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2003-01-09 22:07:09 Source: Web

The weekend is fast approaching after my first week back at work. It's amazing how quickly the effects of a good holiday can wear off ;-)

Actually I'm feeling pretty good. We did get a lot of snow last weekend and Lotta and I hired a car on Monday (bank holiday in Sweden), picked up her skis and went cross-country skiing. It was great and my new skis were worth every öre!

I know that all you Londoners got snowed on the other day, which is kinda unusual. The snow we had on Sunday is still here - in fact as the temperature hasn't risen above freezing all wekk, it's pretty much *all* still here. Only now it's mostly brown and churned up, so it looks more like huge dirty piles of sand than snow. Oh well! At least the sea has frozen! Apparently Sweden is surrounded, with ice on every coast! There have been icebreakers out in the largest lake here to keep shipping lanes open and there is apparently only about 50m of open water between Sweden and Estonia. Cool eh? I'll see if I can possibly get to the coast at the weekend and take some pics.

I'm thinking of hiring a car again over the weekend. My finances are a little dry after Amsterdam, but I can get a car for the whole weekend for about 15 quid plus 10p/km so it seems like it might be worthwhile! Apart from that it's time to start work on the apartment - I think I have a plan forming for how I'm going to set up a second desk in my work room so that I have a computer space and a robotics workbench (read: "cheapo desk!"). First though I need to pack up everything that I currently have in there and paint the room. I'm thinking of a nice blue like the one on the cover of Jamie's Kitchen! Nice and relaxing ;-)

Once it's painted I can put new furniture in place, get stuff out of boxes (and chuck a lot as well) and then focus on the lounge! Well, that's the plan, we'll have to see how it goes!

2003-01-05 09:51:59 Source: Web

We're back from Amsterdam! (In case you were wondering where the updates had gone.)

Yup, we've had a weeks holiday in Amsterdam and while I'm glad to be home again, I had a great time. It was fantastic to be able to combine spending some time with friends from both Amsterdam and London in one fell swoop! Thanks for a great time guys - we had a blast eh?

Among the high and/or lowpoints were the following:

• Two art museums (one Modern and interesting, the other Van Gogh and crowded!)
  
• The best Italian Restaurant I've been to
  
• New Years eve party at Max's
  
• A knife murder in the foyer of our hotel :-/ (resulted in us being confined to our room for 4 hours by the police while they did forensic investigations)
  
• Shopping for kitsch (and finally getting some devil ducks for the bathroom!)
  
• Bagels
  
• Spending time with friends
  
• Making "snow angels" in the piles of paper left over from firecrackers!
  
• Goulash soup on a rainy afternoon
  
• Coming home to find it's -19C in Gothenburg

So that was our holiday - I've got a couple of free days before I'm back to work again and the weather is promising a real winter weekend! After it having been extremely cold here for the last few weeks, everything is frozen (lakes, and even the sea!). We were planning to go ice skating, but it is snowing like mad at the moment, so it looks like I should probably get the chance I've been waiting for to use my new skis. Woohoo!

I'm also planning to make a start in getting our flat into shape - it's my New Years resolution to devote energy to decorating (which Lotta has taken care of for the most part so far) and to try and get the flat looking more organised by Easter (more or less!). I'll keep you updated on the progress!

2002-12-25 12:10:06 Source: Web

Merry Christmas everyone!

We celebrated in true Swedish style yesterday and today we're off to the local British pub for a proper slap-up Christmas dinner with turkey and all the trimmings!

So far, Christmas here has been fantastic - I hope that wherever you are you're having as great a time as we are!

2002-12-18 13:30:44 Source: Web

Just wanted to let you know that I passed my driving test! So now the roads in Sweden are less safe than they were this morning ;-)

2002-12-17 11:02:42 Source: Web

Tomorrow's the big day! I take my driving test at 12.15 Swedish time, so keep your fingers crossed for me! It's snowing slightly at the moment, so for once I'm hoping that it won't be a proper snowfall! It would be just my luck to have to drive on really snowy roads for the first time on the day of my driving test!

I'm feeling a little nervous about the test, but basically I am fully prepared, so as long as I avoid any really dumb mistakes I *should* be OK!

I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow afternoon!

2002-12-12 21:50:29 Source: Web

Yesterday I made soup! This isn't something I've done so many times before, but it worked out pretty well. In case you fancy something warming during the winter, here's the recipe (I concocted it meself!).

