That slight rewriting of the second line of the Australian national anthem seemed rather fitting yesterday as we made our way to the Australia Day BBQ at Hagaparken in Stockholm.



This bbq is somewhat of an institution here, having been held annually at the same location since 1997. The amazing structures you see behind us are the Koppartälten (Copper Tents), built not of copper, but wood. They date from 1787 and used to house the mess hall for the king's private palace guards. The park itself is enormous. It was developed by King Gustav III in the eighteenth century as an English-style park and in fact it even has a Versailles-type palace, Haga Slott further down towards the water. In the summer, people gather here on the rolling lawns of Hagaparken to eat grilled chicken, drink wine and to celebrate the well known Swedish poet/musician Carl Michael Bellman, whose songs of Stockholm still speak to the present day inhabitants.

But today, the rolling grass looked more like a ski field!



I have to tell you that the lovely black poodle you see here is called Aussie (and yes, he belongs to an Aussie).

Lambi was in seventh heaven as there was a small weber barbeque there at just the same height as she was - a sort of "fast food" for dogs - and it was full of wonderful smells of grilling sausages, patties and meatballs. Yes, meatballs! These were Lambi's favourite, as one or two rolled off into the snow and she latched onto them with a speed that would beat a striking cobra. We dubbed her our quality control officer - a task she undertook with great enthusiasm.

We had an interesting confrontation with an officious busy-body (one of the 9,000,000 self appointed civilian police-wannabes that seem to live here) who insisted that our bbq was too close to the historic copper tents and they would catch fire. We all thought he was a wanker - we've had this going for eight years in the same spot and not managed to burn them down. And it is damp, snowy, below zero and there are no flames on the bbq and it was in fact 10 or so metres away from the building. Still, he was muttering about ringing the fire department, so Lars-Göran offered to move the bbq to keep him quiet.

And look how far away he made us shift it. See that little black box on the ground over near the trees about 200m away? Yep, that far away. And he kept coming back to check that we hadn't moved it back. I guess if he wasn't having fun he decided that no-one else ought to either.



Lambi was a big hit in her lovely jumper and several passers-by were really taken with it and wanted to know where we got it and what the other flag was. Many, many Swedes out for a walk in the park (see, they ARE completely crazy) stopped to stare at us and wonder why we were all out having a bbq in January. We really have to have a bbq - what is Australia Day without a few burnt sausages, some potato salad and a bit of coleslaw? Perhaps we should have referred them to The Xenophobe's Guide to the Aussies, that would tell them:



The kids were out in force with their sleds and pulkas and warmly rugged up in snowsuits making the most of the slopes to burn off energy.



After a few hours chatting, eating and drinking it was time to head off for home, because unlike Australia, here in Sweden we had to go to work today.

The cold, snowy weather continues, which is good for tomorrow's barbeque in the snow to celebrate Australia Day. At least there WILL be some snow this year - there have been years when it poured with freezing rain instead and somehow BBQ in the mud just does not have the same appeal.

Hopefully, it will be a dual celebration, because Adelaide born Lleyton Hewitt has made the finals of the Australian Open to be played in the early morning Swedish time, so loyal Aussie sports fans will also be heading to the Dancin' Dingo in Södermalm for breakfast to watch the final live. Let's hope Lleyton wins it for Australia. Coverage of the tennis dropped off dramatically here once the Swedes were eliminated (funny about that).

Speaking of funny (in a "weird" sort of way) is the advertisment you see pictured to the left. These ads have been featured widely lately on tv, in the glossies and on billboards. It's for toilet paper and reads The fresh paper! For those incredible moments. Some expat friends and I were having a discussion about this, trying to fathom whether it was some "in" joke that only Swedes would understand or if it was written by someone with a less than perfect grasp of English. I mean to say "fresh paper" as opposed to what? And I don't know about you, but if I was bikini clad (though let's face it, NOBODY needs a picture of me doing ANYTHING in a bikini) and sitting in a sundrenched paradise with my man, I really wouldn't need a six-pack of toilet paper to make it into an incredible moment. Unless they confused the two meanings of incredible. In which case, it is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, if you pardon the awful pun. I've asked some Swedes to explain the ad to me, but they are just as baffled as I am. At least it isn't the brand I use, nor am I tempted to change by their campaign.

Now off to make sure everything is ready for the trip to town at sparrow's fart.

Man, it is colder than Liberal Party welfare reform here at the moment. A cold snap has descended over Europe and while it is nowhere near as cold here as in Switzerland, at minus 7C, it's cold enough for me. This is the kind of weather that demands one makes lots of crumpets while drinking premium whisky and stay indoors in front of the fire, but Swedes would scoff at that, so despite the snow and cold temperatures, they are out and about as though this is all perfectly normal. I'll never understand.

