Last days in Sweden and going back to Singa

Even though both of us are happy with our lives in Singapore, it's always a bit sad to leave Sweden. I could definitely have stayed another two weeks this round especially, since so much time was dedicated to getting our things in order.

The last night, we took a walk in the area..

..in between the meadows..

..and watched the colors changing..

..as the sun..

..slowly..

..but surely set. The air was crystal clear and there was almost complete silence. Those are, besides family and friends, the things I think I miss the most ;)

Getting back to the house we were greeted by a quite sizable and very beautiful spider, which reminded us we were going back to our 'jungle' in less than 24 hours. 

The following morning, this was the state of my packing..

..at the same time as this was it for my dear husband. Just saying ;)

Jonas was way too busy polishing the bike one last time before pics were taken for the add. Sadly we do have to sell it, since it's not allowed to bring in older vehicles into Singsing; on the other hand, this means we can get another one here!

Final ride on the bike, before we packed ourselves + belongings and headed to the airport.

When we got back to Singapore, we also found that they had started repainting the tennis courts. That did feel quite luxerious..

..along with the fact that you can go out and have a huge, descent meal for less than 25% of what the same costs in Gothenburg..

..and that you can apparently leave flowers in tropical countries unattended for weeks on end without them dying. 

It did help the longing a little bit at least, but I think it'll always be tough leaving your home country, no matter where you go. However, we are here for a reason (such as enjoying midnight F1 next weekend) and it's always possible to return at any point ;) 

Moving to Singapore.. for real!

I don't think I'll be able to fully comprehend what it'll feel like to really move, until we have our things with us. We don't have a lot, but it's just those bits and bobs you have collected during the years, which are so important and fully makes you feel at home. 

Our main task going back was to sort out everything we had packed and stored, since we more or less had to smack everything into boxes over a weekend leaving Sweden for Japan in 2009. On top of that we only left with a suitcase each, mainly since we were both quite unsure if would actually be staying full time. In addition, when you go somewhere else, I think parts of the exciting new adventure is having new stuff around you. Besides, you never know what you need and what's useful directly and considering we basically had to leave Japan for Singapore in a few months' time, I think it was actually good that we had a while to decide what we need. I did a huge run through before we packed everything down in 2009 and threw/gave away around 10 large sacks of stuff. Hence I expected most of the things that we had stored until now to be stuff that we would both need and want. This was kind of true, but OMG, did we have a lot of unnecessary things! I can't remember how many boxes there was in total, but I do know that we went through all of them and threw away a whole car trunk and back seat + a full size trailer in the end. On top of that, a certain young sister in law who just moved in to her first apartment of her own, was equipped with a full china set, everything possible you can think of for the kitchen and heaps of towels, sheets etc etc.

Besides the 18 boxes, a BBQ, home entertainment system and sewing machine amongst others, the final task was to wrap some of our beloved paintings. I'm so looking forward getting it all here!

I was in charge of making packing lists and organizing our things in reasonable portions and sizes, while Moller senior and junior amongst others did an outstanding job building the box fitting it all.

It was a strange feeling packing it all (we decided to leave furniture, since we currently have what we need) into a huge box and sealing it. In one way it was a relief to be done with it, but at the same time there were a lot of philosophical questions like: 'is this all we own and have accumulated over 11 years?' and 'is it worth it?'. What surprised me even more was that the things that I valued absolutely most, were the boxes with my personal items, like old pictures or certain toys I remember very well from my childhood. Therefore it felt very weird when we had to go through their actual monetary value, which was basically nothing for the latter, for the insurance.

The next day a quiet, but rather intrigued man came to pick up our things. Over the course of 10 mins (after this he was gone), he said: 'Hi, nice box'..

..'push it on that side son'..

..'OK,'

..'miss, can you put that under the lift?'.

The very short meeting was finished with 'Good day' and he just vanished without a trace. Our conversation thereafter went: 'Did you get any paper work at all?' 
'Nope'
'Me neither' 
'Brilliant' 
I really hope our things reach Singapore..

Girls weekend, Goteborg, Sweden

Once in place in Gothenburg I headed straight to my sister Maija's and it was fantastic seeing her!

The view from her street (Eldaregatan) close to Masthugget, with Skansen Kronan (far right), Oscar Fredrik Church (left) and Gothenburg Harbour in the background.

Dinner at sis' is always fantastic and this time it was no exception!

Darling Maija.

Not exactly alike, but still ;)

After a long evening (note that the pic above is around 20.00 and it's still daylight), with a lot of gossip, sharing and wine, it was time to meet up best friend Lisa for breakfast down town. Only one pic was taken, since someone decided that coming all the way from Stockholm, only to go back the same day required lunch wine, afternoon wine and early evening wine ;)

Breakfast photograph of fabulous Lisa!

Cray fish party, Asa, Sweden

A few days later we jumped on the bike and drove about half an hour to Asa, to meet up with dear friends at a cray fish party. 

With this view from your breakfast window, you must just get happy every morning!

