Thursday - Tuesday recap

Our sincere apologies for the ‘blogging vacuum’ for the last few days! We have taken busy to a whole new level! Below is a recap of recent events to get you up to speed. Hope you did not miss us too much!

Thursday

On Thursday morning aunty Nini phoned us while all three of us were snoozing to ask mysterious questions like ”What is your favorite colour?” and “What is your waist size?” I answered, but could not figure out what she was up to. It turned out she was out kilt-shopping with Grandpa Keith, who had already purchased a full kilt outfit for himself and wanted to buy me one as well! I did not expect that! So closer to Dagwood-time when our little family went over to Grandma Michelle’s, the reason for the mystery phone call was revealed and we tried out our new outfits and did a little spin on the catwalk and snapped a few photos. Man, did we ever look handsome!? Grandpa had also designed his own Build-a-Bear for Ethan; a brown teddy bear complete with a kilt-outfit, a bagpipe and a set of golf clubs! He had also recorded a little press-on-the-teddy’s-tummy-message for Ethan and created a teddy bear certificate in Swedish. Lovely! As we were trying out our kilts already, we figured that Ethan should get an opportunity to wear a kilt as well, so we undressed the bear and dressed Ethan in the bear’s outfit. Cute as pie!

Keith: You are my favorite father-in-law!

In the afternoon we all decided it was a good day to go to the zoo, so off we went. It was a fab day for a stroll around the animals and walk up the hill of the zoo, and everyone really seemed to enjoy the day. It is such a well planned, beautiful and educational zoo! Grandpa Keith and I enjoyed it a little bit more than everyone else, as we got to take our new kilts for a spin.

The plan for the evening was to go to the pub quiz at The Melville, but by the time we got home and everyone had been fed and got a chance to kick back, we decided against it. Next Thursday maybe.


Friday

On Friday afternoon we had an appointment at the Swedish Consulate out in Musselburgh to register Ethan for Swedish citizenship, but before that we also had another appointment: To meet with a German guy and an Aussie girl to sell our bike. We were originally supposed to meet them on the Thursday, but we could not find out bicycle pump, not even after searching high and low all over our apartment. After ripping our apartment apart a second time on Friday morning I found the pump. It had slipped into the back of one of our photo albums. Obviously. Should have looked there in the first place! :)

After the sale was completed, we had another round of Dagwoods and headed off to Musselburgh, with a quick stop at Factotum for a meet and greet. Josh got a chance to see suburban Edinburgh with his own eyes, and I am sure he loved it! The appointment went well, even though the man that helped us wasn't very helpful or friendly, but I guess that's government staff for you. No need to go the extra mile.

As Keith and I were heading out early to The Open the next day, we decided that Keith would come over to ours and we’d do a sleepover so we could catch the train to Turnberry bright and early. Great idea…in theory. What really happened was that we decided to go out for a few cold ones that later turned into more than a few, and we then decided to stay out all night and catch the train bright and early in the morning. We headed to The Melville, and when that place closed, we headed to the late-night piano bar. Needless to say, we got off to a bit of a rough start on Saturday morning. It was a ton of fun though, and a great opportunity for Keith and I to catch up.


Saturday

Saturday was all about golf (and staying hydrated after the night before.) We had a nice train- and bus ride out to the Scottish west coast and Turnberry, and Keith was in golf heaven! He got to see some of his all time favorites tee off and battle it out for the title of British Open Champion, and there was no end to the goose bumps on his arms and his grin from ear to ear. When we first got to Turnberry we grabbed some fish and chips for lunch, after all, we are in Scotland. Then we headed out on the course and the first player out (that we saw) was the equally legendary and rogue John Daly. What a treat to see him in his yellow pajamas-bottoms, orange windbreaker and a cigarette in his mouth while walking down the fairway! We followed John for a few holes and then we decided to sit down for a bit to rest our legs. We sat on a slope and watched player after player play, and I even managed to doze off for a bit.

After a visit to the merchandise tent, we went over to the grand stands on the 18th green and got fantastic seats, and we got to see the players come in and finish their rounds. After this, home time! It was a very, very long night and day, but so worth it! I am very happy I could help make Keith’s dream come true.