Today, it is the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on January 27th, 1945. Last evening Swedish tv screened the movie Schindler's List, based on the prize winning book by Australian writer, Thomas Keneally. I have read the book and seen the film several times and it still fills me with a sense of horror and grief at the unspeakable suffering these people endured and those who turned a blind eye and allowed it all to happen.

In Nynäshamn, the event was marked by a candlelit parade in the early evening through centrum and up to the church, where a service was held to commemorate the continuing fight for human rights and the battle against discrimination. One thing that really heartened me was seeing such a large number of young people come out on a cold, snowy evening and stand up to be counted. I hope that people never forget what happened and we stay vigilant so that it can never happen again.

I was quite struck by the message in the cartoon I saw from the pen of Melbourne's brilliant Michael Leunig.



The memory of Auschwitz is a reminder that racism and intolerance can never be tolerated.

That rather dour message is one that sticks in my mind from my teen years as the government promotion of Australia Day, which is celebrated today, January 26th. I see that these days they have gone with a far more upbeat message:



Australia Day is celebrated as our national day. It commemorates the landing of the First Fleet on January 26, 1788 at Botany Bay (in Sydney). Captain Arthur Phillip took formal possession of the colony of New South Wales on the behalf of the British and European settlement began.

As you can imagine, it is a controversial choice of event to celebrate. Many of the indigenous population see the first day of European settlement as the beginning of the end for their way of life and it is seen by some as a national day of mourning. It is a day to remember their loss and suffering and the continued inequalities in lifestyle they face. There are moves to try and reconcile the differences, but the bitterness runs deeply.

Others feel that the day the country was unified as a federation (January 1st 1901) is a better choice - but then we already have a New Year's Eve holiday. Still others want to see ANZAC Day in April 25th as a national day. But January 26th it remains.




Celebrations in Australia usually involve friends and family meeting together for a barbeque, picnic, beach party and an evening of public fireworks displays. One of the dishes sure to be served is the famous Aussie pavlova.

This is a recipe I got from my friend Faye and it has proved to be a very popular family treat here in Sweden.

4 egg whites
2 tablespoons sugar for each egg white
1 dessertspoon corn flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon white vinegar
Pinch of salt

Beat egg whites stiff with a pinch of salt. Add sugar gradually and beat well. Check that no sugar is left on bottom of bowl. Add corn flour, vanilla and vinegar.

Put on a buttered oven tray sprinkled with equal corn flour and icing sugar, in the shape and approximate height desired. Bake in a slow oven 120ºC for 1½ hours. Turn off the oven leaving the Pavlova to cool slowly with it. (I leave it overnight)

Place on plate and cover with whipped cream and decorate.

Hints
• Use the freshest eggs you can get.
• Use eggs at room temperature, having left them out of the fridge for an hour or so means the white beat up easier and better.
• Increase the cake size with the eggs, I often to a 6-8 egg Pavlova for parties, I usually increase the other ingredients in proportion but most important is to keep the sugar to egg proportions.
• When placing on oven tray, consider the plate shape and size you plan to put the Pavlova on (a piece of wood or tray covered in foil works well). I usually dump the mix into a round shape about 6 cm high. Then I smooth off the top to give an approximate flat surface. Often higher pavs will cave in and can be just filled with cream.
• I use baking paper, which I butter and corn flour on my oven tray.nThis helps in turning the pav over later. I don’t have to carefully lift it off the tray the paper usually just peels off, allowing me to put the pav on its serving plate.
• I like to bake a pav at night and leave it in the oven overnight to cool, thus avoiding (mostly) drastic cave ins from cooling too quickly.
• A Pavlova can keep in a dry place for up to a week before decorated.
• I use heaps of whipped cream usually at least 5 dl (500ml) or more on an 8 egg pav, then like to use fresh Swedish strawberries in summer here. Other decoration ideas include fresh or frozen raspberries, blueberries (they are thawed by eating time) sliced banana (put on last second), kiwi fruit, peaches (canned), mandarins (canned), passion fruit (self imported can), shaved or grated chocolate or combinations of some or all of the above!
• With cream on keep the pav in a fridge, and it will only keep as long as the cream keeps. But don't worry, there is rarely leftovers.

In Sweden, a beach party is not possible at this time of the year. This morning, after several days of gentle snow, the view outside looks like this:



Still, it hasn't stopped the Dancin' Dingo in Stockholm from holding a beach party, that begins later tonight. If last year's is anything to go by, it will be a fun evening.

