I hate IKEA

The kids were at a birthday party together on Sunday so we took the opportunity to punish ourselves by going to IKEA. We got quite a few odds and ends along with a book shelf/cupboard things on wheels for J's room and a big book shelf for the living room.

No problems with J's shelf, but the bigger version that we were having in the living room appeared to have been run over in the box by a fork lift truck.

Bother!

I took it back to change it this evening costing me about £5 in extra petrol for taking the big car and about an hour of my life. I checked the box in the car park as best I could to make sure that this one was not damaged and came home.

After dinner I set about building the replacement shelf (I suspect that you can already guess where this is going) and the bottom edge of the bottom piece of wood is also smashed.

Double Bother!

Now we have decided to buy some decent quality furniture instead and I can make another trip to the hell whole that is IKEA later in the week to get my money back.

New Computer

I've had some problems with my computer at work over the last few weeks and it is starting to show that it is now about 3 years old. Thankfully I have a kind and understanding boss (who also wants me to work as much as possible) who agreed to let me have a new one. I was also more or less allowed to chose whatever specification I want so I have upgraded myself a bit.

I am getting a Dell Precision. 16GB Ram, 750GB hard drive, i7 processor and a super duper high resolution screen.

Yes, it still just looks like another laptop!

Good report

We have just had a parents meeting with J's teachers and thankfully the report was pretty good. It is a rather odd set-up that most of the communication is to the child and you don't really feel that you can question what the teachers are doing without undermining their position so it perhaps ends up being a one way conversation from the teacher to the child with you listening.

Anyway, he is conscientiousness and happy and seems to work hard. His only problems seem to be getting some numbers backwards (apparently as a result of being left handed) and being something of a perfectionist which means that he takes quite a long time to finish his work.

All in all, I'm very proud of him.

Lunchtime visitors

When MK picked DK up last night, she was told how much they were looking forward to their visit today. Woops, we had forgotten that they were coming over. MK sorted everything out as usual and there is a chocolate cake waiting for them for pudding that the dynamic duo knocked up this morning.

Bikes

And Happy Anniversary to us, it's been 8 years today :-)

Day Off

Yesterday was a really good day. DK and I had an appointment with the physiotherapist near CPH first thing in the morning. It was good to get some exercises to do and DK was great at doing as he was told and trying some new things. We then went to a cafe to kill half an hour before the shoe shop opened for us to get him some less wintry shoes. He has been wearing some cast off winter boots from J since his casts came off and they clearly don't fit very well around his ankles making his inherent wobbliness worse.

We managed to get some new sandals for the summer, but they were sold out of normal shoes so we were told what to get and came home to order them.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent collecting the boys new bikes (photos later) and getting new tyres for the car. The mechanic had to use a blow torch and a lot of hammering to get the rusty winter wheels of the car but he managed it after an hour of hard manual labour.

We managed a quick spin on the bikes just after we had picked them up and then J and I went for a ride after dinner so that he could master his gears. I think DK may be a bit slower to get to grip with pedalling than J was, but he'll get there.

Wobbling

DK has been somewhat shaky on his feet since his casts were removed. Thankfully I have the day off on Monday to use one of my last 2 remaining vacation days so I am going to take him to see the physiotherapist who helped me so much with my back.

He was also born with a club foot and has had the same operation as DK so he is confident that he will be able to help with some good rehabilitation exercises. I just hope that we can get DK to co-operate.

Tomorrow we are hoping to do some bike shopping for the kids which should be fun. Have a good weekend everyone.

Varna

This is the view from my hotel window and it seems to be the only impressive building in the city.

I took some colleagues out for dinner last night. Apparently the best places to eat are in the gleaming new shopping malls of which there are four. It is amazing to see these shining beacons of consumerism in a city that is otherwise ugly decaying concrete from the soviet era. I understand that the malls are built for the many tourists that come here in the summer, but at this time of year, they seem like something of an anomaly in an apparently rather poor country.

Bulgaria

I'm in Varna on the Black Sea coast. I haven't seen the sea yet and do far it seems like a dreadful dump. Crumbling communist ear buildings and general decay with the odd gleaming shopping centre dotted here and there.

The people in the other hand, have been very kind, friendly and helpful.

Uncast

We finally got the test results to show that DK didn't have MRSA so he could go to the hospital to have his casts removed. I was at work so I couldn't join in with the occasion, but apparently it wasn't a lot of fun. I am told that the nurses hadn't seen that type of cast before and didn't really know how to get them off and then had to wait for a porter to come and help as they were not strong enough. DK cried throughout the experience apart from the intermission whilst they waited for the porter and ate ice cream. After the casts were off, both he and J got loose Lego to bring home and DK had another ice cream to make up for the ordeal. He was a bit careful on his feet after getting home until he fell over and hurt himself so now he is crawling again. Thankfully Morror and or Morfar can take care of him tomorrow so he can recover a nit more before going back to nursery. I'm off to Bulgaria for a couple of days tomorrow which will be a new experience for me. I'll be in Varna on the Black Sea if anyone is interested.

The Snip

(no not that one!)

I am again considering cutting all of my hair off as I did last summer. It was quick, easy, convenient and cheaper than going to the hairdressers/barbers every 4 or 5 weeks. The fact that my hair is also thinner than it was last year doesn't help matters either.

I'm just not quite sure if or when I should do it.

Or the other snip either for that matter!

In other news, we haven't had the result from DK's test for MRSA yet so we may not be able to take him to the hospital to have his casts removed on Monday. If we don't get an answer on Monday, I think I'll just take the casts off myself. I can't be that difficult...

Crazy

Tuesday was a day working at ome, then yesterday I had a Adam in the south of Norway followed by a night working in the office until midnight. Today was yet another busy day, but I am hoping to wind down a little tomorrow and ease into the weekend as my trip across the country has been cancelled.

Easter

We're all (more or less) back from our Easter break. DK had to have a swab taken this morning to check for MRSA bugs before being allowed into a Danish hospital to have his casts removed next Monday. Apparently it is necessary to make sure that he isn't carrying any super bugs having been into a British hospital!

We spent the week relaxing, sleeping a bit more than usual and eating nice food including 2 legs of lamb, home made hot cross buns and an Easter lunch of various Danish stuff from Eddy's in Gumsø (not Ambridge)

Real snow on our real car

There are times when the wife needs a desert even though the chef is still dieting

Still taking it easy on the sofa

I've cycled, cooked, slept and relaxed and enjoyed spending time with (and without) the family. The weather has been sort of OK, some sun and the odd shower with a bit of snow thrown in for good measure. The presence of snow is perhaps a give away that it has not been at all warm and we have had the fire lit several evenings.

Relaxing

I suppose some of you may be wondering where I am. Well, I am using up my last few days of holiday to have Easter at home with the family over the Easter school break. So far it's been pretty relaxed with some bike rides, birthday parties for J and general family stuff. Now we have 4 public holidays in the next 5 days so there is little to do other than take it easy and get some jobs done around the house.