The perils of sleeping too long

Posted on January 14, 2025 by Gary

I am forever complaining about not getting enough sleep. I try to get to bed between 9pm and 10pm and generally wake up at 5am the next morning. The early rising is not a choice. Some sort of rubbish inner alarm clock wakes me up.

It’s an odd transition because, back when I was the sort of person who spent a goodly amount of time gallivanting about in the midnight hours, I was most definitely a night owl. Then, for ageing reasons, I switched. The problem was, I was still a bit of a night owl and the two clashed over the time difference.

Thus, I became someone who regularly complained about being tired.

Last night, I was so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open so, at 9pm I declared I was going to bed and did not want to be woken up. Ever. I was asleep so fast I almost didn’t make it into bed.

I first woke up at 8:30am and felt like crap. Lukas, the electrician, was outside, fixing new lights to the outside of the house. He was making enough noise to wake the dead. It was like an awful alarm clock. And I was the corpse.

I made a coffee and went back to bed to write my blog post. I then made a second coffee which I drank with Mirinda looking out of the glass room windows at the slowly melting snow. The temperature had risen enough to reduce a lot of the white blanket to mush with patches of ice.

After a bit, I started feeling a bit off. I told Mirinda I was going back to bed. I was woozy, my tummy felt like it was floating, gyroscopically, in oil, and I had a headache. Worst still, I couldn’t finish my coffee. This latter is a clear indication that I’m not feeling myself.

I took myself back to bed and, fitfully, slept. I didn’t re-emerge from the bedroom until around 2pm. I still didn’t feel the best, but I was, slightly better. Also, Lukas had finished putting the lights on the outside of the house, which will be a vast improvement.

I declared that this was the last time I’ll be sleeping in. It’s clearly bad for me.

Mirinda said I was an idiot. Getting enough sleep, she claimed, would not make me feel worse. I said the evidence was obviously on my side. Though, I guess, it could be because we ate vegetarian last night. Could a lack of meat be responsible?

I was still feeling a bit off when it came time for dinner, so I didn’t have any. However, I did make Mirinda griddled tuna with pak choi.

To be fair, I did have a bowl of grit so Mirinda wouldn’t feel weird eating on her own.

We listened to the Talking Newspaper magazine and my latest Letter from Sweden before heading back to the lounge room to await Fi’s return from Uppsala. Which she did, at around 8:19pm. She’d had a lovely time with Jason and was full of stories, photographs and copious amounts of meat.

I tried to go to bed early, but it didn’t happen. Tomorrow it will all start again. Hopefully with a little less sleep.

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Biting off snowballs

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Gary

Outside the ICA in Trosa, there are three very handy benches. They have been placed, very handily, just off the car park, ready to receive bottoms that are waiting for a pickup or simply resting before heading home. They are also very handy if one has to take off and/or replace the spikes on one’s shoes. Except there is one thing that makes this latter very precarious. After a few days, the benches are surrounded by ice.

The grit helps but, essentially, when I’m done with my shopping and need to replace my spikes (I know, I know, it’s because I grew up in Australia and can’t retain my balance walking on ice like native Swedes can), I take my life and limbs into my own hands.

Actually, I don’t. A while ago I realised it was lethal and, instead, managed to balance on a giant, concrete ear of corn that sits almost under the shop awning. This is very wobbly but, there’s little ice around it. I’m sure it looks very funny but, it’s an essential part of my winter shopping.

Today, as I sat and balanced on the nobbly ear, I noticed an ice free area, not far from me. It crossed my mind that it would be an idea place for a bench where people, like me, could put their spikes on quite happily.

The spot is just by the supermarket entrance and would mean an easy entrance and exit without fear of falling.

I guess it’s not something people who can walk upright on ice really consider. It’s understandable. In Australia, for instance, people aren’t warned about bindies, drop bears*, snakes, spiders or hot sand; it’s considered common knowledge.

Anyway, I’m not really complaining. I enjoy shopping at ICA and the staff are always happy, and friendly first thing in the morning. It’s all just something I thought about this morning.

