Actually it’s not that hot, but it is warm. And even though I have the balcony door open – which I’m sitting near – I’m feeling a bit sticky.
Not an especially exciting Thursday. Just sitting at home tonight and listening to the radio.
I’m in “savings mode” right now, as I’ve realised just how few pays I have until my overseas trip. Financially this will be less taxing than the last one, simply because it’s so much shorter. But still, it’s time to tighten my belt for a few weeks at least.
And the day? Well, it was mostly dominated by a funeral I attended late this morning. As with all funerals, there was for me a fair degree of self-reflection that often goes with the concern for others you know and love.
It’s exhausting, you know. So I gave myself a half-hour early mark and came home a little early today.
There’s a couple of people I know who are planning to spend between one or two weeks in Stockholm next year, during the months of April and May.
Based on my own experiences of being in Stockholm during that time of the year (and other times of the year), here are a few handy tips I’ve prepared for them, which you might find useful also.
Streets of Sodermalm, Stockholm
Where to stay in Stockholm: Where you choose to stay depends on a whole range of things: do you like city-life, do you like the countryside, how much you’re prepared to pay etc. My biggest best advice would be to stay near a public transport stop, especially near the subway/metro system, the Tunnelbana. You can buy affordable transport tickets that give you unlimited travel for 7 days, a fortnight or a month. When you don’t have to worry about how you get around, you spend a lot less time worrying about the dailies. And besides, trains and subways go exactly where they’re supposed to. My other piece of advice would be to make sure where you’re staying has a washing machine in your apartment. There are so many awful stories of conflict over “the washing room” in older Swedish apartment blocks, so if you’re using AirBnB, just double check the washing machine is actually in your apartment.
Personally, I really like the southern island, Södermalm. Traditionally a working class suburb, it’s now become quite fashionable. There are two things I really like about Södermalm: first, it’s a cool, funky, and interesting place to walk around; second, it’s close to the city, so you can actually walk to lots of great tourist places. You also look back over the water to the Old Town, Gamla Stan which is fantastic.
New Clothes
What Clothes To Wear: Earlier today when I was chatting with my friend and colleague who’ll be in Stockholm in mid to late April, she asked what clothes she should wear. She doesn’t want to pack too much clothing, and is concerned the warm clothing she has (she bought in New Zealand) might actually be “too warm”. Going back through my blog posts from March/April/May 2003, I noticed I needed to make a similar transition, and so went to a second-hand clothing store on Södermalm and picked up (for about $30-40) some clothing which kept me both warm and dry. Stadsmissionen is probably the best known second-hand clothing store in Stockholm, though the store I bought these clothes from was called Emmaus Stockholm just off Götgatan.
Arlanda Airport from Stockholm-Arlanda
Getting to and from Stockholm Airport (Arlanda): Of all the options you might consider – regular taxi, fast train (Arlanda Express), public transport (connecting train and bus), airport buses, I’d recommend the airport buses. For around $15-$20 AUD, it will take you roughly 45 minutes from the airport to central. This is slightly longer than catching a taxi, and twice as long as catching the Arlanda Express, but it’s much cheaper, and you get to see a little of the countryside. http://www.flygbussarna.se/EN You can buy your tickets beforehand and just show them on your phone, though noting you shouldn’t buy them too early as they can “expire”.
Getting a Swedish SIM Card: If you’re going to be in Stockholm for more than a week or so, I really think it’s worth getting yourself a Swedish SIM Card. As well as things like Google Maps, you can access email, social media, and not have to worry about international roaming. WIFI is everywhere, and Swedish homes generally have high-speed broadband, but for the sheer convenience, I think it’s worth spending about $40-50 for a casual plan which is often unlimited but usually has more than enough to do everything you’ll need. The last few times I’ve visited Stockholm, I picked up a SIM Card from 3 at a fairly reasonable price. Though the website is in Swedish, I found it was pretty simple to go into the 3 shop on Götgatan, and explain my situation. They asked me a few basic questions about usage patterns, and they even set the phone up for me.
