The Angry Scot

Happy Valentines Day, Hubbie!!!

2012-02-14T10:42:00.001+01:00

Yes as you all might understand, this is NOT The Angry Scot writing a blogpost.

So who am i??
Yep, you guessed right, it's Marie, his partner in crime <3

I remember meeting this Angry Scot online, it is almost exactly 6 years ago this month. We met in the world of Azeroth, World of Warcraft.
I remember thinking "-Who is this idiot that just thinks he can steal my creatures to kill??", "-What a f***ing moron!".
I wasn't impressed at all, but for some reason we started talking in the chat.
And believe it or not, he was actually quite nice talking to.
And from that day we started to play together most of the time. We even started a "guild" (group of people playing together) with some other friends.
After a few weeks when we were playing together we started Skype up.

Oh....my.....fricken....god!!!!

I could not understand a single word that came out of his and his friends mouths.
Yep, they spoke with a broad scottish accent, and here i sat in Sweden with the english i learned in school.

But i learned after a while, and he tried his very best to speak clearer.

It took a few weeks more, and then we had "the talk", he finally told me what he felt and i told him.
It was the second best day ever.
The best day came a one month after that, and i still can't believe that i did this (i would surely kill my own daughter if she ever came up with the idea), but i flew over to Scotland on my own meeting this Angry Scot for the very first time.

He found me straight away at the airport, and it just clicked between us, the most amazing feeling ever!
A week later he came back to Sweden with me and we have not been apart since.

And the rest is like they say history.

I love this man more than life itself, he is kind, loving and gentle.
He cares about everything and sometimes he even care to much and overthink things.
He is the one that makes my heart feel warm and the one who always will be the keeper of my heart.
He is also the one that keeps me grounded and the one who i always listen to when i need advice.
He is the one i'm going to spend the rest of my life with, and i wouldn't change anything.
I am so proud to have him as my partner.
He is just the best.

I love you so much, words isn't even enough to tell you.
Yours always and forever <3
Mie
xxxxxxxxxxx

Recipe: Filled Chicken With Potato Mash.

2012-02-07T11:58:00.000+01:00

This is not something i normally do on this blog, since the whole blog is pretty much now dedicated to my family life and the kids, not something that it started out as but i don't regret the decision at all to move it from what it was which was basically a rambling of everything into a family style blog that it has become of sorts.

However last weekend myself and Marie had the pleasure of being totally alone in the house as the twins had went away to their dads for the weekend and our daughter Mikaela was away to have a sleep over combined Birthday Party at one of her friends house, so seeing as we had no children in the house we decided that for dinner we would try something completely new and see what it was like.

Leif Mannerstöm

The recipe that i want to share with all of you is something that i had spotted on the TV one night, it was a advert for some sort of brand of chicken we get here in Sweden and the person who was making the dish using this chicken is probably the best chef here in Sweden who goes by the name of Leif Mannerström.
I would seriously urge you to try this recipe if you haven't already done so because after eating this on Saturday i have to say it is now probably my 2nd most favorite dish i have ever tasted in my life! (And that is saying something since i am what Marie would describe as a "fussy eater")

So here you go, i really hope you try it out and like it because you will not be disappointed, i just hope that i managed to get everything correct when i translated it over from Swedish.

Rolled Chicken Filled With Parsley, Bacon & Onion:

Rolled & Filled Chicken Ingredients:

16 Thinly Sliced Chicken Breast (one breast = 4 slices)

1 Sliced Yellow Onion

4 Roughly Sliced StripsBacon

1-2 TableSpoons Of French Mustard

3.4 Oz Hacked Parsley

4 Carrots peeled & chopped into big bits

17 Oz Chicken Stock

8 Skewers

1.7Oz Creme Fraiche

3.4Oz Cream

1 Tablespoon Of Butter

Salt

Pepper

Potato Mash With Parmesan Cheese:

500g Chopped Potato's (the ones you use for mash)

100g Butter

7.03Oz Cream

100g Parmasan

White Pepper

Instructions:

Filled Chicken:

Fry the bacon and the sliced onions until they gain colour and the onions have softened.

Remove from heat and let it cool for a few minutes, Add mustard, chopped parsley, salt & pepper.

Put some of the filling into the center of each slice of chicken and roll them up. Place skewers through the rolled up chicken to secure them.

Place the filled rolled chicken into the frying pan and fry them until nicely brown, once they are browned pour in the chicken stock and let simmer for about 15 minutes.

While they are simmering add the chopped up carrots and let them be in the same time until they have become a soft.

Remove the rolled chicken and carrots from the pan, Add the sour cream, butter and cream into the broth, mix with a hand blender into a broth. If you want it thicker you can use some flour and let it boil for a few minutes.

Potato Mash:

Boil the potatoes in salt water. Drain and steam the potatoes, force it through a potato ricer. Sit in hot cream, softened butter and finally add the parmesan. Season with white pepper.

And Serve.

Well that is it, once again i really hope that you enjoy this meal. It has certainly got my vote as one of the best tasting meals ever and even just the filling that you put inside the bacon can be eaten on the side it is really that great! But give it a try and let me know what you think.

So until next time have a great day.

Birthday Wishes.

2012-02-06T11:35:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was a very special day in the house, why you might be asking? Well my little girl turned 15 years old, and honestly it made me feel like very old!

I honestly still can't believe how fast time has gone, it feels like it was only yesterday that i met this little 9 year old girl and yesterday she turned 15.

She and a few friends had decided to have a combined birthday party on Saturday at a friends house since 3 of them have their birthday in February so she had come home with her Gran & Grandad to celebrate with us yesterday (her real birthday) and we all sat down with some cake that Marie had made and gave our the gifts, i think she was a little bit more than happy at the fact we had gotten her a new laptop, since she had broken the last one. It wasn't actually her fault that it broke but it was unable to be repaired so we had decided that we would get her a new one. So i think that made the day for her at least now she doesn't have to borrow Marie's laptop every time she wants to do something.

I still just can't believe that she is already 15 years old, it's such a scary thing watching your children growing up at times, they are so awsome when they are babies and you think about everything that they will do as they grow up but as they grow you begin to realise than your also growing old but i guess that's just how life is.
But if i had to choose any daughter in the world to have been given she would definitely be my number one choice, i have only known her 6 years but in the 6 years of watching her grow she has become a beautiful and very intelligent young woman who i can see good things for in the future if she continues the way she is.

But for now i shall bid you all farewell, so until next time i hope you have a great day!

Tomorrow i'll be doing something that i don't normally ever do on this blog. I'm going to be sharing a recipe that myself and Marie tried out over the weekend while all the kids were away and i must say if your looking for something very tasty to try out then don't forget to stop by tomorrow!

Kid's Taekwon-Do.

2012-01-30T11:55:00.000+01:00

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!

2012-01-27T11:53:00.000+01:00

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.

2012-01-25T12:21:00.000+01:00

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.

2012-01-23T12:00:00.004+01:00

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!

2012-01-20T11:48:00.000+01:00

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.

2012-01-19T12:07:00.000+01:00

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.

2012-01-18T12:05:00.000+01:00

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

2012-01-16T12:21:00.000+01:00

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.

2012-01-12T12:00:00.002+01:00

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?

2012-01-09T11:54:00.000+01:00

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!

2012-01-04T12:04:00.000+01:00

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.

2012-01-03T11:59:00.000+01:00

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

2012-01-02T12:00:00.001+01:00

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!

New Year's Resolutions.

2011-12-30T11:54:00.000+01:00

Well it's coming to that time of the year, one year is ending and a brand new one is beginning and this year i am hoping to do alot with my life, not just for my own sake but for the sake of my family and everyone around me although most of my resolutions are personal goals that i aim to achieve in the upcoming year.

It's always funny because my New Years Resolutions are normally the same every year and 99% of the time they are broken within the first week of the new year but i am determined this year to make some serious changes and to stick by them.

So here it is my 2012 New Years Resolutions:

Completely disown the English Language (obviously my Blog, Facebook & Twitter will still be in English) but i plan on only speaking Swedish at home no matter what, this is something i have tried every year and for some stupid reason gets abandoned because it's quicker and easier to speak English since my fiancée fully understands the English language.

Spend alot more time with my twin boys. In reality i do spend quite a bit of time with them but not enough doing important things like reading bed time stories, playing games with them and such likes and this is something i really want to change, as i feel that i could have a much better relationship with them if i did alot more with them, other than sit on my computer and blog about their antics.

Spend alot more time with my daughter. This one might be a bit tricky to accomplish, mainly for the reason she is 14 (15 in February) and well spending time with your parents at that age is just certainly not the cool thing to do, but i really want to do it. I still have no idea how i am going to accomplish this one since we don't really have anything in common except for playing Wordfued on our mobiles but i shall find some way!

The next one in the list has to involve the dog, as most of the people who read my blog knows we have a Siberian Husky here at home and although i do not like to admit i have been neglecting him alot as of late, being to lazy to take him out for walks and stuff and this is not right. I wanted to get a Siberian Husky and therefore i must take care of him to the best of my ability and right now i ain't so my New Years Resolution for him is to be alot more active with him, 2 big walks per day and alot of mental stimulation.

Another personal goal is to get back into reading, this is something i used to do alot and love to do and i still love it but i am always finding other things that get in the way and when i think to myself i'm going to sit down and read my book today i end up getting caught up with other things that really could have waited. So definitely going to make more of a effort to at least read a couple of chapters of my book per day if not more, and since i got the 5th book in the "A Game Of Thrones" series i have plenty to read seeing as i have only read the first 2 books so still got 3 left to read! which is awsome.

The next goal and probably one of the most important ones is to get myself a job, i don't even care what it is but just something even if it's only a small part time thing that's only a few hours a week, but i want to get myself out the house and into society, perhaps once i am able to do this i will be able to maybe join a club or something so that i can start to meet people and build up some friendships in Sweden, since currently i have pretty much no friends in Sweden except for a few online friends that live to far away from where i do to actually have any physical contact with them. So getting into something that i enjoy and meeting people and building up friendships would be awsome.

My last goal and resolution for 2012 i think is to become a better blogger, i think in the 6 months that i have been blogging that i have done a pretty damn good job at what i do and grown up quite a audience thanks to some people in the blogging world i have met and the wonderful tribes that i am on Triberr.com. But like everything i do i want to become better at, so my goal for 2012 on the blogging front is to try and double if not triple my view count per month (which is currently sitting at around 6000+ views per month), it might be a big achievement to aim for but i shall try at least!

So there you have it folks, these are my current Resolutions and goals for 2012 and i am hoping that i am able to achieve them all, as i have said before i have a real bad tenancy to let things slide and then when they have just give up and not even bother trying to reach them but i am going to try really hard this year to do them all and become a better person & parent which i think everyone could certainly do.

But what is your person resolutions for this year? anything exciting or just the same old stuff like mines that you are going to try even harder to accomplish? I would be really interested to read! and don't forget to give me your opinions on my own resolutions.

But until next time i hope you all have a really great New Year! and i wish you all the very best to 2012.

I would also like to take a small moment to thank everyone who has helped me promote my blog and helped me in the blogging world to gain a bigger audience if it wasn't for people like Richard from The Butterbottom Blog and many others like him i probably wouldn't be where i am today, and of course a big Thank You to all my viewers who come back time and time again to see what has been happening in my crazy life, you guys are awsome!

What A Christmas!

2011-12-29T14:37:00.000+01:00

I had said to the children when they came home from their dads house on the 23rd that i wanted them to sleep to at least 8am since myself and Marie had made the decision that we would only allow the children to open one Christmas gift in the morning and the rest would be opened in the afternoon once Marie's parents had been around and we were done with that. But being the big kid that i am i was the one that got up at 6am while everyone stayed fast asleep, so i was up sitting in front of my computer with my warm cup of tea enjoying the peace and quiet waiting anxiously for everyone to wake up so we could get down to the business of opening gifts!

The boys were the first to open their gift and let's just say they were very happy with it.

Mikaela was next and i think she was pretty happy with the gift that she received from my parents (Some Jewellery Crafting Kit)

I had decided that because Marie wasn't going to open anything in the morning that i myself would also wait and just play with the kids and their x-box game, plus it gave me time to get myself looking presentable for when Marie's parents arrived at 10:30. We had also decided that we would do a little bit of "fika" as well when her parents arrived since we had decided to eat dinner a bit later with us having a skype call with my parents as well that day.

The boys got a couple of tops and some LEGO which they were more than delighted with!

Mikaela received the one gift she had been going on about for ages a CONVERSE bag!

But after the excitement off the grandparents gifts it was time for the gifts under the tree, all we had heard since Marie's parents had arrived was "When are we opening the preasents under the tree??" Lets just say everyone was spoiled rotten by my parents, sister & family but i think myself and Marie managed to top everything as far as Mikaela was concerned when after all the other gifts was opened we managed to find a gift that hadn't been placed under the tree for her, her first Android mobile phone. I don't think i have ever seen a bigger smile of any kids face than i did when she opened it! And to top it off Marie had bought me one as well, not the same phone but one that i had been looking at online for a few months, so perhaps my smile beat Mikaela's slightly since i didn't think i would get it with it being a bit expensive!

I think my parents bought the kids the ultimate gift as you can see from the above picture of Alexander holding up his new digital camera, it's actually a real digital camera. Obviously not top quality as it's only a children's one but it takes pictures and videos and everything and they absolutely love it, i think they like it even better than the X-Box game that myself and Marie bought them lol.

Marie was also very pleasantly surprised when she opened her Christmas gift from my parents and found that she had got her very own Nintendo DS, something she had been going on and on about for about 4 years solid that she wanted, after seeing my mum playing a few games on hers, so lets just say everyone was very happy with their gifts this Christmas!

But i think that is all for today i hope you enjoy all the photo's that i have put up! it was a fantastic day but now we are getting ready for New Year! hoping that this upcoming year is going to be something special, i think i will be posting up a new post tomorrow about New Year and resolutions but we shall see if i manage to find the time, with all the kids being home it's a bit crazy in here especially when Marie is back at work :)

If you would like to see more pictures taken at the Christmas time then just click on this LINK! and see some more great shots!

Wishing You All A Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T12:00:00.001+01:00

Unlike most countries Sweden is one of those countries that celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December instead of the 25th, when i first moved here i found it very weird and it took a good few years to get used to but now it's just part of me, it's really funny how some traditions of another country can just become a part of you after you have lived there for a few years, especially when you grew up somewhere else and were used to they're traditions.

But i am so looking forward to tomorrow i must admit, not so much for myself as i am not a Christmassy person but there is nothing like seeing the excitement on the kids faces when they wake up in the morning and see that good old Santa Claus has been bearing gifts for them. We have decided to switch things up this year though, as normally we get up and open up all the Christmas presents in the morning before Marie's parents come out with their gifts but this year we are only going to allow the children to open 1 gift and then that will have to do them until Marie's parents have been and gone and then they can open up the rest.
So it's going to be a bit strange again for me since i'm so used to opening everything in the morning but we shall see, i'm pretty sure the kids will be happy either way as we will allow them to open up their xbox game that we got them, so that "should" keep them occupied for a few hours at least, and me too perhaps ;)

Although for the first time ever i am not going to have a white Christmas, we had lovely snow up until last night when it decided it would go and rain and be a bit more warmer and literally melted all the snow away, so for the first time since i can remember i will have no snow at Christmas which is a bit horrible but not much i can do about it :(

But i just thought i would take this time to wish all the people that come to my blog and follow my blog a Very Marry Christmas and hope that you have a awsome New Year!

I'm sorry that the blog posts have been few and far between this week but it's been a bit hectic over here on the lead up to Christmas and to be absolutely honest i have found myself very tired, i don't know why but from the minute i wake up to the minute i go to bed i just feel absolutely exhausted.

So until next time i hope that you have been good and that Santa brings you everything you wished for! and if you have been bad? well good on you! and enjoy the coal in your stocking hehe!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-21T12:00:00.000+01:00

At the weekend it was time to put up our Christmas tree, unlike most tree's ours doesn't get decorated until you can't see the tree at all but it's still nice all the same and the kids love to help out so enjoy some pictures that i took at the weekend of the kids helping out with the tree.

The Finished Product

Couldn't resist grabbing a photo of the dog since he was lying so nicely for a change.

Well that is all for today, again i will try and do more blog posts but it's a bit hectic over here so the chances are none will come, but i hope you enjoyed the photo's of the kids putting up the Christmas Tree at the weekend, but until next time i hope you have a great day!

Job Coach Officially Over.

2011-12-16T11:47:00.000+01:00

So it seems that is the end of my time with the Job Coach officially, i have to admit i have been some what less impressed with the service than i thought i would be, although i was warned by many people who also live in Sweden that job coaches are not exactly the best thing in the world i still half expected it to be slightly better than it was but perhaps i should have lowered my expectations slightly.

Don't get me wrong i have gotten alot further in my job searching than if i would have done it myself with absolutely no help, but my understanding of the whole process was that the job coaches have loads of contacts or network if you would prefer to call it that, and it seems that is not the case exactly, however saying that i must admit i have a pretty nice CV and a few different cover letters now that i can mix and match and play around with so hopefully next year i will be more successful in my job hunting.

Although my time with my job coach is officially over, we shall still meet another few times seeing as we missed quite a few appointments due to her being unwell and having double booked / meetings etc but officially it's over and i have to admit i'm going to kind of miss it, granted i didn't think it was all that great and still think it could have been alot better but i made it what i could make it and as i said i got quite a bit from it although not as much as i was hoping. And even though i cringed at the thought of having to travel into town every a week to meet her for only a couple of hours (Mainly because i knew i would have a 2 hour wait after the meeting) i am still going to miss the interaction with someone other than my direct family over here.

Perhaps i need to get into something like a sport or something that will allow me to have some social interaction with people other than my family, but i guess that is just something i will have to think about in the next coming weeks.

But overall it was a ok experience and i would do it again but perhaps i would try and make it alot more than it was, maybe demand alot more than i did or something along those lines but i got quite a bit out of it at the end of the day so i should be happy with it i guess, and like i said we shall be meeting after the Christmas and New Year to make up for the appointments i missed out on.

But for now i think i shall bid you all farewell, i don't know how i will do with the blogging next week because well it's the week before Christmas and that means it's going to be a bit crazy over here in not so snowy Sweden, but i shall try my best to make a post here and there over the next week but until then have a great weekend!

Not Feeling Very Christmassy

2011-12-15T11:58:00.000+01:00

As the children and my fiancée Marie get more and more excited for Christmas next week i have found myself sitting feeling less and less excited, for what reason i do not actually know but right now it just feels like Christmas is months away instead of being next weekend.

I know that Christmas is the time of the year where families come together and enjoy each others company and has a real fun time exchanging gifts and eating amazing food but every time i look outside i get the feeling of "meh".

To be honest when you look outside into your back garden you expect to see fields of snowy whiteness and the winter chill but instead of that, i am faced with this. Cold and Wet and not of the snowy kind, oh no it's of the rainy kind and how can this possibly promote Christmas.

I have been like normal downloading the latest episodes of my favorite TV shows and most of them are doing their Christmas episodes which is filled with lovely decorations and snow beyond belief and i'm sitting here with rain, rain and wind that just doesn't make me feel very Christmassy at all.

I'm hoping on Sunday that i begin to feel more in the mood for the festive season as we shall be putting up our Christmas Tree with the children and no doubt Marie will be blasting her Christmas music and be all happy, so hopefully i will be able to get in the mood. Obviously i don't try and show my dismay to the children because that is what Christmas is all about, it's about the kids and the spirit that is Santa Claus himself.

But right now the song "It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas" is certianly lying to me right now, but i shall leave you with a little YouTube clip of the Christmas Classic and hope that at least where you are that it is beginning to look alot like Christmas!

