Tastebud : Hot Sweet Thai Wok

11 March 2020

Thai food for lunch - pad guay teow i.e. stir-fried egg noodles with chicken, at Hot Sweet Thai Wok. Lunch offer for SEK95 that includes miso soup, soft drink, coffee or tea. It is a big portion of noodles. The salad was not very appetizing but I ate it anyway. It is edible. 

Tastebud : Grill

9 March 2020

Team dinner at Grill! Very colourful interior design - we were seated in the 'library' section, so we were surrounded by books. The section next to us was 'circus'. I love team dinner because it means, the food is not paid by me. Yahoo!

For drinks, I had mocktail - brooks ale (lemon, elder flower and ginger taste). There were lots of ice, so the drink is obviously very cold. SEK58.

For the main dish, I had lamb with pearl onions and bundled carrots (in Swedish, this is called knippmorötter and it means carrots sold in bunches and straight out of the ground to indicate freshness. Well, aren't all carrots straight out of the ground? Or maybe they have a green house somewhere and the carrots are freshly pulled right before cooking?). It is served with rouille (sauce that consists of olive oil with breadcrumbs, garlic, saffron and cayenne pepper) and potato gratin. SEK320. I think it is expensive because the lamb portion is small. I was full mostly from the potato gratin!

Hike from Edsbro Centrum to Grindstugan (Rimbo)

8 March 2020

Happy International Women's Day! I celebrate this day by signing up for a hiking activity to train my legs. My legs have not had sufficient exercise since last summer. Well, that is mostly because I am not a fan of walking in the cold. Not much of help especially when I am eating and not exercising as much.

Today's hike is from Edsbro Centrum to Grindstugan in Rimbo. We took the bus 676 at 8:10am from Tekniska Högskolan and switched in Söderhall Trafikplats to bus 639 at 8:50am to Edsbro Centrum direction towards Hallstavik. We arrived at Edsbro Centrum at 9:27am. Yes, I woke up at 6:30am for this hike. Just 30 minutes later than my usual workday. We took the 3:41pm bus from Grindstugan bus stop and alighted at Tekniska Högskolan at around 5pm. 

It was a muddy hike as we walked through farm roads. My pants were so muddy. Well, it was the muddiest among all, and I wondered if my footsteps have problems. We went off the trail occasionally because our organiser enjoys doing that and this time, I got slapped only once by the branch. Phew. The distance was not recorded so we were unsure of the distance, although I guess it is probably around 20km. 

Tastebud : Wang Sushi and Dumplings

5 March 2020

Today, I had lunch at Wang Asia. I do not usually buy lunch during workdays as I bring my lunchbox from home. This is my first time in this Chinese restaurant that serves a mixture of Japanese, Thai, Korean and Chinese meal. I had a salmon poke bowl for SEK120. It has salmon, mango, salad, avocado and rice underneath. Miso soup, coffee and tea is complimentary.

I felt healthy that day. Haha!

Getting my driving license

This year, I decided to get a driving license. Although the public system here is very reliable, I decided that with a driving license, I am able to drive out of Stockholm or anywhere in Europe. I have heard how expensive it is to get a driving license here. Some paid close to SEK60K or some as low as SEK20K, so I decided to be financially secured before I could invest in a driving license.

Here is a summarised version of a driving license application:

1) Decide if you want a driving instructor from a driving school or your personal instructor (family of friends that have to go to a Tutor Course for 3 hours and be approved)

2) If go for driving school's instructor --> buy the driving course package. Very easy. 

3) If personal instructor:

a) Go for Introduction (tutor course) with personal instructor. If instructor has taken the course, you go alone. A registered personal instructor has a 5 year validity to teach students. 

b) School registers your name and personal instructor's name in Swedish Traffic Administration (Trafikverket) system 

c) Do eyesight test in a traffic school or optician. Get the eyesight results. Post to Trafikverket. 

d) Do health declaration on the same system 

e) Personal instructor includes your ID number in Trafikverket system that you are the student

f) Wait for approval letter from Trafikverket (for both student and personal instructor) 

g) Obtain approval letter  after about a week. Student has 5 years of driving probation period.  

h) Start driving lessons  

i) Do Riskettan (Risk 1) course. Compulsory to pass.

j) Do Halkbana - Risk 2 (Skid pad) i.e. driving on slippery roads. The tyres of the car are specially made to stimulate slippery roads. Compulsory to pass.

k) Register for driving test - Theory and Practical

l) Obtain driving license.

I googled up a few traffic schools and chose St. Göran Trafikskola as it is close by. 

The school offers a driving course that costs SEK13 200 that include 10 driving lessons (1 hour and 40 minutes each), driving books and an eyesight test. Or you can buy them individually which I did. 

For individual options, a driving lesson costs SEK1 290 (if you choose to have a private instructor, you can take this when you are confident enough to drive and would like to ensure that you are in line with the driving rules here), an eyesight tests costs SEK100 (this is the cheapest. Optical shops offer this service for at least SEK150), 2 driving books (theory test and for practical driving) for SEK500 (I bought 6 books (theory, questions for students, road signs) from Blockett for SEK300 - scroll down to see the photo. They are not the same books but they have the same function. There are a few publishers with different types of driving books.)

Tastebud : Hongkist

5 March 2020

Today's dinner is courtesy of my colleague - Hongkist! They serve Hong Kong food. The food we had were so tasty!

For starters, we had chicken dumplings SEK74, prawn toast with sesame seed and mayonnaise SEK79. I thought it would be similar as the prawn salad that we have in Stockholm but it was mashed potato meat and fried with sesame seed. 

For main dish, we had duck in plum sauce SEK179 (this is so good! And it is not those typical fried duck meat that they serve in most Chinese restaurants in Stockholm), Szechuan beef with vegetables SEK149 and Singapore fried rice noodles with vegetables SEK135. They come with rice. 

For dessert, I took passion fruit mochi (Ice-cream wrapped in a sweetened rice confection) SEK39.

Tastebud : La Pasta Veloce

4 March 2020

Today's dinner is at La Pesto Veloce in Westfield Mall of Scandinavia. I saw that this restaurant won a sort of best service in the mall. I had pasta gamberetti (gamberetti means shrimp in italian - just googled) for SEK134. It is tagliatelle with shrimps, tomatoes, zucchini, onion and chilli (not spicy at all). It is a huge portion and I was so stuffed by half plate!

Car wash

1 March 2020

I went to a car wash in a petrol station. There are very rare manual car wash. I concluded because it is too cold and also manual car wash is expensive. Most of the car washes are indoor and automated. In Malaysia, I prefer the manual car wash because it is thorough and cheaper too. 

We went to Circle K and bought a standard car wash for SEK189 - wash and dry. We got a wash code to key inside a machine and the wash starts. It took about 15 minutes for a car wash.

The verdict - still dirty although not as dirty as before the car wash. So, make sure that your car is really dirty before you go for a car wash.