Sweden

On the 9th of January we relocated to Lidingo. Lidingo is an island that forms part of Stockholm. We are 8km from the city centre or about 10 minutes by car. The island has one bridge and road on and off so is really used only be the people that live here.

We have a 3 bedroom house with a huge garden. We are surronded by parkland and running tracks. My goal this year is to compete in the Lidingo loppet which is a 30km run around the island.

There is a great little playground across the street where Muddy loves to run and Oscar and Isabella love to play in the snow.

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On the slide

oscar playing outside

Oscar on slide at Lidingo playground

Isabella in Lidingo playground

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Australia Day in the park

Purchased an Alfa 159 touring, 4 wheel drive, 3.2 litre V6 on the 30th Dec ("The Beast"). Price-wise it was pretty much a straight swap for the X5 in Sydney. It Chews about the same amount of fuel but goes about 3 times faster and is sporty as hell. I love it! It will do 0 - 100 in about 6.5 seconds and top speed of 242km/hr. Sadly I haven't got it into 6th gear yet.

On New Years eve, before heading to Derkjan and Camilla's for a dinner I decided it was time to put The Beast through its paces on the country roads. Now I'm no rally driver but I have pplayed a bit of playstation in my time, but this was the real-deal. With snow covered it was a little hairy at times but the traction control and 4wd kept us going straight. I have worked out that the best way to do a U-turn in Sweden is to basically drop the clutch and rip on the hand barke while turning the wheel. Normally gets you facing the other way pretty quickly.

Fireworks are not banned in Sweden so I dropped about $300 on my box of ball shooters and 12 pack of rockets. Before dinner with Derkjan and Camilla we trecked to the top of a small hill in the centre of Stockholm and let them off. I was like a kid on cracker night... Muddy was a bit anxious and the kids spent most of the time with their ears covered... that might have been to stop them freezing off though.

A great dinner of crayfish and champagne followed. Derjkan and I managed to stay up till 3am just to make sure that all the booze was finished... Seemed like a good idea until Isabella thought she would start the new year 3 1/2 hours later.

Ouch

Alfa would love this

New wheels after an ice storm

Swedish country side

Rally through the trees

More snow

Chance to open the Alfa up

Countryside

Faster Daddy, faster she said

Too much for some

End of the road. Ferry crossing through the ice!

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Villa

Country villa on the rally circuit

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We rented a small Swedish house in Bromma, fully furnished for 3 weeks. There, we hosted Anna-Karin, Lennart, Derkjan, Camilla and Phillipe for Christmas eve (dinner). It is a tradition in Sweden to celebrate on the 24th of December.

Susanne's parents catered for the day and did all of the cooking, which was great. We had Smoked salmon (no prizes for guessing that one), herring (same), smoked eel, meat balls (again no prize), honey glazed ham (I did this one), potatoes, beer and load of schnapps. A real smorgasbord!

Santa (aka Lennart) trecked through the snow around 9pm (or it could have been 3pm as it was dark then too and I'd had a few schnapps by the time he arrived) and delivered the presents. Oscar and Isabella were intrigued and of course loved to get more gifts.

The next morning was spent opening a few more gifts (thanks everyone) and digesting the rich food and drinks for the night before.

Muddy needed a walk so I put on my (and his) warmest gear for a walk in the forest next door. The snow is very deep but there is a path. It is incredibly quiey wallking through there and every now and then you have to stop to appreciate the silence. Occasionally someone will cruise past on their cross-country skis. I walked on the frozen lake the other day then realised I could see bubbles through the ice as I walked and decided to get the hell off it. So far I have seen one deer and a fox.. both would have made good hats.

Bromma house

Bromma house for 3 weeks

Lennart dishing out some pressies

Derkjan on Christmas eve

Santa makes an appearance

Car gararge for Christmas

Chrismas morning - more presents

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Good thing my you had my nuts removed or they would have frozen off by now

Would you dress like this to take your dog for a walk. - 16 degrees here

The day after we arrived in Stockholm it was back to the airport to pick up a very important passenger - Muddy of course. Unfortunately for him it was the coldest day Sweden had seen for a while at -22 degrees.

After navigating several security checkpoints that would put the old Berlin wall crossing to shame, we arrived at the cargo area for Arlanda airport. Paper-work finalilsed, Muddy was released from his holding cell and came bounding through the snow dragging the cargo operator (also likely a Swedish participant in then World's Stongest Man competition) along behind him. He was certainly happy to see us!

After a quick sniff of the first car he could find Muddy's legs began to shake and we had to get him inside for some food and more hugs and kisses from the family.

He seems to have had a great trip. The pet company looked after him. He isn't too keen on tight spaces though these days and it's tough to get him to go near elevators and anything that closes.... like doors.

Muddy finds his first Swedish car tyre

Muddy's first meal off the plane

Reunited with Muddy

Big kiss for Muddy

Pulling his ears already

Sweden and all of kids 393

Muddy and Isabella

Muddy digging in the snow

What a welcome. Minus 16 degrees and 2 metres of snow. Still, we were lucky to be here as the rest of Europe's airports were shut. I was a bit worried how the Thai pilots might handle the landing on a snow covered runway. I assume they used the autopilot on this leg .....

A-K, Lennart, Camilla and Philip made the treck out to the airport at 6am to pick us up and help us with the 150kg of luggage. Susanne was happy to see them and the reunion was complete. The only one missing was Derkjan who was away on a business trip.

Rented a VW Golf station wagon and hit the highway in to town. Loads of snow (as mentioned and will continue to mention). Sun came up around 9:30am and we were in the centre of Stockholm at Derkjan and Camilla's apartment.

Driving through the snow

Swedish traffic jam

First impressions ??

I love winter tyres