But for now i shall bid everyone farewell for today and i hope your having a great day! and if you have some snow where you are, can you do me a favour? and send it my way please!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-14T12:00:00.000+01:00

Sticking with the Christmas theme i found some pictures of last year where we decided that we would take all the kids and the dog up to the football pitch just up from us for a bit of snow fun, was really hoping to do it again this year but the snow we got has all but vanished and outside is currently looking like autumn weather rather than Christmas weather, so enjoy our little play date last year with the family some cracking pictures i must admit and brings back really fond memories.

We Found The Ultimate Gift!

2011-12-13T12:00:00.000+01:00

Last week myself and Marie were in town for our daughters annual parents meeting with the school to see how she was doing, turns out she was doing pretty damn good which was really nice to hear. Because we had a few hours to spare before the train back to Järpås we decided that we would pop into the local gaming store in town to price up these Lego games that we had looked at for the kids, you know just to see if we could possibly get them a bit cheaper in town than we could online and as we were talking to the owner of the store he directed us to what i would consider especially for 6 year old little boys the ULTIMATE game for them!

When we first seen it was like PERFECT! this is something that although comes with the game 3 figures and the summoning platform was fairly priced and looked like it was something the kids would absolutely love, i had personally seen a few adverts online while watching various gaming streams about it but never thought anything off it until he showed us it.

Basically you get the game for the XBOX, PS3 or WII, you get 3 toy figures and what they call a summoners platform for whatever console you may own, we personally have the XBOX so we shall be buying that version and what you do is you plug in the summoners platform and when you start the game you are asked to place one of the 3 toy figures onto the platform. Once you have done this the toy is transported into the game and then you can play that character and each character has unique abilities which help you in the game to get extra items and things like that.

I mean seriously what 6 year old child wouldn't love that! Not only that you can play 2 of the toy's on the platform and play together or in a battle mode against each other! and on top of that you are able to purchase new characters in either a 3 pack or just a single character from your local store, so it means that if they boys are being good one weekend while we are in town instead of going and buying some useless toy that they will probably brake within 5 minutes we can go and treat them to a new character which is awsome!

So i think Christmas is sorted for the little twin boys, not only do i get to teach them and watch them play a game i honestly think it's a game they are going to love the hell out of. I've put a YouTube video below so that you can see what it's like but seriously if your stuck for a Christmas present for either your son or daughter i would highly recommend you checking this out as it looks truly brilliant!

But for now i think i shall bid you all farewell, i would really like to know what you think of this! Hope you have a great day!

The Funniest Thing Happened Last Night.

2011-12-09T13:42:00.000+01:00

Yesterday myself and Marie was up at the school attending the boys i guess you could call it Christmas play, basically all the boys class did was stand behind what was meant to be a pirate ship and sang songs while the older children sang some songs and had some speaking parts, i couldn't quite make it out since they done the production in the school gym and well with all the echo and all the other noise going on but it was something about a ship and a pirate ship i think, but it was fun to watch and Alex & Max really got into the singing.

Unfortunately we we're not allowed to take our camera with us or take any photo's due to one of the children in the production having a protected identity, i have no idea what for but it doesn't really matter. So due to this all camera's and video camera's were prohibited. But the school has taken some photo's which we have been informed that we will receive a copy at some point so although we were unable to take any photo's at least we will get some taken by the school themselves.

But anyways back to the story, with the production going on a bit later than the kids bedtime it was straight home, brush teeth and into bed for the boys, they had already had food up at the school so no dinner was required thank god, don't really like the thought of having to feed them at 7pm at night, but once to bed myself and Marie settled ourselves down for the night to watch some TV and just generally chill out after a long day (Long day for Marie, but not for me i guess).

After a few hours i heard some rustling in the hall way and thought nothing off it since our oldest daughter was up stairs doing homework i just figured she had forgot something and was down the stairs to get whatever it was however when i turned my head there stood a little boy (my son Alexander) eyes wide open, standing in his jammies with his gym bag that had been lying in the hall way. Of course my first reaction was to ask him what the hell he was doing, and why was he not in bed but before i could even get a word out Marie said to me "Hold on a second, just bare with him" i still hadn't a clue what was going on but i left him to it, he then proceeded to say "Good morning Mum" and sat himself down on the arm chair and watch TV.
It was then that myself and Marie understood what was happening, for the first time EVER that we have ever seen out little boy was sleep walking and was still fast asleep the poor wee soul.

I know that some people sleep walk, my younger sister Laken used to do it alot, but i had never actually seen anyone do it especially a 6 year old child and i couldn't do anything but laugh my head off as Marie proceeded to pick him up from the chair and take him back to bed, he never mentioned anything about it this morning so i'm guessing he hasn't realised what he did, but it was just the way he walked through the door like nothing was wrong and it was completely normal holding his gym bag and plonked himself down on the arm chair to watch some TV. I mean normally they don't even watch TV in the morning so i have no idea what made him sit down to do it but it was hilarious.

I honestly wished i had the camera or even a video camera close just to take a video or picture of it because it was a absolute priceless moment i must admit.

Drop me a comment with any funny sleep walking stories you may have, i would love to read them as if i found this funny i could just imagine what other people have seen.

But i think that is me done for the week, i hope everyone has a awsome weekend! But until next time, take care!

Our Landlord Is A Moron!

2011-12-08T12:00:00.000+01:00

There is quite possibly a million reasons as to why our landlord can be quite frankly referred to as a complete and utter moron, at first when we got the house from him he seemed like a really nice guy, i mean when he took us out originally to see the house out here in Järpås he even took myself and Marie up to the local pizzeria for a bite to eat and to discuss stuff which was really nice of him, but over the past few years he has turned into a complete and utter jackass.

Take for example in our son Maximus's bedroom a few years ago for some reason rain was leaking through the window and it happened to run down the wall and turned the wall into complete mush, it was so bad that the windowsill that is attached by screws onto the wall has actually came off, and we have been asking him for the last 2 years to get it fixed and is it done yet? hell no it ain't!
And then you have the upstairs playroom floor, when we moved in the previous owners had obviously done something that left a big hole in the flooring of the room and he said that we just had to pick out what flooring we wanted up there and that he would get it sorted, well at first we decided since the boys were only 2 i think when we moved in that we would just leave it and put a rug over it but a few years ago once more we asked him to get it sorted out and still not done.

Now we come to present day, on Sunday the washroom where our Washing Machine and Tumble Dryer etc is become overflowed with water from the washing machine so Marie called him up and asked him to come and sort it out, he had said that he would be unable to come out tomorrow (meaning Monday) but he would come out and sort it on Tuesday, now this was ok with us i mean sometimes the guy is busy since he does own multiple properties around the area, but Tuesday came and Tuesday went and when Marie had phoned him to ask if he was coming out he had informed her that he was unable to because he got caught up with other things. This is alright if it wasn't for the fact i seen him outside on a snow mobile taking away snow from the apartment building across the street from us!

But we let it slide and yesterday he eventually did come around, sure he sorted the over flowing problem but later that evening when Marie returned from work she got to find the mess he had left, i would have noticed it myself but he had come through to the livingroom where i was sitting and told me he had finished and that it was all sorted now, so i didn't bother to go through and look, but when Marie shouted me through OMFG the whole fricken floor was covered in white powder (Obviously the unblocking agent he had used) which as far as i can tell is actually harmful and that is where the cats food is!

At the moment i'm just so bloody angry at the guy, and just can't wait to get myself a job so that we can start looking for somewhere else to live, because this guy is one absolute moron that i just can't put up with, i would normally start going on about how we should report him etc, but according to Marie's dad we actually can't cause there is no law about it or some crap like that i have no idea so i'm just going to take his word for it, but i mean seriously. Well right now he is actually talking about raising our rent so i have said to Marie that we should refuse to pay the rent increase until everything that is needing sorted in the house is done, but i don't know if she will tell him that or not.

But that is my rant done for today!, Landlords = Morons it's a proven fact!

So until next time, i hope you all have a great day!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-07T12:03:00.000+01:00

So seeing as we are in the December months and leading up to Christmas i decided that Wordless Wednesday will feature pictures from all the Christmas's i've had in Sweden, unfortunately not all was captured on camera so we have to start from 2009 in which my parents and sister came to visit and celebrate with us, i have to admit it has so far been the best Christmas over here, having my family over here along with my parents was just the best ever! I hope you enjoy them.

My folks decided they wanted to go outside for a Family shot turned out really nice in all honesty.

Since in Sweden we don't do this type of thing my Sister decided that she would bring some decorations from the UK so at least the kids could see what sort of things they do in the UK, they loved them.

Folks also brought over some Crackers for us to share at the Christmas table went down a blast, although Marie didn't quite like the party hats lol!

Snow Has Fallen

2011-12-06T12:10:00.000+01:00

I wrote a good while ago named "Winter Is Coming.." as it was looking like it was actually coming however the weather decided that it would make us wait a while longer infact nearly 2 months longer before the first piece of snow hit our lovely small little town and so it has begun!.

It all started last night while i was sitting online playing with some friends Marie came through to ask if i had seen outside yet, of course seeing as i was sitting at my computer headset on talking away with friends from the UK i opted to reply with a "errr no" and now i wished i hadn't got up to look because as i looked out the back door all i could see was little white flutters of snow falling from the sky.

You will notice our tree is a bit broken, from the storm we had a few weeks ago, haven't got around to moving it yet!

Now i have a kind of love/hate relationship going on with snow, i always have had i think but since moving to Sweden it's definitely gotten worse, sure the UK gets snow but Sweden they get SNOW! and i mean by the absolute bucket load. Last year i took the dog up to the local football pitch with all the kids for a bit of a mess around in the snow since Kaiser being a pure bread Siberian Husky loves the stuff and so does the kids and when i stood in it keeping in mind im 6ft 2inches tall well it was up to just above my waste in some parts.

Lovely Snow

Now back to the love/hate relationship part it's quite simple really i love the look of snow, i mean there is nothing like waking up in the morning and seeing that your whole back garden and the rest of the area around you is covered in a beautiful white coat of snow, it just looks amazing, of course after a while and once the kids and the dog has been out in it, it doesn't really have the same look but eventually we get more snow and it covers the footprints etc and looks lovely again.
Also building snow men is quite fun, i haven't actually done it with the kids yet (Don't ask me why because i have no idea) but i would like to go out and do it when we get a bit more this year and have a bit of fun.

Even more lovely snow

But then we come to why i hate the damn stuff, it's not only cold but it's WET and that is probably one of the main reasons why i hate it, not to mention when enough cars and people have walked the roads and paths it becomes near enough impossible to walk on without falling on your ass, sure it's fun the first few times but after the 100th time it becomes more annoying than anything!
And then you have the most annoying thing about snow especially if your bathroom door is located next to your front door, you have children who have been out in the snow at school and having fun coming into the house, now we always get the kids to bang their shoes outside before coming in but obviously this doesn't get all the snow off, so they come in to the house take their shoes of and then leave puddles of water all around the front door area, and if your like us and don't wear slippers you walk around in your socks or bare feet, so you end up walking to the bathroom and on the way your feet end up completely soaked this i can tell you is NOT at all fun!

But i'm still glad we have snow and hopefully we get some more before the Christmas arrives because let's face it Christmas is not Christmas without snow!

But until next time! i hope you all have a great day!

Party Weekend.

2011-12-05T12:00:00.002+01:00

Well our weekend turned into a pretty hectic one if i don't say so myself, on Saturday Marie had decided that seeing as it is the Christmas season that she would spend most of Saturday morning baking with the kids Gingerbread Cookies and letting then decorate them, we have little shapes of things like reindeer's and Christmas tree's etc. So most of Saturday morning was spent baking them and decorating them with icing and chocolate sweeties, some of them turned out really nice and i wished i could have eaten one or 2 but i hate gingerbread so i didn't get to, but the kids had a absolute blast.

Marie had also decided that she would buy a Gingerbread House kit and make it with the kids for a bit of fun as well, but when she opened the box half the pieces of the house was broken, but Marie being Marie she attempted to salvage it by melting down chocolate and then sticking the pieces together with it, but by the time they finished building it with all the broken pieces let's just say it turned out like a house from World War 2 after a blitz attack lol. Safe to say it got thrown in the bin as it was just literally falling to pieces as she was trying to build it. Unfortunately we were unable to take any pictures of their baking or the destroyed Gingerbread House because our camera ran out of batteries and i couldn't locate any of the other ones (Yes Marie loves to take stuff, use it for something and then neglect to remember where she put them lol).

Of course that was not the end of our weekend fun no! not only did they get to do that on Saturday they also got to attend a Birthday party for one of the kids at their school, so Saturday was pretty much a day of sitting baking and eating gingerbread decorated with candy followed up a birthday party with even more candy. Let's just say that by the time they came back from the party they were in full sugar rush swing, but they had such a good time so i guess that is all that matters, but the fun didn't stop there either!
Not only did they have the birthday party on Saturday but then they had ANOTHER one on Sunday, i know right 2 bloody parties in a row! So yet another day was filled with candy and fun and games for them.

And that folks was pretty much the whole weekend, filled with gingerbread and lots of candy for everyone! especially the twins lol, and to top of our fun packed weekend we have a pretty hectic week ahead of us as well with nurse appointments for the twins, followed up by dentist appointments for the twins followed up by parents meetings at the school for the twins and our daughter so it's going to be a non stop week i think.

But until next time, i hope you all had a great day, and sorry for not being able to share any cool pictures of what the kids did with their Gingerbread but you can blame my fiancée Marie for that one :)

Sleep In Friday's.

2011-12-02T12:00:00.002+01:00

There is nothing i find more horrible than the second you wake up and your all warm and happy and sleepy and then you realise! "Oh damn! i slept in!!!!" It is amazing how your mind switches so quickly, you go from being all nice and cosy to a staggering mess of i need to get dressed and out the door as fast as i can before i'm late for the bus to work.

Well that is exactly what happened to us this morning, i have no idea why it happened as it's not something that we normally do, me personally am normally the first one up but this morning oh no that was not the case, i was abruptly awoken to "Ben!!! it's 05:40!!" now for me? it's no issue i don't have to get up at that time and take the kids to the after-school club i could quite easily lay in bed until around 7ish and then just take them directly to school but i like to let the kids go up and have a play with their friends before their lessons begin, but for Marie? well that's a different kettle of fish altogether.

Her bus to work leaves at 06:05 in the morning, and if she misses that well the next one is not until just after 7 which means she would be late for work, so when she screams to me that it's 05:40 it's battle stations to the ready and we better get a move on.

I still cannot understand why we slept in, since we went to bed at the exact same time as we do every night during the week, so the only explanation i can think of is the fact that the night before we were kept awake half the night with our stupid cat mowing her head off because she has went into heat. Normally during this time we put them in another room so that we don't get to hear it but for some reason we decided not to that day and we ended up very tired the next morning. So i guess that was probably the reason behind it.
But it still just amazes me how your mind can be so relaxed and all happy one second and then in a instant it switches to panic mode.

I guess it happens, i used to be really bad for sleeping in when i was a bit younger but the last 6 maybe 7 years i have always been up without a problem, until today! But when i seen that picture online while i was trying to find a nice fitting image for my post today i could not resist, it is such a true statement if you think about it, if you do sleep in it is nearly always during the week when you are not meant to, but when your allowed to sleep in for example the weekends and your days off work because your on holiday you always find yourself up at the crack of dawn when you could have been sleeping.

But i guess that is all for this week, so until next i hope everyone has a great weekend! Mines looks like it's going to be a fun one since we are getting our new couch today (ok it's not actually new, but seeing as our one is falling to bits literally it's new to us) and we also have some baking planned with the kids seeing as we are coming into the Christmas season! So have a good one everyone! i know i will.

You Know The Kids Right!

2011-12-01T11:51:00.000+01:00

Firstly let me start off by saying i'm sorry, i have been not doing very well with my blog over the last few months and i don't actually know why, but i set out to at least write one post per day with the exception of the weekend and yet i find myself only writing 2 or maybe 3 posts per week, i am the same with my twitter and facebook i am very rarely on them these days because i am busy doing other things. So i just want to say i'm sorry for not being more productive but i am going to try and make a concious effort this month to bring you guys at least one post per day! I hope i am able to succeed.

Yesterday my son Alex went through to the kitchen to ask his mum something who was busy sorting out the washing (Laundry to you guys state side) and after a short time of standing there speaking to his mum he came up with a very valid question.

Alexander: "Why does the clock say it's 11:55?"
Marie: "Well because it's broken"
Alexander: "Well if it's broken shouldn't you take it down or why do we still have it sitting on the wall?"

Please ignore the god awful wallpaper, but we have been unable to decorate the kitchen since we moved in.

The kid makes a very good point, i mean why do we still have it sitting on the wall, the clock itself is not physically broken but we have placed new batteries in it a dozen times and for some reason it just seems to drain them like nothing in this world, literally we can place new batteries in the clock and within a week it will be drained and showing the wrong time again.
So there is no real answer to his question as to why we still have it up, i mean i'm pretty sure there is a clock sitting on someone's wall or mantelpiece that doesn't function and yet we still have it there, i still remember that my mum had a clock herself sitting above the cooker in the kitchen that did the exact same thing, you would put new batteries in it and within a few weeks they would be drained and the clock would be showing the same time, and yet she still kept it up there and we do the exact same thing.

I mean why on earth do we do it? it's not like a clock is a ornament or anything like that it's meant to be something that tells you the time and when your in the kitchen helps you keep cooking times etc and yet ours is broken and we still have it sitting there doing nothing.

So i came to the realisation earlier today when i was sitting thinking about it that he is right why do we still have it there?

What about you guys? is it just a select few people that i have came into contact with that do this or is it something you guys have done as well? Would be funny to actually hear people come back with yes we have a clock that doesn't work sitting on our wall or wherever too.

But until next time i think i shall bid you all farewell, i hope you all have a great day!

Första Advent.

2011-11-29T12:00:00.000+01:00

This Sunday marked the first Advent here in Sweden which is known as "Första Advent" for people who are obviously not Swedish like most of my readers are not, Advent is basically the Swedish countdown to Christmas and this weekend was the first one out of four. So with the first advent up Marie got into the Christmas spirit like always, me personally am not one for Christmas i don't know why it's just not a season that really excites me (I know shocking! i'm probably the only person in the world that says that) but it's true. Don't get me wrong i love Christmas for the children but myself i ain't that bothered if it comes or not kind of thing.

The Advest candles

This is the Advent Candles that get placed wherever really, we have ours sitting in the kitchen on our kitchen table but some people have them in their livingroom's etc but this is what we light every weekend on the run up to Christmas to mark each Advent. It's quite strange to me but it's really exciting for the kids so you just got to love it for them really don't you.

But Sunday came and it was time to start putting up the Christmas decorations, we haven't got our tree up just yet as we normally do that the week before Christmas, although i think we might do it a little bit earlier this year since the twins will be away with their dad on the weekend that we are meant to do it, and although most of the time they just get in the way and end up annoying you while your trying to mess around with stupid fairy lights and tinsel it's still a exciting time for them and they should be a part of it i guess.

Our Kitchen Window

For some reason like the American's i guess the Swedish are absolutely fascinated with lights, granted we don't go to the extreme of decorating the whole outside of our house in fair lights and big Santa Claus's and such likes but they have to have these lights or other types of lights in nearly every window of the house, it's great for the kids though since every year they get there big star in the window.

Maximus's Bedroom Star

Alexander has quite a similar one and i don't know why but they love them, i guess it just makes it feel more more like Christmas in their bedroom, plus a extra night light at the same time, but unfortunately one of our stars broke last year that was situated in the boys playroom so Marie went out and bought a special one for there, and the kids loved it!

Santa Lights!!!

We still have a few decorations to put up though, but we cannot seem to locate them. They are actually not something the Swedish people put up but my parents brought them over a couple of years back when they came to celebrate Christmas with us and the kids fell in love with them so once we actually locate them, we will need to put them up to, just to make it feel a little bit more like Christmas as our livingroom is a little bit dull even though we have our mini Santa Claus figures and lights up on the window.

