Kid's Taekwon-Do.

About a year ago when we were just thinking about putting the kids football we had been checking up on different martial arts to see what sort of training they would be able to participate in, unfortunately at the age they were currently at none of the martial art schools would take them on as the lowest they could start was apparently 6 years old.

We had unfortunately forgot all about it until a few weeks ago when Marie had decided to check up on it again and realised that they were able to start Taekwon-Do, this was absolutely fantastic since i had been doing Taekwon-Do since i was around 10 years old so the thought of my 2 kids starting it up was absolutely fantastic. However i was still a bit disappointed since they would be unable to actually join the federation that i was involved in as it currently doesn't exist over in Sweden (I was a member of GTF (Global Taekwon-Do Ferderation) Taekwon-Do and Sweden only has WTF (World Taekwon-Do Federation) Taekwon-Do) and although you would think they would be the same there is quite alot different with both federations.

But we decided that we would give it a try at least and see if the kids enjoyed it, so off we went into town early Saturday morning to see what it was all about. I have to admit on arriving to their do-jan i was pretty impressed, although it's a mixed martial arts school they have rented out a full building for it so they can keep all their equipment on the premises instead of carrying it around and when you go inside they have the training area completely decked out with mats and stuff so that you don't have to stand on a wooden floor which is pretty awsome i have to admit.
So we signed the boys in with the club and i went through to the changing rooms and got them changed into some cloths that they could train in (Pair of tracksuit bottoms and a t-shirt) and the class began.

I think the only thing that didn't really impress me all that much was the fact that the class wasn't taken by any black belts, either none of the black belts were interested in taking the class because there was only 6 small children in it or the fact they just don't have enough black belts, either way i was pretty disappointed in the fact that there was no black belt present and personally i think if you decide to join a club especially in martial arts that you expect a black belt to be taking the class, instead they were trained by a red tag (basically it's one tag away from being a Black Belt) and a blue belt. Either way the guys did pretty good and managed to keep most of the children fairly engaged in the class.

Either way the kids seemed to really enjoy taking part in the class and it may be possibly something that they want to continue but it's to early to tell really, i mean they have only done one class and everything is really fun right at the start, so we shall continue to take them for another few weeks (they get 3 free classes before we have to begin paying for it) and just see how it goes, i really hope that they decide to continue with it because it was something i always loved doing and i seriously regret that the last few years i was in Scotland that i stopped going, but i'm hoping in the not so distant future that i am able to get myself a job and look into starting up my own club over in Sweden since we don't have the same federation over here, but without the funds to pay for insurance and such likes it's kind of not possible right now but it is certainly something i will be looking into again, and then perhaps i can start training the kids as well.

But for now i think i shall bid you all farewell, have a great week folks!

She Finally Replied!

You will remember that a few weeks ago i wrote about how i had contacted my Job Coach who i was meant to be meeting after the Christmas Holidays and that i had never received a reply from her, well finally after about 3 weeks or there abouts she finally got back in contact. Apparently she had been signed off work for a few weeks due to being ill and that was the whole reason behind her not being back in contact so i guess i can forgive her for that.
But it seems that we shall be meeting up again starting next Wednesday, not to sure why and if i'm totally honest i wasn't really all that bothered if we met again or not but at the same time i deserved to have the full time i was meant to get with my Job Coach and seeing as we missed a few appointments it is nice that she is willing to still meet me and make sure that i get that time back that i missed even though they don't get paid for it.

In other Job Type News...

You may also recall that i recently wrote about my Job Centre visit that was scheduled for last week or the week before that i can't honestly remember now, but that when i was there my handler as they like to call themselves had spoken to me about maybe going on a Administration Course, well i have been in contact with her and told her that i would like to take her up on the offer and go and do the course that we spoke about, as of yet i have not heard anything back about it other than that she was going to recommend me for it so hopefully something will come up soon enough with that.