On Sunday, a group of us are getting together at Koppartälten in Stockholm for a barbeque on Sunday afternoon. For any Aussies in town on that day, head on over to Hagaparken and join in the fun from 12 noon to 3pm. I imagine as in previous years, we will be the recipients of a few stares from puzzled Swedes wondering why we are having a barbie in the snow. Still, it's not as bad as the day the cricket team decided to stage a match on the ice of Lake Mälaren outside if parliament house.



Now that was a sight to stop the traffic dead.

To all Aussies, wherever in the world you are - enjoy your Australia Day celebrations.

They say that one of the signs that you've been in Sweden too long, is when you spend your winters dreaming about the short summer weeks (or should that be days?). If so, then I plead guilty as charged because I can't help thinking about being out on the boat again.

That strikes most people here as a summer activity, but for us it is normally an all round pleasure. Rugged up in the correct gear, there is no more wonderful experience than casting off and feel the power of the wind in the sails as the boat slices through the water. What is particularly depressing about the non-winter we are having is that we could be out there on weekends exploring, instead of home sanding the hull.

These shots are normal winter sailing for us. The one on the right was taken on our old boat Olivia (now happily sailing with her new owners at Loftahammar) and the one on the left on our new boat Fiona. It looks deceptive, because of the blue water and skies. You can tell from the five layers of clothing I am wearing that it's the proverbial brass monkey weather - just below zero, with a stiff breeze.



One reason why we'd like to get her ship-shape and back in the water is that we are facing something called stambyte come May. There is no direct translation for that word, but basically it means that all the major plumbing pipes and the electrical cables are being replaced in the apartment building. It means that we are getting a brand new bathroom and our kitchen renovated - and a god-awful mess while it's going on.

At the moment, this is our bathroom - very much a 1950's utilitarian affair that is badly in need of a facelift. Actually, it looks a bit better in real life, but it has white tiles to about shoulder height, yellow painted walls, old, chipped bathtub with shower and old toilet and basin.

What is being proposed is floor to ceilng tiling, new toilet, vanity unit, basin, mirror, bath with shower inside, towel warmer, electrical outlet (yay! no more extension cord to the kitchen to dry my hair) and a tiled floor. Optional extras (at our own cost) include a glassed-in shower cabinet (instead of a bathtub/shower combo) and underfloor heating.

It is common practice here for the pipes and wet areas to be renovated every 40 years or so. Our apartment was built in 1951, so it is a bit overdue. It's financed by a levy that has been included in our monthly fee. Some apartment buildings have not collected a levy and then they must borrow the money and raise the monthly levy quite a lot to cover the interest rate on the loan. Fortunately our body corporate has been squirrelling away the money since 1951, so we will have no penalty costs added and the fees we pay now will go towards a future renovation.

With both the bathroom and kitchen areas, we get a choice of colours and types of tiling and fittings. If we want something else, then that can be negotiated providing we pay for the difference in cost ourselves. I haven't seen the samples yet, but imagine that won't be far off.

In the kitchen, which you see pictured here, much less will be done. The water pipes are being replaced, so we get new taps. The electricity will be upgraded to meet modern standards, the walls above the sink fully tiled and the sink, stove and bench areas raised to 94cm (they are 80cm high at the moment). They will also add lighting under the upper cupboards over the preparation area (something I really want in the winter).

Work on all of this is scheduled to begin in May, with workman being in the apartment block for six months and in each individual apartment six to eight weeks. Can you imagine the mess? And no bathroom facilities? I'm pretty sure that we'll be packing up and moving aboard when this starts up. We are rather hoping that our apartment will be one of the first ones done as the main pipes are at our end of the building. Fingers crossed that it won't last too long.

I'm interested in reading the blogs of others who have come to live in Sweden from abroad and in one of the new ones I've started reading, written by an American woman living in Tjörn on the west coast, she posted the most stunning picture today of her glimpse of the northern lights, taken from the harbour town of Skärhamn. Isn't it incredible? We really must go back that way again and visit Tjörn as the scenery is breathtaking.

Meanwhile it's getting lighter and lighter each day, so the promise of summer on the way is becoming a reality. I'll be ready when it finally gets here.

This was definitely the quote of the night when I ventured down to the local Aussie watering hole, Dancin' Dingo on Tuesday night to meet up with a group of Australians who are interested in getting together socially. Well, while it may not exactly be the way I'd like to be remembered on my epitaph, it was rather funny to find out that people do recognise the connection between Lambi and I, thanks to the exposure the short, furry white princess gets on this blog. It's also a little unnerving to meet people face-to-face who have only ever known me via this website.