But i think that is all for just now, until next time have a great day! and get ready for the stream of Christmas themed posts to come!

The Hunt For The Book.

2011-11-28T12:00:00.002+01:00

Since the boys have started school, the school has been taking them every Wednesday to the local library here in town so that they are able to get some books to take home and read. For me this is probably one of the most greatest things that our schools here in Sweden do, i recall being back in school at their age myself and i can not once remember the school taking us to the local library to check out books.

But of course with this comes some problems, and the main one being the question on a Tuesday night "Where the hell is that book!" and that is exactly what happened last Tuesday. When the kids had returned from School Marie had taken out the little receipt that the library provides with the list of books that each child has taken and asked the boys to go and get the books they had taken so that we could check them off the list to be returned the next day.

However Alexander had apparently misplaced one of his books and no matter how much he searched he could not find it anywhere, now we had made the big mistake of allowing them to take the books up to their playroom which for anyone with children will know a child's designated playroom is ALWAYS like there has been a war going on. There is toys, books and all sorts lying around up there, and no matter how many times we tidy the room up and ask them to tidy the room up no later than 5 minutes later the room is exactly the same way again. But children will be children and you cannot expect them to be all neat and tidy, especially when you have twin boys.

So of course when we found out that a book was missing the hunt for the book began, we began by telling them to go up stairs and tidy the playroom up in the hopes that he would be able to locate it as they put things away, but after a hour of cleaning they had still not found the book at all, so the search began and let me just say it was a very long one. We searched his bedroom which was absolutely spotless i mean for them creating such havoc in the playroom they really know how to keep their bedrooms nice and clean but we could not find it there either.

After a good hour of looking up and down the stairs we eventually found the missing book, and you wouldn't believe where it had been placed, out of everywhere it could have been located for example under the sofa (Yes the kids have 2x 2 seater sofa's up in their playroom for when they're watching DVDs) or some place like that logical places i would call them we finally located the book and where was it?
It was sitting in the hole of the cats scratching post! Like really? I have no idea how it ended up there or why Alexander or Maximus decided that the hole of to the cats scratching post would be a great place to put a book that wasn't even their's but that was exactly where it was.
I guess they thought that while our cats were sharpening their claws on the scratching post that they would like some reading material, you know like when men go to the toilet and they take a magazine just for something to do. But i really have no idea.

So in total it took us nearly 3 hours to find this one book, i was kind of glad that we did locate it though, because we certainly did not want to pay the fine that we would have received. It's pretty safe to say that we have learned out lesson on that one and have banned them from taking the books up to their playroom or anywhere else for that matter, so combat the problem we have gave them a space in the bookshelf we have in the livingroom now and if they want to sit down and read one of the books they have taken from the library then they can sit in the livingroom and do it. At least until the point where they get a bit more responsible.

But for now i think i shall bid you all farewell, so until next time! Have a great day.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-23T11:57:00.000+01:00

Seeing as every other blogger around seems to do a Wordless Wednesday, i thought i would jump on the bandwagon! So for the first time in the Angry Scot history, here is my Wordless Wednesday picture!

Picture was taken during our summer, when we visited Sommarland here in Sweden, i don't know why but every time i look at this picture i just smile, it could be something to do with the look on my oldest daughters face or the fact that i see how much fun they were all having, either way this is one of my most favorite pictures of all the kids together.

Twins - Why Won't They Listen.

2011-11-22T11:46:00.001+01:00

I would like to start of by saying having twins is probably one of the most amazing and challenging things any parent can have, on one hand you have all the stuff that makes having twins great. The fact that they have a friend they can always play with who is exactly the same age as themselves, then you have all the firsts that you get to experience with your child growing up, like first step, the first word and the first everything else but you get to experience them twice!

But you also have double the trouble and my little boys are definitely the definition of the word trouble, not all the time granted sometimes they are the sweetest little boys you can possibly imagine and then sometimes the devil horns come out, but it's not just one it's TWO!

I would ask you ignore my bad attempt at Photoshop.

As of late my two little devils have just become that, they absolutely refuse to listen to anything, it's like we don't exist and if we do they don't care. Last night they asked if they were able to go up to their playroom after dinner and play with their Lego. So Marie had started her sentence and just before she got to the point of saying so you guys get one chance, Alexander jumps into the conversation with "We know one chance"

It was more than obvious that he hadn't paid any attention to the rest of the conversation but he already knew what his mum was about to say and decided he would take it upon himself to finish the sentence for her.

But we decided that we would let them go up and play even after the bit of cheek, but sure as i am sitting here what happens after not even 30 minutes of being upstairs apparently playing, we hear that god awful laugh, now i love to hear my children laugh i really do, i think a child's laugh can make a day that is going really bad really good and uplift your spirits, but my little twin boys have one particular laugh and when this laugh occurs you know without a shadow of a doubt that they are not playing anymore and are doing something they shouldn't be.

So instead of going up and trying to see, since it never works and they always hear us coming up the stairs we decided to just shout up the stairs to stop whatever they were doing and play nicely, but 10 minutes later once more the laugh of destruction i think i will call it began again. Of course seeing as this was the second warning it was automatic "Alexander to your room and Maximus to yours" and that was the end of play.

The only thing that i cannot seem to work out is why won't they just listen the first time, i wouldn't say my children are spoiled because they ain't, but they have plenty of toys and other things upstairs that they could be having fun doing and yet when we let them go up and play on their own there little devil sides come out and they start getting up to mischief, and after repeated warnings still refuse to listen. We are even at the stage now where Santa is watching them and if they don't behave then he will strike one item of their Christmas list until all they have left is a piece of coal in their stocking but even that doesn't work!.

I would normally put this down to a phase with them but seeing as it's been on going for the last 2 years i doubt that it's that.

Granted i would not change them for the world, even though they get up to stupid things on a daily basis and find themselves in their bedrooms playing alone on most days when you get that little 10 minutes of bliss and you see them being all sweet and nice it makes everything worth it. I never thought i would ever experience twins but i am so glad that i have, because having one child is awsome but having 2 identical children is just even more fun.

I just wished they would learn to listen to us!

But i think i shall bid you farewell for now, so until next time have a great day!.

My Wee Boys Growing Up!

2011-11-21T11:53:00.000+01:00

No before anyone jumps to the conclusion this is not a birthday post, actually most of you by now are probably aware that they already had their birthday but just for the folks that didn't i thought i would clarify that, but no the reason they are growing up is because for the first time ever on Sunday they played their first Xbox 360 game.

Ok so not a massive deal for most i guess, but seeing as i am a gaming nerd it's HUGE for me, i mean it won't be long now until we can all play games together and play against each other, and i think that is brilliant. Seeing as the twins are only 6 it's not like we have lots of stuff we can do together except play with toys so them being able to get into something that i myself enjoy doing just makes me one very very happy daddy indeed.

But myself and Marie had been talking on Friday night about what to get them and Marie had suggested that we could perhaps see if we could pick up a game or two for the Xbox for them, i personally thought that them being 6 was perhaps a little to young, seeing as the Xbox controller can be pretty fiddly with all those buttons and the movement button being a little stick that you have to move around, but Marie felt that they had to at least begin to learn.
Seeing as they are into games and into Lego we started to take a look at some of the Lego titles that they have out for the Xbox 360 and low and behold they have Lego Star Wars! i couldn't believe it, so i think we shall probably end up getting a copy of that for them for the Christmas which will be excellent, the game itself after looking on YouTube seems pretty easily played for all ages so i don't think they will have any problems once they get to grips with the buttons and it also has a extra person running around with them so that a parent can jump in at any time and help them if they get stuck, or they can just run about together in circles having fun.

So yesterday we decided to give them a little shot, unfortunately i only have grown up titles so the choice was limited for them to play but we let them have a little shot of PGR which for anyone who doesn't know is just a straight forward racing game, safe to say it didn't go to well and most of the time they were both just sitting there getting annoyed because all their car would do was go around and around in a circle, so we decided that we should maybe give them something a bit easier to play, and seeing as they are both little boys we gave them a shot of Mortal Combat Vs DC Universe, it's your standard run of the mill fighting game and they loved it, i think they spent about 45 minutes just beating the crap out of each other, and hey i would rather them do it in a game than hitting each other outside of the game, which is also something they enjoy doing from time to time.

But it was just so fun to see them sitting their playing with each other and not arguing about this and that, and like i said seeing as i am a gamer myself it's nice to get them started. I know that some parents don't like their children playing computer games, but i think it's a wonderful thing, as it teaches the children great hand and eye co-ordination and depending on the game itself it teaches them problem solving skills as well.
Obviously you don't want them sitting in front of a TV all day playing, but i think a couple of hours every few days is quite alright.

But what are your thoughts? Do you think 6 is to young of a age for children to be playing Video Games? or do you have the same thoughts as me? I would be really interested to hear your thoughts and opinions on it!

But until next i shall bid you all farewell.

Can You See My Children Yet?

2011-11-17T11:20:00.000+01:00

I had to have a wee chuckle to myself yesterday when the boys came home from school, it all started after dinner and we were doing what we normally do and sitting around the couch watching some TV shows and just chilling out when Max informed us that for the second time in the space of about 2 months they had been given "High Vis Vests".
Now this is great, i think it is absolutely brilliant that the school provide such things to the children, since in the morning it is extremely dark and because we have to cross a road having these would be fantastic.

The only little snag in there whole plan was that the current autumn rain jacket and trousers that we purchased was already high vis. So i told the boys well you don't need them because you already have big bright yellow jackets and trousers so i'm more than sure that everyone on the road can see you a mile away, but apparently the boys teacher had informed the whole class that they MUST wear these things.

So this morning i was getting them ready for school and i placed all there stuff on the the stairs like i always do jacket, rain trousers, boots, gloves, hat & scarf and went away to get myself ready so that i could take them up, but when i returned they were both just standing there. Of course my immediate reaction was to tell them to get a move on and to get there stuff on but then Max turned around and said to me "What about our other jackets we have to take" i tried to explain to them once more that they did not require them but they wouldn't let it drop so this morning they have gone out with high vis rain jacket & trousers and a high vis vest on top of that, i was honestly in fits of laughter.

I guess i should be thankful i mean it was awsome of the school to provide them and i think all schools around the world should do so, since i'm pretty sure that not every child in the world walks to school in the dark with high vis rain jackets on etc but they looked like some sorry state this morning, i swear if god forbid a car does not see them and something happens i will honestly sue to the person and then pay for them to go and have there eyes tested, they both looking like like LaLa from the Teletubbies.

This is LaLa for anyone who doesn't know what the teletubbies is, but that is exactly what i kept seeing every time i looked down at them this morning, 2 little teletubbies walking away to school.

So does the schools in your area provide these? would be interested to find out if they do or not, and if they don't i really think you should bring it up and maybe get the schools to provide them, i know some parents drive there kids to school but still they are always very handy especially when we are coming into the winter months and it is really dark in the morning and in the evening, but i would suggest if your child already has a high vis jacket of sorts to walk around in as his/her's normal jacket don't put one of these on them, it's cruel. Although my children love it for some odd reason, i think it's just the fact that they are new and you know what children are like with new things.

But for now i shall bid you all farewell, until next time!

What Are They Teaching Them??

2011-11-16T11:48:00.000+01:00

So the other day Marie went up to put Max to bed and decided that she would stop in on our daughter and see what she was up to since we hadn't seen her since pretty much dinner time. It turned out to our surprise and without even having to ask her that she was sitting in her bedroom doing some studying, great i thought at least she's taking school seriously.

However when i found out what she had to learn both myself and Marie were a bit confused i mean seriously what in gods name is the school trying to teach the children to become? DOCTORS?

It turned out that the questions were all medical related, lucky for Mikaela that her mum is a nurse at the local hospital and deals with all kinds of patients, well not so much now since she has a new job as a Administrator but her knowledge is pretty damn good of different illnesses and diseases etc so Mikaela began to rattle of some questions that she was having problems getting answers to, i don't think she has realised that Google is her best friend yet but it was nice that she decided to ask instead of not bothering.

But some of the questions were absolutely stupid i mean one was "Why does someone get leukaemia?". Seriously what type of stupid question is that?? nobody knows why people get it just some people are very unlucky and end up with these god awful illnesses, there is no rhyme nor reason to why it happens it just does unfortunately.

I just don't understand why they are being taught anything like this though, i recall biology at school etc and not once did we go into anything medical, of course that was many moons ago so guess things have changed since then but i don't understand the importance in teaching them it, i'm more than sure if any of their family members had any sort of illness that they would already be informed about what it was and such likes but i don't see the point in it being in the school curriculum but perhaps that's just me.

I guess i should be grateful that they are at least teaching the children something of importance rather than stuff that they don't really need to know etc but at the same point i'm still left wondering why?

But i think that is enough for today, i hope everyone is having a awsome week! So until next time.

Nice Relaxing Weekend.

2011-11-14T11:26:00.000+01:00

As most people are aware by now every other weekend myself and my fiancée Marie get a nice kid free weekend, well it's not totally kids free since we still have our oldest daughter at home, but she is the typical teenager who just sits in her bedroom all day sitting online and watching TV etc, so we might as well be kids free.

So i decided that i would have a awsome relaxing weekend and not stress about anything and what can i say it was fantastic. I started my Saturday morning out in front of the computer dealing with this and that and then decided that i would spend the rest of the day reading my book, since i had been going on about getting back into reading i decided that since it was so nice and peaceful in the house that i would take the opportunity to do just that. I think in total i spent around 4½ to 5 hours just sitting listening to music while reading my book and it was amazing.

You know when you pick up a book and then you just get engrossed in it and can't put it down well that is how it was.

After a good read we then had dinner and decided that we would sit and just chill out and watch a new series that i had downloaded called "FRINGE" which is some sort of Sci-Fi type TV show which actually kind of reminds me of the X-Files but without the alien stuff, but i have to say it's a really awsome TV show so if you haven't seen it before i would highly recommend you taking a look at it if your into Sci-Fi type things.

Sunday was pretty much the same as on Saturday, got up and done some stuff around the computer and then sat most of the day reading my book, i don't know what the hell Marie was thinking but as i was sitting there having a nice relaxing Sunday she had decided that she would go outside, in the freezing and very wet weather and cut our grass. Granted it had been needing done since it was a jungle out there but the whole place was soaking wet so i just didn't see the point.

So while i'm sitting in doors enjoying myself, my lovely fiancée was outside cutting our grass, some people would say that was a bit bad of me, but it wasn't my fault honest!

It was also Fathers Day here in Sweden on Sunday, so i got a nice new massive mug for my cups of tea from my daughter which was also great, another reason why i won't feel guilty about not going out to cut the grass, fathers day should be a day where daddy gets to sit down and relax or at least that's my excuse!

So that was my awsome weekend, i wished it hadn't ended in all honesty, i love having the kids home and stuff but when your able to just sit down with a good book and just relax and read without having to hear children argue and fight over the stupidest thing it is just really blissful.

But i think that is enough for today, what did you guys get up to the weekend? anything exciting?

Until next time!

The Christmas Lists.

2011-11-11T12:00:00.002+01:00

I know it's possibly a little to early to start to even consider Christmas but in our household apparently that is the only thing on everyone's minds, or at least everyone except for myself. It's not that i don't look forward to Christmas because of course i do, there is no greater thing in the world than waking up on Christmas morning to see the look on the children's faces when they know Santa has came and left them all these wonderful gifts, and then you have dinner which is always amazing.

I think to date the best dinner was 2 years back when my parents and sister made it over here to celebrate it with us, which i could imagine was rather strange for them keeping in mind that in Sweden we celebrate Christmas on the 24th and not on the 25th. I tell you something moving over from the United Kingdom and then finding out that is how it's done was a very strange experience to say the least but least my sister got her Birthday (24th December) and Christmas on the same day that year, i think it was more odd for her than it was ever for me.

But around about this time of the year the children of course begin to get excited about it and on top of that the lovely TV decides that now is a great time to start advertising every single children's toy under the sun just to make it even more annoying, so last night the twins and our oldest came down with their lists for us to see and of course send of to Santa, safe to say they won't be getting sent to Santa just yet, i mean he's still sleeping ain't he! (Don't start laughing, you know he exists!) and we cannot disturb Mr Claus when he's fast asleep with silly letters, so these will obviously wait another couple of weeks before they get sent up to the North Pole!

After reading the lists i was actually quite surprised, well at least for the twin boys i mean normally they have some crazy stuff, like last year Alexander wanted a Toothbrush for his Christmas, he has one but he wanted one from Santa but this year he seemed to pick pretty normal things, well except for him wanting a PC which safe to say Santa will not be accommodating him with. But here is some of the stuff he decided he wanted this year for Christmas:

Alexander:

Drums & Guitar
Star Wars Stuff (He doesn't actually know what Star Wars is yet, but at least the boy has taste)
Monster Truck (I'm guessing he means a toy one, or at least i hope so!)
Lava-lamp (Do not ask me where he got this crazy idea from)

Maximus:

Aeroplane
Vacuum Cleaner (Ok i didn't notice this until just now, and i'm still a bit baffled by it)
Police Stuff i.e. Cars etc
Hot Wheels Stuff

I'm still a bit confused because they have also mentioned that they both would like a new bike, which they won't be getting because they don't need one, their bikes that they have are only 2 years old and both look like they have just came out of the factory and are still a wee bit bigger than they require, so a bike is not something they are needing. Although i might have the type of bike wrong, since that is all they have written.

Our daughter though has as always got the insane list, i'm quite sure she sits online looks for the most expensive items in the whole world and says ok i want that, that and that i mean some of the stuff that she has mentioned she already has and yet she's added she wants new ones.

Mikaela:

Mobile (Granted the one she has is now broken, that is why touch screens are crap)
Computer (She just got a laptop for her Birthday this year... Go figure)
System Camera (Not to sure what that is in English, but it's one of those really expensive camera's)
Shoes (I'll buy her shoes, if i'm allowed to take the 50 pairs she has upstairs and burn them)

So yea the crazy lists are in and ready to head up to Santa's workshop, but what about you guys? have your children began thinking of Christmas or is it still to early for that even as the time fly's by, i mean we only have something like 6 weeks before Christmas is here.

But for now i think i shall bid you all farewell and hope you have a great weekend, myself and Marie have a kids free weekend again since the boys are heading off to their dads so time for some well deserved rest and relaxation, lets hope that none of us end up sick again like last time.

Until next time folks

I Need To Get Back Into Reading.

2011-11-10T12:00:00.000+01:00

It came to me today while i was sitting around online that i really need to get back into reading, it used to be something that i loved doing but for some strange reason these last few months i have just not picked up a book, sure i take my book when i head into town for my job coach meeting but that is normally the only time i ever even look or think of looking at a back and i need to get back into it.

The thing is, is that i need to make time for it and there lies the problem i know i have ample time to read without any problems but i'm always finding other things to do instead that are not exactly important, normally it's sitting down and looking around the internet for different things, or checking out blogs and playing games online and instead of doing all these things i could be sitting down with a book and doing what i used to love, reading but why don't i?

I think my fiancée Marie put it best the other day when we were discussing something, don't ask me what because my brain is like a sieve half the time, i swear i would forget my own name if i didn't use it alot lol but during the conversation she said your a addict and she's right, i'm not a addict to anything bad or at least what i would call bad like drugs or alcohol but i'm a addict to things i get into.
Take for example blogging, i always thought it was something i would never be interested in, because well as many of you guys can tell by reading my posts on a daily basis, my spelling, grammar and story telling abilities leave much to the imagination, sure i write some ok blog posts and people comment and like them, but i'm not the best and probably never will be (Lucky i just do it for fun). But when i got into blogging i started reading about, and looking for ways to increase my traffic, get more comments and such likes.

