This was supposed to be my last weekend in Stockholm, so the usual suspects were planning to come over for a farewell tour... only it turned out to be farewell to Chris and Shankar rather than me! But no matter, Nat, Steve and John booked their flights anyway, even if John did manage to book his to arrive rather than depart at 10am. Muppet So he turned up at my office around 11.30 at which point I thought it time to go native once again and go for lunch (why do the Swedes eat so early?). Nat arrived at Central Station around 4, although sadly without Steve who had had to work on Friday after all. But as a bonus, she brought me 2 bottles of Pimms to add to the vodka that John had brought ... read more

For ages, my friend/colleague Sara and I have been talking about having a night out together. Well, this weekend it finally happened! She got together a bunch of her friends and threw me into the mix... Which all worked beautifully. Pre-drinks at her rather nice apartment in Gärdet in the north east of town (pre-drinks are something of a Swedish custom as it works out rather cheaper than paying bar/club prices all evening), then out to Le Bon Palais, a club near Norra Bantorget. The club wasn’t anything to write home about, although Linda and I nearly got wiped out by one woman who did a Del Boy and toppled over like a felled tree, straight into us! Most amusing. We headed on to Collage where we met Bhavik, one of the expat organisers, who expressed ... read more

There is a strange phenomenon lurking in a quiet street in middle class Stockholm... A restaurant/bar/club known as Cliff Barnes. For those who don't understand the reference, our Cliff was the arch rival of JR in that piece of 80s TV history known as url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn8YuDqFo6o&feature=PlayList&p=CF988E26A7B8073D&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=20Dallas. In the early evening, it is an unassuming restaurant. But come 11pm, the lights go down, the theme tune comes on (bizarrely sometimes that of Baywatch, but who's arguing?) and the place goes wild, all under the steely gaze of Cliff himself. There are 2 rules in Cliff Barnes - no dancing on the tables (windowsills are fair game) and no opening of the windows... Once you've been, you'll never look back ... read more

Having not been back to the UK since June, August was to feature not one but two visits home. One for friends (including Keith and Karen who couldn't make the second one and who really count as both), the other for family. First up, friends To summarise: ~ Friday night pizza with Keith and Karen - we failed to get Pizza Express to answer the phone so ended up going to the restaurant instead and were duly entertained by the local chavs in their "finery", tottering off to a night on the tarn ~ Saturday morning Nat shows up on her gorgeous new GSXR-750 (in black, natch), I fire up the green Ninja and we head for the open road ~ lovely sunny outdoor lunch at The Bear in Oxshott, providing much amusement for the twin ... read more

Emboldened by the success of our first foray out of Stockholm, Rachel and I set off on our next adventure - a 4-day road trip around southern Sweden. I give full credit to Rachel for the excellent planning - all I did was organise 2 days off and book the car! And even that was simply asking one of the guys in the office to sort it out for me... the benefits of working for a travel company Friday Stockholm - Västervik - Oskarshamn Early on Friday afternoon I snuck out of the office and headed towards Medborgarplatsen to pick up our wheels. A quick pitstop for sushi and then to the rental office where I was told that they didn't have the car I'd ordered so would I mind taking a larger model.... Well, OK ... read more