Down Under with Jan Mikaela Nora and Ella

Yes, the circle is complete: our container has arrived at last. And guess what? Everything was intact. Almost too good to be true. Even the electrical fly swats made it through customs ! You can’t believe the joy of sleeping in your own bed, having access to your own clothes, and playing your own music again. And the piano sounds just as good as before. We sold and dumped most of our stuff in Holland (we only shipped 11m3), but still when we were unpacking quite some stuff seemed pretty useless. The boxes with ‘warm clothes’ for instance went straight to the attic. It makes you realize how little you actually need, and how much junk collect over the years. Having said that however, we did go and buy ourselves two bikes and some garden furniture this weekend, since it was going to be 30-35˚C. So dear friends: we are up & running, and ready for the summer !!!

I thought I'd take the opportunity to write a little bit about my birthday, which was a really good one. First I would like to say thanks for all the sms’s, cards, emails, presents, greetings on our weblog and flowers that I have received. It made a girl very happy to get all that attention! Felt really great! Thanks to all of you! We celebrated my birthday on the Saturday already with our friends Jessica and David. Had a very nice dinner and then ending up in a bar to take a few drinks. We have figured out that you really need to know where the places are here in Adelaide, to get some action. In a small street there can be loads of bars but you can’t see them by just driving by. We are happy that they show us around, to get to know the city a little bit more. The whole night was really great! On my actual birthday, we bought tickets to a concert with Linkin Park. It is a small stadium here so you felt really close and it's not far from where we live so everything went smooth. ...

Ja, må hon leva, Ja, må hon leva, Ja, må hon leva uti hundrade år. Ja, visst ska hon leva, Ja, visst ska hon leva, Ja, visst ska hon leva uti hundrade år. "Ett fyraldigt leve... leve hon. HURRAH, HURRAH, HURRAH, HURRAH ."

No matter where you are and who you are talking to, you can bet on it that each time you are introduced to someone the question will pop up. It’s burning inside their brain the moment they find out you are new here. "Why Adelaide?”. It all comes from a long lasting rivalry between the states in Australia. When you live in the eastern states you’re supposed to say that Adelaide is unexciting and not hip. Adelaide is the little brother, easy to pick on. And because the locals here are very proud of their city, they will start selling Adelaide to you, even before you answered the question: “Its nice and relaxed, people have space, it’s affordable, it’s green, and nevertheless almost every weekend there is some major event going on”. We found that it’s all true. Especially the events are blowing our budget. Almost every major band in the world is playing here, and it’s so much easier to get tickets. We’re going to see Linkin Park on Mikaela’s birthday, and we have tickets for the Poli...