This is pretty much how i operate, whenever i get into something i have to study it, read about and i end up forgetting things around me that i could be doing like reading, sure i'm reading things online and trying to learn more about whatever my addiction is at that point but it's not the same as sitting down with a great book and taking yourself off on an adventure, Marie even went out and bought me the "Game Of Thrones" collection (Still needing the last book, but got the first four) and i have only managed to read the first book and am still plodding away through the second, normally i would be finished them all by now but i just find myself doing other things instead.

So i have decided that i need to get back into it, i want to get through all the Game Of Thrones books i have and get the newest one and get through that too, and then find some other series that i can sink my teeth into, i think reading is important, not only for children but for adults to because it takes you off into another land and it brings alot of enjoyment, or at least i believe so. I know there is many people out there that don't enjoy reading and think it's pointless but i for one am going to try and make more of a effort in doing it!

But for anyone who doesn't know about "A Game Of Thrones" series i would highly recommend you check it out, George R.R. Martin is a very talented author and i think if your into medieval/fantasy type genre's you will really get into this collection, and you should also check out the TV show that they brought out for the novel, it's only got one season so far, as season 2 will be released next year but the book and the show are both amazing.

But for now i think i shall bid you all farewell, i'm going to head off and maybe just maybe pick up that book and start to read again!

A Little Piece Of Independence

2011-11-09T12:04:00.000+01:00

Old picture, But it's fits

For a few months now i have been climbing the stairway to hell as i like to call it, actually it's a bit silly to be calling it that since i now no longer feel like i'm about to die when i reach the top but i found myself thinking for a few weeks now that perhaps it is time the boys went to school on their own, now of course i'm not talking the full way there because there is a busy road especially at that time of the morning when people are leaving for work etc but at least a small part of the way.

So i decided on Monday that i would try it out and see how it went, i mean there is really no reason for me to walk all the way up to the school and enter it just to watch the boys take off their jackets and footwear and say goodbye, because i can say goodbye to them when i drop them off and watch them head off, plus i think this gives the boys a little bit of independence, i don't know if i'm right but i think it's good for them to feel that it is their responsibility to get themselves into the school premises.

My big plan was to walk them all the way up to the staircase and then let them head off themselves up the stairs and into the school yard, basically for anyone who never read my "I Have Met My Nemesis" post a while back it basically goes the path then the staircase followed by the actual school yard but as we were walking up towards the stairs i started to get a horrible feeling in my stomach, i don't know if it's just the fact i have been walking them all the way for so long that i found it hard to let go but i just couldn't do it, i know it sounds stupid but i looked up that staircase and seen how dark it was and i came to realise that i would not be happy until i seen that they had made it up there themselves, so i decided to make a edit to my little plan and took them all the way up the stairs and left them there, at least that way i know they had made it to the school yard.

Again i know it's stupid since the staircase leads directly onto the school yard, but it was dark and it's covered in tree's and bushes and i just didn't like it but i think that is just me having issues letting go, but i took them up and said my goodbyes at the top the staircase. The boys were actually pretty surprised that i wasn't going all the way with them and began to ask me why, was i having to go and get myself ready for something or was it something else that was stopping me from taking them all the way. But after my reply off "You don't need me to take you into school your both big boys now" i could see that little smile on their face, they both seemed to have this small realisation that they were big boys now and couldn't have been more happy about it.

This little plan of mines has actually worked out rather well for everyone now including our little Siberian Husky Kaiser, because normally i would leave him home and have to take the boys to school before i came back to pick him up for his morning walk, but now i can actually take him with me and add a little extra time to his morning walk and it allows him to walk with the kids as well which he doesn't get to do that often so all in all it really worked out great.

But what do you guys think? i mean they are only 6 years old and i still get this feeling i'm doing the wrong thing, but seeing the look on their face when they get to walk up the tiny wee hill to the school doors on their own is just brilliant, they are so happy about it.

But i think for now i shall bid you all farewell, so until next time have a great day!

I Made Dinner!! - Mac 'n' Cheese

2011-11-08T12:00:00.000+01:00

At the end of last week i made a blog post asking my fellow bloggers and followers to give me some hints, tips and some recipes to help me get started cooking, the reason behind this was that Marie my fiancée became very ill on the Thursday and it occurred to me that i had no idea how to make dinner for myself or for the kids, because i have been so reliant on Marie to take care of that type of thing.

So feeling a bit down i decided to call upon everyone and then yesterday after a horrible day in town doing the weekly food shop i came home and decided that i would give cooking a whirl, and what better dish to start off with than the American classic Mac 'n' Cheese! I have no idea why i wanted to make this but i have seen it on several cooking shows like Master Chef etc and it has always appealed to me and i have always said every time that i see it, i really want to make it, so yesterday my adventure into the land of cooking began.

Let me first start off by saying, anyone that thinks cooking is easy is absolutely insane! It is now on my top 10 list of the hardest things i have ever done in my life, i honestly can't believe people that do it as a profession or on a daily basis. You would think that following a recipe would be one of the easiest things there is but when there is more than one step for example: Stick X in oven and wait 20 minutes it becomes a bit overwhelming, well at least for my first time it did lol.
Not to mention the strength it takes, i honestly can't understand now looking back to the chef's that i have seen who are not exactly in the best shape of their lives how in gods name they manage to stir a pot of "x" for "x" minutes.

But my lovely friend from America "Holly" gave me the recipe and off i went:

1 (8 ounce) package macaroni
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1 cup cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
fresh ground black pepper, to taste
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded good quality
1/2 cup breadcrumbs, buttered

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°F Cook and drain macaroni according to package directions; set aside In a large saucepan melt butter. Add flour mixed with salt and pepper, using a whisk to stir until well blended. Pour milk and cream in gradually; stirring constantly. Bring to boiling point and boil 2 minutes (stirring constantly). Reduce heat and cook (stirring constantly) 10 minutes. Add shredded cheddar little by little and simmer an additional 5 minutes, or until cheese melts. Turn off flame. Add macaroni to the saucepan and toss to coat with the cheese sauce. Transfer macaroni to a buttered baking dish. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Bake 20 minutes until the top is golden brown. (You can also freeze this recipe in zip-lock bags for later use - once you have mixed the macaroni along with the cheese sauce allow to cool to room temperature before adding to your freezer - I generally pull it out the night before and allow macaroni and cheese to reach room temperature; I then add the macaroni and cheese to a buttered baking dish, sprinkle with bread crumbs and then bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until golden brown on top and bubbling.

The ingredients!

Now it seemed simple enough nothing to challenging, or at least so it would seem, the whole put this in a saucepan and stir for 2 minutes constantly followed by adding this to the saucepan and stirring for a further 10 minutes constantly wrecked my arm, admittedly i got Marie to help me out and take over some of the stirring and adding stuff while i stirred because I DON'T HAVE 3 ARMS!

I cannot for the life of me figure out how you are meant to stir, while holding the handle so that the saucepan doesn't go spinning around and around as you are stirring away and then on top of that adding more ingredients it just baffles me like you wouldn't believe (Insert Laughing Here!)

It turns out that i made some fundamental mistakes as i used the same pan that i had just cooked the macaroni in to then cook the sauce let me just say DON'T DO THIS! i didn't put 2 and 2 together to come up with 4 and realise that adding butter to a already heated pan would make it stick no matter how quickly i was at stirring it, but i managed to salvage it and get the sauce to come up pretty nice if i don't say so myself, but next time i do this i will make sure to cook the sauce and the macaroni in 2 separate pots, i also think i made a slight error with the top crust, either that or we don't get the same breadcrumbs over here that you do in the states, but although some of it got hard and nice and golden brown after 20 minutes there was still alot of loose breadcrumbs lying around, so i think i maybe never added enough butter on top with the breadcrumbs or maybe i wasn't meant to do that at all, but that is what Marie had written so i followed what she wrote.

The finished product.

All in all it actually turned out really well, myself and Marie enjoyed it and the kids well you know what some children are like with trying new things, it looks weird and i don't like it! But i think i shall try it again and perhaps make a small batch without the breadcrumbs since that is what my oldest daughter and Alexander (one of the twins) didn't seem to like about it, and see how it turns out, and perhaps add a little extra cheese just to give it a little more cheesy flavour as i felt there wasn't enough cheesy flavour in it, although that was perhaps because of my small mistake with using the same saucepan twice without letting it cool down.

But for my first ever time attempting to cook a dish from scratch, i think i did a pretty damn good job! Granted i got lots of help from Marie, but i think i will be confident enough next time to perhaps do it all myself, especially knowing now what to do and what not to do.

But for now i think i shall bid you all farewell and leave it there, so until next time!

Why I Shouldn't Go Shopping!

2011-11-07T14:08:00.000+01:00

I had got a phone call the other day from my job coach to schedule a new meeting since she had been sick for our last one and it has now been 3 weeks before our last appointment. With Marie being sick she decided to take it upon herself for some revenge. How did she get her revenge? She gave me the weekly shopping list and told me to go and get the shopping done.

One of most hated things i know off in this world is food shopping, it's not that it's difficult but let me just tell you why i hate it so much:

Marie writes things like "Sausages" now everyone is probably thinking ok, what's the problem with writing sausages, well in Sweden going to buy sausages is like going into a liquor store to buy beer, there is about 300,000 types of sausages, so when someone in Sweden says or writes go buy sausages i'm like WHAT BLOODY TYPE??!??!

It is the same thing for bread, if she asks me to go and buy bread i am literally totally bloody lost, i have no idea what type of bread because in Sweden you have about a million different types of bread, from normal loafs to bread that is like rock solid hard, you probably get it in another places around the world as well, but certainly in the UK buying bread is a easy task, but in Sweden it is like doing a mathematical equation.

People shopping in Sweden annoy the hell out of me, literally you are walking down a isle and next minute your stopped dead in your tracks by a shopping trolly, just sitting there with food and all sorts in it, the trolly apparently doesn't have a owner because there is nobody around until you see someone 4 isles over walking back to it, like WHY OH WHY would you leave your damn cart in the middle of another isle and go off on to another one?? I'm totally confused! I've actually had tendencies to take there trolly and walk away with it and place it somewhere stupid in the supermarket just to teach them a lesson.

I honestly could go on and on with this list, and probably fill a book with reasons why i should never go food shopping but i think i will stop there because i think everyone gets the idea, i'm guessing that i am probably the only person in the world that has all these problems but if i'm not share your food shopping hates! So i feel like i am not alone lol.

But until next time... i shall bid you all farewell.

Needing Help! Cooking.

2011-11-04T11:00:00.000+01:00

Yesterday came and it turned into a not so great day, why did it turn into a bad day? well my partner Marie came home early from work totally and utterly destroyed, whatever i had caught over the weekend she had got but it had came to her with a vengeance ready to destroy her, honestly i have never seen her so ill, she spent pretty much the whole day yesterday lying in bed in between rushing to the toilet to be sick.

Not really the best thing to happen when i am completely useless without her or so i found out, it's not that i can't handle the children alone that's the easy part and takes almost no effort but after collecting them from school it came to the point of the day i have no idea about DINNER!

For anyone who knows me and for those who don't, i am completely useless in a kitchen. It's not that i don't want to cook or anything like that it's just that i have no idea how to, or well i know the basics but when it comes to looking in the fridge and freezer and saying oh we have this and that, ok i'll make this it's just a complete and absolute no go, i just draw a blank every time, and with Marie not being any help (couldn't really expect her to be) i was left a lone soldier to fight this war.

Turns out i gave the kids the choice and they wanted noodles so i managed to whip them up for the kids and that was their dinner, ok i know not exactly the best meal, but they had already eaten a few hours before at school so it was no big deal, but for me? well i ended up having a nice dinner of a cup of tea and 4 slices of toast. Normally it wouldn't bother me but i had not eaten the rest of the day so sitting down to 4 slices of toast was just crap.

So i have come to realise i really need to learn to make some dishes that are simple and easily made and then maybe from there i can expand and learn to cook nice meals, because right now i am useless, so i am appealing to my fellow followers and blogging friends, help me out here. I need some simple dishes that i can whip up that don't require to much skill, and by skill i mean that it takes me about 20 minutes just to chop a onion and even then it's more like i have hacked it to bits with a cleaver.

For my American friends, i would love to be able to make Mac & Cheese, and from what i gather you guys are the master of it, so any tips on this dish would be awsome, i'm not to sure if it's easy to make but i'm guessing you guys can help me out, but as i said any help with any dish that is easy to make would be great so i can at least begin to learn how to cook.

So have you guys got any tips, tricks or recipes that you think a novice like me can whip up quickly in times of need?

But for now i think i shall bid you all farewell... Until next time, have a great weekend!

A Blast From The Past!

2011-11-02T11:00:00.001+01:00

The other day i was checking my Facebook feeds like i do normally and i came across something that just blew my mind away, a very very old friend of mines who used to train me when i was doing Taekwon-Do had found and posted up some pictures from decades ago and i just thought i would post them up here.

It's really amazing that when you see pictures from your past you wish you could relive those moments, what i wouldn't give to be 13 again.

That's me on the right, wasn't i cute? Errrr no!

This picture was taken just after the Black Belt grading that myself and Ian, the boy on the left hand side had just attended, i have to say that was the most scariest experience i have ever been through, mainly for the fact that the gradings to obtain your Black Belt was done by a 5th Degree Black Belt Master and trust me that guy could put the fear of life into anyone.

What was even more scary than attending my Black Belt grading, was that only 2 weeks after passing it and getting my black belt (Aged 13!) i then had to attend the European Championships where i went up against a American boy who i believe was probably around 15 in the sparring event, let's just say i wasn't really prepared for such a event especially since i had just got my Black Belt. The American boy absolutely destroyed me all i can remember is being kicked over a chair into one of the judges and pretty much the rest is a blur of being kicked this way and that way, it was a great experience though.

Although i didn't to do well in the sparring section i did really good in the patterns and managed to take away a Silver medal, which for being my first ever Black Belt competition is pretty impressive if i do say so myself.

See if you can spot me! tip look at the other picture up top.

I'm not actually to sure when this picture was taken, i know it wasn't after the European Championships so it must have been after a lock competition that my club had attended, but it's just funny to see some old faces you know. The tall guy on the right hand side is Mr Stephen Gell and was my training instructor since the day i joined, there is not another man in this world that i looked up to more than him (Well except for my old man of course), he was such an amazing man and instructor and was always there for me, i don't know why i guess he seen a little bit of himself in me, but for that i will never forget him.

The other man on the left hand side was our other instructor Mr Terry Ryan, i actually became very close friends with his son Craig who is the black belt sitting in the front row on the right hand side. I used to practically live at their house during the summer months just messing around and talking Taekwon-Do and getting up to stupid stuff with him, but it was a great time.

I am so happy that these pictures got posted, as it really takes me back to such happy times in my life, i just wished i was still doing it but perhaps one day i will get back into it!

But until next time... i shall bid you all farewell, have a great day folks!

The Haircut Continued.

2011-11-01T11:00:00.000+01:00

A few days ago i made a blog post asking everyone's opinion on allowing children to make their own decision about what sort of haircut they should get, the reason behind this was the fact my son Max wanted to get a Mohawk, something he had been going on about for at least 4 years now i think it was.

Personally i was of the belief that children should not make any decisions when it came to this, simply because they would end up with the most ridiculous and insane haircuts that you could possibly imagine, but alot of people who decided to reply to the thread had some of the same thoughts but went about it in a different way and some they thought it was fine, aslong as it was not in the school year.

So i gave all this information i had been given much thought and decided that possibly we should maybe compromise just slightly and see what would happen.

Thursday came around and it was time for the boys hair appointment, we normally just get it done here in Järpås since travelling all the way to Lidköping (Biggest town closest to us) would just cause us more issues due to the public transport not exactly being the best and seeing as i don't have a drivers licence well that just means we are reliant on it. But off they went to the hairdresser who i believe has been cutting the hair of the cavemen in town since the beginning of time (Yes, she's a pretty old woman, and her haircutting is well mediocre to say the least), and well this is what they returned with.

First off, please do not ask what in gods name is up with the comb over as i have no idea and trust me it was rectified very quickly but instead of allowing them to get crazy Mohawk's and such other disastrous haircuts we allowed them to colour their hair, i really don't have to much of a problem with this mainly for the fact the hair dye that was put in their hair washed out after 2 washes so it wasn't something they would have for weeks, and well it made them think they had their own way.

So Max didn't exactly get what he was looking for but at least he got something that he wouldn't normally get i guess, and Alex well he's not all that bothered as to what type of haircut he gets aslong as it's cut he's a happy camper.

But i think that is it for today, what do you think of their stylish new hair? obviously now it's back to being the normal dirty blonde that they have but at least for a few days they were happy.

But for now... i think i shall bid you all farewell, and hope you have a great day, i'm still getting over this flu cold thing i have and Marie well she's been hit hard with it and is a complete train wreck at the moment, although surprisingly still going to work, even though she looks and sounds like death.

Worst Weekend Ever

2011-10-31T11:00:00.000+01:00

I always look forward to every other weekend mainly for the fact that myself and Marie are fortunate enough to get it kids free, well when i say kids free i actually only mean the twins, since they go away to their dads every other weekend which only leaves us with our oldest daughter but she is 14 so we very rarely see her since she is the typical teenager who sits around in her bedroom all day and only comes down for something to drink or to ask if she can get something to eat.

So every other weekend we always make big plans of how we are going to spend our time, this weekend we decided that we would have a nice dinner, Marie would bake something and then we would spend the night watching movies and just having a nice relaxing night together on the couch, however it didn't quite go to plan.

The day started off great, we sat around enjoying ourselves and just generally relaxing, but after dinner i became increasingly tired and i don't mean just tired but i was nearly at the point of falling asleep, what surprised me more was the fact that it was only 8pm, and by the time 10pm came around i was done and made the suggestion that we just have a early night instead, i was making jokes through the whole night that this was all Marie's fault that she had created a old man, since before i moved to Sweden i used to be able to stay up all night doing whatever and never got tired, but i found myself on Saturday unable to do anything except think of how great it was going to be to head to bed. So we did, 10pm on a Saturday night without any children except our teenage daughter and nothing to get up for the next day.

However apparently the reason i was so tired was not down to being a old man after all, as at about 5pm on Sunday morning i woke with massive stomach pains and felt generally sick, sore throat headache you name it i had it. So what was meant to be a stay in bed until i can be bothered to get up day turned into a day where i was up at 5am on a Sunday morning rushing back and forth to the bathroom, i can tell you now that is not how you want to spend your Sunday morning EVER! So after about 2 hours of feeling really bad (You know what men are like when they get ill, it's not just ill it's really really ill) Marie finally handed me a few tablets to stop my stomach pains and get rid of all the other symptoms (Sometimes being engaged to a nurse really has it's benefits).

But it didn't stop their, well it did for me but then Marie started to feel really bad as well and ended up at around 7pm last night coughing and everything else that goes along with the cold, so looks like our nice relaxing weekend turned into a weekend from hell, all these wonderful plans just went down the drain.

I hope everyone else had a better weekend than we did that's for sure.

But until next time... i shall bid you all farewell...

The Day Just Keeps Getting Better.... NOT

2011-10-28T11:52:00.000+02:00

Well today didn't start at all as planned, the whole plan for today was get a hair cut and then meet up with my job coach since we haven't had any contact for two weeks, but unfortunately i received a text this morning from her saying that she was unwell and would not be able to come. Great, not exactly what i need is a Job Coach that i only get for 3 months getting unwell but not much we can do about it, got to admit i have been feeling a bit under the weather myself the last few days with a blocked nose and a horrible throat.

So that kind of put that plan in the trash, i still however headed into town to get my haircut with my lovely blonde bimbo hairdresser, she's really nice but she remembers NOTHING i am actually pretty surprised she manages to remember her own name and where she works, since every time i go in to get my haircut she asks me the exact same questions over and over again, every time i have been in their same thing always, how's Marie?, where does she work? i think i have told her a grand total of about 10 times now where Marie works and what she does but she still forgets lol, she's alright though i guess.

