We have been out and about!

So, when you say to your husband "We are going to someone's house tomorrow. No, I have never met them, but we have been chatting online", the wheels of dread start to turn in their head.
In my defence, I had 3 tubs of vegemite and a mega pack of timtams to deliver!

We were able to catch a train and a bus (Thanks to the fantastic directions of Rose- the internet friend) out to Lund, where we were made to feel very welcome and able to relax knowing that there were 2 other aussie kids in the house for ours to run and play with, and Rose and David who are 11 weeks ahead of us in this crazy "lets move from Australia to Sweden" thing.

Rose and David took us to the Skrylle Forest, ( www.skryllegarden.se ) where we were able to let the kids run off some steam, chase falling leaves, scare a deer, find red spotty mushrooms and eat raspberries straight off the bush!

Playing around where we stopped for lunch

The many colours of the Skrylle Forest in autumn (thanks Rose for the photo)

On our walk, we discovered the adventure playground with a fort, a flying fox and lots of other bits that would be removed from a playground in Australia for being far to dangerous (and fun).

Waiting for the flying fox

The kids all sat nicely waiting for the flying fox. Unfortunatly we, adults, realised that it was broken and told the kids- or they could have sat there for another 15 minutes if we let them!

On top of the fort

After we had worn all the kids out, we headed back to Rose and David's, where the kids settled into building lego and Rose and I took off to the shops so Rose could show me what was what, and what to avoid. I am very thankful for all the information Rose has given me since we have arrived- everything from how and where to get a SIM card, where the nearest doctors office is, through to what to use in cooking to replace golden syrup! With her information on where to shop and what I am looking at when I am there, Keir and I were able to confidently head out to Emporium (at Hyllie) to have a look around and do a real grocery shop. Whilst we were there, we found a shop that covered everything except clothes and food (it had bikes, hockey sticks, sanders, lego, everything) and were able to get a clothes airer! The excitement with this seemingly simple device stems from the fact the dryer in the apartment makes our clothes smell like something crossed between vomit and rotton meat- yummy :(

But after a decent scrub, it looks like we fixed that problem. A nice fried rice for dinner, eaten crowded around the iPad listening to the live audio stream of the Wallabies vs Argentina world cup final for a little taste of home. (It's not shown on free-to-air TV and all of the legal streaming options are zone locked and dont work for Sweden.)

Anyway its now off to bed for the kids and time to do a quick sweep and mop of the house before sitting down to work on school enrollment papers and planning some trips to keep everyone sane next week.