Back at home, Lukas returned to finish a few electrical things left over from last week. By lunchtime, he hadn’t quite finished but had another job to rush off to, which means he’ll be back tomorrow to finish properly.

Unfortunately, the heat pump in the stuga didn’t suddenly spring back into life. Lukas gave us the name of a company in Vagnharad and I contacted them to see if someone could come out and warm the place up for us.

I had a very quick response from a chap who actually started his email, “G’day Gary…“. I don’t think I know him but it seems a bit odd that someone would address me in such an Australian fashion. Maybe he read the article in the paper. I’ll probably never know.

Anyway, he assured me that an engineer would be in touch to arrange a time to come out. I waited for the rest of the day. I was never contacted. Hopefully tomorrow.

In the meanwhilst, Mirinda took the girls for a snowy walk around Mount Trosa. Emma kept collecting snow balls on her legs, which had her stopping and chewing them off. She prefers biting them off to someone helping her with snowball removal.

She continued biting them off in the kitchen upon their return.

Her season has finished, by the way. She’s back to her normal self.

Also, Fi headed off to Uppsala this morning for a couple of days away with Jason.

* Actually, foreigners are often warned about drop bears but, unfortunately, few take heed.

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Greek night

Posted on January 12, 2025 by Gary

Today was mostly about cooking. I promised Mirinda moussaka so, from about 3pm I was ensconced in the kitchen, busy with preparation and cooking. It’s a good job I enjoy it. And it was a good job. According to Mirinda, it was one of my best. I have to say it certainly sliced up beautifully.

Mirinda also commented on how attractive the slices of aubergine were, spread out under salt on the kitchen trolley. They tasted good, too, after being fried a bit.

Just before I started cooking, and in a fruitless search of the TV, looking for snooker, I managed to find some ice hockey. Of course, now I know what I’m watching, it’s all a lot more enjoyable. Thank you, Jonas.

The game was between MoDo and Frölunda women. MoDo won 4-1. Sadly, there was hardly anyone in the stadium.

In the meanwhilst, Mirinda and Fi didn’t attend KSP’s gympa class.

In the morning, it being so beautiful, they took a very long walk to the Baltic and brunch before coming back to writing and Skyping. Mirinda was working on her wolf essay while Fi did a bit more catching up on her travel diary, the contents of which are top secret. Mirinda then had a long awaited and often postponed, Skype call with Sophie.

Looking back

Back in 2011, I bought a new pair of hiking boots. I am still wearing them. They are an excellent pair of boots. Mind you, they don’t look quite the same as the day I bought them.

I generally wear them when I take the girls for a walk in the woods. Like reliable old work horses, they happily wait till they’re needed then drift back into a deserved slumber.

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Ice hockey education

Posted on January 11, 2025 by Gary

Ice hockey is an extraordinary sport. Fast and furious, seemingly with no rules, it flashes past like lightning. Unlike football, it flows. Unlike football, no one falls over for no reason. I think they’d be sliced by skates if they did. Tonight we attended the Södertälje SK home game against Tingsryd AIF, and the Scaniarinken was buzzing with fan energy.

We have been wanting to see an ice hockey game for ages and, earlier this week, Jonas messaged to ask if we’d like to attend the game this weekend. I didn’t have to ask Mirinda; I knew what the answer would be. So, tonight, we all joined the long queues outside to enter the stadium. According to KSP, when she was in Canada last year, they waited inside at ice hockey games.

There was a brief moment of despair as both Mirinda and Fiona were turned away by security for having bags but this merely gave me a chance to buy a beanie while they returned to the car and then trudged back through the snow. It didn’t upset the mounting excitement. KSP reckons it was almost as mounting as when she was in Canada last year.

Södertälje Sportklubb is celebrating its 100-year anniversary this year and tonight was an extra special event. As we made our way down to our seats, our way was halted when a massive painted tarp was unfurled, covering the heads of everyone in our bank of seats. We saw nothing of what was happening. KSP was very caught up with the excitement of it all and didn’t mention Canada for at least ten minutes.