I think it would be really nice to get out the house everyday, not that being home sucks or anything like that but you know there is only a certain amount of time you can stare at the same four walls everyday before you end up going completely insane, so for a chance to get out the house and be surrounded by Swedish people who only talk the language i think would be really great for me. Sure it's going to be hard, not the course but the fact of being around Swedish people all day long and trying to keep up with conversations and such likes but it will be good training for me as well, and who know's i actually might meet someone there that i can become friends with which would not be a bad thing trust me.

But i think that's all for the moment folks, i want to again apologise for the lack of blog posts over the last month or so but i think it's just one of those times where nothing really amazing happens so there is nothing to blog about but i am trying, i'm pretty sure it will pick up in the new few weeks or something but we shall see.
So until next time, i hope you all have a great weekend!

Next Tattoo.

My partner Marie has found herself back in contact with a old friend of hers who happens to be a tattoo artist and specializes in black & white dark art, and so for the last few weeks Marie has been asking me what sort of tattoo i was looking at getting because perhaps he would be able to do it for me if i was interested in getting another one which of course i am, i love tattoo's and if i have my way by the time i leave this world i will have quite a few. Currently i have 3 which aren't very big and all are dedicated to my kids so the next one i wanted to do for myself, and when i was asked about it i knew exactly what i wanted. I have been playing World Of Warcraft online for about 6 years and from the minute i seen a picture of Lady Sylvanas Windrunner i knew that it was something i would love to have a tattoo off.

So yesterday Marie had decided that she would contact her friend through Facebook and let him see the image that i was hoping to get and to ask him where it would be best placed etc, but he decided that instead of writing back that he would send a short message asking Marie to give him a call, so she did and it looks like this project could be starting sooner than i though, around the end of April if things go to plan. I don't know the guy very well but have been informed that all that tattoo artists around Sweden have said he is going to be one the best at the black & white dark art in the not so distant future because he is that good.

We have decided that we will take a wee trip into him in the next couple of weeks, just so that he is able to view the canvas he will be working on and decide where best to place it on my body, since it has a extreme amount of detail it's going to be quite a big project, involving a lot of hours work (probably around 20+ hours) which will be split into 4 hour sessions. By all accounts it will probably end up on my back or somewhere that has a big open space, since i think it will need to be blown up quite alot just so that you are able to see all the detail in it. Of course it will be in black & white since i think with the colour it might not have that same effect but i think he will be putting a bit of colour into the eyes just to make it pop out. 

Roughly how it will look in Black & White.

But i'm pretty excited about starting this although i know it's going to take a very long time to complete and alot of pain will be involved but i think the end product will definitely be worth all the tears.

But i think for now i shall bid you all farewell, so until next time i hope you all have a great day and don't forget to drop me a comment with your opinion on my choice of art work to be tattoo'd.

Makes You Think Really.

Last night before heading off to bed i was checking through my Facebook like i always do when i stumbled across something that came as quite a shock if i don't say so, two of my close friends had decided that after a long relationship that it was time to call it a day and move on with there lives and it got me thinking about my very own relationship.

Sure my relationship with my fiancée Marie is great and we do love each other so much nobody can ever doubt that least of all me, but over the last few years maybe longer i don't know but i have noticed that we live more like friends than we do anything else, Marie also agrees with this because she has often commented on it and i honestly can't reply when she speaks about it because it's just not something i really think about or well i do think about it but when it comes to expressing myself it's not exactly something i am great at doing.

And it just got me thinking, i need to start making more of a effort when it comes to our relationship, don't get me wrong it's not only me that needs to put the work into it she also has to, but i certainly could be doing alot more, like if you take at the beginning or at least the first year of our relationship and i am aware that every relationship has a hunny moon period but we constantly texted each other (Granted i lived in another country), but still we would text how much we loved each other and all sorts of soppy crap that you probably don't want to hear about but over the last 3 maybe 4 years we barely do that at all, and it's not because we don't love each other because we always say it to each other at least a few times a day but i came to realise that i need to say it alot more and make her feel and know that i do.

