Beach day, van stadens PE

Lovely day on the beach

Cricket, South Africa - New Zealand

Swapped boxing day bandy for cricket. South Africa won against New Zealand and was happy to hear that Bollnäs also won the derby against Edsbyn back home.

Christmas in Port Elizabeth

Kayaking in Strand

My Swedish friend Nisse came out to Strand from Cape Town to join me this lovely afternoon on the sea. Tried some wave surfing with kayak and flipped over, but all good fun...

Concentration camp at Kleine Zalze, Stellenbosch

Moved in to one of the fancy wine farms with my supervisor for the week to concentrate on finishing my PhD. My goal is to submit 3 papers by Sunday. Wish me luck...

Home made pasta at Ann&Shaun, Johannesburg

Year end function, Serene's dance studio, Strand

Long weekend - Wild Coast

Instead of enjoying the ocean, water park and other sports, I can only enjoy the view from the room where I am medicating to get rid of a bad flu :(

Garage Computing - Potchefstroem

At North West University with our partner universities in the North-South-South programme and very interesting to see/hear how differently people view a garage in different contexts. The exercise is to introduce a new Buzz word for new great ideas for future activities and collaboration.

A day in Nairobi - Kenya

On My way back from Eldoret I had a day in Nairobi where I first met up with my old friend Kat from my early days in rural Tanzania, then I took the programmers for some Nyama Choma (BBQ) to celebrate their good work with the game development. Finally in evening I went to meet my sister Deborah and her boyfriend Etienne where also they had a Nyama Choma for me. Now almost 2 in the night and about to board a flight back to South Africa.

Invitations, Eldoret, Kenya

James who is a good friend of my father and a pastor for a big church here in Eldoret showed me around a bit today in the afternoon. With his new car we visited his old house in the slum, the huge church he had built and thereafter we rounded up for a dinner in his nice new house. He made sure I got chicken as that is what he was always served in my parents home when he visited Sweden. Chicken was served with Ugali and cabbage.

Yesterday I was invited to my colleague Julius place where Chicken and rice was on the menu. He had a nice tradition of eating from the same plate with his girlfriend. Always nice to visit peoples homes as you get a better connection with the life and culture of a place.

Working the night shift, Nairobi

Met up with my sister Debbie at her horse jumping competition this afternoon and borrowed her car to take my Finnish Colleague Ville to Nairobi national park. At the moment Ville (and I) are working with students from Chepkoilel University on developing an educational forestry game for android tablets.

Jordan wine estate

A five star meal with Andrés, Paula and his parents.

Caledon hot springs, South Africa

Me and Heidi went to Caledon for the weekend to enjoy the hot springs there. With the hot pools it did not matter that the weather wasn't that great. They pumped the water from the springs into a highly located pool that was 44 degrees (too hot), as the water from one pool filled up the next the other pools gradually decreased in temperature (40, 38, 34 and 28). A truly enjoyable weekend where we also did an hour of horse riding.

Testing my new kayak, Strand

Kleinmond/Hermanus

Did a Coastal drive along the whale coast but the only whale we saw was here in Gordons bay only few km from where we stay in Strand. Since the whales were hiding at the world famous whale spotting town Hermanus, we instead went to Arabella's in Kleinmond where we enjoyed some sauna and spa treatments.

Crayfish party, Bollnäs

Now I start to feel ready for heading south again as I even got my share of this nice old Swedish tradition.

Mushroom cooking at Vanamokatu

Erkki exposed some unknown skills with his vast mushroom knowledge.

Sutinen's family rules

Engine swop

After a nice team work between father and son we managed to swop engines on the lawnmower. My sister got a new one with a faulty engine and an old one that had numerous other problems.

Family reunion, Bollnäs

This weekend we are having a family reunion where my fathers six siblings and many of my cousins and their children have gathered to further strengthen our already strong family ties.  Nice to catch up with all the relatives and especially those who I have not met in many years.

La familia, Bollnäs

Sister Debbie arrived in Bollnäs tonight, since it is not often we all come together Tobias was asked to take some pictures of us.

Åland, Finland

Took the ferry over to Åland after an invite from my old classmate Samuel. Was nice to meet him and his family , I also got to meet my other classmate from Åland - Lucas and his family. One of the highlights was to explore some of the islands by bicycle.

Curry feast ala Heidi, Bollnäs

3 different curries on the menu where my task was to make the rotis.

Visit to Debbie's forest plot

Went to visit Debora's piece of land far out in the Swedish forest. While me and my dad was preparing the boat with some tar paint, Heidi and my mother was picking blueberries. On the way there we stopped for some food with a view in Orbaden.

Lars-Axel 65, Edsbyn

Crashed my uncle Lars-Axel's 65th birthday party where I got to meet some family members that I have not met in a long time. I have always been told that I look like Lars-Axel but I can't really see the resemblance myself but judge yourself from the picture in upper right corner? Before that I went swimming with my siblings and afterwards in the evening we had a barbecue at my sisters cottage in Alfta.

ABBA concert, Durban

A Swedish band to be proud of when even poor copies can still fill up big concert halls for weeks in far away places such as Durban.

