Salsa Genovese?

Pesto should be the answer. (Genoan sauce?) - but in this case you'd be mistaken. Not sauce but dance. With a few tips from my boss I find my way to disco club Chango' to see what Italians do on a Wednesday night.
I was expecting a throng of stylish Italians showing off their best routines - but that wasn't quite what I found. Perhaps on a week-end it's different but this was a small crowd in a large club - relaxed and casual & plenty of space for dancing.
Cuban style was the order of the day (that and Bachata) - which is not my strong suit- but they do say that practice makes perfect - even if it's going to take a ot of practice!
It's strange dancing with people that don't understand a word you say (apart from grazie) but at the same time it's nice to be accepted even as a complete stranger.
But is it like this every wednesday? Well... I can't rightly say.. I didn't find anyone that understood the question!
Ciao!

The Italian Job

Liguria is just like home.. .. you see the english flag everywhere. - unless of course the Ligurian flag happens to be a red cross on a white background?
Genova is northern Italy - a town pressed in between the mountains and the sea. It sprawls along the coast for about 20km and wraps itself around the foothills so that at night they shine with a web of lights. It's not a tourist town. People live here...
The centre is old - fine imposing buildings in what I'd call 'renaissance' style - though in truth they're probably later. Broad avenues, fine facades, gushing fountains and tiny twisty side- streets.
and this week I'm staying in the centre - on the waterfront. I forewent the pleasure of the airport hotel - walking distance to the office - to be in town and enjoy the feel of the city. Not a choice I regret.
Of course that means getting to and from work. But as chance has it the #1 bus takes me right to the office. Twenty minutes watching the changing view of the city. Harbour, port, shops, flats and businesses - the railway and an ugly elevated road scoring through the city. Cars juggle by and mopeds appear in swarms and buzz off again.
How do i know when to get off?

Pennies from Heaven

Well not quite ... but I did get an unexpected windfall from upstairs.
Karin donated some old change to me she'd had from her mother - including a selection of pre-decimal coins dating from 1966 way back to 1906 ... and from four different monarchs - Edward VI, George V, George VI, and Elizabeth.

So I thought I'd share them with the world, in pictures.


Half a crown is about the same as 12,5 pence in modern currency - which makes a British crown worth about four Swedish crowns (kronor).
You always wanted to know that.. :-)

Blue sunday

It was snowing and blowing on the walk up to the station. Squally chilly weather coming in off the lake.. but the train is warm on the way in to town ..and not so very long after we are meeting up in the bar at Akkurat getting warm with a pint of traditional English winter ale. (..a pint of "Reinbeer" please!) me, Karin (my neighbour), Pål (needs no introduction(?)), Alexandre & Annelie (salsa friends)

Akkurat is one of the better pubs in Stockholm - but tonight it was not the wide and international selection of beer that was the attraction - not even the hundreds of different whiskies or the tasty mussel specialities on the menu. It was blues - in the form of Paul Jones & Dave Kelly - better known in the guise of the Blues Band perhaps. ..or for Paul Jones - his spell, long ago, with Manfred Mann.

But to be honest I'd come because a friend at work had said it would be good. And my friends were there because they believed me when I told them the same. ..and fortunately they were not disappointed. Two sets - the first with just Paul & Dave playing Mississippi blues on harmonica and guitar - and a second with a backing of sax, bass and drums with a more uptempo mix. Different in character but both really good.

Professional musicians who know their stuff seen at close quarters.. good tunes lovingly played - sweet slide guitar - and harmonica as good as it gets! Priceless! ..and free!
... errrr. Yes - I enjoyed it :-)

Cooling in the kitchen..

Marmalade, as of course you all know, is a word deriving from the old french name for the quince... and although there is a quince growing on my balcony it has in fact nothing to do with the marmalade now cooling in the kitchen.

..and now is just the time of year to find the Seville oranges that you need for good orange marmalade. But, I was too lazy to go all the way into town to see if they had any in the only place I know that might so it's not that that's cooling in the kitchen either.´

So this year's brew is 'Three Fruits Marmalade' - orange, lemon and lime.. with a little ginger and green pepper to warm up the taste a little.

