The Kinnekulle Grand Quarry

Our trip to Sweden was going to be very different this year considering we, to the difference to most of our friends, don't have our own place there but were staying with my parents.
Because of this, we couldn't see anybody else, or do any activities where there would be a lot of other people, risking bringing the virus back home to my parents who both are very much risk group.

Even though we mostly stayed at home and just enjoyed the surroundings and the garden, we did small, but safe, excursions. One day we did a trip to the Kinnekulle Grand Quarry. This is a popular excursion spot but there was no issues practising social distance here.

One of the reasons this is such a popular place to visit, a part from the beautiful setting, is the many shifting colours of the rock, including grey, green-grey and reddish brown. The lower layers of the limestone were laid down 400 million years ago and you can see over 40 meters of the strata.

Most of the limestone from this quarry was used to manufacture cement between the years 1892 and 1979. A total of 80 million tons of limestone were quarried.

Once the cement production dwindled and the site was restored, this pond was created at the base of the quarry to supply the surrounding meadows with water. It has been stocked with rainbow trout and you can purchase a fishing permit to try your luck if you wish.
We only stopped for 'fika'! 

 

 

 
We went for a walk around the whole lake and could enjoy great views of the limestone layers, and the lake. It felt like a mini Grand Canyon, it was a lovely afternoon. Such a unique and beautiful place!

This!!

This!!
This is what I miss most in the sandpit - the greenery and the high, fresh air; the flowers, the gravel roads, the peaceful quiet surroundings, the blue skies... just look at that smile! Pure happiness!

My first walk was the 8k loop around my childhood hoods. Said hi to the cows and the sheep in the paddocks while silly smiling every step.

 

 

And this sure makes a change from my Escape Room, exercising outdoors! I even found a spot with a "mirror", to do my strength videos and workouts:

 

And then... relax in the corner of the yard where the afternoon sun goes! Without melting away completely. Living life!

 

Traveling during a pandemic

Traveling during a pandemic sure was an interesting experience.
Interesting in the way how different it was in the different places we were going through.

Starting from Abu Dhabi, where masks are mandatory as soon as you step outside to start with. The airport was full of markers and stickers for distance, employees that took your temperature, glass shields in front of all check-in desks, closed shops and blocked off seats - all to enforce the social distancing.

 

Onboard the Etihad flight we traveled up front, so we had plenty of space anyway, but obviously the flight was far from full. We got given Health Kits, which included gloves, sanitizer and masks, and were expected to wear the masks the whole flight.
(By the way, I had never before been on an airplane with three-point-seatbelts!)

In Frankfurt airport where we changed flights, it was really, really busy. Here as well you were asked to wear your mask in the terminal, but it was a bit harder to keep your distance as it was really crowded. A part from the face masks, it felt like a normal busy airport. 

We even bumped into some friends of us, from our time in Brunei! The Enmarks, who now live in Frankfurt, but were on their way to Göteborg as well for a weeks holiday.
Such a funny coincidence, considering we bumped into them at Landvetter once before - back in 2014!

The flight from Frankfurt to Göteborg was completely full. We had our bags full with sanitizing equipment of all sorts, so we wiped down everything around our seats; and didn't touch anything throughout the flight. Because of the circumstances they didn't serve anything onboard anyway, we were just handed bottles of water.

And arriving into Sweden - well, you would think there was no pandemic... face masks off and only recommendations on how to behave... Have to admit, made me feel slightly uncomfortable, but there you go.

Pushing pause

The blog is about to go on a break for a short while, as the kids and I arrived in Sweden today after 129 days of inside, isolated life.

To travel or not to travel this summer wasn't an easy decision AT ALL, and one we certainly didn't make easily. Trust me.
But now here we are, for a few weeks - in fresh air, lovely temperatures and with endless amounts of forest, greenery and nature to roam in freely.

As with everything else this year, we will make the best of it. Hence the blog will now be paused until I'm back home again. Until then!

What Corona does to you...

In these times where you look for entertainment anywhere, we decided one evening have some fun and make the most of all the beer cans in our house. We wanted to build - 'Burj Beer'!

We used the Lego instructions for the Burj Khalifa as inspiration, but had to scale down a bit as it was going to be way to tall to work.

It turned into total team work getting all the cans, turning them the right way, get the tower balanced etc. The whole family was involved, but Lucas was the main engineer. Cool huh!

