So It's 2013 Eh?

Well I honestly can't believe that we are already into a new year, I mean seriously how quickly did 2012 go by? for me at least it seemed to go flying by or at least the last part did.

Well I say the last part but really I mean from May onwards.

And this year?

Well it's turning out to be a pretty good year or at least it's started out so. Not only that I honestly think this year is going to be my year, I was actually talking the other week to one of the summer workers who had been pulled in over the Christmas period and out of the blue he turned around and said "You know what Ben, this year coming is going to be your year", and hey why not?

I actually sat the other day and looked at my old New Years post that you can find HERE and had a look through all my New Years resolutions that i had last year and I think for the most part I actually did pretty damn good on them, I mean I got myself a job.. Well Marie actually got me the job or at least got my foot in the door which I will be forever grateful to her for and as for the rest?
Well I failed on a few things but they weren't anything that I would consider hugely important.
But the things I really wanted to accomplish I did, I feel that my relationship with the boys although still could use improvement is getting a lot better and with my daughter? Well that's still failing but at the same time she does not make it at all that easy for me, but she's a teenager so what are you to expect.

But for the most part I think I managed to accomplish quite a lot last year and I feel the year ended on a high.

So what's this years resolution or resolutions well none really, apart from getting my drivers license, and as long as I get that then I'm pretty sure that everything else will fall into place.

But that's it for the now I think, I'm going to make a conscious effort this year to blog a lot more since I noticed that last year at least since I started working I had dropped off a bit, and it's not like I don't want to or that I don't have stuff that's happening that I could blog about it mainly due to the time It takes. I mean who wants to read a blog post that was thrown together in 5 minutes and no effort has been put into it? I know I certainly wouldn't.
But who knows from Monday I'm heading up to where they perform the operations to clean up there for 5 weeks which is going to be exciting although I'm not looking forward to the hours (09:30-17:15) which is a lot different to my normal (07:00-16:00). This also means that I won't be able to take the bus into and home with Marie but oh well got to think of the money and I think it's going to be a lot of fun to try out something new.
Although not working with my normal group of people is going to be a bit of a bummer, but then I get to work with new people which will be awesome.
So as you can see its kind of a 50/50 thing, on one side I'm really happy and on the other I'm not but I'm sure things will work out.

But for now I'm going to head off, so take care everyone and hope your year works out for you guys too!

Stuff Kids Come Out With...

So I found it rather amusing the other week, we had shouted to the boys that it was time to get ready for bed and that they should go and brush their teeth.

Alexander on the bus on the way to town the other week.

So like good little boys off they went and did so, now normally the routine is go rush teeth, come say good night to me and then head off to bed. But out of the blue Alexander decides to come through to the living room where myself and Marie say and out of know here says:

"So really, when am I going to get my own computer?"

At first it took me a good few minutes to digest what was being said to me, mainly because I didn't quite understand where the hell it had come from, I mean I had sent him to brush his teeth but obviously in the process of doing so he had decided to think about when he would get his own computer.

My only reply was:

"Well not now at least, you need to grow a little bit more before ill get you your own computer"

I don't think it was quite the response he was looking for and is still trying everything in his power to obtain his own computer.

He has even gone as far as putting it on the list of things he would like to buy me and his mum for Christmas.
I think this is more an attempt of well if try but each other a computer from us then perhaps we can have their old ones.

Safe to say this is not going to happen, I mean where the hell am I going to get the money to buy Marie a computer that is awesome enough to do everything she wants it to do lol. Plus the fact we have decided to buy a new TV after Christmas instead of buying gifts for each other so yea.
It was a nice idea of his but its not going to work lol.

And then yesterday was probably the best ever!

Alexander had came down and asked Marie:

Alex: "Can you put a film on upstairs?" to which Marie's reply was:

Marie: "No, go and play like normal children, you don't need to play computer games or sit and watch movies all the time" and then he comes out with...

Alex: "Do we have to play???" He then comes into the livingroom and informs his brother that they HAD to go upstairs and play .... which was rather disappointing by the sound of his voice.

But it doesn't stop there, oh no! they go upstairs and then after a short while we hear:

"Max, if you don't stop talking in English, then i'm not playing anymore!!"

I mean although my children can understand English and when they ask me what words are in English can copy exactly what i have said, they cannot actually speak the language on their own accord, so for him to come out with this so randomly was hysterical to me.

I just found it funny that he randomly came out with it. Honestly the things kids come out with really crack me up at times, especially when it's in Swedish.

She's Gone Christmas Mad....

Ok so finally after 6 years being together myself and Marie have found ourselves weeks before Christmas being completely finished with everything except for the Christmas food.

And for some strange reason because of this Marie has turned into some sort of Christmas crazy person, I mean seriously for like the last month I have been getting a run down to Christmas like everyday.
She's worse than the kids.

