SKYNI

Actually, Jon was really good. He was very specific about what he wants. He was only interested in Star Wars Lego and nothing else.

Dear Linn

I know you really miss Singapore and you have been constantly telling me that you want to go back to the house in Singapore. It has not be easy for you but Mummy is really proud of your Swedish. Your teacher in school told me that the kids did not want to play with you initially because they coudn’t understand you. But now, they want to play with you because you can talk to them in Swedish.

It is very clear to be that you don’t like the cold and you rather wear your sundresses instead of these long sleeves t-shirts and long pants all the time. You don’t understand why it is so cold and you have to wear 3 layers of clothing everyday to school. Even mummy find it difficult with the -15 degrees temperature. Today, when your teacher told me that your skin is starting to react to the cold. I see your skin is turning red and starting to crack. I know it is really painful because mummy has the same problem too. But please bear with it Linn Linn. It will get better once we get used to this.

We are going to meet grandma and your two aunts in London next week. You will get to see your cousins Juwin and Ki-en. That may cheer you up. Hopefully.

Big Kiss and Hug,
Mummy

P.S. : By the way …I don’t really like Dora’s everyday outfit. Pink t-shirt with orange shorts is not a good combination. You should really try to avoid that.

Dear Jon

I know you are really into Lego and Star Wars toys these days but really, mummy cannot print money and cannot keep buying new toys for you all the time. You make it sound so simple when you say ‘Mummy, you have to buy it!”. It’s not like I have a money growing tree in our backyard you know.

It is nice to see you playing with the lego toys but really painful when I see that the ‘structure’ last only for 2 hours. Seriously, I really don’t think Mummy is capable of reconstructing the Harry Potter Lego and Star Wars structure that Papa bought for you just a few weeks ago.

Yes, I see the list of toys that you have prepared for Santa. And yes, I know you want that Red Robot which you remind me 10 times a day. Let’s see if Santa Claus is feeling generous this year.

I Love you so much,
Mummy

In case you are starting to think that we don’t like it here, here are some small good things about our new environment.

1. Fresh milk is really cheap. The kids drink 1.5 litres everyday and that cost about 10 Kroner (SGD $2).

2. Great supermarkets. I guess most people entertain and eat at home and so their supermarkets are mega with fantastic produce and great prices too.

3. The insects have no chance to survive in this harsh climate. I haven’t seen an ant for more than 3 months.

4. People here are friendly. They are generally polite and willing to help out.

5. They are forgiving. Jonathan can be clumsy at times and he sometimes bump into other people. They do not ‘tsk’ at him as much.

6. School is free here and the children like their childcare. They go to forests, learn about nature, theaters and are out in the playground rain, snow or shine most of the time.

7. Despite the cold environment, the four seasons are very different and beautiful in their own way.

8. Ice water on tap!

9. I like how the Swedes show respect for different cultures. They will organise an interpreter if you go for a meeting and cannot speak swedish. Even though they can speak in English.

10. H&M

Do you remember the old TV comedy ‘Mind Your Language’? This is exactly how my swedish class is like. My classmates are from Iraq, Tunisia, Turkey, Poland, India, Kenya, Peru, Romania and China.

The classes are conducted every weekday morning between 8.30 am to 12 pm. During these 3.5 hours, the instructor only speaks Swedish and try to teach the students basic swedish grammar, vocabulary and how to pronounce Swedish words accurately. Ultimately, we need to pass the tests and get a certificate to show that we can speak Swedish somehow. Without this certificate, it will be almost impossible to find a local job here. So I have been told.

It is definitely not a piece of cake. Maybe it is my age but they could at least make the class more interesting. The teacher is very critical and maybe she herself has forgotten what it is like to learn Swedish when she first arrived from Russia. The grammar, the pronounciation and melodic way of speaking is not easy. Maybe it will be less complicated if they don’t have those 3 extra alphabets – å,ö,ä

My classmates are nice but we hardly spoke because not all understand English. We are still struggling to find the words in Swedish and the questions are limited. Whilst i struggle with it, Linn seemed to find it really easy and her teachers in school told me that she is picking it up really quickly.