Back to LAD

Day 122, Thursday 9 July
Today I had decided with two of my colleagues to meet at the Louvre Abu Dhabi for a bit of a walk-around and a chat. Louvre Abu Dhabi re-opened a few weeks back, and you are welcome to visit, although there are the usual restrictions in place obviously - like to wear mask and gloves.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem many people are taking advantage of the museum being open again - these were the only cars in the car park:

It felt extremely safe visiting the museum. All touch screens have been removed and there are no printed guides, instead you are encouraged to download their app which will guide you through the museum. There are also plenty of social distancing markers and you walk along specified routes with special entrance and exit points, as to not cross over paths.

But apart from the three of us, we only saw two other families during our visit, and that was in the café! We walked through all the galleries completely on our own! I highly recommend if you are staying in Abu Dhabi for the summer holidays, to make a visit to the LAD now; it is so enjoyable when you have the whole place to yourself! Like a private visit!

We just wanted to check if they had changed anything around in the galleries, or rotated any art work, so we moved about pretty quickly. Everything was still the same. Felt so good to be back!

Such a lovely morning! Even with mask and gloves on!

Corona routines

Day 121, Wednesday 8 July
I was talking to a friend yesterday who wondered if I'm not going crazy doing the exact same thing every day; that it didn't sound healthy.
I don't know if it's unhealthy (and of course I have been going crazy, and I have hit rock bottom more than once as documented here on the blog), but to me it has become something comforting. I am already the type of person who loves order, routines and everyday life, maybe that's why; but I also believe that in this situation, having routines means that you can at least control something, in this crazy life we are living.
My days start exactly the same every day:

Wake up, usually by myself around 9 am
Pull the curtains
Toilet, wash, put my contacts in
Get dressed in my workout gear, put my Apple Watch on
Grab my water bottle and go downstairs
Empty dishwasher if needed, pull the curtains, turn on some music if it's not already on etc
Boil four eggs and make a cup of coffee
Start the Roborock (LOVE it by the way!)
Read the news and surf the web for a bit
Eat two of the eggs, and enjoy another cup of coffee
Fill my water bottle and get ready to workout
Spend about 2 hours in my 'Escape Room', doing some treadmill, sometimes some Wii tennis, but mostly at the moment cardio- and/or strength training.
Wake the kids before 12
Shower and get dressed
Eat the other two eggs and some vegetables for lunch, with more coffee
And... get on with the day!

From here on it can look a bit different. Today for example we are cleaning, as it didn't happen yesterday. Some days I end up back in front of the computer, some days back in bed with a book or a podcast. Some days I fall asleep on the sofa for a bit (could happen today, as we had a power cut last night which of course woke us all up... zzzzz). Some days I Zoom with friends.
Usually I'm in charge of getting the groceries, so some days I go to the shops. I am also mostly the one making dinner, so that happens in the late afternoon. But as you can see there is no huge variations in my days, no.

I have been thinking that as boring as this feels now... eventually I will miss this life too though, the very slow and controlled (and super safe!) living in our own little bubble. I hope that the closeness we have developed to each other in the family throughout these months, will still be there forever - even though I do wish that our lives get a little bit more exciting, soon!

Maximising my wardrobe

Throughout these past many months of staying safe at home and with oceans of time, I've been systematically going through the whole house, sorting, clearing out, cleaning etc. Admittedly mostly in the beginning so I guess it's almost time to start all over again though, ha ha!

Another thing I've done since I've had an unlimited amount of time on my hands, is to use an app to digitize my closet. This is something I have been wanting to do for a while out of pure curiosity, and because I do like lists and statistics; but never have gotten around to as it initially takes quite a bit of time when you start logging.

No, I'm definitely no fashionista, nor a 20-something influencer or anything like that, but I still like the idea of easily and purposely see all my clothes like this, in this app. I like the idea of becoming more mindful when shopping for clothes, and getting the clothes in my wardrobe to work harder.

The app is called Stylebook, and I have to say it's pretty great!
It doesn't need to be time consuming to use it, but since time hasn't been an issue for me, I have gone pretty much full on with it! I have been taking every aspect of the app very seriously and I also do use most aspects of it, but the app can be used differently of course depending on your dedication.

Being slightly obsessive, I have been going through everything in my wardrobe to log it. You can choose to enter product images if the item is still to be found online, or take your own photos. You can then include the size, fabric and brand for example, and the cost of the item. Sometimes it's hard, especially if it's an older piece of clothing, but I've really tried to be as faithful as possible.

Every day I then add to the calendar what I am wearing that day. You can paste the different pieces of your "look" together and create these fun outfit "flat-lays" (I know, I know, too much time on my hands!) if you want to, or just log each item separately.