But i have to admit that it's a really great feeling that for once we don't have to do the mad rush down the shopping centre on payday to go and buy everything that we can possibly afford this year. We are able to just sit back, relax and enjoy the time off that we both have, and be able to just enjoy the kids as well without having to stress about anything. So i'm guessing this is probably the reason why she has been going Christmas Nuts as well.

I got to admit though that since i have been working and earning money that I have found myself a little bit more happy at the thought of this Christmas since for once we have been able to shop everything and get the kids exactly what we want to get them without thinking about the cost. But Marie is just totally mad about it lol.

I honestly think she's more excited about it than what the kids are, but although she's been driving me nuts with this count down of hers, it's a really nice feeling to see her so happy and excited about it.

Lets just hope that our good fortune that has been bestowed upon this year can continue into next year and who knows maybe more surprises can happen along the way, but for now I'm going to sit back and enjoy this ride of life that we are currently on and enjoy the feeling that I get every time I wake up and see her face and see how happy and excited she is about everything.

I love you, you crazy Swedish Christmassy chick :)

I'm Back! - Well Hopefully

Well it's been a while, but as i had said in a previous post it was quite likely this was going to happen as i was finding it hard to keep up with blogging and working and then not to mention the good old family stuff.

But things are settling down and i feel i am quite possibly able to keep up with things a bit better now that i have had the chance to be away and get things sorted.

So what's been happening in the wonderful world of The Angry Scot?

Simple and most direct response would probably be LOADS!

And then possibly the next question would be where on earth do i start, well i guess the working life would be as good a place as any to begin.

Things haven't quite worked out as i was first and possibly delusionally excepting, i don't know why but i had this strange delusion that if i had managed to get myself a Praktikplats (Practice Job) that i would be able to show the company what a good and hard working employee i am and that it would then lead to then saying something along the lines of:

"Damn!, we can't be without this guy let's employ him straight away!!"

However as i said this was a delusion of grand proportions. Although however delusional this fantasy of mines was i have still been able to make a great impression on my fellow co-workers which i guess you could say is a massive PLUS! So much so that all my bosses that i have down there (In theory i really only have 2 but seeing as Börje, he's another Vaktmästare (Caretaker) who used to be in charge and although he no longer has the boss title still kind is so i include him along with my other 2 bosses Ninni and Ulla) and most of my co-workers have been fighting there asses off trying to keep me, and in some respect it has worked as i have now found myself under what is called "Time Employment" which as i have mentioned in previous posts means that if someone is sick they can contact me and i come in and work that persons job. 

Now in the start i was only Time Employed as a Caretaker basically, but now my other boss Ninni has got me coming in next week to start taking a look at cleaning work, so on Thursday & Friday this week i will be coming into the hospital to go up to where they perform operations and learning the procedures that are in place to make sure that all the surgical rooms are cleaner than clean, and i just have to say although i'm terrified about messing up i'm really looking forward to this. 

I mean seriously how many people get the chance to learn alot of different jobs with the same company and then earn money from doing these jobs, think about it! I'm NEVER going to get bored, one day i could be working as a cleaner, the next as a caretaker and then the next who knows what? 

So i'm really really excited about this new prospect, and who know's what can happen down the line?

So basically the job front is looking up and i have already received my first pay packet (real pay packet) for working Time Employed and the difference it has made to us this month is unbelievable. Seriously! We have already finished with Christmas and sent off all the gifts to my folks over in Scotland! THAT NEVER HAPPENS HERE WITH US! 

Last minute OH SHIT dash to the shops, pick up any random crap and send it is normally more our style!

As for  the family side of things, well i don't know we have seemed to move alot closer to each other over there last couple of weeks i feel and the feeling is absolutely amazing, yes we are still having our challenges and ups and downs as a family unit but that's just how family's work don't they!

Our absolutely amazing daughter is getting ready to begin the next stage of her education so last weekend we spent the whole day just myself, Marie and our daughter Mikaela over in the town of Skövde looking at the hairdressing gymnasium that they have their, which i have to say was an amazing day out even if i managed to loose £90 in the space of about 45 minutes after taking us out to lunch at a nice restaurant and then buying Mikaela a new jacket and 2 new tops at one of the clothing shops there, but it was worth it!

As for the twins? Well they are still a HUGE pain in the ass, but hell i wouldn't have them any other way! Mainly for the fact life wouldn't be as much fun as it is if they were any different. But they are also coming on leaps and bounds as i think the saying is going. 

