Being a hopelessly offline person, writing a blog is not something my colleagues and friends would guess me for doing while on sabbatical. But my co-workers and students sounded enthusiastic when I mentioned my plans to them. Maybe they thought that this would enhance my online personality and they could get some information about our stay other then through my husband’s Facebook. Or maybe being updated on what I am up to makes the distance between Australia and Sweden feel a bit less. It does for me.

This is not a private blog, but it is not strictly professional either. I think that has to do with my subject area: parenting research. The nice thing is that I can carry a conversation about my research with just about anyone – no prior knowledge on rats, stem cells, astrophysics, or linguistics is required. The drawback is that, while anyone can express an opinion on the subject, a researcher is bound by evidence and what we know to be true today. There are of course, many truths when it comes to parenting and they change over cultures and time. Being a parent I know that parenting is so much easier in theory than in practice so I have no illusions of anyone – except hypocrites and liars – being perfect parents. I certainly am not! Luckily, kids don’t need perfect parents, they need parents who can keep to a couple of basic rules and keep doing their best. In any case, I will share both professional and personal thoughts and try to make an effort to keep them apart.

The second leg of the 23 -hour flight we flew “triple first class”, lying down on a row each. So the first evening we were fit enough to go out and have Mexican food on the corner. That says quite a lot about Melbourne, one of the best food places in the world. We then forgot to put on the heaters so Melbourne winter gave us a chill at night. However, when winter means 15 degrees and sun midday, and a bit of a chill in the wind, we still can’t help, but laugh.