The way i see it no matter how secure you think your relationship is and how great you think things are they could easily slip away from you or you could end up in a relationship you actually don't want to be in for whatever reason, and this is not something i want to happen so i'm going to try and make a more conscious effort to make sure that at least the woman in my life knows that she means the world to me and that i appreciate her and everything else in between, i want our old relationship back that we had and it's up to me to make it happen.

So just think about it and make sure that your partner knows that he/she is the most special person in your life and never let them forget it. There is always room in the world for a bit of extra love hehe,

But that's enough of the soppy relationship talk, so until next time have a great day!

Now That Wakes You Up In The Morning!

Like always i like to get up at the same time as Marie and normally just have a few hours to sit in front of the computer chilling out and just checking up on Facebook/Twitter and normally approving posts on Triberr and having a read here and there before having to get up with the kids, but every week i get one day where i don't have to worry about getting the kids up and to school because Marie has her day off and normally takes them herself.

So this morning started out great i thought, not having to get up and stress around after the boys just having to sit back relax have a cup of tea and read some stuff on the net, Marie had gotten up and sorted the boys out and had taken up to school and returned and everything was fantastic until.........

Not even 5 minutes after Marie returned home, the telephone started to ring. I was personally like who the hell is phoning us at 07:15 in the morning, and then i realised our oldest daughter had just left for the bus so i half expected that it was to say she had forgotten something or that the bus had come early and she had missed it or something along those lines but oh no, that was not the case. The person calling us was the after school teacher who normally takes care of the kids before and after school to inform us that Alexander had not showed up and that Maximus had come into them and said that he had decided that he missed his mum and that he wasn't going to school and instead taken off back down the stairs towards home. Max had shouted on him to come back apparently but Alex had ignored him and continued on his way so Max done the right thing at least and headed into school to tell the teacher (remind me to give that boy a pat on the back!).


I can tell you something, if you are not awake at that time of the morning and you receive a call like that then you certainly will be awake! and very quickly at that. I swear i have never seen myself ever move so fast to get out of my comfy sit around the house cloths into my jeans and jacket and the door, i think it took me less than 30 seconds and we were off on the hunt, and it is safe to say i was both scared out my wits and extremely angry all at the same time. I mean for living in a very small town as we do the traffic on the road is very heavy at that time of the morning, so if he had decided to try and walk back home and had attempted to cross the road then i have no idea what would have happened, lucky for us that wasn't the case. We had just gotten under the underpass leading up to the staircase that takes you into the school grounds when the cleaning lady who was on her way to work and that we know fairly well had cycled past us on her way to work so we had said to her that if she seen Alexander to grab him for us and told her what would happened.

Now let me try and explain how this path works, you basically have the bus stop that my daughter stands at in the morning for her bus to school and that path leads down into the underpass that myself and Marie were at and then the path continues up, but you have a turn off to the right hand side if you want to that i think leads to some farm land, but is a wooded area, but if you continue forward instead of going to the right then you have the staircase that leads up to the school.

So just as the cleaning lady was heading up the hill from the underpass she stopped and had looked to her right and who was standing a few meters into that pathway in the wooded area but Alexander, he had obviously heard his brother and the Janitor who was out looking for him and decided that he would jump into the woods so that they couldn't find him, but lucky for us with his reflective jacket it was quite easy to spot him, i swear i wanted to rip his head off and i was quite harsh in my choice of words i used but honestly i don't think i have been more scared in my life than i was when that call came and i personally felt that being all "Aww what is wrong, and why did you do that?" in a nice tone was not going to make him understand how severe the problem of him running off was.

But yea, we got him to the Janitor who was standing at the bottom of the staircase and left him there but it certainly was a massive wake up call this morning that's for sure, i went from being a bit tired and wanting to go back to bed to being wide awake in a matter of seconds.

