I am not sure what they are called, but they have really pretty small pink flowers, the hips are bright red in the autumn, and the Swedes make a quite vile soup from them, (they are also ubiquitous around Swedish playgrounds...) the only thing I remember the "berries" being good for was throwing or it was said if you could dry the insides out, it made a wicked itching powder, unfortunately I believe both these uses have now been banned under EU law, so I guess it’s only rosehip soup these days.
Anyway, the main thing I remember about these bushes is the fact that they had more thorns per square centimeter than any other plant known to man, and any child unlucky enough to fall (or be pushed!) into the huge thickets surrounding every playground suffered near mortal injury, and was due for not only a bollocking for ripping their clothes when they got home, but also a session with the tweezers and Germolene. OUCH!!!

Now I can be a nasty piece of work as much as the next man, but even I shudder at the sadistic nature of whichever bastards decided these were the perfect plants for children’s play areas, and the fact the Swedes have them all around the parks here also worries me, perhaps there is a rational explanation such as they are to deter kiddy-fiddlers from lurking in the bushes, or more likely the position of "playground planner" just attracts lifes more bitter and twisted individuals..( I shall have to enquire as to crazy cat ladies™ previous occupation ). If anyone has any ideas, please let me know...

Im sitting blogging on the train, which due to snow and freezing weather, is running 3 minuets late, which is quite ironic as Ive spent the morning watching the chaos in England which has made the international news!! Running out of salt for the roads and everything having ground to a halt, oh how we chuckle over here in Scandinavia!!

Things are very much as normal here, I have been flued up for nearly 2 weeks, Nova has been sick also, and Luka went down with fever and the snots on Monday, but respect to the recuprative power of youth, he is fit and well and back at daycare today (Much to Daddys relief!!)

We held the first meeting of The planetary society volunteer network Sweden last week, the organising of which has been taking up a big chunk of my free time. It feels good to be organising something I realy enjoy, and we have gatherd over 20 members allready. Basicly its an excuse to sit around and talk astronomy with other nerds, which gives Malin a break!! And as we have contact with bonafide astronomers and scientists its educational as well!!

Other news... I have brought myself a scanner, so there will be many new old pictures appearing on my website and my facebook... Im loving all the pictures old friends have been posting recently, I allways wonderd if some of them would come back to haunt me, and they have!!

Nova has been given a start date of April 1st for day care, it seems so soon, and Im just getting the hang of being a house husband, but im sure she will like it, shes a tough, social little girl, (she has to be tough with a bouncy big brother like Luka!! ) so it will be fun for her, allthough Im not looking forward to the day I have to leave her for the first time....

Sexy telephone update.. (are you listening Dene?? ) , I have allmost got to grips with my Xperia now, my final verdict is that it could be a little more user friendly, and there are a few flaws in the softwear which I am sure will be ironed out in future updates, but once you get the hang of the thing, its bloody brilliant!!! I have messed around with it so much I have had to do a hard reset (to restore it to factory settings) but I pretty much know it inside out now and Im still impressed...

Anyway, since I started writting this I have moved from train to coffee shop, and now to pub (strangely enough, I was on my way back from town, and didn't have time to go home, but was too early to pick Luka up from daycare..... Time for plan B! ) , but now I should go and get the little fella, perhaps we will do some sledging on the way home.....

Love to 1 and all

Lee.

 Well it seems Im crap at blogging, even when I have "plenty of time", Unfortunately, the plenty of time I have doesnt occur in the same room as the PC (Nova is a VERY light sleeper, and she sleeps in the same room as the computer   ) , so my blogging, and writing are not coming on as well as I would have hoped for. Never mind, I will just have to wait until January 1st, when I can get my new telephone, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 ( http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/mobilephones/overview/x1?cc=gb&lc=en# ), possibly the coolest phone ever built, and then I will be able to blog where ever the heck I am!!

 Anyway, there is not so much exciting happening in our world right now, we are slowly getting ready for Christmas, and Luka's birthday, which is almost as much fun as it was when I was a kid, He nearly got a Wii , but after he tried out a friends it was a little hard for him so we decided to wait a year until he's a little older .

