Life in a quirky town

Harald and Lukas came round today. Harald started to paint the glass room while Lukas rid us of some annoying electrical anomalies. This meant me getting up early to move everything out of the glass room. Early because Lukas has a habit of turning up at 7am.

As it happened, he didn’t this morning, so I managed to finish before he arrived.

Not that it affected the jobs we had for him.

Then Harald turned up and gradually worked through the day with narry a break.

I, on the other hand, had a long break from 2pm as I headed into Trosa to watch the arrival of M20.

M20 was a mine sweeper in the Swedish navy, built in 1941, which retired from service in 2005. Since then it has been owned by Swedish Maritime Museums and maintained and used by a group of volunteers collectively called Föreningen M20. And, today, it was sailing into Trosa harbour, pennants fluttering and with a brass band welcoming committee. There’s no way I wanted to miss that.

I felt a bit guilty leaving Mirinda at home, still suffering with The Cold (she told Harald that I picked it up on a German train and then gave it to her), but she insisted I go and report back about the festivities.

And what fun it was.

I wasn’t alone down at World’s End. A crowd of excited onlookers waited for the band to start up, which it did as the small boat, followed by a flotilla of even smaller boats, appeared around the corner of Öbolandet. I, along with others, took a bit of video of the approach and eventual docking of the little battler.

Possibly my favourite moment was when the captain appeared and the band played Darth Vader’s theme from the original Star Wars movie. That had me in fits.

It was the sort of quirky thing I love about living here, in Trosa. It feels like I’m living in a TV show like Doc Martin. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.

In the meanwhilst, back at the house, Harald finished up for the day and headed home.

That’s starting to look a bit brighter.