They have finally settled into school and things are looking up for them, i'm actually really surprised how amazing they are doing at school since well we all know they can not sit still or be quite for more than 30 seconds at a time, but they have been doing fantastic learning new words and how to read, and what can i say about that Maximus has blown away all expectations i once had about him and is smashing this whole reading malarkey without even breaking a sweat.
Alexander is also doing amazing but i think his concentration is lacking at times so is not progressing at the same speed as his brother but at the end of the day Who the hell cares? i have never been one of these parents that expected both kids (seeing as they are twins) to be at the same level on anything, and i can only say that i am proud of how amazing all of my children are doing academically.
I know that all parents say that they are proud and that is just perhaps the duty of a loving parent to be proud of your kids, but i seriously am. Without the need to be or anything, everyday all 3 of them impress me in one way or another when it comes to how they are progressing not only in school but in life generally.

I honestly couldn't be any prouder of all 3 and how they are growing up and the decisions they are making.

And as for myself and Marie? Well things are looking up i had a little spell the other week where i thought everything in life was wrong and that Marie deserved alot better than me, and if i'm honest i don't think i have ever felt this way ever. I have felt low points through my life but this was different and i think it was the lowest i have ever felt. I mean i still loved my family and Marie of course but everything about life just seemed that it was pointless, that i was failing not only as a partner and parent but as a person in general. I think it was because in my delusional fantasy that the company i'm working for would straight out employ me, and this didn't happen. Not that it was anyone's fault but right now they are not allowed to employ anyone not fully employ them at least. But i don't know possibly it was to do with this, possibly it was something else, whatever it was it has some what subsided and i'm feeling alot better about how life is going, and i'm finding myself alot closer to Marie than i think i ever have. Possibly to close? if that is possible. I mean seriously right now she is on my mind 24/7 and she is all i can think about. 

I'm guessing this is probably a good thing, or at least hoping so. But i don't know why but recently i have just felt alot closer to her and i think our relationship is becoming stronger by the day.

But enough of this mushy stuff, it's not at all Angry Scot style! SO SCREW YOU ALL! HA! I'm only messing, but things are looking up in life and i'm hoping that i am able to start blogging alot more frequently that i once was, i'm not saying your going to see something new every day but i'm going to try and make a more concious effort to try and be more active in the blogging world!

But for now i'm going to go off and take it easy for the rest of my relaxing Sunday with the most precious thing in my life World Of Warcraft! HAHAHA Ok no i meant to write my amazing woman Marie, but i guess my fingers had other things on their mind!

So until next time, i hope everyone is still rocking hard and that life is going well for everyone else! I have missed all my followers alot and hoping that my small break away hasn't made you all forget me!

Employed... Well Kind Off!

So the other week I wrote about a surprise that was going to happen, but seeing as nothing was set in stone I didn't actually want to post anything.

Well the surprise finally happened and as you can tell by the title of this post I have now been officially employed by the company that I'm doing my praktikplats (practice place) with.
Or well sort off...

What I have been given is what they call here timanställd (time employed) so basically what this means is that if anyone phones into us sick for that day or whatever then I will be called in to do their job for how ever long they are unable to work.
But seeing as I am still on my praktik this will work slightly different, so basically how it will work up until the 4th December (this is when my praktik with them ends) is that normally I will be a praktikant, and if anyone phones in sick leaving us with to little people, my boss will say to me today you are time employed and for those days i work as an employee I will get paid from them instead of being paid by the government.
This means I will get a lot more money than I am making now and you cannot image how great a feeling that is.

Sure this is not full employment but it is certainly a HUGE step forward to where I was a week ago. Also there is still a good chance that I could get full employment with them but we shall just have to wait and find out.
I mean anything can happen between now and December when my praktik ends.

What was even more great was that my boss came to me and said you are officially from the 1st October time employed with us and then I got to work Wednesday, Thursday and Friday as time employed which means ill get 3 days wage from them at the end of November. But what a feeling it was to actually work those 3 days knowing that I was actually doing it for a real wage, this was something I had not experienced in a long time and what can I say it felt great!!

So there you have it! That's my surprise and once more I have to say it feels great. Now I just got to hope that between now an December something happens and I'm able to get full time employment with them.

But that's all I have for this post, I hope everyone else had a great week but until next time.....

What A Week

So this week has turned into quite the experience I must admit and on top of that busy as hell.
I mean not only have I been working like a absolute dog at work, ok nothing is unusual with that, it takes hard work and dedication to be a kick ass Vaktmästare haha!

But on top of that the last couple of days I've been basically coming home eating dinner, taking a shower and then heading out of the door within the space of a hour.

Firstly on Tuesday I had a meeting at Mikaela's school, this in itself was a experience of a lifetime, since it was the first meeting (school meeting that is) in Swedish that I have attended myself without Marie accompanying me and sitting half the time translating stuff that I don't understand, and although I didn't quite understand 100% of everything that was said I got enough of it to make me feel great about it.
Not to mention I think the main reason I didn't really understand everything fully is because I still even after living here 6 years fully understand the Swedish schooling system.