But I can tell you this..although my Swedish is far from perfect, my mandarin is improving. Most of the time, I speak to my classmates from China. I have never spoken so much Chinese before. Thanks to my classmates from China.

Not the best topic for the moment but definitely a must. After the snow storm last Tuesday, everything has been a little wet. Currently it is just raining and very icy on the roads. There are ‘slushies’ everywhere and they are not a pleasant sight. It is much nicer when things are all white and clean.

It is getting dark at 3 pm now and my day seems to be even shorter specially when i come home from Swedish class around 1 pm. That leaves me with a couple of hours to sort out the house, check my emails, facebook and cook dinner before picking up the kids from daycare. I can understand why the suicidal rate is quite high in Sweden. The darkness itself is quite a killer. Nicke’s colleague told me that there are places in Sweden to get some ‘light’ therapy. It seems like people use it to lift their spirits. Now to think of it, does he think I am suicidal?

I miss the days when I can just get the kids in the car and just drive off. These days, i need half an hour to dress the kids and in the meantime, i warm up the car, try to melt the ice on the front and back, brush off the snow and then watch the kids try to get into the car with their ‘heavy padding’. (It is a little like watching teletubbies getting into the car).

Nichlas says that it will take time to get used to it. Sure, i can see my poor skin getting used to the harsh conditions. I cannot even buy winter jackets from Venice as they are consider autumn jackets here and not warm enough for Sweden. That’s how cold it is.

Imagine this….your teacher calls in sick and that you think you can find some time to visit the Ikea store 15 km away from your home to buy the curtains in your bedroom before the neighbours complain about your husband’s nudity.

You happily invite your classmate with you to the Ikea store. On the way out of Ikea, you realised that whilst you are inside the warm comfortable store, there is a serious snow storm brewing outside. You start driving the car and realised that something is seriously wrong. The brakes are not working well and the vibration feels weird. The sign on the dash board tells you that the roads are extremely slippery. You do not want to alarm your classmate and so you drive on 3rd gear really slowly but you can barely stop the car at the traffic light even jamming the brakes. You can only hope for the best as you drive slowly causing a serious traffic jam. You do not want to crash. It suddenly occurred to you that this car that Audi lent whilst they are servicing your car, is not with winter tyres! You have never experienced anything like this and you are seriously scared.

You crawled slowly on the highway (E18). Your only thought is that how can you get your classmate home safely in this freak snowstorm. The roads conditions on the highway are slightly better and just when you think that things will be ok, the car refused to move up a slope about 1 km towards her home. You are now in a residential area with less cars and the snow is now thicker on the ground. The car kept turning around, slipping and sliding in all directions. You are about to shout and wish you are back in Singapore and that is when you panic and called your husband for help! After trying for almost 15 minutes, a kind (and rather good looking) man stopped and offered to help. But he apologised and said that it does not look good. Another man offered to help…and this time, he asked other people to help push the car up the slope and he even trailed behind your car to ensure that everything is ok.

Your husband called Audi to complain, told them to bring the winter tyres and it is definitely not possible to drive in these conditions. They responded that they need to ‘order’ the winter tyres for a new car!!! But they will come immediately with another replacement car with winter tyres. They came quite quickly with an A6 and you very happily drove home safely and got your kids from the daycare.

Quite an experience, and that is why I am sitting in my warm kitchen drinking a nice cloudy bay to celebrate that I got through this safe and sound! But I can tell you…it is really really really scary and definitely not nice!

Ok…it has been more than 3 months being away from Singapore. So here is my top 10 list of what I am missing so far. (not in any special order).

1. Of course my family…my mom, my sisters and my mom’s cooking.

2. My friends …i haven’t had the time to make new friends because the housework, the swedish classes and the kids are taking up all the time. I hardly have any time for myself.

3. Kopi in the morning. I have seriously downgraded to instant coffee. (nescafe sort). The swedish coffee is too strong for me.