After that the plan was to go into a local video game store and speak to the gentleman that runs it and see if there was any chance of a Praktikplats there seeing as i'm a big gaming nerd it could possibly be a pretty decent place to work, but he was not there today and i was greeted with some young lad, who works there, so i guess i shall need to try and go in again next week and hopefully he is around, if not i'll just phone him and talk to him that way, but we shall see.

After then sitting for about a hour at the train station reading my Game Of Thrones book i then got the pleasure to sit on a train with a mother and her four children, it would have probably been ok if she actually paid any attention to what the hell her children were doing, but instead decided it was more productive to sit on her ass and play with her mobile phone, while her 4 children jumped around the chairs playing with buttons and screaming at the top of their lungs. I seriously wanted to slap the mother around the head and tell her to sort her kids out, but of course i didn't. Wasn't my place but i wanted to so badly.

But i think the rest of the day will be a day of chilling out, my poor fiancée is home today since it's her day off and was meant to get at least 5 hours of just being able to relax in the house on her own without anyone being about, something she never gets to do normally, since i am normally always home. But seeing as my Job Coach cancelled our appointment i'm back home to ruin it for her lol.

But i think that's me done for the week, sorry for not posting anything yesterday but with having this cold my brain is completely fried and i honestly couldn't think of anything to write about, but i'll try and make sure i have a new post everyday next week.

But until next time... i shall bid you all farewell...

Happy Birthday Babe.

2011-10-26T08:00:00.001+02:00

Today is a very special day for our family, today is the day that my lovely fiancée Marie turns a whopping 34 years old (Oh yea we're still young pups over here) I thought of a million things to do for her for today but i couldn't come up with anything because well when it comes to Birthdays i am not the best, i'm the type of person that likes to forget his own and not care about it and so is Marie, but i refuse to let her.

*Spoiler Alert: Post Contains Alot Of Love And May Make You Want To Be Sick*

So this post today is just for her and the reason why i love her so much.

My Hunny & My Puppy.

For anyone who doesn't know the story of how myself and Marie met let me tell you, it was just over 5 years ago and both of us were playing a online role-playing game called "World Of Warcraft (WoW)" i know we are both sad finding love over the internet and even worse finding love in a computer game but that is how it happened, we were both leveling our characters in a place called Burning Steepes within WoW and i was stealing her mobs, so of course the only thing she could do was hurl abuse at me in the online chat. From then on we ended up joining the same guild (A guild is a group of people that play together under the same name) and eventually after a few months we got talking which eventually talking and spending so much time online together turned into feelings for each other.

From the minute i met you in the game i knew you were the only one i wanted to spend the rest of my life with, your ability to make me laugh and smile when things are going rough still amazes me to this day, and although we have our problems like every couple i know that it doesn't matter because in the end we will make up and once more be madly in love.
What amazes me even more about you is how much you give to everyone around you, not even wanting anything in return, your generosity and love for everything and everyone around you is the reason i love you the most and waking up to the sight of you everyday is like dying and going to heaven because without you my life would be dull, boring and not worth living.

So although it might be lame to have found love inside a game, i am so glad that we did play that game and that we met each other, you are the love of my life, my soul mate and the reason for everything good in my life, i will love you to the end of time and beyond and know that nothing in this world can ever replace my love for you, my only regret in my life is not meeting you alot sooner than i did.

I would like to finish off this post by saying I LOVE YOU! you are my past, present and future and i am so glad to call you my fiancée and cannot wait until the day i am able to call you my wife.

Rejection.

2011-10-25T11:06:00.000+02:00

As the image above states, rejection is something that starts from a very early age and you should get used to it but it is something i have never been able to handle all to well. Sure you tried but who in their right mind likes to be rejected.

I for one personally hate being rejected, i had been given a task from my Job Coach that i have been seeing over the last few weeks to give companies a call and see if it would be possible to get what we call in Sweden a Praktikplats basically translated it means a Practice Place. So what happens is you find a company willing to give you a praktikplats and then you go and work there for around 3 months, you don't get paid from the company but the government themselves give you a small pay, it isn't much something like 50kr per week or something there abouts but you get experience which is what most companies look for when you are looking for work.

Well today i decided to sit down, phone in hand and start making some phone calls, i had written up a list of about 7 different companies that seemed to interest me in terms of what they did and what i'm interested in (all of them pretty much computer related since i'm a computer geek) but let's just say it did not go well at all, keep in mind that i am still learning Swedish and although people say my Swedish is great i still feel very self-conscious when speaking to people, but i put that aside and gave it my all.

7 different companies, 7 different no's, i have to admit that most of them were really nice about it and explained to me why they couldn't take on a praktikplats, but it still didn't make the rejection any better. Even having it in the back of my mind that it would happen didn't make it better, the reason i had it in the back of my mind was because my Job Coach had said to me to try but expect alot of them to just say no without even considering it because that's just how it is but it made me feel utterly crap.

But i tried i guess and that is all i can do, at least when i go to my meeting with my Job Coach on Friday i can say yes i did it, and i tried my hardest and see if there is anything she is able to do since she said last time we met that she would also try and get me a Praktikplats and with her being a job coach that it might be a lot easier for her to get me one than me phoning up random companies, but i wanted to try and although i didn't succeed and feel really bad right now, i'm still pretty proud of myself for doing it. Phoning and talking to people about things like this has never been my strong suit, not even in English so to go out and do it in Swedish is just even better.

I didn't succeed but i haven't given up either, i am sure that something will come up i just need to keep fighting.

But until next time... I shall bid you all farewell...

Children's Friends.

2011-10-24T11:00:00.000+02:00

About a month ago my fiancée made a blog post about our son Maximus's friends at first i thought nothing of it because well sometimes children go through phases where the adopt a attitude problem, and Max? well unlike most he normally has the biggest attitude.
He ain't a bad kid he is just very easily influenced by people, unfortunately the influence doesn't extend to his parents, i guess it's because we try and teach them good things, like being respectful and things like that.

But on Friday i finally found out that what she wrote couldn't have been more accurate.

So the story begins on Friday when i took the boys up to school, on the way up Max was his normal self, pretending to be on a motorcycle with his brother and generally chatting away and just being a normal kid, laughing and talking about the stars and moons with his brother Alexander, and telling me what they were going to do today, everything was nice and then.....

We entered the school and who was there? well remember my guest blog post about the mother who had no control over her child and was basically more of a friend to him rather than a parent? well he was there and apparently Maximus and him have become good friends. It all became apparent that he was part of the cause to why Maximus thinks he can get away with talking to everyone like dirt and generally acting like a little brat.

After getting there jacket and shoes off we went into the after-school program class where they start in the morning and Max took off into the other room where this little boy who i shall not name was sitting playing, now normally they come up give me a hug and cuddle (Yes they started doing that again, apparently it is now cool to do so again) but this time Alexander was only one that came up to do so.

Alex then proceeded to shout to Max and ask him "Are you not going to come and say goodbye to Ben" to which the reply was a very harsh scream of "Noooooo, i don't want to!!!!". In all honesty i am not that bothered if he doesn't want to come and say goodbye but what really made me want to go through and slap him off the back of the head was the attitude that came with it, safe to say i didn't.

But i just couldn't believe that in the space of not even 5 minutes that he managed to go from being this semi-sweet little boy walking up to daycare on his pretend motorbike talking and laughing with his brother to this little boy with a attitude problem.

So what are we to do? we can't tell Max that he can't play with "x, x & x" because of course if we did he would no doubt go to school and when the little boy or boys asked him to play he would turn around and say "No, my mum & Ben said i'm not allowed to play with you" which of course will just generate more problems, such as parents coming up and asking us why we don't want our child playing with theirs etc but at the same time i don't want him to have this attitude problem either that he seems to be adopting lately.

I'm pretty much lost as to what we can do to stop him from playing with them, since it's more than obvious this is where his problems are coming from, obviously seeing these children talk to people like dirt etc puts a thing in his mind where he thinks it's ok. Of course we are telling him off and putting him to his room in severe cases but i would rather that he not play with them at all.

So what are you thoughts? or idea's for that matter? I would be really interested to see if any of you guys have experienced it and how you handled it.

Haircuts - Should Children Decide..

2011-10-21T11:00:00.001+02:00

There is very few things that myself and my fiancée Marie disagree upon when it comes to raising the children, sure there is a few things here and there but most of the time (I'd say probably about 99% of the time) we both agree or i am able to put my point across in such a way that she actually see's the logic in why i am saying or doing something towards the children.

Most people would probably say i'm a pretty strict parent, although i would disagree with them on that i just feel that being parent is exactly that parenting and i refuse to let me kids do and decide stuff that they shouldn't be deciding upon, but yesterday myself and Marie had a conversation about haircuts and i wanted to get everyone else's opinion on it, it's not so i can get one up on Marie because normally when it comes to this subject i win anyways, but i wanted to see what everyone else thought.

So the kids hair is getting to that stage that it badly needs a good cutting (saying that they are not the only one, but i have my appointment booked for next Friday so yeehaa!), but every time this event comes around we always end up in the same discussion, the discussion normally begins because Maximus one of our twin boys is determined that he wants a Mohawk, to me a 6 year old with a Mohawk is the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard or seen in my entire life (Yes! i actually googled Children + Mohawk in google images and had a look at them).

Personally i feel that children at least at the age of 6 shouldn't really have a say in what sort of haircut they get, i mean if you let children decide important things like this they will come up with most stupid and ridiculous things possible, and to me a Mohawk is exactly that. But as i said every time it's time to get their haircut he goes on about it and each time i tell Marie that i refuse to let him get one, but do you think i'm right?
Sure it's not like it's going to kill him or anything like that, it's not exactly a bad thing i just personally think it looks stupid on children and who is the one that going to have to get him up every morning and put hair products in his hair to make it stand up like a real Mohawk should? me!

For people who don't know me i am NOT a morning person, it is the worse time of day to speak to me, see me or just generally know me. So having to spend "x" amount of time messing around with hair products to get his hair to stand up and look stupid just doesn't really appeal to me.

But what are your thoughts and opinions on this? should i let my son who has been going on about a Mohawk for about 2 years (Yes he started going on about it when he was 4 years old, and don't ask me where in gods name he came up with it) now get one? or should i stick to my guns and make him get a "normal" haircut? I would be really interested to see what everyone's opinion was.

But until next time... i shall bid you all farewell..

Children's Nightmares.

2011-10-20T11:00:00.000+02:00

Last night turned into quite the adventure it seems for Marie, it would have turned into one for me too but i think i was just to tired to wake up for anything, although i really have no idea but it just seems as Marie said to me last night that when it comes to this time of the month you feel more and more tired, it must be have something to do with the weather changing and the fact it gets alot darker alot quicker this time of year. Literally by the time 6pm comes around over here the stars are already coming out.

But last night we were both woken up by the sound of Alexander standing in our door saying "Mamma" over and over again, i have no idea why he doesn't just come up and poke us to wake up and instead insists on standing in our door way repeating himself for however long he stands there before we finally awake. Eventually however we did wake up to find out that our little boy had a nightmare, so Marie told him to go back to bed and try and go back to sleep and that everything was ok it was just a bad dream and it would be alright, so off he went back to bed.

I have no idea how long past but then i was woken up by him doing the exact same thing and found out he had another, i tried then to tell him to head back to bed and put his bedroom lights on and try and go back to sleep again so off he went, but apparently it didn't end there, i have no idea how long it lasted but Marie informed me this morning that she had been up at least 4 more times with him during the night with the same thing, taking him back to bed and trying to soothe him to get him to fall back asleep.

But it then occurred to me that i hate nightmares, especially when children have them because it leaves you feeling so helpless, i mean what can you literally do? you can't take the dreams away, all you are able to do is tell them that they are just bad dreams and that everything will be ok and try and comfort them the best you can and that is it.
It just reminds me so much of when i was a kid, some nights my mum & dad would be in my bedroom around 20 times trying to get me back to sleep after having nightmares and i now understand how frustrating and worthless it leaves you feeling when all you want is your child to have a good nights sleep but they are constantly disturbed by bad images going through their little heads.

I have no idea what he was dreaming about as i never asked, i really should as i think it would be interesting to find out what he considered to be a bad dream, but it must have been something really bad as i have never seen or heard him get up that many times during the night because of it, i guess it is something i should ask him when he comes home from school today.

But what about you? how do you deal with your children when they have nightmares, perhaps you are able to give me a few pointers in the way of helping your children during what is really a awful time for them. I will however say i'm one of these parents that are Anti children in bed so any advice of letting them sleep in your bed is out of the window, but anything else i would be really interested in.

But until next time.. I shall bid you all farewell....

Halloween Advice

2011-10-19T11:00:00.000+02:00

A couple of days ago the boys came home from school with their very first Halloween Party invitation, for people who don't know Halloween is not something that is a big deal over here in Sweden, and personally i don't think it's such a big thing in the UK where i come from. Sure we get the odd kid or two coming around shouting "Trick Or Treat" but that is about as far as it goes.

I know that in places like the US, Halloween is a gigantic holiday and they take it to the fullest, but again not here, so when the boys came home with this invitation myself and Marie were kind of baffled.

Of course the first question that left Marie's mouth was "Errm what should we dress them up as?". But if i'm totally honest i have no idea because it's not something i have ever been into, i did go to the odd school Halloween party when i was a kid growing up but i never ever dressed up because i just found it silly, so i used to put my own cloths on and when asked "What are you meant to be?" my simple reply was "A homicidal maniac, since they all dress like normal people" If you didn't already gather i got this from i believe the original Adams Family movie.

So i am appealing to all my reader's out their. What should we dress our twin boys up as? I'm hoping that you all have some idea's because as i said above i really have no idea about this type of thing, so any help would really be appreciated.
Keep in mind that they are both only 6 years old, so nothing to extravagant.

But until next time, i shall bid you all farewell...

Brings Back Memories..

2011-10-18T11:00:00.004+02:00

Growing up as a child we used to go up to my dads parents, my grandparents obviously every couple of weeks to visit them on a Sunday, it was always something that i looked really forward to, but why you might be wondering it was because of my Gran's homemade soup.

I still remember to this day sitting in my grandparents livingroom while my gran would be in the kitchen singing her heart out, for people who obviously don't know my gran, she has an amazing voice and was actually a member of a group of ladies who used to go around and sing for people and boy was she one talented women, she never sung anything that me personally would love to listen to, but all the same you know when someone has talent. I believe this is probably where my dad gets his talent from, my dad is also a musician, who plays in a few bands back in Scotland (He is also one of these very annoying type of person who can pick up any instrument and within 5 minutes he is able to play it perfectly).

But back to to the story, so as we all sat in the livingroom with my Grandad talking about what we had been up to and such likes, my gran would be in the kitchen cooking up her homemade soup and singing away for us all to hear, and just thinking back it was such a wonderful time, and the smell you know when your sitting in another room when someone is cooking and the smell of what they are cooking just comes floating through the house and your mouth starts to water, well that is exactly what used to happen. Eventually after a few years my gran past on the recipe to my mum who then began to make it and all i can say is "WOW" there is just nothing better in this world than a nice plate of homemade soup, with potato's and chunky vegetables to warm the belly on a cold day. So i have been saying to Marie for ages now that she should get in contact with my mum and get the recipe from her so that she could make it for us, and eventually after months of nagging she has got in contact and got the recipe.

Mmm so tasty.

So on Sunday, Marie got all the ingredients and made us some of my gran's homemade soup and all i can say is damn she done just as good a job as both my Gran and my Mum done, you know when you have a dish that you haven't had in very long time, and the minute you place the spoon or fork into your mouth and take that first bite and so many good memories just come flooding back to you, that is exactly what happened.

I wish you could add smell to a blog post.

I would just like to say a few thank you's, firstly to Marie my absolutely amazing fiancée for making it for me again, and bringing back all these lovely memories to me again, also i'd like to say thanks to my mum for passing on the recipe so that i was able to experience it again, and a special thanks to my Gran Moffat for making it in the first place.

I would love to hear any stories like this, is there anything that you ate as a child that you have recently made and had the same experience of all the memories coming back? Would really love to hear them, so feel free to drop me a comment below with your own personal stories.

But for now i think i shall bid you all farewell, until next..

Not So Relaxing Saturday.

2011-10-17T11:00:00.000+02:00

The weekend finally arrived and seeing as we were kids free (the twins went away to their dads for the weekend) and with Marie writing on her Twitter & Facebook how much of a relaxing weekend we were about to have, i thought excellent however it turned into quite something different.

I woke up on Saturday and really felt bad, i have no idea why but for some reason from the second i woke up i felt dizzy and light headed, but like the trooper i am i just got on with it. Of course seeing as i am a man i had to complain about everything and say how awful i felt, i felt it was my prerogative as a man to do so.

So the kids left at around 9am and i sat around, messing around on the computer, updating my Facebook and Twitter every so often and just checking out new blog posts from some of the blogs that i enjoy to follow, while reading some new blogs that i had been put in touch with by joining a new Triberr tribe. But after a couple hours of doing this Marie turned around and said "I think i am going to go out and try and fix up the front of the house and maybe the backgarden while im at it".
Of course when these words come, you just know that even though she is not asking for any help that it is your obligation as the man of the house to go outside and participate.

But for anyone who knows me, i absolutely detest gardening, if we didn't have children i would be more than happy to live in a small apartment, or continue to live in the house but make sure that the whole garden was slabbed so that i didn't have to go out and deal with anything out there, but we do have children and with that comes the responsibility to have a nice garden for them to play in. We had been pretty lazy this year with the garden letting it basically overgrow into a forest of plants, weeds and grass. Infact it still looks like a complete jungle outside in the back garden because we have not yet had the weather to be able to cut the grass.

So on went the shoes, jacket, hat & gloves and out i went to help (Keep in mind i still felt like i was ready to pass out at any second) and got a hold of our landlords petrol hedge cutter. Seriously even when your feeling ill what man doesn't enjoy playing with big power tools or in this case garden tools, it's just so much fun. So we managed to get the full hedge cut down to nothing (We have been asking the landlord to remove it and put a fence up in the front instead, and he keeps saying that he is going to do it but that's been nearly a year so i'm not holding out much hope for it). On top of that i then tackled the back garden with it, chopping down everything i could see, so at least it looks semi respectable, now all that is left is the grass to be cut which i'm still waiting on the weather for. Just hoping we can get it before the first lot of snow lands, since last year i didn't and when the snow finally melted in i think it was April the grass was so hard to cut, think it took nearly 3 passes with the lawnmower before it was cut to a good height.

But a mental note to any man out there, when your girlfriend, fiancée or wife says that you are going to have a nice relaxing weekend, it's a LIE! they are going to make you work until you want to die, even if you feel like you are already going to die. I'm feeling alot better now, but i think i need to make myself an appointment with my doctor and have myself checked out, since these dizzy spells have been happening now for about 3 months, granted it's not a everyday thing they come and go, but the fact they are still coming is now worrying me, so i shall go and get myself checked out in the next upcoming weeks i think and see what i need to do.
I honestly believe that it is possibly weight related and the fact that i am not that active as a person, but it's best to have yourself checked out i guess.

But until next time i shall say farewell, and hope you all have a great day..

Winter Is Coming...

2011-10-14T13:54:00.001+02:00

There is nothing worse in this world than waking up in the morning only to look outside your bedroom window and see that it is still pitch black outside, not only that the there is still a moon and stars up in the sky. It kind of gives you the thought that i hear from my children alot when i ask them to do something "I don't want to" and this morning that was the exact thought that ran through my head.

Not that i didn't want to go and meet my job coach today, but it was more the thought of i don't want to do anything, it's pitch black outside and by all accounts looks like its in the minus degree's and all i really wanted to do was head back to that lovely place called bed.

