Back in London after a weekend in Stockholm

Am back to what I guess this is the end of summer.... Bank holiday is still left but with tomorrow comes the seriousness and the hard work nevertheless... 

In any case, it was nice going to Stockholm for a long weekend. It was painful getting there but once there I had a good time. After my meeting with Atlas Copco on Friday I went out to Junibacken (never been before) to see Mikaela and Alexandra. Alexandra was cooking at Villa Villekulla, was riding Pippi's horse (Lilla Gubben) and saw an Alfons play. Then we went home. I had a conference call and then went to see Kadri for dinner.

Was good to see my friend Kadri, catching up about life. We went to a new place on Strandvägen. Food was fantastic and service so so... After dinner we went on to Vassa Eggen, a place on Birger Jarlsgatan that has always been one of the places where Kadri and I have hung out. Also, hoped that my old friend Simon would DJ... Unfortunately he didn't but fortunately I ran into him anyway. Updated ourselves about lives and what our respective families are up to - it was really good to see him! 

Day after I woke with a somewhat heavy head but still went out running with Mikaela. 7km - not long but it was tough! After the run we were picked up by mom to take us to Justerö and the cousin meet. On the way we stopped for coffee (at Statoil in Åkersberga) but when trying to start afterwards the car didn't start!!! My mom's Opel is 10-15 years old and she has had it in for service for changing the starting motor. We pushed it one lap around the petrol station - must have been some sight!! Finally Max (Mikaela's boyfriend) got it to start and off we were, worried about what would happen at the ferry over to Justerö. We were lucky getting onto the ferry - ended up at the end. Turned off the engine and went across the water. It did... not... start... This time we knew what to do and off we were pushing. We got it to start and finally we arrived to the cousin meet. 

Was really good to see everyone. Some cousins I haven't seen in a really long time and it was good catching up! We stayed to around ten before heading home. We played games, hung out, drunk wine and had a good time!

When we got home we saw the final episode of Johan Falck (Swedish crime thriller) - I liked it. 

On Sunday I had coffee with dad and then it was time to head off to the airport. Got to fly the new Dreamliner - it is being tested on Stockholm before they start long haulage in September. Finally at Heathrow I had a car waiting to take me home to Masha. Wish I lived closer - took too long to get there. But finally I got to see her lovely smile! 

Tomorrow... Back to reality...

Off to Stockholm

Holiday is over. As always it was too short and had earnings first day back as well so was bound to be a stressful day, especially as being a bit rusty and tired from holiday blues. The day didn't get better when I realised I had left my passport at home (!!) Left at 4 to go home to collect it before heading out to the airport. Only problem was... The passport wasn't in the passport book! Started to turn over the flat but could not find it - panic! Kept searching the flat methodically but still nothing. Started to think it might be at the office after all in the midst of some papers. Then Maria came home and found it in a minute... It was on the window sill, a place I had searched several times.. What can I say - embarrassing! Rushed off to the airport to try to catch the flight but to no avail! Have to fly this morning instead so am now on my way to Heathrow.

Trip will be good I think. Tomorrow I am meeting Atlas Copco's IR team  to talk about compressors, will go to passport office to get a national ID and then I will see my friend Kadri for dinner. Then there is the cousin meet on Saturday, which is the reason for going in the first place. In the meantime I hope to spend some time with Mikaela and Alexandra (my sister and niece) and my dad! 

The highlight of yesterday was otherwise the second ultrasound. We got to see Liten for the second time. The baby was unfortunately turning away from the cameras so we had to take a walk and have some chocolate to try to get him/her to turn. Very cool but most of all it was very good to hear the words 'all is fine'... We have decided not to get the know the sex of the baby. The girl doing the scan said the baby's face looked more like me than Maria - well not sure about that but it was cool to see the facial structures! 

Enter picture from second scan....

Off to Cornwall

Yesterday was a long drive. Had to work for one day to initiate on KION, the forklift manufacturer I IPOed in June. We had a team dinner in the evening. Lots of wine and a couple of beers and as always when I have been out I woke up really early. Still, it was a nice evening and the food was really good. The restaurant was just off Hatton Garden, on the same street where I bought Masha's ring.