4. Chai Tow Kway, Char Kway Teow, Laksa and Yong Tow Foo.

5. Cheap Taxi Rides (you can never think about getting a taxi here and not expect to pay less than $100…unless you are seriously drunk).

6. The convenient laid back NTUC supermarkets (specially the one is Hougang festival market). The supermarkets are great here…even better than those in Singapore. But the feeling is not the same. Everyone is so dressed up and upmarket here even going to the supermarket.

7. My chinese desserts…i want my cheng tng!!!!!

8. Ok lah. my domestic helper Joy. I must give her credit. Keeping up to my ‘Monica’ standard is not easy but she did well. I just cannot stand mess. Maybe that is why I am so tired cleaning up after my 3 kids.

9. My chinese drama. We have good cable here… in fact we have 33 channels at our fingertips. But none beats my Channel 8 local drama and of course my Chinese Channel on cable.

10. I miss my Singlish lah! I am so blur with my swedish and i fear that I may start Swenglish.

11. Yes, I exceeded 10. i am on the row here. I am not sure if i like the cold. I haven’t seen my arms in 3 months. Its totally dark here at 4 pm and taking time to dress up the kids is no fun. Today, i had to buy another pair of gloves for Jon just because i forgot to wear one for him. It’s not like i can tell him to ‘tahan’.

12. Service…service…service. Your roof needs to be repaired. But the repair guy says that you need to wait for 3 months as he is fully booked. Ditto for every household repair service. I am seriously thinking of taking up a ‘home improvement’ course.

13. A ‘Galang Kuni’ man. Seriously, this country takes recycling to the extreme. You have to think twice about buying something big and new because you need to think about how to dispose the old one. For example, how can i dispose my queen size mattress?

Otherwise, things are ok. and we are having some fun. The kids love their new house although Linn wants to go back to Singapore.

The kids had a Halloween party in their school last Wednesday. It was really nice as it was Jonathan’s birthday as well and his class had a mini disco. Jonathan was dressed in his Transformers outfit and he was so proud of it.

Linn, on the other hand, was ashamed of her outfit and wanted to dress like a princess, just like all her girl classmates. It’s funny that when you are a kid, you want to dress like everyone else and when you get older, you want to stand out.

She was really not so happy in her outfit but we loved it.

Our boy celebrated his birthday recently and we had a mini party at our new home. Jonathan was really happy and was very appreciative of his presents.

I can’t believe he is already 5! He is so innocent and sweet, always seeking our approval and confirmation that he is ‘a good boy’.

If only you know that we love you so much Jonathan and you are our great little boy! We are so proud of you.

Nicke and I went on a mid week break to Venice last week. I have always wanted to visit the city before it sinks. It was nice and sunny and we had a really wonderful 3 days trip, just pure indulgence on food, wine, cheese, gelato, cafe and simply beautiful architecture. We didn’t bring the kids as they would be complaining about the walks and Venice is definitely not a child friendly area. Thanks to my wonderful mother in law who helped us looked after the 2 precious during our short break!

The food was not as great as we hoped it would be. It was ok as we tried our best to avoid the Tourist Menu. My other complaint is that the city is really too touristy.

Didn’t do much shopping. My dear husband deliberately avoided Miu Miu and steered me to United Colours of Benetton instead. Would have seriously damaged his wallet.

We had a really great time.

If the Terrible Twos are not enough, the Terrifying Threes can really drive you utterly, completely insane.

Linn not only defies all rules and instructions, she also doesn’t seem to care about the consequences. When she is told that she need to put on more clothes to keep warm, her answer is that she wants to be cold.

When I lose my patience and started shouting at her, she told me that ‘I cannot hear you’. She then tells me sweetly that she doesn’t like to be shouted at. If I want to talk to her, I will need to speak to her softly and slowly. Giving her a good spanking will be out of the question in Sweden.

I must say that she has adopted a very good selective hearing technique at her age. Now, I wonder where did she get that from

I ‘wrote’ too soon. It started snowing last night. The kids are really pleased!

