Life’s adventures

At last, we found our hot spring! After thoroughly searching the web, we found an old report about the biological impact of cooling water from nuclear plants. In this report there is a small figure showing were they conduct their outlet testfishing - and just as we suspected during our last visit, the outlets (there are two) are indeed “hidden” and a few kilometers away from the inlets.

With the new map, finding the outlet was a piece of cake. Pål and I went together. After a quick delivery of the corrected exams in Varberg, we found our way to the new area. The outlets are hidden under water, but the surface was quite turbulent so there was no doubt that this was the place.

We measured the tempearture - 19°C (we later measured the “normal” seawater to 13°C). As we jumped in it really felt like cool summer water, and a shorty wet-suit made it quite pleasant. The sea bottom was covered with a different kind of seaweed than usual - longer, more sweeping and “grass-like”. Pumping 160000 liters / second makes for quite a strong current and once you’re in it the watar is notacible warmer than 19°. You get a nice ride for a few hundred meters (like the turtles in Finding Nemo) and can enjoy the seafloor scenery whizzing by…

We stayed in the water for maybe an hour and saw some fish, crabs and jelly-fish, but nothing two-headed, self-glowing or otherwise spectacular. We’ll have to go back later in the summer to see if we can find something more exotic.

P.S. Please be advised - we found some sort of a sign close by discouraging from bathing because of the strong currents. Swimming is done at your own risk.

Yesterday Matilda celebrated her birthday together with her three sisters. I don’t know what the girls do or what they talk about when they get together, but Matilda always returns from the get-togethers all happy and giggly. So, I try to be supportive of them getting together at least a few times every year.

Filip, Clara and myself were invited to a birthday-party (Enya Meyers). We met up at Lek & Buslandet were both children and parents had a blast playing among trampolines, long slides and canons shooting soft balls.

To daddys delight, Clara got some training for her future career as a rockclimber:

After the party I went with Ulf and his children to “Smithska udden” - one of many nice “beaches” in the area. The water was still cold, but this didn’t stop the children that were happy to go for short swims and search for crabs and jelly-fish.

I know there’s this saying about weather and clothes, but really - doesn’t life get easier and more enjoyable with some sunshine…? This spring has started wonderful here in Göteborg - already we’ve had more sun than all of last years summer. Let’s hope it’s a trend that’s come to stay!

Today was Matildas birthday. Because you never reveal a ladys true age I won’t write how much, but I will say that her age is now an even number of years, a number sometimes associated with a feeling of “grown-up-ness”.

We tried to make the most of the day. Breakfast in bed was followed by a picnic-basket and trip to Amundön, a favourite spot of ours by the sea.

So, what about the evening? Matildas sister Malena and her daughter Alicia came to watch the kids, so for the first time in quite a while we had the evening to ourselves. I had (somewhat late) tried to make reservations at a nice, “serious” restaurant, but being friday and with wonderful weather for the past week it was fully booked wherever I called. Instead, to counterbalance our newly aquired age, we decided to do the typical teenager thing in Göteborg - to visit the local amusementpark Liseberg.

As we passed the entrance-gates we were surprised to see a few guys from our teenage group of friends - Magnus, Pål, Mats and Viktor were there to compete in the “Liseberg pentathlon”. Hanging out with them for a few minutes  reinforced our “teenage-theme” and were it not for some receding hairlines and a few extra kilograms it was just like fiveteen years ago!

There were a lot of new attractions to try. The biggest and baddest is supposetly Balder - a gigantic rollercoaster build all out of wood. Here is evidence that we rode and enjoyed it. Most of you know Matilda can sing - I can now attest that she also can scream really loud and for a very long time…

It was so nice to feel young and free again - at least for a few hours. But as we stopped to pick up some Häägen-Dazs icecream on our way home we concluded that though we do enjoy an evening by ourselves, nothing really beats familylife in the long run.

As we walked in the door, Gustav greeted us with a laughter, and the day ended perfect! Happy birthday Matilda - I love you - you are the best!

Quick review of the weekend:

Friday - Work. Come home and work on the railing of our much longed-for porch. Hopefully it will be finished within a week or two. Snapped a picture of Gustav - he’s chubby and cute:

Saturday - 24-hour shift at work. Luckily it was unusually calm during the day because I had agreed to help organise the shooting of some scenes for an upcoming cinema movie. The movie is called Pax and is a collaboration between two filmteams - one swedish and one norwegian. The scenes shot this weekend were from three different surgeries.

I thought everything would be set, but as always, there were a lot of last-minute problems that had to be solved. In the end, everything worked out fine and the director and crew (about 50 people) were happy with the results. Much better than Grey’s anatomy or ER :-) 

Sunday - Come home from work. Quick rest. Go to church. Come home, family dinner with meatballs. Filip and Clara were of much help in the preparation.

Join mom & dad, Fredrika, Gabriel, Amundsens and Karlssons for afternoon walk by the sea. We stop and chat with some fishers and dad and I decide that this year we really need to find some time to go catch the big ones…

Come home. Update blog. Fall asleep. Wake up drooling on the computer keyboard…

As you might remember, last week I explored the possibilities of swimming by the Ringhals nuclear powerplant. Today I planned to continue my exploration, and this time, bring a towel along.

