December

 December passed in a bit of a blur. The sea freight had been shipped, but the air freight was still to go. The girls visited and I needed to finish up with my work.

To make matters more complicated, we were one person down. In England, Kris had stepped into a pothole and jarred her knee. She had on and off pain but was able to work around it, until the 24th Nov, when she tried to walk up the stairs and her leg gave way. She wasn't able to put any weight on the leg and was in a massive amount of pain.  We managed to get her to the floor by the couch, but ended up needing an ambulance to get her to hospital to find out what had happened. At the hospital we were informed that they wouldn't have an MRI available to do a scan for a few days and so they sent her for an X-Ray. When we returned back to her room in the emergency department we noticed that her paperwork was still on the shelf, but didn't think much of it. She had been brought in at 2pm and it was now around 5pm. I waited with her until about 11pm, and we still hadn't seen a doctor for results. At this point she was starting to get hungry and hadn't had any painkillers since about 4pm and was pretty sore. We called a nurse and found that, because her papers had been left on the shelf in the room, they didn't have any record that she was even there and had forgotten about her. At about 1am we finally saw a doctor who said that the X-Ray didn't show anything (as we expected) so they had no idea what was going on.  I ended up heading home around 2am so Kris could sleep. The next morning they decided to admit her because she still wasn't able to put any weight on her leg and, because of the previous shoulder surgery, she couldn't use crutches. The nurses then informed us that they wouldn't be able to schedule an MRI for over a week and Kris wasn't able to head home until she could walk with aides. She ended up in hospital for most of the week until they managed to find a walker that she could use to move around a little. 

Meanwhile, Cameron, Tom and I relocated the sofa bed downstairs and cleared up so she would be able to return home. On Thursday she was able to get home and was dropped off by hospital transport. The MRI was scheduled for Monday.

On Friday we had an appointment to see how Tomas had recovered from his pancreatitis and luckily we got the all-clear. I dialed Kristine in on a video call.

By Monday, she still wasn't able to walk more than a few shuffling steps, so we organized a taxi to take her to the hospital for the scan. It took a few days for the answers and eventually we got good news - she had torn her meniscus and while it was very painful, it would heal on its own and didn't need surgery. Over the next few weeks she improved dramatically until she was able to walk again (albeit with a limp and a bit of pain) by the time Alana arrived.

With Kristine out of action, life still continued. We still had work, cleaning/packing and planning for Alana's arrival. We weren't sure if we'd be able to do our end of visit trip, or if she would even be able to fly - but luckily we got the all-clear for both.

As for the packing:

The air freight was scheduled to go on the 23rd of December, but we were then informed that would mean that it would likely sit in a warehouse until the first week in January until it could ship. Instead, if we sent it a week early, we would be able to get it shipped and sent before Christmas and it would be ready for us when we got back into our house.

So on the 16th we managed to get the air freight packed and sent:

We then had just our suitcases left to go. We were scheduled to leave the apartment on the 27th and start our final trip through Norway before we headed back to Australia, so we needed to get our suitcases packed. Unfortunately we ended up with way more than we expected and it wasn't looking promising to get it all in. We dropped a few full suitcases off at a friend's house to get them out of the way while we left only clothes, bed sheets, doonas and the PlayStation. But we were around 40kg over our luggage limit. 5kg extra luggage was going to cost around 900 danish crowns (around $225), so that didn't seem like a good idea. We decided to take a chance with PostNord, who managed to ship a 20kg bag for us for 2200sek, or around $300.

For Christmas Eve, we celebrated with Pete and played boardgames. Christmas day was spent packing and Boxing Day with spent with some friends from rugby. It was hectic but great to catch up with everyone.

We finally got the bags packed, house cleaned and we were out on the morning of the 27th.

We'd had to return the company car on the 20th, so we had hired a Passat for the last week and the Norway trip. It was a struggle packing all of the remaining suitcases into the smaller car, but at last we could say goodbye to the house and start on our way up to Norway.

Alana's Visit

Leading up to Christmas, we started getting our packing ready, but we had one more adventure left. Alana was due to arrive with one of her friends for a visit from the 7th - 23rd of December.

We took them around the usual sights in Malmo, but the main part of their visit was a trip to Legoland and the German Christmas Markets in Lübeck.

I finished work officially on the 12th of December and we left early on Friday 13th to Legoland. We had an early start to make sure we arrived at opening time for the park (10am).

Tomas wasn't super interested in the Christmas Markets, so he decided to stay home, so the trip was Kristine, Cameron, me and the two girls.

We arrived at the park just on opening time (10am) and explored around. As with the last trip, the park was themed for Christmas, but some of the rides and areas were closed.

The girls had a shot at ice-skating and went on a few of the rides.

Kristine liked the new Lego Florist

and the way they used multicolored pirate hats for petals

Lego Santa

Alana tried a very hard wall climb...

Cam got eaten by a Lego raptor

That's Cameron upside down...