Not only was it pitch black and cold beyond belief, but it seems that since making my post "Talking Christmas Already??" yesterday that the Swedish weather decided to inform me that not only is Christmas is coming but so is Winter, as upon looking onto my badly needing cut grass i seen the first signs of it, Frost.

Winter is something that i for one am certainly not looking forward to, i don't know about anyone else but i loathe it with a passion, it's always cold, you come into your house take off your shoes and when you walk near that area you are left with absolute soaking feet, don't get me wrong it can be fun as well but for me i just can't seem to get past the fact of how cold i am and why i would much rather be indoors.

Kaiser on the other hand absolutely loves the winter, i think out of every season that we get winter is the one time of the year he is himself, i mean what Siberian Husky wouldn't be happy with bucket loads of snow to jump around and bury himself under?

As for the kids? They actually seem to enjoy it as well, seeing as we have a Siberian Husky, myself and Marie normally like to take the opportunity to train our Siberian Husky even more by getting him to pull the kids around in their sled's, Not only does Kaiser have a blast but what kid wouldn't enjoy being pulled along at a rapid speed by their household pet? Don't get me wrong sledding down a hill is fun, but being pulled by a pure bread Siberian Husky just adds to the fun even more.

So i guess, it is soon time to bring out my old winter boots and get my hat & gloves ready to go, as it seems our autumn is coming to a end very quickly and winter is fast approaching.

But i think that is me done for the week on the blogging front, i've had some great times this week with my Guest Blog Post and alot of other things, but until next week i wish you all a great weekend, hopefully it as cold as it is here where you are, so that i am not left on my own freezing parts of the body i do not wish to name.

Talking Christmas Already??

2011-10-13T11:15:00.000+02:00

While most of my online blogging friends are talking about Halloween and how much fun they are going to have or are having preparing for it, i get to find myself talking about the one holiday in the year i dread the most Christmas.

Ho Ho Ho?

It's not that i don't like Christmas, because there is no greater time of the year to spend time with your family and just be happy and enjoy each other company, but i find myself in a world of stress. For most people that read my blog they all know that i am unemployed still, and when you are living on one salary barely making it through month to month on what you get, it can become rather stressful.

So to begin talking about Christmas when we are only in October is like "Oh hell no!".

I am pretty much used to it with my mum, she is always the person that's on the ball, ready to rock and roll for this time that we have coming up in 10 weeks time. She is the type of women that starts really early on it, mainly because well she has to, since myself and my family live in Sweden getting our parcels to us require alot of pre-planning and execution. Safe to say with my mum & dad's skills and the fact my dad works for a transport company they have yet to let us down.

But when Marie starts talking about it? I just go in a mind spin and everything begins to get foggy in my head, questions such as "What should we get the twins for their Christmas?" turns into a "Errrmm, i don't really know, whatever you find" Because in October my mind is just not ready and willing to start thinking about it. When i used to live in the UK i was the guy that went out on the 24th of December and bought all the Christmas presents then. Unless i knew there was something someone wanted way before hand and then i would order online, but for the most part im a 24th of December type of guy!

The twins and Mikaela has yet to give us their lists, and i cannot wait to see them this year. We normally send them all off up to Mikaela's room so that they can sit on her notebook and surf in the internet stores looking for all sorts of magical gifts that Santa Claus can bring them, and some of the things just makes me break down and laugh so hard! I would give some suggestions but i think i will wait until they have made their lists this year and make a new post about it then, so everyone else can have a good old chuckle.

But what about everyone else? is everyone still thinking about the current holiday coming up (Halloween) or is everyone else beginning to prepare themselves for the festive season? Would be really interested to hear what it is like over in America, since i know things like Halloween & Christmas are gigantic affairs, actually probably bigger than any other country i know.

So feel free to drop me a comment below, and tell me if your already planning or have already planned for this upcoming celebration! and give me some sympathy if you haven't because talking about Christmas is October is enough to drive anyone insane.

But until next time i shall bid you all farewell.

Fighting About Lego!

2011-10-12T11:00:00.000+02:00

One of my online blogging friends called John from Daddy's In Charge is a huge fan of LEGO, infact if you head over to his blog that i have linked here you can see some absolutely amazing videos starring himself, his children and even CHUCK NORRIS! I mean seriously who doesn't enjoy a great video that stars Chuck Norris! So thanks John for putting idea's in our heads, because now we have given the children even more to fight about!

But upon seeing these videos my fiancée Marie, had said to me that she thought it was time that our children started playing with LEGO too, i mean they are 6 after all so it's not like we are in to much danger of them trying to eat and swallow the small pieces, so we had a little look upstairs in the big closet since Marie was quite sure that there was a small box of Lego still up there from when our daughter Mikaela was a child.

The box that will cause us pain.

Sure enough upon opening the door there it was standing in all it's glory, i personally think Lego is amazing, i mean what better way to encourage your children to use there imagination than by building stuff?
The twins got so excited, since they had seen this box of LEGO previously but up until now had not been allowed to play with it, yes i am one of these parents that always think the worst, for example my child will put a piece in his mouth and try and swallow it and choke to death.

But along with having all sorts of fun with their new toy, we have encountered a new problem "FIGHTING", sure our children are like every others in the world, they fight over stuff all the time but never to this extent, since bringing it out of the closet and allowing them to play with it all we constantly hear from the upstairs playroom is "Alex, that was my bit!!!" and "Max why did you take all the blue pieces!" of course this now leads to them coming down stairs and tattling on each other, which is now getting a bit tiring.

So once again thanks John for giving us what could have possibly been a great idea, but has instead turned into a nightmare. We are not going to take them away, and we are trying to tell them when they come down to tattle on each other that they shouldn't do that and that they should learn to share the LEGO out equally and not be greedy, but sometimes children don't understand this concept i guess and just want it all from themselves.

Hopefully this will settle down, or i could see us going to the store and buying alot of LEGO for both children for their Christmas and putting them in 2 separate boxes and keeping them split apart so nothing like this can occur, but what is the fun in that? none in my opinion, so i guess they just better learn to share and play nice :)

But until next i shall bid you all farewell, i hope you are all having a great day....

My First Ever Guest Post!

2011-10-11T14:54:00.002+02:00

So today i shall be moving home for a very special occasion, as i head on over to Dropped Stitches to do my very first ever Guest Blog Post, called "Parent Or Friend" where i will be talking about how being a friend to your child could cause you more problems than you would like. Be sure to head on over and check it out and don't forget to leave me a comment, i always enjoy getting feedback from people.

You can view my Guest Post Here

I would once again like to take this small time to thank Erin Wallace from Dropped Stitches for giving me this great opportunity not only with the guest post but for being part of her awsome tribe on Triberr. Also while you are stopping by don't forget to stop by her facebook page which can be found >>HERE<< and follow her on Twitter @erinwallace, she is truly a great person and i think you will enjoy her blog and other pages tremendously.

Kaiser Pups Spa Day.

2011-10-10T11:00:00.000+02:00

Lets face it people we all enjoy being pampered and having a nice relaxing day being treated like a absolute kind/queen, and let me tell you my little Siberian Husky is of no exception to this.

There is nothing he enjoys more than laying down and being brushed and having his nails clipped, i have no idea why he enjoys it so much since all my other dogs that i have owned/grown up with over the years have not enjoyed it one bit. Kaiser even loves having a shower, at first he detested it and i mean loathed it. So much so that if you even went in the direction of the bathroom over the weekend holding the jug that we put his shampoo mixture in he would run a mile.

Not so much anymore though, normally if i am in the house on my own i don't bother locking or even closing the door when i go to the toilet (I know, it's disgusting, but it's not like anyone can see me) and normally he will even come in and lie on the mat in front of the toilet and just enjoy spending some quality bathroom time with his daddy.

So the other day Marie decided that since Kasier is getting to that stage again, we're hitting winter so he is regaining his undercoat and of course when this happens the inevitable happens as well, he begins to loose alot of hair, so seeing as this was happening Marie decided that she would treat Kaiser to a little bit of pampering and let's just say he went from his normal off the wall type behaviour to being this chilled out relaxed, hey what's happening dog.

Nothing like getting your belly brushed up nicely.

Your getting very sleepy.

As i don't normally get to get any good pictures of him, as normally when i bring out the camera he goes from striking a really awsome pose to running around with the attitude of "haha, you are not taking pictures of me!" i decided that i would take this great opportunity to get some snap shots of him, safe to say he wasn't all that bothered about it since he was to busy just relaxing.

What's Up? Just lying here chilling y'all!

That's right, just how i like it nice and smooth.

But anyway, i just thought i would share Kaisers little spa day, i didn't bother taking any pictures of him getting his toe nails cut because i didn't really see the point, but thought you might all enjoy a few snap shots of my little puppy enjoying his brush.

But until next time, i shall bid you all farewell.

The Things Kids Say - Magical Gloves

2011-10-07T11:00:00.002+02:00

It really amazes me at times the things my children say, i'm aware that alot of children have a very vivid imagination but sometimes the things Alex & Max come out with just make me buckle with laughter.

The story began a couple of days ago on the way back from school, unfortunately i was not actually present at the time but when Marie told me the story i could not do anything but laugh, on the way back from the school they had been discussing their new gloves that we had bought for them, since here in Sweden we are getting extremely cold weather, i'm talking something like 10oC (50oF) and actually this morning it was even lower 6oC (42.8oF) with the addition of rain.

Alex & Max's Magical Gloves, or so they think.

Maximus was walking down the big flight of stairs known as My Nemesis while holding on to the railing which was wet due to it being raining pretty much all day, so as he was doing this Alexander turned around and asked:

Alexander: "Are your gloves getting wet?"

Maximus: "No, they are magical, they don't get wet"

A few more minutes past, Alexander was obviously contemplating his next question and finally came out with:

Alexander: "If i stepped on your hand would you feel it?"

Maximus: "No, i told you already they are magical gloves!"

Thank god that they didn't try and test this theory out, and i really have no idea where they got the whole idea that their pair of gloves had magical properties but at the same time, i just can't understand what made Alexander come out with a question like that. I mean seriously he could have asked a million and one different questions related to the gloves and what they could do but he asks if he stepped on his brothers hand if he would feel it.

I'm beginning to get very worried about the path my child is on, if the first question that springs to mind is about violence towards his brother. But at the same i am just amazed at how my children think and the things they come out with.

So my question to my readers is, what is the best line that your child/children have ever come out with? I would be really interested to read some other stories about the things their children come out with.

But until next time, i shall bid you all a farewell, i won't be doing any posts over the weekend so i hope everyone has a great weekend and i shall resume my blogging on Monday! until then take care.

Searching For Work = Frustrating.

2011-10-06T11:00:00.003+02:00

There is few things in this world that really irritates me, ok i'm lying there is quite a few things that annoy the hell out of me, but the main one currently is looking for jobs. You would think that this is a pretty straight forward and easy task. You know go on to "X" website do a search for the area that you are interested in working in and then find a job that you can possibly apply to, but here is where it gets both interesting and frustrating at the same time.

In this current economic state jobs are very hard to come by if we are all very honest, i think currently in the country of Sweden for every one job there is possibly about 10,000 applicants for that one job, these numbers are not factual but i know that Sweden has a very high unemployment rate currently so it could very well be possible but that is not what making looking for employment difficult, the fact is that when browsing the normal sites and looking at each job that catches my eye i see the same stupid requirements over and over again.

Requirements:

Driver's Licence (Unfortunately this is something i do not have currently).
Experience and or Education.

Now the education i can understand at least for some positions but not for all, i mean surly the opportunity to be able to train someone to the company's liking is far more appealing than someone who has done the job before or has education in it, i know quite a few people who have degree's etc in certain fields that i am pretty sure wouldn't do the job any better than someone trained on the job.

As for the experience this just irritates me when i read this why? because of the simple fact how on earth are you actually meant to get any experience in that job or field if no company is willing to hire you without it, i mean you can't just automatically come up with experience and surly like i said before a company would benefit more being able to train someone themselves and show them how they would like the job done over someone who has done that type of job before and wants to do it his/her way. Maybe i am being naive about this whole concept but it still doesn't take away at least from me the fact that it is impossible to get said experience without being given a good solid chance.

Now onto the stupid thing known as a drivers licence we have a saying back in UK which is "A Catch 22 Situation" this is exactly how this whole concept of requiring a drivers licence comes across to me, if you haven't looked at the most recent costs involved in obtaining a drivers licence then i'm pretty sure you would be absolutely shocked i know i was. So obviously for someone unemployed not even saving all there benefits (something i do not get here in Sweden, because i A) have never worked over here and B) ain't a Swedish citizen) would you be able to afford it, not at least with one years worth of benefits.
So we are stuck in this catch 22 situation, to get a job you need to get a drivers licence, but to get a drivers licence you need to get a job. How is this even remotely possible?

I was looking through the job adds today and out of about 10 jobs that i could have seen myself doing i could apply for a grand total of ONE! that's right the other 9 jobs required a drivers licence so i expanded my search to other area's of the country that is still within distance by train / bus and i found plenty more but once more they all required either a drivers licence or experience / education in that subject.
So right now i am in a bit of a bad mood, i see the opportunity for work out there but it is not obtainable by me because of the above, so what am i meant to do? i mean really i can't just magically get experience and education and i can't afford to get myself a drivers licence certainly not on one wage coming into the house.

I hear alot of people thinking, well why doesn't he just go back to school and get the qualifications he wants for the job he's wanting, and yes that would be a great idea if you didn't have to pay for it, which would require me to take out student loans etc, and this is just something i am not willing to do mainly for the fact i have come over to this country debt free and i really don't want to get myself into debt. Some people might disagree with this, and some might find me being stupid by not going down this route, but my family requires money, hard earned cash not cash that i am going to have to spend the next 10 years of my life trying to pay back if i even get a job at the end of it.

How i currently feel right now.

So as you can see i am pretty much stuck in this catch 22 situation and have no idea how to get out of it, but i guess something will come along eventually and then with my first wage i will be able to sort out the drivers licence part at least.

But until next time, i shall bid you all a good day!

So Proud Of My Daughter.

2011-10-05T11:00:00.003+02:00

I have to be one the proudest parents in the world right now, i was sitting down the other day just chilling in front of the computer like i normally do, you know checking Facebook/Twitter etc when my daughter came down the stairs from her bedroom to inform myself and Marie that she had passed her Spanish test that she had the other week.

Personally when it came to myself and other languages i have always struggled with them, although saying that i took French when i was in High School and no matter how much i hated the subject and no matter how much i tried to fail it i always managed to remarkably well at it and pass nearly every test.

But not only did my daughter pass her Spanish test, she went one better and completely rocked it getting the highest grade you possible can currently a "A". I mean i cannot be more proud right now of her, she is always acting the dumb blonde and then she comes home with a mark like that, it just goes to show you she is far from the word dumb.

As a added incentive for her to do well, and to get her to study we had came to the agreement that if she passed any test with the highest mark you can get the "A" that we would give her 400 Swedish kroner which works out to be about £40/$58, so it looks like we had to pay up. However she decided that instead of getting the money to spend it however she wanted to, she opted to get a pair of new shoes.
I of course cringed at the thought of more shoes in my house, honestly at the rate my girl is going she will soon be able to open up her own shoe shop with t he amount she has, it's ridiculous.

So you can say that right about now although hating the fact she has bought another pair of shoes i am still one very proud little daddy for her doing so awsome on her test!

Until next time though, i shall bid you all farewell...

Football (Soccer) Season Over

2011-10-04T11:39:00.000+02:00

So the football (Soccer) season has finally come to a end, unfortunately for Alexander he has missed the last month of it due to his broken foot, and with him still not being able to walk right (he is currently walking like he has pooped his pants) which is kind of sad, but there is nothing you can do about it. I am sure he will be ready and eager to go when the season starts back up again next year.

I was actually kind of surprised that they have ended the season so quickly, since although we have been having alot of rainy and windy days recently we have yet to see any signs of snow, so it is not like they would be unable to play the sport. But on the other hand from what i have heard through the chatter of the local football (Soccer) mums, the little boys don't actually have a real coach. This came as no surprise to me as it seems they have a new one each week, if it isn't the real coach of the football team then it's some teenage boys that play on the team.

I have got to admit though i have really enjoyed watching them train and play at their first game that you can read about >>Here<<, i have always been the type of person that believes that all children should do some sort of athletic sport. So when the boys had the chance to take up football (Soccer) of course we jumped at the chance and they have really seemed to get into it.

Although saying that i would really like to get them into a martial art when they come to that age, i started doing a martial art called Taekwon-Do when i was around 10 years old and loved every minute of it, it not only kept me fit and healthy it also taught me about respect and control, unfortunately with moving over to Sweden i have been unable to keep at it, which is really disappointing since they don't have the same federation over here. I was considering maybe starting my own and contacted my old instructor about it but after looking into costs etc, right now it is just something that is not going to happen (perhaps a future endeavour).

But as i was saying the season is now over and the children loved it, i am perhaps thinking of maybe speaking to the head coach up there when the season is about to start and maybe seeing if i am able to help out with the training in anyway, i think it would possibly be a great way to network and get to know people, rather than standing quiet on the sidelines just watching them.

The boys and their football (soccer) team.

But until next time i shall bid you all farewell....

Why Does Ben Have Dirt On His Face.

2011-10-03T11:32:00.000+02:00

So the other week i was taking a nice relaxing nap on the couch, well i should say i was trying to take a nice relaxing nap. For people who haven't read about Me & My Family i live in what can only be described as a ZOO. We currently have 3 children, 2 cats and a Siberian Husky, i'm pretty sure if we get any more pets or children i could probably open up for admissions to my house to view the creatures that live inside.

But back to the story at hand, so as i was trying to take a relaxing little nap on the couch, i hear the faint words being asked by Alexander to Marie, "Why does Ben have dirt on his face?" i was rather confused by this question since i hadn't been out the house since the early hours of the morning to take the kids to school and i was pretty damn certain that i hadn't rolled around in the mud on the way there or the way back.
Then Marie came back with the answer to my curiosity "That isn't dirt, he just hasn't shaved in a few days, when you grow up you will have get that too".

I am pretty sure that i have never heard nor seen anyone more disgusted when he replied "No, i don't want that, it looks dirty!" I couldn't help but have a little chuckle to myself inside. The poor boy honestly thought that my lazy ass had dirt all over my face, what i still can't understand is why is this the first time he has mentioned it. I mean i am not the most clean shaven person on a regular basis, i have no idea why i don't because for my Christmas Marie had bought me a electric shaver so that i could do it in the morning and it would only take me a few minutes, but i guess that is where the laziness comes into play.

It's not that i don't want to be clean shaven, because deep down i really do. It's just when i get around to do it, it is more like a chore than anything else. I should however just shave my scruffy self and then keep on top of it with the electric shaver but i guess the thought is much more appealing than the action.
Of course when i get myself a job i will be clean shaven everyday, that's a given but right now it is only my family that see me this way and occasionally friends on Skype so i don't really bother.

Although after hearing his comment, maybe it is time to turn over a new leaf and start shaving on a regular basis so that my child doesn't think that i am walking around with dirt on my face.

But until next time i bid you all farewell...

New Hat!

2011-09-28T11:00:00.001+02:00

I'm a baseball cap type of guy, always have been since i was younger, or well not to young i think i started wearing a baseball cap when i was about 13 i think. The reason behind not wearing one any younger was because i had a really bad thing about my ears, i always thought they were to big and remember referring to them on many occasions as dumbo ears, infact sometimes i still actually do.

But like i said when i was about 13 i think i started to get more into them, it seemed like it was the fashion and everyone was doing it so i jumped on the bandwagon and began to wear one too, and up until now i have never left the house without it. Actually before i moved here and at the start when i was living in Sweden i refused to take it off entirely, i would wear it all day everyday and only took it off to have a shower, bath and go to bed.