Some pictures of our new home. We didn’t have much time to do any renovation or even paint the walls. Plus it is really difficult with kids running around. I guess we will do it next summer.

I must say that the autumn colours are just breathtaking! Even the kids find it very interesting

It is alittle difficult to set the new routines as it really depends on the weather sometimes. The autumn weather is unpredictable. The temperature drops below 0 degrees at night. You can wake up to a nice bright sunny day but it is freezing outside. The breeze can also be very very chilling. Some days, it can just be raining all day and making it really frosty outside.

Try dressing the kids in 3 layers of clothes (long sleeve t-shirt, jeans, indoor jacket and outdoor jackets), not forgetting gloves, winter cap and boots, and then get them out to walk across 3 football fields at 8 am every morning. All i can say is that, the cold walks definitely wake me up.

I walk to my Swedish class in the late morning and that takes me about 30-40 minutes. The classes which take up the entire afternoon have been quite interesting so far. More about that later.

And then i pick up the kids on the way home from school. The kids don’t seem to mind the cold so much and they are doing ok at school. The thing that amazes me is that despite the cold, they are mostly outdoors in the playground!!! The temperature seldom rises above 10 degrees during the day time.

But here’s a picture of them taken by the school.

We come home, have dinner, have some family time and then put the kids to bed at 8 pm.

Maybe we will have to change the logistics when the weather becomes colder. I don’t think we will be able to walk across 3 football fields twice everyday. On really bad weather days, we have to rely on Nicke to drop and pick them up from school.

‘Hopefully, Not for a long long time!’ That will be my answer if anyone asks me if i would like to move again. It was a really tiring experience.

We were fortunate that my mother in law was here to help us. Neither Nicke and I have set up a home in Sweden before and it is definitely very different from Singapore.

Everything went pretty well except that we cannot move our double bed upstairs. It is either tearing down the stairs or sawing our double bed into 2. We had no choice but to get rid of the bed. I was told that Swedes usually buy 2 single beds and put it together as they will not be able to carry a double bed upstairs. It’s not so simple as the mattress sizes are very different from Singapore. Even pillow sizes too,

Prior to this move to Sweden, I have never been to Ikea. and I have been there thrice in the past three weeks! I don’t think i can apply for a job in Ikea. I can barely put a table together!

Well, at least the kids are happy. They really enjoy going up and down the stairs and watching the fireplace. I think they are happy to see their toys and bed finally. I, however, am not too thrilled about picking up the apples that keeps falling from the apple tree. We don’t have a blender and too many apple pies can make you very fat!!! I am considering putting a sign that says ‘Feel free to help yourself to the apples’.

To Nicke’s dismay, we have some technical trouble. Our internet is not working very well and our home laptop broke down. I haven’t been able to respond to emails and check facebook regularly.

On top of the hectic move, I have started my swedish classes!

Hur mor du?

We have been really busy with the move but after more than 10 days of trying to set up the new house, we can now say that we are finally settled in.

The only thing is that our internet access is very unpredictable due to the infrastructure. Hence this very very short post.

I was reading the article in Marie Claire and started to think about what I would tell my teenage self. I guess these will be my top few…The entire list will put you to sleep…:)

1. It will be more interesting to take time to discover more about yourself, build your own individual style than to follow others blindly.

2. Enjoy frivolous romances but that is not love. Adult relationship is alot more complicated, intense and definitely not ‘happily ever after’.

3. Your life is not determined by the A’levels. Some of the more interesting people you will meet may not have a degree. In fact, no one (ok..maybe your first employer) will ever ask you about your education!

4. You will not always get what you want in life.Whatever doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.

5. Your parents and sisters will mean alot to you in time to come.

So what’s yours?

I must say that i really miss one of my favourite festival .. was really craving for mooncakes this week!

I tried to find one in the Asian supermarket and the only one i found is a DURIAN mooncake!

Sorry…i don’t miss that disgusting fruit at all!!!