Has Anyone Been To Sweden?

Old Blue Eyes

The Prof is in Brussels
He facetimed me when I was sat at the kitchen table completing my " admin"
He always chuckles when I tell him I'm doing admin in a sort of " what the hell have you got to administrate?" Kind of way
But I was busy with my admin!
I booked a flight to Ireland in May to catch you with my best mate Nu at her country cottage realising  that I fly to Cork just a few hours after getting back from Gothenburg with the Prof. I'm carry his bags when he attends a conference in Sweden's 'second' city.
Can anyone out there suggest " day time " things I can do when the Prof is busy?
A few weeks after Sweden my family is meeting en masse in Sitges, Spain for my sister's 70th birthday which will be great fun
It suddenly feels a very small world.

I booked the dogs into their usual kennels with a click of my laptop button and messaged the boffin to see if he could cottage sit without me needing to leave the kitchen table.
Today it's so easy to organise your life in front of a ten inch plasma screen.

I propped up my iPad against my coffee cup in order to watch the Olympic curling heats and as I tapped away on my laptop, I'm finding the sport strangely hypnotic....mind you the lead Italian team curler does have the deepest blue eyes this side of Korea




72 comments:

  1. Yes. I have been to Sweden. I drove over the Oresund Bridge from Denmark with my daughter and we spent a week camping in southern Sweden in lovely, summery weather.

    Things to do in and around Gothenburg? Go here:-
    https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g189894-Activities-Gothenburg_Vastra_Gotaland_County_West_Coast.html

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    1. Anonymous3:06 pm

      Oh John,I know you dont know me but i do read your blog and find it Brilliant,Funny and Addictive reading....But is it ok to send YP a quick message,through you aswell....Please!!...Well,as i dont know how to comment on these things without the Anon option,which YP hasnt got...could you please tell him that I need to read the next chapter about Albert the Giraffe cause I like it and it makes me smile.Thank you!,Debi,xx

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    2. Of coursefire away I love it when there's chatter between the commentators I just don't like bad mouthing xx

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    3. You won't get any bad mouthing from me you Welsh ninny!
      Hello Debi... Your wish is my command. Thanks for reading the first two chapters of the true story of "Albert the Green Giraffe". More to come.

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    4. Anonymous11:01 pm

      Thank you John and YP!!...And i can now rest easy knowing that i have the next chapter of yours and Alberts times together to look forward to.Debi,xx

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  2. No, but I was at primary school and Grammar school with a bloke that was a bit of a idiot back then but went to work for an oil company in Sweden and married the bosses daughter and now lives in Sweden and England. Not so much of an idiot after all!

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  3. Travel as much as you can for as long as you can. I sit back now and remember all my European trips and how eye opening they all were. I've met some wonderful people along the way.

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  4. You could take curling lessons

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    1. I wonder if deeside leisure centre do them

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  5. The man took me to Norway on a special holiday... ‘Whatever you do don’t look at the prices!’ he decreed. So what was the first thing I did... yes you’ve guessed it. My advice is don’t have a beer!

    Re. the Prof’s wry smile at you doing the admin. John, my view is ... all the while your entertainment value exceeds the irritation factor you are safe. Well, we all know your safe anyway, so enjoy.

    LX

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  6. No but we did once own a Volvo.

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  7. Does the Prof not understand how complex cottage admin has become? There's health and safety, data protection, legal fees, open days, money laundering....

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  8. Anonymous11:48 am

    Hmm,

    1) visit IKEA.
    2) Eat meatballs
    3) Eat raw fish
    4) Err
    5) Hmm

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    1. Anonymous9:10 pm

      I know that whatever happens you're going to abba good time while you're there.

      Seriously though, Norway and Sweden are two places I'd love to visit.

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  9. I live in Sweden, but over on the east coast (Gothenburg is on the west coast). I haven't been to Gothenburg in years, but things to do depend on what you are interested in. There's lots of shopping, museums and galleries, a big theme park (Liseberg) if any of that is your thing. A boat tour with Paddan is a must. There are other boat tours (the archipelago is great, but you might be too early in the season for that).

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    1. I just knew someone would know!

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    2. If you need to know something more, feel free to email me at gmail (under the incredibly original name of marieinsweden).

      I see someone suggested reading The Local about no-go zones, but that's a site I'd avoid like the plague. Yes, there are some dodgy areas, but not anywhere you'd likely be. It's election year, so of course these areas are getting a lot of publicity as part of the "law and order" debate, sparked off by the "send all the immigrants home" brigade.

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    3. Marie you are a. Star

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    4. Marie, if you tell him about Mello, he may never want to go home!

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    5. Really? People still watch that? I think it should be well and truly over by then, although there is the Eurovision debacle in May...

      One thing John is that it's much colder here in May than in the UK. We have eight seasons rather than four, so in May it will be around 13°C to maybe 17°C if you are lucky and 5°C at night. People from the UK often underestimate just how cold it can be here. And bring a brolly as rain is common on the west coast.

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  10. No but some of our family have ..... very expensive.
    I do the admin here ...... I call it clerical ..... that’s what my Dad used to call if !
    I’ve always loved the curling ... who’d have thought .... I also love the bob sleigh and anything on the cresta run, the speed skating, the ice skating ..... I love it all but it’s a bit of a time waster. XXXX

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    1. The ice skating reminds me of my mother she expecially loved the ice dancing

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  11. Olympic sweeping - seems like a strange sort of sporting activity to me...

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    1. Mire exciting than bowling

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    2. With the best will in the world that’s not saying much.