Something recently changed though, after watching the first season of New York Ink, the TV show about tattoo artists in the NYC area, i noticed that the lead tattooer and the shop owner who is none other than Mr Ami James was wearing a different type of hat, something i like to refer to as "The Grandad Hat"

Now the reason i always referred to this as "The Grandad Hat" was simply because whenever i seen a old man who was wearing a hat, it was always one of these, hence the name. But after seeing Ami James sport one of these i actually thought to myself how cool it actually looked and immediately turned around and told Marie "That hat is so cool, i so want one of those".

Now i wouldn't say i was a fashionable type of guy, i'm the type of gent that wears the normal T-Shirt, Jeans & Trainers and that is about as fashionable as i get, although back when i was about 17 i did used to always wear a nice shirt and a pair of jeans with my trainers. Something my mum always thought i looked really smart in when i was out, and seeing as this was my whole outfit on a daily basis it made me feel good inside, but of course that has changed and i have gone back to the old t-shirt and jeans.

So on the weekend we decided that we would take a family trip into town, do a little shopping have a coffee and something to eat at a local café and generally just have a nice day out, but i was on another mission the mission was to find one of these hats and purchase it. Marie had recalled that she had seen them in one of our local clothing stores called H&M and we took a trip into there and found them, i instantly fell in love and found one that would fit and bought it.

My daughter immediately started to laugh when i put it on, thinking that i look absolutely ridiculous with it on, but i don't care i think it looks awsome and i'm going to wear it with pride, however seeing as i now have my stylish cool hat, Marie now reckons that i need to completely change my appearance altogether which means no more jeans & t-shirts but instead i need to now get myself some shirts and go back to my old look. I don't really mind this if i'm honest as i used to feel good when leaving the house in a shirt and jeans, but i hate shopping, and i especially hate cloth shopping. But i guess i'm just going to have to bite the bullet as they say and go and do it.

Damn i look awsome in my new hat!

I would ask that you ignore the stupid look on my face, i was sitting on Skype to my parents at the time when Marie decided it would be a great time to take some pictures of me, and for some stupid reason i think i'll just blame my mum i cannot take good pictures no matter what, my eyes always make me look like i'm drunk and i have no idea what was going on with my lips.

So what do you think? You think i sport this awsome looking hat well?

Until next time, i hope you all have a great day!

The Pizzeria Adventure.

2011-09-27T11:00:00.002+02:00

Something we don't normally do as a family in my house is go out for dinner, i know it's quite a big thing in countries like America and such like but over here in Sweden, it's not all that common. I think the Swedish people in general just like to gather at home at the dinner table and eat dinner together there, but on Friday we decided that for a special treat for the kids that we would take a little stroll up to our local pizzeria here in Järpås and treat them to a pizza.

Unfortunately unknown to us until we had got up there, our son Alexander had decided that he would eat not one but SIX pancakes at school for lunch which left himself rather stuffed. We decided however that this was not going to stop our little family evening out and that we would still treat everyone to a nice evening.

Now after being brought up by parents who always said "If you don't finish your dinner, then there will be no treat after it" i have of course taking up this principle myself, this is probably one of the many things myself and Marie disagree on when it comes to parenting, i remember the first time i ever came out of it in front of our teenage daughter (i think she was around 11 at the time) and her response which made me laugh was "There is always room for candy and goodies after dinner". I can still remember to this day my response being "That is the most stupidest thing i have heard in my life, if you are to full to finish eating your dinner, then are you to full to eat crap afterwards".

On the other hand i was willing to make a slight exception for Alexander, bearing in mind that he had been allowed by the school to eat six pancakes for dinner, i was really shocked by this but apparently at school here in Sweden the children go up and pick up their food themselves. Something we never got to do when i was at school many moons ago, but perhaps this has changed? I don't know but it's something that happens over here at least. But although i was ready to make the exception for Alexander, i did not have the same feeling towards the other two.

Once there we made our order, myself and Marie got our normal dish, which is the kebab plate, which consists of chips, salad and alot of kebab meat and the twins got a small children's pizza which was split in half for them to share, leaving them with about 6 slices each, Mikaela our oldest opted for some Kebab wrap with alot of salad and stuff in it. The minute the food i arrived and i seen Mikaela's choice i knew for a fact that she would not finish it i mean the thing was gigantic, i don't know anyone in the world that would be able to finish that dish so in the back of my head i was thinking well aslong as she finishes half of it i will make the exception for her.

In the end Alexander managed to eat 4 out of the 6 slices and Maximus 5 out of the 6 so they ate pretty well. Mikaela managed to eat about half but had left quite a bit on her plate, so i had said that we should not give them anything good after it as they hadn't eaten as much as i would have liked, plus every child had turned around and said the magic words "I'm to full to finish this"
Now at the pizzeria the guys their normally give the children a lollypop after the meal and the boys of course knew this, so straight after saying that they were full they were asking about their lollypop's, myself of course being the Hitler/enforcer of the family turned to them and said that there would be nothing because they had not finished what they had chosen for dinner.

But just as we were leaving the man behind the counter like always handed the boys their lollypops, i could not believe the look on Max's face, it was the look of "Ha, i got something anyways. You don't decide anything here!". Normally i would let this type of thing go, but Max is in a phase right now where his attitude and cheek towards the family is at a all time high and i decided that i would like to bring him down a peg or two. Perhaps this was childish of me? i have no idea really, but i think as a parent it is my duty to instil certain things into my children so with the look of "Oh really" i turned quickly around and said "You may have the lollypop Maximus, but you are not allowed to open it or eat it". Lets just say the minute those words left my mouth the smirk left his face very quickly.

In the end and after about 3 hours after we had eaten i eventually did give in and allow them to eat their lollypops, i thought it was only fair as although they didn't actually finish the plate they both did really well, especially Alexander after eating all those pancakes at school and still managed to eat 4 out of the 6 slices of pizza he was given, do i feel bad for given in eventually? well yes i do, as i said before i think it is our duty as parents to teach our children good traits so i really shouldn't have but i did, and at least i waited a good few hours after the fact before i decided to give in and allow them to eat there lollypops.

Do you think i did wrong? do you think i was immature in the way i handled how Max was smirking and the look of you don't decide anything?
I would really appreciate some feedback on this, so feel free to drop me a message, or perhaps share a story about something similar.

But for now i think i shall bid you all farewell.

Whatever

2011-09-26T11:00:00.002+02:00

There is few words in the English language that annoy my fiancée Marie who is Swedish if you didn't already gather since i'm now living over here. There is a few but they mainly annoy her for the simple fact that she finds them hard to pronounce and in all honesty most of these words even i have trouble with.
However if there was one word that i think she could choose that she absolutely hates, loathes and despises it would have to be the word "WHATEVER".

I should perhaps invest in one of these for Marie?

Why you may ask? well it's one of the words that i use very frequently, i always believed that women as a whole enjoyed having control, me? i'm the laid back guy who doesn't really care all that much about things like décor, dinner and things like that and as i said i always thought women loved being able to choose stuff like that themselves. But Marie? she hates it worse than anything in the world.

So the other day when we were discussing what we should have for dinner and our son Max decided to hop on my bandwagon of i don't know, so just whatever you find is fine set her off the edge i think.

The whole situation started off last Wednesday, Marie had been at work all day and returned but hadn't bought anything for dinner, yes we are one of those family's that normally buy dinner on a daily basis, i know it's a little bit stupid but sometimes that's just how things pan out, but after speaking to me and me giving the normal response of, i have no clue what to have for dinner just pick up whatever she decided that perhaps the twins might be able to help with our little dilemma.

Upon asking Alexander what he would like for dinner seeing as it was just myself, Marie and the twins home that day (Mikaela, our oldest daughter was staying in town with her gran because she had majorettes practice) he decided he wanted pizza from the pizzeria, this was a no go of course because myself and Marie had already planned to do this on Friday as a little treat and something for us to do as a family. But Alex being his normal self stuck to his guns and refused to budge from Pizza.

Seeing as we had no luck with him Marie then proceeded to ask Maximus:

Marie: "So Max, seeing as nobody else in the house has any idea's for food what would you like for dinner tonight?"
Max: "I don't know"
Marie: "So you have no idea at all what you would like?"
Max: "Whatever...."

I could see the little glint of red in Marie's eyes as the words left his lips, i honestly thought she was going to have a nervous breakdown, but instead decided to inform me that he was indeed my child, maybe not by blood but 100% by personality. I couldn't do anything but laugh my ass off, i know it probably didn't help the situation but i just couldn't help myself, safe to say Marie was not amused and just left the house leaving myself and the boys laughing about it while she once more had to venture up to the local shop here and find something.

Unfortunately we ended up with sausage and chips for dinner, which well wasn't exactly the best in the world, kinda boring if i have to be honest, but i guess that is what happens when you don't tell someone what you want for dinner.

Is there something out there that you absolutely hate hearing that is similar to this story, i would love to hear it so drop me a comment and let's all share that word that really irritates us to the bone.

But for now i shall bid you all a good day, take care everyone.

I Got Featured.

2011-09-23T11:00:00.000+02:00

I can't believe it, i opened my e-mail account the other day to be spammed like crazy from the website Bloggers.com. It is one of those websites that you can place your blog on so that more people can see you and perhaps come and visit and maybe drop you a comment or two, and apparently every week the people that run the website picks a few websites to be featured on their main page.

I was absolutely shocked to have been picked for this week's featured blogs but also honoured, it's really nice to be recognized and don't know anyone in the world that doesn't feel the same.

Unfortunately i changed my twitter account name recently from @ben_moffat to @TheAngryScot and for some reason i am unable to login to their website anymore using my twitter account, this has become a bit annoying since after being a featured blog i have become quite popular on their website and have had alot of friends requests, comments left and private messages but am unable to respond to any of it. So i have contacted bloggers.com and am hoping that they will get back to me with a resolution very soon.

But i thought i would just share my news with everyone because i am absolutely delighted right now, i started out blogging only a few months ago because my fiancée thought i would be pretty good at it, and that it would save me spamming my Facebook & Twitter with my random thoughts and comments, but i didn't think that i would have so many people interested. Now im thirsty for more, of course i blog because i enjoy writing and i find it fun but getting recognition from other bloggers just drives you to want to do more, get featured more and do other fun things.

I have also recently been invited to another website called Triberr.com which has turned out to be another great experience and helped me get my blog out their so i would like to thank @Bobbutterbottom for recommending me, and of course to @Erinwallace who is the tribe leader. Really happy that i joined the tribe and met so many lovely people.

But for now i will bid everyone farewell, and hope you all have a great day! Mines just got alot better!

Screenshot From My Computer

First School Pictures.

2011-09-22T11:00:00.002+02:00

It finally came around, on Tuesday the boys had there very first school picture taken. Marie had picked out some some very nice clothes for them to put on which included a nice shirt and a pair of jeans.

I have to admit i was pretty excited about this event, i mean it's there very first one what parent wouldn't be! Although it always brought back memories of when i was a kid and how much i hated photo day, the thought of standing in a line with all your class mates and then having to sit in a seat in front of everyone and do that fake smile just made me really feel stupid.

But school photo's are a great thing, it not only brings you joy to look at them and gives you a nice photo journal of how they grow up year after year, but it can also be used later in their lives as ammunition when they bring their first ever girlfriend/boyfriend home, I think it's every parents right to do this. I personally had no choice in the matter when i was growing up as my mum and dad insisted that our school pictures were framed and put up on the wall of the staircase leading up the bedrooms and the most recent ones placed on the wall in the livingroom. I mean talk about embarrassing!
At least now i get to have my own revenge, taking these embarrassing things out on my children, i mean us parents deserve a little bit of fun don't we?

Unfortunately i did what every dad in the world shouldn't i combed there hair made it all nice and looking respectable and then proceeded to give them their baseball caps to put on, oops i guess you could say. I neglected to think that placing their baseball caps on their heads would cause their hair to become once more a mess, so the preview of the photo's got sent to us and of course i did a stupid thing according to Marie, she hasn't said anything but i know she's thinking it.
Safe to say i have learned a valuable lesson today, but i thought i would take the previews of the pictures and stick them up here so that everyone could see them, i'll apologise to everyone i guess for their hair hehe.

(Alexander "Left" & Maximus "Right")

Apart from the hair, and the fact it seems that Alexander decided to take one of his buttons out the photo's are brilliant and look forward to getting them home soon, so that we can buy some frames and put them on the wall for everyone that ever enters our house to see.

But until next time, i bid everyone a great day.

He Just Refuses.

2011-09-21T16:46:00.001+02:00

Well the day finally came and we could say goodbye to Alexander's cast, i got to say and maybe it's wrong of me being a parent and all, but i was so happy when Monday came around and we could cut the damn thing off. Not that it was much of a problem to deal with him, but having to push the wheelchair up that staircase on a daily basis for 3½ weeks just killed me.
Perhaps that actually says more about me, and the fact i need to get back into shape, or at least get to a shape that doesn't consist of weighing 93kg (205lbs).

Marie had told me that on the way back from school on Monday, he was telling Max our other son how he was going to run and run so fast that Max wouldn't be able to catch him and continued to tell him all the other fun stuff he was going to do now that it was time for his cast to be removed.

However the reality was alot more different, instead of running around and jumping up and down and doing everything he said he was going to do, he has instead decided that he can't walk still or at least not properly, so instead of walking normally he places the foot that was broken onto it's toes and then hops on it until his other foot lands. Basically limping along, we have tried everything to explain to him that nothing will happen if he tries to walk normally, but instead of trying he just stands there and comes out with things like "I don't want to".
Trying to show him that he is already putting all his weight on that foot anyway just doesn't seem to sink in to him, i'm just not to sure what to do next but leave him to it and hope that in the next coming days that he just decides to try.

Even when Marie spoke to the after-school personal yesterday when collecting him how he had been, since it was his first full day without his crutches and wheelchair, they said that he had not attempted once to walk on it normally and was just limping around, and if he was going to go from one room to another instead of even walking he would crawl instead.

I have to admit that i do feel sorry for him still, i think it's a shame he is obviously still a bit scared that if he tries to walk normally that his foot might break again, but at the same time and i guess this is where the bad parent comes out of me, i think he is just being silly, and needs to just do it.

I have tried all forms of motivation and so has Marie but nothing seems to work, and if i am honest i got a bit annoyed with him yesterday while walking up to the school, since what is normally a healthy 10/15 minute walk turned into nearly a 20/25 minute walk.
Granted there is no rush to get up there, but i just couldn't stop myself being aggravated at him for not trying. I realise that this is the wrong thing to do, but i think it's just my nature and one of my many flaws as a person/parent.

Anyone had any experience with this before? and if so how did you deal with it and handle it. This is the first time any of my children have broken anything, and i have absolutely no idea about how to deal with things after the fact, we have been assured from the doctor at Marie's work that his foot has healed now and he should have no problems walking on it but still he refuses.
So if anyone has any tips or tricks to help us out, please feel free to drop me a comment below.

But until next time, take care everyone!

The Meeting.

2011-09-19T15:52:00.001+02:00

Today i had my first ever meeting with my new appointed job coach from the company TechROi that are based in a town quite close to where i live called Trollhättan.

If i had to be honest with myself i was pretty damn nervous this morning about the whole thing, i think it was probably fear of the unknown. I think Franklin D. Roosevelt said it the best with his statement "The Only Thing To Fear Is Fear Itself". Although i don't think i had anything to be nervous about but it still didn't stop the whole feeling i had inside.

Basically the whole point of the job coach is to help me get a job, they can't obviously physically get me a job themselves but they will help with things such as making my C.V. better and making it more aimed towards the company that i am applying to, it is something i need alot of help with since my current C.V. is pretty awful to say the least, so i think some pointers in that direction would be pretty handy. She has also said that she has a boss at her company that deals with I.T. positions so once we have revamped my C.V. slightly and got it looking a little better that she will take it to him for his point of view as to how we can improve it further which seems very positive.

Another thing we will go over is interview techniques, this is something i am in desperate need off, the main reason is that i have not been in a interview for a job in i can't count how many years now and even when i was doing them i always left them feeling a bit awkward, you know at the end of the whole interview the interviewee comes out with those dreaded words, "Is there anything you would like to ask?" i have never ever been able to work out what the hell you are meant to say, obvious things come to mind like pay, holidays etc but i think going into a interview and asking those types of questions make you seem like you are only interested in one thing and that is money. So in the past i have normally ended up just saying "No, i think everything has been covered and i am happy with everything" which again is probably not the best way to end a interview.

On top of all that we will be going over what to wear, i know that might seem a little bit strange to some people, but here in Sweden things are done very differently to other places around the world, i think the word that springs to mind when i think of people in the work place in Sweden is "Casual" the first time i ever entered the job centre here, i was greeted by a gentleman in shorts and a t-shirt, i honestly couldn't take my eyes off him and remember thinking to myself, what the hell is he doing? If i cast my mind back to Scotland and the way the people dress there it is alot more formal, Shirts, Ties and Suits. Unless your a delivery driver or something like that but even they wear a company uniform of some kind, pair of trousers and a company t-shirt or something, so i think some pointers in how to dress for certain types of interviews is indeed required.

But overall i came out of my first meeting with Kicki (Yes that is her name, very strange i know) feeling very positive, i was told before from friends around Sweden that there is many job coaches in Sweden who don't really care and don't want to do the job they have been set to do, but it was certainly not the impression i received from mines, i was given a pen drive from her so that i am able to place my C.V. on so that we are able to work on it and other items that we shall no doubt do in our 3 months that we have together, and a very informative binder with lots of information about C.V's and other aspects of the job coach experience. So i am currently home with alot of information to digest, and alot of things to get done before she rings me to confirm our next meeting. But i have a really great feeling about how the whole process went and i am looking forward to our next meeting.
If it continues to go as well as this one did, i'm sure that i shall be in some sort of employment in no time.

But for now i think i shall bid everyone farewell and go and have some dinner as i am absolutely starving, so until next time, take care.

Site Updated & New Facebook Page.

2011-09-18T19:24:00.001+02:00

Sometimes Sundays is a great time to just sit back and relax and do nothing right? and sometimes Sundays are a great time to make some changes, seeing as my little boys were away to their dads for the weekend, i thought today would be a great day to make some changes and the main change i made was to my blog.

I had been sitting for a few weeks now thinking that i should really update the blog a bit as it was looking a bit outdated and just generally not as good as i think it could have been so i spoke to Marie my fiancée who normally deals with all the ins and outs of my blog and asked if she could update it for me and make some changes, and well this is what she has come up with.
To be honest looking back at my old blog design and colour scheme, i have no idea why i liked it in the first place, it was pretty good but i think this design and colour scheme is alot better than before. More professional perhaps and certainly alot cleaner looking.

On top of making all these changes to the layout and general design of the blog i had Marie change my comments as well and decided to install Disqus, the main reason for this, is alot of people said that it had alot better functionality than the default blogger comments design, so i'm going to give it a little try out and see how things go with it.

Along with all the above blog changes i decided that i would make myself my very own Facebook Page as it seems that alot of bloggers are doing this now, or have been doing it for a while. It will also probably save me from spamming my personal page with new blog posts etc, so if your a normal follower of my blog and like to keep up to date then show me some love and head over to Facebook and like the page for me, the more people that follow me the happier i will be, or the angrier than normal. Either way you should do it, i would love to create a little community on there.

But i think that is all for just now folks, i have a really important meeting tomorrow with my job coach, it's actually the first ever meeting i'm going to have and i must admit i am quite nervous about it, but i am sure things will go fine. For some reason she decided that we would meet at the local library in Lidköping which is a bit how can i put it..... stupid, since it means that we will be unable to have coffee or anything and sitting for a hour or so without being able to drink anything is going to be a challenge.
However i will let you all know how it goes tomorrow when i come home i guess, but for now i think i will head off and watch some television and relax and get myself prepared for the day ahead tomorrow.