By about 3pm we were finished with everything we wanted to do and see, so we decided to duck over to Lego House. We didn't have enough time to do the full House experience, so instead we ducked into the shop, where they have some unique sets and where we saw some of the set creators signing the boxes.

Signing the Fortnite Sets

We spent way too much money on Lego (and too much space, considering our air freight was pretty much full!) and then headed down to Esgrus, which was just over the border in Germany, and our stop for the night. The hotel was comfortable and we had a good sleep before heading down to Lübeck in the morning.

We found parking just outside Lübeck Old Town and headed through the historic gates into the city.

The Western side of Lübeck houses the Holsten Gate (Holstentor), which was built in 1464 in Gothic style. The inscriptions on the city side read SPQL (based on the Roman SPQR - "Senatus populusque Romanus" (The Senate and People of Rome), in this case being "Senatus populusque Lubecensis" (The Senate and the People of Lübeck)). The outside of the gate reads "concordia domi foris pax" ("harmony within, peace outside"). This was added in 1871 to replace the previous inscription which was lost -"Concordia domi et pax foris sane res est omnium pulcherrima" ("Harmony within and peace outside are indeed the greatest good of all")

Holstentor

Side View

The Christmas market was huge and had the awesome backdrop of the Lübeck cathedrals. As always, they mostly consisted of roasted almonds, gingerbread, roasting meat and Glühwein (a spiced mulled wine).

Marienkirche over the markets

Hospital of the Holy Spirit

Burgtor - Northern gate, built in 1444

Crepe!

Customs House

On the way back, we stopped at the Bordershop and got home around 7pm.

On the 18th we headed out to do the usual tour of Copenhagen, but this time we caught the changing of the guards:

I then left Kristine and the girls and headed back to Malmo, while they watched the Tivoli Nutcracker:

The girls flew home on the 23rd, but we are not going to be too far behind...

Dealing with Strange Swedish Logic

As we prepare to pack and get ready to finish up in Sweden, the last thing we need is to have to deal with strange Swedish logic and bureaucracy. 

We'd already had a few run-ins with parking the car.

The first issue we had was when we parked the car to visit a friend. The carpark allowed for 2 hours free parking and then paid parking after that. We used our parking app and set it for about 8 hours so we had plenty of time. It looked like it was going to charge us for the whole time, but so be it. Then, about a week later we found a parking ticket that had become jammed down under the windscreen wiper. It was for that parking time, which was weird since we had fully paid for the parking and we had proof through the parking app. The parking app company said we needed to discuss it with the carparking agency, so we called them. After explaining the situation to the lady on the phone she told us that we had received the fine because we didn't have a parking disc displayed for the 2 hours free parking.  A parking disc is used to indicate the starting time for parking so the company knows if you have exceeded your free time:

So, we explained that we had used the parking app and had paid for the full time, so we shouldn't need the dial as we didn't use the free parking.

Them: "But did you have the dial up?"

Me: "No, we paid for all the parking on the app. We have the full receipt here - we paid for the whole time and didn't use the free time."

Them: "But you need the dial for the free two hours."

Me: "We didn't use the free two hours, we paid for the whole time."

Them: "But you need the dial for free hours."

Me: "Ok, but we were there for 8 hours and the entire 8 hours was paid for in the app."

Them: "But you need the dial for the free hours."

Me: "But we didn't use the free hours...."

Repeat for the next fifteen minutes until we eventually gave up. They said they could escalate it and look into it,  but since we had already delayed for a couple of weeks (because we weren't able to see the ticket as it had been pushed down to the base of the wiper), we ran the risk of getting an overdue fee.  To avoid this, we decided to just pay it, which I think is exactly what they planned.

We had a similar one when we returned from our semester trip this year - we had to purchase a vignette for Switzerland, which essentially counts as a toll to travel on the toll roads:

Showing the size of the Vignette -  its about 1/2 of the size of a playing card

We parked at the shops across from Tomas' school and put up our parking dial for our 2 free hours (we had learned our lesson), and so we were surprised when we came back 10 minutes later to find that we had a parking ticket for not displaying our dial.  We called the company to protest and were sent the photos and details. Apparently the Vignette had obscured the dial.  For comparison this is the size of the dial that sits on the dashboard behind the vignette:

Example of the size of the dial

The picture showed that the parking inspector had managed to line up his photo perfectly so that the vignette was covering the dial.  Had they taken a step or two to either side they would have easily be able to see the dial, but instead they chose to align it up so they couldn't see it.

I called the parking company again and told them this.

Them: "But it is not the inspector's fault if he cannot see the dial."

Me: "But he could see it if he took a step to the left or right."

Them: "Can you see the dial in the photo?"

Me: "No, but if he moved a step he could see it."

Them: "So, the dial was obscured then."

Me: "Ok, but if he lay on the ground and took a photo he wouldn't have seen the dial either, even without the vignette sticker.  Surely there has to be some intelligence in how he takes the photo."

Them: "There is nothing we can do, the inspector did nothing wrong."

So we had to pay this one also.

