To keep our public updated

It is raining cats and dogs in Edinburgh today!

...but you know what? I don't care! Yes, my shoes and my clothes and my hair got soaking wet going to work this morning and same on the way home. That doesn't matter at all. What matter is that my little family unit is coming home soon and that I have had a good few days at work. Work is starting to feel like we are getting some traction in many areas and that we have forward motion again, which is a very good feeling. Tomorrow I will start preparing for Shaena and Ethan's arrival by placing a massive Tesco-order to fill the fridge, the freezer and the cupboards. Think I'll spoil my little buddy by just ordering sweet desserts for him and no actual food. And cookies. Lots of cookies.

What about Shaena and Ethan's trip then? Well, since they are not updating you themselves, I guess I will have to do it for them. Yesterday they spent the day out and about in Chicago and from what I picked up from the sporadic updates I got, they had a fabulous day out! They were eating Chicago style hot dogs, Chicago style pizza, they paid a visit to the Mammoth-Museum, went up to the 96th floor of the John Hancock-building and they even met up with our old American friend Kate who lived here in Edinburgh a few years ago and recently moved to Chicago to get hitched. Well, not just to get hitched, but you get the picture.

Right about now, they should be heading back to Appleton for another few days of fun and rest and relaxation and after that: Swoosh! Back home in rainy Edinburgh!

Prep for Sweden 102: What to see and do in Norrland

Whenever we go on longer holidays, we like to plan ahead a little and do our research to see what there is to see and do. At the same time we also like to go with the flow and not Google and study all that much, just to keep some element of surprise. This summer is the first time Shaena and Ethan will get to go up north to 'Norrland' in Sweden where I am from originally and I have done a bit of browsing and researching this evening, just to see what is out there. You think I would know Norrland like the back of my hand, it being my old stomping grounds and all, but I haven't actually been up north myself for the longest time so things have probably changed.

By the way; while I've been sitting here at home in Edinburgh compiling this list of sights and must-do's, Shaena, Ethan and the gang have now reached 'The Windy City' and will have a few good days of touristing with cousin Em before going back to Appleton. Can't wait to see some photos!

Anyway, here's the list:

Haparanda & Finland

- See the sights in Haparanda - We hear it has changed a lot! A visit to IKEA is a must!
- Kukkola Rapids (Kukkolaforsen) - Dad has a lifetime commitment to buying us ice cream whenever we go to Kukkola.
- Day trip to check out the surroundings outside of Haparanda - Norrland is beautiful in the summer!
- A day in Finland/Rovaniemi with 'Santa Land', Ranua Wildlife Park and Lordi's Rocktaurant and a walk across the arctic circle
- Go-karting
- Stock up on Finnish licorice
- Birthday party #2 for Ethan - again, bring out yer party hats, yer whistles and yer pressies!


Båtskärsnäs

- Visit Grandma Linnéa and get fed on home cooked Swedish 'husmanskost'!
- Frevisören Havsbad - A day at the beach

Piteå

- Relax at the summer house incl. a traditional Swedish Midsummers celebration
- Piteå-tour á la Peter (including but not limited to: My old schools, my first apartment, Kvartersbageriet, Pentryt Night Club, the site where the old 'Yellow Bubble' restaurant (where Tobbe and I worked and got tubby one summer) used to be, Tages bro, Kanalen, Storgatan and finally Sunes Gatukök, a legendary fast food joint in Piteå)
- Day trip to check out the surroundings outside of Piteå
- Meet up and hang out with 'the boy band', Tobbe, Henke and Marcus; our 3 friends who are also 'coming home' for the summer holidays
- Piteå Havsbad - Another day at one of Sweden's most famous beaches - Whenever I say "I am from Piteå" people always respond with: "Ah, Pite Havsbad!"
- Norrstrands outdoor pool
- Boating, fishing and water sports
- Bowling!
- Birthday party #2 for Ethan - again, bring out yer party hats, yer whistles and yer pressies!

Say Cheese!

STOP TYPING! You're rocking the computer

Well we arrived safe and sound in Appleton, Wisconsin yesterday afternoon. It is about a 10 hour drive from Grand Forks and we did it in two legs. The first night we drove to Minneapolis and stayed at this cute hotel that had free pizza and wine! Can't go wrong with that! I decided to take a quick swim which I am regretting now though as I have a bit of a rash...must be from the over chlorinated pool. Ethan enjoyed his moving crib on wheels and the gals (Nini, Granny and Jules) enjoyed their beds in a separate room.

Earlier that morning though we woke up bright and early. Ethan and I started our day by painting the bathroom in the back of Nini's GF house (That's Grand Forks, North Dakota) and although we planned to hit the road early we didn't actually leave till about 2pm. Luckily we didn't go to Mall of America though as there was a jumper/accident. A guy fell from the 4th floor and plummeted to his death!