Up with the sun, Durban

In Durban where Heidi is teaching at the universities this week. Glad we got up with the sun this morning to enjoy the lovely sun rise. Despite the early hour surfers were already out facing the waves. There is a film festival happening in town and yesterday evening we went to see Nairobi half life which was quite a good movie for being produced with a low budget.

Ajax CT-Manchester United

Big game in town today so challenged the weather to check it out. Ajax did good and stood up well against one of the best teams in the world. Things got really exciting when Ajax scored with less than 10 min left of the game but as usual the big team got out of it somehow. United did not play the full A-squad, but a least few familiar stars such as Berbatov, Ferdinand, Scholes and Chicharito.

Moulin Rouge, Franschhoek

Moulin Rouge show at the Roca restaurant in Franschhoek where we had a lovely 5 course meal while being entertained by dancing ladies in feathers.

Ever heard of a fog harvester?

Doubt they manage to harvest that much water from it though.

Goedgedacht Farm and Stellenbosch

Started the day with taking of to Goedgedacht Farm where Johannes Cronje is keeping his research group for academic writing this week. In the evening I joined Heidi for her opening of the training she organized this week at Stellenbosch University.

Crazy braai in Somerset West

I took charge over the fire making process which I did really well if I may say it myself. Heidi's  colleague Susanna made some very nice German  Glühwein. All in all a fun but somewhat crazy evening...

Short visit to Dar es Salaam

Managed to squeeze in a short visit to Dar es Salaam where I got to meet most of my close friends living there. On Saturday evening I shared 3 kilo of pork (kiti moto) with Victor, Christian and George, I also managed to meet up with my Swedish friend Anders. On the Sunday I briefly met up with Ebenezer and Big Mike, I also got to see Christian's piece of land where he has started constructing a house. The house looked fairly big to me and even had a 'Marcus room' but was referred to as the servant quarter as he has big plans for the future on that land...

Arusha, Tanzania

Midsummer or rather midwinter is celebrated with my sister Debbie in Arusha where she is attending a horse riding competition. She just won one of the dressage classes so guess she is quite good at the silly walks with horse kind of sport, guess this is what inspired John Cleese in the monty python. Staying at a lovely place with some semi wild animals such as the Eland that started flirting with my sister. A very eventful day so far :)

Nyama choma

Took the game developers for some Kenyan meat feast. 3 kilo of goat meat and still felt like we run a bit short...

Visit to home of champions, Kenya

From a surprisingly small area in Kenya most of their world class runners has derived. 2400m above sea level on the edge of the rift valley lays the village Iten with beautiful views overlooking the Kerio valley. This site brings runners from all over the world to come and figure out the secret behind the Kenyan success story. Dr Balozi from Chepkoilel University was kind enough to show me around in the neighborhoods of Eldoret. The town of Eldoret is apparently growing at a very fast phase and I was told that most of the new multistory buildings popping up in the city are owned by successful runners.

Eldoret, Kenya

Quite warm so might try the pool for the first time since arrival. Otherwise nice to be back to the home country of my childhood. The work at Chepkoilel University has been going well so far.

Debbie and Etienne, Nairobi

 I met up with my sister with boyfriend in Nairobi yesterday on my way to Eldoret. It was nice to see them and her new house in Karen, I also got to see her four horses which she would not allow me to ride... They took me out for a belayed birthday dinner at a nice place where they even brew their own beer. On my way to Eldoret today I got stuck at the airport for 6 hours as an Egypt Air plane had somehow missed the runway ending up blocking the only runway forever... As far as I understood there was at least no one injured. Once arriving in Eldoret I was taken to the hotel by someone from Moi University, due to the late arrival I did not get to visit the university today.

Birthday in Botlierskop, Mossel Bay

Heidi took me for a real birthday treat over the weekend to Botlierskop Game Reserve. We stayed in a luxury tent and enjoyed a lot of fun activities: game drive, helicopter ride, horse ride, tennis, canoeing and excellent food. A very memorable birthday - THANKS A LOT HEIDI!

Yummy

It took almost 36 years but nowadays I have learned to enjoy the Japanese cuisine. 

Beach walk, Strand

Weekend in Port Elizabeth

Angels and Rennans wedding, Oliana, Spain

Rock "Climbing" Oliana

Rennan took us for some serious adventure the day before his wedding. Apparently it is called 'via ferrata' and is a softer version of rock climbing but thrilling enough for a rookie like me... For more info check  link1 or link2

1st day in Spain

Arrived late night in Barcelona and stayed first night in a hotel in Barcelona. Yesterday we drove to Tarragona and made some stops along the way. We had some lovely tapas in Sitges and made a stop also in El Roc de Sant Gaieta. In Tarragona I explored the old city while Heidi was doing some shopping while waiting for Angels to finish her work. Angels seemed quite relaxed about the upcoming wedding and in the evening we went to watch the Chelsea-Barcelona game which Barcelona unfortunately lost.

Eventful day in Bollnäs

Making a short visit back home in Sweden and today we did some biking and went to check out a car exhibition. We were also invited for a delicious dinner at Toni's place where my sister Maria and her husband Henrik also showed up for the later part of the evening.

Heading for Pretoria using the Gautrain