Beautiful Swedish rose hips.

The beach just 50m away from the house.

View from the beach. 

Boys shall be boys; at least they were brave enough to get into the water..

..whereas I stood safe and sound on the bridge, possibly dipping a toe or two in the FREEZING water.

Happy and cold, the Viking pack fortunately made it back.

Once back at Jonas' parents, father (left) and son packed themselves on their bikes and headed for Oslo to visit my youngest sister in law. I re-packed and wheeled myself and a bunch of findings from our packed belongings, which I must have borrowed (stolen?) from my sister ages ago, towards the train to go to sister Maija's in Goteborg.

Thank you Martin, Nicke, Karro and Lea for a fantastic evening and day!

Golf weekend and hat party, Karlskrona, Sweden

Early in the morning, we were picked up by Robin (of course in a Volvo) to start the roughly 5 hour ride to Karlskrona, so that Jonas could participate in the yearly golf tournament between east and west coast, Sjoslaget (complicated pun).

 

 The proud representatives of the west.

It didn't take long until someone (read me), of course needed a bathroom break. Well, it might not have been so much of such a break, as a candy store break, considering I had not been to a Swedish candy store in 22 months. Mohahaha!!

When we finally arrived in Karlskrona, we ended up in the golf club straight away, having a proper Swedish lunch, over viewing one of the water hinders, where remarkably few balls actually ended up. Cudos!

After a girls night out we ended up on a family reunion in the Karlskrona archipelago..

..with the Swedish flag..

..and beautiful scenery.

We docked alongside the other family boats..

..and jumped ashore to have a fantastic afternoon with hotdogs and sunshine. Again, ridiculously cold, but well worth it!

The evening continued with a surprise birthday party for one of the guys turning 30; the theme was 'hats'..

..but unfortunately we were more along the lines of 'a chimney cleaner meets a stripper'.

However, the person who won 'Best Hat Ever' had a pig on his head. Just saying.

Thank you Robin, Nettan, Kalle, Helena, Alle and Karin for an amazing weekend and hope we could do it in Singapore next time!

Onsala, Sweden

Returning from Bali, via Changi airport in Singapore, only gave us a rough 72 hour window, before we had to be back again for our long longed for trip to Sweden to visit family and friends. I actually hadn't been back for almost two years! We are now routine flyers from Asia to Northern Europe and have understood the priceless value of boarding late evening and flying over night. At least it's great for Jonas, who basically gets on the plane, eats and falls asleep. And he stays asleep. For about 10 hours. Good stuff.

We landed early morning and quartered ourselves in the back cabin of Jonas' parents' place. It was sunny and all, but morning temperature was no more than 10 degrees C and I almost froze to death. No wonder I was in complete shock during my visit in 2010, when it dropped from around 0 to -16 over night in my home town Ulricehamn. And -16 degress C is not even close to cold..

Father in law, Hans, showing off the latest additions in the green house. And yes, there are green houses in Sweden ;)

Jonas chewing away on a home grown cucumber, standing underneath the grapes. And yes again, you can grow both cucumber and grapes in Sweden ;)

Even tomatoes grow on our northern longitudes!

Husband checking out the up-the-hill-deck-grill-and-smoke, to make sure everything is there. 

 

 I of course had to make sure about the motorcycle, since I've missed that old thing enormously; getting a pic with me and it turned out to be trickier than I though though..

..but I managed in the end!

I do however need my husband to drive it (since it's a custom bike at 1100cc and weighs a lot)..

..which we of course wanted to do straight away!

We then started the dreaded un-and-re-packing.

We only went down the street during that first ride, but as soon as we found all our gear in our tucked away boxes, Hans also came for a ride.

 

And OMG is there a lot of gear: protective drag jeans, socks (considering I haven't worn real socks in over a year, this does feel weird), back plate, leather scarf..

..leather jacket (how I love that jacket!)..

..and finally helmet and gloves.

One of the evening we also had to check out one of the new family attributes: the boat!

Happy mother- and sister-in-law with slightly suspicious nephew ;)

I love boats!

We set our aim for one of the smaller islands about 20 mins from the docks.

Jonas acted like our fearless 'hopp-iland-Kalle' i. e. the first one ashore to tie up the boat.

Then it was just to bring all the ingredients for a smashing picnic!

And it is nice with 'Allemansratten' e. i. you can almost go anywhere in nature in Sweden and you are allowed to camp, BBQ or go for a swim, unless you are more or less in someone's backyard. 

 

Hence, you can take your boat out to the archipelago, bring food etc and have a completely secluded day with your family almost wherever.

Heading back we took a detour around Gottskar Harbor, beautiful as ever in the sun set.

Boats were coming and going as usual on the almost mirror like water..

..and we slowly but surely reached our final destination for that time..

..and managed to get safely ashore again aided by this exemplary gentleman!

All in all, we had a great couple of days in Onsala; thank you Jeanette, Hans, Annika and Hugo for making them so special!