It was a rather odd start to the game but, eventually, the tarp was re-furled and dragged away, but not before we’d managed to sneak down to our front row seats.

I was lucky, I was sitting next to Jonas, who explained what was happening. Among other things, he explained the off side rule to me, what ice* is and how it’s okay to inflict anything on the player with the puck. It was an excellent education. On my other side, KSP kept up a running commentary in various languages, regarding the differences between Canadian and Swedish ice hockey.

When the game started, the excitement was palpable. Singing was rife but, while it sounded very much like fans at an English football game, there was no feeling of violence directed at the away fans. Mind you, Jonas told me, the opposition was from a long way down south and there were very few of them, so any violence was unlikely. It could be different if the teams were geographically and skilfully closer.

Even considering this, the mood was very different from, say, an Aldershot v Woking game. Though, the SSK equivalent of the East Bank was very vocal for the entire game.

The die hard fans are in the wedge in the photo above. One of them even had a megaphone, though there was no drum or trumpet. Like Slabbers, they stood for the entire game.

The game itself was incredibly exciting, with Tingsryd taking an early lead. They came out of the blocks at full tilt and surprised Södertälje with their eagerness to win. This eagerness, however, may have sapped them of some energy in the latter stages as Södertälje (or “Tälje!” as the fans shouted) dominated the game for the second and third periods.

As much as they dominated, though, by the end of the three halves (as I called them) the score was level at three all. This called for a period of extra time, another five minutes of open play.

This still did not decide the game and, as Jonas explained to me, there had to be a result. In order to determine a winner, penalties started.

The tension was the same as football penalties, though the format was a bit different. While it’s one on one, open player v goalie, the puck starts from the centre and the player slowly ‘dribbles’ towards the goal. He then shoots when he feels he can score. The goalie must fill the goal and prevent it.

Both goalies, who appeared to have been designed by Minecraft, managed to block the puck for quite a few but, eventually, and with much noise from the stands, Södertälje slotted one away. Pandemonium reigned as the players encircled the penalty taker, Meyer, who, incidentally, was man of the match, and most of the 5,096 fans watching, sang their hearts out.

It was the perfect end to a perfect night. Even Mirinda loved it, and she’s not that big on sport generally. We were all buzzing as we headed back to the car, then home.

Thank you, Jonas for organising such a fun night and for driving us there and back in Zed given the snow and icy conditions. And, of course, thank you to KSP for telling us all about Canada.

Here’s a short piece of the game. Unlike Fiona, I didn’t manage to get a goal but I think I managed to capture a bit of the excitement.

* “Ice!” is called out when a player just shoots the puck into another team’s zone from behind the big red line in the centre of the rink, without first passing it to another player. The officials will blow a whistle and call “Ice!” if the puck gets beyond the thin red line in front of the goal without being collected by another player. The game is resumed with a face off in the end zone of the offending team.

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Fiona’s fascinating corpsicles

Posted on January 10, 2025 by Gary

Tonight, Fiona treated us to dinner at Boman’s. It’s been a while since we ate there. So long, in fact, that I can’t find the date. I’m sure we went some time in 2024. I thought we went with Lisa back in early May but, if we did, I didn’t write about it. That’s not much of an introduction to this post.

The food was, as usual, excellent. Fi claimed it was almost as good as Chez Gaz. I disagree. For a start, my halibut was superb and something I could never compete with.

The menu has changed since the last time we went, so there were new dishes to explore, devour and delight in. And, big surprise, they now include coupe colonel in the desserts. This was a pleasure I discovered back in 2003, in Brussels, of all places. Actually, given my taste buds are not that keen on strong lemon, it’s a pain as well as pleasure type situation. Still, vodka and lemon sorbet is a great way to finish off a meal.