So, before you think that we just had trouble with the parking company (and don't get me wrong, when we were here the first time, a car was pulled out of the canal and we joked that it was likely covered in parking tickets), PostNord, the Swedish postal company hasn't been terribly helpful to us either.

The first big issue that we found was tax. Since Australia was outside of the EU (and now England was also), anything that we had posted to us could (and usually would) accrue tax. The main purpose of this is to stop unfair trade - if I could get an item cheaper in Australia, I could bring it into Sweden and undercut local suppliers.

We wanted to get a jacket from our rugby club in Australia for our coach here in Sweden (something unique that couldn't be bought in Sweden), so we asked Alana to buy one and post it to us. The jacket was about $80 and postage ended up being around $50. When the jacket arrived it was held by Swedish customs and we needed to pay 200kr tax and processing fee (around $30) to get it released. 

Another time, one of my magazines, I received as part of a subscription, failed to arrive so, I emailed the company and they sent a replacement. The magazine cost about 70kr ($10) from the shop, but when my copy arrived it was held awaiting a 120kr (almost $20) tax payment.  I was telling someone at the game shop about it and he mentioned that he won a Warhammer model from the US that he stocked in his own shop. The model in Sweden was about 900kr, but the same item sold in the US for about 1400kr. He won the model in a competition for free and when it arrived from the US he was charged 300kr tax to import the item as it had a 'high value', costing him almost $50 to receive an item he had won, and could have bought for about $150 in Sweden.

But tax is unavoidable, logic fails are not...

I have been collecting Pirate Lego and Lego released a new gift set, a mini pirate ship, that you could purchase with Lego points. Unfortunately we had used up all of the points last time we had shopped, but it was easy, Tomas wanted to get a Lego set for his friend and we wanted to order a set for me for Christmas so it worked well. I would place one order for my set (and we added a Christmas wreath for Kristine) and get the points then immediately order the set that Tomas wanted to gift his friend and use the points to add the pirate ship.  That was our first mistake - it turns out that the points aren't added until the sets are dispatched, but that was a minor issue. I just waited a couple of days and could place the order. We had 3 weeks until the birthday, so plenty of time.

My set arrived about a week later. PostNord dropped it off on our doorstep in pouring rain at about 10pm at night without knocking or ringing the doorbell. Tomas found it in the morning when he left for school and the box had almost dissolved into a puddle of wet carboard. Luckily my set was inside a second box and was protected, but the box for Kristine's wreath was completely destroyed.

So Tomas' set shouldn't be too far behind.  We checked the Lego page and there was a tracking number and it said the parcel was with the transport company. I logged onto their page and it said that the package was at the dispatch center in Malmo and ready to be sent out.

We waited another week - checking constantly to make sure it wasn't left out in the rain, but it never arrived.  We were getting dangerously close to the birthday, so Kris bought another copy of the set, figuring that we would just keep the other one for us when it arrived. But a week later it still hadn't arrived and the transport company still had it listed as at a dispatch center in Malmo. The chat line for the company didn't help - it just said that it was awaiting a delivery date. In the end, Kristine walked to the nearby Post Office and asked if they might have received it. They suggested we call PostNord. That seemed a bit strange, as the shipping company was something like PostNL from the Netherlands. But we didn't have much to lose, so I called PostNord.

The date of the call was the 11th of December and we'd expected the package somewhere around the first week in December. This is a rough transcript of the call.

Me: "Hi, I am just chasing up an order XXXXXX, which I believe was posted to me."

Them: "Ah, yes I can see that in our system, the sender was Lego?"

Me: "Yes, that's the one."

Them: "What seems to be the problem?"

Me: "It has been sitting at ready to deliver for two weeks, but doesn't seem to have moved."

Them: " Oh yeah, it's at our warehouse at the moment, ready to be returned to sender. So, you do want it?"

Me: "Yes, that's why I ordered it. Do you know why it wasn't delivered?"

Them: "We had it scheduled to be delivered to you on the 2nd of December, but we only received it from PostNL on the 3rd of December, so it couldn't be delivered on the 2nd."

Me: "Ok, makes sense. So did you try to reschedule a later delivery?"

Them: "No. It was scheduled to go out on the 2nd, but we couldn't deliver it then as we didn't have it."

Me: "But you have it now?"

Them: "Yes, it is about to be returned to sender as it has been in our warehouse for two weeks."

Me: "So if you have it, and you know it wasn't able to be delivered on the 2nd, why wasn't it delivered on a later date?"

Them: "Because it was scheduled to be delivered on the 2nd."

Me: "Ok, but you couldn't do the 2nd, as it didn't arrive until the 3rd, could you not have delivered on the 4th?"

Them: "No, because it was scheduled for the 2nd."

Me: "Ok, never mind. Can I get it now?"

Them: "It's scheduled to return to sender. Did you want me to stop that happening."

Me: "Yes, please."

Eventually we managed to organize Kristine to drive and pick it up from their warehouse. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but it seems that they tried to deliver it before they had it and then went into some error state and just ignored it completely.

I love Sweden, but it can be fun sometimes...