Good to be back doing physical activities again, after a week of flu sickness. Biked 100 km's this morning around the Lake Mjörn together with Jörgen & Kristian. One of us got a bit tired and it wasn't me or the born biker Jörgen, but we had a nice time out there in cruising speed. Probably good for me to not push it to hard. Some rain, almost no wind and an OK arrangement. This was the last road bike trip for the season. Time to clean the bike and give it some oil & grease before winter storage. Good, now I've been writing it, so hopefully I will do it too.

Micke S called me from Bordeaux last night after completing the Medoc Marathon together with Monkan. He was over the top enthusiastic about the event and their extremely positive experience there. I mean, he's always very positive, but last night he was super duper euphoric. Perhaps they had made the most of the wine drinking part of the event. Yeah, he was for sure high on something more than endorphins. For me, having paid for a start number etc to this exclusive event (hard to get a place in Medoc), it made me feel really rotten to miss such an opportunity. Bad timing for me considering us having a baby around this time, so I just had to cancel it. I should be happy to have such an understanding wife, that allows me and supports me, doing lots of these activities otherwise. Don't push my luck!

So instead of a fantastic 4 days event in southwestern France with run, fun & sun, I've been biking in the rain around lake Mjörn. Nice contrast!

Tomorrow, we are going to my home village, Kvänum. It's an official return-back-home day for people like me, who grew up there and then have moved somewhere else. So the community, school, local companies, etc have organized lots of activities. It will be fun to see some old faces from the past and of course also visit Mum & Dad. Since we now are 6 in the family, we have a small problem going in the Volvo all of us. No, it's not an XC90 7-seater, only a tiny V50, soon to be upgraded to a V70. Still not big enough for all of us together. So, I decided to buy a van or minibus. Found one that we liked and made a quick deal and suddenly we are cruising around in a big Canadian Plymouth (Chrysler) Grand Voyager. Very spacious. Nellie likes it already and I'm sure that Elvira & Oliver will love it when they see it tomorrow morning. I got some scooby dooby doo feelings already tonight and I'm sure it will take us out for new adventures. It will be the Claesson clan's Mystery Machine. Watch out ...

10 days off from work for fathers to be around home after your new baby is born, is a fantastic benefit. Very Swedish and I must admit that I like it, because there are lots of small things to support with, especially when it's not the only child in the house. Anyhow, I have quite a relaxing time, still not free from the flu, so I can't do any training yet.

Jim is a very nice & clever boy (6 days old). After these 2 weeks at home, I hope that I have managed to teach him everything I know. Right now we are going through Assembler programming ...

School's out forever
School's out for summer
School's out with fever
School's out completely

School is NEVER out for me. During last nights parent meeting for Oliver's class, another parent/friend congratulated me to our newborn son and told me some interesting facts that I haven't really thought much about. In school new kids & parents come & go all the time, but I will keep coming back over and over again until long after I'm retired ... Still lots of parent meetings in school to attend. Hmmm... true and it's not really my favourite activity, even though it's very important to take part. Last night for example, we discussed the quality of the boiled potatoes during the first couple of weeks of the new school year. One mother expressed major worries, due to that her son's braces had gone loose, probably due to not properly cooked potatoes. My god, that's serious!! Hopefully I will be able to use my old wisdom to raise the level of discussions and importance of the topics over time. You get some distance to things by age and also by moving around here & there on this globe. There are for sure problems bigger than the potatoes at Öjersjö Storegård school.

I can't say that I've been especially active with involvement at Elvira & Oliver's school here in Öjersjö. The only thing that I'm proud of is that I managed to stop a bunch of parents in Elvira's class during her first year, who wanted the school to fill up a small pond next to the school yard, so their kids wouldn't get their clothes wet etc during playing there. I argued strongely against it and claimed that we should keep the natural environment as much as possible and that our kids need to get used to small dangers, before they move on bla bla bla. The nature up here is one of the main reasons why people live here, so why turn it into some concrete suburb.

I'm happy to still see that the pond still remains the same, almost 10 years later.

Totally knocked out today due to a very very strong cold/flu. I feel useless. I'm supposed to be home on parental leave to help Misia and get to know our little new family member, but I'm more of burden and can't really touch Jim, since I'm afraid that he's catching my flu.

I watched the football derby between IFK Göteborg and GAIS (0-1) on TV and I was astonished by the low level of entertainment. I haven't seen a Swedish league game for a long long time, instead I have followed the English premier league a lot during our time in Asia. What a difference!! The lack of professional attitude was so obvious at Ullevi. It felt like junior level football. You have to be a true fan of the winning team to get any pleasure from a game like this. Crap!

I feel a bit miserable due to my sick condition. Can't really do anything, but resting. No fun. Anyhow, I'm happy for our new little son. He's so perfect!