Left for Cornwall around one or so on Wednesday. First off to Valera to drop off our house kees and then out to M4, going west turning into M5 around Bristol. Cornwall is a five hour drive if you drive straight. Waspre tired than usual and for a while it was difficult to keep my eyes open, so we took a pause somewhere in the middle - is quite dangerous to be too tired when on the motorway. A 15 minute nap, a cup of coffe and a red bull took care of that. Then off again.

We are staying in a little town called Looe at a hotel called the Hannafore Point Hotel. Decent - would say three out of five. Beds were not too comfortable and the room got a bit cold over night (which I like) and breakfast was decent. It got a nice view though! 

Here is the hotel:

Today we are off to see the Eden project. It has plants from all over the world. One more night in Looe, then off to Lands End.

First views of Hadrian's wall

We started off seeing the castle in Carlisle, which turned out to be decent but not more (we have seen quite a lot of castles). At least we found the stone containing all of the 1,069 words of the Curse of Carlisle in the Millennium Passage on the way to the castle (it weighs 14 tonnes). The curse is a 16th century curse that was invoked by the Archbishop of Glasgow who lived by stealing cattle and pillage.

Picture of the stone.

After leaving Carlisle we drove on to the Lanercost Priory where we also had lunch. Had pork burger with apple - very tasty. The Priory was nice but quickly seen and we still hadn't seen the wall itself... We drove on towards the signs pointing to the wall, and finally there was it! It must have been magnificent in its days. 4-5 meters tall and 3 metres thick...! After having gotten our first glimpse of the wall we went on to Birdoswald Roman Fort. We saw the fort and walked along the wall for a while. Weather is amazing for walks!

Picture of wall.

Then we went on to see two more sights before calling it a day. We parked and walked to the first sight. We could not find it, but at least the nature was gorgeous! The second sight was more wall. We walked along it for a while before we decided to call it a day and head for the hotel.

Picture of nature.

We had booked a farm house B&B which had gotten excellent reviews on Bookings.com. Instead of taking A69 back we drove small roads and they were small - the kind of roads where you pray that you will not meet anyone as there as there is not room for two cars. We only met one car luckily!

We found the B&B and it is wonderful! We were met by a guy called Jack who was dressed in suspenders with skulls on them. He was super friendly and made us feel very welcome. Our room has two floors and a huge bedroom... and a Jacuzzi!! We have decided to stay here for three days, i.e. until we go back to London on Monday. There is no restaurant here so we headed off for a pub a mile and a half away. At the pub we had kangaroo - very tasty! It was the first time for me.

Tomorrow we'll try to get an early start as we will keep exploring the wall. Hope to get some nice landscape picture tomorrow!

Now Jacuzzi, then bed!  

On our way to Hadrian's wall. First stop Carlisle

First day of holiday - so nice to be off work (have been a bit beat lately)! We are on our way up north, to Hadrian's wall (about a five hour drive) - a stone wall that goes along the English border to Scotland.

We left around 9.30 - a bit later than we had expected. Traffic's not that bad luckily. Started off with M1 turning into M6. As usual we stopped a couple of times along the way. There was a singing tree that Masha found online a while ago (in XX). The tree overlooks the city, a view that in all honesty is not that impressive. The tree itself was pretty cool though:


After having seen it we went on to the lake district. We figured we could take some nice pictures. There are two main cities in the lake district - XX and YY. We drove through both and XX is by far the nicest! The scenery is amazing and we will certainly go back! In the meantime we got a teaser - we stopped by once and took some really nice pics!


The day was now approaching the end and we headed off to Carlisle where we had decided to spend the night. We had booked Hallmark Hotel in central Carlisle. Not especially good, but what can you do... We missed the closure of the restaurant so had to order room service. I had chicken tikka masala. Not the best one I've had but I was happy to get food at all!


Tomorrow we'll head off towards the wall! Am looking forward to it! Now - bed!