Liam starts school

Here is Liam starting school in Rönninge on the 18th of August. He was very pleased about this and got straight into the class and thoroughly enjoyed it. The school is just 5 min bicycle ride from our house which is very convenient and means its easy to ride along with him.

Starting the bathroom renorvation project

Now the summer holiday has started, I've made a start on renovating the bathroom on the top floor. The plan is to replace the existing toilet and washbasin, remove the old wall and extend the room so I can build a shower in the room and make it into a complete 2nd bathroom.

Neela with our first crop of zucchinis

We planted a few things in the garden here in Rönninge to see what worked in our new garden. These zucchinis did quite well despite them being planted a bit late and slight lack of sunlight in their location this year. I will plan to move them down to a sunnier spot next year. Anyway Neela was happy with this crop, even if shes not so keen on eating them herself.

24th May House warming party + Caro's Birthday party

Our house warming party was a great success. Here is the main party table in the garden and some of the 30+ guests that came by during the day. We were lucky with the weather and were able to eat outside as planned. The caterers did a great job and they allowed Caroline and I to focus on our guests. It was also a party for Caroline's birthday too.

Moving in party invite photo

Neela, Liam and Nicholas on the drive in front of the house. Still no leaves on the tress and not so warm on this day.

We move to a house in Rönninge

This is our new house on Lilldalsvägen 22 in Rönninge. We moved in on Saturday the 1st of March with the help of a moving company. No 22 is a classic old Swedish wooden house built in 1924. This is the picture from the agents brochure showing the house from the right side and part of the garden, which is 1500m2 in size. We are all looking forward to living here and making this into the Holt family home.

Swimming

Today I went to the swimming pool with both Liam and Neela together for the first time. I’ve been with Liam on his own before, so it was time to try with the two of them. It was fine and they had a really good time in the warm adventure pool. Neela was quite surprised when she first saw the pool and all the people in it, but she got used to it in the end and even managed to let go of me towards the end.

Winter outing to Hellasgården

It was a beautiful, sunny day today and "only" -5°, so we decided to drive to Hellasgården which is a lake south of Stockholm. So we sat down there on the frozen lake, watched the people ice-skating and skiing and had a little picknick. Nicholas had a long kip in the January sun, cosily wrapped up in his pram. He was exactly 6 months today! 

 

 

Happy New Year!!!

May 2013 be a happy and healthy one for all of us!

December in Haga Park

Liam and Neela in the cold winter landscape of our local park, Haga Park. The snow was about 40cm deep and drifting deeper in places. Neela was looking a bit cold as the wind picked up. Time to go home.

Dads Funeral

In the end the Dad died sooner than any of us could have imagined. He died in hospital on the 28th November 2012 with Penny at the side of his bed. It’s strange, but in the weeks before he died, I had this strange idea that I might not be upset when being given the inevitable news of his death. But when I finally got the call from Penny to say he had died in the night, I was sad. I did cry. I was in a taxi at the time, on my way to the airport for a business trip to the US, so the timing wasn’t perfect to say the least. I don’t think the taxi driver noticed my tears. I was OK by the time we arrived at the airport. I remembered that morning at breakfast that I had told Caroline that I’d woken in the night and that I had wondered if it might be connected with Dad’s condition. Of course I don’t really believe that it was related to him dying, but it was a bit strange anyway that it happened on just that night.

 

We all would have gone to the funeral had Nicholas not been so young, so Hannah, Emma and I went in the end. We took an evening flight to Heathrow, picked up a hire car and drove first to Michael’s in London to stay the night. On the day of the funeral, the 18^th December, the drive up to Oakthorp the next morning was almost a disaster. We hit a closed section of the M25 due to an accident. But thanks to the satnav in the car, we made some cross country detours and got to the Shoulder of Mutton just in time anyway. Penny and her family were already there and soon we were getting into the large black car that had been ordered for us. It was a bit strange, sitting in the car with Penny, the children and Julie from the pub, and then seeing the funeral director walked in front of the cortege for the first roads out of the village. I wasn’t expecting it, I had no idea they still did that. Michael was waiting at the chapel and there was quite a large group of friends and acquaintances waiting in the small chapel. The service was very relevant and emotional. I made a reading during the service. It was quite hard to deliver without tears, but I’m glad I did it. Considering the comments afterwards, it seemed to have been appreciated by the people attending. When we got back to the pub, there was an air of sadness and relief. We had some drinks and chatted with the people who had known Dad at the pub. Julie had organised some tasty food for all the close friends and family and we all sat around chatting and reminiscing about Dad and his eccentric ways. It was really good to have the chance to talk to his friends at the pub, most of whom we had never met before. They had some funny stories and fond memories of Dad and it left me with a warm feeling knowing so many had such high regards for him. The girls and I stayed in a local hotel that night and the following day we drove back to Heathrow for the flight home. I hope I will have the chance to visit the pub again sometime in the future, just to remember it and the people and for what it meant to Dad.

