Leaving Adelaide (15 Jun)

 As excited as we were to be heading back to Sweden it was bittersweet to be leaving so much behind - Alana, our parents and families, friends and the rugby club.  We tried our best to catch as many people before we left and hosted a going away party a couple of weekends before we left, but its always hard to leave everyone behind.  More this time as it was our first time being so far away from Alana.

The rugby team created a cardboard cutout of me that attended the first game I missed, including the bus tour and pub visit after:

My new computer background:

Meanwhile at home packing was happening and things were starting to feel real.  Even more so when a convoy of trucks arrived to pick it all up:

We were given a cubic meter of air freight that would be sent over quickly, however this was not able to contain any batteries of computers.  This was shipped on Friday 9th and we were expecting it when we arrived on the 19th of June, but instead it is now scheduled for the 1st week in July - I'm guessing it's off on a world tour...

It's off on a jaunt to New Delhi Airport then Frankfurt before finally landing in Arlanda (Stockholm) where it will be trucked to us.

For sea freight we were able to pack up to 6 cubic meters - we ended up with just over 3.  This was expected to take about 3 months, so we shipped it two months before we left and it is expected by mid-late July.  This pack has my computer, Kris and my bikes and lots of Lego.

The rest of our house was packed and loaded into storage on the trucks in the pictures above. The shipping containers will be stored until we return home.

Since our house was now empty of furniture, we were given a hotel room in town to stay at, with some very nice views:

For our last dinner in Adelaide we headed to Glenelg and had a family dinner with Alana and then of course we had to end up here:

Our flight was at 9:50pm, so we spent the day at Alana's house and then got to the airport nice and early.  There were lots of tears and it was hard to say goodbye, but it was also exciting to finally be heading off after so long preparing.

Our first flight was from Adelaide to Doha and was just over 12 and a half hours. I paid a little extra to get us exit row seats, so we had a bit more room than the last time and this made for a lot more comfortable flight.

We had only 3 hours in Doha, where we had a shower and something to eat and then we were off to Copenhagen (6.5 hours).

Canberra (18-19 May 2023)

On May 18th the whole family were off to Canberra to visit the Swedish Embassy in order to show our passports and be 'verified'. Although Alana was not planning on making the move to Sweden, she still came with us to ensure she had to option to come later if things didn't work out. 

Despite having travelled to around 22 different countries, the kids had never been to Canberra the capital of their home country.  Kris and I had been there before when we were in High School, and I had been once for a work trip around 2010.

Work organised accommodation and flights for us and we all stayed at Alana's house the night before, as she lived close to the airport and we had an early (6am) flight.

The flight was uneventful and short and we soon landed in Canberra and picked up our car.  We were only staying the one night, so we had packed light and didn't have more than a backpack each.

Our first stop was the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), where the top athletes and sports teams in Australia train:

From there we headed to GIO Stadium (formerly Canberra Stadium), home of the Canberra Raiders (rugby league) and ACT Brumbies (Rugby Union) teams.

After the stadium we still had several hours before we could check into the hotel, so we headed to the Australian War Memorial. The war memorial was created in 1941 as a shrine to fallen soldier in the wars that Australia has been involved in and expanded to include a museum and several exhibits.

The War Memorial is located in a direct line down Anzac Parade from parliament house, and the mast of the parliament building can be seen from the entrance of the tomb of the unknown soldier:

The first area we entered was the Aircraft Hall:

After the aircraft hall, we headed to the Second World War Hall, passing through the Hall of Valour which had the stories of Australians who received the Victoria Cross of George Cross.

The Victoria Cross is the highest award given for bravery in the face of the enemy. The George Cross is an equivalent bravery award, but given to civilians, servicemen and women for bravery not involving contact with an enemy.

Of particular interest to us on this trip was the battle of Ambon, which occurred in 1942 on the Dutch Indies owned island of Ambon.  Kristine's grandfather was serving there with the RAAF at the time it was invaded by the Japanese and the island was the site of one of the biggest massacres of Australian Prisoners of War - over 300 men who had surrendered at Laha Airfield.

The wooden cross below reads "In Memory / VX35406 DVR W T DOOLAN / 2/21  BATTALION A.I.F / KIA 1st FEBUARY 1942" and originally marked the grave of William Thomas Doolan who was one of the heroes of the Battle of Ambon. 

(https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/blog/hero-of-ambon)

Outside of the halls is the Commemorative Area which houses the Pool of Reflection and the Eternal Flame.

The walls are lined with the Roll of Honour - memorial plaques for the fallen of each of the wars

At the end of the area is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - that of an unknown Australian soldier, killed in World War I in Villers- Bretonneaux in France and returned to Australia in 1993.

After a few hours at the War Memorial we checked into our hotel and then headed out to explore Parliament House. The building was opened in 1988 and is topped by an 81m high flagpole, flying a 12.8x6.4m (half the size of a tennis court) Australian flag, which weighs approximately 15kg.

The view from Parliament towards Old Parliament House (white building) and the War Memorial (green dome with the red and white crane)

Apparently there are good Pokemon to catch at Parliament house:

The House of Representatives:

Senate:

After Parliament House we headed back to the hotel and then headed out for dinner.

The next morning we had a quick visit to the Swedish Embassy and then headed out to the Telstra Tower, which was unfortunately closed for renovations:

Our final stop before catching our flight back was the Royal Australian Mint where Australia's coins (but not notes) are produced.

Even the steps had coins:

The kids (big and small) enjoyed the word search:

One of the main displays showed some common misprinting errors for coins, such as the ones below:

Out of Collar Error - where the blank was not fed into the press collar property:

and these coins with various errors, like the obvious attached bolt in the first one:

Some of the first currencies brought to Australia:

Some concept sketches for the 10c piece:

Plaster casts of the coins:

After the mint we had to head to the airport and we bumped into the ACT Brumbies rugby team on their way to Perth to play the Western Force and Tomas got a picture with Noah Lolesio:

We arrived in Adelaide with enough time to head straight out to the boy's rugby game at Brighton Oval.

We are doing this again...

 Well, it turns out that 'Once in A Lifetime' things can happen more than once.  We are once again off to Malmö - this time for 18months. Sadly this time there is one less Puplett travelling with us - Alana has elected to stay back in Adelaide so she can continue her university studies.  It's strange that you can be so proud that she is growing up, but so sad that she won't be coming with us at the same time.

We found out about the trip in November, just before we headed over for the Christmas trip. We were scheduled to come over in March, which would have given us only a few weeks to prepare, but due to some delays in work visas we ended up getting a contract start date of 19th June.  Unlike last time, we are much more familiar with Malmö and much more comfortable travelling, so we departed Adelaide on the 15th, arrived on the 16th and started work on the 19th. Last time we had just over two weeks in Malmö and still didn't feel ready, this time it feels more like a return to our second home.

But I am getting ahead of myself.  The few weeks before we left were pretty crazy. We needed prepare the house, complete all the paperwork and then we found out that we also needed to take a trip to Canberra in order to visit the Swedish Embassy to be verified.  All this around rugby, school work and family commitments.

We'd started the house packing in November when we found out, but now we could finally start packing seriously.  The trouble was there was a sort of limbo where you wanted to pack everything down but you also needed to live in the house until it was time to fly. It meant that a lot of the time we felt a little like we were in a holding pattern, not quite able to finalize the packing but feeling like there was a lot still to do.

On top of this we also needed to find Alana a place to live, as our house would be too big for her and she'd have trouble finding a rental as a fresh university student with only a casual income. Eventually we found a nice flat for her and she moved out a few months before we left which gave us a chance to ensure it would all work before we moved overseas.