Of course, Rickard was there, manning the reception desk and greeting us like old friends in a very Trosa way. This delightful interaction then continued with our waiter, a fellow we’ve not seen before. Then there was the real estate guy who was celebrating his 30th birthday. Very friendly and talkative, these Swedes.

Something weirdly specific. I discovered that Fi despises fascinators. Her opinion of these bizarre wastes of fashion is very strong. I have no idea where it comes from. It’s not like she was frightened by one as a small child. Unless she’s blocked that memory given the traumatic experience. She hadn’t even heard about Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice’s ridiculed efforts at the wedding of William and Kate. Apparently, it may have something to do with horse racing.

The subject arose because of the rather elaborate plant arrangement in the middle of our table. It was high and forced our waiter to bend over to see me. It looked like something Carmen Miranda would have worn but without the fruit.

Another subject mentioned by Fi was how Emma and Freya are her nieces. I think this was a lightly veiled dig at our not having children. As lightly veiled as some fascinators I’ve seen at the races.

Here’s a pretty awful photo of the sisters as a Pushmi-Pullyu.

Weather wise, there was more snow today and the temperature, in the wind, was around -12°. This is the coldest that Fi has ever experienced. In fact, when she and Mirinda went for a walk through the woods and down along the river, her toes were so cold, they turned white with shock. They looked like corpse toes. I dubbed them corpsicles.

She offered them to me to touch but, given how much I hate feet, I politely refused. I feel about toes the way that Fi feels about fascinators.

Anyway, it was a wonderful evening with excellent food and some amazingly diverse conversations. Regardless of her awful feet, I’m really going to miss having my sister-in-law around.

On a completely different subject, and in the interests of revisiting the past, I’m introducing a new sub-heading.

Looking back

Today, seven years ago, I met with Dr Kirsty Bennett regarding volunteering at the Surrey History Centre for the Surrey in the Great War project she was heading up. While Kirsty left a while ago, a small band of us are still plugging away, researching the remaining memorials of Surrey, adding names to the database and information for descendents, researchers and the curious. Apparently, we will be asked to stop soon. That’ll be a sad day.

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Power outage

Posted on January 9, 2025 by Gary

We have had a few electrical problems over the Christmas period. Mainly they’ve been in the stuga, reducing poor Fi to little lighting and no heating. But, although we’ve offered her a bed in the house, she has struggled on, wrapped in an electric blanket and five onsies, pink earmuffs and big fluffy slippers.

Mirinda tried to contact the electrician but only just received a response this week. And today Lucas arrived to investigate and try to fix the problems.

Mirinda was back at uni and Fi went into Stockholm with her, so the onus was on me to meet and alert Lucas to the problems. Which I did once he arrived just after lunch.

Lucas then worked diligently for around four hours, often scratching his head and even going so far as to contact a fellow electrician for a bit of a conflab to try and work out the problem. At one stage, he cut the power to both house and stuga, trying to find the problem and I sat, in my study, and was gradually starting to ice over as the house grew cold.

To be fair, the outage didn’t last more than an hour and the heating returned and I wasn’t forced to put on a jumper. Or crawl into bed with the dogs for life preserving warmth. Still, it was a bit of an eye-opener with regard to how quickly a human can freeze.

Eventually, Lucas fixed the lights in the stuga but ran out of time to fix the heater. He’s returning on Monday to fit a new earthing thing, the old one being “not very good” and possibly the seat of the problem.

My fingers are crossed that it is.

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Slowly scary, icy walkee

Posted on January 8, 2025 by Gary

I walked to the ICA this morning, and it was the worst trip to the shops I’ve ever experienced. Even the Swedes were taking things easy. Well, unless they were in a vehicle of course. The roads are lovely and ice free, the footpaths are like frozen rivers of ice. But then, we know that cars are way more important than mere humans.

Obviously I was wearing my spikes but I still had to be careful. Fellow pedestrians were not so properly shod. Young, old, male, female, indeterminate, they were all taking great care. As we exchanged greetings, heads down and wary, many expressed grim humour at the dangerous surfaces.

