February 24th, 2010
I am a father at home. At least for some percentage. 30% it will be until the end of the summer. But right now we are getting Zeb used to go to daycare. Which takes time. About 2 weeks normally they say. But that means of course as well that he is getting in touch with other bacteria. Meaning he is going to be sick a bit more now. Like this week. So I the last 3 weeks I have been working for 30% of my time. I don’t complain, and work is not complaining either at the moment. Ooohhh the advantages of Swedish society.
But what to do when you are at home and you have to make some food ?? I know their favorite is salmon. Take Milla, give her salmon with cooked rice and peas. She could eat that every day of the week for the rest of her life and still not complain. Zeb needs a bit more variation. He grows tired of the same food too often. But yesterday he was in the mood for some salmon. But being a Belgian and having a need for french fries every so often, I decided to make some. No, we don’t have a frying pan at home to deep fry them. And to be honest, the last time I was in Belgium and ate some fries like that, I almost threw up. Too much fat…. not used to that anymore.
So this is the Swedish way: just peel the potatoes, slice them and put the oven on 200 C. In go the fries and get them out when they start turning light brown. Serve with salmon and peas…..:o)
January 30th, 2010
Just when you think that the weather is going to turn around…. it turns into something ugly. 2 Days ago temperatures went just over zero. Meaning a lot of snow and ice started melting. It even rained for a few hours. And then is when it turned into hell. Actually hell froze over. This morning it was -14 again. And all this means that town turned into the world’s biggest ice skating ring. Just have a look at this on my way home from work yesterday afternoon.
People are not lifting their feet when they walk, they slide around. The safest way I noticed myself.
Tags: ice, winter
January 27th, 2010
Just when you think it stopped snowing and it will all turn into grey water soon, we get another load of white fluffiness dumped on our head. Not that I complain. It seems like it’s gonna be a never-ending story this winter.
This one is from this morning when I was in the office looking out. We got moved a few floors up, so wee enjoy a better view from this part of town. And when I took this, it was like somebody was shaking out their pillows. Nice thick white snowflakes, could have been better if you ask me. The only bad thing about this all is that I have to be inside and am not allowed to go outside and play like a kid … Maybe another time.
Tags: rooftops, snow, winter
January 26th, 2010
It’s still freezing cold out there. Why ? It’s so cold I have been taking the tram to work. Don’t mind me, I can watch a bit of TV shows on my iPhone, or read some books. That’s all good.
But too cold to ride my bike to where my I ruining my pants these days. I don’t even get warmed up properly before I get there. And that means some extra coffee or tea to get warmed up once inside the belly of the beast. And that means too much bladderpressure, …. Too much detail.
On the positive side, all that white fluffy stuff is still lying around out there. Since CHRISTMAS !!! Never seen this before in my 10 years in Sweden. So nowI am just waiting for Milla to say that when she was younger, there was always loads of snow in the winter and it always lasted very long before it all melted away. I know that’s how it was for me.
Tags: cold, winter
December 29th, 2009
As if the last couple of days weren’t enough yet, another surprise was waiting for the 2 little bunnies when we got home. When I talked to my mom on the phone the other day, she told me she had send a box with presents to us. It hadn’t arrived yet of course before we left to Linda’s parents, so that meant we could go an pick it up at the post-office today.
And guess who is not bothered with opening a lot of presents again ??? Yip, indeed…. But one thing I thought interesting is that my mom send a lot of chocolate as well. The ones I and my brother and sister got when we were kids as well. Yes mom, it still tastes the same !!!
And do you think Milla and Zeb like it ?????
Zeb first didn’t know what to do with it. He thought it was a toy he could play with until he saw Milla taking a bite. And after that… well, there is not much left I can say. Thanks Mom !!!!
Tags: chocolate, Milla, presents, Zeb
December 15th, 2009
The way to do that here in town is to bike to work. It seems that people feel too comfortable in their cars. It’s pissing down with rain, freezing cold and people walk or bike in this weather to get wherever they need to be. But those driving around in their warm and cozy cocoon are just not connected to the rest of the world and claim the streets all for themselves. Which results in near death experiences for some of us.
