Happy birthday, Keisuke!

Today we celebrated Keisukes birthday. By staing indoors all day, with aircon on full speed. And we had curry and cake and beer and a good time and visitors, too.

And he got yet another Buddha statue. Can never have too many!

Constructionmania (back in Hanoi)

Back in Hanoi and Tay Ho, our neighborhood, I am really surprised about the construction mania that keeps going on with a frenzy I have never seen in my life. On every street, houses in perfect conditions are being torn down over night, only to immediately be replaced by new, bigger and taller ones. Rather than lower the rent this is what happens to houses that aren't being rented in a month or two, in an area where land is as expensive as in Tokyo and the credit crunch something that happened far away in the West.

But - who needs five floors in stead of four, four in stead of three, yet another bathroom and even more fancy (ugly) tiles in the kitchen?

And it is still sooooooo hot...

Pippi & Putte in the blueberry forest

When I had double checked the tickets and realized we actually had one more day - were not supposed to leave on the 29th as I had thought all summer long, but on the 30th - we went to the forest, picked loads of blueberries and hallonberries, ate almost all immediately, brought back very few to mormor and morfar.

Big bad wolf?

And some pictures from other nice moments this long - if not endless - summer.

Wheels&wings pizza picnic with Nakamura family.

Visiting Vilmer & Alma in Göteborg.

Tvååker girls monthly meeting in Vicke's greenhouse.

Amanda & Hjalmar visiting - the wildest lego playdate ever...

Bye-bye morfar & mormor! See you next year! (Landvetter airport)

Sheep safari and last weekend in Läjet

At the local sheep farm, we did it all... took the sheep safari tour, had lunch, pet the sheep and did some shopping. And all three kids that screamed "I dont wanna go to sheep farm" all the way in the car, seemed to have a lot of fun.

Afterwards, we went back to Läjet and stayed one last night in Anna's little cottage. Next year we have to hang out in the city!

Skåne again - the Malmö-Vejbystrand tour

For the third time this summer I went down to Malmö, to stay two nights with the kids with Pernilla outside Malmö and then go see Silva and Javier in Vejbystrand. And, of course, lots of kids everywhere...

Kai, Adam, Aron, Samuel & Tom, a day in the forest
(later on, three tired mums...)

Baby Hana Luna, still controllable...

On our way back home to Tvååker, we visited Gabriel and new baby brother in very countryside Vejbystrand.

Kids enjoying endless summer holiday

Hanging out with friends, on the beach, in the garden, running around, visiting people...

Oh how great it was when summer holidays were still endless!

With friend Viggo.

Läjet beach with David and unknown friends.

Very cute!

Great grannies!

My grannies are called "the ladies" (tanterna in Swedish), normally show up together, and are still very much alive. Granny Junis just moved from her own place into a service home at age 97, but granny Märta has no such plans. She continues biking around the village, picking berries in the woods and hanging out with other likewise. She is never at home.

Skåne - bicycling and crab fishing

Skåne - the southernmost part of Sweden. My old geography teacher always said he hoped it would be covered by water after next ice age. Or that maybe we could give it back to the Danes. They sure do have a special dialect but it is also one of the most beautiful parts of Sweden and where I have several of my dearest friends.

In Skåne I spent a girls only weekend bicycling on Ven, drinking lots of coffee and gin tonic and catching up. And another day Hana, Kai and I visited Brita and her kids, went crab fishing and had lots of fun all day long.

Then, driving back in the bright summer night with two happy kids sleeping in the back. Wonderful.

Very best friend Anna caught in motion, heading for some fresh smoked salmon on tiny island Ven.

Summer in Sweden - granny's garden

... is probably where we have spent most time this summer, just hanging out in the sun, running around and breathing fresh air.

Utflykt

Häromdagen åkte alla Caterpillar på Kais dagis på utflykt. Färden gick med buss till Botaniska trädgården, och som arbetslös hemmamamma hade jag dåligt med undanflykter och fick åka med som extrahjälp. Men Kai ignorerade mig totalt och hade roligt i alla fall.
På fredag börjar sommarlovet och det är bara två veckor till vi åker till Sverige!

Hanoi Zoo

Egentligen gillar inte Kai djur i bur. Men med olika slags apor överallt glömde han bort det. I söndags tog Keisuke med sig båda kidsen och gick på zoo. Jag anslöt lagom till lunch och för en tur till fågelavdelningen.

Man kan hyra rullskriskor också. Men när man kliver in på rinken måste man också kliva över i en annan tidszon.

End of year concert

I lördags var det dags för avslutningskalas på dagis. Alla barnen uppträdde, Kais klass utklädda till kaniner, och sedan var det buffe med mat från alla möjliga länder. Allt i fyrtio graders värme och strålande sol.

In A City

Om man har mycket pengar, är livet i Hanoi verkligt bekvämt.
De flesta i Hanoi har inte det, och fastän de jobbar hårt har de inte råd att äta billig lunch ute, eller hyra ett ordentligt rum att bo i. En stor del av befolkningen kommer från byar runt omkring eller långt ifrån.
I den här boken kan man dra i hörnet och bläddra och se och höra hur några av dem har det

People - In A City

Hoan Kiem

Mitt i Hanois "Old Quarter" ligger Hoan Kiem-sjön. Enligt legenden ligger det magiska svärd som någon gammal kejsare fick från himlen för att driva ut kineserna en gång för länge sedan begravt i sjön. En gyllene sköldpadda tog det från honom efter kriget.
Varje morgon flockas morgonpigga Hanoibor på gångvägarna runt sjön för lite morgongymnastik och badmintonspel, innan morgonrusningen fyller gatorna runt sjön med miljoner motorcyklar, och det blir för varmt. Det finns också en liten, röd bro som leder över till en liten ö med ett litet tempel.
När vi först kom till Hanoi i höstas, bodde vi bara ett kvarter från sjön och vi korsade bron nästan varje dag. Vi brukade gå kvällspromenader runt sjön också; vi åt glass, köpte ballonger, strosade runt bland vietnamesiska barnfamiljer, koreanska gruppreseturister, backpackers som förirrat sig bort från bargatan och andra flanörer. Nu när vi har bott här ett tag, åker vi nästan aldrig dit. Jag får påminna Keisuke, om en familjeafterwork på glasscafet någon dag i veckan.

Kai, november förra året.