I started the day by going to the german super-low-budget-grocery-store Lidl. Every week they sell small consignments of strange and not so grocery-related stuff. Yesterday I talked to my good friend Pål Hyldetoft and he had notised that they would sell scuba-related stuff starting today. We met up (together with Ulf Karlsson) and all made some good deals - for example a neoprene shorty wetsuit for 250 kr!

After this inspiring shopping it was easy to convince Pål to join me for a trip to Ringhals. After a quick visit in Varberg to pick up the exams we went to the powerplant. If you look at the satelite picure of the site you can see two wide canals going from the sea to the powerplant.

At my last visit I had assumed that water was taken in through one canal and send back through the other. Today we were surpised when we looked at the water - it seamed to flow towards the plant in both canals! My experience from last week of feeling warmer water could not be repeated. Had they reversed the flow? Was I that wrong when testing the water last week? Was there perhaps a hidden third canal that served as an outflow? These questions demanded further investigation.

As we were running back and forth searching for our tropical ocean bay time was flying. Even though this was my day off, there was a scheduled meeting that I needed to attend at work, so finally we decided to just pick a random spot and quickly test our newly aquired gear. The gear worked flawless, the water was crystal clear, but my head, arms and legs were feeling like blocks of ice.

I have one week to correct the exams. Next monday will be my last trip to Varberg (during this course). Hopefully I’ll have some more time and find the magic “+10°C zone”, something that is starting to seem more and more mythical. 

If anyone knows were to find the warm current - please let me know!

During yesterday’s visit with the family Per (Herrey) showed som video material, both completed and ongoing productions. Per is the attorney for the musicians union in sweden, and a year ago he, Sebastian and Daniel Nilsson produced a commercial for the organisation. 

I saw it for the first time yesterday, and had a good laugh. Please note that Fredrik (Ternström) plays one of the lead roles. We hope to see more of Fredrik on the movie-screen in the future!

Today we had a day full of fun at Birger and Kari’s place. Matilda and the children went early while I was catching up on some sleep (after working the night shift). I took my motorcycle and came with perfect timing as dinner was ready.

As always it’s fun to see the cousins gather together. Here’s a picture of the guys. I can’t help to think about the wild “lost boys” in the Peter Pan story when I see them sitting together.

After dinner we went to the Sauna. It sits just by the lake, and is heated with firewood in a small stove. Kari, myself and Per started, but soon the kids got interested and wanted to try as well. I think we had the youngest group in the sauna so far…

A big part of enjoying a sauna is being able to go for a cold swim afterwards. We didn’t have a thermometer, but I would guess the lake was about 10°C - plenty cold! The kids didn’t seem to mind too much though and jumped in and out a few times.

After the sauna we lit our annual but slightly delayed “easter bonfire”. This year it was one of the best fires ever, but for a brief moment there was some concern about the field of dry grass not so far away.

Kari brought marshmallow to everyones delight!

We finished the evening with cake and icecream to celebrate Marcus. He turned 34 the day before and was happy to open up a few presents:

 
 

I’ve had the chance to teach anatomy and physiology at the nursing program in Varberg. Today was my last lecture. The weather was perfect, so I hopped on my offroad-thumper and started the motorcycle season.

On my way home I took some detours on smaller roads, enjoyed the scenery and listened to Eros Ramazotti on my iPod. After a while I saw a sign to Ringhals - Sweden’s largest powerplant. Exciting. I wasn’t really in a hurry, so I stopped and had a look.

 
   Powerplant, powerbike.

Ringhals is powerplant with four nuclear reactors. The reactors are cooled with seawater - 160 000 liters each second! Apparently, the outgoing cooling-water is 10 degrees warmer than the incoming. This means there’s a small sea bay just outside the powerplant that is almost 10 degrees warmer than the “normal” sea temperature!

 
   Bay with coolingwater

Unfortunately I had no towel or swimmingpants, but my hands and feet can verify that the water really was warmer. Next monday I will go down to Varberg again (to pick up the exams) - this time with towel! 

Stay tuned for a report of what “Ringhals bathing” is like!

P.S. Photos today are taken with a simple SonyEricsson mobile phone.

P.S. 2 I realize I’m getting older Five years ago a lack of towel certainly wouldn’t stop me from a short swim…

Tonight we had Fredrik & Malena with children and Samuel & Emily Palm over for dinner. The weather was simply wonderful, so we decided to go for our weekly stroll at Gunnebo. Magnus & Emma-Karin with kids joined us. 

We forgot Gustav’s hat, so the blanked had to do. A miniature “mother Theresa”-look:

The kids gathered for a group picture and just couldn’t stop laughing…

…at Samuel… 

I wonder why…

Clara has never been known for sitting still. Today she left as usual for day-care with some friends. 15 minutes later Matilda got a call. Clara had fallen from a wagon (again), and was now bleeding quite a bit.

Well, one of the few advantages of being married to a doctor is sometimes not having to wait for emergency visits. Matilda, Clara and Gustav got an unplanned visit to daddy’s work, were Clara was really brave when daddy came with a shot of local anaesthetics. Four sutures and two kisses later they took off to buy a small present - a shining red umbrella.

So when daddy comes home, does he find a quiet resting little girl? Oh no, she was hanging upside down in the playroom’s rope ladder, just as usual…