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Post walk picnic with the Aubrey and Stead clan

One year ago today, I broke my ankle when I took a tumble from the climbing wall and over the past couple of months, I’ve ticked off a number of experiences I hadn’t yet managed since then. Back in September, I made it around my first proper run: the Lidingöloppet 15 km, following this up last weekend with a chilly Höstrusket 10 km. In October, I finally made it back across the borders to the UK so I could give friends and family proper hugs, stock up on copious amounts of tea, and introduce Emil to real life versions of my parents and Tom. And this month, things have at last started to head in the right direction for my PhD as I was able to collect some data to work on; not quite Norway yet but southern Sweden will do for now!

Mum, Dad and Tom brunching at Vardo

The biggest of these three 2021 firsts for me is by far my trip back to the UK. Until now, a UK visit would have involved four covid tests and a 10-day quarantine at my parents, but luckily, from the end of September, the revised system meant that Emil and I would only need one test to get into the UK, no quarantining, and no tests on the way back, meaning an October trip wouldn’t break the bank. So, come 7^th October, I donned my mask and headed to Stockholm’s Arlanda airport to make the 2.5-hour flight over to Heathrow. It was so wonderful to finally see Mum and Dad in 3D, rather than through the little screen on my phone and it felt strangely normal to drive through Coleshill, where I’d spent the first 20 or so years of my life, and find very little had changed.

Portuguese dinner with Steve

After a relaxed Friday with my parents and a very speedy PCR test, we headed into London for a full family reunion and trip to the theatre. We started with a sunny outdoor brunch at Vardo (highly recommend), where we were joined by Tom to complete our little quartet, then strolled along the Thames to Above the Stag theatre in Vauxhall where we were to see ‘The Pleasure Gardens’, featuring the one and only Steve Watts. It was a great fun show and Uncle Steve put on a fantastic performance as the hermit, he then joined us for a bite of Portuguese food before returning to the theatre for the evening session.

Walk with the Aubrey's

We left Tom to return to his place in London but it wasn’t long until he was joining us again, out in Bucks this time, ready for us to celebrate him turning 30 (still can’t believe I have a 30 year old brother)! We started with a usual Watts-style treasure hunt, sending him to all corners of the house, then tried out a new Old Amersham restaurant for dinner, and early next morning hit the road to join Grandma and the Aubrey clan up in Lancashire. Of course, being a Friday, I was treated to a proper British experience, an M6 motorway closure leading to massive tailbacks on all surrounding roads, meaning what should be a 4-hour journey turned into a 7 hour crawl up the country. It didn’t matter once we were there though and could give Grandma a big hug, marvel over how much my ‘little’ cousins Josh and Sam had shot up, and enjoy being all nine of us together again. We spent a couple of days catching up, munching on birthday tea, a picnic and Chinese takeaway, and blowing away the cobwebs with a countryside walk.

Brunch at Lantana with Rachael, Steph and Emil

Back down in bucks, I caught up with Grandma Wendy, saw a few friends (unfortunately most are currently spread across the country, or the world!), slotted in a catch up/hair cut with Lisa and Simon, and enjoyed a relaxing few days at my parents. To finish off the trip, my Swedish and British worlds collided as Emil joined me for a few days, giving him his first English countryside experience and a quick trip to London to meet my uni friends and Tom. He’s now had the full tour of Coleshill and Amersham, including lunch from the Grocer (where I used to work), and Friday night take away from our local Indian restaurant (pretty much as British as it gets), and has finally met Mum, Dad and Tom – think he understands some of my oddities a bit better now! On our trip into London, we met up with Steph and Rachael for brunch, followed by a fantastic ‘Wizarding School’ (*cough*Harry Potter) escape room and dinner, along with Steph’s boyfriend Elliot, at a Japanese restaurant called Shack Fuyu where they serve scrumptious matcha French toast. That evening we headed over to Tom’s place to stay with him, ready for a day of brunch, the British Museum, and Hamilton (great musical!) the following day. Back at my parents, we rounded off our trip with a chilled day gathering up British produce, for Emil a trip in the Morgan, and one of Mum’s delicious roast lamb dinners. Early the next morning we were dropped at Heathrow to return to our Swedish world.

Steffan, Christofer, Linn, Emil and I
(Siv behind the Camera), having dinner at Tako.

Over here, plenty has been going on too. Before my UK trip, we had a visit from Emil’s family for a fantastic, food filled weekend; this was the last opportunity to meet up with Emil’s sister Linn before she was too pregnant to travel. Now, next weekend we’ll be seeing them all again, but this time with an addition as two weeks ago Linn and Christofer had a little boy, Hugo, so we’re all heading over to Gothenburg to meet him.

Beyond meeting Emil’s family, we’ve also seen a fair amount of Felicity and Thomas as I ran the Lidingöloppet, around the island of Lidingö, with Felicity and we all did the Höstrusket 10 km together, followed by dinner at my place last weekend. At work, we had our first PhD social since the start of the pandemic, kicking off with a halloween party which involved creating latex wounds and running up and down the department for a very energetic treasure hunt, which our team won. As well as social events,

Me, Emil, Felicity, Thomas and his friend at Höstrusket

work has also picked up on the research front. Soon after my return from the UK, my old supervisor Benny, a Masters student called Martin, and I drove 6 hours south down to Blekinge to spend three days collecting ground penetrating radar data down there, meaning I finally have something new to work on. During our first day of surveying, on the way down, the heavens opened and both us and the equipment got absolutely drenched. Luckily the airbnb we were staying at, our on a tiny coastal peninsular, had a decent drying room so we didnät have to spend the next two days in wet boots, however this still wasn’t quite enough for all of he equipment and the following day one of the radar antennas we were using broke (I’m convinced I’m cursed!). Despite this, it was a successful, if exhausting, trip and we hope to head south again sometime soon to gather some more data to form the 3^rd of my 4 PhD papers.

So, it seems the diary is filling up again and given how fast time is slipping by, it won’t be long until I’m (fingers crossed) back in England ready for Christmas! In the meantime, Emil and I are spending our free time hunting down an apartment to move to together, we’re making a return to the climbing walls and taking our green cards so we can climb with ropes – hopefully avoiding any more broken bones, and we’re making the most of having Eva and Nelson around before they disappear off to Zurich and Paris in the new year.