SKYNI

Have been focusing on the kids for the past 3 days, making sure that they have their meals, go to the washroom, have decent showers and cleaning the service apartment.

Yes, the definition of service apartment is different in Sweden. Service Apartment does not come with any housekeeping service. ‘Guests’ must do their own cleaning and laundry. The only service is that they provide you with cable, water and heat.

The weather has not been too good and it has been rainy most of the past few days. Only managed to bring the kids to the playground yesterday morning.

I must say that it will take a while for me to get used to this. Right now, i am trying to stay zen from the kids’ shouting, screaming and jumping around the furniture. I pity the other guests in the building.

Can I be naughty and leave them in their naughty corner all day?

Recently, Linn and I have been doing ‘role playing’ and she likes to be ‘mummy’ and wants me to be ‘baby’.

Today when she was playing on the laptop, I approached her and asked her ‘what she is doing?’, her immediate response was ‘I’m working’. I asked if she would like to come play with me and she said ‘Later’. When I asked her to come play with me again, she pointed to some toys and asked me to ‘go play first’.

I must have said it so many times that she is acting out my natural response. This definitely does not feel good.

This is Alva. Linn’s 6 year old cousin and new found best friend.

She is quite happy to be playing with her cousins Ava and Dante but she occasionally asks us about her friends in Singapore and Anan.

I didn’t think it matters so much to her until today, when she shared a ride with some young girls, she asked us if they can be her new friends.

Looks like we better step up and enrol her in a new school soon.

We have been spending quite a bit on rain gear. The rainy season is about to come and we have to equip the kids with proper rain gear and shoes. Apparently, umbrellas are quite ‘uncommon’ and people invest in proper rain gear here.

It is easy for the kids as they have cute stuff and we found some wellingtons that are fun and colourful.

But i must say that i have difficulty finding anything for myself. After spending quite a bit of time in the sports shops (a rather unusual place for me), i still cannot find anything that i approve or think it is ‘nice’ for the price.

Of course the issue is that while the kids are properly dressed for the wet weather, their mother will be soaking wet just because she finds rain gear ‘not quite her style’.

I guess I can always introduce the ‘umbrella’ to Sweden. 🙂

We went around looking for schools for the kids yesterday. We were talking to a school principal and when she heard that we moved around the world, leaving behind a very comfortable job, 365 days of warm weather, wonderful family and great friends to be here, she said it is ‘remarkable’. I had to move away quickly before she could see the tears in my eyes.

Maybe she thinks we are insane. It has not been an easy decision…i must say. To give up everything and start afresh. After 20 years in the corporate world, it is not easy to say that I am just me, and not with a tag behind such as ‘Szeto from XXX’.

Hmm….I wonder who I will become.

I can’t believe it myself. We are finally here in Sweden.

Jon’s first reaction …. where is the snow? We have forgotten that the kids are always here in winter and they have not seen much of Sweden during summer time. It is not easy explaining to them about the four seasons and they will have to wait for the snow to come in December.

The temporary accomodation is basic and simple. We drove off immediately to Grandma’s house in the countryside. It will take a while to adjust.

Today…we will test the efficiency of the Swedish government with the administration process.

Apologies for the silence. Have been too busy with the packing, farewell parties, get-togethers and handover of the apartment and workstuff etc.

We are finally leaving tonight. It has been hard and sad…saying goodbye to so many dear friends. Today, at Jon’s school, I was in tears. The kids don’t really understand it and they are taking it very well. No tears but just smiles. But I really feel it. I am wondering if I am getting cold feet.

Well, there is no turning back now. So we will see you in Sweden.

12 days more before we leave for Sweden. I have been continuously preparing the kids telling them that they will have to say goodbye to their good friends. Today, Linn said that she wants to bring her best friend, Anan with her and also Wang Lao Shi.

I tried to explain that she will be meeting lots of new friends. Her new friends will be speaking swedish and she will have to learn to speak Swedish so that she can talk to them. She cracks me up by responding..

“I cannot speak Swedish like Papa. I can only speak English and Chinese you know”.

