Day 1

Melbourne to Singapore; 2 movies, 3 television shows, 7 hours. Arrived in Singapore at 12am Melbourne time. Killed 2 hours watching yet another movie at the Singapore airport movie theatre. Boarded at 3am, take off shortly after 4am, sleep about 4.01am.

Slept for 8 hours and woke up around 3am Sweden time. 4 hours of trying (unsuccessfully) to get more sleep before landing in Copenhagen at 7.15am. Met a guy called Andreas who was on his way home to Denmark after spending the past 7 months studying, then travelling in Australia. Will give him a call when I make it down to Copenhagen. Stop in at the bathroom to put some thermals on under my pants.

Train to Landskrona, arrive around 9.40am. Met by Niklas Olassen at the train station. His car tells us it’s -8 degrees outside. Drop bags off at apartment and head out to get a bite to eat (decided to give breakfast a miss on the plane). Bottle of coke and ham/cheese/tomato/lettuce roll make the tummy less rumbly. Walk into town and pick up some essentials (bread, milk and butter) from the local City Gross supermarket. Sun’s out and there’s no wind – can’t get over how quiet it is.

Lunch at Niklas’ house with wife Lotte and sons Ludvig (8) and Gustav (2). Swedish meatballs with lingenberry jam and steamed potatoes. Tasted almost exactly like the ones you get from IKEA – but better. Beautiful house in a little town called Ekeby, about 20 minutes from Landskrona.

Head back to the apartment, taking the scenic route to see some more of the country side. Snow everywhere. I’m told it’s very unusual to have so much snow this time of year. Back at apartment, spend 30 minutes unsuccessfully trying to get PVR to work with TV in room. Head back to City Gross to pick up some more supplies – cordial, spaghetti, Dolmio pasta sauce, grated parmesan cheese, bag of corn chips, breakfast cereal (Kalas Puffar, honey puffs) and can of apricot halves (turns out they’re actually peach halves, I was really tired!). Cooked up pasta, had a shower, then watched a movie.

9pm – Skype with Jodie! Oh, the wonders of technology. Talk for about an hour before turning in.

Made it to 10.30pm – good stuff.