I spy with my little eye....

I turned on the internet earlier this week at the stuga so I could have a look at the cameras and the weather station. It's been quiet, no moose or snowstorms, but I still get a kick out of looking at our house from far away:

First snow of the year

Nice and quiet on the inside

Glad to see my indoor radiator is working as designed.

Until we can get back out to our little house, this is the next best thing!

Happy Julafton!

I've posted plenty of times before about the Swedish tradition of watching Kalle Anka on Christmas Eve. (Click that link if you don't believe me!)

This Julafton, I thought I'd post something a touch classier. The Financial Times commissioned a new Christmas carol, with lyrics adapted from Scandinavian rune poems.

It's beautiful, and the video certainly does it justice. I'm sharing it here as a tiny present to my readers.

Merry Christmas and God Jul, everyone!

An inflatable hot tub

I mentioned an inflatable ferry earlier this month. Today I present another inflatable, one that may well end up in our home one day: a hot tub!

This is the Bestway 4-person tub, their "Miami" model. It can be assembled/inflated within 10 minutes, and has a circulating pump, 81 air jets, a timer, and a 40°C heater all included.

It would be fairly easy to tote it out to the island and set it up, perhaps on our new deck, on a local flat rock. Sitting under the stars on a cool evening would be wonderful!

The biggest problem would be to fill it up with 800 litres of water. I'm not sure I would want to take that much out of our well, and moving it from the ocean wouldn't be that easy, either. Something to think about...

Lucia in London

I had hoped to come to the Swedish church for Lucia celebrations today, but I found out too late that it's the hottest ticket on the expatriate social calendar. Next year, I'll buy early.

Thankfully, we found something even better: Skandilicious, a Swedish pop-up restaurant nearby in Chelsea.

We had a fantastic time; all of the staff were Swedish, so we just chatted the afternoon away, being adopted Swedish ex-pats ourselves.

Most importantly, the food was absolutely delicious. Let's just say that we skipped dinner tonight!

A portable ferryboat

I've recently read about an inflatable ferry from a Slovenian company. When folded, it's portable, easily inflatable, and can carry up to 5,000kg, which is a heck of a big vehicle!

The company also says their boat is "practically unsinkable and incapable of overturning", which I think was also said about the Titanic. Of course, there aren't any icebergs in the archipelago, so it should be safe.

I certainly wouldn't have use for such a vessel, but it might be handy for some ad hoc construction projects around the islands.

Swedes in London

We've been busy getting settled into our new life in London. Only recently have we been able to start visiting further afield.

When we lived in the UK before, we went to Marleybone and visited the Swedish pub in 2010 to watch the Melodifestival live. Sooz went back to that part of town today, and brought me back a quart of my beloved filmjölk! (Here I am smiling at breakfast this morning.)

She also reported all sorts of restaurants, stores, shops and general Swedishness in the neighbourhood. It is fun to think that we are so close to a proper Swedish enclave, and we will definitely take advantage of it.

The Swedish Embassy runs a great page of information for Swedes in London, as does the Swedish Church. There are lots of other online resources, as well.

I have bookmarked all of these, and I plan to keep a close eye on nearby Swedish events!