The House Husband in Sweden

Following yesterday’s minor heatwave, today saw the temperature dip right down to beyond freezing. In fact, everything was frozen: the car, the steps, the deck, the girls, some cows. Along with the drop in degrees, the sky turned a very uncommon blue and there were no clouds. This was a sight we’d not seen for a while.

The day was momentous for another reason.

Years ago, I bought a leather messenger bag from a Scottish company called Scaramanga. The bag has served me well, travelling the world with me, carrying essentials like passports, headphones, journal, etc. There was once when the strap broke and I sent the bag back to Scaramanga to be repaired.

That was ten years ago, returning from Paris with Karen. It was pretty devastating. However, it was not long before the bag was returned, as good as new.

Then, a little while ago, I had another couple of problems with the bag. The back ripped open and the strap started splitting. I repaired it with blue gaffer tape. I couldn’t send it to Scaramanga this time because Brexit made it unviable from Sweden – it would have cost as much as a new bag in customs duties.

But, finally, after many thousands of miles, I have retired old faithful and bought a new bag from Saddler.se. It arrived today and I couldn’t be happier. Actually, I’d be happier if my old bag had been repaired but still, I am very happy regardless.

And speaking of cows, Mirinda took the girls for a walk today, in the brilliant sunshine, only to have her way barred by a couple of uncaring bovines. They were lying across a lane, obstructing the car, as Mirinda was heading for a favourite walking spot.

They refused to move. They just lay there chewing their cuds, with not a care in the world. There wasn’t even a glance back at the car, they just stared into space, chew, chew, chewing.

Eventually, Mirinda reversed all the way back to the road. She was very grateful for the reversing camera, given the cattle grid and the deep ravines either side of the narrow lane.

Back at home, I tried my first batch of pickled beetroot. It was perfect. I need to remember that I used apple cider vinegar. It gave them an extra depth of flavour.

Further to yesterday’s post, I see that the BBC has sent a letter to Donald Trump apologising for the editing job on the Panorama programme. They also said they’d not be paying any damages. And, yet again, with Jarndyce v Jarndyce echoing around my head, the only people to benefit from this dead cat distraction, will be the lawyers.

In the meanwhilst, Donald Trump has lowered tariffs in order to reduce the costs of various foodstuffs for Americans. MAGAs are praising him for cheaper groceries. How come they don’t know that he imposed the tariffs in the first place and the groceries have merely returned to pre-Trump days?

The other day, Donald Trump said he was going to sue the BBC for over one billion dollars* because the Panorama programme edited a speech he gave. The way they spliced it together made it sound like he was urging the January 6 rioters to storm the Capital building. This action was, of course, deplorable. All three actions, I mean. The speech, the storming and the bad editing.

Then, a few days later, after his declaration that he would sue the BBC, which, incidentally, he hates, Donald Trump declared that France should not be celebrating the end of the Second World War because America won all the wars. As far as I’m concerned, this demeans the deaths of so many young men who fought for freedom.

Ignoring the fact that Victory Day in France is hardly what a normal, ethical human being would call a ‘celebration’, I do wonder why France doesn’t sue Donald Trump for over one billion dollars for ignoring the sacrifice France made. And other European military personnel.

In face, given the lies he keeps telling, how come lots of other countries don’t sue him? Or, better yet, why don’t news organisations sue him for calling them fake news? Oh, silly me, I forgot they are all scared of him, aren’t they.

Then, this morning, I read that:

Two of them — Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief science and medical officer, and Demetre Daskalakis, who led the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases — stepped down on Aug. 27, hours after the White House announced the firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez.

KFF Health News: https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/senior-cdc-officials-resign-susan-monarez-ouster-concerns-over-scientific-independence/

I can just hear Donald Trump, reading their names out and asking reporters, “Who are they? They don’t sound American. Send them to El Salvador. We need Americans doing American jobs.“

While, here in the real world, today’s temperature ranges were staggering highs of 11° – 13° and lows of 4° – -2°. That is a big range. It also rained.

My day was spent mostly in the kitchen, while Mirinda and Nicoline went for a walk and visited the local recycling centre. They took exciting photos of fibre glass, which they then sent to me.

* I’ve said this before but it bears repeating. When Americans say one billion dollars, they actually mean one thousand million dollars. It made me laugh the other day when Elon Musk was given a pay rise which would make him the world’s first trillionaire. This is bullshit. He will actually be a billionaire (one million million). One trillion is one billion billion. Just like one billion is one million million. But, of course, mega rich people are so in love with money that they inflate numbers to make them sound more than they are. Either that or they’ve forgotten how to count.

This has been going on for a while. I found this on Huffpost: “The US value had, however, become increasingly used in Britain and the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson confirmed in a written reply in 1974 that the meaning of “billion” would be thousand-million, in conformity with international usage.”

Speaking of American money, and looking at the other end of the scale, today saw the final penny being made.

This afternoon saw the return of the rain. From about 1pm, it fell and refused to stop until many hours later. It was almost as if Thor had looked down and noticed that the deck was starting to finally dry and, in his need for weather control, soaked it again.

