Eyes front

So how is it going on the eyes front? (I hear you ask..)

It's bit over a month since the last operation and everything is pretty much healed up thanks. I was at the docs in the week and my sight is a tad better - although that still means that with my right eye I can't read the first line on the chart unaided. And everything is stable so I can go back to life as normal. Great!

But.. and just a small but.. the last operation only tackled part of the scar tissue thats stretching the retina so they want me to come back for another operation (or two) in the spring. Which I guess is better than them saying "naw, you're on your own chum".. Kind of.

So I'll be the one wearing sunglasses round town in February.

Forbidden Pleasures

Today I've been indulging in something that would be illegal back home in England.... Well actually, making it and consuming it would be quite legal - it's just the main ingredient that is banned... So, when I saw it on the shelf in the supermarket I couldn't resist!

Browned in the pan, a few root vegetables and then three hours slow cooking in the oven and it's delicious stewed oxtail for dinner.

All of which means that if in fifteen years I develop Creutzfeldt-Jakob's disease you know just what to put it down to...

Living dangerously or what!

All at sea

It was a fine evening so I took a stroll down across the park and along the waterside by Årstaviken. And, passing one of the boatclubs there, I saw a Folkbåt out on the water.. just a jib up, slowly going nowhere in the evening airs.

They're coming in I thought, I'll stop and watch.. but it soon became apparent that they weren't going anywhere. Jib-sheets appeared and got attached.. with the ends taken straight to the cockpit.... and the foot of the jib, a foot off the deck - Is it actually attached?

Hoist the main? .. well let's take the jib down first and untangle the halliards...

And setting the sails? Well.. you get the picture?

It was a fine looking boat, and it looked like they'd not had it long and not done a lot of sailing either. I so much wanted to offer to show them how to put things right.. but they were too far off to hail, and the jetty was locked in behind a gate and barbed wire.. so I watched them sail off.. slowly.. with the jib backed...

But I hope they persevere, and learn, because it really was a nice Folkboat and she was built to glide oh so sweetly through the water on that light evening breeze...

The Summertime Blues

Summertime.
After all those long winter nights and the snow and cold now is the time you've been waiting for. Hot sticky weather and evenings that glide slowly into twilight sometime around midnight. Except this year's been a bit different. Eleven weeks since my first operation and I'm still avoiding all the things that normally fill those summer days - meaning mostly sailing and dance...

Life is rushing by at a snail's pace.... last weekend was a washout - strange things happening in my peripheral vision resulted in another visit to the hospital and the advice to go home and take it really easy until I saw the surgeon again (last monday)... so, knowing that a detached retina can get worse quickly, I spent a worried weekend playing hermit. Which I suppose I've got used to, except that just this weekend I had tickets to see Van Morrison and Joan Armatrading at the Stockholm Jazz festival.. and then on sunday to see John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. Three wannasee concerts (for which I had tickets) and I'm home keeping the teapot company!

The good news was, if you see what I mean, that I needn't have sat home, and probably could have gone to the concert. My eye wasn't (quite) as bad as I thought. The retina is though very tight stretched round one edge which means there's still a risk it will split again... so it was amber rather than green this time.

But... better than another operation and starting over. And good enough I reckon to ring Annika and say YES to Sailsalsa. True I have to abstain from the dance AND the sailing, but I will at least get out among the islands, with book and beach, and hopefully some sun to go with it....

So... the ferry goes tomorrow...

The key's in the door....

And a little photo montage from the first few weeks 'i stan'. (don't forget to click to view the album!)

Moving in

Superloppis..

All in boxes

Green fingers

In the party mood

Pre-move party

It's old news.. but I'm catching up, slowly. Here come the picks from my 'pre-move' party - way back in the spring before life started going all fuzzy...

With me old cock linnet...

Yesterday was the day. After a weekend of stuffing boxes and finding yet more things to stuff in boxes yesterday was the day the lorry came to pick up life in Kallhäll and dump it all down in the city.
So now there's just the unpacking to do. My furniture is in and the bed is back in one piece and it would all look quite normal were it not for a sea of boxes...
Unpacking - looks like that's a game I'll be playng for a few weeks to come.