It has been one hectic weekend and Nicke and I tried to cramp too many things in. We started with doing some shopping for household items – such as humidifiers (which we never thought we will buy) and a new lap top but my CTO just didn’t see anything he approved. I really like the look of the Mac but i can’t imagine not getting continuous 24/7 troubleshooting support. (My CTO confessed that he is not a Mac expert).

We also bought a really large suitcase since we will be living in a service apartment for at least the first 2 months.

We attended a few farewell dos, met up with friends all weekend. And even tried to sell our Mazda 5.

Somehow, the farewell parties are rather difficult. We have made some really good friends over the years and it is really hard to say goodbye. I actually hate goodbyes and the more I focus on it, the more emotional I get. So maybe, it is better to trick my heart by not thinking about it.

and to end it off, one really long tiring, frustrating end to the World Cup. Don’t get me wrong, I am really happy for the well-deserved winning team. But it was a really boring and irritating game to watch. Shouldn’t have bothered waking up to watch it.

and which explains why i am tired and extremely sleepy as i write this.

I love this picture of Jonathan that was taken by my cousin Waye on the Twin’s Birthday party. It shows me how Jonathan has grown in the past few months. His features have changed slightly and he looks less ‘babyish’.

Here he is still holding on to his Ironman after a great time in the swimming pool.

As I was was packing up, I found an interesting brochure about Swedish Kids. Here is an abstract. Itr’s great for Non-swedes.

I like the daycare and recreation centre. I made a note to find out more about the recreation centre.

It is also interesting to see riding (girls) is a popular sport.

It has been a really sick weekend. I can’t recall when i was this sick. Not being able to taste, smell and sleep for almost one week, it is really starting to hit my spirits.

On Saturday, I scratched the car as I was driving out of McDonald’s carpark. Really badly. But I couldn’t concentrate with kids screaming, a blocked nose and an infection that has affected my nerves.

And at the airport, Jon had an accident on the trolley and bruised his lips. Really badly!

And Jon’s and Linn’s first sleepover party at my sister’s place didn’t work too well. They just can’t sleep. I have to bring the screaming and sobbing kids home at 11.30 pm ( yes, in the middle of the Germany vs Argentina game).

I guess Saturday was really not my day!

The only relief was Nicke’s returned and it was good to have him home. Finally.

Maybe it’s the five days of heavy drugs and misery that makes me really short tempered but I am furious that Ironman is gone.

I asked Jonathan when I noticed that Ironman is missing…”Where is Ironman?”

Jonathan replied after a lot of pushing ” He has gone out the window”.

“Why did you throw him out the window?” I asked controlling my temper

Jonathan innocently said “He needs to go home”..”to get some energy”.

This is the second time he ‘lost’ the Ironman and I don’t think this time, there will be a replacement.

I wonder if I should be more worried if someone downstairs was hit by Ironman or my son’s wierd sense of humour.

After a very tiring evening with the kids, i am really looking forward to having my own R&R. But Linn will not let me get away with it and made me read Goldilocks and Three Bears thrice and The Goats and The Wolf twice in both English and Mandarin. She ignored me when I tried to tell her that I was tired. As I put her to bed, I tried to talk to her to test her understanding skills

I told her to reflect on the night at Ikea, her running around the store away from me and what if I cannot find her or cannot catch up with her. She will be lost and I will have to report to the police. She will be scared if she cannot find me and will panic. So, she should really hold on to my hand at the supermarkets and stores so that I will never loose her.

I asked her if she understood what I was saying. She kept very quiet and I can see tears in her eyes. Thinking that I must have frightened her, I asked her what’s wrong. She said that she will go to the toilet to look for me.

Ok, i conclude, there is no logic to this..and why would I hide in the toilet?

I guess it’s time to take action now. No more lazing around thinking that we still got lots of time to settle the move. This month we need to settle the following

* Termination of Electric Supply

* Termination of Phone

* Termination of Cable TV Supply

* Sell the car..Terminate the Car loan

* Book One-way Air tickets

* Seriously start packing.

* Fix up the furniture and house

* Change all addresses

Just looking at the list makes me tired. And I specially hate the last one. Because there is no ‘new’ address that i can redirect our mail to. Can I just put..’Addressless’ or ‘Address Unknown’. Nicke and I decided to put my Mom’s address as a temporary solution but it’s a pain when you know that you have the ‘redo’ it again once we find a new home….ie if we find our new home. (yes, i am thinking it is almost impossible now)

Better stop complaining and get down to work.