It made for a rather scary trip but well worth it given I made chicken and red pepper stew for dinner. We even indulged in sourdough rolls in order to mop up the juices afterwards. (This is mandatory at Chez Gaz.)

Fi reckons she’s being spoiled with my meals but, I reckon it’s me who’s being spoiled given she does the washing up every night. In fact, this afternoon, she shovelled the remaining snow from the drive after I’d started clearing it. So who is being spoiled exactly?

Mirinda is off to uni in the morning, so the car needed to be freed and accessible. It made for an excellent way to warm up, given the stuga has little heating at the moment. I guess it’s not the best time to get someone out to fix things. Though, the electrician finally answered Mirinda’s pleas and they are due to arrive sometime tomorrow. Or Monday.

My other big job this morning was to pack away the thousands of Christmas decorations which covered the dining table, having been removed from the tree yesterday. I had to pack them away in order for us to eat dinner.

Speaking of the tree, the lounge looks a lot bigger now that it’s gone. It’s funny how you forget. A Christmas tree takes up a lot of space.

To end the day, while Fi did the washing up, Mirinda and I planned our upcoming trip to Portugal. Now we have confirmed house sitters, the journey needs to be decided given we’re going by train. I have to say, I am really looking forward to seeing Paris again. I am also looking forward to ice free surfaces to walk on.

That’s one icy path leading out of the cemetery.

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Think of the fish

Posted on January 7, 2025 by Gary

Back in 2020, we didn’t start eating my Christmas cake until January 8. This year we finished it tonight. And it’s January 7. That may (or may not) be because of the extra mouth to feed staying with us at the moment. Actually, that’s not entirely true. While she likes my Christmas cake, Fi announced tonight that she really has to be in the mood to eat it. So, rather than cut the remaining piece into three, it went in half.

But, let’s ignore the joys of cake and focus on what made me cranky today.

A while ago I ordered a book from the Moomin shop in, I think Helsinki. And I was alerted to the fact that I had to go and pick it up from the DHL delivery centre in Trosa. I really think it would be better if the people at the Moomin shop alerted buyers to the fact that things purchased from them would not be delivered to your house.

Okay, I guess the people at the Moomin shop assume that everyone in the world drives a car and, therefore, it would be nothing to pop down the road to pick up a parcel. I realise that a lot of carmaniacs believe a five minute drive is perfectly fine. And, given present conditions, I guess it’s less likely for people to slip over if they drive. But it doesn’t help those of us who do not drive.

Not that I’m really complaining about having to walk to the DHL delivery centre today. No, I’m complaining (Mirinda would call it moaning) about not being given a choice.

And, while I’m at it, how come the car park outside the DHL delivery centre is vast enough to take a lot of cars but they can’t supply a simple bench in order for customers to remove and then replace their spikes? Oh, silly me, more car worship, of course.

Anyway, it may have been a pain and quite slippery in parts but the trip in showed me something I didn’t know existed in Trosa. It is the Trosa Kvarn.

Originally, in the 17th century, it was a mill that drew hydropower from the Trosaån. Then it was a silversmith’s place, an arts and crafts centre and, these days, corporate offices. That’s all well and good but, the waterway is now the happy playground for the fish of Trosa.

I’m sure Jonas knows all about this, but for the rest of the world…

Back in 2022 a project was completed that saw the waterway opened up for aquatic creatures. A fish counter was placed upstream from the mill and previous obstacles, created by mills and other industries, were removed or adapted to allow easier passage for migration to the Baltic. These days, it looks a far cry from how it looked back before the work started. There are some amazing photographs on the Trosa.se website here.

So, while I’m not happy with the Moomin shop, I’m delighted that the DHL delivery centre is placed in such a way as to allow me the opportunity to see the Trosa Kvarn free fish passage.

The other thing I did today was to strip and remove the Christmas tree. And I wasn’t alone. On my trip back from the DHL delivery centre, I passed a man dragging his tree down to the recycling place near the ICA.