So that was my morning, i have to say on a positive note though it was really awsome of Maximus to think about going into the school and telling them what had happened instead of thinking oh what a great idea and running off with him because then i have no idea what would have happened, but i think from now i shall be waiting a extra 5 minutes at the bottom of the stairs to make sure that none of them attempt to do this again, either that or taking away that little bit of independence i gave them by allowing them to walk up to the school themselves and taking them to the door instead, either way it will never happen again! at least not at this age.

But for now i think i shall head off and enjoy my weekend, i hope you day started out alot better than mines did and that you all have a great weekend! So until next time...

The Dentist Trip.

Well what can I say, as i have said before i am not at all a morning person infact it's probably the worst time of the day to know me and the last thing I would have liked to be doing this morning was thinking of getting the kids up at 06:30 in the morning to give them breakfast and getting them ready to go into town for their appointment and yet that is exactly what I found myself doing this morning.

The actual trip went fairly smoothly if i don't say so myself the only downside to the whole thing was when we were heading there, we arrived up at the local train stop to find about 20 kids standing there waiting for the train and once more the lovely Swedish  transport system decided to put the old train on, this thing only seats about 50 people, but bearing in mind that it travels from Herrljunga a town about 1 hour 20 mins away or something like that by the time it reaches Järpås there is probably around 10 seats left so i was forced to stand there with 2 6 year old boys while the little teenage douchebags sat there looking at us and not even considering at least offering the twins a seat to share or one each, not that i really expected them to but still it left me wanting to punch them all in the head.

The actual dentist appointment went really well and there is nothing wrong with their teeth which is great, we have been advised to brush their teeth for them, instead of allowing them the independence of doing it themselves as although they have been doing a good job they are still missing bits here and there, not that i'm that bothered i mean it only takes 5 minutes to do it so it's not like it's a all day job lol.

Lucky for us though we all managed to get a nice seat on the way back home and now the boys are off to school for the day, so i'm gonna sit down and have a nice cup of tea and just chill out the rest of the day i think, overall it was a good trip in my opinion, the boys behaved themselves the whole way there and back and i only had to ask them twice to keep the noise down while in the dentist office so i'm pretty proud of them.

But for now i'm off to get a nice cup of tea and relax, hope your day is going great too!.

Until next time.

First Meeting Of The Year.

I know that today is Wednesday and that normally means a "Wordless Wednesday" post, but seeing as i haven't exactly been on the ball with my posts over the last few weeks/months i have decided to scrap that for the time being unless i come across a picture that is really a show stopper, but instead i thought that today i could write about how my first meeting with the Job Centre went after the whole Job Coach thing was over and done with.

Let me just start of by saying that i didn't expect the meeting to go that well, infact you could say i was rather nervous about the whole idea of going to see my point of contact at the local job centre or Arbetsförmedlingen as it's called here in Sweden, i'm not sure why but i think it possibly has something to do with that if you recall i wrote about when the Job Coaching ended that we would be meeting after the New Year period. Well as most of you know for Christmas i got a new mobile phone and i decided that since the company i was with was doing a special deal at the Christmas period (getting 1 year free internet if you were a new customer) i decided that after 5 years i would change my mobile number, so i contacted my Job Coach to inform her that i had used her as a reference for 4 jobs that i had recently applied to and that i had changed both my e-mail and my mobile number and still after nearly 2 weeks i have not heard anything from her.

So i half expected that she wrote me a bad review, although for the life of me i wouldn't know why because i thought the whole experience went really well at least from my end it did, but you never know with some people and i thought that was possibly the reason for her ignoring me. It turns out though that it was not the reason for her ignoring my e-mail and text messages as the review i was given was quite positive with the only downside being that i didn't have a drivers licence and that i should try and obtain one when i gained employment, something i had already planned on doing so god knows why she would write that. But anyways i have no idea in the world why she is ignoring me, but i have given up trying to get in contact with her as it seems futile.

