This was our reaction when we watched Antikrundan last week. It's a program not unlike the one Clive Hale used to present on the ABC (For Love or Money) where viewers bring along items they think might be worth a bob or two and some antique experts look them over and tell you the good or bad news. It's always a bit amusing to look at the participants, especially the totally transparent ones who are trying to pretend that they don't really care how much something is worth, who then are obviously pissed off when it turns out that their family heirloom is worthless crap. Yeah, so I have a mean streak....

Anyway, a woman turns up with the most pig ugly vases I've seen in a very long time. The word woggy immediately (and politically incorrectly) leaps into my mind as I try and fathom who in their right mind would ever own something like this:



I imagine Con the Fruiterer has something very similar in his living room and I was rather hoping that the presenter would feel as queasy as I did. But to our horror, she loves them and gets really excited and tells the shocked owner that it is worth a cool one million Swedish crowns. At today's rates, that is $AU173,409.88. And here I was thinking Cunningham's Warehouse or Cheap As Chips. Just goes to show what a huge gap there can be between a lot of money and good taste.

I also had a "You've got to be kidding!" reaction last night when one of our friends here rang us in tears with the news that their newly acquired boat had sunk overnight in Stockholm.

You may remember that we were excited back in November when Anders and Beth bought the lovely Matilda and when we visited her back then, she looked like this:



Well, yesterday morning, while passing along Strandvägen on the way to work, she looked like this:



As you can imagine, they are distraught and trying to work out a way that she can be salvaged, placed in dry dock and restored to her former glory. Even Lars-Göran is in mourning for the boat as well feeling Anders and Beth's pain. I can imagine how upset we'd be if this was Fiona. No-one is too sure quite how it happened - perhaps a burst water pipe, perhaps some damage from moving ice or perhaps some other as yet unknown reason. Poor Matilda!

Meanwhile, back in Nynäshamn, the warm, sunny days continue, even though the area is still decked out in its white apparel. Today there has been no snow but the temperature has certainly got the feel of winter about it and the wild birds were queuing up for their breakfast this morning. Puddles and the shallow areas of water are all frozen hard and the ground creaks as it stretches towards the light. But it is beautiful.



Let's hope that there is also light at the end of the tunnel for Matilda.