I had a great night with 20 or so others, discussing what we'd like to do in future for regular events and those special days like Australia Day and ANZAC Day. In the past, a lot of that load has fallen to one or two dedicated people and now it's time to expand on the base and spread out the workload. It's a friendly bunch of enthusiastic people, so I hope we can keep the momentum going. I find that it is SUCH a pleasure to do things with Australians. There is no passive whining about Sweden, no screwing you around, just clear communication and a basic respect and understanding for the other person. I had never really appreciated that side of our character until I lived away from the country.

There seem to be a fun mix of events planned for the coming year, so I urge all Aussies here in Stockholm to come along and support the group as well as have a great time with friends. Check out the SCC website regularly for updates and if you send me an email, I'll add you to our list of people to get newsletters about upcoming events. Australia Day is next week and there are events organised both for the day and the weekend after.



I also took the chance to enjoy delicious a meal of fish and chips. It doesn't sound exciting, but I've not eaten that for years and years and when I saw it on the menu, I coudn't resist. It brought back such wonderful childhood memories of summer family trips to Semaphore Beach, where we could go along to the chippy as a treat and bring back our warm, slightly greasy paper wrapped parcel, reeking of vinegar containing butterfish and a serve of chips or maybe a potato cake or two. Then we would sit on the beach in the evening, fighting with the seagulls for our share of it all. I swear that I could hear the crashing of the surf and the squawk of a hungry gull as I placed my order with Angie at the bar.

I was trying to think of the last time I ate fish and chips and it must have over 6 years ago at Doyles (Watson's Bay) or at a little place on Mornington Peninsula called Dromana - I do remember how pushy those seagulls were at wanting 100% of my chips. In the end I think they ended up with about 70% of them.

Hmm....summer....hurry up and get to Sweden!

More goodies from Sandy in Australia in another parcel. I'm feeling very spoiled. She sent me a copy of The Australian 40th Anniversary CD that I've been enjoying immensely. It covers breaking events and people in Australia between 1964-2004 and it has been fantastic to read back over the times and look at pictures of events that have shaped Australia over the last 40 years.

She also sent me a knitted woollen cap, like the one I linked to here back in November. It seems that this has captured the imagination of several people and Sandy has been knitting them since. I got Lars-Göran to pose for it, on condition that I didn't put the picture in my blog. So I won't put in the picture, merely a link. That's not the same thing, is it?

Also included was a clipping from an article in The Age about Sweden. In the article, Mark Butler asks how the Swedes went from Vikings intent on burning down monasteries, looting villages and slaughtering entire communities for fun a thousand years ago to these modern day sensible, organised and sedate people.

This is a very timely clipping, as the king has recently made a speech about how the Swedish character appears to outsiders and whether this is something they need to work on. It was an amazing speech and one that seems to have generated heated debate in the country, especially in relation to the tardy response of the authorities to the disaster in Thailand. I've not heard the king make such a speech before and it showed a more personal and thoughtful side to him that I had not previously considered. Add to that his poignant address to those children left without parents after the tragedy, where he spoke about losing his father as a small child and growing up always wondering who his pappa was as a person. And his wish that he had the powers of kings in fairytales to make everyone live happily ever after and it is not surprising that his popularity has soared in the opinion polls. Of course not everyone is happy, but then these are the same people who are trying to by pass responsibility in the whole issue. How sad that it has come to this.

I have just finished reading this book and really enjoyed it very much. Last month, I read his book A Short History of Nearly Everything, which I couldn't put down, even though it was about science - a subject I loathed at school. I wanted to read more of his books, so I ordered Down Under from the fabulous inter-library loan system they have here and read it in a couple of days. Brilliant stuff! I needed to read something good as the first two books I read this year were utter shite. Can someone please tell me how such a obvious, poorly written and thoroughly annoying book like The Davinci Code ever became a best seller. If it wasn't the library's book I would have thrown it against the wall. I wish I could "unread" it. Absolute unadulterated drivel (and I'm being kind here - I used far less flattering terms when discussing it with some friends here last week). This was followed by Mary, Called Magdalene by the usually reliable writer Margaret George. I have loved her previous historical novels about Cleopatra, Henry VIII and Mary Queen of Scots, but this one was very disappointing. All 800 pages of it. Sigh.

Still continues cool and mild here, though it's great weather for the ducks.



Lambi has been soaking up compliments as a fashion princess for her lovely coat - but then she does look cute.

Thankyou, Sandy!

Sometimes I am actually lost for words. Not often, as those who know me in real life will readily attest to, but this time I don't know what to say.

