I am so glad that I have already have found my gang with girlfriends here. Kiwis are so welcoming and open. I wish we swedes were more inviting and I will make an effort to invite people to come along more easily when I return back home to Sweden.
Friday night was colouring night with my girlfriends, but mostly we had some drinks and was chatting along as usual.
One of them is so creative and turns old cutlery into decorations for the home and jewelry. She was participating in a craft market in Hamilton this weekend and I volountered to help out. I have participated in many fairs and markets with craft related items, so it felt just like old times. :)
I have also had rehersal with my choir since we are participating on national TV tomorrow, but more about that later...
The summer has finally arrived to New Zealand and I have had such a beautiful week!
It has been full of long walks, sun, sweat and sunburn!
It is also fun that Caesar has made so many new friends here in Auckland! Yesterday we had a friend over after school and today he´s being picked up by another mom to go home to their house.
Took a walk to the local "book shop", a house I sometimes pass on my way home from school. Today I wanted to pick up some new books from this lovely book exchange box that someone has put up on their lawn. The only books I have to exchange so far are written in swedish. :)
Tonight 4 girlfriends are coming over for colouring night and chatting, so today I am making some healthy snacks and have bought non-alchoholic grapewine as well.
Christmas has come early for me, since I got this Christmas present from Niklas today! I haven´t been taking guitar lessons for about 15 years, but next week I will start again and I am sooo looking forward to it!
Otherwise I have been working as usual and tomorrow early morning I am going with a friend to Hamilton to help her when she is participating in an arts and crafts market there. It´s gonna be so much fun! Have great weekend everybody!
A day like this I do not miss november in Sweden extremely much. This is pictures from our walk home from school today, or walk...eeeh, rather running on all four. Caesar was a dog, a puppy at the way home. :)
Both me and Caesar likes the way to school via the beach. I like it because it is beautiful and Caesar likes it because he thinks it's the fastest way to school....which it isn't, but I'm not nagging him about it, since I also prefer it.
Between our house and the beach there is a road and this park.
Well, in the Auckland area snow never shows. We went shopping stuff for our home yesterday and when we left the furniture warehouse yesterday we heard a bunch of people screaming and shouting. When we went by the Paradise Ice Skating place we found the reason why.
The kids outside the ice skating place were having a snowball fight! I must say that it didn´t look a bit like the snowball fights I am used to growing up and living in Sweden though. No flip flops and shorts there...
Otherwise this week has meant a lot of working hours for me and Caesar has an infection in one of his teeth, so we have been staying at home a lot this week and weekend. The weather has been quite bad this week as well ending with a huge storm on saturday night.
We had to spoil the sick little one and he just loved this gift.
We could not miss the night market, three saturdays in a row we have been there enjoying vietnamese fresh springrolls and buying Clevedon strawberries for sunday breakfast. So yummie!
Out of many suggestions five flags have been selected. Out of these the people in New Zealand can rank on their favourite from today until the 11th of december.
In march next year there will be another referendum do determine wether to change the flag or not. What do you think? Which one is your favourite?
For many people New Zealand is a dream destination and I don´t blame them, since this country is God damn beautiful! So, how many swedes live in NZ? Not that many, but here comes a list of some swedish bloggers living in this country or that has been travelling in New Zealand. Please let me know if I have missed anyone!
Living in New Zealand
Ola & Ingrid Hoelstad, who participated in the swedish tv-show: Familjer på äventyr(=families on an adventure, which was about swedish families who had chosen different ways of lives in various parts of the globe). They live and trade coffee out of their motorhome in New Zealand.
www.wholemeal.se
A big family consisting of 5 adults and 2 kids who has moved to a rural part of Coromandel peninsula to start a tourist business, Anglers lodge. They are writing about the massive immigration process that we all need to go through to move to NZ and their lives here as they build and run their business.
Familjen Wahlgren i NZ
Åsa who has lived in New Zealand with her Kiwi husband has been blogging about her life her in a couple of years and the difficulties to live so far away from loved ones. She has recently moved from Auckland to the beautiful region of Nelson in the south island.
www.beyondthecoastline.com/
Travellers in New Zealand
A swedish girl is currently tramping 3000 km through New Zealand and rasing money for a cancer charity at the same time! You can find her blog here:
www.newzealandbyhelena.com
Swedish travelbloggers that has written about their travels och lifes in New Zealand are these great blogs:
www.jennifersandstrom.se
www.livetfrandenljusasidan.se
www.freedomtravel.se
www.symary.com
www.fantasiresor.se
The pictures above are borrowed from backpackerguide.nz, estero.co.nz and aptouring.co.nz.
