Lately on Insta...

I thought I'd get back into the routine of blogging again by recapping what we have done lately with the help of Instagram (as many other bloggers do). So here's what we've been up to:

1. Visit by my aunt and uncle, Bicke and Anders - lego building with Harald. 2. Overnight trip to Luxembourg with Anders and Bicke - ferris wheel at one of the Christmas market in Luxembourg City. 3. Carousel, mulled wine and walking through the old parts of Luxembourg City. 4. Vianden Castle in the north of Luxembourg, near the German border. 

5. Time for this year's Secret Santa/julklappsbyte! 6. First advent calendar with little presents ("paketkalender") for the kids. 7. Beautiful Christmas lights in Stockholm on one of my 5 (!) business trips to Sweden during October-December. 8. First "lussekatt" (saffron bun) of the season on my latest Stockholm trip this week.

Friday Gallery: In My Neighbourhood...

Annika's second theme for the month of February is In my neighbourhood (or environment/surroundings).  I thought I'd illustrate it with photos in my phone (and taken by me) that would fit the theme.  Let's start from above...

Stockholm is my home

We're very fortunate to live near Gärdet and Djurgården so nature is never far away even though we live in the city, and this is also where I work

We can walk in the direction of "town" and the shops either by beautiful Strandvägen, in its winter clothes in the picture, or straight through Östermalm

On our way home we can pass by Humlegården for some playtime

And our last stop may be Ett bageri, my favourite bakery (tied with Valhallabageriet, but Ett bageri is much closer)

Have a nice weekend!

Cherry Too

I just had to venture down to Kungsträdgården to see the cherry blossom before it's too late (for this year). It doesn't come out too well in the photo but the ground was covered in pink petals that have fallen off the trees. I think that is almost as beautiful as the blossoming trees themselves.

This Week

Highlights from the week, which has been work work work for me, but family time too.


Before the snow arrived today (Friday) we had several days of cold but sunny winter weather when Stockholm is at its best. This picture shows Stockholm's changing silhouette with the new Stockholm waterfront building to the right of the City Hall. The front building is pretty cool but not the boring office building behind...

Isolde is still a major thumb sucker but she's sucking more and more on her index finger, just like her dad when he was little, especially when she's in the pushchair.

One of the week's work highlights was a visit to Saltå kvarn...

...and looking good...or not...in protective gear for the visit inside the mill and the bakery.

Last weekend Isolde had a great time on the swings of Humlegården but wasn't as happy when she fell forward like a log on the snowy path.  She's not used to wearing boots or snowsuit and not being as mobile and flexible as she's indoors. 

Not a great photo it will have to do; we finally found a lamp for the living room that we liked! 

Here's a better picture.

Restaurant Prose

The British restaurant reviewer A. A. Gill visits Stockholm and writes a food piece that's both informative and funny (Swedish and English version available).  I especially liked the part about the vikings:

This is the only Viking-themed restaurant in Stockholm, so that’s a blessing. But it is still one too many. You should invite the Saxons to come and sack it.  Considering how much the rest of Europe suffered from the bloody Vikings, it would be a cruelty to make a visitor relive the trauma here.

Show & Tell: My Block

It's almost time for Annika's third theme for February but I'm still on the second! On your block. So let me show you my neighbourhood!

Our building. We have a balcony like those in the picture but our flat is on the other side of the building (on the second floor).

We live on a cul-de-sac (door to the left of the silver car), which means our street is not that trafficated and since our flat is on the other side we hardly hear cars (we're probably not going to be similarly spoilt in our next home).

At the bottom of our strip of the street there is a kiosk selling Thai food. It used to be a traditional kiosk selling newspapers, hot dogs and kebabs but no one who gave it a go succeeded (several tried and in between attempts it stood empty). But as a Thai hole-in-the-wall it's very popular and has almost put the other (real) Thai restaurant in the neighbourhood out of business.

View towards Erik Dahlbergsgatan and the local florist. On the other three corners of the intersection there are a Coop grocery shop, a dry cleaners and a shop selling pet accessories. Other shops on the main street sell chocolate (Ejes), bread, pizza and second-hand clothes.

On this corner (view back towards our street and the Thai kiosk) is "our" local café, Café V (for Victoria, the owner). I haven't been back since Isolde arrived though, as it's usually pretty crowded and I don't want to leave the pram (with a sleeping little girl) outside yet. Café V is a cosy little place but as usual, not as much value-for-money as when it was new a couple of years ago.

