This hurts me more than it hurts you!

Every where you go here in Australia, you see these cute kids in school uniforms. The uniforms are all different depending on the school they go to and also depending on the season. There is a winter uniform and a summer uniform. The hats are also different depending on the school and season.

These boys are clearly in 

I had a very interesting conversation with hubby in the car today about school uniforms. Of course he went to a school where you had to have one and he seems to be all for it. In fact he sees it as something very practical, in that you don't have to chose every morning what to wear, you just hop into the same old trousers and shirt and blazer if you are a boy. Of course if you are a girl it is a skirt instead of trousers.

But... even though it is a uniform you can jazz it up a bit. You can wear the jacket inside out. Or like hubby and friends did, they soaked their caps in hot water to make them shrink so that they had only a silly little cap perched on top of the head without any real purpose - a pimple on a pumpkin. There were very strict rules about when and where you can take of your blazer, and when you must wear your caps.

If you are a girl you can hoist your skirt up and make it into a real mini skirt. You can also do things with your ties, in fact having a uniform gives endless possibilities to invent fashion. I am almost envious, since I went to a Swedish school and no one has uniforms in Sweden, at least not to my knowledge. It would go against the national grain, seeming to inflict a rule about something as personal as your clothes on somebody, that would just not be acceptable.

Sometimes when we compare notes, hubby and me, on our childhoods and growing up, you wonder if we lived in the same universe. For example he told me that he sometimes "got the cane" for some mischief that he had been up to. The last time was when he was 17, and we are talking about "six of the best", on the bottom, with a wooden cane; needless to say I was horrified. Sweden is one of the first countries,  if not the first, where hitting children became illegal, over 50 years ago. There is also an ombudsman who looks after children's interest.  In Victorian public schools, however, corporal punishment only became illegal in 2006!

One problem with uniforms though is that they do tend to cost a bit and if you have a growing spurt in the middle of term you might be told by your headmaster, as was the case with hubby, "Why don't your shoes have a party and invite your trousers down?"  So for the rest of the term he had to wear knee socks and shorts in the middle of winter.  Still he has such fond memories of school that it seems churlish to act shocked and het up about it.

I have been present once though, when my grandmother, bless her, who looked after me and my sister, was at her wit's end and was going to discipline my sister by smacking her bottom with a hairbrush. The brush part flew off its handle and almost broke some ornament and we all three got such a surprise that we couldn't stop giggling, in fact it was one of those "laughing until your belly aches" moment. So much for discipline....with the back of a hair brush!  It became one of our favorite stories when we were thinking back on incidents involving our grandmother after she passed away.

Here is my grand mother with my sister and me, but the above incident was much later.

A fun-packed first week

Amazing! I have already been back in Sydney for more than a week; time does fly when you are having fun!

And I have had fun even though it was with very mixed feelings that I left Sweden and my elderly mother. To think that it was only two years ago that she was with us here in Sydney.

The fun started last weekend which was Father's Day, and only son came out to our neck of the woods for the weekend and took us out on Sunday for a pub lunch which we all enjoyed.

Then it was starting up painting class again with a workshop on Thursday. Great to see the girls again!

Friday we went to a cocktail party at the CruisingYacht Club of Sydney in Rushcutters Bay for hubby's school reunion. It was mainly white-haired men in dark suits reminiscing about old teachers and school in general.

There were a few speeches of course and lovely nibbles and drinks. However, what really became abundantly clear was that schools here in Australia judge their success on their sports results and less, much less, on academic results. In fact, not once were academic results mentioned but everyone seemed to remember who made that winning goal in 198....something!

On Saturday we went to the Sydney Country Music Festival held in Bella Vista.  Since we have not been to music festivals for ages we didn't think to bring something to sit on so we had to wander around and sometimes sit down on tree roots, when our legs started to tremble.

We also came back regularly to the bar where there were seats and cold beer!!! and a Brazilian barbecue. The temperature got up to over +30°C so much beer was needed. Don't worry, it was low-alcohol beer since this was a family affair. In fact during the concert the security guards circulated in the audience and asked to see what was in their picnic baskets (checking for alcohol) What cheek, I thought at first, but I guess they don't want people to be drunk and disorderly or drive home under the influence.

My clear favorites were Justin Frew and the Wolverines and Chelsea Basham from WA but we also liked a few of the other female singers but I can't remember their names.

Oh, let's not forget, Saturday was also the day that Australia went to the ballots and hubby was able to vote for the first time in over 35 years.

The results started coming in when we were driving back from the festival and Australia now has a right-wing government. Hmmm, let's see how that works out.

