Swedish Christmas

I have just returned from three magical days at Göran and Siv's (Niklas's parents) holiday house, along with Marianne, Niklas, Josephine and Alex and some extended family. There wasn't a lot of snow, but it was definitely a white Christmas, my first. The house is a very old cottage in the woods, small and very cosy.



I was given the honour of being Santa Claus on Christmas Eve (maybe because no-one else wanted to do it?) Swedish Christmas presents all have poetry written on the tags, which must be read out, a task which called for the special skills of the Head Elf.



We went to candlelit midnight mass at the church in the village, then out for a walk to an ancient hill fort on Christmas day.



My thanks to everyone, especially Göran and Siv, for a wonderful Swedish Christmas.

Walls and balls

Conny the carpenter arrived at some uneartly hour this morning and made a start on the stud walling in the space where the fourth wall of my new bedroom should be. At least I was up early enough to catch the sunrise.



It's worth pointing out that Conny is a big manly man, as evidenced by the man moustache. At one point he went down the road to get some insulation, leaving me to attach the plasterboard to the framework with his cordless drill and box of screws.





An actual bedroom with actual walls. And an ensuite.

Something that I didn't mention in yesterday's entry (I must have been too excited about the camera); Sara and her parents came on Sunday with a trailer load of "house stuff". We now have a dining table and three chairs (none of which are orange), more than one plate, cutlery, saucepans and a coffee machine. The coffee machine was an unexpected bonus, so unexpected in fact that I don't have any coffee or filters, otherwise I would have been able to do the civilised thing supply Conny with caffeine. I'll be set up properly by the time he comes to put the other two walls up.

Tomorrow, Christmas Eve, is the most important day of the Swedish Christmas. That is to say, it is the day that presents are opened. We are going to Niklas's parents' house and I understand they are excited to have an Englishman in attendance as they will be able to show me how a traditional Swedish Christmas is done. I am intrigued, and shall be armed with an English Christmas cake.

On a sillier note, I am more than partly responsible for the disco ball that is now hanging in the boardroom of Bombadil Publishing AB. Kudos to co-conspiritor Marianne.



Merry Christmas everyone!

Cheese!

I've been happily playing with the camera, which Marianne located yesterday. If anyone cares, it's a 5 megapixel Minolta SLR and I think I'm getting quite good with it, especially as the instruction manual is nowhere to be found.



I'm not going to fill the blog with pictures, but I'll put up what's relevant and leave the arty shots in the Picasa album.







Yes, I do have a drinking fountain in my kitchen. Don't you?

(click the pictures to enlarge)

We've found the camera!

(Ooo-o) I'm a legal alien (wow-o)

The digger boys got it stuck in the mud again today. The lawn now resembles tank training ground that has been abandoned because tanks can no longer negotiate it. On the plus side, the drains have been repaired.

I am now a legal alien (cue bad singing) in Sweden; the tax authorities, having got over their initial surprise at someone volunteering to pay tax, have registered me. This involved a trip to Oebro, about half an hour's drive away, and a trip to IKEA on the way back. I'm waiting to see exactly what it is that Sara will be arriving with on Sunday before opening an account there, but it was still interesting to see how a genuine Swedish IKEA store differs from the variety that inhabit the UK. There is no difference at all, by the way.

My office now has a plant. I had to put it together myself, but it cost a little less.

Lots of news

I'm sneaking another blog entry in quickly, before the complaints start again...

About the biggest news at Bombadil Towers at the moment is my new fridge, which is fab. I surmise that it has formerly seen service in a restaurant as a wine fridge - it's full height, with a glass door and lights at the top. It's branded Vichy Nouveau and it puts just about every other fridge in the shade. It's one cool fridge. Marianne and I moved it from one of the barns the other evening with the aid of a pallet truck, lots of bad jokes and a discussion about the metaphysical moustache!

Having spent hours cleaning, polishing and generally admiring my new fridge, I have identified only one problem so far - I keep walking past it and assuming that I have left the door open - as the light is on and I can see the contents. I'm sure I'll get used to it. I hope Sara shares my enthusiasm for Aphrodite. (Yes, I have named it.)

The snow has temporarily melted, which is causing rather a problem as the Orica guys are digging like there is no tomorrow; perhaps they were rabbits in a former life. On second thoughts, probably not, as there are still only two of them. Anyway, all the melt water has turned the tarmac very muddy and the lawn is a total quagmire to the point where they got their four wheel drive digger (fitted with studded snow tyres) stuck yesterday. So much for my plans to play croquet out there in the summer then.

More exciting news - our two Norwegian friends, Morton and Aksel of the web video company Cnit Vision were here on Monday and Tuesday. They will form an important part of out Media Centre, a self-sufficient project that we are setting up in some of our surplus office space. Morton and Aksel are great fun - Morton is the first person to play the grand piano with competence, so hopefully he won't mind being roped in as session musician occasionally. Of course, we haven't told him about his new role yet...

We also went to visit Niklas's mine - it was the first time that I had seen it. It comprises a large collection of red timber buildings, dominated equally by both the mine-head and the main processing building, which is built onto a hill so as to utilise gravity in the ore sorting process. Niklas is heavily involved in a long running project to demonstrate the feasibility of establishing a lunar colony, with the target of having the colony in place on the moon any time between 2018 and 2024. My first question was "what does an old iron ore mine have to do with a lunar colony?" Well, the idea would be to build the lunar colony underground, so as to offer protection against meteor strikes etc and to make it easier to establish some sort of artificial contained atmosphere – and where better to test the concept than at the bottom of a disused mine. Read all about it here - in the words of the people in the know, not my paraphrasing.

Finally, yet more exciting news – we had our first meeting today with me in my role as a Bombadilian rather than as a painter. Certain jobs have been apportioned – I am taking responsibility for the daily video clip, the Bombadil blog (yes, before you ask, I will update it more often than this one!) and the emerging international markets including, intriguingly, Mexico. Watch this space!

Adios, amigos.

The day of the Giver of Light, Saint Lucia

"M'Mother" has been complaining that I haven't updated m'blog often enough. So here is what happened at the weekend.

I've painted my kitchen over in the Relaxation Suite - the walls are no longer orange! It's now a rather pleasant pinkish/beige colour. My original plans to paint the kitchen purple were thwarted by Marianne, which is probably a good thing.

On Saturday evening there was a Saint Lucia concert at the church in Nora. It's a ceremony which opens the month-long Christmas festivities. Marianne and Niklas were busy doing something or other; the children were busy doing something or other else, so I went down myself to have a look. It was essentially a candle-lit concert by the church choir (including a lot of children) singing a mix of traditional Swedish Christmas songs, Christmas carols translated from English and even "we wish you a merry Christmas" in English. The choir was led by a girl with a crown of eight candles (lit) on her head. During this time, Father Christmas and a chap in a papier mache ram's head gave out sweets. The church itself is a very beautiful building; plain white on the outside, but red and green and gold inside and full of murals.

More later...