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2002-05-16 15:19:54 Source: Web

Gonna see Star Wars Episode 2 in about 1.5 hours time. Cool beans!

For those who hadn't gotten the message yet, I'll be in London from the 6th June until the 13th June. Drop me a line if you wanna try and hook up!

2002-05-16 12:42:55 Source: Web

I love internet radio. Soon the DMCA may make it obsolete (well, from the US at least, but as a huge majority of stations broadcast from the States this would have a huge effect).

Incidentally - here are the brilliant radio stations I listen to...

80's Retro
Freeform Goodness
Perkigoth (4 channels)
Rat Patrol Radio (Wartime melodies! Fantastic stuff)

Enjoy!

2002-05-13 22:04:45 Source: Web

Hurrah! I got home and my DSL was back on! *sighs contentedly* - the new flat is feeling more like home every day - and now with 100% more added girlfriend!

2002-05-13 11:06:47 Source: Web

Ahhhhhhhh! Finally the actual moving part of our move is complete and we had our first chance to really enjoy being in the new place this weekend. In fact it has been a very productive weeekend! I have fixed a shower curtain rail (a job that was made 10 times harder than it should have been by such irritations as a missing drill chuck key!!) and started painting the finishing touches on our wardrobe doors (a silver frame). We also took the opportunity to visit a garden centre and sort out the beginnings of our balcony garden (4 window boxes, 2 with "smulton" (wild strawberries in english), 1 with various herbs and 1 with lobelia).

There's a hell of a lot to do, especially when it comes to unpacking boxes and finding storage space for everything, but we are up to the challenge. On the more relaxed side of things, the balcony is absolutely fabulous - it appears that we will be spending a great deal of time out there during the summer months at least.

In other news, my TV came back from getting a service today. As well as straightening out the picture, they have changed out the tuning board so that it will receive Swedish TV channels without requiring a digital box in the middle. A very much appreciated tweak! It also looks like our broadband supply will be back up and running before too long as well. This means it will pretty soon be time to get the home network installed and Lotta's computer connected.

Ahhhh! Domestic bliss ;-)

2002-05-07 21:05:44 Source: Web

Long time no update, but that's pretty much explained by the fact that for the last week I have hardly stopped working on the move and feel as though I have been undergoing an intensive boxing training! The good news however is that we are in!

Yup, the move has gone pretty well all in all, but has taken an extraordinary amount of time and energy. I spent the first 3 days packing boxes and then lugging them a few at a time on a hand cart to the new flat. I wanted to get as much out of the way as possible before the big push at the weekend.

On Saturday we managed to move the remainder of my flat in about 3 hours and then focused on Lotta's apartment. That has taken a little longer (in fact we're doing the last bit tomorrow), but even so has gone pretty well.

After several frustrating days when the piles of stuff in the new flat just grew and grew, we are now finally starting to get some boxes unpacked and make some space to live in :-D I managed to dig my computer out of the chaos yesterday and though I'm currently connecting via modem, I do at least have connectivity.

I still have a couple of days off ahead of me, so I'm looking forward to getting things more in order and helping out Lotta with the last of her move. Then it's down to the serious business of choosing furniture, decorating rooms and doing the odd little jobs like putting up shower curtains and installing a home network :-D

2002-05-02 09:32:30 Source: Web

Moving is going wonderfully so far! I've managed to shift over half of my cartons of books, videos, CD's and other assorted media. I should be able to polish off the rest of them today or possibly tomorrow. That will leave only furniture and large items for the main move at the weekend.

Yesterday we ate our first meal at the new place, which was fun. We've painted test colours on the bedroom and decided whích colour scheme we want to have. I followed that up by painting over all the test patches with undercoat yesterday. Today we should be getting the first layer of colour on the walls. Oh - and the new floor has been laid. Very, very nice parquet. Mmmmmm!

I bought a new bike on tuesday as well. It's very sexy - as you can see here. Basically it has an aluminium frame, Shimano components (a mix of Deore and Alivio for those in the know) and is absolutely a pleasure to cycle. I can get up the hill to our flat at a way faster pace than on my old bike. It shoudl be wonderful for the cycling trip I'm planning later in the summer.

