World Update #12

I hate Macs. You won't believe it but I have just been typing thishuge letter to you and I tried to cut and paste it and lost it. Ithink I was typing for 1/2 an hour.OK day 2 at the Von Schoenberg / Enqvist household.Mexico is very much the theme here as Eva imports stuff fromGuatalahara. Mainly recycled and coloured glassware. It is lovelystuff. Some of the furniture is Mexican too and it is really cool. Thehousehold is split into a winter house and a summer house. The summerhouse being just an extension on the winter one. The summer house hasa dining and lounge area with large glass windows to maximise theamount of sunshine. Outside there is a hammock to recline in andanother table for eating at. Classical swedish stuff really. There isof course also the great view of the sea.I'm developing a few ideas about the Swedes which I am sure has beenwritten before but it is fun to see it all first hand. One is therelationships between cars and homes: the younger set have flash carsand shitty homes; the older set have splendid homes but are not toofussed about how old their cars are.Another is the obvious one that Swedes are water and nature people.Both are everywhere in abundance and they make the most of both of them.Spoke to Broren today, who is in Denmark with the family, and he saidit was a shame that we didn't meet in Koster. I should see him at theend of the month. Naturally I've missed Johan for the time being toobut hope to see him and Ludvika later on in the month too. The priority for the next couple of days is making sure that I get toLatvia and Russia.Kajsa is planned to be here tomorrow (well today as it is 1am now).Batte should be here on Tuesday but I may be gone by then if I havemanaged to plan the extra-Sweden excursion. This is because I want tobe on the move to Malmö and there is also a chance I can meet up withBroren and co in Skåne.We didn't do much today except for update Hans' Netscape Navigator 3.0to N Communicator 4.05 which he was happy with as he didn't manage todo it when he tried. I have to support him here as it took me a fewgoes and wasn't a simple task.Dinner was lovely as was lunch. We had lamb with bits and pieces and awine from Chile which I didn't know was big on wine but apparentlythey have some of the biggest vineyards in the world. That wasfollowed by this superb Swedish cheese that is best described bysaying it was like a blue vien only creamy and much more delicious.More wine and then judgubbar with glas and a desert wine from Hungary that was pretty exclusive. Followed by coffee of course and a cognacbut not cognac type of drink that was pretty foobar as well. It wasapple based but I didn't like it so left it to Eva when we werechatting once Hans went to bed.She has a son? who is going out with a Czech girl called Mille orsomething. Funny huh. Interesting hearing about the glass blowingfactories in Mexico too. They charge one price regardless of how manyyou order. In fact, they don't like to do too many of one item,naturally enough, as they are all hand made and they get terriblybored. I'd never thought of that and foolishly suggested to Eva thatshe would be in a good bargaining position by ordering so much.Well time for bed. Anything else?.....NahLove and all that jazz,M

World Update #11

> I'm with Hans & Eva at the moment. Will be here for a couple of days. > Today we went around Saltjöbaden and Saltjö-Boo. Went past a few> relatives homes. Caught a peek of Eva S but we didn't stop by. BUT we> did see the old house that you stayed at with Hans et al. We even> stayed for a sec and spoke with Gunas (should that be Junas?). Saw the> huge mooses head inside and also got a story of shooting the birds> with champagne corks on the balcony where I understand you spent a bit> of time. Also looked at the "British corner" from outside.> You can either send me or Hans a message or call. I'll pay for it.