Stockholm Rooftop Tour: I’m not sure if actually operates during April, but the rooftop tour is amazing. Stockholm is a low rise city, and you’ll see a whole lot more if you’re just above the city, not far, far away at Kaknastornet, the radio and TV transmission tower. I’d also really recommend Katarinahissen.
There are so many great galleries and museums (most of them free), but Fotografiska is my favourite. Great art, great location, and great food.
If you’re looking for a great fun night (that makes the most of the Swedish nights), I’d recommend Patricia, a boat on the water.
A ship inside a museum. The Vasa Museum in Stockholm.
Vasa Museet: A massive Swedish warship inside a museum. Amazing.
The Millenium Tour: A walking tour of Stockholm, as seen through the eyes of the books/films by Stieg Larrson.
Dr Käse at Hötorgshallen
The Nordic Experience Food Tour: Swedes eat all kinds of food, reflective of their increasingly multi-cultural society, but this tour takes you on a journey of pickled herring, bear and all kinds of great stuff.
Schlager band, Hallå Hela Pressen plays at Victoria Restaurang
Monday Night at Victoria’s: Swedes love pop music and drinking. If you’re sceptical, read the story of a guy I met who was VERY sceptical, and ended up having a great time.
Valborg bonfire in Stockholm
Valborg: A pagan festival at the end of April. Bonfires in the centre of Stockholm.
Kulturnatt: The night when galleries and museums are open during mid-April.
Walking on the frozen water of Lake Mälaren, Stockholm
Walking On Ice: Hopefully, there will still be some snow and ice around during March-April, and so long as you follow in the footsteps of others, you should feel confident about walking on ice.
Systembolaget Södermalm
Booze: Swedish bottle shops operate only 9-5 Monday to Saturday, so if you’re looking for take-away alcohol, you’ll need to plan. Supermarkets which are generally open until 10 or 11 at night, sell low-alcohol beer in case you get a little desperate.http://thelimbshift.com/2013/05/05/systembolaget-saturday/
This show was to feature Marianne Faithfull in the role of the devil. Having seen the show, I can really imagine her doing it. Although I think she’s a great singer – I have a number of CDs – I think it’s a role she could have pulled off at this point in the life because, aside from walking on stage with a devilish smile, saying a few lines and singing a couple of songs, there’s not much to the role. However due to ill-health, she was unable to attend which, although disappointing was not the end of the world.
In his review in “The Age”, Bruce Hallett provides a neat summary of the plot of this musical. In essence the story tells of the young clerk Wilhelm and his love for Kathchen, the daughter of the old forester Kuno, who demands that she marry a hunter. Wilhelm is anything but a marksman, but he soon gets the mastery and power he needs after making a pact with the devil Pegleg. But one of the “magic bullets” he is given, and later solicits, in the hope of realising his destiny and dream, turns out to be cursed and destroys the very thing he desires.
Although it’s classic stuff, the re-telling was modern in an 80’s kind of way. The music, the costumes, the themes were not quite contemporary, but very much “of their time” when I think the musical was written. I could imagine Deborah Harry or Laurie Anderson or someone like that having a role in this. There were times, though, when it sounded a little dated… such as the satirical line about how marijuana leads to heroin (boringly William S Burroughs in its irony, I thought)… which made me disconnect.
Musically, of course, Marianne Faithfull would have been well suited to the role. The music is “classic Tom Waits” with its range encompassing the soulful and beautiful to the crashing and dischordant. With lyrics by Waits and William S. Burroughs (who also wrote the libretto), there are shades of Brecht and Weill which, again, I really love. Often, though, the music moves at such a pace it was difficult to pick up what was being said. Although I really enjoyed the music, I’d be struggling now to remember any of the tunes.