Fast or Slow …… but always ecologic, originally uploaded by Gianluca — 2KPhotos.com.
I don’t know if I have the luxury to generalize this phenomenon to the rest of Sweden (because I don’t bike there), but it surely is getting worse over the years in Gothenburg. Only I am surprised that not more accidents happen.
On the other hand, some of the bikers graciously ignoring a 2 meters wide biking lane is asking for trouble as well. They are there for a reason, so use them !!! Yes, I am talking to you, postmen and postwomen. Don’t pretend you are better then the rest of us commuters. You actually get car drivers behave like they want to hunt us down.
But mark my words, roadkill will soon get a new meaning.
November 20th, 2009
Transport I mean. Yup, like in the buss or the tram or the train. Actually I used the tram to go to work today. It’s been a while since I did that, and I don’t really liked doing it either this time. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great if you want to read a book or listen to a podcast, radio,… or so. But the time it takes for me to get to work from home with the tram….. (buss is not an option for me). It will take me about 45 minutes. And if I do it on a bike, about 20 minutes. So you see my point: I loose about 50 minutes a day by using public transport. And then I am not even talking about the pricetag…..
But one thing I liked about it this morning, was that the city was dark and just about to wake up. Lights are coming on everywhere, so you can have a clear look inside houses. Which reminds me about the trips we did with my parents on a Saturday or Sunday evening. We would usually drive around for 30 minutes or so on our way home from my grandparents. Instead of driving straight home (10 minutes tops), we would make a big detour. Sometimes we would take the same route as the weekend before, but most of the time we would change it a bit somehow. And that is when we looked. We could see inside other people’s homes. I just loved it, all those different styles and colours. Sometimes I wonder if we will do the same with Zeb and Milla. Who knows.
So public transport has a positive side as well. Who would have thought that…
Tags: public transport, tram
November 16th, 2009
We did. Today. The contract for our house. Well, it’s not ours anymore.
What happened, I can hear you think. Well……. We found a house we really liked. Both Linda and I were super about it: the design, the layout of the floors, the location, the garden, …. Remind you, this does not happen very often. So we decided we’ll have a look at it. Which we did and couldn’t really see a lot of mistakes. Or in other words: big future investments to fix it.
Enter the bidding war 2 weeks ago, where we went maybe a bit longer than we actually had planned, due to the reason stated above. So we go and sign a contract were it says that we are going to buy the house. But…. history learned us that we want an extra paragraph stating that we will do an inspection of the house by a 3rd party and have the right to cancel the contract if we want afterwards.
This inspection was something the real estate agent thought not needed, since the house was in perfect condition.
Comes last friday (13th) when our inspection guy does his thing during a 3 hours session. Very long that is. Because he had to write a lot of stuff down !!!! He actually had more than 6 pages (A4 size). Conclusion: the house was not really in that perfect condition. Actually, it was very poor. Not looked after for the last 20 years, resulting in mold in the area under the house, a roof that needs to be replaced, …. The list is long.
So we are not going to buy a house. Again. We ripped the contract today. And I can live with that, but the thing that upsets me the most is that in the buying/selling properties market, some people are just out after the money. And they lie, cheat, …. a lot to get to “their” money. The only thing we can do is file a complaint about the real estate agent’s behavior and hope that other people will do the same, so that one day we’ll have a cleaner market.
Tags: real estate
October 26th, 2009
This is a very nice chart of different internet speeds in the world and connected to that, the average price tag in respective country.
4th place over here. I knew it was a good place to live. I can actually give you a few more reasons, but more about that another time.
Tags: internet
October 19th, 2009
Got a new project today. Just a short one, probably this and next week. Nothing more, nothing less. But the funny bit is that it is at a customer everybody in town has been. And the reason most of the people guess why I moved here in the first place ten years ago. So yes…. finally.
Not that it even had been on my to-do list…..