Second Opinion

A bit over a week ago now I was back in the hospital. My eyesight was improving but I was getting a lot of 'floaters'... Things floating in my field of vision, and out to the right.. Well there wasn't anything out to the right. I could think of a number of plausible reasons, but one of them was that my retina wasn't as fast as it should be. so, rather than wait for my next checkup I took me off to the hospital to sit in the queue.
He didn't exactly suck through his teeth, but after a good look round the doctor said there was fluid under the retina at the edge, and please come back on monday so the surgeon can check it over...
So for two days I was really walking on egg-shells and somewhat morose - but monday morning bright and early I was sat outside the doctors office.
and the verdict was that there was no fluid.. And seeing nothing out to the right is OK because they used lasers to close the holes, and that causes local damage.. which should improve a bit with time - but not much I reckon.
Still, all in all, I prefer my second second opinion.

Location, location, location

As someone that's recently bought a flat here in the City of Stockholm I was interested to find an article on the world's most expensive property.. a flat in London selling for a mere £115 million.

Or just down the road and a little cheaper - £20 million for a flat at One Hyde Park? At £6000/sq. foot that works out at a tad over 825 000 kr/kvm.

Cheap at half the price?

I think I got a bargain :-)

Home is where the toaster is...

Life, aside from the medical complications, is a little nomadic right now. Two homes or none?
Two places to live at least, but which is home?
Kallhäll still has all my furniture - all but the basics - and music, videos, books and most of my clothes, but with packing started it has an air of impermanence. Hornstull has enough to get by and being here, camped on the floor, means thoughts & plans for the future (albeit mostly things needing decorating or repair).
Each trip back here I bring a little more... This trip a cookbook, a candlestick, my tea cosy, toastrack and toaster. Breakfast at least belongs in town..

The world is flat

It's true, it's official! The world is flat. At least it is in my eyes!
Stereo vision lets us see the world in three glorious dimensions but to get it needs two eyes and right now I can't muster much more than one. Monovision. Depth disappears and the world is flat.
It's an unexpected handicap. My spatial judgement is up the creek. I go to close a cupboard and miss the handle, misjudge the depth of a step.. and stand like drunk at the door, the key circling in on the keyhole. Pouring from the kettle? Cutting veg. Just shaking hands. New challenges.
I'm taking drops that dilate the pupil and relax the eye.. which means no focus regardless of what my eye might otherwise manage. Looks like I am going to have to get used to it - this flat earth.
Excuse me while I - carefully - pour a beer...

You should have seen the other guy...

It's Tuesday and I'm home after an unexpected stay in hospital. Strange goings on with my sight proved to be a detached retina so they kept me in to have it operated on the following day.. and I then spent all night lying just so so that it wouldn't get any worse beforehand.
Yesterday they wheeled me away to fix me up with lasers and elastic bands and now they've let me out again. Not that I have my sight back. It will be about a month before I get back to something like normal - so if I walk past you on the street without saying hi it's just that you're on my blind side... Right now my right eye is just a blur..
And for now, no lifting, driving, swimming, flying - or dancing. (Wot no salsa?)
So it goes...

BIG thanks to the staff at St Erik's. It's nice to be in good hands!

Out of sight

We take it for granted that how we see life tomorrow will be pretty much how we see life today, so it's an unpleasant surprise when from one day to the next one eye just ain't doing all it should.. Blurred and out of focus, and missing bits round the edges. That's how on a Sunday I come to be sitting here in the waiting room at St Erik's Eye Hospital.

We forget how wonderful our bodies are, the things they do for us day in & day out. .. And we mostly take it for granted that when it's broken it can be mended - I'm kind of hoping my faith is not misplaced on that one.

