Tim Child

I have just spent the past 90 minutes updating contact details – much longer than it should take. Would be nice if I could just update say on Plaxo, and linkedin, Facebook etc would receive the updates but I guess we haven’t got to that stage yet. Have also sent out emails to lots of people, so apologies if you haven’t received one.

The main change is my mobile number – it belonged to vizrt, with whom my last day was officially the 31st of December. So please remove that from your records, I am waiting for company registration details to go through before I get a proper new mobile number but in the meantime reach me at tim@ the usual places or skype me on timchild.

Just to reiterate – my mobile number is no more.

It’s been another Christmas, and almost a full year.

Christmas was good this year – Mum and Dad came over and spent it in Sweden, a little bit of time in Stockholm but mostly in the country. I think they really enjoyed meeting Harriet for the first time. Harriet enjoyed meeting them too but I don’t think that she really noticed Christmas this year.

She got lots of nice things to make her life cosy, her teddy bear and soft toy collection is growing almost as fast as her clothing collection is.

I seemed to spend most of the time cooking, this year was Beef and Moose Wellington. I would say it suits Beef better but it was good to try anyways.

So now its just some time before new year.

Its been a while since I have posted an update here other some technical posts.

So the big news is that we are expecting a baby, and this has really consumed most of the thoughts over the summer and changed our behaviour somewhat! Everything seems to be about getting ready for the big day (In November) and the huge changes that will come with it.

But we managed to go on some picnics and tried to make the most of the short summer here in Sweden.

I have been working on the bedroom which I can say is finally just about ready. The door way is filled in, decorated and the plasma screen put up on the wall. I wallpapered the other couple of walls and painted everything else. We both think it looks good. I have also been sorting out a desk to work from at home, and the network and geeky computer stuff – probably will post about that at some other time.

That took up some of the holidays, then we went to Bulgaria for some sun and relaxation – it was nice but I don’t think that we will be going again as the Bulgarians seem to have ruined their own countryside in the name of tourism.

For the last part of the holiday Mum came to visit us in Sweden and we took her in to the countryside and a good time was had by all.

So now its the big run up to the baby being born!

Seems along time since I have given an update and I guess this is due mainly to lack of time in my part. Since the last update I have been skiing and hanging out some with friends. So this weekend was fairly typical.

Friday:

• Finished some design work for work, got the documentation out and built a new version of some Windows software.
• Went and got Kristin a Kronan miltary bike – really nice.
• Took it home and then went out to meet friends at Landet.

Saturday:

• Got up far to early and went out for breakfast at a really nice little cafe that we some times go to on Tjärhovsplan. Going to have to find out the name of that place because it has some of the best coffee in east Södermalm.
• I finally started work on the bedroom. The filler/plaster that I had used to fill in the area surrounding the old door frame was extremely hard and is taking an age to sand down. Think I will be at this for some days.
• Needed to rest so went to the small park outside the back of our apartment. I think its called Stig Claessons Park, it’s on Beckbrännarbacken, Söder. Stig Claessonwas a writer and illustrator apparently.
• Then we went out to a chinese in Söder. Also have forgotten the name of it, but its a nice place with good atmosphere, perhaps not the best food in the world though.
• Later we went to see Coraline in 3D at the cinema. Its an excellent film, visually a real treat.
• Then I went to see friends in Mariatorget.
• And on to a warehouse for Office#10 till about 5:30am.

Sunday:

• Well got woken up really early..
• Went and looked at some wallpaper, have perhaps found the shop that we might buy it from if not the wallpaper itself.
• Brunch at Moseback. This was really nice, they have a buffet, a great view over stockholm and a live jazzband playing. Landet.
• Went to look at some bikes for me. Probably going to get an old English bike now.
• Back home again, chill out on the sofa and watched Valkyrie and Traitor. Surprisingly both are actually somewhat ok.
• Bed!

In between this I have continued to mess around on my little Javascript project. More details on that soon.

Its funny, my posts about moving to Norway are far more popular and getting many more visitors than any post about moving to Sweden. Could it be because Norway is quite a difficult place to enter compared to Sweden?

I really want to see Google PowerMeter adopted in Sweden, I guess it will be a long time coming, but an overview of power usage would be excellent.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/power-to-people.html

For that matter I would like to see Mint.com adopted by Swedish banks though I am sure they will argue that they have to do it themselves with some stupid software developed by a kid out of University that knows nothing about UI, and banks that complicate everything as much as possible.

Someone has been dressing up the T-Bana (Stockholm’s subway/Metro/Tube system).

So this weekend we went up to Karlstad, and it feels like quite a while ago that we did. Kristin had her birthday this Monday, so it was a small family gathering for her eating good food, dealing with too many chickens and picking Chanterelle mushrooms.

Yesterday was Kristin’s birthday so we went out for a meal at Brassier Godot. It was good food, but perhaps not as cosy as we could have wished.

Last weekend we got our act together and started on the kitchen, its probably the room in the house that needs the least work on it but its nice to make our own mark and give it some character.

As with the rest of the house, the ceilings are white, and some of the smaller walls we kept white, which goes nicely with the kitchen units and the old 1920s original kitchen cupboards and doors that are still there.

But on the main wall, and the two smaller side parts we painted pistachio green, and also behind the radiator. It looks good, and certainly adds much needed colour to the space.

I cleaned all the cupboards, tiles and wordwork, Kristin cleaned the windows, floors. So it looks as good as new.

Hottip: I gave all the stainless steel appliances a clean with warm water and very little washing up liquid, and then coated with WD-40 on paper towels. A little WD-40 goes a long way, after a minute wipe of with a cloth bringing up to a shine. WD-40 helps to polish and will also repel grease, fingerprints and other marks for quite some time.

Now all to be done is to put on the new shelves that will hold the Hi-Fi, repair the wiring to the dish washer and HiFi, and oil & seal the kitchen work surface.

After we put everything in, I will put up some photos. Yay!

So now we have moved in the decorating is in full swing. There has been lots that we have done, but much still to do. K and I have been talking about building a floating wall for the living room, I think that needs some more thought but first off its the easy things like curtains. So last night we went to Marimekko and chose a design by Erja Hirvi called Lumimarja.

There are plenty of other really nice fabrics and designs in there, but this will probably go really well with the Sofa, floor and the colour we are thinking of having in the room.