Thanks to doing this, you can then use the statistics function within the app. It will let you know for example which pieces you wear the most, the least, what colour you wear the most, which combinations you like AND - you can see the cost-per-use for each item.

I have even been going through photos from years back to enter those outfits too, in order to make my stats more accurate. Although many of my clothes are actually rather old, so the cost-per-use will never really be 100% exact.
Anyhow, it's actually super interesting to see, and I'm having a lot of fun with it! Now to add an item whenever I buy something new doesn't take long, so it's not that time consuming anymore, just fun!

Only 58 more

Day 116, Friday 3 July
First day of summer holidays, only 58 to go!
What do you know, that's only half of the time we have already been isolated and at home - piece of cake! Or something... yay, go life.

Corona Diary, Day 111-115. Fifteenth week of home school

Day 111, Sunday 28 June
Fifteenth and LAST week of the school year of 2019-2020, and what an end to this year it has been!
I am so proud of the kids for how they have dealt with this whole situation. They adapted so quickly to this new way of learning and have continued to be dedicated, hardworking and above all resilient throughout these challenging months. But it is no secret - I wish above all else that school resumes (mostly) as normal at the end of August. The kids need the social interaction with their friends and to be in the school environment, just as much as they need the academic education. Fingers crossed!

This afternoon I met with Frida to wish her a happy summer. She and her family are leaving for Sweden this week, with hopes of returning mid-August.

Day 112, Monday 29 June
This morning we attended Lucas' MYP Graduation (=från grundskolan) via Teams.

It's a shame and a bit sad of course that this years Grade 10 won't get their prom and a proper Graduation Ceremony; but it was nice that they arranged this online celebration for the students. We enjoyed sharing it with Lucas, even if it was from the comfort of our sofa.

In other news we took delivery today of a new gadget. Or should I say a new member of the family - meet Roborock:

Yes, we will probably continue to do all the cleaning ourselves for a while yet, as we are unsure about the rules regarding having people from outside coming into your home; and whereas I look forward to eventually having my cleaners back - I thought we could do with a little assistance already now.
We will still do a big top-to-bottom family cleaning session every week, but I was thinking Roborock could be in charge of keeping on top of the dust and sand in between those sessions.

He has spent a good hour and a half mapping out the house during his first cleaning session this evening, and now I have to go through and insert a few no-go zones on that map where I could see he had trouble and got stuck. But I do think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!
It's the little things again.

Day 113, Tuesday 30 June
End of June. 2020 is now half done. I have no idea how that happened. Oaw.
I do hope that all our efforts of isolation and staying apart this first part of the year will mean that we will end the year under more normal circumstances. Here's to hoping.

Today was cleaning day, although at first it took some convincing. The troops didn't quite understand why they still had to clean now that we have Roborock. But, then while we were in the swing of things, both the oven and the fridge got a complete deep clean today as well! Yes, at least one really good thing that has come out of this home isolation is that the kids are now fully educated in every aspect of cleaning a home. Today they also displayed perfect team work which warmed my heart and made me so proud of them. The little things.

Day 114, Wednesday 1 July
This morning Linnea and the rest of the Grade 8 had their award ceremony, another online event. Linnea brought home an IB Learner Profile Award, for two things: Open-Minded & Communicator. Well done Linnea, so proud!

I also took Linnea to a nearby café where one of her teachers had planted herself for a few hours, to allow students to come say goodbye as she is leaving for good this year. Linnea has had teacher in different roles for the past three years, so she was grateful she got to see her before she left.

Yummy salmon and spinach risotto for dinner, and kids are so ready for the very last day of school tomorrow.

Day 115, Thursday 2 July
So this is it! LAST day of this academic year, and I HOPE the last we see of the e-learning in this way! Nobody knows still what will happen end of August, but everybody is hoping the kids will be returning to campus next year. A decision will probably not be made until in the beginning of August at the earliest.

Linnea made a kladdkaka to celebrate the holidays, yum!

Can you believe it, it is almost FOUR months since the kids had their last normal school day (5th of March)!! Four whole months they have been at home, inside, isolated, and now we have another two months ahead of us with summer holidays; continuing to be at home, inside and isolated - but with no routines. Oh boy...

Summer holidays are always worth celebrating though, so it was time to go out for dinner tonight for the first time in many many months. We chose a Thai restaurant we have been getting take-away from before, which we really like.

 And there we have it, the weirdest school year is over. Well done kids!