But then again, i still need most of the above so maybe this can wait for another few weeks 🙂

I must have contributed hundreds and hundreds of impresssions to this Hemnet.se and frankly, I am rather tired surfing for houses online.

A few months ago, i swear that there were nicer houses for sale. Is it because house sellers are taking a break during summer? Whatever it is, the houses we came across are not good in design and requires a lot of work. Seriously, some of the houses are so ‘ugly’ that i got a headache just looking at them. With our limited budget and our very demanding criteria, we are very very challenged. It is either the location, or the house, or the price that is not good.

To be honest, I am kind of discouraged after looking at hemnet for so long. And that is just online…

I won’t be surprised that a pop-up will just appear online the next time I go on hemnet saying …’For heaven’s sake, just buy something’!

As the days move closer to our move to Sweden, I only get the usual questions like

‘Have you started packing’?

‘Do the kids know that they are moving?’

‘When is your last day in the office?’

‘How is Nicke and does he like it there?’

Once, I got the ‘Why are you still here in the office?’ since Nicke has already gone to Sweden.

But the amazing thing is that.. I also realised that quite a few people do not know that we are together. Nicke and I work in the same marketing department and he sat in the next row in the office for the past 2 years. Which makes me wonder if I have been hiding our relationship too well. Some people only just found out recently as they query why I should be included in Nicke’s farewell outings. Today, in the lift, as I was telling a colleague from the same department, that I have been busy planning the move to Sweden. She mentioned that i can ‘hook up with Nicke when I am there’.

I guess I should take consolation that no-one talks about us in the office.

For some strange reasons, I can’t sleep last night. I tossed and turned from 1 to 5 pm and I was really frustrated.

If Nicke is here, he will tell me to get a sleeping pill. The problem is that the pill also makes you half asleep the next day. I can’t go around half awake.

So what’s keeping me wide awake? Am i thinking too much about the house that we are going to buy, renovating our dream house, our lives in the next 3 months, the packing required, how i should pack for the kids and how i hate living out of suitcases. Honestly, my mind was racing.

In such desperate times, I think of the favourite fantasy that Nicke and i share, and a sure way to fall asleep ….and that is ‘What if we win SGD2 million in the Toto?’

I think i should do something about my nose congestion as it could be the cause of my inability to sleep.

Here’s a picture of Jon’s and Linn’s cousins in Singapore. We have Ki-en and Juwin holding on to the twins, Evan and Kyle

We will definitely miss them when we move to Sweden. The thing I will miss most is watching them grow. I have seen how Juwin has grown in the last 12 years and it is interesting to get to know him as a teenager and not just a kid anymore.

I caught a really bad cold as a result of getting drenched in the rain on Friday. I haven’t been able to taste anything for the past 2 days and Nichlas would have said that i have ‘snot’ paper everywhere. But does that mean my 2 kids will let me just lie in bed and feel sorry for myself? The answer is obvious.

We went to a Birthday Party at the Zoo on Saturday to celebrate Janelle’s and Jerrisa’s birthday. It was fun except that i had to park like 2 km from the car park. (The usual car park was full). The kids had a great time with the carousel ride, magic show, KFC food, and cake. Linn and Jon were happy with their goodie present (Mr Potato Head for Linn and Buzz Lightyear for Jon).

I found out a few new things about my kids. Linn knows how to play ‘Musical Chairs’ and Jonathan is getting better at parties. But still, he likes to take refuge in his ‘throne’. So it was not surprising when Jonathan said that he wanted to do ‘No 2’ during the birthday party. At the toilet, I kept asking him the usual ‘Are you done yet?’ as I know he was doing this to avoid going back to the party. I had to tell him that we are going home to get ice cream in order for him to get out of toilet.

I brought Linn to my ‘soiree’ party organised by my colleagues. They can now understand why i look exhausted every Monday morning. One told me that she needs to lie down just by watching her in action after one hour.

Sunday was another fun-filled day of swimming class in the pouring rain, shopping in the afternoon, and then po-piah dinner at the Queks.

I wonder what kind of weekends we will have in Sweden. Definitely not a quiet one with my 3 kids.