SKYNI

Jon is 16 today. How time flies. I still remember on this day 16 years ago when I held Jon in my arms in the hospital. Now, he is strong enough to lift me.

My dearest son, I wish you every happiness and joy. We are proud of your every achievements as they do not come easy. We love you so much.

May all your dreams come true my darling son. Happy birthday.

Linn likes art and design. She has been doing quite a bit of painting, spraying and digital art lately.

Here we have photos of our visits around sweden during summer.

Well, we were hoping to go back to Singapore but due to many covid restrictions, we have to make do with more swecations.

The kids spent most of the summer at home and we went out to the archipelago occasionally. It is one of the best summer as we had sunshine everyday in June and July. This was horrible for the plants as they could not grow. But great for lazy lawn mowers like myself as this means less attention to the garden.

Summer time is also great when Nicke does more BBQs at home and he is a great cook. We were spoilt rotten with his delicious wagyu beef burgers and great cuts.

It was certainly a good sunny summer.

You are 14 today and my, you have grown to be quite different from what you were 10 years ago. No longer the sweet, cute, sociable, funny little girl you were then, but the serious, anti social, grumpy teenager you are today.

My wish for your birthday is for you to seek happiness and make all your dreams come true. May you find the inner strength and motivation to pursue your goals. All it takes is effort.

Love you to the moon and back.

The Walls continue to invade the swedish archipelago during summer 2021 as we still cannot travel overseas.

It is not doubt that it has been quite a year. Enough has been said about the pain, sadness, difficulties and restrictions caused by the virus, but what is most important is that we all adapted our lifestyle and environment with the ultimate goal to protect one another and to be safe. I learnt so much about myself and am indeed humbled by this experience.

I am truly grateful for my family both near and far for being strong and for their care and love. Although we could not be physically together in 2020, I felt closer to family and friends closer than ever. That is simply amazing.

As we close 2020, let us remember the lessons, joys and experiences that will shape our hearts and minds for 2021.

A safe, Happy New Year to our family and friends.

My favourite bloom for Christmas.

May you reach your best potential. May you fulfil your dreams and hopes. May you always be happy and contented, May you feel the love of those around you. May you keep dancing like no one is watching. May all your wishes come true.

Marking the end of gardening season?

Linn turned 13 just a few days ago. I blamed my old age for not doing her birthday post. I forgot.

We were at Farmor’s to celebrate this special day as it was better for us to go to her. The weather was great and the new teenager received lots of techno gadgets that she wanted.

At 13, Linn is really techno savvy and even more than I am today. For her birthday, I wish for her happiness, fulfillment and joy at home, family, school and with her friends.

In our eyes, She will always be our baby princess Linn. We love you.

This midsummer is really different from any other year with Covid19. No dancing around the pole as large gatherings are not allowed.

We however had a great lunch at farmor’s with the traditional midsummer food such as sill, new potatoes, smoked salmon and eggs with caviar.

It is a beautiful summer day and we have no rain which is unusual. Nicke and kids could not resist taking a swim in the lake. I will not as the water is really cold. I remembered trying it out on my first visit to Sweden and I will always remind myself not to do it again.

As our plans to visit Singapore was aborted due to covid19, it looks like it will be a simple summer just spending time at home, taking it easy.

You will find me busy working in the garden … catching up with the sun.

Have a great summer!

Since the last post, we have been staying alot at home with the Covid19 Pandemic. We work from home since mid March and Linn has digital schooling at home.

The biggest challenge is to not get on each others’ nerves since we are physically under one roof. As a true introvert, I must say I don’t feel the huge difference in my lifestyle. (Thanks to Netflix and my own laziness.) However, I admit that it is a good time for the children to be a little more considerate.

Although covid19 is rather disruptive to our daily lives, it is also a time for reflection, time to prioritise behaviour, activities and make new decisions.

Let’s all learn from this very unique experience together. Hopefully, we are come out of it much stronger.

Stay safe and take care.

Wishing everyone a wonderful chinese new year. Really missing my family in Singapore.

What a beautiful sunset we have today to celebrate the start of the new decade.

We wish you all a wonderful new year.

Jonathan has been collecting figurines for the past few years. He alternates between Lego and Predator figurines and now his latest is the funko pop collection.

I have no love for horror movies but he loves to collect the villains from the classic horror movies of which many of the villains I cannot even name. So it is really ironic that he proudly shows them to me, telling me their names, their special weapons, tools and knives. Not forgetting the hours he and I spent looking for these weapons when he looses them and amount of glue he has used to stick the broken weapons back together.

This is where he invest all his pocket money. Growing up, I did not have many toys, and not even a Barbie doll. I must admit that I find it hard to appreciate the collection. I can only hope that the toys build his imagination in a good way.

It will soon be 2020, the turn of a new decade. This also marks our 10th year in Stockholm. Yes, come July 2020, we have been away for 10 years.

Whilst the intention to start this blog is to keep in touch with our love ones back in Singapore, I must say that I have not been maintaining it very well. My posts are very random and to be honest, the blog has never been my priority. Through the course of the 10 years, life has indeed taken over everything. With a full time job, countless chores at home for Nicke and myself, the blog is least on my mind and so badly neglected.

I don’t understand why i don’t maintain it as when I do work on it, I really enjoy posting our thoughts and pictures. We experienced so much in the past 10 years, been to so many places we never dreamed of, our lives have been filled with so much laughter, joy, as well as fear and tears. I am grateful for the comments from my dearest family and Fab 8 friends who still read the blog whenever there are new posts and leave wonderful words of encouragement. Thank you so much. I am grateful for your kindness. I have been writing this blog for ourselves and not expecting readers.

In the recent years, I started to think of the blog as our own personal journal of our lives in Stockholm. I am shy on Facebook and Instagram and so this will be ‘MyBook’ or ‘Minstagram’. I want the blog to record the children’s growth and serve as a reminder of our lives in Stockholm…the good, the bad, the trials and challenges. I must work hard to maintain the records as many years from now, we can look back fondly (or maybe not so fondly) of the way we were.

So my dear blog, I hope i will do a better job in 20s. I will post like no one is reading.

Wish me luck.

I just love them.