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  12. In Sweden there are no official no-go zones. There are areas in Gothenburg you might prefer to avoid though. You can find out about them on www.thelocal.se - or maybe your hotel will advise you of the 6 'vulnerable areas' as police term them in Gothenburg.

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    1. That iTunes roster scary

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    2. Dam predictive text that should read
      That sounds rather scary

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    3. Predictive text is scary. When you typed sounds it problem thought you wanted music. You see what just happened with me when I typed the same word. I got a problem instead of a probably. One day we'll be stuck with the words it gives us. No way out,

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  13. Curling is more dangerous than it looks. A friend's father just fell on the ice while curling and broke his hip.

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    1. Goo job I not play, what with my dyspraxia

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  14. Never been to Sweden sorry, but I would love to! What the heck is that curling all about? I spent the best part of an afternoon watching it, and I still don't understand the rules...

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    1. I love the fact so any countries have professional teams

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  15. No, but I've always loved ABBA!

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    1. Oh me too Raymondo! Takes me back to happy dancing days at sheffield's Leadmill

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    2. Ah yes! When we were young-er!

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  16. No, but I've been to Ikea (twice ... never again), watched ABBA lots of times ... and I have blonde hair (well sort of).

    Curling is the daftest of daft sports in my opinion, brushing the ice with a broom to get a granite flat bottomed ball to slide along it .... but we do have the outer offcuts of curling stones in our main gateposts.

    The ones used Canada are mined here in North Wales, not far from you and me) at Trefor Quarry, cut to size from the square blocks and then shipped somewhere else for final shaping and polishing. We picked our off cuts for the gateposts up from the quarry.

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    1. Bloody hell, I've learnt something

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    2. I think I heard that the rocks are keep in a climate control refrigerator for the matches

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  17. No, have been to Norway but not to Sweded. Try Google!

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  18. Love Curling I would like to watch whenever they play. Got hooked on it a few Olympics ago.
    I despise the NBC coverage of the Olympics. So I go over the the NBCSN network and see all the sports I like to watch, not just a 30 second clip. They show the whole match in curling, ski jumpings, nordic combined, biathlon love it.
    I miss traveling I did quite a lot at one time. Now I consider a walk in my yard a "Trip" hahahahah
    I am so happy you are now able to travel Enjoy yourself, you worked hard to get here.

    cheers, parsnip

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  19. Tut tut John! You will make the Prof jealous ogling Blue Eyes lol

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    1. Have you ever seen Danial Craig's asure blue eyes Maureen?

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    2. Oh yes, I too have a thing for blue eyes and at nearly 70 I can ogle with the best of them lol.

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  20. Is that your twin's birthday? That was a nod to your previous post;)

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    1. I SAID SHES SEVENTY,!!!!!!!!!! I am 55 ! It's my older sister!!!!!

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    2. I was hoping to get a "how very dare you."

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  21. No, to Sweden although I would like go there. I do admin here as well and I even give myself vacation pay for doing it.

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    1. I love pottering around with paperwork

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  22. With your readership you will undoubtedly get some very good advice (I see some above) but I have none. However, I am glad to hear you are planning lots of travel and have easier animal-sitting arrangements. That makes it so much more relaxing to go away and enjoy your newfound freedom from the job. And you are stimulating the local economy! (the boffin's bank account)

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    1. We also hope to get to Canada ( Halifax) later in the year!

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    2. You will like Halifax.

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  23. Can't help with the travel plans. The winter Olympics, I really admire the ones who lie on the 'tea trays' and hurl themselves around the course and the 'eddie the eagle' ski jumpers: you've got to take your hat off for their courage. I'd need an afternoon in a bar to get me to attempt it.

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  24. I'm about to buy a laptop. You give me hope, though you are twenty years younger.

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  25. I though you went once before anyway

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    1. We went up in the north to some obscure country hotel .

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  26. I have a Nordic headband & live "up north" x

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  27. Go off and do things you like. People watching, an early coffee, writing in a notebook sitting in a cafe, eating,drinking in a bar later, all good things on a day alone.

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    1. I like to sit on a boat, just checking on boat trips on line

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  28. Funny you should say that about curling, I've always thought of it as a completely nonsense sport, that is until the winter olympics. I just watched it because it was on and I enjoyed it. It's very much like indoor bowls, which I play. That chap is rather handsome.

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  29. Yes, I have been to Sweden but it was a long time ago. I was in Stockholm and it’s environs for the entire month of February 1969 employer, IBM. I was almost 28 then; I’m almost 78 now. And it was nowhere near Gothenburg. Sorry I can’t be of more assistance. I can tell you that it’s pronounced Gaw-tuh-bore-ya (sort of) with an American-style bore — lots of R sound instead of the UK-style bore which sounds like baw to my ears).

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  30. Much beauty in Sweden - I was on the Queen Victoria's Baltic cruise a couple of years ago and sailing to Stockholm was so picturesque. Be sure to buy an ornamental Dala horse. . . . . . although my favorite useful shopping find was a tiny wood handle with steel spikes hairbrush cleaner - you may get some use out of one for a few more years!!!! They weren't too expensive!
    I've done all seven continents (yes including Antarctica) so feel free to call on me for travel tips John - I promise some good ones.

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  31. Not been to Sweden, but I once owned an older SAAB in the early 70's. My coworkers said it stood for: Sorry-Assed-Automobile-Buddy. I have to agree. It was like a tin can.

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  32. Anonymous1:44 pm

    I lived there for a while but it was back in 1970 so things will be different now.

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