But back to the Job Centre appointment, that in itself went really well in my opinion. We have now discussed the possibility if i want to, to go and take a Administration course so that i am able to get a qualification. In all honesty i don't think i need it since i was in Administration/Customer Service for almost 7 years and i know the type of work like the back of my hand, but i guess it is something that would A) get me out of the house and around other Swedish people which is never a bad thing, and B) give me something new on my CV and something that has come from Sweden and not the UK.

So after a small discussion with Marie and getting her point of view on it, we have decided that it would not be the end of the world if i did it, and while i am on the course there is nothing stopping me looking for any work or a Praktikplats (Practice Work) as they call it in Sweden.

Other than that everything was kind of the same, she showed me some other aspects of Arbetsförmedlingen that could help me find work, so i now have them to look at and i have been instructed that i must contact them at least once in March just to let them know how everything is going and to see if there is anything else they can help me with, but it seems quite positive. I think the thing i like about the Job Centre here is the fact that i don't have to go in every 2 weeks to say "Hello, i'm still alive" although at the same time it's a bit better that way, mainly for the fact you are able to speak to someone there and they do a quick search for jobs for you etc. But i like the laid back way of Sweden, i mean it's not like i ain't looking for work or anything like that because i am but it's still nice to have the job centre giving you a kick up the ass every once in a while if you know what i mean.

But everything is looking good, i have found 2 new jobs that are up that i can apply to, so in total that will be 6 jobs in the space of 2 weeks which is pretty good going since right now with it being January and the start of the new year there is not many companies looking for anyone, but hopefully that will pick up, and soon enough companies will be looking for summer workers, which isn't the best and is quite hard to get into since they normally just take the people they have had before but at least it's something and gives me a little extra bit of money seeing as i don't get any right now.

So i think that is everything, it was quite positive i feel so i'm not that upset although i had images of me coming home to write a rant post like no other but unfortunately for you it went well, so you don't get to read me screaming about this and that! Although that may happen tomorrow as i have to take the twins into town for their check up at the dentist and seeing as i am definitely not a morning person the thought of getting the twins up and out the door and on a train by 07:30 just doesn't seem all that fun to me, but that's a new post for tomorrow! So until next time have a great day folks! 

Weird Traditions

Last Friday it came that time of the year again where we had to take the kids up to our local store so that they could par take in one of the weirdest traditions i think Sweden have.

So you may all be wondering what the hell is this guy going on about well let me explain a little, the tradition i am talking about that i find so weird is the fact that a few weeks after Christmas everyone in the town gathers at a set location and then proceed to dance around the Christmas tree that has been placed there, singing Swedish Christmas songs that in all honesty have nothing really anything to do with Christmas, or at least i don't think they do but this is a tradition that has been done since i don't know when and even the adults not all granted but most seem to enjoy even more than the children do.
I think the main reason our kids want to go to it every year is because once they have finished dancing around the tree and singing their merry songs that Santa comes out and gives them a bag of candy, and like all kids my children are completely obsessed with candy, especially our son Max i'm sure from the minute he wakes up to minute he goes to bed that is all he literally thinks about but he's a kid so i guess you got to just expect it and get on with it.

But we have gone up for the last 2 years with the kids now that they are at the age to actually properly participate in the little event and each year i find myself standing there with a complete baffled look on my face, you know the face i'm talking about it, it's the "WTF" face. I think i'm more confused at how much the adults get into it more than how much the children do, because i expect them to but even the adults are doing all the dance moves like rubbing the cleaning board and such likes, or at least it looks like what they are doing but i honestly don't know what the hell they are doing half the time i just sit there with big wide eyes thinking to myself "what the in gods name am i doing here?" and "what the hell are these people doing, are they retarded?".

