New Flat

 So the time came to say farewell to Hornsgatan 146B as our 6 months was up. Even just moving across the island was still a major pain. Despite the fact that everything fitted in two large rucksacks each when we came, it has now expanded to require a people-carrier to carry it. 

Our new flat is indicated on this map by the red arrow - also here are the old flat (crossed-out arrow), my office (blue cross) and the hospital site (green blob).

As you can see, our new flat is considerably smarter than the previous one - we now have a separate bedoom, so guests get some more privacy which is nice. We also have some rather trendy sofas and the luxury of decent electric hobs rather than the 1970s kitchen we had in the old flat.

 

We are in a much busier neighbourhood but on a quieter road than before. We don't have the park and swimming place 5 minutes walk away anymore - now it's probably 15 mins. We've got so spoilt that that seems miles away! We've still got underground station, library and shops very close - and the cinema and indoor market are in the opposite building. That'll be great in winter, we'll hardly need to go outside at all. We also seem to have a plethora of nice neighbourhood cafes and restuarants to explore over here.

All Quiet on the Blogging Front

Not a lot happening here - but loads happening in the real world.

- We have been back to the UK for 10 busy days

- The first member of the UK team has left Stockholm

- ALL the swedes in the office are on holiday - it is only the RUK 6 who are still working.

- We're moving to a new flat next week (contract up on current flat and can't be extended).

Our trip back to the UK was busy but also very pleasant. 5 different beds, generally met up with two different sets of people each day - it was great to see everyone. Sorry if we didn't manage to see you. 

Paul's 6 months in Stockholm is now up so he's headed back to the UK. However he doesn't escape that easily - he'll be working on NKS from Bristol office until Christmas at least.

Everyone in sweden seems to take the same 4 weeks off for holiday in summer. So at the moment there are just the 6 (now 5) of us in the office. Occasionally you see someone else on our floor, but the office really is pretty deserted. It's really quiet which means we can get plenty done. Also because all the architects/contractors are also on holiday, no-one is emailing me questions so life is that bit more relaxed.

In normal life, I went kayaking after work again on Tuesday which was lovely. And I type this having just got back from a late evening swim in the river 5 mins from our flat. It's a pretty good life sometimes.

Staying Longer

Shock horror news which you may not have all heard - we have now agreed to stay until May/June 2012. They wanted me to stay until spring next year but I suggested that since we were going to survive a whole winter, we would also appreciate some summertime too. So 6 months in Sweden has now become 18 months. This means we have more chance to do winter things we didn't do properly last winter - more iceskating on frozen lakes and also actually try cross-country skiiing. On the other hand it means we have to make it through the whole of winter and also the misery of the days rapidly getting shorter.

Midsummer

Midsummer is a big deal in Sweden - everyone celebrates with their family or friends, ideally somewhere in the countryside. It's a bit like Christmas except obviously it is more likely to be warm and sunny. Dancing around a maypole seems to be a vital part, along with eating shrimp and pickled herring - all washed down with aquavit.


 Most swedes have a summer house somewhere in the countryside - normally something fairly small and basic - so they all head there for Midsummer (and also for most weekends in summer). This means that the city is really quite quiet this weekend.

Since we don't have a summer house, we followed the crowds and went to Skansen. This is the maypole at Skansen which we merrily danced around - here is a man dancing like an elephant.

Here is yet another photo of 'gosh look how light it is'. This one taken from our balcony at sunset (10:45pm) on the longest day. (In the middle of winter the sun will set at 2:45pm - yikes!).

Midnight Sun (also known as Midnight Light)

One of the main things we were expecting to see on our jaunt up north was the Midnight Sun. Unfortunately the weather was not interested in helping. So here is a photo taken at midnight one night, showing a completely overcast slightly gloomy looking sky. Amazing yeah?


To help show that it does stay very light - here is a photo taken at 10:30 last Thursday night at our office summer party. According to the internet, today the sun rose at 3:30 and it will set at 22:08, whereas in Bristol the sun rose at 4:53 and will set at 21:31. So we get nearly two hours extra daylight. Certainly the sky doesn't really get dark at night at the moment.

Lemming Massacre (Not for the Sensitive)

There were dead lemmings everywhere and also quite a lot of live ones too. The little pile of furry corpses on top of the rock appears to be a buzzard dining room since there were more piles of fluff on the ground all around it.

Myth not correct - no sign of lemmings running off cliffs, in fact Snopes suggests that disney staged some footage in the 1950s <http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.asp>

Since winter was long and hard this year, the lemmings had ages to breed under the snow so their population has exploded this year. This means it is a good year for the ptarmingan - they don't eat lemmings but it means predators can gorge on lemmings instead of ptarmigan chicks.

On some bits of paths (like the bottom photo) there were little dead things everywhere. They also seemed to mostly be lying on their backs with their little paws in the air and big
sticky-out teeth like cartoon dead mouse. They're hard to pick out but most of the dark-coloured blobs in this picture are lemmings.

A Trip to North Lapland

Disaster as our readership plummets - my parents are visiting so no need for them to read a blog and find out what they have been doing. Hej! to both our other readers. 

This weekend we have been on an epic trip to the very far north of Sweden to experience midnight sun and Europe's largest wilderness. As you can see - snow still there on the mountains and also the odd patch right down into the valley. The lake was still covered with ice when we arrived and you can see that the trees are hardly in leaf yet. Winter is only just starting to loosen its grip on the far far north.