When my friends Sandy and Ad came to stay, they filmed every place they had been to on their grand European farewell tour and promised us a copy of it when they got to Melbourne. So when Sandy asked me the other day if her package had arrived, I thought she meant the video of the holiday.

Today I went to our local newsagent to pick up my parcels from Australia. Both of them were from Sandy. I was intrigued by the one that was marked as containing Woollen jacket. It looked small - did she think I was having a baby?

I opened it and gazed in wonder at her glorious creation for none other than Lambi the wonder dog. It is a beautiful, hand-knitted original coat, incorporating the Aussie motif of the southern cross in good old green and gold as well as the Swedish flag.

Take it away, Lambi - Strike a pose!



That's Lambi posing proudly and showing off the beloved Aussie colours and the constellation that stirs the heart of every antipodean. It was all I could do to stop myself breaking into Peter Allen's I Still Call Australia Home or Men at Work's Down Under.

And to be totally fair, she turned around and showed us her shy, Swedish side.



She's gazing southwards wondering why we are freezing in this cold land when we could be sunning ourselves in Australia. Isn't it the most wonderful, colourful and perfect coat for Lambi? The card inside was of a pair of sulphur crested cockatoos and read



What can I say but a big thankyou to Sandy who created this masterpiece and to Kate who organised it all. Why thank me? It is you who deserves a big thankyou for providing a website that brings 6,336 expat Aussies in 108 countries together for friendship, support and a lot of fun. What I do is a very small part of this incredible website that has given me so much enjoyment over the last four years. Thankyou, Kate and Sandy!

Lambi shall wear this coat around with pride. And as if on cue, the temperatues have plunged overnight to below zero again, freezing the sea in the shallow bays again.



Perfect weather for a warm woolly coat. I'm sure she'll be a happy little Vegemite in her Sandy Van Veen original.

While perusing the EUobserver news, I came across the above article that says that the EU Commissioner for Communication, Margot Wallström, has started a blog. She is a well liked and respected person in the EU and I'll be following her blog with interest.

I also wanted to tell the many, many people who are emailing me here with a link about a little lost Swedish boy in Phuket called Hannes Bergström, that is he is safely home in Sweden. For some reason, this letter is circulating around the net, but it is no longer valid. Sadly, there are many children still missing and I understand people's concern, but little Hannes is home. I see today, that a fellow Aussie in Norway, Jill Walker is also getting similar letters about a lost German girl.

We survived the second wind storm without damage and again the day after was calm and sunny. Looking at the harbour area, you could almost believe it was summer again.



It is unseasonally warm and mild and over the last few days, I've seen signs of spring everywhere - trees sprouting new growth, bulbs pushing through the soil, birds nesting, squirrels frolicking in the park (shouldn't they be hibernating with their acorns?) and many varieties of sea birds already returning to their breeding grounds. The light is also very spring like and everything looks ready and poised to take off for summer.



Yesterday it was the official day to take down Christmas decorations, so I bid farewell to my stars, twinkling lights and Christmas tree until December. I always feel a little sad to see them go. Now I'm waiting for my personal sign of spring - semlor in the shops!

I have two collection slips for packages from Australia to pick up from the post office. I got home too late to collect them today, but will go down in the morning to see what they are. I love goodies from home.

This horrifying headline greeted me when I clicked on my usual morning perusal of my hometown newspaper online. The story also repeated in the ABC news.

This is something we all dread come the summer months - the wild fire. I still vividly recall the awful Ash Wednesday fires in 1983, with the entire Adelaide Hills ringed with fire. I can still hear the choking emotion in the voice of journalist Murray Nicoll as he stood across from his home and watched it being engulfed in flames, yet still continued reporting it over the radio to a shocked audience.

"At the moment, I'm watching my house burn down. I'm sitting out on the road in front of my own house where I've lived for 13 or 14 years and it's going down in front of me. And the flames are in the roof and -- Oh, God damn it. It's just beyond belief -- my own house. And everything around it is black. There are fires burning all around me. All around me.
And the front section of my house is blazing. The roof has fallen in. My water tanks are useless. There is absolutely nothing I can do about it."


Yesterday, with temperatures across South Australia in the 40s and fanned by a searing north wind, these fires swept through the state, taking ten lives (three of them young children), destroying over 100 homes, killing thousands of sheep, cattle and wild animals and devastating whole rural communities. There is an excellent summary of the story in my favourite Aussie blog Public Opinion. This story even made the news here in Sweden, with graphic footage of the country burning. It's not often I hear the word Australien on tv here, so I looked up to see the Eyre Peninsula ablaze.