 Otherwise, we had a week of Winter over here last week, which was also great fun, about 6 inches of snow over 2 days and Luka loved it, although I think his Mom was a bit harsh getting him to drag her about everywhere..

 More photos to be found here---   http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=43999&l=bd00b&id=685711763

 Luka was very sad that he couldn't ride his sledge at daycare without a helmet, so of course, Daddy went out and spent about 30 quid on a real nice one, then the snow melted the next day!!!

 The only other news is a new instalment from the Crazy Cat Lady™ , 

 We received a semi- anonymous letter signed only "Elsa with 3 indoor cats" , telling us she had heard how we have a cat that we abuse, leave out in the rain and don't feed properly, etc etc, and that we should be aware that the penalty's for cruelty to animals had just been raised, and also perhaps it would be a good idea if we gave him to someone that would care for him properly!

 We have compared the handwriting to Crazy Cat Lady™'s , and it is not hers, the letter was posted somewhere in Stockholm, she knew which floor we live on, that we have 2 Kids, and actually spelled my name right, ( 99% of Swedes spell it Stevensson, the Swedish way.). After much gossiping with the rest of our neighbours no one seems to know who "Elsa" is, but everyone agrees it must be either a friend, or pseudonym of the Crazy Cat Lady™.

 Well, I bumped into Crazy Cat Lady™ yesterday and asked her how her friend Elsa is?, she ignored me, and tried to scurry away, but I corned her, and asked her if she understood what "Dont talk about me, or my family" meant, she stammered that she "had not said anything to anyone", So I told her that as she is the only person in the village that has a problem with us, I knew she was involved somehow, and if we heard one more thing, I would call the Police and get her done for harassment. Perhaps if angry Englishman can't shut the old hag up, the threat of arrest might!

 One final note, I really hope that her  friend Elsa does call the Swedish RSPCA to us. As usual Oskar is now in "Winter Mode" , in the summer he goes dead skinny , but this time of year he has the same build as a small furry hippopotamus. It would be fun to get an experts opinion on just how abused he is!!!!

  Love to one and all, 

 Lee

 About 6 or 7 weeks ago we got a letter through the door from Barbro Ahlgren (Name and shame I say!!) saying that Oskar (Our cat) had jumped upon Tusen (Her cat, a bit of a wimp as cats go... she walks him on a lead!!) and bitten him on his back.

 She said that Oskar had used to be a really nice quiet cat, but he had turned aggressive and half wild because we left him outside all the time, and didn't feed him at regular times or with the right food (this woman warms her cats food up in the microwave!!), and this is the best bit....

 " there is not much difference in the care of your children and your animals"

 She then goes on to say that she didn't want to fight with us about this, but wanted to know what we were going to do about the situation.

 A couple of days later, she cornered Malin on her way out and told her that Oskar would have a much better life with her than with us....Now everyone in the building is a little frightened of this old Gal, and only speaks about her in hushed tones, but I have to say, after spending a large portion of my working life in Bars in some of the roughest parts of England,  the only way an old lady frightens me is if she carrys a big gun.

So-

 Well, step one was sending a letter to every other neighbour in the block asking if anyone else had a problem with Oskar. We have received 4 signed papers saying they like Oskar, and that he is sweet and lovable, and received 0 letters saying otherwise....

 And then Step 2 had to wait untill yesterday when I ran into the old battleaxe on the way to the laundrette...

Swedish people regard their personal space as sacred, and hate having it intruded upon, so knowing this I placed my nose about 2 cm from hers and growled at her that " if she so much as looks at my Children again, never mind talks about them, then she would so wish she had never met me" , "and furthermore, she should not do so much as think about my Family, Cat, and Myself, let alone talk to us or about us to anyone, or she would be sooooo f#¤%ing sorry.

 I know its not big or clever to scare the daylights out of a woman in her 60's, but it warmed me to my core to see her scuttle backwards with a look of absolute panic on her face. I doubt very much she has ever been given her answer in quite such strong terms, and I also doubt very much that we will hear another peep out of her for a while.

