Not much blogging lately, what’s up with that? Well, after some anguish and years of debating we’re finally moving. We bought a new house and are prepering to sell our old one. A lot of big and small details like trimming, gardening, and painting is getting done, so for the next few weeks blog posts will be sporadic. If time allows, updates on the old and new house will be posted…

Midsummers day was spent with grandma and grandpa in Nabbared. Grandpa fired up the stove in the sauna and I enjoyed some traditional sauna-bathing with Clara by the lake. Filip was down with a fever and sadly could not join us in the sauna…

Afterwards Clara wanted to go for a quick ride in the rowing-boat. We didn’t have any life-jackets with us, but went for a short trip in the 60 cm deep water along the shore-line.

This is a perfect activity for a parent. You have your child trapped in a place they can’t escape from, and get half an hour all alone with your child without any interruptions. Just enjoy the scenery and talk about anything and everything - and boy does Clara like to talk right now…

I think we’ll try this again next time in Nabbared.

I spent last week in northern Italy. The European Association of Cardio-Thoracic Surgeons organize week long courses for residents and for the second time this year I went with two other colleagues to learn more about congenital and adult cardiac surgery.

The courses are held in Bergamo, an old and very beautiful city that sits at the foot of the southern alps. You can get cheap airway tickets with Ryan Air  - they fly to the local airport just a few kilometers outside of town. 

Lectures were long and (mostly) interesting, but we also had some time for pleasure. In the area you find four alp-lakes with beautiful scenery. One day we drove to one of them, Lake Garda were we rented mountainbikes. I can recommend Los Locos bike shop, which offer great service, nice bikes and helmets for €15 per day. I bought a map with the trails marked, but this proved to be was unnecessary, since many of the excellent hiking / biking trails were easily found and clearly marked with signs.

Here are som more pictures from the trip:

We had enjoyed exceptionally good weather in Sweden before the trip. In Italy the weather was nice all days except one. But as our returning airplane approached Göteborg, we found things more “normal”. The photo below shows Hisingen as we prepare to land at Säve airport…

I apologize to all my (few) readers - I’ve been traveling with work and unable to update my blog for a while. But I’ll start with a short report of the Swedish national holiday - June 6.

I think most swedes have looked with some envy to our neighbours in the west and their may 17 celebration, but this year there was no jealousy - our Swedish national day was nearly perfect. The weather was stunning. I was free from work so we joined Espen & Johanna, Ulf & Sofia, Chris & Mary, Gabriel and a whole bunch of cousins on an outing to Amundön. Sunbathing, swimming and playing in the water, eating pizza and scubadiving… The only bad thing was that Matilda was sick with a sore throat, so she stayed home to recuperate. 

Here are some pictures:

The top picture is a stitched panorama, the bottom is a picture of a rather large and agressive crab (and a smaller fish) that we found while scubadiving.

Today I got an email from a friend - “Enjoy the weather and take your kids on an outing”. I thought that was a rather nice suggestion. Every monday we try to have family time (”home evening”), so today we decided to go bathing in Stensjön, a lake close by. I think we all enjoyed the “spinning exercise”, and daddy got to take a few pictures:

Techincal info: Camera strapped to daddy’s chest, aperture priority with EV -1 and f22, SB-28 fill flash with second curtain sync (manual setting 1/16) and continous low-speed shooting with locked remote control.

Of course, this setup made it difficult to get the picture perfectly composed every frame:

P.S. It’s fun to have some swimming-goggles. Especially when they are color-matched to the swimmingsuit and latest fashion:

Daddy’s watching Gustav in the carseat. Camera is sitting close by. He’s a little camerashy at first, but soon brakes out in his regular smile!

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.