And whether it's good or not I can't say - but it will make a nice change from Konsums best!

Come back at breakfast... :-)

One flew over the cuckoos nest..

The show was called 'Gökboet' - but it came to the same thing. On Friday I was lucky enough to get tickets for Dansens Hus to see Bounce! in the penultimate performance of Gökboet, a show which had had good reviews and, luckily for me, had been extended into January.

Bounce! are a Street Dance company and to be honest I wasn't sure what to expect.. a dance show based on a play about inmates at a mental hospital? Hmmm...
But it was VERY good.

The music, the set, the lighting and the dance... all were good. There was a little dialogue - in the very beginning - the inmates talking swedish and the doctor and wardens english - but for the rest it was dance that told the tale. Dance on crutches, dance in bed - dance in wheelchairs and dance climbing up the walls. Dance in the movies and even dance among the audience. Very energetic, but yet sympathetic, to music ranging from brash techno to 'Peter and the Wolf'.

I came away full of admiration for the cast - and the flair and imagination that had gone into the production. Highly recommended...

And after? Dinner after at Bistro Bohéme (Stockholms quirkiest decor?) was just the thing to round off the evening. A nice way to end the week..

New Years Eve 2007

December made way for January at a party in Sköndal - which for those that don't know is way over the other side of Stockholm from my home in Kallhäll. Annika and Niclas had booked a lovely spot - an upstairs room in a college looking out over a lake - but not exactly on my doorstep!

Fortunately for me I bumped into Astrid on the night bus home from town only a couple of nights before. She lives just up the road from me - more or less - but we hadn't met in six months - however, as it turned out, she was going to the same party and I gratefully accepted a lift. Serendipity :-)

So two nights later, by way of Carin's for aperitif, we found ourselves in Sköndal with 60 other salseros to celebrate the old year and the new. Appropriate for me that it was a salsa party as there's been a lot of that this year - and nice that there were plenty of familiar faces there to celebrate -almost all folk I've met during the year just gone...

I guess like most parties you had to be there to really appreciate it but I can say it was GOOD. Good food, good company and lots of dancing... mostly salsa of course and after salsa - sauna. Not so many of us made it that far it has to be said.. but it was the perfect way to wind down and welcome the new year.

And now it is 2007! God Fortsättning! (Good continuing...)

... and below, some pictures. Scroll through here, or click on the picture to go to the web-album.




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Karims Album

The year in retrospect

December was busy and I never did get round to writing one of those 'this is the year that was' letters to go out with my Christmas cards so this is a quick retrospective on 2006... And because it's quicker and easier you will find lot of it in pictures. But if a picture is worth a thousand words you're getting quite a lot for your money.

Summer means sailing, amongst other things. This year our maintrip was southward - past Nynäshamn to Trosa skärgården and back around the fringe of the archipelago. The weather was kind - a bit blowy in places but nothing too untoward. And the sunsets.. you have to see them :-)

Which reminds me... the photos!




After the sailing holiday... came a sailing holiday - with a difference. Sailsalsa! Five days of sailing, swimming, canoing & four nights with nothing to do but have fun & salsa! (Spot the fancy dress party..) Just me, and forty of the nicest people you'll ever want to meet. I sailed to Vindalsö in Mata Hari (with Andrea who'd never sailed before) turning it into a full weeks holiday. Nice.. but I so tired when I got home...




Autumn & the boat is out the water - which just leaves salsa to keep me busy. Halloween is not at all swedish, but it gets celebrated anyway - why miss a party? Fancy dress... again.

The view from my kitchen window

Every blog has to start somewhere I suppose .. and since I'm sitting here looking out the window it seemed as good a place as any. The elm and the alder is the view from my kitchen window - that and Lake Mälaren whose waters lap almost up to the door.

There is another blog - that has something to do with salsa and probably will get much more widely read than this - but that's in swedish and doesn't really say that much about life off the dance floor. This one is in English and is intended for you - and a few more of my friends and family that might be interested to drop by.

How much this one gets used we will have to see - but I thought at least it would be useful for linking to photos. Hopefully from time to time I'll even find the time to do what a blog is for - blogging- and add a little colour from life in Stockholm.

Enjoy!