However I had to have a good laugh since when we first arrived at the school the first thing to come out of my beloved daughter's mouth as she walked up to a group of friends was.
"You can stand over there"
As she pointed half way across the school playground, safe to say I was more than a bit shocked I mean I'm still cool right?
Well apparently not....

But it went well apart from that, and I learned quite a bit about the education system in Sweden and about her next step in her education which will be happening next year, but we still have a lot to look into and sort out before then so we shall see.

Not only did I have that, I also ended up in another meeting on Wednesday although this time it was for the boys and actually in Järpås so at least I didn't have to travel into town like I did for Mikaela's meeting.

That meeting however was nothing really important and more along the lines of meet the teachers and see what they have been doing etc, and it seems like the boys have been doing well.
We obviously still have a proper teachers meeting to go to in the not so distant future but it was still nice to get a mini update I guess you could call it.

But that's been my week, working and meetings although now it's the weekend and the boys are away to their dads for the weekend and my oldest Mikaela is away saying at friends all weekend so it's nice to be able to just sit back and relax with Marie for a change without having to worry about kids hehe.

But for now I shall bid you all farewell and I hope you all have a great weekend as well.

If You Don't Laugh...

So i'm aware that the post is a bit later than i had originally planned but if you seen my photo over at The Angry Scot's Facebook Page you will have noticed that i finally decided to get outside and cut our damn grass, it took me about 2 hours and after it i was completely dead. But i said i was going to post one this weekend and i didn't want to let people down.

I have actually considered taking a small break away from blogging and just focussing on other things, because if i'm honest even though i love to do it, trying to find the time at the moment is becoming difficult. I honestly can't believe how much getting a job would affect the time i actually have to do things and i just feel that i'm stressing alot about not putting out content etc and always making promises that i'm going to post something and then not doing it because i end up doing other things.
But i don't know yet, perhaps i'll just download the blogger app to my iPhone and just write things up when i get time at work like on lunch etc and just post them up when they are finished we shall see, but i shall keep you all updated on what i decide.

But back to the post...

So the other day i got a big shock when i asked Marie to give the försäkringskassan (It's the people who pay my wages for being on this praktik i'm on) a quick call to confirm which dates i should write on the paper that i need to send into them in the next couple of weeks, the reason i asked her to do this is because we had apparently doing it wrongly and they were getting annoyed and it was holding up my money.
So to make sure it was right i had asked Marie when she was off work on Thursday to give them a call just to double confirm the dates.
However when she gave them a call she was told that they were not aware that i was still on my praktik, thus meaning i was not insured while i was at work for the first week of my second 3 months....

One word: Arbetsförmedlingen (Job Centre)

Yes indeed they have struck AGAIN!

It turns out that although my Job Centre point of contact had given me the go ahead to work another 3 months at the company i'm with, she had decided not to bother informing the rest of the Job Centre, aka she hadn't written anything in my file that i was granted a 3 month extension, thus meaning that Försäkringskassan was not informed either and thus meaning i was not insured or entitled to any money.

Fantastic right??

So of course, Marie gives me a call at work and informs me of this and i have to now try and get in contact with my person at the Job Centre to find out what the hell has happened, but in true Arbetsförmedlingen style whenever you try and get in contact with them, they always seem to be conveniently busy and not able to take your call, so i got sent through to customer services who tried to help me but was unable to sent me through someone random girl at the Lidköping Job Centre.

By this point you could imagine who stressed i was, i mean i shouldn't even be working since i was insured and if anything would have happened i would have been up shit creak without a paddle as they say. But i explained what happened and read out the e-mail that i had been sent by my point of contact at the Job Centre and the lovely lady at the other end said she would come back to me as soon as she could.

So after about 2 hours of waiting my work phone finally begins to ring and it's the job centre, and what can i said but the relief i felt when she informed me that she had fixed the problem and that i would be receiving a letter in the mail that i need to sign and send back to them was unbelievable.

I know that i shouldn't be surprised by anything that the Job Centre does or in this case doesn't do but still. It seems that every time i have some sort of dealing with these guys there is always some problem here or there that i end up spending hours of a phone trying to get resolved.

But it's fixed and all is well, and i'm now working with insurance again (So grateful that nothing happened!). 
It was just lucky that i had asked Marie to get in contact with the Försäkringskassan, otherwise i don't know what would have happened.

But that's my fun and games for this week, as i said i shall see how things go and maybe try and grab the app so i can write up a post during the week when i have time at lunch etc so all i need to do is do some edits on the computer and add images etc if i want to at the end of the week, but we shall see.

So until next time.. Have a great week guys!