Many swedes live abroad or travel a lot. Since the development of actions in our beloved world it is a good idea to add your information to a list of swedes abroad with your contact information.
The link:
http://www.swedenabroad.com/svensklistan
In case of emergency it is then easy to gather information about the swedes within the area and contact them if needed. You need to do this every year if you live abroad, since the data is only valid for one year maximum.
The information you add there is used by UD or the Swedish embassies only.
I had a funny conversation with a friend here in Auckland. Her daughter was reading a book and the main character was a swedish girl. The girl was eating blueberry soup in the book, so Michelle asked me if that was for real or not? I told her that we had blueberry soup topped with cottage cheese after a day out cross country skiing when I was a child. We could also eat it after school. Blueberry soup and rose hip soup are the most common swedish fruit soups.
She loved the idea and asked me for the recipe and to be honest my mother never made this from scratch but bought ready made. Well anyway here is the recipe.
Ingredients for blueberry soup:
0,5 liters of water
0,5 liters of sugar
0,5 liters of blueberries
2-3 tablespoons of potatoe flour
You put the water and sugar in a pan and heat it while stearing until the sugar dissolves.
When it starts boiling you put the blueberries into the water and boil the soup for about 3 minutes.
You can then taste if it needs more sugar or not.
Mix 2-3 tablespoons of potatoe flour in a cup with a just a little water.
Then you add that mix slowly in the soup whilie stiring the soup allthe time.
Let the soup reach boiling temperature before you let it cool down.
The blueberry soup can be served both warm and cold and is traditionally eated with tiny almond macaroons and/or cottage cheese in it. You could also top it with whipped cream if you prefer that.
Make love not war is the meaning of my heading, Faites l'amour pas la guerre. I am thinking of our dear friends in Paris, a city I have visited many times and lived nearby as well.
You didn't deserve this Paris, as nobody does. May love win!
We had been looking forward to this day for a while, especially Caesar of course. There are a bunch of vintage railways in New Zealand but Glenbrook Vintage Railway is the only one that is located near Auckland, about 40 minutes drive from the city center.
Two weekends per year, in november and mars, this vintage railway has Thomas and friends theme. Since New Zealand is so influenced by british culture, Thomas and friends is much more popular here than in Sweden. Different countries, different trends I guess.
The thing Caesar enjoyed the most this day was actually painting trains made of plaster, so maybe we won´t pay 60 bucks for a trainride in the near future again. We have promised him to buy some plaster diy to make and paint at home our own though. :)
The trains were really cute and we went on this train for a 45 minute ride, where we made a stop to go out and have a look at some other old and beautiful trains, like the one you see at the topmost picture.
We were seated in a really cute wagon and the train went through a really idyllic countryside setting.
After the visit to the bustling railway we were in desperate need of a flat white, the down under-version of cappuccino. In this country you rarely get a bad cup of coffee! We made a stop at Calendula cottages nearby the railway, a garden café in lovely setting, before heading back to town.
Caesar is attending class 0 in a primary school in Auckland. Next year he will be starting year 1, but I am amazed of the level of knowledge and education the class hold already. The good schools in New Zealand is way ahead of the swedish schools, but the segregation does not give all children this chance.
To be attending a top school in Auckland you have to live within the school area. Good schools push real estate prices up significantly.
Yesterday the parents were invited to attend all classes in his primary school. I stayed in his classroom all the time, since I have been really curious of the teaching here. I love his teacher mrs Jackson and so does Caesar. She has so much engagement and puts a lot of heart into her work with the kids.
The theme for the parental session was time. Mrs Jackson split the class into 6 groups and they were all rotating to different stations doing chores that had to do with time, reading and understanding how to interpret watches. The whole class worked with such frenzy and I was really impressed of how everybody in the class took on their chores with enthusiasm and creativity.
I was also very happy to see that Caesar was coping along just fine, since he only have been to school for 2 month and didn´t know the language when he started. He understood what to do and needs more practicing in writing than the other children, but we are working on that.