Home is where the heart is

.....at least that's what they say, but that special "heart" is in bed with another bout of Lyme disease. He has just had his blood-test results back and they indicated borrelia.  We seem to have a lot of deer ticks in the fields near the cottage in Sweden, and if it it is not me it will be hubby catching this wretched disease, usually while mowing the lawn, without having his whole body covered up to protect against ticks. Friends, don't let this stop you from coming to visit though, we don't expect you to mow the lawn.

Here in Australia they haven't got a clue what borrelia is since it does not seem to exist here. It is not fun and you feel very achy and miserable generally, similar to a man cold but much, much worse.

Anyway, I am back in God's Own Country   (that is one of the nicknames for Australia, together with "down under", "the lucky country" and the "sunburnt country") !! However when I Googled this, I found that many other countries, New Zealand in particular, called their country God's own. So I'll say I am back in Oz then and everybody will understand what I am talking about.

These flights from overseas generally arrive very early, and mine did too.  We were back at the house before 7 am and had time to catch up on a few things before hubby went to work.

I think you realize you are getting old when you find the escalators too fast in Singapore airport (or are they particularly fast there?) I had to stand and will myself to get on, frequently creating a little queue behind me. At the end I realized that the best way was to just get on in your stride, without even stopping, and that worked better. I wish I had known about the emergency button. Singapore was fun, with +36 °C and 90% humidity. I didn't have a proper stop-over with a night in a hotel but I still had 12 hours to spend somehow. So I went shopping, and boy, can you shop in Singapore.

More is to come since I think hubby is planning something for Father's Day on Sunday, so I'll leave you for now with a big yawn.

Did I mention that we seem to be cat sitting again?

Summer is almost over

They say that when the heather blossoms, at least here in this region, it is the end of summer. However, the last week has been one of the best all summer and today is absolutely gorgeous, so it doesn't quite feel like it is the end yet. We might even go for a little swim later.

We have had lots of fun visitors but now the cottage is getting empty with only me and eldest daughter still here, and she is "in the zone" packing up for her departure tomorrow, so we are not speaking much. I have a few more days until I leave on Tuesday, well really my flight is on Wednesday but it is so darn early I will have to go and sleep in the airport since there is no way I can get to the airport from here for a 6 o'clock morning flight.

I found a website where they classified different airports from the point of view of having to spend a long time or even sleep there and I am hoping that Landvetter has a good rating.

Life here is pretty quiet so the only thing I can tell you is that I had a call from a friend who told me that another friend's husband had successfully saved his brother-in-law's life when he had a heart attack and there were only the two of them at home. The interesting thing is that my friend who called had recently "coached" me concerning this.  She says that the best rhythm is to do the heart massage to the rhythm of "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees. 

To finish off, here is a photo to say farewell to my hometown Gothenburg. It has become so big and different from when I was young,  but it has still in many ways remained the same.

Next time, if all goes well, I will write from Sydney. Until then, "Hej då"!

Beautiful, beautiful Copenhagen

I do like Copenhagen and it was great to have a little visit there this summer. Eldest daughter and a friend of hers, and of course yours truly, drove down to Copenhagen in torrential rain. I have had an aquaplanning incident once outside the airport in Lyon and ended up facing the traffic, so I get a little tense when I drive through rain.

We were going to meet up with my UK girl friend which we did successfully at our hotel. In the two days we were there we managed to see most of the sights. The one that impressed the most was the Glyptotek which I will try to put in photos from.

Winter garden at the Glyptotek

Our visit would not have been complete if we had not seen the little mermaid. I can truly confirm that it is little.

The little and the big mermaid

Other things we did was strolling down Strøget, of course and having beer and indulging in people watching in Nyhavn, strongly recommended. Again, I promise to put in pictures later on. It is very picturesque with the houses in all different colours. We should have taken the harbour cruise but that will be for next time.

Other things we saw was the sandcastle sculptures on the river and the Opera House and Amalienborg, where the Royals live.  Of course being a 60+ girl from the hippy era, I had to see Christiania which was interesting but I am glad I don't have to live there.

On Monday we drove back to Gothenburg over the Øresundsbron which is quite impressive, and if you have followed the detective story Bron you know what I mean.

We stopped in Arild to see our good friends there and it was a nice reunion especially since "the kids" had not seen each other for ages. I use 'kids' very loosely of course, since they are all around 30 now. They grew up together and have many fond memories of holidays spent together.

Amy Gina Nils Nicco Romain Chloe in Arild

So after a nice catch up lunch we set off again so we would not be too late arriving in Gothenburg, since we had promised to drop in and see my mother since we have to drive through Gothenburg to get to our cottage.