My heart goes out to all of those families affected by this fire. Life is really so short and fragile. Appreciate every minute of it.

The day after Saturday's storm dawned clear and calm. It was hard to believe that the previous night had been real when we looked out at the new day.



Despite the fury of the wind, there was surprisingly little damage in Nynäshamn. We were grateful not to be living in the west or south coasts where property damage, loss of life and cut power and telephone lines were the norm. Even today, three days after the storm, many areas are still without electricity or phones as the authorities work long hours to clear debris from lines. Many train services are also not functioning because of fallen trees.

Lars-Göran went out early on Sunday morning to check the town and especially the boats. We have friends who live in Stockholm and even further away who keep their boats down here and he wanted to see if they were damaged in case our friends rang. He also wanted to ensure that our boat was safe on land.

He was very relieved that the only effect on Fiona was that part of the tarpaulin covering her had come loose and was hanging down. Several boats at the club had torn or loose tarpaulins. As he surveyed the wharf, he turned a corner to see this:



It's a boat owner's nightmare and our friends Jan and Aina were horrified when they saw their boat like this. They live very close to the club and had been kept awake most of the night with the noise of flapping coverings from the wharf. Jan sensed something not quite right at about 5.30am and so he dressed and went out to check. Aina said she nearly fainted when they saw Karibu lying on her nose.

They were very upset and anxious about what to do, so Lars-Göran suggested getting together a few men and he would unpack the crane and together they would all lift the boat. So he hurried home, made a few calls and just after lunch a group met at the wharf to help out. When the crane was made ready, Lars-Göran drove it to where the boat lay - a very tight space with not much room to manoeuvre.



The group worked together really well and quickly attached the straps to draw the boat out of the space before righting her.



The worried man in the foreground is the owner of the boat that Karibu is leaning against. He lives in Stockholm and someone had rung him at 9am to say that Jan's boat had fallen against his boat. He rushed down, frantic about damage, but as it turned out, there was not a scratch on his boat and he was very relieved.

Before the final lift, The Panel got together to discuss strategy.



I shouldn't tease them, but it did look funny to see them all standing around with varying opinions about how to proceed from there. In the end, it was all decided and work continued. While they were talking, I asked Aina about the name of her boat. I had thought that karibu was the Swedish word for the English caribou and it seemed an unusual name for a boat. But it turns out that it is in fact a Swahili word that means welcome. See, you learn something new every day.

It wasn't long before Karibu was finally lifted back into her spot.



This is a benefit of living in a smaller town. Several people commented that this would never have happened in Stockholm. But here it seemed natural that a group of locals would come together like this to help out someone in need. As I told Aina, we were all thinking that but for a simple twist of fate, it could have been any of our boats lying there. There was a great community spirit about the day and I was very glad to be a part of it.

We were most surprised this evening when Jan knocked on our door and brought us some fabulous South Australian wine and a bottle of gin as a thankyou for helping out on Sunday. While we didn't need him to thank us, I thought it was a lovely gesture and illustrates why it is nice to be part of a warm, friendly community of people rather than living in isolation in a big city.

The water here is still very high.



The ducks seem to be having a ball, but the piers are under water and now it is creeping up the grass verges and will soon be over the road. It has also been warmer than usual, and my friend tells me that meteorologically, it is considered spring when there are seven consecutive days when the temperature does not fall below freezing at all. It can't be here already? Can it?

High winds and storms are forecast for tomorrow again hitting the south and west coasts hardest. We have covered over Fiona again and now await this new wind. Fingers crossed that no-body loses their life this time.

What a wild and wooly night we had last night. Hurricane force winds swept in across Sweden and Denmark from the North Sea, creating chaos across the whole country, especially in the west and south coasts. This was the worst storm in this area since the 1960's and even made news in the Australian media. As you can see from the picture, ferries stayed in port as the waves and winds were too severe to risk a crossing. Reports of waves up to 5 metres high along the south coast were reported. The footage shown on the local news services of sea rescue boats battling the seas was frightening. The clouds were dark and menacing and people were asked to stay inside as high seas swept in the coastal areas, flooding the nearby towns.

On land, the story was just as scary. We live on the east coast, so we had some forewarning of what was heading our way. But living in a coastal town, we were buffetted with the full force of the wind. Trees were uprooted and flung across roads, bridges were closed, air traffic was diverted away from Sweden and Denmark and over 400,000 people lost their power. We had flickering lights all evening, but never totally lost connection. The saddest thing is that seven people have lost their lives (mostly in the southern area of Skåne) when trees crashed onto their cars.