Today we are going to take Ethan to Lambeau Field - home of the infamous Green Bay Packers! I hear that there is a lifetime waiting list to get season tickets to the Packers.

Peter and I are having our Skype date and he is complaining that the computer is too shaky so I have been requested to stop typing which means my blog is over.

Ethan living it up in Canada - Part II

4 generations

Ethan on the MacBook

First love

Man-flu and overload on Italian grub

I am rarely sick but for the last few days I have been coughing like a seal and today I almost lost my voice. I kinda sounded like Stephen Hawking in most of my meetings at work, which someone kindly pointed out to me as well! I was planning on, and was looking forward to, meeting up with our Dublin-friend Jenny after work but once I got home I realized that that was just not going to happen. All this because of a severe case of the man-flu! Total bummer that I don't get to meet up with Jenny and instead, I will be spending the night coughing and moaning about nothing at all whilst feeling sorry for myself.

So, blessed with yet another chunk of spare time I started thinking about dinner options and instantly ruled out Italian. We had a business lunch at work today in an Italian restaurant and last night I went out for dinner with a colleague from work, also in an Italian restaurant. But then I started counting backwards and realized that I have actually had Italian food so many times it is almost verging on insanity! Earlier this week I had made a Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner at home from which, as I don't have another mouth to feed right now, l had enough leftovers for not only one but two lunchboxes to bring to work. Going back another couple of days to last week, as you know, I also had Italian not only one but two times last Wednesday. Grand total: 7 Italian meals in 7 days!

So to break this unfortunate but oh so tasty stride of Italian lunches and dinners, I am having a good old Chicken Tikka tonight and will be kicking back with one of my favorite episodes of How I met Your Mother; 'Slapsgiving' where Marshall is handing out the final slap to Barney after a 'Slap-bet' and finishes the show with a song that he wrote for Barney:

"Slapetizers, anyone?"

Ethan living it up in Canada

With his new buddy Dallas...and his new outfit.

With his new spoon...and his new outfit.

With his beautiful mommy...and his new outfit. See a pattern here?
Someone is getting spoilt!

Another recap of a bee-zay week

Let me give you an update on what has been up for this past week and a bit. Shaena and Ethan left for Canada on Friday morning for their epic mother-and-son journey. The same evening I was invited to Piers' house to help with with his computer and also for dinner and drinks. We definitely made a decent effort at sorting out his computer, but the delicious Thai-food and the wine from their wine club strong-armed us so in the end, the computer did not get sorted out and I had to go back there yesterday to finish the job.

On Saturday and Sunday I had homework to do to prepare for my course in London that was to take place on Sunday morning. So I did. I read through case study after case study and actually found some of them quite interesting after a while. The course on the Monday however, was super-interesting and the visiting professor from the University of North Carolina, Dr. Daniel Cable, was both witty, entertaining but most of all, thought provoking. He really knew how to keep the discussions and though process going for a whole day. In the end of the day he also gave us a signed copy of his book 'Change to Strange'. In the evening, our class went for a 'networking dinner' at an Italian restaurant. I never thought that you could get disappointed by Italian food, I have always seen pasta as a safe bet, but our Chicken Milanese was terrible. Tasted like fish and it seemed like it had been in the frying pan for the past 2 weeks.

On Wednesday it was back to work and we had a visitor from Sweden in the office so lots of meetings and discussions on how we do things, how we can do things better, how they work in the office over in Stockholm, process, workflow... you know, sexy conversations like that. Very interesting and very needed however. In the evening... wait for it... more wine and dine! Our visitor wanted to take us out for dinner so we had reserved a table at an Italian restaurant, yes lots of Italian food in one go, but I can't really complain as I organized the whole thing. Before knowing that we would get crap Italian in London, of course! :)

On Friday evening I was exhausted after the long days and nights of the past week and pretty much fell asleep standing as I walked through the front door after work. Slept all of Friday night away and woke up around 10-ish on Saturday morning, and off I went again! Piers obviously wanted to get the rest of his computer stuff sorted and after that we were to head out for the Scotland-Ireland rugby game at Malone's bar. We had a great night and a ton of our friends showed up, only downside is that I can only sit through so much sport before I: a) get really really bored, or b) pull my hair out and eat my hat.

On the agenda for today: Housework! As I have not had a chance to be home much this past week, I am really looking forward to some good ol' dusting, vacuuming and laundry.

A few snaps from last night, borrowed from Jen's camera:
(As this is a family blog, I opted to leave out any evidence of Nicky's 'knee-high-pink-and-gray-tartan-sock dance show' as it may severely scar young retinas)

To the place of "origin"

Well we've been here for a few days now and quiet and sickly as they may have been, it has been nice to be surrounded by family. Ethan and I arrived to Jessika collecting us from the airport and after I informed her of my brief breakdown in the Toronto airport to a helpless customer service agent, I was welcomed with open arms and a Timmy's Tea! BOOM!