Schooling was one of the issues we were thinking about when moving to New Zealand. When I grew up the school I was attending wasn't very good and it seems there has been a decline since then unfortunately. I am so happy being able to give Caesar the chance for a better school experience than I had.
Here in New Zealand it is soon to be saturday morning, but happy friday to you back home in Europe! How does your weekend look like? Hittar du på något särskilt i helgen?
We are heading to Glenbrock Vintage Railway on saturday to ride with a Thomas and friends-train and we are having our wedding day-anniversary on sunday. More about that later though...
Okay, time for me to start blogging in english, since I now live in an english speaking nation.
I am surely lucky to be able to live in two of the top ranked countries in the world according to this yearly compilation. Also as a citizen of a country in EU I would have the ability to live in all of the ones in to 5. New Zealand is the hardest country for me to be resident in, but thanks to my husband we managed that as well.
Sweden comes in place no 5 and New Zealand in place no 4 when The Legatum Institute compares the countries of the world every year. Sweden receives no 5 since it has the worlds highest level of entrepreneurship. I am not so certain they do. In New Zealand you can have a smaller company without registration, so the amount of small unregistered companies in Auckland is massive.
I surely agree with both the fact that many big brands and innovation has it´s origins from Sweden as well as the claim that the community engagement in New Zealand is impressive! There is always gatherings, events, markets and festivals going on and there is always a lively crowd everywhere. People really invite you as a newcomer and take care of one another in a way we do not in Sweden.
Man kan ju tro av denna blogg att jag har semester jämt, men så är ju inte fallet riktigt. Jag jobbar några dagar per vecka. Mina arbetstimmar sprider jag ut på 2-3 dagar per vecka och jag kollar även mina mail några gånger till per vecka.
Jag jobbar en del kvällar och dagtid då Caesar är i skolan. Via vårt wifi kopplar jag upp mig hemifrån och loggar in på jobbets server för kunna jobba.
Morgonens utsikt.
Dagens första arbetspass. En rolig detalj är att mina möten alltid sker kvällstid. Ofta ligger de tidigt i veckan, men till exempel nu i fredags, då hade jag ett jobbmöte kl 22-23 fredag kväll. Lite seg var jag allt, fredagkväll och allt, men det gick ju bra det med. :)
Jag tog en promenad efter stranden efter lunch och just den delen är ju inte så illa, eller hur?
Dagens andra arbetspass. Måste byta lite ju, för ryggen om inte annat. Nu är det dags att röra lite på sig, promenad efter stranden innan jag ska hämta Caesar på skolan för at åka till simträningen.
Caesars klasslärare hummar och ojar sig över Caesars fantastiska avancemang vad gäller det engelska språket. Mammahjärtat blir lite malligt. Idag frågade mrs Jackson om vi pratar engelska eller svenska med honom hemma, då hon aldrig tidigare har haft en elev som gått så fort framåt i engelska. De har ju många immigranter på skolan, hela tiden nya barn från olika delar av världen. Jag erkände att vi pratar svenska för ofta orkar Caesar inte mer engelska kvällstid än att göra sina läxor.
Caesar är som den blomma han själv har odlat i skolan, på väg att att spricka ut nu. Han trivs bra i skolan äntligen, är rejält duktig på språket med tanke på den korta tid vi har varit här, han är poppis bland barnen och har fått många vänner. Han börjar trivas, blomma ut och det är så skönt att se!
*Mamma, den här blir så fin att vi måste hänga upp den på väggen!" Det är bara att älska en 5-årings självförtroende!
Vi har ju mycket hopplock från internetfyndande hemma och inte allt här hemma är tip top, men vi trivs. Jag bara älskar det sidobord jag köpte av en fransyska som hon själv har målat och fäst vackra snäckor som lådknoppar. Då och då följer vackra snäckor hem från stranden. Eastern beach som vi bor invid har sand mixad med en mängd snäckor, så många fynd lär det bli framöver med. Kan inte motstå dom...
Dagens lunchpromenad efter stranden. Trots att jag smorde in mig med solskyddsfaktor 50 i morse och har en bra grund har jag fått bra med färg efter kanske 1.5 timmes promenerande i mestadels molnigt väder. Man får akta sig!
Amen!