World Update #10

OK So what’s the news?Well I’m in Örnsköldsvik at the moment using Gunnar’s computer. I havethe house to myself exept for Hera who I have just taken for a walk upthe mountain. I seem to be spending a lot of time in the green stuffthese days. It was an enjoyable walk and exactly the same one we tooklast time I was here.There has been a bit of a disaster here. Two days ago the other(older) dog was put down after she attacked Sara (the younger ie.Molin) little puppy. Well actually he was a rather large puppy of 4months. Although it’s proven to be a costly episode the worst part isthe devastation on the part of the Victorin family here. This wasAnders best hunting dog and he appears as though he has lost a 4thson. Ulla-Brit and Gunnar are in a bad way too. I’m not sure if it helps or not me being here. I hope to stay for a wee while as I amenjoying it here. I’ve learnt a good lesson in travelling here. I haveto be the only guest to families otherwise they continue to speakSwedish and only understanding about 10% I switch off after a while.Plus sitting down chatting is not fun when you like to do things. WhenI do get a chance to chat to people I notice that I burst forth withlots of useless information. All part of not being able to talk for long periods of time I guess.Gunnar is working at the Ö’vik golf course and Ulla-Brit has juststarted an on-call shift. She started at 3pm and will work through thenight. Anders is at work of course. He has already taken his vacation.The past few days I have spent following Sara around. Whilst this is great for reasons of getting from A to B it is a pain as expressedabove. When I’m with her people are just as pleased to see her andwant to catch up on all the Häggbom gossip so Swedish is the norm.I’m not sure if the email from Melkers got to you but just in case itdidn’t here’s what’s been happening:I was really lucky to get Sune’s ticket from Stockholm to Sundsvallwith Sara. And then travel with her in the rental car from there toTunsjän, Sollefteå, Trelångingen, Umeå and then Övik. We stayed atHälludden for two nights. That is the Häggbom summer home thatbelonged to a company previously. It is just across Tunsjän fromAnders houses and where the Molin’s live. Sara was good enough to letme drive the car in various stages so I got my first experience in amanual on the right/wrong side of the road (remember I’ve alreadydriven on the right once this year in Maui). It was great experienceand I was glad for it. Problem was that Sara doesn’t like driving/drives dangerously slow at times and is a terrible passenger. Shequietened down a little after she realised I wasn’t going to kill her.But the trip from Trelångingen to Melker and Katarina’s was painful. Ishut my eyes and tried to sleep to avoid the pain of watching. To addto this I had Katarina jabbing my side. Ylva was in the front seat (11/2 years) and Melker, Katarina, myself and Rickard (some months) werein the back.Melker has a rather small home in Umeå. Seems more so with thechildren. Sara and Ylva slept in the lounge and I slept with the mouseand the computer. Slept pretty well but I’m still adjusting to allthis light over here.Ylva came into my room early in the morning to watch videos ofmedieval dancing which Katarina does. She turned on the video and whenI sneeked a look at her she was actually watching me and not the video!The reason for the trip to Trel. was that was where the Häggbom/Klingberg family was helping a friend plant trees. Plus theydidn’t have any transport back to Umeå. Melker doesn’t have hislicense and explained a funny story about sitting his test for thefirst time. He hit a parked car and said to the instructor ”I guessI’m not going to get my license then?”. He said to me that he shouldhave had some fun on the way back to the police house (whatever) bydriving all the way backwards with the handbrake on! He’s fun. We hada quick little chat from 11:30 to 12:30 that night which was good.Otherwise I would have only seen him and that would have been it.I may go up there again to get to an airport on 11-12th. There is anultimate trip in Latvia that the Stockholm crowd are going to and theysay the parties are good! I may pay for Alena to come over and joinus. From there I want to go and see St Petersburg. Backis (my ultimate mate from Stockholm) has contacts both in Finland (I may be in transitthere onto Latvia) and St Petersburg. This is the kind of thing I missnot being able to play the game. It basically provides a freeaccomodation ticket around the world. Shame.Anyway. It was good to catch up with Anna and Lasse too. I think theyare becoming more accustomed to me or something as it was better thistime. We also saw Torkel whilst in Umeå. He looks OK but it is hard totell. You could tell that he wasn’t 100%. Sara saw Mirre at thehospital and they may not need to operate but time will tell.Apparently Mirre is talking about having the wedding later this year.She is pain free at the moment which is surprising and good.I didn’t know but Torkel, Melker and myself are all the same vintage!1967.I’m not entirely certain of my plans from here but I have to call afew people. I have called Mats & Karin and Mats was thrilled to hearfrom me. He said it was and order that I should come and see thefamily and Lars’ at the summer house in Halmstad in July so I’ll bethere at some stage. Hallan goes out to Koster on the 15th withUlla-Brit so I may catch a ride with them. Torsten is still inAustralia but heading to Bali next month. Torsten the bigger keeps arecord of who is going to Koster and when so I must have a word to himat some stage. The list of people to see in and around Stockholm growsdaily so I must go back there. My flight home is from there anyway.I’m playing with the idea of going to Ludvika. Johan-Petter is thereat the moment so that would be a bonus. Also Lalla was buried thereand I would like to ‘see’ her. Main problem as always is transport. It’s interesting to find out how little the families know about eachother. I had Hallan, Sara, Anna, Lars with me but I could not find outthe name of Ingers barns-barn. (I left my bloody family tree in London- Doh). I think I can recreate it faster than most now. Still I havethe barns names and there is always Broren of course. I hadn’t eventhought of the Enander crowd. It surprises me that there are many ofyour generation still to meet.Having been here a week now I am already getting a feeling for what Imight like to achieve. History lessons are with your generation andfun is with mine. I guess I cannot cope with the amount of knowledgethese Swedes have about their local areas. With the general knowledgethey have and the experiences like the Victorin boys have I havestarted to feel really ignorant. The breadth and depth of knowledgeand experiences that someone like Gunnar has is fantastic. The reallyare spoilt over here in Europe.So I’m more looking forward to meeting people like Sandra Hjerling andKajsa von Schoenberg now. It’s a neat feeling being able to recogniseold photos of the ‘clan’. I am doing pretty well now. There was afamliy gathering of the Victorin/Häggboms on Ulla-Brits piano and Irecognised about 75% of them! I’m beginning to understand the familyties a little better too. Oh an interesting little anecdote. Sara started chatting about how sheis not short of cash (bought these salt shakers for SK500! a pop!!! 3of them!) but that she still works. She seems to be a bit snobbishabout it. It is interesting to feel the wealth over here and I’mdesperately trying to understand the common Swede. It is hard to putthe Häggbom and Victorin wealth into perspective. Interestingly enoughboth Melker and Torkels places seemed rather poo poo but adequate.Elins place on the other hand was rather cool for one person. It costher SK430,000 to get into it (borrowed from Sara) but it is a goodinvestment as these things seem to only go up in Stockholm.So I’ve been busy. Oh almost forgot. Sian (Sigrid) and Otto(boyfriend) and I went on a walk to see some really old trees. Hadshött? bullar and rice at the top of the hill with coffee of course.Saw a very rare swedish woodpecker too so that was fun. Hope thephotos come out OK. I’m crossing my fingers for some good ones ofMelker & co and also of Anders with the deceased dog @ Tunsjän.Sorry I haven’t emailed earlier but I feel a bit guilty using thecomputers all the time. Hopefully this is long enough to make the wait worth while :-)