In other news, our trip to London is now fully booked. We'll be in town from the 6th to the 13th June and we're staying at a little pub hotel on Edgeware Road - The Kings Arms (which many of my friends will remember). See you then?

2002-04-28 20:07:02 Source: Web

I love weddings! Yesterday's was wonderful! An old church, traditional (well, traditionally Swedish) service, throwing rice and a lovely buffet reception on the 18th floor of a hotel in town. Lotta and I were invited to sit at the top table which we felt very honoured by! Witty speeches from the guests and a few tears from the Groom's mother ;-)

I had to break away in the afternoon to help out at the tennis tournament work had organised. We apparently had 7 former European champions at the event - though there were no names I recognised! I was a little miffed to have to break away from the festivities, but I'm pretty glad I did as my services were actuallt required as we had a few technical hiccups. I also managed to avoid having to wear the (imho) revolting tennis shirts that the rest of our group wore by dint of having my extremely tasteful (again - imho) new suit on :-D

After a few hours of babysitting the systems I was able to return to the other tower of the hotel (yes, we have a twin-towers hotel in Gothenburg - very nice it is too!) to spend the evening with the rest of the stag-do team and other friends of the couple (who had made ther departure).

I have to say that I was completely knackered by that point, but the evening was still extremely enjoyable.

This morning, despite best intentions of sleeping in and getting some rest, I woke up at 7:00 unable to stop thinking of the new flat. After an hour of reading I gave up and by 9 I had started ferrying over the first of my boxes. Ahhhh! It feels wonderful to be able to start getting stuff in and I'm really looking forward to the coming weeks. First I have a couple of days of work to tidy up some projects and then I'm focussing on getting our stuff moved in and the first rounds of decorating and unpacking sorted out. I'll post some photos just as soon as I can :-D

2002-04-26 22:02:09 Source: Web

Sweden won their first match in the world cup (against Austria). It was a hell of a match too - probably the best match I've seen.

Bed calls. Tomorrow is another big day.

2002-04-26 11:49:04 Source: Web

Well, the good news is that I am now a proud homeowner! However the transaction wasn't without it's share of last minute drama!

This morning the money had still not shown up in my account. On top of that. my Swedish bank had misunderstood the situation and thought that the emergency top-up loan was not to start until Monday (doh!).

However, they could see that the money was on it's way in and so they countered nicely by offering to give me an overdraft to cover the transaction over the weekend. (Thereby solving the problem in classic Cook family style!).

With everything sorted (after an extremely nervous hour at the estate agent) we finally completed and followed up by accompanying the seller to the flat and checking that the cleaning and everything was done satisfactorily.

So now it's official and we can move in during next week! It's time for me to eat something and to try and calm down and relax again for the first time in several days.

2002-04-25 21:38:21 Source: Web

So here's the deal - tomorrow we do completion on our apartment. Part of the finalisation is paying the remainder of our deposit. So I sent a letter to my UK bank asking them to send me a sum of money to cover it. However, instead of sending me the sum I asked for in pounds, they sent it in Swedish krona - which you get 14 of for every pound.

This leaves me rather short! Yesterady they promised the funds would be in my account by today. Today my account wasn't updated and they promised the funds will be there by tomorrow.

Right!

So I've managed to arrange an emergency top-up loan in case it's needed. Hopefully the money will be there tomorrow, but if not we'll need to juggle the completion time around to allow my Swedish bank to cover for my UK bank's fuck-up.

Guess how pissed off I am with them??

Either way, we should be proud owners of our new apartment tomorrow, but what should have been a pretty easy last step has left me feeling completely stressed out.

Some good news today was that I took another run along the same course as last time and not only managed to run the entire course without breaking stride once, but even managed to run back up the killer hill to my flat! Now that's what I call progress :-D

I'll let you know tomorrow how it goes with the flat. Oh - and I've got tickets for the first match in the Icehockey World Cup too! Should hopefully be a good day ;-)