Roll Call

We left the hotel in the middle of Sweden nowhere at 10.40am

(It cost each one of us 10£ to be transported by the hotel taxi 1 mile to the train station)

We then caught 2 trains to Stockholm

( and was delayed by a police raid into car no 3 where a drug crazed man was removed )

Then flew to Manchester where our taxi driver lost us

And got home at 9pm

Just in time to collect a quietly hysterical Winnie from our dog groomer

And a quietly happy George from my sister

 Village elder ,  Islwyn has done a stirling job with the livestock

all but two girls have survived probably the most dangerous week of their lives

One very old runner duck and one older hen have disappeared 

A fact that amazed me...I was convinced that I would have lost more

So thanks to Islwyn, John from next door, animal helper Pat, Jackie from Prestatyn and my sister Janet

As I am now sat here , content in the knowledge  that the majority of birds, the sheep, Winnie and  George and 

the wide eyed Albert are all safe and well.

( I pick Meg and William up tomorrow

Winnie making sure it's actually me

I am home

Round

Enjoy

Stockholm Syndrome

Irna & Chris dancing in the bar

It's been a nice change but I won't be comming on another 

of Chris' work's dos

When you are a partner of an academic amongst 80 other academics

You are effectively a spare part

Plain and simple

And that's ok...it's what I expected

and so for the past three days

I have walked a lot amongst the lupins,

Read a great deal

and smiled a lot at conversations I didn't quite grasp

Everyone has been delightfully polite

And I made a new friend in Irna , a Canadian loud mouth with a big heart

But  I am glad to be going home tomorrow

To dance with my dogs on a sunny Welsh field

Listen to them.......the children of the night........

After Chris' " do you know who I am ?" Strop, we now have a delightfully large and luxurious room overlooking the lake. Having said this, I have noted with some disappointment that we don't have blackout blinds......ok we are not quite in the " land of the midnight sun" but so far, it has never quite got dark...a weird phenomenon  for a Welshman who likes the night.

I've been awake since 4 am. It is now 5.30....

and I am contemplating fashioning a usable eye patch from a pair of Chris' underpants.

Hey ho

Breakfast starts in an hour

They do a lovely sausage !

God Morgon ( with photos)

I am the blue dot

Précis so Far,
The resort is tucked away in the middle of nowhere
So much so, that there was only one taxi in town to ferry a couple of dozen delegates to the hotel
So we felt obliged to walk through groves of wild lupins and past chocolate box houses set back in little meadows to find our way " home"
The view of lake Siljan at the front of the hotel is delightful
and dare I say quite magical last night as it didn't really go dark at all

Our room has a slightly  different vista, as we have a lovely view of the kitchen bins

Hey ho

The hotel is not quite up to Chris' standards I'm afraid

and already today there has been a bit of a bunfight over lack of early morning tea!

A gin and tonic is something like 10 quid a pop

So much so the Irish and Canadian contingent of the conference thundered

about last night with a "pooled" collection of duty free Bombay Sapphire's 

I am off  now to have a mooch and will post some photos later.

Every cottage seemed to have its own little meadow

I don't  think that Sweden has a slug problem
The fields are crammed full of lupins

god morgen 

Serendipity

Tomorrow I shall share with you my thoughts of being the spouse of an academic 

at a Scandinavian research conference

( I wonder if there is a Swedish version of a scotch egg? Btw)
Anyhow

But tonight I will paint a brief picture of one of those silly serendipity moments that 

Tend to linger long in the mind.
Last night , as I were watching the field animals amble gently to their own shelters for the night,

this song  played on ipad re run of Desert Island Discs

And in the warm still evening air

I danced around the coops with a  cheerful middle aged Scottish terrier and a fat old bulldog with a wild grin gleefully in tow

Dancing with dogs

Life couldn't get any better

Swedes and Turnips

As Chris gives his presentation to the assembled hoards of international boffins

I intend to wander around the grounds of the Swedish spa hotel

looking all mysterious and Ingmar Bergman ish

With a book and a faraway look.

........

Or did I mean Ingrid Bergman?

Who knows

Anyhow I won't be sitting in the hotel bar...that's for sure

I don't earn enough

I am worried about my hens

FAB

This is my Sunday post

I am working all day tomorrow and doing a SAM shift from 10 to 1am

Must be mad

Virgil....and his serious eyebrows

I hear that the  Thunderbirds tv show is being remade

With live actors

Hummmmm. I am looking forward to see who plays Virgil

I always fancied Virgil 

Scott was too cocky

Alan was too young

John  was boring as hell

And Gordon was pug ugly

No....it was the slightly bearish Virgil for me every day

Is it wrong to fancy a puppet?

After all 

I did find Phoebus from Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame

Vaguely attractive