It has to be the strangest tradition i have encountered in Sweden in all honesty, and i have encountered quite a few but the kids love it and most of the adults do so really who am i to judge, i'm pretty sure that the Swedish people would find some of the traditions of the UK strange as well.

But for now i think i shall bid you all farewell, unfortunately i forgot to take the camera up with me so i was unable to get any snap shots, but no doubt next year i will make another similar post and i'll try my best to remember to take the camera so you can see what strange stuff i have to deal with over here. I have also forgotten what they actually call the event, but i'm sure my fiancée Marie will no doubt comment with the name of it ;)

So until next time! have a great day and week.

Feeling Stupid But Why? Continued.

Well it's been a couple of days since my last blog post and to be honest i have just had nothing to write about, i don't know what it is but i'm guessing all bloggers go through a dry spell and this seems to be mines, what's more worrying about it is the fact it's been like this for a few months now and it's really getting on my nerves. I had big goals this year about making my blog better and getting more views etc and it seems as of now i am failing pretty hard but there is nothing i can do about it.
I refuse to write just pointless garbage that nobody is really interested in, i mean who wants to read a blog post saying i had this for dinner tonight and to be quite honest it sucked, funnily enough Marie made me and the kids Chicken Korma last night and it really did suck. None of us even got half way through it, but it wasn't her fault really it was more to do with the Korma sauce that she picked up from the store, there was just something about it that really did not taste right at all.

But away from that and back to the blog post at hand, i had written a post a couple of days ago about how i had decided that this was the year i was going to switch completely from English to Swedish at home since i was sick of us being a family who spoke half Swedish and half English and i wanted us to become a real Swedish family and for that to happen i needed to stop being lazy and stupid and just get on with it. But i found it really hard i must admit, the thought of speaking Swedish to my fiancée Marie scares the absolute shit out of me and for what reason i do not know.

So a few days have past and i must admit it's getting better, sure i stumble on a few words here and there and have no choice but to say them in English because i really have no idea what they are in Swedish and when your trying to have a conversation with someone the last thing you want to be doing is looking through a online dictionary trying to find what the word you want to use is. Funnily enough i have found a really nice app that i am considering downloading for my phone which is exactly that a translator with all the Swedish to English words in it, so that might be worth a look.

What is even more great is at the start of the week the new series of Swedish Masterchef started up on the TV and this has given me a excellent opportunity to sit down and watch something i like and in full Swedish, i'm pretty sure there is probably more TV shows out there in Swedish that are good, but i have yet to find them and i love cooking programs like Masterchef, Top Chef and pretty much everything Gordon Ramsay makes so when it began i was delighted! So this week i have been sitting on the couch with Marie watching it and although there is some dialects that i am unable to completely understand i have found myself being able to pretty much follow everything that is being said without to much of a problem, again there is some words but then i just simply ask Marie what does that mean and i get the translation instantly, so that is pretty sweet.
Not only has Masterchef begun, but so has the new season of The Biggest Looser Sweden, personally i ain't a big fan of these shows but Marie likes to watch them and it's in full Swedish so why not, so i began to watch that last night as well and once more found myself sitting on the couch thinking AWSOME! i'm understanding nearly everything they say.

So life is getting better! the Swedish is coming along and soon the thoughts that go through my head every time i think about speaking the language to Marie will have vanished, it has been known to happen that myself and Marie can go a few months speaking the language and then something  happens like we take a trip over to the UK or my parents come over here and we end up stopping, but i refuse to let that happen this time. I'm more than sure that my parents would rather see me sitting speaking Swedish to Marie and knowing that once we leave or they leave that it will continue than us speaking English and knowing that again once any of us depart that we will revert back because it's easy. So this is my new life and it's going to stay that way, otherwise Marie better find herself a new man lol as i'll be going out on the prowl for a new Swedish woman who doesn't know the English language! lol i'm only kidding that won't ever happen but it's a nice threat and maybe make her think twice about using the English language again hehe.