 One final thing ,

I asked Malin to pick me up a few cans of beer the other day and this is what she got me, Do you think its a subtle hint??????

 Much love to one and all out there

Lee

  First of all I would like to say Congrats to all our friends over in the US for doing the right thing and electing the best man for the Job.

 I really believe that Obama will be good for the USA and the world on many levels. His election is a clear sign to the world that the American people are sick of the policies of George W. Bush and the fact that Barack is Black is not only a landmark in Americas healing of its historic wounds, but also another message to the rest of the World that Democracy really can work, and that the American people are not the xenophobic race that they might have appeared under the Bush regime.

 I could list another 30 reasons why I am mighty happy about the result, but I will spare you all, and Just say "Good work America!!"

  The other change is a much more localised effect, mainly around My apartment. It involves Malin going back to work, and me being a house husband for the next 6 months!!

 God bless Sweden for their wonderful welfare state, I get to spend 6 months at home with 80% of my pay, Luka still can attend daycare from 8.30 till 2.30 Tue. Wed. and Thurs. and there is a free playgroup I can go to on Fridays, so I am actually only home alone with 2 kids 1 day a week, which I am sure I can cope with. And as Nova usually has a sleep from 9 till 11ish, I now have more time for blogging, sleeping, baking, and shitty daytime TV.

 (This means that there will be MUCH more bloggy bloggy , at least for the next 6 months!)

 Love to 1 and all...

Lee

http://leestevenson.com/Novachristening.html

And I also had a great trip to Brussels with my works, some of the photos from this are up on my facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=34949&l=68039&id=685711763

The next installment of excitement comes next week when myself and the whole tribe visit England for a week, for my Dads 70th party on Tuesday 21st up the White Lion in Sandwell street, Walsall. So if ever there was a good time to come and visit Walsall again, thats the time... (You know who you are Matt Kalvin!!) Anyway, time has beaten me again, and Nova needs to Sleep, But I start my 6 months paternity leave in just over 2 weeks, so Im sure I will have more chance to blog then, (and lots of baby related stuff to write about, 6 months, as a house husband... how hard can it be ;-) )

Love to one and all... Lee

(Me and all the young uns!)

  Its a sign of how the home life is that I actually have more time to write here while at work than I do at home these days, but I suppose that is life with 2 small kids, I cant complain, they bring untold joy into my life, but how I miss staying in bed till later than 8AM in the mornings...

 Anywaysup, its been a fun Summer, with visits from Both sets of Parents on my side, a visit up to the north with the whole tribe (Excluding Oskar) to see Malins family, a trip to England for myself and the Lad, and a very welcome visit from My good friend Martin who is a terrible bad influence on me and resulted in a few memorable hangovers for both Me and Malin, (although not at the same time, we took it in turns, 2 kids and both of us dying just don't work!) , and Still the madness , unlike the Summer, shows no sign of ending.

 We have a visit in a week or so from Ida, a good friend to us both, and her Scottish Fiancé Craig, who is a top bloke, (and fond of a pint), then in 2 weeks, I travel with my work to Brussels for the weekend for our annual "conference", confirmed highlights will be a brewery visit 11AM Saturday morning (arranged by yours truly ) and a beer tasting session Sunday afternoon, a few hours before we are due to fly home, I am not 100% convinced of the wisdom of this, but I will keep an open mind! . then the following weekend we have Novas christening, which if it is anything like Lukas should be great fun, then we have 3 weeks with nothing booked in YET until We all fly over to England for the week for my Dads 70th birthday.

 The good news is that after that week I begin my 6 months Papa leave when I shall be getting into some hard core daytime television, and perhaps doing some more work on my book if time allows.

 The bad news is that although I get to sit in the office and play boss this week while my boss is on holiday, when he returns I have 7 weeks to prepare our warehouse for a complete change of product lines, and build around 10 new sections of shelving and racking in our basement and upstairs areas, so I'm going to be a little busy here also!!

