A couple of weeks ago we shared the good news that Simon finally got a job. One would think that everything would be a lot easier now and that we had no worries in the world but that’s not true. We’ve had endless discussion looking at our financial situation. Can we afford Simon taking the chance on this job given the inital investments needed to get started?

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I found an app called Oz Planner worth checking out. The app offers great ideas on where to go, what to do or where to stay in Australia. Be inspired by a range of journeys all over Australia and use maps to find a great range of tourism products. The Walkabout Planner application is packed with plenty of fantastic journey ideas and destination suggestions such as coastal, outback, nature, romantic adventure or food and wine.

Nicole Dinardo is a talented air brushing artists that does really nice designs on KitchenAid Mixer’s. Cool!

I read about something very cool the other day, the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. It’s a partnership with London Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Sydney Symphonyb and other leading institutions of the classical music world and in this event 101 musicians from 33 countries around the world will perfom alongside prominent international and Australian musicians. The 101 musicians (read more about them and listen to them HERE) have been selected after they submitted a video audition on YouTube and were selected by public vote to come to Australia to perform on the Sydney Opera House stage.

This is the second year this event take place, last year YouTube invited musicians to audition for the world’s first-ever collaborative online orchestra. Thousands of amateur and professional musicians from 73 countries submitted videos to YouTube. The public voted and in April, 2009, 96 artists made history when the YouTube Symphony Orchestra made its debut at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

This year’s event is hosted in the Sydney Opera House 14-20 March. The live event spans over 6 days and features 4 ensemble concerts and a finale gala event. If you happen to be in Sydney you can get tickets on Sydney Opera House’s website – HERE.

Just whipped up a batch of classic Swedish chocolate balls, politically incorrect referred to as Negerbollar (literally Negro balls). Calling them Negro or Nigger balls might sound racist to say the least but the name for this pastry came about in the 60′s when there weren’t many black people living in Sweden and I guess Swedes thought they were a bit exotic. The name was officially changed to chocolate balls in the 70′s when people got more educated but the name is still in use in less formal circumstances and whether or not the word negerboll should be used has been a subject of debate in news papers and blogs. Read more

Remember how I wrote about our love for Boost Juice a while ago – HERE. Well, we had a comment on that post from Boost Juice themselves today.

Maybe we should open a franchise store in Sweden, the direction to the one in Estonia seems a little tricky I mean. Plus it’s a bit far to go every time we have a boost juice craving.

We stopped for a little photo session on the way from the office to the hotel this evening. Even if it’s quite cold, no +17 degrees like in Valladolid and Madrid, it’s very beautiful. We’re staying at a hotel in the town of Iseo, Iseolago, which is located by Lake Iseo or Lago d’Iseo. I’m sure it’s absolutely beautiful here in summer. This time of the year it seem to be quite foggy and cold, but at least there is no snow and not as cold as in Sweden (was -20 when we left on Sunday). Been another busy day today and just having a couple of minutes to get ready for dinner. Even if it’s nice to be away like this I’m looking forward to getting home tomorrow night…..late tomorrow night!

I’m having a busy week with long days with meetings, discussions, product training and late dinners. Tiring but at the same time good of course. I’m at my hotel now in Italy ready to go to bed but just thought I post a little blog post before. I miss writing in the blog and I’ll have lots of blogs to catch up on reading when I get back too.

Since Spain have everything in Spanish or dub  their TV (tried watching 2 1/2 men the short 20 minutes I had left to myself yesterday and it was crap) I didn’t watch the news and therefore wasn’t aware of the earthquake that hit the southern island of New Zealand until Simon told me.

The earthquake measured 6.3 on the Richter magnitude scale and hit Christchurch on Tuesday at 1 pm local time. The town centre was packed with people at the time the quake struck. The cathedral was badly damaged and the Arts Centre and Telecom building have also suffered heavy damage. The death toll is already the second-highest in a New Zealand earthquake – outranked only by the 256 people who died in the violent 7.9 quake in 1931 in Hawke’s Bay.

I went to Christchurch back in 2009 (read about it HERE) and it’s a beautiful little city. Sad to see yet another proof of the damages Mother Nature can cause.

The beautiful cathedral in Christchurch has been badly damaged.

This is what the cathedral looked like when I was there.