But i'm happy and that is all that counts i guess, but for now i shall bid you all farewell and hope your having a great week too!

Until next time!

Feeling Stupid But Why?

It's always quite amusing to me, that every time i decide that it's time to speak Swedish and leave the English language behind that i am always end up feeling like a complete and utter moron, some people might be wondering why and to be absolutely honest i don't know why.

So i made a resolution at the start of this year that i was going to stop speaking English at home completely and only speak the language that this country has Swedish, now if i'm honest i haven't done all that bad but at the same time i haven't done all that good either, speaking to people outside of the house and even speaking to the twins goes fantastic. I might not get the right words and i might end up using the wrong endings etc but the people who i am speaking to get what i am trying to say and i don't think about it at all.

But when it comes to speaking to my fiancée....... well that's a completely different kettle of fish i am constantly thinking to myself, am i saying this right? have i used the right word? have i used the right ending to said word? and i end up sitting half the time in complete and utter silence or using very basic Swedish which normally consists of stuff like "yes, no, i don't know" and a few others that i can't really be bothered to mention. Don't get me wrong i do try but then i find myself getting frustrated and end up shouting "Arggghh" and then just saying it in English and i need to STOP!

It's not like Marie has done or said anything to make me feel this way, she has always been encouraging towards me speaking Swedish at home, could she do better? well of course she could, she is normally the first out of us both to say "I'll take this in English" because as we both know we are both pretty lazy when it comes to communicating, and at times she needs to think about what she is going to say and perhaps change it a bit to make it slightly easier for me to understand, this i can totally understand but it can become annoying since i don't learn that way. But it's not her fault, not even slightly, it's me that gets the feeling of being stupid and i need to get away from it some way some how.
I find myself feeling the same way when i try and communicate with my daughter in Swedish, i know that she knows English pretty well (i wouldn't say fluent) but she can get the meaning behind what i'm saying pretty easily so 90% of the time i end up doing that whole "Arrgghh" thing and then just speaking to her in English if she gives me that confused look that teenagers like to give from time to time.

But i need to stop! i need to put a end to this once and for all and i feel after living in Sweden nearly 6 years now that this is damn well the right time to do it, i can still recall many times sitting on the bus back in Scotland and listening to foreign people speak there language on the bus and thinking to myself "Jesus, you live in Scotland speak English you fricken morons!" and here i am 6 years down the line living in another country and what i am i doing? Exactly what i used to get annoyed at the people in Scotland for, and it's not right, it was me that decided to move here and make a life here and i am the one that should be making the effort, at the end of the day why should Swedish people have to speak English in their own country?
Bottom line, they shouldn't!

So i'm going to try my hardest this year to make a more conscious effort, and i'm hoping that after my fiancée reads this, that she will do the same. Although i know she tries and does a awsome job not getting annoyed or frustrated at me, but she is also allows me to speak English instead of giving me that push which i think she needs to do.

But i think that's my rant done for today, i hope everyone had a great weekend and that life is good! So until next time...

Wordless Wednesday!

Here is probably the only picture I have ever got where Max is not running around like a complete and utter maniac. I'm pretty sure the boy has ants in his pants, but sit him down in front of the X-Box and honest to god you wouldn't even know he was in the house.
Well....unless he's playing with his brother that is lol.

Max playing Skylanders Video Game.

Hope you all have a great day!

Sometimes Living Out In The Sticks Sucks.

About 6 years ago i met a guy online playing World Of Warcraft called Kaeshan, he had joined my guild that i was currently in and the guild master off as his guild had decided to sum what merge with mines and after getting to know the guy we became extremely close friends. But unfortunately we have been unable to meet each other in real life which has kind of sucked a bit.

He had booked tickets about 3 years ago i think it was when myself and Marie had decided to put on what could only be called a Geek Barbecue in which we had invited pretty much our full guild that we were running to come to our house in Sweden for a good drink and a BBQ and get to know each other in a more personal setting, everything was set and we had one of our other guildies sitting at the Göteborg airport waiting to pick him up, when i got a call saying that he had missed his flight out of London due to traffic on the way there which was totally shit to put it bluntly.