 

 

My reading at the service read as follows…

Ian Graham Smith was a kind, caring, loving person, he was our Dad.

He was many things to many people during his life.

He was a son to his mother Eileen and his farther Kage and he was a brother to Carol, his sister whom he loved dearly.

He was a school boy, growing up away from home at a boarding school, Rossal, in Lancashire. Then he joined the army and he became a soldier, a marine in the Royal Marines. He was proud of that

He was a husband. He married Jean and soon he became a farther. He has 3 children, Penny my sister, myself, and Michael my brother.

He was a great Dad and we loved him for that. He was a great holiday Dad too. We went to the beach a lot, often in Wales where the sand was good. He loved digging with us in the sand and there was always a bigger castle to make or a longer dam to build. He took a garden spade to the beach; toy spades were not big enough for him! We loved his digging and so did half of the kids on the beach! He was unstoppable. He was great on the beach.

He was a salesman and for most of his life he worked in sales. As his job moved, so did we. We moved from Cheshire to Yorkshire where he had a house built. We moved many times. We were good at packing and un-packing.

He travelled with his job to, often abroad, to India, to Asia. He became worldly, a source of information, experience and advise. His pub mates liked that. He met a lot of customers and they liked him, I think they trusted him. He was good at his job.

Later he re-married to a girl called Sue. He met her while he was travelling in the UK with his job. He moved to Ashby where they bought an old Victorian house together. One of his passions was renovating. He was good at fixing, re-wiring, painting, he was a true handyman.

He was a collector. He collected all sorts of things during his life, things he liked, things that took his fancy at the time. The things he collected changed over the years, he collected match boxes, tea spoons from airlines, milk bottles, and all sorts of other things. He had endless time and patience to sort and store the things he collected. In his later years he also started to do car boot sales, initially I think to sell some of the things he had collected but no longer had space for! But in the end, I think he bought more things than he sold!

He was a gardener too. He loved to grow things and keep them alive, no matter how much effort it took. I think the flowers at the pub were his pride and joy.

He was a character. He loved the pub where he lived and they loved him. It gave him the best of both worlds. It gave him peace and quiet and time to just potter around his room, do his crossword, call his sister, and as soon as he came down the stairs, it gave him company, friends and his social life. Julie’s pub, The Shoulder of Mutton, was his home for the last years of his life and I don’t think he would have had it any other way. Ian was a kind, caring, loving person. He was our Dad.

Winter has arrived

It's -8C and the children are enjoying the start to winter, Swedish style. First major snow fall of the year came this week while I was away in the US on business. Today its Sunday and it was sunny when we went out into the garden to play and sledging in the cold snow. Here is Liam and Neela on their sledges in front of our flat in Stockholm.

17th to 20th Nov Visit Dad in UK with Liam

Liam and I went to England to visit my Dad. He was in hospital after being diagnosed with Lung Cancer. We had a good long weekend and had the chance to see and talk to him each day. He was in quite good spirits and was able to talk to us as long as he paused for air every now and again. Spent some time at the pub too, sorting out some of his things. We flew back on Tuesday afternoon, Liam was great, hes such a good traveller.

Opening at Friends Arena

Liam and I went to the opening show at the new National Arena last night. Its called the Friends Arena and was fully seated with 45,000 people. For Liam it was a big first with Roxette and other Swedish stars performing during the 2 hour show. He was very excited about it and made the 20 min. walk there and back from our flat, in the dark! Cool thing to do with my boy.

Autumn outing

It was a wonderful, sunny day today and we all went out for a walk in the graveyard nearby to find some conquers to play with. Nicholas slept peacefully in the pram while Liam and Neela had fun picking up the pretty shiny conquers and jumping on the ones that were still closed :)