Noll åtta

In Farnham, when walking into town from our house, along the all weather path, you could generally tell visitors from elsewhere because they were the ones who didn’t bother saying hello when they passed you as you went shopping. In England these would be called out-of-towners. Or day trippers. Here, in Sweden, the same people are called noll åtta.

I think I passed a couple of them this morning. They were sullen faced, possibly in their late 30s, walking purposely towards me. Normally I would expect some sort of recognition from them, particularly given I was the only person within sight. But, no, nothing, it was as if I wasn’t even there.

“Noll åtta,” I muttered under my breath.

This sort of antisocial big city attitude is not experienced on the high seas. Today we went out for a bit in The Bob, still breaking in the new motor and, while the water was crowded with other boats, they all managed to spare a wave as we passed one another.

Of course, they may have been waving because of our ridiculously cute dogs.

They love The Bob almost as much as we do. Freya was very happy, acting like a figurehead, sitting on my lap in the bow, looking out over the sea. Until she got too cold and retired to the blanket we set out for them.

Mirinda managed to plane the boat a few times as instructed by the hefty manual, creating equally hefty waves in our wake. Mind you, that wasn’t as bad as the jet ski people who were busy making doughnuts on the surface of the water not far from us.

Rather than indulging in a bit of noisy, speedy fun, we were breaking in our motor. Today we completed the second bullet point. Tomorrow, weather permitting, we will begin part three.

But, having returned to the dock and locked The Bob away, the day was far from over. I had an art class to attend.

The other week I had an unexpected email from Mats regarding the next meeting of The Other Book Group. He said that the next meeting was to be tonight. This was contrary to the original planned date. And, of course, it was on the same night as my class. I had to apologise for not attending the discussion of what was, quite frankly, a book I did not enjoy…or finish reading truth be told.

Coincidentally, I saw Nicoline in the ICA as I was being checked out. She was dropping off some post before heading north for the meeting. I mentioned that she has a rather extended definition of the word ‘moment’.

But, back to my class…tonight was about abstraction and was mostly concerned with the wonderful Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian and, Hilma af Klint.

I am particularly keen on Kandinsky, having seen his works many times over the years. His later, abstract pieces are instantly identifiable as his. In 2024, I attended the Expressionist exhibition at the Tate in London and he was well represented there. Mondrian I can take or leave. As for Hilma af Klint, I love her work.

I have seen various works of hers in galleries I’ve visited around Europe. Sadly, I won’t be able to see the current exhibition in Paris but, thanks to Dr Lucrezia, I now know an awful lot about her.

She was very much into the spiritual world. She would go through all sorts of almost religious fervours before applying paint to canvas in a sub conscious effort to capture the world beyond this one. She preceded Kandinsky in creating a truly abstract work, regardless of his boast to the contrary.

In fact, Hilma wasn’t actually the first. She was preceded by a couple of other woman, Emma Kunz and Georgiana Houghton.

In these more enlightened, and little less chauvinist world, Georgiana is heralded as the first abstract painter. And you can see why. Here is one of her works from 1868:

All round another excellent National Gallery organised lecture. Definitely more fun than talking about a book I didn’t enjoy.