Unfortunately, Great grandma, aunty Nini and Julia time in Edinburgh was up and they left us in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Julia’s best memory of her time in Edinburgh that she wrote in our guestbook is priceless and made us all laugh so hard:

One of my best stories that happened here is when Nicky and Orlaith came to visit for our last day. I told them what year I was born (1997) and it ended up Nicky was in Canada then and Nicky told me the news..."Julia, I am your father" and I said "Dad...dad?" he said, "Yes my child". It ended Orlaith being my future step mom and she grinned at me and said "...hey" as she slugged down another glass of wine. My "daddy" asked me if I needed any money and I said "Father, I need £1,020.75" he stretched out his hand and gave me 5p. As the night was coming to an end they had to leave me (again). As my "father" walked into the dark, wet, cold streets of Edinburgh, my heart was full. Oh and my "step mom" tripped on the steps. My piece of advice is always tell people your year of birth as you never ever, EVER know you may be related to a Scottish man.

Oh Julia...


Sunday

Sunday morning was, as you can imagine, not very action filled. We slept at Michelle’s place and took our time to wake up, have breakfast, laugh at the day and night before and just talk. Good times.

Later, Keith and I took a walk down to where we used to live, Dean Village. I wanted to show him how magnificent and diverse the city of Edinburgh is, and I think I got my point through. Lots of wow’s and ooh’s when I we walked up the Water of Leith walkway to check out the waterfall and the river.

The highlight of the day was still to come though, as Grandpa Stefan finally was on his way over from Sweden. Ethan, Keith and I took the bus out to meet up with my dad and to take him back to Michelle’s, and dad finally got to meet his little grandson. What a moment!

It did not take very long after my dad arrived at Michelle's before he pulled out the gift bag, and he had gone all in! Dad had a whole suitcase filled with adorable clothes for Ethan and presents for everyone. Ritva had knitted socks for everyone, and even shoes for Ethan. She had also bought handmade Lappish jewelry, matchboxes and a knife and Ethan got toys, books, CD's and mobiles for his stroller and cot! Aunty Isabel had also sent us gifts for Ethan, most notable a AC/DC onesie! Very cute! Great grandma Linnéa also sent some money to Ethan, which is of course always useful. Whoa golly, that was a lot of gifts, and we really appreciate them all! Thank you!

We also organised a small barbeque on Sunday evening to celebrate dad's arrival, and after a few attempts, we managed to get the fire going in the disposable barbeques, and the food turned our really well!


Monday

On Monday we had ambitious plans to go check out the underground city, Mary King’s Close and we headed out to the old town and had a look around and a bite to eat. I took the guys on a quick ‘Peter walking tour’ and showed them The Covenanter’s prison, Greyfriar’s Kirkyard, The Royal Mile, Grassmarket, and we also made a stop at the National Museum of Scotland so that Josh could snap a few pictures of Dolly the cloned sheep. She died a while back and is now stuffed and on display. We also had a chance to browse the rest of the technology-exhibition and play around with things like a reaction speed test among other things. Unfortunately, Mary King’s Close as an attraction is so popular over the summer so that when we got there, it was fully booked. Bummer. Will just have to do it another day. We wandered home instead and Grandpa Keith whipped up his signature ‘Mush’ for dinner. Delicious!


Tuesday

Today, Tuesday, we had lots of different options on the table and the only thing that was really planned since before was an after work basketball game where Josh would pretend he never played the game before, but of course, in reality he is an awesome basketball player. The game never happened is it started raining, but ‘The Grandpa’s’, Josh and I made it out to the Deep Sea World attraction in North Queensferry and checked out the shark tunnel, all kinds of different exotic fish, poisonous frogs, and their seal sanctuary. Very interesting and definitely fun for the whole family! Those sharks are scary and very intimidating but definitely not the most dangerous species there. Looks can be deceiving and some of the most beautiful looking fishes had bottles of antidote outside the glass in case of emergency(!)

When we came home I cooked one of my signature dishes; Mozzarella Chicken with Rice, Greek salad and Garlic nan bread. It was fabulous, if I may say so myself. After dinner, Mike & Jen and Orlaith & Nicky came by for a chat and some Guitar Hero game play. Who knew Nicky was such an ace on the ol' axe!?

"...and that's how we do the batty bat!"