Stupid things Donald Trump said today

I thought I’d retired this particular sub heading from the blog but, it appears, due to the general stupidity of American voters, it has now been reinstated.

Apparently, he wants to invade Panama, Greenland and Canada in order to expand the US. I haven’t read anything about how this is any different to what Putin is doing. So, maybe it’s not so much stupid as a general return to a Soviet state.

And, while I’m talking about politics, I can’t believe that Austria wants to return to the fascism they disliked so much during the Second World War. Have they forgotten? I guess it shows that stupidity isn’t reserved for the US.

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Insignificant snowfall

Posted on January 6, 2025 by Gary

Mirinda and Fi returned from their whirlwind tour of Göteborg this afternoon, full of stories about giant cinnamon buns, fish churches and penguin walks. Surprisingly, their two trains departed and arrived on time, a far cry from the ones that took them there. Apparently, the earlier issue with times was caused, mostly, by ice on the tracks that can only be removed by hand. Now that would be a rotten job.

Here, of course, most of the ice was reserved for the river, which looked dangerously thin from the bridge this morning.

Speaking of snow, which I wasn’t, I was receiving messages all day from SMHI (The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute) warning about ‘significant snowfall’ from around 3pm. Here in Trosa. It never happened. According to Fi, it did snow, but I would hardly call it significant. It was then supposed to rain, but that didn’t happen either.

Actually, the day was surprisingly warm relative to what it has been lately. It even went above zero at one stage and tomorrow is supposed to be warmer again. Of course, we all know what that means. The snow will melt then, later in the week, temperatures will plummet and Trosa will become one big ice skating rink.

My day was mostly spent tidying up and, more importantly, I recorded my latest Letter from Sweden.

I almost managed it in one take but, near the end of the first attempt, Freya started snoring really loudly (she was on the chair behind me) and drowned out my voice. I think she may have found it slightly boring.

It has only just occurred to me that I should have kept the snoring version to include here. Damn! Next time then.

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Taxing times

Posted on January 5, 2025 by Gary

Not a lot happened today. I was gathering information for our UK tax returns, which meant I was, more or less, tied to my laptop for the day. Obviously, I had a few small breaks, just to get away from the screen. It’s one of those tedious jobs that I enjoy once it’s finished. Though my record keeping has improved over the years, so it only takes about a day instead of the fortnight it took in the bad old days of Gaz Filing Nightmares.

Actually, the most exciting thing to happen today was Emma having a poo in her nappy. Not that exciting for her, clearly. And, to be completely honest, I didn’t find it particularly exciting. Actually, let’s scrub the word ‘exciting’ and declare it for what it was: Bloody awful.

The thing is, during one of my numerous breaks, I went outside to feed the birds. I told the girls they had to come with me and empty their bladders and anything else that needed emptying. Freya quickly went to the loo then wandered around the front garden sniffing at the deer tracks in the snow.

Emma, on the other hand, was having problems evacuating. I think, maybe, she just leaves it too long between wanting to go and actually going. Anyway, whatever the reason, she spent a goodly amount of her time straining from the rear end.

Eventually, we all finished our separate businesses and returned to the house. Except that Emma hadn’t actually finished. The smell was pretty rank and, when I lifted here tail, a big lump was half in and half out of her poo shoot.

We went straight to the bathroom where I gave her a thorough wash and scrub then, using scissors, cut away the bits that refused to rinse. While being very good about it, Emma did give me some seriously mournful looks. I’m glad it wasn’t Freya. She hates baths at the best of times. And this was definitely the blurst of times.

Anyway, I dried Emma off then washed the towels. Job done, I thought.

I thought wrong.

Later, during another break, I removed her nappy so she could go outside and, would you believe it, there was a smooshed up slab of poo that she had somehow left in the nappy. It was seriously gross and I’m surprised she didn’t let me know about it.

So, back into the bathroom for a light wash for Emma and a jolly good scrub for the nappy.

It was all terribly unpleasant. For everyone. Except Freya, I guess.

The photo is from later in the evening. Butter wouldn’t melt.

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