Visually though, it was terrific, with good lighting and set design. I had to laugh, though, when the characters were brought on stage. There was the devil in white face and black. There were also characters reminiscent of the mentally ill patients of the Australian movie, Cosi. The combination of both made me observe, “Oh look, it’s Clover Moore and Sydney’s Homeless”, a reference to the distinctive and seemingly unchanging appearance of the Lord Mayor of Sydney who was sitting several rows in front of me.
I thought it was quite good, but not great. My opinion however, was far more generous than my work colleague who, on arring back after intermission, declared, “Oh well, here’s another hour of torture we have to sit through”.
I had a bit of a breakthrough at Swedish class tonight. I normally loathe grammar, but I quite enjoyed the exercise we did tonight. Best of all? I think I actually understood the principles behind what we learned, and can possibly even apply them in real life. That’s a real breakthrough, let me tell you.
To “celebrate”, I came home and put on a CD which Grant bought back from Stockholm for me, called “Sthlms Liv”. It’s a collection of mostly jazz songs from the twentieth century with lyrics about or inspired by life in Stockholm. There’s also an accompanying booklet which explains in both English and Swedish a little of the background to the songs, and features some wonderful photographs mostly from the 1950s and 1960s which demonstrate how little/how much Stockholm has changed.
I find it fascinating how much the Swedes sing about their capital city. Although we have lots of songs about Sydney – including reasonably overt lyrics and titles – the Swedes seem to take it to a higher level. For example, one of the most popular television shows has as it’s theme song a track called “Stockholm i mitt hjärta” (Stockholm in my heart).
As I looked through the track list, I recognised a couple of tunes instantly. There’s “Sakta vi gå genom stan” (Slowly we walk through the town) which is actualy a Swedish translation of “Walking My Baby Back Home” by jazz-legend Monica Zetterlund and “Min egen stad” (My own town) by former ABBA member, Anni-Frid Lyngstad. So I guess when I put on the CD I was half-expecting a bit of a nostalgia trip. Not so, it’s an album full of wonderful surprises.
That said, there are quite a few songs which have that nostalgic feel. And I can imagine lots of older Swedes would have bought the CD purely for its nostalgic value. “Sakta vi gå genom stan”, for example, is a great song, sung well…
But the CD is much more than that. It’s a genuinely wonderful collection I suspect you coud enjoy without any Swedish language skills. Calling it a jazz collection is both correct and incorrect. There’s certainly a “jazz feel” to the CD, but in a very broad sense with a range of musical genres from “tango” to “beat poetry”.
The first song which really stood out for me was “Jag vill ha en gondol” by Zarah Leander. It’s got a wonderful “tango” feel about it, and is sung in a very dramatic style.
I was also transfixed by a piece called “Stockholmsmelodi” by Sven-Bertil Taube. It’s a piece which opens again, quite dramatically, with what sounds like a bit of a mad-man ranting on the sidewalk. The level of Swedish is too complicated for me to understand instantly, and so I’m going to have to do a bit of research and translate to see if he’s as mad as he sounds.
There’s also some wonderfully relaxing, evocative pieces including “The Midnight Sun Never Sets” by Quincy Jones and “Var blev ni av” by Freddie Wadling.
But the one track I’ve been playing over and over again is called “En självbiografi” by Sonja Åkesson. To a “beat poetry” style jazz backing, it’s the story of a “suburban housewife” talking about her life. Again, I’m going to need to translate this one to get a better feel for it, but it’s a piece which has really captured my attention simply because of the instrumentation and the lyrical presentation.
Play School is a terrific show, although at the age of forty, it’s been quite a while since I’ve watched it. However, it was one of my childhood favourites, even at an age when it was no longer really designed for me.
This week, Play School celebrated forty years on television. And today, an exclusive photograph of Jemima caught immediately after the Fortieth Birthday Celebrations of “Play School”. She really has to watch her drinking!
“That’s not your final foot. Your foot is still coming from overseas,” the prosthetist, Carl told me today, while he and a colleague, Will prepared the materials for another casting session.
