Epiphany

We took a weekend trip to our capital to cash in one of our wedding gifts - a visit to Fotografiska including dinner, a sleepover and great company.

After a lunch at the herring wagon at Slussen we went down to the docks to wait for our friends. Sitting there we noticed a boat that acted a bit odd. It just bobbed about doing nothing special and I got confused. Our view was blocked by a couple of boats, one of which is acting as a hostel I believe, just to set the scene for you. (I could have shared a photo of our actual view, including the oddly behaving boat, but for some reason I only had my old analog Minolta with me and I have not yet developed the film).  Then a second and third boat came about and did more or less the same. 'Odd' I thought.

After a while a whole bunch of different boats came from under the bridge and headed out towards the ocean. 'That was also odd' my mind said and tried to come up with a reason why so many boats would come at the same time, maybe they were involved in a race (but that really did not add up, usually boat races are more homogeneous - these boats were very dissimilar).

After a little while, the oddly behaving boats started to move in the opposite direction (as opposed to the strange boat race) and this is the moment where I had an epiphany. Is it possible that there actually is a lock (=sluss) at Slussen??? Oh yes. Sometimes I am so darn clever (or if we turn it around - most of the time I am so darn dense).

Here to

Nerdy street art. Not only in Eskilstuna but also in Visby.

Number

Number of deer seen on the train ride home from Småland, the train ride that got delayed an hour and then changed into a train and taxi ride at a stop where the train normally does not stop: 7.

Interesting conversation during the ride:
-(the conductor) You will get a taxi from Katrineholm to Eskilstuna.
-(us, with Tage in our lap) Ok, we will need a chair for him in that case.
-(the conductor) Sure, they must have one, I will specifically tell them that you will need one.
-(us) Great.

A little time later, during which the conductor had talked to us and Tage several times:
-(the taxi driver) What? A baby seat? Nobody has mentioned anything about that. I can get one but it will take longer. And I hope you know how to install it cause I have no idea.

It all got sorted out in the end, and we came home only a little over han hour later than what we vere supposed to.

By the way: If you get stuck in Katrineholm, be sure to have a moscito repellent on you, damn it they were hungry.

By the way 2: If you are in Katrineholm and need to go to Stockholm late on a Saturday, make sure you look on the right screen so that you do not wait for the arrivals from Stockholm instead of the departures to Stockholm. (I do hope that the lady who wanted me to help her buy a ticket to said place had some place to spend the night)

Mayby not original

I like to be a little original when I write here. Maybe you have noticed, or maybe I have failed and am more like everyone else. Anyhow, in this post I am not trying to be original.

I am going on a trip down to Herrljunga today, to spend the weekend hitting other people, and trying to avoid being hit myself. To get there I am going to ((oh, highlander on tv6, classic)) use the excellent service that SJ provides. Or wait, no, to travel with them is a lottery and although I do enjoy to take part of a lottery now and again I actually prefer to get where I am supposed to get within a time frame agreed upon beforehand when I travel. I am kind of boring that way.

It starts good

This trip starts on a good note. Going to my parents for the holiday and was rather satisfied with the rail road ticket, few and short exchanges, and it was rather cheap as well. But of course the first train is late, which means that the short exchange time in Arboga ain't enough and the entire trip changes. Now we are back home to wait for another train that will run on time (knock on wood). Well, at least this means that I can bring my headphones that I forgot... Travel is fun.

Smile

Made a little excursion to the great city yesterday. The first stop was at Scandinavian Photo where a new lens was purchased and two cups of quite good coffee was gulped down. Left the store more speeded than Bevis or Butthead ever was. Then we walked a couple of blocks over to Govindas restaurant. If there is one kind of food that we really miss here in this sorry excuse of a town it is the Indian cusine so we always try to get it whenever we can.
Later we tried to catch a movie, we had our eyes on 'burn after reading', but everyone else tried the same thing and was apparently better at it than us. There was some tickets left for the singalong viewing of 'Mamma mia', but we descided to take the next train back home instead...

Isn't it funny

Isn't it funny how some days even a small crappy thing can get blown up beyond all proportion and take over your entire being. Or wait, no, it ain't that funny. It kind of sucks.

And now for something completely different. Made a little trip over to Arboga yesterday and here are some nice photos: Hmm, yea, here they would be If I had remembered to put in the memory card in the camera. Or if I had learned from precious mistakes and put the extra 1Gb card into the camera bag. But I am a really slow learner. You are not missing out on much. Maybe a collage of all the pizza/kebab places there, and perhaps a couple of pictures of an old church or two. They did have a pretty good thai place, so my recomendation is that, if you suddenly find yourself lost in Arboga, you take a walk around the old city center and then have some thai before you take the first train away from there.

Going on a trek

We are going to walk from Flen to Svalboviken this weekend. If we are not heard of some time next week, please send out a rescue squad.

250 orchids

There was a documentary on the tv of a man with about two hundred and fifty orchids at home. It was not me. I bought two new ones this Sunday, bringing my orchid count up to a measly eight. It would be fun to learn more, to get the ones I have to flourish and to get some more 'difficult' plants to take care of. But I do not want to become that guy, the guy whos whole life revolves around his plants.

Speaking of flowers. We took the train to Stockholm on Saturday to get some Indian food. After a visit to 'Japanska torget' where I bought some bowls and Odon noodles we had some great food at Garamasala close to the library in said town. It was a long time since I was that stuffed. But that is not point. The point is that about ten percent of the people walking by as we were eating was carrying bouquets of long flowers. Maybe there was a sale somewhere close, I don't know, but it just felt strange. Maybe someone was playing a strange and subtle prank on me.

Once again speaking of flowers, it took the entire summer and a couple of weeks into the fall, but finally someone has been messing with my flowers on the French balcony. They have been left alone, to my huge astonishment, but now one of the cacti is missing. I do hope that the culprit got stung in the process of stealing it. I also hope that he finds the note I put up (begging for the safe return of the cactus) funny and then plays along and returns it. It is also very possible that he goes the other way and takes another flower. That would also be funny. To return the cactus and take another flower would probably be the most humourous alternative.