500 litres of wet cement

Before:


After:


New floor insulation has been put in under the ground floor of the white house, and this morning the cement truck arrived. 4 men turned up, hooked up the water hose to their truck, and started mixing the cement. A large pipe runs from a small cement mixer in the back of the truck, and when it's ready, the men in the truck radio the men in the house and start pumping the cement. It comes out as a slurry - completely wet, as if filling a bath. The benefit of this is it's perfectly flat. There's no need to smooth it or get it even. So after pumping 15cm of cement, they reel up the hoses and off they go. The whole operation is over in under and an hour, and the cement dries in a day or two. It'll be a couple of weeks before it's properly dry and the wooden floor can be re-laid on top of it.

A crisp winter's day

Got back from a job today to this... not a cloud in the sky. Good time to take some photos.

it really IS time to leave the country...

Got GB sticker, ready to travel...

I'm now in Sweden, having left the UK. This time with car - full to the brim with "stuff". Trip went well, via Great Eccleston (Lancashire) and the Harwich to Esbjerg ferry. The ferry was rough - on the tail end of a storm. The previous ferry had been cancelled due to bad weather. At about 1am the rubbish bin under the desk in the cabin went flying across the room - needless to say it was pretty hard to sleep. Unfortunately because of the weather the ferry arrived late and the drive across Denmark had to be done in darkness. Even so there were some spectacular views over some very long bridges.


Ready to board the ferry at Harwich


Arriving in Esbjerg (Denmark)

Jaså, sugen på aprock?

Greetings... I am a week behind! So here goes.

At the back of my mind this time in Sweden was the thought that I might not have such a good time and I might lose interest in this whole moving thing. No chance! I picked a great week to go. Kick-off with lunch in the sun & shopping in Malmö. Then a 30th birthday that night with the guys from Babian (www.babian.nu) and more. Played croquet and there was guitar playing until sunrise. Plus I got to eat silltort (herring cake) which is a savoury, fattening cake made with cream and with herring inside. Mostly new faces, but lots of great people and many I'm sure I will see again.

Friday night was a trip to Tipifesten in Jonstorp, near Ängelholm and Helsingborg. Tipifesten, I was told, is tent festival, but I think it translates more closely as teepee - the american indian style tent. Tältet is the word for a more convential tent. Anyway, it was a small festival with probably around 300 people. Very friendly. For some reason they were serving VB (Victoria Bitter) which was the beer of choice at university in Melbourne. Why it was here, no idea - as it's imported from Australia. But at 20sek (A$4) for a stubby (375ml glass bottle) why not?! Nevertheless, the highlight of the festival was of course seeing Babian play for the first time. Yes, they rock. And/or roll.

More later.

First trip

Greetings, all...

I just bought a ticket for Sweden this week. I'm excited. Now I've been there several times, but this time it's serious.

Thanks to the lovely weather that is Aberdeen I really need to get out of here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?world=0014

So I'm looking for a house. Something near Malmö, something small. Somewhere to put my stuff until I can sell my flat in the 'deen.