to fika where we met her husband and 2 other kids. It was a great fika and I can see us being friends with this couple. They have invited us to dinner tomorrow with another couple, so we're starting to branch out! It's good for us to be out of the house and have some contact with people our age, it feels normal! All the fears about Swedish people being hostile and so on have been blown out of the water. So far they have been warm and friendly to say the least. Out in the country, where we are at the moment, we have been welcomed into the play group and the couple we had fika with has welcomed us into their life. I believe there are people like this everywhere and if you look hard enough you will find them. In this case it was easy. If we move somewhere else it may be harder but we will know that good people ARE out there. I can imagine it would be very hard to move too far away from Gotene if we sta

rt spending a lot of time with new friends, but we both like the country feel of the smaller towns. Maybe we will move to the next town which is bigger.

The weather continues to be great (in Swedish terms). We have had between 5 and 10 degrees for the past week and some rain. Noah already hates putting on all his winter clothes to get ready to go outside. Once we are outside he loves it, jumping in the puddles and pointing out the birds. Unfortunately he has already lost his tan! I've switched back to my spring jacket and one or two layers. Maria is the same and Noah is wearing his fleece jacket and rain coat if needed.

There is still a lot we need to get for winter though, I think a trip to HM is needed!

We'll try to take some photos and post them for everyone but our internet is a bit slow. We only have a wireless USB thingy that has average reception in the country. So our download and upload speeds are slow.

We hope everyone is safe and well, enjoying the summer heat. We're thinking of you all.

Warm Welcome!

Today it has been a warm day here in Lundsbrunn. A blistering 9 degrees!! I could go outside with out wearing a winter coat which was great (I still wore it, but I could have gone without). Its been almost a week since we arrived and we're starting to settle in well to the small town feel of the country side. I'm already sick, which I think is due to my body being in relaxation mode. Although we've done a few workouts, I haven't lifted weights and my body is resting up to tackle the stress of finding jobs, finding a house, and CHRISTMAS. Now that we've spent a week at Maria's parents I am well and truly ready to move out. I love them and their hospitality has been great but its like living at your parents house again, and with Noah you don't want to over stay your welcome.

No, I am very grateful for the place to stay, but I don't want to get too comfortable here. I have already sent out some CV's to various gyms and hope to get a response by Tuesday or else I'll have to ring them up which I don't like doing. One thing I have noticed about the gyms here is that they're mostly like the Fitness First style "cheerleader" style gyms. The focus on Les Mills group workouts and some have even tried to do CrossFit style workouts in the Les Mills mold. It doesn't sit well with me but as long as people are doing something I'll encourage it. As for working in one these places, I'll cope, and show them something different.

As confident as I am about finding a job, I am also apprehensive about the language and using it. I've been trying to do a little bit everyday but it seems to disappear the next day. I know it will take some time for it to click but i am hopeful it will be sooner rather than later.

Weather wise, it has been pretty much what I expected. Its cold, but bearable. The winter jacket I bought from Jeep, Harbour Town, is doing the job well which is a surprise because it was only $79 down from $289. A bargain to say the least. The other jacket I got from the guys at Fitness Results is being being put to good use by Maria, but I can't wait to use it on the sky slopes soon. Speaking of skiing, we have had a little snow which Maria has mentioned, so I'm hoping we get a bit more. I went for a brief run the other day, it was +3. I had, a beanie, gloves and thermals from my ankles to my neck. It was a good run but I couldn't breathe. The cold air just wasn't getting into my lungs. It was on of the rare occasions I felt like vomiting after a work out.

As I write, I'm not feeling the best, but I hope to be better tomorrow. As our second week in Sweden roles on my stress regarding employment grows. Its not an easy position to be in and sometimes I wonder if we've done the things the right way. (I'm positive we've done the right thing to move to Sweden, but......) Only time will tell and as the pressure rises I keep reminding myself we've only been in Sweden 6 days and tomorrow I will have to remind myself its only been 7 days. The sooner we find jobs the better I will feel. The rest will work it self out but I'm very aware of the importance of getting jobs ASAP!!

As we go this journey, we will keep you up to date with whats happening. We're suffering from a slow internet speed at the moment so you'll have to wait for more photos. When we're in Goteborg we'll have a quicker connection so we'll up load then.

For now, hoo roo!! (i Svensk, Hej da!)