1 onion
1 garlic clove
2 chicken breasts
A good quantity of mushrooms
a small tin of sweetcorn
1 litre Chicken stock (try and get a good one if you don't make your own)
Soy sauce to taste
Fresh thyme
Fresh ground black pepper

Thinly slice the chicken breasts and in a good sized saucepan fry in an oil and butter mixture (for flavour) until the strips start to brown.

Chop the onion and the garlic clove and add to the pan. Fry until the onion becomes translucent. Chop a handful of thyme and add to the pan. Season with pepper to taste.

Add the mushrooms, roughly sliced and fry until they start to soften.

Add the chicken stock and sweetcorn and bring to a simmer. Simmer the soup for at least half an hour until the flavours have intermingled nicely. Season with soy sauce if you need more salt.

The soup is a broth with a good body of chicken and mushrooms. A possibility to try would be adding creamed corn to thicken the soup, or removing the chicken and liquidising the stock, corn and mushroom. I'm not sure how well those ideas would work, but I'd sure like to try them!

Make enough so that you have some left over for the next day when you're tired, you come home from work and it's -5C outside ;-)

2002-12-12 21:40:34 Source: Web

Everyone chez Cook/Hellstrand is now wel again you'll all be happy to hear! Lotta's misery dragged on a little longer than mine - I was conveniently only ill over a weekend!

I had my (hopefully) penultimate driving lesson today. I'm planning on getting some driving practise at the weekend with Lotta's folks and then I have a lesson booked directly before my test on Wednesday next week to calm my nerves. Hopefully within 5 days I'll be a licensed road-maniac!

2002-12-08 22:08:05 Source: Web

It's been a not-so-pleasant weekend of vomiting and diarrhoea at our flat! We've both been struck by the quaintly named "Winter Vomiting Disease", which some research shows is only second to the common cold in "commonality"! I was struck down on Friday evening and Lotta succumbed during Saturday. So it's been a slow and less than productive weekend for us both, with a lot of sofa time, far too many bad television programs, very little food (I've lost 3kg!) and frequent bathroom visits!

However as it tends to only last for 24-48 hours we are both on the road to recovery and should be OK (if still somewhat infectious apparently!) by tomorrow.

I was feeling somewhat better today, though pretty wobbly from lack of food, but I did manage to wobble down to the shops and complete some more christmas shopping. It's one of the awkward things about living abroad - you have to get the shopping done earlier so that you can get it in the post ine time. Still, it's almost done and it means that nearer christmas you aren't consumed by the same last-minute panic that everyone else around you is suffering. Good thing too considering that it's Lotta's 30th birthday the weekend before christmas and I have my driving test a couple of days before that (and a small hospital visit a couple of days before that. Nothing to worry about though!).

I did manage to pick up my skis before the puking set in on Friday. Now I just need the snow to fall!

2002-12-05 07:04:56 Source: Web

Hmmm, I didn't end up reporting on the weekend! I did pretty much everything on the list I posted. I even managed to get some skis - although I have to wait until Friday to pick them up as they are being assembled (the fixing for the boots has to be fixed on).

Even more crappy snow today ;-) I'm now hoping that we'll get a layer of decent snow before New Year so I can try out my skis before we go on holiday! Yup - Lotta and I have a proper holiday lined up! Just over a week in Amsterdam to celebrate New Year. Everything is booked and we're meeting various friends over there. I've never been to Amsterdam and it looks like it's going to be a ot of fun. We're staying in a fairly central hotel for the first 5 nights and then at a friend's house for the last 3 or so. Lotta has lined up a full schedule of art museums for us to see, so I will be feeling culturally expanded when I return ;-)

Now we just have christmas to get through (we're celebrating a Swedish christmas on Christmas Eve and are invited for a traditional English dinner at our local pub on Christmas Day!), a driving test to try and pass (I had a mock test last night which I passed) and a lot of work to complete. Should be fun! I personally always like this time of year - it keeps you on your toes.

Why not try Dave's new survey? (Questions contributed by me ;-)

2002-11-30 10:06:27 Source: Web

Finally the weekend and i actually have a proper full weekend lined up! I'm going to use it to get a headstart on the Christmas shopping, possibly buy some cross-country skis and a friend of mine has a birthday party this evening. Should be fun!

It's snowing in Gothenburg today, but it looks like extremely wet and crappy snow. Oh how I miss the Norwegian mountains ;-)