There was an article in The Local today about how to move an elderly parent to Sweden to live with you, but when I read it, the article was basically, “it’s really hard, the criteria is ridiculous, you have no chance”. I’d love to get my mom to move over here, but realistically, it’s such a long shot. You can get 1-year visas, but I doubt she’d go for that. She has all her stuff and her place and she IS closer to Sarah by a huge amount, so. But still, it’d be nice.
She and Sarah are going to Michigan for 2 weeks at the beginning of September and I have to admit, I’m envious. I didn’t realize when she moved away from there that I’d miss it so much. I mean, I’ve gone years before without going home, but now it’s sort of permanent. I don’t really have any easy way to get to Michigan now, and no incentive really either, since my mom isn’t there anymore, nor my grandma. I still have friends and lots of relatives in Michigan, but the chances of my getting back there are pretty remote.
We are trying to figure out if we can work out going down to my brother’s over Christmas. Anders has to see if he is able to get away, and then Martin has to be able to take the week off. Karin will be (as of now) in St. Anton for another ski season which is only 1.5 hours over the Austria border from my brother so we’d hopefully be able to see her for at least a day. Going another 5-6 months without seeing her is not appealing, so I hope we can make this work.
I’m actually going to London the day after tomorrow. It came up rather unexpectedly. Becky had told me months ago that she was going to be coming to Europe with her in-laws for a couple of weeks during the summer and would send me her schedule, but then she forgot, and I forgot, and when she finally remembered to send it, it was a week before she was arriving. They went to Amsterdam for a week, then Bruges for the weekend, and are now in London until Sunday. If I had had the dates/places back when she told me, I could probably have met up with them for longer and planned it into my vacation. I couldn’t go to Amsterdam as the dates were all work-week, and I couldn’t get away, but I’m taking the afternoon off on Friday, flying to London and will come home on Sunday (when they leave to return to the States).
Since she lives in Oregon, our being able to get together over the years has been very infrequent. I saw her when I was in Seattle in 2019, and she was here for a long weekend in 2018. This London trip will be the 14th time that we’ve managed to see each other in person in the years since 9th grade in The Netherlands at AFcent.
So, I’m thrilled, and I’ll also get to meet her in-laws who she has raved about since meeting and marrying Pete. Unfortunately, Pete couldn’t get away from work, but I will get to meet his brother, too. The only bummer part is that the trains are striking in London, so getting from Gatwick in to Knightsbridge is going to be more complicated than expected, but I’m sure it will work out. I have no idea if there are plans for Saturday or if we’re just going to hang out or what, but I’ll get to do whatever it is with Becky, so it doesn’t really matter!
Mood: excited
Music: Elton John—Tiny Dancer
They had a bus strike once while we were in Sydney. Instead of not running the buses, they ran them like normal but didn’t charge anyone any money when they got on. I thought it was the perfect way to do it – they certainly had the support of the passengers anyway. 😉
-Russell
Ha! That’s awesome. This is trains, and I was told they are doing the strikes intermittently, without warning at different times, and across different train lines. Plus I think you have to purchase tickets in advance so the Australia idea wouldn’t work.