Needless to say, the girls were stuck inside with me. Okay, not just because of the weather, as they are both still in season. There was a lot of ball throwing up the corridor with just a few necessary toilet breaks outside.

I’ve mentioned countless times how Freya hates the rain and today was no exception. She has an uncanny ability to hold it in when she perceives water in the air. I call her a reverse camel.

Anyway, the rain started falling shortly before Mirinda returned home from uni. The poor thing has had three classes in a row this week. This is, fortunately, not a regular occurrence.

Today her class was about Deep Time, geology, archaeology and other things I learned about years ago when I was studying at Guildford Uni. The funny thing is that when I’d return from class, all excited about stratigraphy, rock inclusions and impressive fault lines, she would come over all bored. Now, I think, she realises why I was so excited about it all.

I am waiting for the first time she suddenly stops the car at the side of the road and exclaim, “Wow, look at that fault! Just imagine the forces that thrust that up!” It will be my cue to yawn and say something disparaging about rocks.

When she got home, she had a board meeting but the less said about that, the better. I have already told her that she does too much but it’s not like she listens to me.

As for me, I entertained the girls, did some laundry and cooked dinner (pork with fennel, tonight). Just another normal Gaz Day. With rain. So, ultra normal then.

Here’s Freya before the rain fell.

My views were down to 11 today, which is, I’m glad to say, quite the norm.

I pickled some beetroot today. While I’ve pickled beetroot in the past, it’s been a while. At the moment, ICA is selling beetroot at a much reduced rate and it seemed churlish not to buy some, boil them up, soak them in vinegar and seal them in jars. I will buy and pickle some more on Thursday when I go shopping again.

We love pickled beetroot in this house. Something I don’t love is the continued decimation of the woods by the MTB folks.

I thought they’d finished last year but, no, it seems they have to top up the gravel that they spread across the meeting place. This means a digger coming in and spreading it about.

The digger has also been growling up the path to Vitalis School. As a consequence, it has left deep grooves in the ground. Of course, this doesn’t impact the mountain bikes or the digger. No, it only impacts walkers, joggers, people with mobility issues and parents with strollers. And, given the time of year and the amount of rain we’ve had, the ruts will remain for quite some time.

The main path is largely unscathed, fortunately. Though, I do wonder what this is for.

This is on the corner, opposite the preschool. Is it going to be another MTB track? Don’t they have enough already?

Of course, I could be wrong and, perhaps it’s going to be a wildlife shelter for animals and/or walkers when the weather isn’t being very kind. Perhaps a fauna monitoring station to protect the biodiversity of the woods. Or, maybe someone is going to plant something imaginative on the corner, some long-lost local flora.

I will wait and see. But I know where I’d put my money.

Another question I have is also to do with bikes.

When I walked to the ICA, I noticed a strange thing. Two front wheels and two helmets, chained to a light pole. I would understand a bike being chained to a light pole without the loose wheel (though not in the woods) but cannot think of a reason why someone would do the opposite. And yet…

Did someone steal the frames and leave the wheels? I will probably never know.

What I do know is that the number of views today was reduced to a more likely seven. I think the anti-scraping plugin is working. At least as a deterrent, anyway.

Today was National Forget-Me-Not Day in the US. When I first discovered this fact, I thought it was another one of those wanky American things, created in order to sell unnecessary things to gullible people. But, no. It’s the American equivalent, more or less, of the poppies that proliferate this time of year, albeit the day before November 11; Armistice Day.

The National Forget-Me-Not Day was created in 1921 in order to raise funds to care for America’s First World War casualties. These days, it covers all wars and is about remembering the sacrifices made by military personnel. As their website says: “The day serves to honor [sic] all past and current United States Military veterans who bear the permanent scars of battle.“

Like the UK poppy, Americans are urged to wear a forget-me-not on November 10 each year. Given the amount of WWI research I have done, I am really surprised I’d not heard about it.

Anyway, I didn’t wear a flower today. I was far too busy moving the deck lounge into its winter hibernation zone, ie The Glassroom.

It required a bit of a clean-up and brush down first, before sliding it across the floors, from one side of the house to the other. On a towel. The towel was essential.

At the same time, I had to keep a close eye on the dogs given the late stage of their seasons. The thing is, at this late stage, they eagerly want to have sex with anything that walks passed the house. I have to be ready to drop whatever I am doing and grab hold of them to avoid any procreation from occurring.

They even try and have sex with each other. Not that this is a problem. When I mentioned it to Mirinda she sent me this photo she took on her way to the ballet tonight.

Apart from the colours and species, this could easily be Emma and Freya getting amorous.

Mirinda had been at uni. Today marked her return for this new semester. She was joined by Ashley as well as some new students. I have yet to hear about the ballet.

Anyway, returning to the subject of animals, two deer strolled by my study window this morning. One an adult, the other a juvenile.

They were almost perfectly camouflaged against the foliage down the side of the house. In fact, if the adult hadn’t moved, I don’t think I’d have seen them at all. I managed to get this photo of the juvenile.

With regard to the AI scraping issue, the views dropped off dramatically today. After a flurry of them in the morning, there were hardly any after 04:00. Maybe that’s the end of it. I certainly hope so.