We lay in bed awake until 4 a.m., listening to the windows shake, the winds howling along the street like a pack wild wolves or banshees and the waves crashing to the shore. The gusts were incredible and we saw pictures of cars with trailers that had been blown off the roads with the force. The fence next door went down in one big gust and I was thankful that we live upstairs and that there are no trees nearby that could come crashing through. Though I was worried that flying debris could break a window as we are only half a level up from the street. The rain also came beating against the windows and adding to the general noise.

The people we were most worried about were our friends who live aboard their boats in the guest harbour area. We have several friends there and at the height of the storm in the early hours of the morning we were concerned about how they were doing and if they were safe. We both love being on the boat in storms and feel the wind shake the boat and scream through the rigging. You really feel the power of the weather, though I think that last night was too much even for us. A quick look at the harbour web cam showed us that they all survived intact, which is a relief. If you look at the still shot I just captured from there, you can see it is calm, sunny and lovely this morning.

Yesterday, we noticed that the water around here was very high - much higher than anything I've ever seen before. The Baltic is closed off at the northern end as you can see from this map. The winds were strongly sweeping up from the south, driving the water up towards the north. Nynäshamn is situated at the south of the area that really protrudes into the Baltic (about where the St of St Petersburg is on the picture) so we collected a lot of water. A walk around the harbour and coastal road in yesterday afternoon just as the winds were really picking up, showed that the sea had risen several feet and many piers were actually under water. Even at our local boat club, the water was threatening to flood over the wharf area.

Today as it is calm and sunny again, we are going to see what storm damage occurred around town. Be back later with another report.

Today, it's Trettondagen jul (the thirteenth day of Christmas) and a public holiday. No work. Who-hoo! For those of us brought up in religious households, we know this day as the Epiphany or sometimes Three Kings' Day, celebrating the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus. In Australia, it was the day that Christmas decorations were taken down, signifying the end of the Christmas season (and the beginning of Cadbury Creme Eggs being on sale). Here in Sweden, that day is next week, as an ancient king called Knut declared that the Christmas season should last twenty days and so the official julgransplundring is on the 13th of January.

There seem to be no rituals associated with the day today and some people do take down their decorations and pack them away. I prefer to wait as I love to see the tree glittering in the corner and enjoy the stars in the windows, even though it is getting lighter and lighter as the days go by. Amazingly, as fast as the darkness came, it's retreating just as quickly and there are real signs that spring is here.

We started off the day in lazy fashion, having breakfast while watching the highlights we taped of last year's Archipelago Raid. It was wonderful to see these boats navigating through the Stockholm and Åland archipelagoes, racing the clock and the conditions in a real test of skill and endurance. We are really familiar with the waters covered by the course and made a note to be somewhere around when they compete this August. They made an overnight stop here in Nynäshamn last year, but I think this year we may try and catch them further north or in Åland.

The weather has been something of a puzzle. We had a cold snap back in November with temperatures hovering around -10C and a lot of snow, but that was very shortlived and it has rarely been really cold at all since. In fact today, it is +7C with +10C predicted for tomorrow, which is unheard of in January. Compare these shots taken a year apart.

This is Fagerviken on January 5th 2004:



Looks normal Swedish winter conditions - snow, grey skies, sea frozen over, but still wonderfully beautiful. The year before was even colder at -15C. I clearly remember a friend from Sydney was over here (and she'll kill me for saying this) and wearing the most ridiculous thin gloves and coat and she turned into a block of ice before our eyes. Well, Kirsty, take a look at Fagerviken yesterday:



I'm sure she'll email me now and say something like That was so NOT the place I visited. It looks very spring like. Even the trees are starting to sprout new shoots in response to the mild conditions and I've seen big flocks of happy little sparrows forraging for seeds and food in the grass outside.

Lars-Göran tells me that sometimes they have these mild "English winters". That made me laugh out loud as I've spent time in England in the winter and there is so much more miserable rain than we get here. Edited to add: Kate sent me a marvellous quote about this from Le Carre's latest novel "The England that waits young Mundy is a rain-swept cemetary for the living dead powered by a forty-watt bulb." Yes, that's what I remember!

I challenged him about his earlier prediction that we were going to be in for a long, hard, cruel winter as there were so many of those rowanberries around in the autumn. He claims that I should wait a bit. He's sure that we are still in for it. I can't decide if he's serious or in a Ingmar Bergman mood. We have a saying in English that for every cloud there is a silver lining. I sometimes think that the Swedes take the opposite view: that for every silver lining there is a cloud. And a dark one at that. Still, time will tell who was right. I'm enjoying these balmy, calm days while I can.