Many of my friends keep asking me if this leg is my final one, and my response has consistently been, “Not quite yet.” I think there’s an assumption an artificial limb is just one “thing”. In fact, the prosthetic leg comprises several crucial components, including the socket, joint, limb, and a connector.
Last week’s fitting was akin to a “first draft.” Since then, we’ve been carefully monitoring my limb for any signs of discomfort, such as red marks or sweating, which could indicate pressure points.
The prosthetist explained that even last week’s fitting wasn’t an exact replica of my leg based on the initial casting. He anticipated changes in my leg size between the casting and last week’s fitting, so adjustments were made accordingly.
Preparing the mixture
Today, he didn’t perform a straightforward casting of my leg for these adjustments. Instead, he created a mixture of fast-setting material to fill the limb and then casted it based on this mixture. I couldn’t help but joke that it looked like one of the desserts we have at the hospital, with the assistant prosthetist saying that it resembled panna cotta.
Today’s mixture setting inside my current limb.
Once the mould was ready, they carefully wrapped it in plaster bandages once again. Now, they will commence crafting a new limb, and hopefully, it will be ready for me to wear sometine soon.
One significant improvement, I was told, will be the weight of the limb; it will be much lighter.
Today, Carl also asked me to choose the color of my new leg. Despite friends’ various suggestions, I’ve decided to play it safe and opted for a “pasty-skinned white guy” color.
The mixture has set, and is about to be wrapped in a plaster bandage.
To prepare me for leaving the hospital, which I hope to do next Tuesday, the intensity of my physiotherapy sessions has increased significantly. The twice-daily 30-minute sessions with the leg on, which include gym exercises, have now been extended to twice-daily 45-minute sessions. And maybe more over the next few days?
These sessions involve walking back and forth on parallel bars, as well as practicing walking around the room with crutches. I’ve also been mastering the art of stepping up and down stairs.
In between these sessions, I’m encouraged to keep my limb on for as long as possible to acclimatise my remaining leg to the sensation.
“Does it hurt at all?” has been a common question asked here at the hospital. My answer has fairly consistently been “No, it doesn’t hurt, it just feels odd”.
“So this is what people do when they retire?”, I though to myself as I looked around the clientele at La Capannina, Milson’s Point. In the outdoor area, there was a table of six older men (mid to late 60s) who looked like they all probably worked together at some point. In the inside area, everyone was similarly aged, though in much smaller groups. Along with the waiters, I was the youngest person in the restaurant. It was interesting to sit quietly and reflect and have a beer, as I watched the blokes play footy on the former bowling green lawns, and waited for my lunchtime partner.
Every so often, a former colleague and I go out for longish lunch. While mostly I scoff down some food in front of my computer (not actually taking a lunch break), it’s an occasional indulgence which I have mixed feelings about. I have a reasonably healthy work ethic, and so the idea of skiving off for a few hours hits at the very core of my existence. But then I rationalise it by remembering I hardly ever actually go out for lunch, and after a couple of hours of good food, good wine and good conversation, it’s all okay.
Having lived in Sydney all his life, being pretty well connected, and now retired, my friend usually has better ideas about where to go than I do. Today, he excelled himself with his suggestion of La Capannina. I’d never heard of it. I had no idea there was a restaurant located at an old bowling club at Milson’s Point, right next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and with great views.
The view from La Capannina Restaurant in Milsons Point, Sydney.
For the entree, we shared a healthy serving of antipasto. For the main, I had rolled veal which was excellent. In contrast to the restaurant’s bowling club days, the meals were mid-priced (higher than I’d normally pay for lunch, but not too high). The wait staff (who all spoke with Italian accents) were friendly and efficient. The owner popped out for a chat to check on how things were going.
On a fine winter’s day in Sydney, you could do worse than have lunch there.
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You only went home half an hour early ? You should have taken the rest of the day off, after that.
You only went home half an hour early ? You should have taken the rest of the day off, after that.
I didn’t make it back to the office at all James, far too exhausting this grief thing. Finally put some thoughts down today http://zero2one.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/saying-goodbye/