It really is nice just to sit back and let everyone paw over Ethan. He is enjoying it more than I can describe and is full of giggles constantly. Tonight is St. Paddy's Day and a few friends and family are heading out on the town. We were going to go to Dylan's Pub but $15 cover is ridiculous so instead we're heading to a bar/grill I've never been to before but it has no cover and Karaoke!!! Bust it!

Grandma is with Ethan playing with his new toys she just bought him. Can we say spoilt?

Tower of London & Tower Bridge this fine afternoon

Prep for Sweden 101: How to recognize accents

This is how people from Piteå are likely to sound like:



...and this is what to expect from people further north around Haparanda:
(skip to 5.40)

Cheerios, Chinese food and Harvard case studies = Busy week!

Let’s recap. This week has been another one of those tornado-like fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants kind of weeks. So let’s start with Sunday, my birthday. Shaena took us out for brunch at our favorite breakfast restaurant around the corner, Indigo yard and we all took our good time; some of us were eating food and some of us were eating cookies with the entire face. Guess who. We have introduced Ethan to Cheerios and Rusks this week and he loves them! He can down Cheerios by the fistful and can savor the taste of a Rusk cookie for a food 15 minutes. Somehow he seems to think that it is funny to snack on those Cheerios, as when he gets a few of them, he’ll smile from ear to ear and you can really tell that he is thoroughly enjoying feeding himself.

Other than that, we have also finally ironed out dates for our trip up north in Sweden this summer and the research pro referenced in the entry below and I have spent hours trying to find the best deals and the best trip options. We have now booked our flights to Sweden, but still have to figure out what the best option is to get back, as the second session of the leadership program I am attending for work is to take place somewhere in Europe, not sure where yet, the day after our holidays are up.

Yesterday after work Maeghan dropped by to hang out and catch up after her fantastic trip to New Zealand and then Jen gave us a call and asked if she could pop by on her way home. ‘Of course you can!’ Jen also brought ‘Fun time Heather’ and their friend Claire. Since we are still overloaded with free wine from the housewarming party, some of us had a quick drinksy-poo and then as by magic we all had a simultaneous craving for ”Hellooo, Rice King!”. Fate had decided that we should treat ourselves to a Chinese feast, so we did. Completely ad-hoc and completely awesome!

Work has been manic for the last few weeks, sometimes enjoyable, sometimes just plain manic, but hey! That’s the way we roll in the fast-paced world of online business! On top of this I am heading down to London on Sunday to attend the first session of the same leadership program on Monday, so I really should be reading up on the Harvard case studies pre-course work that all participants have been tasked with reading. It’ll probably be my mission for Saturday to plow through all of that material and add my scribbles in the margins, like a real student. Will probably also uncork a bottle of wine while doing this, like a real student.

Shaena and Ethan are leaving for ‘the place of origin’ tomorrow morning so off to the airport we’ll go. Having said that, this is probably our queue to go to bed and catch a few winks.

I think someone should scout me out and hire me

I'd like to think that I am a helpful researcher when it comes to various items and I think my dream job would be to assist people in various searches while working from home. For example, a friend of mine here in Edinburgh was having visa issues and being that I have read front to back the loop holes there are, I was able to assist her in finding the best route to apply for hers.

I am trying to pack for our trip tomorrow to our "place of origin", I don't tend to call Winnipeg home anymore...not because it isn't, just because I feel like home is here with Peter in Edinburgh. Actually, home is anywhere my family is now.

Anyway, I am currently researching what you can and can't bring for babies while traveling internationally. It looks like the airports are really lenient on bringing food/formula/toys but funny enough, there have been times that we get to the airport for international flights and they ask us for proof of address, birth certificates, etc and I'm like "Whoa, that wasn't on the website or anywhere in the T&C's" but they can ask for it and I'm sure they can refuse boarding if you do not produce such documents. So anyway, now I am prepared for most journeys.

So my areas of expertise are travel, visas...oh and finding wicked deals to your destination of choice. I think the trick is to be patient and to search, search, search. So anyone needing assistance, my fee is minimal! Give me a shout and I'll help!

Today is a sad day in the world

You may remember our guest blog written about Granny in Ireland...well Granny has gone on to a better place. Although I only met her the once, she was a privilege and an honour and was everything that I was expecting after Orlaith's many tales about her. If I can be half the woman she was at the age she was when she passed (in her 90's!..ah hem 39) I will feel like I conquered the world.

Here's to you Granny!

Happy Birthday to Peter!

You know I think Peter and I would make a great con-team! We scored some birthday brownie when we were out for brunch today and the waitress didn't even ask to see his credentials! We should do that more often!!

Finally we've located our camera charger so we were a bit snap happy today (heck, who am I kidding...we're snap happy all the time!)