2010.01.10 - Brrrrr

Sweden Diary - January 10th, 2010

Turn up the heat, please!

I have now gone through the first week in my new job here in Scandinavia and let me make it clear from the beginning - it's nothing like being in Ulsan !!! It's going to take a little getting used to. I will miss crawling through small manholes in the bottom of the ship (thought I'd never say this), going onboard whenever I needed to check out something and I will especially miss the exercise I got while at work. In Copenhagen, the most exercise I will get is going down to the basement to stuff myself with the excellent lunch offered. It might show after a while! And I guess it wouldn't hurt either - evenly distributed, that is!

I have not been up to much in the evening. It's tough starting in a new job, and at the same time having to sort out the bureaucracy of moving to a new country. Paula seems to handle it quite well, though. But then again this must be her favorite climate (but even so she is still complaining about the weather! haha ...). We have had down to -12C and -20 including the wind chill factor. Bloody cold! This weekend we have nonetheless been out walking the streets just for the heck of it. Our friend Ana Ruth says that we are too Scandinavian - that nobody else would venture out in this weather if they didn't have to! Only us and the people we saw playing ice hockey on the lakes ...

Yesterday we first went out in the search for some tools (we found out that our container wont arrive for another month), so we could fix up the house a little before the visitors arrive. Just a few lights and electrical items to fix - nothing major. While we were out we had a little look at the winter sales. Very disappointing - all the shops were so messy. Maybe it's the new Scandinavian design line. And talking about fashion - for the first time in my life I have found jeans in my general size which are too tight for me!!!! Apparently anorexia is top fashion among the lads here ... go figure.

In the evening we tried to go to the movies, but we were not wanted there. All sold out. It must be good business to have a cinema here...

Today we did some more walking. You see, we had to take some photos to post here on the web page, so I suffered in the cold!! We also did a few rounds of apartments for sale. just checking out the market, and we came out the better. no real need to move as most of the apartments aren't as nice as ours. There was one though .......