A day in Holland

I flew to Amsterdam last night to be in Holland for a meeting today. It’s always a bit of a pain to travel for just one day away, as you need almost as much stuff with you as you do for a week. I also miss two evening away from home in a week when the girls are staying with me. I took the last flight on Tuesday to Amsterdam and stayed at a hotel near the airport. The hotel was OK and had a good wireless connection, so I was able to check e-mails and Skype with Caro. We had a long chat about her feelings for her flat in Cologne and how this is affecting her at the moment. She’s giving up a lot of things with her planned move to Sweden, like her job, her flat and a part of her life, and I can understand this is a big thing for her. This will no doubt lead to more conversations like this over the coming months and it’s not so easy to know how I can help, as I’m the one staying in the same place. I hope I can be a good listener and support her during this period. If it was possible for me to move just now, perhaps things would be different… but we’ve agreed on this as a way forward for us and we will have to deal with both the bad and good sides of this solution together.
The business meeting went well in Holland and I’m on my way home now. At the airport I sit in the lounge updating my blog and checking e-mail again. How did people ever manage before wireless LAN’s and laptops! The flight at 20:15 to Stockholm will get me home by about 23:15 if I’m lucky.

More decorating

I'm re-decorating Hannah’s room this week. It had dark green wallpaper which nobody liked and so we had agreed to re-paint the room. I sanded and filled the joins in the paper and border and sanded it all down last weekend. Now I’ve painted 3 walls twice with white and Hannah is going to help with the red colour she has picked for the other wall. It should look quite cool when its finished.
This reminded me about when Caro was in Stockholm in the week after Christmas… when we re-painted my bedroom together. This was very successful, not only because the room looks so much better and brighter now, but also because we worked so well together in this task. We agreed on how to do it and had fun decorating together. I’m sure we will find other similar decorating projects in the future and I’m looking forward to them already.

The new Bond Film

Caro and I went to see the new James Bond film, “Casino Royale” together with H&E at Christmas. It stars Daniel Craig, who gets the thumbs-up from me as the all new Bond. The film has a more convincing feeling to it than the previous films, where the tech gadgets are more realistic and the dialogue catchy and less comical. Bond is introduced to the audience as a rugged agent who’s just being promoted to his 007 status. The film starts with a great chase, which for a change is on foot and not in a vehicle. The new bond girl is pretty and not stupid. She has some catchy dialogue that Bond has to work on to keep up with. The only disappointment for me was that the Austin Martin he drives has an all too short lifespan in the film. There are some good twists in the plot that create suspense almost to the end of the film. All in all, a good film to see at the cinema and well worth the visit.

Snow

So after a long grey winter we at last we have some snow in Sweden this year. It came last weekend and has been here all week. Not so deep, but the 5 to 10 cm was enough to cover everything and it’s kept cold, around -6 deg C, so it’s still stuck in the branches of the trees.

This is a view from my balcony.

Crazy flight weekend

Had a flight booked to Cologne for Friday, but I was really missing Caroline all week… we chatted on Skype, sent lots of mail, sms… but by Thursday I felt I had to see her as soon as possible…
solution…
Fly a day early to Cologne!
Yep, I just booked another flight on Germanwings and left work at 17:30… was packed "light" and on the bus at 18:30… only to find the 20:05 flight was delayed due to a big storm in Germany. Had planned to arrive outside her flat as a sort of surprise, but in the end I had to call and discuss my arrival with her as the flight didn’t leave until 23:30. My girl came to the airport to collect me a 01:30 in the morning… but it was all worth it, to see her there waiting just for me… another special airport hug and kiss from Caro, that made this delayed flight so really worth while.
Back to her flat as quick as we can, and despite the late hour, were appreciating each other in her bed until the early hours of the morning.

Friday and Caroline was off to her course and I stayed at home and worked on my laptop, phoned to some customers and answered lots of e-mail. Did a little shop at lunch time and smiled as the helpful shop keepers discussed the produce in German with me…must start learning this language :)
Caroline came home and we dropped off her car and went for a walk… then she stopped at Katja’s for a “boyfriend” chat and I picked up some stuff and cooked dinner for us.
We played a little backgammon and chatted then went to bed.