So a few years have gone by since then and no matter what we have tried we have been unable to meet up, so when he informed me the other day that he had a 4 day holiday and was looking to finally come over to Sweden to visit myself and Marie i couldn't believe it. I know it's kind of a strange thing really wanting to meet someone you have only spoke to online but our conversations as i said before have dated way back into 2005 and we pretty much speak at least once or twice a week or even sometimes more depending on what's been going on.

But once more the plan has fallen flat on it's face which is very disappointing to say the least, it turns out that since he lives in Cork, Ireland and me in Järpås, Sweden that the people at the airport have decided that attempting to meet each other is going to require alot more hard work than it is to even go and visit my parents. No matter how we looked at it, the flights coming into Sweden were just absolutely retarded and there was no way in hell i was able to get to Göteborg to pick him up, well not unless i have a car.

So once more we are unable to meet and i got to admit it feels really lame, i was so looking forward to it and now there is nothing we can do. But i think now i am even more spurred on to get myself a job and get my drivers licence so that people coming to visit will not have any problems since i will be able to drive to Göteborg and pick them up! But i guess for now i shall just have to try and plan a small trip myself over to Cork at some point and meet up with him. Pretty crap news but unfortunately there is nothing that can be done.

But until next time i hope your having a better week than mines has started out, hoping that the rest of the week goes a little better that's for sure!

Bringing In The New Year

Unlike most our New Year celebration is quite a quiet event here at home, it normally ends up with myself and Marie having the kids home since they're dad always ends up wanting to go out partying and such likes and to be quite honest i don't mind all that much.

The first few years that i was over here i was pretty annoyed at it, but then again i was only 22/23 years old and my idea of New Years was going out with a lot of friends getting blind drunk and bringing in the New Year with style! and seeing as it was my first few years in Sweden i really wanted to do that just to see what it was like over here. I have yet to experience it and quite frankly i don't really mind anymore, it must be a getting old thing.

But our New Year celebration always consists of the same thing here at home, we all sit down just the 5 of us at the kitchen table and have a lovely meal that my amazing fiancée prepares and then we just spend the night together doing stuff and waiting for the bells to come in before heading off to bed.

It's been quite different over the last 2 years since the children are getting older we have also been able to include them in the celebration and this year was no different, we had our lovely meal followed up by a very nice chocolate cake that Marie had made for us (to be honest i absolutely hate cake! but this one was quite nice) and after dinner we decided to top up all our drinks and sat down with the whole family and rented Kung Fu Panda 2 from television provider.
So not only was i able to bring in the new year with my family it was really nice to sit down and watch a movie together which is something we don't do normally, surprisingly enough it was actually my first ever full Swedish movie that i have ever watched and i was quite impressed that i was able to understand nearly 99% of the thing.

But once the movie was finished Mikaela our oldest decided that she wanted to play some boardgames so myself the twins and Mikaela all got down on the floor for a hour or so and had a good laugh playing board games while Marie sat and watched and tried to tell us how to actually play them, since none of us had a clue and well reading instruction manuals is just not something i like to do, i'm the get stuck in type of guy and let's see what happens!

All in all it was a rocking night though, i got to spend all night with the people most close to me and spam my Facebook and Twitter with messages to all the people i like to speak to online, but like always we brought in the bells at 12 and it was time to hit the sack, of course i couldn't go to bed or complete my New Year without listening to the classic Auld Lang Syne, but it was a great night and i really enjoyed myself even if it was just myself and my family sitting at home.

So how did everyone else spend their New Years, any exciting stories? or embarrassing moments bringing in the new year? or was it a nice quiet one for you guys too?

But for now i shall bid you all farewell, hope your new year went off with a bang!