Congratulations to Sebastian and Eva that were married this friday!
They asked me to take som photos of the guests during the reception, and we got a bunch of nice ones 
I will present the pictures to the bride and groom first, and we’ll see how they wish to share the pictures of all you good-looking people…
Sometimes you need a breathinghole – a retreat from everyday life. Based on her own experience, my wife thinks men have an inner need to withdraw to secluded “caves” (garages, basement shops, hunting cabins, recliners, etc…)
She’s probably right. I’m all for discussing things, but sometimes I need solitude to sort out my thoughts. I enjoy a small disorganised basement shop, but even better is being out in the free. Every now and then, I go for a drive with the motorcycle for a few hours. The other day I brought the camera – this is the result:
As you ride and take in the scenery you can process / digest / think / meditate. I prefer riding a motorcycle, but walking, running, riding a bicycle or even driving could probably do just as well. The idea is to go without map or plan – exploring your neck of the wood. So, I won’t tell you were the pictures were taken – get out and find them for yourself!
When we were married we were poor students. To furnish our apartment we searched for second hand bargains or inherited stuff. Mom and dad gave us a quite nice mattress. The only problem was its small size – 140 cm wide.
Over the years, the mattress has served us well. Our children often sneak up in our bed early in the morning. As the family has grown, mornings in our bed have become more and more crowded. After Gustav’s birth we have discovered that though it’s possible to fit five persons in a 140 cm bed, you’ll be awaken by a foot in your face at least a few times each week…
A while back I decided to build a new bed to be equipped with a new, wider mattress. Today I was able to do some woodworking for a few hours and finally finish it:
It’s made of some left-over oak planks that I got rough-sawn from a relative’s saw-mill. Design is my own, but heavily inspired by the wonderful work of Thomas Moser. As you can see, the new bed is considerably wider (180 cm) than what we’re used to. This new size feels wonderful – next week we’re going shopping for new mattresses!
Filip and Clara were quick to help with the quality control:
The bed passed even the most harsh tests! Unfortunatly, Filip fell down on the floor and bumped his forehead. Sad for a short while, but easily comforted by a new Batman bandaid.
The new bed is also a perfect gatheringplace for family prayers. Tonight Filip was the first to kneel down, shortly followed by Clara. Seeing the children like this is quite rare, but I was lucky to have the camera close by. A moment to cherish…
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 water 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…