So let me know what you think of the new design.

Until next time....

Something That Doesn't Happen Normally.

2011-09-16T16:13:00.000+02:00

If i had to say one thing that doesn't happen normally i think it would have to be, being given a compliment from any of my children. Everyday we hear the same thing what great food you made mum, and mum thanks for doing this and that, but you will never normally hear is something positive about me.
In the house i'm normally the ogre, the bad cop, the enforcer or whatever you want to call it so compliments or gratitude is not something i regularly hear.

So boy was i a happy bunny this morning when Marie phoned me to inform me that she had attempted to take the wheelchair up the stairs, it's something i've been doing for the last week or two when taking the boys to school because i got so sick and tired of having to push it up a stupid hill where cars and lorries etc were driving by, and i actually found it A) quicker and B) easier.

Unfortunately Marie didn't have the same kind of luck and later informed me that she was indeed absolutely knackered after getting him up there, if you don't know myself and Marie we are pretty unfit people so trying to climb those stairs on foot without pushing anything is a challenge in itself, and adding a wheelchair with a 20+kg child to the mix just makes it even more unpleasant.

Apparently on the way up the stairs the boys were singing my praise like there was no tomorrow, saying things such as "Mum, Ben is much better at this than you are" and "Mum, Ben does this alot faster than you, and he is not as tired at the end".
I mean this stuff is absolute priceless, i was so happy when Marie phoned to tell me. It's just nice to hear once in a while that indeed Ben you do kick ass and do something better than mummy.

So to my two little boys i would like to say "Thank you, you guys rock!" and to Marie, well without being mean and vindictive "Hahahaha, you suck!"

The Boys At The Järpås Football Cup

When You Think, Things Can't Get Worse.

2011-09-14T15:11:00.001+02:00

When you pay for a service you expect it to be the best that can be provided correct? but when that service involves your children you expect it to be exceptional, or at least that is what i expect. But the service we are currently getting from our after-school program located inside our local school here is anything but.

I decided after the whole Alexander and the playing outside with his cast on in the sand (you can read about it >HERE<) that i would give them another chance, as i thought i was a little bit harsh towards them on the matter of letting my son who has a cast on his foot play outside in the rain.

But it seems that once more when i decide to give these people another chance they go around and throw that chance right back in my face. So you are all probably wondering what the hell they have done this time? Well yesterday Marie came in from collecting the kids from school and said to me something along the lines off:

Marie: "Can you tell your son to stay in school?"
Me: "Which one?"
Marie: "The only one that can walk"
Me: "And why the hell will i tell him to stay in school? where the hell was he?"
Marie: "Apparently him and 2 other boys decided to take a little walk outside of the school, the teacher went after them after realising they had disappeared and found them under the underpass"

Now it's kind of hard to explain but if you remember my post about my Nemesis, you will get the basic idea of how far they were away from the school grounds, so you have the school on top of the hill, and then you have my nemesis the staircase from hell and then there is a small path not to sure how many yards it is maybe 500 yards or something around that, and then you have the underpass.
In terms of how long it takes to walk from school to the underpass? you are probably talking approximately 5 minutes walk, especially for a couple of young children.

Now i am not entirely sure how long it took for the after-school teacher to realise they had gone missing, or how long they had actually been gone for but i mean.... WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!
We pay these people to take care of our children, and yet we find out one of our children has been 5 minutes outside of school grounds playing where there is a bloody busy road, not to mention you can't trust a single person in the world these days, ANYTHING COULD HAVE HAPPENED!.

Ok it wasn't entirely the schools fault, or the personal as the kids should not have decided to go walking out of grounds, but i know for one my son is only 6 years old and he is still learning right from wrong, but the teachers are well older than that and should have taught them by now that they are not allowed past X part of the school grounds, but NOOOOOOOOO they didn't.

Safe to say i was fucking angry as hell and seriously want to go up and smack them all about the head, but i decided that, that was probably not the best course of action, but if anything happens again and i mean the smallest thing the headmaster up there better have a god damn good explanation for it, otherwise she will face my wrath and a angry scottish person raging at you is not something you want i can guarantee you that.

I mean seriously, what type of fucking morons is this school employing, does there interviews go something along the lines off:

Interviewer: "Are you a complete and utter moron with a IQ of 3"
Interviewee: "Oh i can do better than that, im a complete moron but with the IQ of 1"
Interviewer: "PERFECT! your hired, welcome to the school"

So there you have it, once more i have given the school a chance and once more i have been slapped in the face with my chance, safe to say three strikes and your out, and they are already on strike two!

The Last Week, Thank God.

2011-09-13T16:26:00.000+02:00

Firstly i would like to apologise for the lack of blogging over the last few days, basically i haven't really been in the mood and on top of that nothing has really been happening. I have spent most of my time over the last few days just lying around the house watching TV and playing computer games to keep myself amused.

But anyway let's get back to the topic at hand, finally we have reached the last week of Alex in his cast, i say thank god because it's been a absolute nightmare if i'm truly honest. Not the fact he has the cast on but more along the lines of it's a pain in the ass to push that damn wheelchair he has up the hill to school, i know i am not the fittest person in the world, infact i could probably be described as a pie eating son of a bitch.

I don't think i'm the only one though, i think Alex himself is had enough of his cast, he's actually done really well and has completely mastered his crutches, but obviously he can't use them for to long as his little arms start to ache but he's done really well with them i have to admit, it's actually quite amusing to watch him cause he can now build up some amount of speed on them.

But i think that is enough for today, i am a little bit hungry so waiting for Marie to come home so we can get some dinner and then a night relaxing on the couch, with perhaps a movie or two. So until next time!

Stupid After School Care

2011-09-08T16:02:00.002+02:00

Yesterday Marie came into the house absolutely raging yesterday, initially i thought it was because she was missing her cigarettes but how wrong was i? Yesterday it was on of those days that was filled with nothing but heavy rain, and i'm not talking about a light drizzle of rain, i'm talking heavy heavy down pour and this continued all day and well into the night.

So when Marie returned home yesterday with the kids from the after school care raging i asked what was wrong to be informed that the idiots at the after school care had allowed our son Alex to go out in the pissing rain and play in the sand, why? because he asked if he could and apparently the staff up there don't have a brain that tells them that allowing a child at the age of 6 with a cast on his foot to play in the sand is stupid.

I mean seriously who in there right mind lets any child play in a sand pit when it's absolutely hammering down outside with rain? i have been sitting racking my brains since it happened, trying to figure out why and the only explanation i can come to is that they are all idiots up there.

Marie is constantly saying that i am never happy with any of the teachers or school personal since i always manage to find something wrong with them, but yesterday literally took the biscuit (some strange UK saying). It seems when i decide to give people a chance they just turn around and show me exactly why i thought they were incapable in the first place. I might have been a bit less angry at them if they had perhaps covered his cast in a plastic bag or something, you know something to keep his cast dry.

BUT...... yes you guessed correctly they didn't. They allowed him out in the rain and in the sandbox with his cast and nothing covering it to keep it dry.

Safe to say when i went up to drop them off this morning i grabbed Alexander and told him that he was not to go outside and play in the sandbox today if it was raining because it was stupid to do so with his foot not covered, and all the personal could say, was yes we have made note that he can't do that.
Honestly i would never hit a woman in my whole entire life, but when the woman from the school said that i seriously wanted to grab something and beat her over the head with it, but instead i just replied with that's great to hear it was a bit stupid for you to let him out there in the first place, to which she just sheepishly looked away from me with a grunt of hmm.

I don't know if i was a bit harsh, and i certainly don't want the personal up at the school to take a dislike to us but i feel that we were in the right, what do you think?

Arbetsförmedlingen (Job Centre)

2011-09-06T18:13:00.000+02:00

For anyone that read my blog yesterday, you should be aware that today i had an appointment with the local job centre once more, i was a bit apprehensive about going today for a few reasons but the main one being the stupid idiot that is normally behind the information desk.

For anyone not quite sure what i am talking about if you read my post Arbetsförmedlingen (Job Centre) <Part1> you will surly understand the reason why.

But lucky for me when i entered the building it wasn't the resident douchebag that was stood behind the counter but some other women, who turned out to be more than helpful and nice, which in turn made me feel a little at ease about the whole situation i was about to embark upon.

Not only was i welcomed by a lovely woman but upon turning around to go sit down at the waiting area i also found myself sitting next to a old friend of mines who i had met while attending the SFI course here in Sweden, i think it must have been about 3 years now since the last time i saw her but we had a good old catch up which was great since it took my mind off the meeting that was ahead of me, she seemed to be doing good for herself although had found herself in the same situation as i am currently due to the company she was working with having to close its doors (Stupid economic crisis). But she had been lucky to have got herself a drivers licence while she was working so i guess that will help her get a job.

So finally 11am came and i was greeted by the person i was to have my interview with (Ulrika) and no before anyone gets the funny idea she was not called Ulrika Jonsson, although quite funnily enough she was a tall blonde woman. But after shaking hands and being escorted to her office i noticed the thing that was going to make this interview extremely difficult .... Ulrika had a Woman Moustache. I don't know about anyone else but for some very strange reason every time i see a woman with a moustache i am instantly drawn to it every single time i'm trying to talk to them, so instead of looking in her eyes i find myself having a conversation with this blonde moustache.

I don't think she picked up on it, because she continued to be very nice towards me and she helped me the best she could, so i guess i should be thankful for that.

As the meeting continued i think had to ask the moustache about 18 times over to explain what she was talking about, i believe that she forgot at times that i was not a Swedish person and continued to use Swedish slang, for anyone that doesn't know the Swedish language it's probably one of the hardest languages in the world to learn and on top of that the Swedish people have decided to introduce slang to their language as well. Even though i have lived here for 5 years now i still cannot understand a single word of there slang and i don't think i ever will, when we are taught Swedish we are taught the correct words and no slang is given or used, so when it comes to them using it you find yourself left in the world of confusion, but she eventually took the hint after the 18th time of me asking her what she meant and reverted to using only real Swedish.

The Agreement

I was informed when i made the appointment that i would be given a interview with someone that spoke both Swedish and English, just incase there was words i couldn't find in my vocabulary or if the interviewer said something i was unable to understand (Or decided to speak in slang), but after our conversation began it became very apparent that she couldn't speak the English language, either that or she was deliberately not speaking English to me so that i would be forced to speak Swedish, either way i managed to get through the whole thing without speaking English which was left me feeling extremely proud of myself, ok there was the odd word here and there that i couldn't find so i would say them in English to which she would quickly inform me of what the Swedish word was (Pretty much forgotten half of them now, but some of them stuck).

But at least now i have a game plan in action, we have came up with an agreement (Picture above) and i have been given a job coach that best suits my job requirements, and hopefully i should be hearing from them by either telephone or mail as to when we shall meet, so i'm really excited and very hopeful for the future. I had explained that some of my Swedish friends had said that some job coaches were not the best and basically didn't really want to help and was advised that sometimes that is the case, but i have just to contact her directly if i feel this and they will deal with it, but i have to make sure that i give 110% to this, and that is exactly what i plan on doing.

So all in all a great day today, what was first apprehension turned into security and i managed to come out of the meeting feeling alot better about myself than i did going into it.

So let's just hope that something positive comes out of this, i have this job coach for the next 3 months so basically up until December this year and if i am still unable to find employment then i will have another meeting with Ulrika to see where we can go from there.

But for now i think i shall bid you all farewell, i hope your day has been as good as mine has. Take care everyone.

A Interesting Week Upon Us.

2011-09-05T13:19:00.001+02:00

Picture taken from the internet.

Well finally after months of nagging my fiancée i finally managed to get her to make Chicken Fried Rice yesterday, i used to love getting it from our local chinese place back in Scotland and i haven't had it for such a long time so i had been asking Marie to make it for me.

Unfortunately it didn't quite turn out exactly like the chinese restaurant makes it but it was pretty damn close and i personally thoroughly enjoyed it, could have used the prawn crackers to make it even better but it seems that you are unable to buy them here in Sweden which is a bit of a let down but oh well.

But as the title says it seems that this week will be turning into quite a interesting one to say the least, i finally received a letter from the Arbetsförmedlingen (Job Centre) so i have to go into town tomorrow for the appointment at 11am, quite annoying if i have to be honest about the time, since the train into town is something like 9am so i shall have to sit and wait around in town for a couple of hours before i can actually go in and speak to anyone, but i guess such is life.
I'm just hoping that everything goes well, if i have to be totally honest i am quite nervous about it. I just hope that i am able to put across everything i want to say good enough in Swedish for them to understand me, i know that my Swedish is pretty good but i always seem to get this mental block and get really nervous, i'm one of these stupid perfectionists you see, so whenever i have to try and speak the language to anyone i start second guessing myself about if i am using the correct ending to the word or tense.

But i am sure that i shall be fine, if the worst comes to the worst i'm pretty sure that they can speak English, although i would much prefer not to have to go down that route, i'm also hoping that the idiot from my last encounter with them isn't in tomorrow, i honestly don't know how i will handle him on my own. I was quite lucky last time to have Marie to back me up, but this time i'm going solo but i guess in the worst case scenario i could always just punch him in the face. (Ok maybe i won't do that, seeing as i would really like to gain employment and it may hinder my chances.)

Not only that but my fiancée Marie has decided that she will give up smoking, she has been at me trying to get me to stop with her, but i don't feel like this is the time for me to stop, i just don't want to. I'm aware that it would be good financially and of course great for my health, but right now i am just not ready for it. Maybe in time i will be as i really don't feel like smoking for the rest of my life but right now it just isn't going to happen.
I'm just dreading that with Marie stopping that she is going to turn into a living nightmare to live with, i have stopped once before for about a month and i know how hard it is to stop, even when you really want to and i also know the type of moods you find yourself in, but i suppose that it will be worth it in the long run, and if all else fails there is always outside to run to.

So why not head over to her blog and wish her the best of luck, you can read her post about it >HERE<

But for now i think i will head off and get some housework done, since i am the housework king, i shall update tomorrow with the progress of this appointment, cross your fingers for me that it goes well.

He Made Me Doubt Myself All Day.

2011-09-03T17:15:00.000+02:00

It really amazes me even now how children are able to make their parents doubt themselves, even if you think you are 100% correct on your judgement you still end up having something in the back of your mind niggling away at you as to whether you are right or not.

This happened to myself and my partner Marie yesterday with our little boy Alexander, as everyone knows by now my little boy broke his left foot about a week and a half ago and yesterday he woke up at 6am (Myself and Marie were already up) crying that he was in pain, funnily enough a few minutes before he started crying we heard a large bang on the wall to his bedroom.

So when i went in to see what was wrong with him, he said that he was in extreme pain in his foot so after asking where he was in pain he showed us that it was on the side of his foot, because of the bang against the wall we thought to ourselves that he had just knocked it against the wall and that was what had caused the pain so we gave him some medicine and took him up and got him to sit on the couch, we were in two minds whether or not to take him back into hospital but something inside of me was saying that he was playing on it, because only a few minutes after he was up he was acting fine again. Until Marie came back through from the kitchen and he started his sobbing.

Marie had asked me to get his attention and while he was looking at me Marie pressed down on various points of his foot and guess what no reaction, so we decided that we would send him School and i had said to him that if he was still in pain by the time lunch had passed that he could ask his teacher to phone me and i would come up and get him from school.

Shortly after 14:20 my mobile phone began to rang and it was the school, saying that he had been fine all day but was now complaining he was once more in pain in his foot again so off to went to pick him and his brother up, school had actually finished and he was at the after-school program so it was no issues, but i decided that since i thought he was playing on it i would take him down the long staircase that leads down from school to where we live instead of taking him down the long road, lets just say all the way down instead of crying he was in pain he was laughing his head off, so once more i was left feeling like there was nothing wrong and infact he was playing on it.

But sure to form as soon we entered the house and i placed him back on the couch and Marie came through he once more began to sob and complain that he was once more in pain, so i fetched some more medicine for him while Marie began with our dinner. Safe to say after a few minutes the pain had once more vanished and everything was fine up until bed time, i had advised Marie when we came in that she should perhaps change the bandage on his foot, since the night before he "apparently" had all this pain she had changed the bandage around the cast.

So once more he began to cry that he was in pain, this time the pain had moved from the side of the foot to the top of the foot, so Marie went away and fetched some "new" medicine, unknown to Alexander this was simply a tablespoon worth of water which he was told was special mummy medicine that takes away every pain in the world, but to put our minds at ease we decided we would change the bandage on his cast again and this time literally just placed it on there.

Without a word of a lie, after five minutes of giving him the "special" medicine and changing his bandage he was right as rain again, no pain anywhere, not even when we pressed down on places he had complained with in agony.

But it still amazes me that a child can make you doubt yourself so easily, even if you are 100% sure he/she is just playing on it, they have this special way of making you think otherwise. I'm just so happy that there wasn't anything wrong and that my gut feeling was correct, but you never know do you?

The Broken Foot.

Has this ever happened to you? share your tales with me.

I'm The Housework King!

2011-09-01T15:51:00.000+02:00

Oh if it only that statement was true, housework would be alot more fun i can tell you that. But jesus what a day i've had today, i mean i don't like to boast or anything but i am the housework king! maybe even a god? who knows all i know is that i've been rocking this housework crap for the last week and surprisingly been enjoying it. Am i mad?

I came to realise at the start of the week after our big Sunday clean that we normally do that we were wasting our weekends or at least Marie was wasting her weekend cleaning all Sunday long to make the house all nice again, and i came to realise if i do everything the same day it happens then we could simply just chill out and do nothing all weekend but enjoy the kids and each other (haha like that's really going to happen).

So i hear everyone say well didn't you already do that, since you spend 99.9% of your time at home anyways while Marie is away to work, and the answer to that question is LAZY B**TARD. I think i have been that, believe it or not i'm a gigantic clean freak i mean i hate mess, i personally blame my mum for it since she is also one of these freaks that gets up at 7am in the morning, has a quick cup of coffee and then starts hoovering and cleaning the house from top to bottom, honestly sometimes when you walk in her house you would think you were walking into a showroom it's that clean. So i honestly don't know why i have never decided to do housework on a daily basis.

It's not like i didn't do anything and left Marie to it all, i would hoover and as you have read previously about my rug hate that was no simple task.

Well let me tell you i think today i kicked everything into high gear, i got up at my normal time of 5am with Marie and done my normal crap around the computer, eventually i grabbed the kids up and took them up to school, since Alex has broken his legs i have found out that those stairs i was going on about in a earlier post has a friend who is also a new nemesis of mines, it's called a fricken steep road and when your pushing a 20+ kg child up there you wish you could just roll over and die.

So once i had taken the kids i came back and decided that before i did anything i would have a little nap, you know daddy naps are awsome when you don't have a fiancée and kids in the house to ask you if your sleeping every five minutes lol.

But after my nap i decided it was time to rock and roll, i got out the hoover and vacuumed all the downstairs, yes i know i should have done the upstairs to, but i'll do that tomorrow ok so get off my back. i also attacked the bathroom again and got that completely spotless, including the bath i might add (i know, i know, i rock!) and then i cleaned up the kitchen. So once more the house is spotless, believe it or not since i had kept on top of it all this week it took only about 45 minutes to get all that done.

But after i had finished with all that cleaning, i decided that i should really get the grass cut, Marie had done it a week or so ago, but for some reason i'm guessing due to the heavy rain we have had and then the bursts of sun in between that the damn thing to decided to grow like it was on some sort of growth hormone, i expected it take me at least a couple of hours even though it wasn't that long but i seemed to be on some sort of spree today as within 30-45 minutes it was cut down as well.

So this week i have learned some valuable lessons about housekeeping and that is if you do it when it needs done it doesn't build up and you have to waste ours on end doing it later.

WHO'S THE KING??