Room with a view

It was a lovely sunny afternoon when I finally got back to the flat with the keys - after rushing around town for a customer meeting. Just a short visit to get a feel for what I've bought.
Two rooms and a kitchen as they say.. I've seen it all before but this for real. Home to be. :-)
Sunshine floods across the boards, a warm welcoming amber glow. There's good light and air. But the big echoey empty rooms are still just that bit smaller than I remember... or more probably, than I'm used to. The memory plays tricks.
There are cracks here and there, and seen naked the living room paintwork looks tired and in need of a refresh. Jot that on the list.
And the floors slope. I've never lived in a house where the floors slope. Not a lot, but it takes you by surprise.
The kitchen is a treat.. I'm looking forward to getting back to a gas hob and a proper drainer.. New inspiration at the table, and then dinner with guests? Though maybe that will have to wait till the furniture gets here?
Kallhäll has been beautiful these last days, and starting to pack sad, but today I get to taste a new flavour of things beginning.
It tastes good!

In Tablets of Silicon

Starting the day with the BBC. A genuine taste of England piped to the bedside..

Turn the pages on a Sherlock Holmes adventure, whiling away the minutes on the bus.

Scribbling notes, composing mails and writing blogs..

Showing off the latest pictures of the boat. Flick through the music and choose what to play...


I've bought this new computer thing.. A Nokia N810 (don't tell the boss). Not a phone, but a tablet PC - a genuinely pocket sized computer which unlike my BIG PC doesn't take ten minutes to boot (which makes it eminently useable).

I like the flexibility, and the real-audio internet radio (for the Beeb), the offline blog editor, and even the ebook reader. Smaller than a paperback but room for a complete library :-) And with Pidgin loaded all those chat messages come to one place on the coffee table. 'Pling' - is that you?

Of course I could use it for MP3s but I have the phone for that but it is the new remote for my music server ;-)

As for the practicalities? WiFi is a whizz.. and coupling up on the move works well via bluetooth to the phone.
The keyboard - is OK. Thumbing is not as quick as the real thing.. But the screen is much more practical for surfing on the move than my mobile even if it does get a bit hard work on pages with a lot of content - like Facebook!
Still, as a window on the web it has a lot going for it... Time to open the curtains?

Thrift

Out on the balcony spring has come. The albeit short garden walk has come alive with colour - most obviously with the pansies, now getting established and more prolific- but also now with daffidils and grape hyancinth. Aquiligia is up, and the quince is ready to burst into bloom, the lavender has survived the albeit mild winter, the houseleeks have found new vigour, and yes, the thrift is bursting into bloom.
YES!

Done & dusted

I'm moving... It's official!
On Thursday the bidding closed, and in that slighly scary Swedish way we gathered straight away to sign on the dotted line.
From the beginning of May I have my new place on Söder - and from the middle of June I close the door on life in Kallhäll. I will miss it.. sunshine on the balcony and nature unfolding outside the door. But it's time for a change - and less time idling from place to place on the train. Ironic really as that's where am right now...

What am I bid?

The weekend was a busy one. When I wasn't tidying and cleaning for
sunday's viewing I was working on the boat - which went well albeit
slower than expected...
But the flat did get cleaned, and the viewings went ahead in spite of
the rain...
So now comes the interesting bit. Who wants to buy?
One bidder is enough to sell... but it will be nice if there's at
least some competition!
Well gentlemen, what am I bid

Pristine

Cleaned, washed, polished, tidied... Fresh planted pansies on the balcony, tulips on the kitchen table. ...(while what was my kitchen table stands in pieces in my storeroom). The windowsills are strangely bare without the straggly plants and the forest of cuttings.
Spring cleaning with avengeance...
The estate agent is coming to take pictures (..& get my name on a contracţ). The apartment is looking its best and the day is sunny, and the balcony is warm & inviting...
Paul.. Enjoy it while you can!

The man sings..

Buying the tickets was one of those spur of the moment things... I'd heard him on the radio but never quite got around to buying the music - not even after I had the tickets on the shelf.

And so on a chilly March evening months later I was in Globen filing into Hovet to see.... James Blunt.
No preconceptions, no hype... Nice. I like it that way - not least when it turns out to be really GOOD. Good music - great voice and an impressive multimedia show alongside... all the more impressive as it was mixed live from two cameras by the stage.

