I was sending a birthday card to Neil the other day (Happy Birthday, Neil!) when I noticed something odd about the Swedish 11Kr stamp.
The first time I looked at it, I thought it had a picture of the Swedish pop star/eurovision song contest winner, Carola on it.
Turn’s out to just be Queen Silvia of Sweden.
::The Swedish 11Kr stamp : : : : : : Pop Star Carola
Here’s a video of Queen Silvia performing in the final of the 1991 ESC with “Fångad av en stormvind”
On Saturday the weather was perfect and we were out walking in Haga Park. Halfway through the walk we stopped off at koppartälten which is a large copper “tent” traditionally used as a stables, but was destroyed by fire in the 1950’s.
Now it’s a museum and coffee shop.
We walked past the butterfly farm and it didn’t feel like April in Stockholm.
We ended up down in the city and this was the view on Sveavägen at Adolf Fredriks kyrkogård (churchyard).
In December I looked at the possibility of running in the Stockholm Marathon. Thankfully Unfortunately, the event was fully booked, but I put myself on the waiting list incase anyone dropped out. Today I received this email…
“Dear runner,
363 out of the more than 2.000 runners on the waiting list for the 2008 Stockholm Marathon have been accepted for the race.
This means that no more runners from the waiting list will be accepted fot the 2008 Stockholm Marathon. We’re sorry, but you will not be offered a place in this years race.
The 2009 Stockholm Mararthon will be staged on Saturday, May 30. Entry för the race will open on May 31 this year on www.stockholmmarathon.se.
This automn we will organise the Stockholm Half Marathon on September 6. We expect about 9.000 entries. You will find all information on www.stockholmhalfmarathon.se
With kind regards
Stockholm Marathon”
Of course, I’m very sad about not being a part of the race, but I wish the lucky 363 all the best.
Was just speaking to my Dad about him going fishing tomorrow on the River Tummel.
It reminded me of a video I saw on Youtube the other week about a guy who had caught a grayling in the north of Sweden and when he was putting it back in the water, a little pike came up to say hello…
One of my favourite albums is Marvin Gaye’s “What’s going on?”.
Marvin Gaye was born on the 2nd of April 1939 and shot dead by his father on the 1st of April 1984.
The album What’s Going On? was released in May 1971 and had the themes of economic insecurity, ecological destruction and the war in Vietnam. 37 years later and it could be about today as well.
Inner City Blues is one of my top tunes from this album and one you don’t hear too often, so here it is…
On Saturday, I went for a little walk around Östermalms Saluhall which is like a food court for very fine food from around the world.
I got to one stall where they were selling wild caught Scottish lobster. The price was 890Kr (75 GBP) a Kg!!!!!!
Neil, buy a lobster boat!
I’ve just heard that there is to be a ban on alcohol being sold to under 21’s in Scotland’s capital city, Armadale. (It’s also my home town :))
The organisers stressed that Armadale “had not been chosen because its alcohol-related problems were particularly bad“. (Must have just been a fortunate coincidence).
In unrelated news, Buckfast Abbey have announced the redundancy of fourteen staff and early retirement for all monks over 75…
Tonight Sweden play Brazil in a football friendly in London.
Interestingly, the two sides have a 50 year anniversary this year because they also played each other in the 1958 world cup final.
In 1958, Sweden hosted the world cup finals and after disposing of Mexico, Hungary, Wales, USSR and West Germany they met Brazil in the final at Råsunda Stadium which is only about 10 mins from my flat by bus.
In the final they got beat 5-2 with the 17 year old Pele scoring twice. It was his first world cup and Brazil’s first trophy.
I predict a 0-0 tonight.
Had a really good weekend for Easter. It started off with us leaving on Friday night on the ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki with friends David and Kristine. It was a bit chilly on the top deck, but inside it was nice and we had a good night with a meal and a bit of dancing and even a couple of cocktails…
Once we had arrived in Helsinki we tried to check into our hotel which was the Hotel Presedentii, but unfortunately they had no idea that we were coming and no record of our booking. After a half hour of phoning around, we got our room and rushed out to get to the Rock Church to attend the wedding of my friend Kaiyu that started in four minutes time. Luckily, the church was only three minutes away so we made it with plenty of time to spare.
The wedding was great and the setting was perfect. The rock church is actually built underground, a bit like a cave with a big glass and copper roof. The service was mostly in Chinese, but with a blessing in English from a local minister and big cheers and applause to let us know that they got married!
The reception was next door with traditional Chinese singing and even a full Chinese choir (and of course champagne and cake and food).
Afterwards most people headed back to the boat to Stockholm after a little trip to the cathedral, but me and Maria stayed on for an extra night and headed back to our hotel room.
After dinner we visited the cathedral again to see an Easter passion play that took place on the steps of the cathedral and at various different locations around the heart of the city. The couple of thousand in the audience followed the actors around the streets and the actors done brilliantly as they soldiered on even though the whole thing took place in a snow storm and the temperature was down to -7 or -8.
The play was excellent and the 15th year that it had been done. I would really like to see something like this in English to mark Easter, but it probably wouldn’t happen in Britain as it would be deemed un-PC and offensive to people from Whitburn or something.
Afterwards we headed to the Nightclub Presedentii until about 2am. This seemed a good idea at the time, but I regretted it when the alarm went at 7:30 because we had decided to go swimming in the hotel swimming pool before breakfast. This swimming pool was the coldest I have ever been in (and I’ve been swimming in Paisley). After 15 mins, I couldn’t take any more, but luckily this being Finland, there was a hot sauna to jump straight into.
After breakfast it was off to Sveaborg or Suomenlinna as the Fins call it. This is a group of islands just outside Helsinki that were turned into a fort and used from the middle of the 1700’s through to the second world war. It’s a UNESCO heritage site, but that didn’t stop it from being very, very, very cold, perhaps even a bit colder than that.
Back on the boat and off to Stockholm we had a few drinks and dinner and then went dancing in the entertainment lounge with a live band. Maria thought that she recognised the singer of the band and when they finished she went over to talk to them. Turns out they were Bulgarian and quite a well known band back in the motherland. We got invited “back stage” to the entertainers deck and the party went on til 4am when we disappeared back to our cabin.
Great weekend, great wedding and great party on the boat! Now I need a great nights sleep…
Happy Easter!
As you can see from the picture above, the weather has turned a bit snowy here in Stockholm.
We’ll be in Helsinki in Finland over the weekend for a friend of mines wedding so theres a good chance it will be even colder there!
Hope everyone has a nice weekend!