The good news about the mild weather is that Lars-Göran has been down working on the hull every day and it is almost fully sanded (which is amazing!). He's also been working hard inside the boat with a lot of jobs that have been put off while she was in the water. Of course, he's also a bit annoyed that it's such perfect sailing weather and Fiona is up on land. I know he is itching to be out on the water again. There is a special feel to life on the boat - a whole different time frame and freedom from stress.

In more sobering news, confusion and sadness still envelops Sweden as the numbers still missing in the tsunami disaster unfold and Sweden brings home her dead. It still feels very unreal and I think it will take the country quite a while to recover from this.

My predictions about a quiet start to the year proved to be wrong. It seems that plenty of people in Nynäshamn found money to spend on fireworks and midnight was greeted by an avalanche of noise and colour in the skies. I have heard people say that buying the fireworks really helped the people in the lands where the tsunami hit as they manufacture them. Wrong! The ones imported here actually come from China (there was a long interview in our local newspaper with the Swedish importers), so that reason doesn't hold water.

People in Australia may not know that in Sweden, there are not the big organised fireworks on New Year's Eve. Sales of fireworks have been stricly controlled in Australia since the 1960's and most of us barely remember a time when we could go out and buy crackers. For most of us, fireworks are huge community gatherings, organised by the government or a radio station to celebrate an event. While the biggest ones are reserved for Australia Day (Skyshow 21), there are still big displays around the country on New Year's Eve. You can see some of them in this photo gallery from SMH.

When I lived in Adelaide, most New Year's Eves were spent with good friends and our families in a beachfront apartment at Glenelg beach. We'd wander down to the carnivals and enjoy the summer evening, then sit on the beach with the kids sipping champagne and watch the fireworks. It was great, because not only did we get to see the Glenelg ones, but because of the curve of the shoreline, we often also saw Henley Beach and Semaphore's displays in the distance as well. Then we'd go back to the apartment and cook up an enormous batch of Fried Koay Teow for our midnight feast.

But here, everyone buys their own fireworks, including huge rockets and the sort of thing that would never be openly sold back home. And yes, there are injuries and deaths every year from accidents with fireworks. Sadly, a 17 year old boy lost his life in Stockholm from a rocket injury on Friday night.

I guess the fireworks went on for about 40 minutes. We stood on the balcony and watched for a while, but it was freezing cold so we bought our glass of champagne inside. On Saturday, when we went out for a walk, we saw the aftermath of the night before. Smashed bottles littered the main street and the supermarket carpark was full of litter from the fireworks:



This is only a small portion of what was strewn everywhere. I really wonder about people sometimes, especially when the recycle bins for these containers are about 20 steps away! While we were photographing in the car park, a man who lived opposite approached us and told us how unhappy he was about the rubbish. He went on for quite a while about it, then suddenly asked "Are you from Nynäshamns Posten?" (the local paper). I then realised he was hoping to get himself in the paper and mistook us for reporters :)

The festivities must have been confined to centrum as it was clear around the parks and harbour areas. Everything was quiet around town and flags were all at half mast as January 1st was declared a national day of mourning.

People are slowly beginning to realise the impact the tsunami has had on Sweden. This is a small country of 9,000,000 people, so the loss of over 3,000 people is felt very keenly. Not that they are ignoring the plight of those living in the region at all - the Swedish people have been very generous to agencies collecting for work in the stricken areas. But the loss of so many citizens has left the country reeling. It's difficult to explain that to people not living here and who don't understand how shocked and stunned the country is. One thing that has been shown is the power of the internet to help in such a catastrophe. I've been amazed at how fast information is able to be transmitted and people are able to search for family and make donations. Many pages are also supporting buttons to donate, including Australians Abroad. So perhaps this event may bring people together.

It is hardly winter weather here with the snow gone and temperatures of 3C and above. It seems more like spring and the trees are beginning to sprout new leaves again - already! It is frosty in the mornings, though and you can think it's snow for a short while.



It's a strange week here because Christmas doesn't officially end until the 6th (which is a day off anyway) and so you have some people back at work, many more not at work having cleverly saved up time to stay home a few more days, some departments open, some closed. It's a real in-between time and hard to focus.

To anyone in Stockhom, today, the the Dancin' Dingo at Skånegatan 59 are raising funds for the victims of the tsunami. From 3pm-1am there will be a streetmarket, soupkitchen, clowns, magician, face-painting, plus the band E.M.M.A will sign and sell and their new cd. There is also a concert from 6.30pm, with tickets costing 50 kr. The concert features a lot of artists and both the staff and artisis working for free. Proceeds going to Diakonia. Come along and support them and help raise money for the appeal.