Söder reunion

Well, after Rob and Marc finally got here...after missing their flight, and sending me and paul on a 400km journey to pick them up....we had a good weekend. The weather was pretty good, and we had a fine time supping beer in södertälje and stockholm. Some highlights include the bumblebee man, the girl with one leg (optical illusion), the woman walking her cat, as well as pauls unbelievable poker win. The grand prix on the other hand was crap. Although we must not forget the 3 day taxi journey back from stockholm..."where are you really from?" We stopped at a cafe on the way and had a coffee...with the taxi driver?

Lost in Translation

This sign at Stockholm Arlanda airport makes me giggle every time i see it. So your pet must have travel documents and a guide dog, otherwise it cant come. What if your pet aint blind?

Easter weekend!!

Sweden or not....i am pretty sure it isnt supposed to snow this hard in the tail end of march?

Poker night

Poker night was great fun...and thanks to everybody who came. I am a bit disappointed that i didnt win of course, but congrats must go to Juan. Our clear winner, and reciever of over 700SEK in cold hard cash. I really look forward to next time!

New Wheels

Finally got my nice shiny new wheels for the beetle. Took longer than i hoped....who ever heard of 20cm of snow in easter?? Anyway...a very happy young man i am now. I think they should last about two to three months, before i come down to find it on bricks in the morning!

Old apartment

Was looking through some of my old pictures, and found these from my old apartment in Gothenburg. I sooo miss this view!!

HOJAB parking

Apparently paying for a ticket and displaying it the windscreen is not enough. It appears you have to come down and scrape the ice off your windscreen all night...because if you dont it just might be that the parking attendant idiot wont bother either and will just write you a ticket saying "it was not visible". Perhaps I should actually wait by the car all night and actually point the ticket out to him...since he abviously cannot see further than his own nose! So, now that HOJAB have decided that my ticket, photos, and explanation are not good enough, they are going to demand payment. So, with NO way to prove that I am innocent (it does just come down to my word against the attendants), I MUST pay. Well thats fair.

I dont care about all these people who perhaps should not have got a ticket and dont want to pay. I POINT BLANK should not have got a ticket.

I find it hard to contain here my anger towards the parking attendant at HOJAB Parkeringsservices. Perhaps Hojab should look at employing people with eyes to check for tickets...or people with brains....or just even human beings would be enough!

Why should i bother paying for a ticket and displaying it now. It appears that you can just get a penalty anyway, and there is absolutely fuck all that you can do about it.

Thank you legal system! Good job!

Another friend

Friends with a Californian spec beetle. Side markers, smaller bumper plate and no fog lamps.

That was quick

I waited weeks to see plate 002, but 003 and 004 have came very quickly after. I am looking forward to seeing 005 now, as 006 parks outside my house.

BIGGER GEEK!!!

OK...now things have sunk to a new low. I have now become addicted to a number plate spotting game. Basically you have to spot all the number plates from 001 to 999 in order. After being introduced to the game by ingrid, i spotted my first plate (001 which i unfortunatly did not get a picture of) within 5 minutes. The rest are proving much harder though. Its actually surprisingly difficult. This in no way takes away from how sad this is!! I dont care though...i am ahead of ingrid!!

GEEK!

OK, I know that this is really sad....but hey, I bought a beetle so what do you expect! But when I am in work all day, i thought my little beetle might want a friend.

Svenska

Ok, jag hoppas at det har går bra, men jag vet inte. Hello från Allan till min lärare Charlotte! Du kan sager om min svensk är skit.

I am not looking forward to learning jsut how bad the swedish above is....spelling mistakes...grammer mistakes....HEY...MY SPEAKING HAS IMPROVED LOADS!!

Oh Brother

I came across this video today and remembered that i promised my brother i would add it to my blog. Enjoy!! For those who dont know....this is being done only for the cringing it will create!!!

Home

The drive back home after new year wasnt the simplest. The conditions were not end of the world bad, but were also not the kind you want when you are looking at a 450Km journey. Saw a couple of breakdowns (thought i was going to have one myself), and a jacknifed truck. Got back just fine though.

Xmas and New year

Had a great christmas in Sundsvall with Klara and her family. The beetle had its work cut out getting us their though with all the christmas presents!!

Ate loads of great food...and i mean loads, spent tons of time just lounging around, and also went out sledging a couple of times. New year was good as well with loads of food and fireworks. The highlight of the whole visit however was Santa Clauses visit on xmas eve. I laughed so much my face hurt!!!