 Anyway, thats the way things stand at the moment, busy busy busy, and with Nova teething, and Luka waking up at around 5.AM every other morning, a good nights sleep is once more just a distant memory,  but I wouldn't change it for the world ;-)

 Love 2 1 and all

Lee

xxx

 Well, it seems like its been a long time since I did any real blogging, but it is the start of 2 weeks VERY well earned vacation for me, (feels like I'm floating!!!), Malin and the kiddies are all sleeping and I have a cold one in front of me, so lets Blog!

 Well, since getting back from England, things have been a bit hectic, at work we have had at least 3 people away on holiday at any one time, so its been a combination of overwork or as it is the Swedish equivalent of the industrial fortnight right now, and I am 2nd in command, underwork but not able to leave the department to find something more interesting to do to pass the time. Also my Dad and Wendy have been here for 8 days or so, which was great except for the fact that I was working most of the time, and add into the mix that Luka is off daycare for the summer, so poor Malin has been looking after 2 kids, (although Dad and Wendy were lending a helping hand :-)   ) its been a pretty stressful time all round.

 The weather though has been fantastic, its been around 30c every day for 2 weeks ( The only cooling down happening about 10 seconds after I clocked out of work tonight, the forecast is for rain and much lower temperatures for the next 5 days. I predict it will last for at least 14! )

  Exciting things that have happened recently include sailing off on a ferry and leaving Malin and Luka standing on the jetty of one of the islands outside Stockholm with just the clothes they were standing in, while I had all the money, telephones, nappies, food etc.. etc.. fortunately they were able to board the next ferry just 20 min later and Me, Nova, Dad and Wend jumped off at the next stop and met them on the next boat. It was traumatic for about half an hour, but got really amusing when we sat down. ... There was this Lady sitting alone at a table for 6 with her feet up and bags all over the seats, well we were 4 adults, a little man and a baby so first Me and Luka sat down, and within 5 min he had spilled Fanta all over this woman, then my Dad and Wendy  came ambling over and asked if she could make a little room, she moved her bags but not her feet so was still taking up 2 seats and my Dad was standing. ( Sorry Stockholm folks, but a lot of you are buggers for this and I hate it!!!) I leaned over and asked her how many tickets she had paid for, and when she started complaining we were disturbing her, both me and my Father implied perhaps she would be better off sitting elsewhere.... we didn't see here again.

 Another exciting thing was the partial Solar eclipse today, I managed to get a good photograph of it through a welding mask in my lunch break,

 I am a bit proud of this photo, It was the first eclipse I can say I remember and the photo turned out great when I changed it from welding mask green :-)

 Exciting things on the horizon include a visit from My very good mate Martin for a few days next week, He is actually a bad influence on me so I will try and be a good boy, especially as his visit overlaps with my a welcome visit from my Mom and Stepfather ,( however this also poses some great babysitter/mayhem combinations, so we will have to wait and see )

 Also we will be christening/Baptising (What is the difference religious dudes?) Nova on the 27th of September, (now I'm not accusing ANYONE of being tight, but when I did a test booking with Ryanair today, I could book a return flight for 2 people for £4.00!!) I am hoping to get a good English turn out for this one!!

 Speaking of Nova, the smallest girl in the Stevenson clan is fine and dandy, she is only days away from crawling I think, which is a bit of a double edged Sword really, its great fun, but also "Danger Danger mate!!" , and Luka has a touch of the terrible twos still, although its getting better, and he is great fun now he can communicate in two languages!!

 The last thing I can be bothered to write about tonight is that I am starting up "The Planetary Society Volunteer Network of Sweden" which is in essence the Swedish arm of The Planetary Society, the worlds largest Space advocacy organisation, with directors and advisers including Steven Speilberg, Buzz Aldrin, Ray Bradbury and Elon Musk among many other dignified names. This is going to be hard work but I am sure very rewarding also, and if there are any readers of this blog who are interested in joining the push to send mankind to the stars, a good place to start is here..

http://www.planetary.org/join/

(For us in Europe, its especialy good value right now!!!)

