We are now back from Tenerifa. We actually got back yesterday around lunch. The version is that the place and the weather was wonderful, BUT unfortunately we had to spend two and half days at the hospital as Tovah fell and cracked her elbow the first evening we got there. Below is some random notes I wrote on my palm when I was down there. Have fun!
By the way, today we went to the local hospital, took another x-ray and everything looked fine. They will remove the cast in two weeks and then one week later remove the pins in her arm.
Friday February 6, Saturday 7 and Sunday 8.
We are now sitting on the plane to saturate. Tovah is watching Barbapappa, Johanna is studying and I am reading a book (The Generals daughter).
Yesterday we spent in Stockholm together with Jennifer. We got into town at 0730, had breakfast at McDonalds. Actually we only spent 15:- SEK on pancakes for Tovah and ate our leftovers and food that we had brought with us from Luleå, pizza, yoghurt and hard bread with boiled eggs.
Around 0900 Jennifer joined us and we headed out on town. It was rather cold and after hitting some shops we headed out to the Technical Museum where they had a new exhibition on robots. We were rather disappointed though as many of the robots were broken or you couldn’t interact with them. They e.g. had the famous baby seal (health care usage) but it was locked inside a plastic bubble.
The rest of the museum did not have much new things since the last time we were there 3 years earlier. It was a pleasant time anyhow.
At around 1400 we headed into town and had a large family pizza at Pizza Hut. Tovah ate nicely and after one large slice she puked up everything. She filled two plates. Now that is a refund.
After the pizza we were so tired so we just did some food shopping, took the train out to Arlanda. Once there I bought two hamburgers for Tovah and we had to wait for 45 minutes for the transportation to the hotel, the SAS Park Inn. Well there we found out that they had sent the transport to the wrong terminal the first time. We also found out that the breakfast did not open until 0600 and we had to leave at 0525. BUT after giving us a scare she told us that there was some sandwiches served before 6.
We went to bed at 1900 and all three of us well asleep immediately. I woke up at 4 and took a shower.
The transportation out to Arlanda took about 30 minutes including changing busses at Arlanda Hotelby. Sigh. But we should not get excited, should we now. We are on vacation 🙂
Somewhere we read that flight food was not included so I had taken a few extra sandwiches at the hotel but on the plane we found out that it indeed was included. Tovah got a bunch of small pancakes which she devoured and the rest of us got omelette with small sausages. Quite ok for airplane food. All drinks were extra and expensive of course.
During the week we at the division decided where we are going to have our summer retreat, Madeira. We are going the whole division for a one week trip to Ocean Park hotel. The same hotel I stayed at a couple of years ago. We are going to have halfboard and I have booked one two room apartment with a real kitchen where we will be having lunch (I am food meister) and which we will use as a conference room. We will do some levada hiking and really try to get the group together. 13 persons are going! I must admit that it felt a bit strange to book a 13 person trip the same day I was leaving on vacation. I think Madeira will be a wonderful place for the summer retreat though. I just hope I can get all the logistics settled for food etc. and that everybody will be satisfied with the trip.
We have had colds all week but today I think all are ok again. Tovah still has a bit of a cough but not too bad.
Monday Feb 9
Sunday evening when shopping food Tovah fell down and hurt her arm. She cried all the way home and fell asleep in mommy’s arms. She woke up around 5 and around 7 we decided we had to go and see a doctor. She cannot bend her right elbow. Right now we are waiting for the x-ray to come back and to see her doctor again. It is fun being moved around the hospital not being able to understand what they are saying. We did get a translator when registering and seeing the doctor though.
Tuesday February 10
We are now back at the hotel again and are having a siesta.
Tovah had a crack in her elbow and they performed surgery yesterday around 17 and she woke up 1 hour later. She is doing very well but now we cannot go bathing anymore as her arm is in a cast.
She was very scared yesterday and in the evening when the doctor just wanted to check she started crying just by seeing him.
It is amazing how children adapt when they are broken. She only has one arm now but does everything anyhow. She would do well from sleeping a bit but she is too tired.
It is very frightening having ones child rolled off into surgery and you cannot watch what they are doing.
In general the service a the hospital was very good. It is a private hospital with a large staff of translator working as administrators and there seems to be a never ending stream of work pouring in.
I cooked a meat stew for dinner today and the meat here is much better than in Sweden. Soft and tasty.

I will be gone on vacation between today afternoon and February 16 (afternoon). I won’t be reading email!!
My phone is 070-6614567 if anybody needs to reach me.

I have just applied for position 513-03 at the Luleå University of Technology, Chaired professor in Media Technology. Here is my current CV if somebody is interested.