Shawn

We Live in Sweden

There it goes. It has been spelt out. Then it must be true (and real) right? We both feel that it won't really sink in until we are settled in our own house, have the jobs and Noah is established at day care. Probably, one morning we will wake up of the alarm clock, look at each other & say "Oh my God! We live here now! For real!".

In the process of preparing for the move, you're so busy and things are happening so fast and you don't really have the time to just stop & contemplate what is happening and how you feel about it. Or really, you do feel A LOT but it's as you push it away, as allowing you to feel your emotions kinda throws you off track a little and you loose focus. Maybe, if you stop and feel, then you'll start to doubt the decision made...

Now we are here in Europe. Safe and sound. We arrived on Sunday night with a toddler who happy as and whom had decided to stay awake the whole flight.The first night we slept at auntie Annelie's house and the morning after morfar came to pick us up. Noah recognised himself straight away at mormor and morfars' and ran to his toy box in the living room.

After a few days, we are now over the jet lag and feel "at home". The first day, we made the effort to drag our tired bodies to all the important governmental offices to register our arrival and interest in finding jobs. We have also familiarised us with other families with young children in the area and have been to both play group and "sing a long" for kids at the church. People are so far very welcoming and friendly. We have already been invited over for "fika" (a social institution in Sweden; it means having a break most often a coffee break with one's colleagues, friends, date etc.) to another family in a neighbouring town. So will we settle here - on the country side? Well, we are keeping it open - where ever we can find satisfying jobs, we will move. Most likely we will move in to Göteborg in a few months, as it's in the cities where most jobs are available. Saying that, the country side is beautiful and relaxing and almost as laid back as Australia ;-).

Finally...probably what most of you are wondering; Is it cold? Is there snow?! Answer: It's been varying from +2 to -3 so yes, it's cold. And yes, there was snow the other day but it melted away. And honestly, so far we find that it's not too bad. We get dressed and go for long walks and breathe in the fresh clean air. And Shawn awaits with excitement for the magic month of December with all the wonderful Christmas traditions.

Stop Over in Bangkok

The 5 nights in Thailand went by very quickly. Bangkok was great! Or more accurate, Marriott Resort & Spa was great. We are really happy that we decided to book accommodation that was of resort style and outside the CBD of Bangkok as the city has limited activities for younger children. A holiday with young kids are always going to be about the kids (as the rest of the year) hence why we cut out the touristy bits and bobs. However, we made one trip into Siam and browsed around for a few hours. And one of the nights we had baby sitter and we paid the night market a visit and made some bargains. Other than that, we enjoyed every minute inside the walls of this beautiful resort. It a few perfect lazy days with a great kids pool where we spent h o u r s every day, lots of play time in the kids activity room, divine dinners (choice of 7 restaurants and of course with special kids menu + free crayons and paper) and best of all, a few trips on the free shuttle ferry across the river (gave a lovely breeze to cool us down and a bit of an adventure for Noah to spot all the boats on the river).

Good Bye Australia!

From all of us to all of you: See you soon!

The best farewell gift ever!!!

Sometimes in life you're lucky enough to meet some really special people. I have, Shawn has and Noah has certainly too. Check out this lovely piece below - it makes me feel so lucky to have friends around who cares so much. Thanks for taking the time to create such a great farewell gift! We love you too and will miss you heaps!!

Homeless & Unemployed - what a great feeling :-)

The last week's been busy and tiring. Also enlightening...how much junk do we collect over the years?? We sold off almost everything we had. Gave away HEAPS. Donated HEAPS. And yet we had to borrow Helen & Hamish's ute and drive TWICE to the land fill. What the?!?

Our last week:
-Shawn wrapped up work last Friday.
-All sold furniture got picked up on the Saturday.
-The removalist came on Tuesday this week and packed up the belongings that are being shipped. The same day we moved out and into Chatarina & Andrew.
-Wednesday was spent cleaning out the house.
-Thursday; some more cleaning, handing back of keys & later dinner with friends.

Today, Friday we moved into Frida & Fred (& Noah's gal Heidi). From today we will only RELAX and enjoy our last weekend in Australia for a long time.

Exploring Aubin Grove

More pics from the party

Thanks to the 70 people who made it to the party :-)!

Our Farewell party/ Garage Sale/ Birthday party