Parking scum

God do i HATE parking attendants. You pay for 24 hours parking, the ticket is in your windscreen....it frosts over night and instead of scraping the windscreen some moron just writes a ticket. The ticket was in the window...so what else can i assume? A blind parking attendant...a mean parking attendant...a joke parking attendant?? Now if they dont remove the fine the only way i can possibly get this corrected is to go to court. Its just f#cking stealing money. And before anybody starts writing in....yes i know i dont hate all parking attendants, just the f*cking morons who do this sh*t. I do hate all twat faced parking companies though.

AND JUST SO WE ARE CLEAR. The car was parked correctly in a parking space. A full 24 hours of parking was paid for (the ticket came after only 6 hours of this). The ticket was placed in the windscreen. F*cking theft.

Not in Sweden

Yes, I know we have all seen this before....but the fact that it was written in english in the middle of Stockholm just made me laugh all the more!!!

Better picture

Got a better picture of the truck my dad is currently driving. Yes i know that most of you dont care...but i like it so tough!

My Gran

Sadly my gran passed away last week and will be missed a lot. I went to the funeral whilst in Scotland and I am sure nan would have been very pleased to see the number of people there. She would also have loved to hear the very very kind words said about her...as well as my brother playing the bagpipes. We are all going to miss you an greatly. Take care. Love Allan

Drop Nose

Managed to steal a couple of pictures from my dads phone of his current "wheels". I was surprised to see that he is driving the latest of drop nose trailers. Better aerodynamics you see. Pity there is no Scania to be seen though!!

Macdonald party

Went to Scotland to join in on the third Macdonald Clan gathering!!! Sounds very grand but is really just a good excuse for a party. Met up with my family all together who i have not seen for a long time. And even met my first nephew!! Well done Scott. I will leave the pictures to do the rest of the talking.

My new toy

Finally did it! Bought myself a beetle this week...and very happy i am. Honestly, if you have never sat in one you would not believe the space it has. Anyway, i know some people think my choice of car is a little "feminine". I love it however! Now its just to plan a road trip.

Settling in to Södertälje

Since moving in I have been doing alot of sorting...and have spent many an evening in Ikea. My apartment is slowly taking shape though (in no small part thanks to Klara).

It is amazing how much time a person can lose in their life browsing round Ikea!! No more!! I am only 30 after all. I should be out partying!!

Its nearly done though. A few pictures on the wall and a rug are next on the shopping lists though. By the way. Be good to see you back over here Wayne!

Summer BBQ

Asok cam to visit over the weekend as part of his summer vacation. The weather was great and after a day at Lådbilslandet (for the kids) we went out to Ingrids mums house and had beers and a barby. I had a great time....and Taras even promised he was going to atually write something for designertechniques.....so did Asok!!! A great weekend. Back to work on monday though. I should not complain really...in the last three months i have only worked two weeks!

Camping Vacation

Had a great hiking holiday during my summer vacation. Headed a little north in Sweden (just above Åre actually) and spent three days doing some fell walking.....or fell wandering as they say in Sweden. The first two days were 16km and 19km respectively...all cross country. It was easier than i expected though, and it helped that we had prepared well. The cabins we were staying overnight at were so remote that all supplies were airlifted in by helicopter. There were no roads to them at all...period!

The walking was fun though, and the scenery fantastic. Reminded me a lot of Scotland though which was odd. We were very lucky with the weather as well actually. It only really rained on the second day, and for me at least i welcomed it. Klara didnt though....she would have much prefered sunshine?! In my opinion i thought it was a great for keeping cool and fresh. On that note, i was also very happy with my new thermos. Such a small pleasure, but one that i had forgotten since coming to Sweden. A really really strong brewed cup of tea!

The last day we managed to walk 12km in 2 hours 15 minutes. I thought this was not to bad considering it was cross country and we had done 35km in the previous couple of days. Anyway. Had great fun, and hope to do it again sometime in the future, perhaps even further north.

My First Scania

Managed to arrange my first loan of a Scania truck. Was pretty simple to arrange so i hope to borrow one very soon in the future with a fully loaded semi trailer as well. Oh the fun!!!! Anyway, this truck was pretty cool, and the Opticruise was pretty easy to use. Took the truck to visit Ingrid, and actually spent the night in it. Was Ok to sleep in...although I could not figure out exactly how the night heater worked. After a visit to Ingrid, i took it north to Sundsval and Klaras folks place. Had a nice couple of days there before bringing the truck...and Klara back to Södertälje. Looking forward to getting my hands on a V8 now!