My friend with cancer mailed me earlier today. Her plan to save base cells before the final treatment failed and they haven’t found any matching donors. In a few weeks she will start the heavy treatment. I hope she makes it! She has been through treatment twice over the last 2 years and she just have to make it a third time!!! She is a true friend and I really miss her (we cannot meet due to the illness).

I miss you, my friend!!!

Tovah has a cold and she woke up at 1am this morning complaining about her ears hurting. After much fuss I got her to accept that nose spray might help, and voila it did. I am getting good at getting interrupted in my sleep and then falling asleep again, or it might be that I am accustomed these days to be tired 🙂

I have been home alone with Tovah since Saturday afternoon now and it takes a lot of energy to be a lone dad.
Today, we went swimming in Gammelstaden together with Jalle and it was really fun. Tovah almost feel a sleep on the bus home.
Picking up and leaving at day care actually goes better when we are home alone than when Johanna is her as well. Yesterday was the first day Tovah was at day care all day (8.30-17.00) and it went splendidly.
Right now I am just sitting in couch like a potato watching Detention, a really really lousy movie. So why am I watching it? I am too tired to go to bed.

We went to watch the Chalmers spex Bob today. It was so so, to much rehearsal and no spontaneity. Just talk, singing and dancing. And it was LONG. The break came after 1.45 which meant high time for Tovah to go too sleep. That she puked in the break didn’t make things better :-/
On Sunday I am taking Tovah to her very first cinema movie!!! Looney Tunes.
Good night.

I had a great Sunday today. Started out with some training in the morning (running and machines). Got back around 12 and J was baking bread (teacakes and hamburger bread). Watch some Robinson from yesterday with Tovah, had a home made thai spiced burger with potatoes bakes in the oven. After lunch we were heading for the library but found out that it wasn’t open on Sundays so instead we ended up in the back yard where we dug some tunnels in the snow. Mighty fun for the whole family. Got in and watched some telly (we were beat from all the digging and crawling around in the snow. It was -20 Celcius!) Ended the day with building some Lego. The current project is a robot that can climb over boxes (about 10cm high max I guess). The goal is that it should detect that it has reached a box, twist its body so the front end goes on top of the box, move forward as a light sensor detects that it is over the box and the repeat for the back end of the body and finally move forward.
Tovah is now a sleep (Johanna day) and we are going to watch Underworld!!! See you all tomorrow!! 🙂

Just watched another 3 episodes of Angel Season 2. There are some whacky episodes here, like e.g. the halloween episode I watched yesterday.
Anyhow, I just wanted to say that I will be gone from cyberspace until Friday evening because I am going with the Media Technology division to Brändön for our Winter Retreat! We will do some dog sledge riding, hot tub bathing (outdoors of course), sauna bathing and ice bathing, eat tons of good food and of course, work a bit as well.
Have fun and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!

I have never seen so many presents at one time before. There was tons of them and Tovah and Martine handed them out for over 2 hours. Obviously the children got the most christmas presents and today the day after christmas eve they are playing with them.
My mother in law, Siv “hits me” from time to time my guess is that it relates to what happened this summer. I mentioned to Johanna that Siv does what she does and she said casually that I only have myself to blame. It is very true but the truth doesn’t hurt less. I got very sad from this and slept very badly.
In the morning Tovah woke up around 0830 and I really needed to sleep some more but Johanna sat the girls down with new plastic christmas presents just outside the bedroom door. There the calm morning evaporated and the total kaos in this house came tumbling back into my so called reality.
Since we got to Jönköping there hasn’t been a single calm moment except when I try to hide away in our bedroom. Eating with Johanna’s family is always an adventure combined with a race for the food and eating as fast as possible while making as much noise as possible. After each meal I feel exhausted.
I really long for tomorrow when we head back home to our small blue house again and back to tranquility. Unfortunately we will have guest immediately when we get home, Jennifer and Rolf. They are leaving town about 4 hours after we get to Luleå. But after that I hopefully will get some calm around me again. Of course I have 20 hours trainride home in front of the as well.
If have finished the first Dan Brown book, Angels and Demons and it was great. I cannot decide if it is better or not than The DaVinci Code but it is very good. I continued with his third book, Deception Point which reminds me very much of Tom Clancy. Politics around the presidency of the USA in a high tech environment.
As always I feel better after blogging but still I would rather be at home right now being able to do what I want without having to be courteous towards all the other people here.
In a moment it is time for lunch and I have to sit down at the table with all the rest of the people here.
And if it couldn’t get worse I have a cold as well. My throat is burning and my nose is running. I need some solitude and rest.