Following on from the recent post I made about the phenomenal and unprecedented leap in views of this blog, I have installed a plugin to help stop AI scraping. The fact that such a plugin exists is enough to convince me that it is important to use one. I am also wondering whether I will have to stop blogging and delete the entire contents of my blog. Hopefully, it will not yet come to that.

Here are some statistics for the Month to Date taken this morning, 9 November 2025:

Most, if not all, of these have come from a direct link to the blog rather than via a search engine. I can only assume this is due to a processor creating random alphanumeric sequences until it hits a successful url. Another interesting statistic is that almost all come from a desktop Mac computer using a Chrome browser.

The test will be if the AI scraping plugin stops it happening, which can possibly be adjudged by a reduction of views. I shall report more on this tomorrow. After installing and activating the plugin, these were the views from the top cities:

Since installing the plugin, there is a statement at the top of each post to the effect that they have been protected. Of course, this won’t change the ‘views’ but it does protect the information.

Mirinda and I had a long discussion about the implications of AI scraping. Given this blog is generally a personal, diary type of record means that personal information could be gathered very quickly and changed into a massive record of our lives. This could then be used for nefarious means.

We are still debating our options but, if worse comes to worst, then my options would be to password protect every post and only make them accessible to my nine subscribers or, ultimately, to delete the whole thing. This would also mean deleting it from the Wayback Machine.

This is not what the Internet should be. This is not what Tim Berners-Lee had in mind when he created it. This is not free circulation of information.

This is control.

I read today that the Manhattan Project managed to create a nuclear bomb in a few years, something thought impossible at the time. It was powerful enough to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people. But climate change, which has the same if not greater ability, people refuse to do anything about. In fact, contrawise, a lot of people deny it exists. Does that mean that humans prefer killing to saving? And, if so, what kind of odd species does that make us?

Anyway, today was pretty dull here at home. The weather was a bit grim, Mirinda was at the Folkuniversity learning Swedish and the dogs continued with their latest seasons. In reference to the latter, Freya has entered peak flow, which indicates she is close to finishing. With Emma, one never knows.

I did cook Sabrina Ghayour‘s fabulously comforting, spicy hotpot, which Mirinda declared as delicious, and I managed some laundry, but that was about it, really.

Well, apart from a little bit of modelling.

One part of my present parcel from Fi was a t-shirt that Lauren produced for her department at work. It is Set Dec, which stands for Set Decoration. In case it’s not obvious, she works in the film industry. She was asked for a t-shirt and this is what she came up with:

The film it references is one she worked on called Godzilla x Kong: Supernova which explains the image on the back and the title on the front. According to the Wikipedia entry, it finished filming in Queensland earlier this year when Brisbane stood in for London.

I know I should be loyal, but I really can’t see me watching it when it comes out in 2027. For a start, I had no idea this was another in a long line of Godzilla movies. Okay, I admit that I saw the original a very long time ago, but that’s as far as my big Japanese monster knowledge extends. Though I vaguely remember Mothra.

There was a bit of an odd kerfuffle in Nyköping today. Mainly due to my incompetent navigation. I thought the satnav was taking us to the old Euromaster tyre hotel rather than the new one. That mistake was because I’m an idiot. Why the other guy, in the little white van, did the same is anyone’s guess.

Still, eventually we continued the journey that we had originally been on (with the white van following us) until we reached the proper premises.

We were there in order to have our winter tyres attached (as discussed with KSP last week) and, while we were late for our scheduled appointment, they managed to slot us in, and we were on our way back home lickety-split.

Following the kerfuffle in Nyköping, there was a further one at home when my printer suddenly ran out of black ink. There were frantic attempts to try and work around the lack, but it was no good. It seems that you cannot replace a black cartridge with a blue one. Who knew? I needed more ink.

A dash to the Bokhandel proved fruitless, as did the same to Elon. In fact, Elon was worse because they had printer 604 black cartridges while I needed 603. That was quite annoying. Suffice it to say, the printer was declared useless and put to sleep.

While Mirinda worked away in her study, I took the girls for a walk around the mountain. Given it was around 5pm, the sun was set and it was very dark. Even so, we saw a few people abroad, wandering and jogging along the dark and eerie woodland tracks.

Though, the only fright was when we were back in our street. The final kerfuffle of the day happened when an elk, suddenly, took fright. Yes, my first close encounter with an elk. Actually, we gave each other a fright as we spotted each other at the same time and the elk took off. I was just stunned.

Of course, there was the time in Värmland when the elk blocked the road we were on, but they were further away, and I wasn’t walking by them.

Possibly the best thing was the lack of fireworks. There would be lots in the UK over the last few days. Reading back over past posts, it feels like every early November I’m huddled with the dogs while the sky explodes with unnecessary kerfuffle, noise and gunpowder. All of our dogs have hated fireworks. Their shivering is a testament to their fear.

I didn’t take any photos today, but here’s one of Anna Boom-Boom saying puss-puss to her husband during yesterday’s birthday kidnapping.

Oh, almost forgot, I received a wonderful birthday hamper from our UK accountants today, full of goodies too good to refuse.