Saturday… we go stuck in bead again and had a great morning rolling around in bed. Had breakfast and rode bicycles into the centre of Cologne to do some tea mug shopping… but with no big luck. Then it poured down with rain and we went to Starbucks for a fika. Had a long discussion about Caroline’s plans to try and study in Maastricht for the first year after the summer, and that she has really made the decision to come and live with me. Lots of mixed feelings here… I was happy she’s made a decision… and some little initial concerns about what the course in Maastricht will mean for us being together. But after I’ve had time to discuss this more with her, and think about it… I now I see its probably not a problem… and a good way for Caro to take this big step in her life.
We go out for a really good dinner on Saturday evening, to a little restaurant we’ve talked about before not far from her flat. It’s an Iranian cook and a little Lebanese’s inspired food…very good food…. And again Caroline takes the opportunity to tell me she’s happy she’s made the decision to want to move and live with me… and this feels very good and I’m very happy were both working towards making this happen. I just love this girl.

Sunday… and were just taking it easy again, getting up late and having a sort of late breakfast again. We take a walk along the edge of the river in the wind and sun… look a little exhibition…..but as usual were running out of time. Borrow the car again and Caroline drives me to the airport. More airport pictures to keep up our tradition… must be a good one there this time. And now another trip is over… but some big moments and big commitments to me from Caroline… my girl, my love and the one who wants to live with me…wow… this is really the start of a new part in my life…. And I’m really looking forward to living together with her… wherever we end up living in the long term!

Time

Time has its own relevance for everyone
What feels slow for one can feel quick for another
What seems like a minute for one, can seem like a age for another
When I think of you and me, I think of what we have already experienced together
…what we have learnt about each other
…and what we have achieved together
And all this makes me feel so very good about our relationship and our love
So think of this and not the relevance of time
Because these feelings and more relevant than the passage of time

I Love You Caroline

Sunday Breakfast Contemplation

As I eat a piece of toast with honey and Chevre cheese on it, I’m sitting here thinking of my great girl. During our chats on the phone this week, she told me that she has decided she wants to try and move to Sweden in the summer this year. I had hoped we could live together sooner rather than later, so I’m glad Caro was able to come to this decision herself…. this is great news… I’m very happy. I also know this will be a big challenge for us… especially for Caro. But it seems were both determined to deal with this in a realistic way, and at the same time focus on our relationship and our love... and that we’ve found partners in each other who we believe in.
I was also thinking about some of her great qualities. I was so impressed with one of the Christmas presents she gave me, a backgammon board, which she made herself. Incredibly well made and a fantastic gift. Then the other week she helped decorate my bedroom. It had very dismal grey wallpaper which needed to go. We sanded, filled and painted the room together…as a team…and she was very good at this… and I was happy we worked so well together on this little project… and this practical side of her personality reminds me that this is one of the reasons why I love this girl. She’s smart, intelligent, practical, lovely and sexy.

Loving you

It’s been a beautiful 2 weeks together and I’ve so much enjoyed this time with you…with you in my life, in my flat, in my arms. You’re a girl I can share everything with and this makes me feel good inside…and loving you and knowing your loving me back… and this is what’s so important.
I want to love you and I want to be loved back.
I’ve tried to explain the importance of this to you over the last week, when we’ve been discussing our relationship, so I hope you have been able to understand this.
I think this love is what drives me on with our relationship, gives me the will power to make it work, despite all the possible hurdles. This love can make anything work… the rest we can work out together and as long as were strong and believe in our relationship… then I’m convinced we can be very happy together.
Love Richard

A German film

While Caroline was here in Stockholm we went to see another film together. The original German title was “Das Leben Der Anderen”….in Swedish its called “De andras liv”. Set in 1984, it’s about a Stasi agent in the secret police of East Germany who gets personally involved with the people he is watching.
It’s a while since I’ve been to seen a foreign film, so I’m not used to reading the Swedish sub-titles. I kept looking at the people and forgetting to read the text. It was a good film which brought tears to my eyes at least twice. I really liked it and I think it gave a very vivid view of what it was really like living in this pre-unified era in Berlin. Caroline like it too, and as always, I enjoyed her by my side in the cinema…my girlfriend and me watching a film together…one of my favourite pastimes.

New Year 2006/7

We were back in Stockholm for the New Year. We decided to cook a leg of lamb for our guests, Martin and Lotta and Josip. H&E had decided to be out with their friend this year…their growing up bit-by-bit. The lamb was cooked on a low heat for 4 hours and was really good and much appreciated by our guests. We started with some Champaign and then ate the lamb. At 11:30 we went out and climbed the hill in Haga Park to watch the fireworks, pop a bottle of Champaign and welcome in the New Year. We had a great view all over Stockholm and it felt we had lots to be happy about and look forward to together. Back in the flat we played a game an had some more drinks before going to bed at 4:30.