My internet time is almost up now here at the library so I will leave you with this Malawi saying "You can't have two buttocks without friction"  Up to you how you interpret it!

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PS Oh, I almost forgot we also had a very quick visit from the north. Our friends arrived in a beautiful fire engine and we had a good time together. It was our first sighting of D the first child in the circle of 'kids' that our kids grew up with. D was turning 3 in a few days and they were down our way to dismantle and buy an slide for her. She was not supposed to know but it was clear that she did.

Which reminded me of when my sister and me used a secret language called the "pirate language" in Swedish, when our kids were younger, when we wanted to say for example ice cream. They cottoned on to that of course and used it against us, by asking for ice-cream in that language. So much for secrecy and thinking that you can outsmart kids. It just doesn't work.


 

Being very quiet

Just sitting here, outside our little cottage, trying very hard to do quiet things. You know how hard that can be!

Every thing you want to do makes noise, for example opening the cupboard to get some chips. The bag needs to be opened and it takes two tries, first with the scissors and then with a knife. Finally you get that sorted and then you just want to get something to drink and take it quietly outside and try not to make a peep. That's when something, precariously placed in the fridge, splashes onto the floor and needs to be wiped up. Your'e still trying to maintain some sort of silence but it is not to be, because when you finally get outside the neighbours, whom you haven't seen for a while, decide to come around for a chat. You try to speak quietly to set an example without actually saying anything but it doesn't work. And why this endeavor to be so quiet you might wonder.

Well, elder daughter and a friend arrived from London Stanstead today. If you habitually take the Ryan Air flight to Gothenburg you know that it leaves early in the morning, and if you want to be sure to make the two-hours-before-hand check in that they require, you need to get there the night before. It's barbaric! But, since it seems to be the only way, they should at least install comfortable armchairs. You can see whole families with elderly grandparents making makeshift camps on the floor, trying to catch a few hours of sleep. People get pretty protective of their spot too and it can get a bit nasty. So as you can imagine you are pretty cranky when you arrive in Gothenburg. This time it wasn't helped by the fact that we took a little detour into Gothenburg to visit my mother before setting off for the island. My mother was very happy to see her older granddaughter though, and we had a nice little visit, and handing out of presents from Africa.

I hope the nice summer weather will stay on for a while and that we will be able to enjoy the Swedish summer. We haven't even had that many mosquitos this year.

Before the girls arrived I also had whirlwind visit from our friends from Grenoble. They also have a house in the south of Sweden, and now that we live in Australia it is so nice to catch up in the summer. They came up here with three teenage boys to go to Liseberg, the big amusement park in Gothenburg, and also to show the boys this part of Sweden which is different to Skåne where they have their house.

Unfortunately there were no elks around when they were here but they did show an albino elk on the news. Even the horns were white.

"So remember every goodbye makes the next hello closer"

Speak again soon then!

Fika

Yes, finally! This is a Swedish concept which really just means having a coffee and maybe a bisquit or a cinnamon roll or something else sweet at any time of the day. Swedes love it. It is such a simple way to invite people, without worrying about cooking and what wine to have with different dishes. Just put on some coffee and maybe bake something or get something from the many bakeries or just open a package of bisquits. Even Wikipedia has cottoned on to it and here you can read more.

The reason I am writing about is that yesterday I took my mother, who is staying with me, for a little drive, and we ended up in Fjällbacka . As soon as we had parked the car and started walking around my mother expressed a desire to have a "fika" and we ended up doing just that on one of the piers.

The place was packed and Fjällbacka is not very big, so it was noticeable. We got a good spot for people watching though. I think some people there were famous judging by other people whispering and taking pictures with their phones, but not really famous for me, since I have not properly lived in Sweden for 30 years.

It might not be visible in this photo but most of the boats sailed under Norwegian flag or maybe some under German flag but not many Swedish boats. I don't really know the reason but I am guessing that the neighbouring countries might have stronger economies than Sweden maybe. Or maybe Swedish boat owners find Fjällbacka too crowded and know of other places hidden away.

The reason I was keen to see Fjällbacka was because I have read all the books written by Camilla Lackberg. They are murder stories based in Fjällbacka and now they are being made into films, called the Fjällbacka Murders (hum, where have I heard something similar?).

We have had a whole week of warm, sunny weather, I could almost contemplate having a dip, even though the water temperatures are not up to 20+C, if it wasn't for these little monsters.

It is time to go out and enjoy the sun while it lasts and I suggest you do the same, maybe with a suitable beverage in your hand or maybe with a "fika".