That loving feeling

It's day two of our Australian (ad)venture. It means that the jet lag is weighing heavily on my shoulders but I am happy!

 

It feels great to have brought our daughter to her home country, she does have dual citizenship but for some reason I primarily think of her as Australian, don't know why. I obviously (try to) raise her with my Scandinavian values in mind, but I also wan to incorporate with that all that I love about Australia and it's people. Because to me Australians are friendly, open, easygoing and warm. Australia is a country that is accepting and encouraging to people of all sorts of background. I'm sure it's not perfect, I doubt any place is. It may not be my home country, but it very well could be. It's a country that I have been in love with since I was 12 and that feeling is still there :)

The mission for today is to get over this jet lag somehow (I feel like I have gone through a mincer) and most importantly, teach our daughter to say "G'day".

Happy Sunday everyone! If you have that loving feeling, share it with those around you!

 

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Leaving on a jet plane

In transit at the moment, can't wait to reach our destination (as usual), but it's a 14 hour flight to get us there. Oh, and there's the fact that the flight is delayed... And not by a cute 10-15 minutes, rife flight is expected to leave an hour and a half late! So I am spending my time people watching and eating chocolate croissants...

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Here are some photos from our Jeddah visit in December. These are all taken with my iPhone so don't expect anything of awesome quality.

Some of the traditional buildings in the historical district of Jeddah, the oldest dating back to the seventh century. Many buildings have fallen into disrepair and is sad to see how little the Saudi government is doing to restore the area. To the right in this picture is a building that has gotten a facelift, at least on the outside.

Walking through the historical district I felt lucky that I was not hit by an air conditioning unit, sattelite dish or other random object falling down from one of the half rotten wooden balconies.

My brother insisted on me taking a photo showing the price of the fuel. Not sure if I have posted one of these before. A litre of fuel costs 45 halalas, that's less than half a riyal. One riyal equals approximately 20 euro cents! Cheap as chips, cheaper than chips actually.

Words of the day - Dagens ord

I thought I'd post some of these again. Really only for myself to look back on one day. I have no illusions that my daughters language progress interests many of you.

Mimi - Medicin. Lots of that needed as we are both sick.
Bapa - Barbapapa . Her favourite book at the moment.
Bam - Lampa (meaning lamp)
Baby - One of the few words she got right from the start.

Her favourite song at the moment is Itsy Bitsy Spider or as it is called in Swedish, Imse vimse spindel. She cannot say it though, so whenever she wants me to sing it for her she will tap her index fingers together trying to mimick the spider climbing movement. this was really cute at first, but when you have sung it at least 20 times in the last couple of hours it gets a bit old.

This can only end well

The OSN man, aka the cable guy, is here to fix us up with a few more TV-channels. At least that is the idea. This guy speaks mafi English (no English) and he has been on the phone with someone for a while now and I hear the word mushkil (problem) being repeated all too often.

If we end up with absolutely no TV channels at all, it's fine by me. It is my husband that will throw a tantrum :)

Have a lovely Monday everyone!

House hunting

So we are looking at buying a house in Australia. we are trawling the internet left, right and centre to find something that fits our budget and our taste. This house will be an investment property, so we are truing to not be too picky about it ticking ALL the boxes. Does that make it any easier? No.

While we would like something that looks like this

Our budget probably allows for something that looks a bit like this

Sorry for poor image quality

But then I realised that the house of houses was for sale. Check this out: you can actually by your own piece of the Sydney Opera House. and if you know me even the slightest, you are aware that I am a huge fan of this particular piece of architecture.So if I can "own" one of these tiles for a mere 100 Australian dollars, I say go for it!!! I know I have at least one friend who i with me in a heart beat. Not sure my better half is so keen on "investing" a hundred dollars on a piece of ceramic.

You can even check out what sort of view your tile has, what's not to love people?! Time to call the house hunting off? Errr... maybe not.

Have a fantastic Tuesday everyone!

Taif, Saudi Arabia

When my family visited in December we decided to do some traveling in Saudi, rather than traveling somewhere else in the Middle East. We chose to travel to Jeddah and nearby Taif, mainly because we wanted something that was easily accessible and not too far off the beaten track.

Here are some photos from the area around Taif, a city in the mountains 2 hours drive from Jeddah.

One of the biggest attractions were, quite surprisingly, baboons. Maybe because all the water parks were closed.

The last few kilometres the road was anything but straight.

Lots of hazy weather because of the changes in temperature. Our woollen sweaters did get a good exercise while in Taif.

See the building immediately to the left of the bridge, that was our hotel. Do. Not. Recommend. It. If you wake me twice during the night just to check what time I want my breakfast the next morning, I will not be a happy camper!!!

I have a feeling Taif becomes overloaded with Jeddawis during the hotter summer months, hence all the water parks. Good for a one night stay I'd say, but not longer.