 Anyway, I will leave you with the most recent photos I can find of Nova and Luka...

 Big love from all of us to one and all...

  Lee.

 Anywaysup, got my latest addition to my personal graffiti collection today, 

 I once swore never to have a girls name tattooed on my arm, but I guess this one is OK   

  Love to one and all...

  Lee

 (I am about a week late in publishing this entry....sorry!!!)

 Me and No. 1 Son are back from our English adventure safe and reasonably sound, it was really good fun, but as always there was just too many people to see and not enough hours in the day. I got round to seeing most of the family, and a good chuck of my friends, although I was disappointed I didn't get chance to to see a few of my friends especially John and Tracey H. and Dodgy Dene, whom I had promised to get to see. Still, Luka is getting christened in September, and I will be back in England in October with the whole family, so I can continue catching up then.

  My overwhelming impression of England (or at least Walsall) this time round is of a country in trouble. The streets are full of adults at 2 pm on weekdays, (No work) , the pubs are empty at 2 pm (no money) and there were police everywhere! (undertow of unrest?) and everyone I spoke to had an extremely pessimistic outlook. It was kinda depressing in that way, but nice that I don't have to live there any more :-)

Luka had a great time also, with his many English Grandparents, The thought of forthcoming economic recession didn't bother him, not when there were Elephants and giraffes at the Zoo!!!

 I am doing an "England" page on my main site, so check that out in a few days for more pix, but for now I have to go to work (   )  so love to one and all,

  Lee.

 Its 3.30am and I am acctually all packed and ready to attempt a trip to England with myself, Luka, a pushchair, a rucksack and a suitcase. The bus and plane tickets are all in order, and Im pretty sure I havent forgotten anything important, so all that remains is to chill out this morning then we catch the train into town at 1.27pm and baring any delays we should be at my Moms house by about 7.30 tonight. So for those of you in England, See you later, and for the rest of you, see you soon!!!

  We have been back in Stockholm for a few days now after a nice break up in Lappland. I cannot honestly say it was so much of a rest, as Luka thought just because the sun was high high up in the sky it was daytime, and not acctualy 4am, but its nice not to have to work and it was great for Luka to be able to run around as much as he wanted without worrying about him jumping under a bus or somthing.

 We also attended Marias 30th birthday party which was top (Drunken)fun!! Photos can be found on my main website under "Norrland"

 The other fun thing is that every time I visit I am able to comunicate better with Malins Grandparents, this still isnt so easy as they have the Swedish equivalent of a broad Scottish accent, but now we can chat a little instead of sitting there looking at each other in silence!!! Ebba (Malins grandmother) acctualy gave me a pair of her famous knitted winter socks which I have been lusting after for years, so now I feel realy part of the Family :-)

 On to other matters, Malin and I went to see Gnarls Barkley wednesday night at a pretty small venue here in Stockholm and they were absolutley stunning. Fantastic music, great singing, and even some technical difficulties with the PA system only added to the ambiance. We were right down the front and They were so good that even losing my beloved Mobile phone couldnt bring me down, allthough I do feel half naked without it. Fortunatly my insurance company has paid out directly (Good work Trygg Hansa!!) so I have orderd a new one this morning, I just hope it arrives befor Me and Luka fly to Birmingham on Wednesday. My number will stay the same, so should anyone want to get hold of me they can in a few days.

 I suppose I should go and do a bit of work now, (I am Boss again this week :-)  ) so love to one and all....

 Lee.

 This morning we are going on holiday, up to see Malins Family in the North of Sweden for a week, our flight is around 8.30 am, so we booked a taxi to the airport for 6.30am. Malin jumped out of bed 10 minuets ago screaming that it was 6.30, and we had overslept by an hour. It was only when she called the taxi company to delay the cab and they pointed out it was acctualy 5.30 and we have an hour left that we calmed down!!!! 

Its a good way of getting you moving anyway ....   PANIC......   

  So I probably will be blogging about polar bears and igloos in my next post, but untill then.....

 TTFN

 Lee