And absolute best for me was 'No Bravery' - a song based on his time in Kosovo, played with video footage from the conflict in the background...

Moving, as good art should be.

Moving the view..

Life has this habit of going on as usual... most of the time...
but just of late it's been anything but.

After four years living out in Kallhäll watching the ducks dabble and the sun setting over Mälaren it is time for a move. Not without reservations, I've decided to up sticks and head for the big city. After wrestling with just what and where and how much, hours spent surfing on Hemnet, and several frantic days running between viewings it is finally settled. I'm moving...

And compared to England things move scarily fast. Exchanging contracts? Weeks of due diligence by two different solicitors? No... Three hours from bid accepted to wet ink on the paper.

So home, once I've sold this one and unpacked the removals truck, will be in Hornstull on Södermalm - an airy (albeit smaller) apartment on a quiet sidestreet by Högalids Park. Shops round the corner, both bus and underground more or less on the doorstep... and just a few minutes to most of my usual haunts.

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...not to mention the island of Långholmen just a short walk away for when I feel like watching the those ducks dabble and the sun setting over Mälaren.

The Earth moved...

Sometimes the improbable becomes a reality and it shows how out of touch I am with life in England that it was not until I rang home to mum that I heard that Britain had been hit by the largest earthquake recorded there in over twenty years… and that Market Rasen – where mum lives – was at the epicentre.

Fortunately, at 5.2 on the Richter scale, it’s not a major cause of panic & mayhem – but it is big enough to be felt across the country – and when you wake up in the middle of the night with the house shaking you don’t actually know how big this is…
But, as you can see below there are actually quite a lot of earthquakes around if you know where to look...


Seven days: Image by United States Geological Survey

Re-cycled

There are those that have.. and those that don't, and today I just jumped from one side to the other. After twenty years as a motorist today I'm back to shanks' pony -my humble bicycle, bus and train

Since I moved here my car has been an indulgent luxury - and being right hand drive a momento of that different life in England. But as the car has got older I've used it less and less and it's been more a liability than an asset.

So it's goodbye to the car
...and road tax, and insurance, and parking fees, and service, inspections and repairs. And hello to a new car(e)-free me :-)

Far from the madding crowd?

I've started thinking about moving... No that's not quite right - I've been thinking for some time. Thinking has moved on and now I'm looking at what a move to the city might mean.

Home right now is bright, spacious and well planned in a beautiful area right by the waterfront - at a price that buys very little in town. But... I seem to spend a big slice of my day on the train and not so very much sat enjoying the view. So being 'nearer the pulse' has an increasing attraction. Which is how I came to spend my sunday going round town looking at apartments - a loft conversion in old Södermalm, a basement flat near Stureplan, and fantastic views from high above Medborgarplatsen (with sky high monthly charges).

First taste says that hitting the right place might take a while....

Daybreak

Outside the sky is already fragile blue, dawn breaking behind the
treetops. Inside, the newly awakened wonders what happened to the
alarm?
Shower shave dress pack coat shoes and out the door... and into that
fresh bright dawn, the frozen ground crisp beneath each hurried
footfall.

Somewhere among the trees a woodpecker is drumming. Is it spring already???

The woodpecker pecks

Breakfast, and outside in a grey january morning the woodpecker is picking it's way round the old branches in the elm. Windless and still, it's one of those days when the sky blends seamlessly into the lake, the only colour the yellow tinge of the reeds waiting patiently on the shore..

Winter as you may have noticed, is remarkable in it's absence. The New Year snow is gone, leaving just the gravel littering the roads and paths, and ice for skating is still just a faint hope.

Oh yes... the New Year. A GREAT party... and then back to reality. Work is uninspiring, though with a reorganisation coming there's prospects for some improvement.

And the car's not working.. which doesn't matter too much as I'm planning to get rid of it anyway. Goodbye to parking, insurance and the petrol pump! Which leaves only a few small questions - like how am I going to get my assembled rubbish to the recycling centre?