Tessinparken is one of the high points of living in this area. In the summer that is. Then we usually bring blankets and something to read and just hang out in the park. There is an establishment further down on the right (only open in the summer), which serves pretty good food (club sandwich, burgers, salads and the like) and beer and wine. Now when we are parents we will appreciate the playground at the top of the park.

The view from the park is not as pretty as it features the infamous 1970s complex Fältöversten (housing and shopping centre) which architecturally doesn't fit in here, but which provides decent shopping.


At the bottom of the park there is a very popular hangout, especially in the summer. They have lots of ice-cream flavours to choose from but it's a bit pricey. Their pasta is good too but don't bother with their salads.

Saturday

Lunch at Peter's office (Stockholm's best views?), followed by a visit to Peter's grandmother to introduce Isolde.



Via Anna's iPhone

Up We Go

Peter was given a flying lesson by some friends for his 30th and finally got to use it today (just two years later) and I dared coming along! It was a sunny and beautiful autumn day and I got some great shots of Stockholm (with the camera). Here's a taster taken with my phone.



Via Anna's iPhone

Autumn Bliss

Show & Tell: Music that Represents my Hometown

This week's Show & Tell theme is "a song that you think represents your town / region / country (home / adopted place of living) (use You Tube if possible)".



Monica Zetterlund's classic tune probably best represents Stockholm, my current hometown and in a way, the city that has been my second hometown from when I was young since Södertälje is part of the greater Stockholm area.

But I wanted to find some modern music from my real hometown Södertälje, so I googled some and found several good bands that I have never heard of. I couldn't find anything on You Tube but I can at least provide some MySpace links.

* Jane Gulliou (I like the name! For those who are not Swedes: it's because it's a joke on a famous author's name)
* Vanessa
* Fallenleafs

Södertälje is also hometown to the 1980s band Shanghai but I think I was a bit too young so I didn't really know about them until I googled for "Södertälje bands".

I live in the Greatest City in the World!

Not just by me, but also according to Reader's Digest, which has ranked Stockholm the world's No 1 in eco-friendliness and environmental thinking and calls it "the world's greenest, most livable city". At the other end of the 72 place-long list is Beijing. The magazine is basing its ranking on a range of criteria such as public transport, air and water quality, local environmental laws, energy prices, waste management and green areas. The governor of Stockholm, Per Unckel, thinks the city's green thinking in its housing development is a key factor and markets the area of Hammarby Sjöstad. And he's probably right, because many governments - the British being one of them - have visited Sjöstaden to learn about sustainable housing. (Almost as many have visited Stockholm to study the congestion charge scheme.)

Stockholm can do at least one thing better though. It did not - and I can't understand why - participate in the European Car Free Day last week. If Rome can manage to ban cars in the city centre for a day, Stockholm definitely could!

Elephant On the Loose in Stockholm

The newspaper Dagens Nyheter tells the story (translated):

"An elephant is on the loose in Stockholm. The news came from our tippers, who had heard on the police radio that two patrolling cars were on their way to Enskedefältet to attend to an elephant that had escaped from a circus.

There is no time to lose. We have to get a picture of the escaped elephant before it is caught.

Quickly heading to the photographer's car. On our way towards Årsta we hear the news on the radio. 'We're breaking for traffic information. We have an elephant warning, yes, you heard it correctly, elephant warning by Huddinge Road.'

We start looking into the bushes and on the golf course, but no elephant.

The informer said that it could be in a residential area. The photographer curses the fact that the camera is in the trunk of the car and wonder if it's okay to stop on the highway.

I wonder if we dare leave the car if we see the elephant. And we discuss whether it is an African or an Indian elephant. The African is bigger, but what about agressiveness? Even a small Indian one can probably be as terrifying if it's stressed. It was safari mood in the Spring sun in Enskede.

But it was a story which was too good to be true. A simple check with the circus shows it is false alarm.

Later the police tells us that somebody called in about the escaped elephant after having seen an elephant when it was being exercised. According to the circus the elephant Lubli is so good that she is allowed to walk around freely.

Always check a good story, that is the conclusion. But some adrenalinfilled elephant hunt on a regular, boring no news Thursday was still not wrong."

For pictures, click here.