Two flights in less than 24 hours, in and out of time zones, in and out of home, going deaf, dinner with guests, a bit of DIY and leaving Debrah behind in the UK where the suspension broke on the car - it has been a crazy couple of days.
At 9.00pm on Tuesday evening (European time) we were sat in Arlanda airport, Stockholm. At 10.30pm (GMT) we were at Terminal 5, Heathrow. At 10.00am (GMT) I was at Stansted and at 2.00pm (European time) I was about to land at Carcassonne. It's a good job British Summer Time didn't start on the same night or I would have been totally confused - as it is I had to think very carefully about setting my alarm for Wednesday morning.
I spent about 9 hours at home in London which wasn't enough, especially as I was asleep for 7 of them. Sadly, when I came back to France, I left Debrah in London and whilst it was great to be back in our wonderful apartment, opening the shutters to let in the glorious Languedoc light, I very quickly felt a bit lost and lonely without Debrah here too.
It doesn't help that all sound is muffled at the moment. My cold has been hanging on longer than strictly necessary and my sinuses are still a bit blocked. When we flew into London it was very painful and my ears filled up as they often do when you start your descent on a flight - only they haven't corrected themselves yet. My ears feel like they are full of cotton wool. It is very uncomfortable and has the effect of deadening all sound - which is good in some respects (noisy bikes etc) but very disconcerting most of the time.
When I flew to France they were OK when I was up at altitude but filled up again on arrival - bizarre. Hopefully they will sort themselves out soon. It has now gone beyond the mildly amusing stage.
My current clients were on the same flight as me - they have stayed before and are also clients of Lesa and were here to sign the papers on an apartment in town. They insisted on taking me out to dinner last night which was very generous of them - we ate at 'Divine Comedie' - a very reliable and unpretentious brasserie on the edge of the Bastide.
I have two new couples arriving tomorrow for the weekend so decided to give everything a check, having not been here for two weeks. I knew that the wall lights in the apartment had stopped working - I traced the dodgy connection this afternoon while the guests were out signing documents in French that they didn't understand - but also found two light bulbs out and a broken bathroom hook in the mezzanine suite. How did that happen? - they were all OK when I left here two weeks ago - spooky.
Anyway, all fixed now and ready to go.
Thursday, 26 March 2009
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Bye Bye Stockholm
Snow .... sun .... snow .....sun - the weather can't decide what it's doing. One thing stays constant though - it's damn cold.
We have spent the last two days wandering the streets of Stockholm, in and out of shops, admiring the architecture and the cold wintry views. It is a lovely city. It feels empty and quiet compared to London and extremely civilised. I would love to come back in the summer when the pavement cafes would be full of people enjoying 'fika' (relaxing with coffee and friends) and it would be a lot warmer!
We toyed with going to a museum today but ended up just wandering around more shops in the city centre - H&M, of course and NK, the big department store (Stockholm's equivalent of Selfridges). We looked but we didn't buy.
We lunched at one of the city's top fish restaurants, Wedholms Fisk. It is obviously a place for business lunches and was full of suited men - virtually all men which surprised me. We felt decidedly underdressed but what the hell - we wanted a proper white table cloth, top notch fish lunch and that was what we got - very good value from the lunchtime special menu - one plate of salmon, herring, cod and halibut between us and two glasses of a delicious Spanish wine from Galicia - excellent.
And so our Swedish sojourn comes to an end - just remains to pack our bags and head off to Arlanda airport for our flight back to London. 'Tack', Sandra and 'tack', Stockholm for a great weekend away.
We have spent the last two days wandering the streets of Stockholm, in and out of shops, admiring the architecture and the cold wintry views. It is a lovely city. It feels empty and quiet compared to London and extremely civilised. I would love to come back in the summer when the pavement cafes would be full of people enjoying 'fika' (relaxing with coffee and friends) and it would be a lot warmer!
We toyed with going to a museum today but ended up just wandering around more shops in the city centre - H&M, of course and NK, the big department store (Stockholm's equivalent of Selfridges). We looked but we didn't buy.
We lunched at one of the city's top fish restaurants, Wedholms Fisk. It is obviously a place for business lunches and was full of suited men - virtually all men which surprised me. We felt decidedly underdressed but what the hell - we wanted a proper white table cloth, top notch fish lunch and that was what we got - very good value from the lunchtime special menu - one plate of salmon, herring, cod and halibut between us and two glasses of a delicious Spanish wine from Galicia - excellent.
And so our Swedish sojourn comes to an end - just remains to pack our bags and head off to Arlanda airport for our flight back to London. 'Tack', Sandra and 'tack', Stockholm for a great weekend away.
Sunday, 22 March 2009
Peter Potatoes
Several years ago Sandra lived with us in London for a few months before she moved back to Stockholm - now she is more than repaying the favour by letting us live in her apartment in Stockholm, whilst she stays with Mats.
Staying in an apartment is so much better than staying in a hotel room - especially one as lovely as this. It has authentic period features (probably 1920's) - parquet flooring in the living room and painted wood floors elsewhere. It makes our London apartment seem really small, even though it is only marginally bigger - the layout and use of space sees to that.
This evening, partly because of Sandra's time with us in London, I found myself cooking a traditional English roast dinner for our hosts - rack of lamb with roast potatoes (Peter potatoes apparently) sprouts, cabbage, parsnips and a freshly made mint sauce. Bizarrely, cooking dinner myself and then settling down on the sofa with Debrah after Sandra and Mats have left only adds to the perception of us being in our apartment, rather than the other way around.
The forecast snow finally arrived late this afternoon - reminding us that we are still in the Swedish winter, but strangely enough it just adds to the feeling that we are looking out onto a New York scene - weird.
We awoke this morning to the sun rising above a tranquil and springlike Baltic Sea and we will go to bed looking out onto a snowy wet dark winter scene - what a long and strange day it has been
Staying in an apartment is so much better than staying in a hotel room - especially one as lovely as this. It has authentic period features (probably 1920's) - parquet flooring in the living room and painted wood floors elsewhere. It makes our London apartment seem really small, even though it is only marginally bigger - the layout and use of space sees to that.
This evening, partly because of Sandra's time with us in London, I found myself cooking a traditional English roast dinner for our hosts - rack of lamb with roast potatoes (Peter potatoes apparently) sprouts, cabbage, parsnips and a freshly made mint sauce. Bizarrely, cooking dinner myself and then settling down on the sofa with Debrah after Sandra and Mats have left only adds to the perception of us being in our apartment, rather than the other way around.
The forecast snow finally arrived late this afternoon - reminding us that we are still in the Swedish winter, but strangely enough it just adds to the feeling that we are looking out onto a New York scene - weird.
We awoke this morning to the sun rising above a tranquil and springlike Baltic Sea and we will go to bed looking out onto a snowy wet dark winter scene - what a long and strange day it has been
Archipelago
Am now back in Stockholm after our 24 hours out in the archipelago to the east of the city. The weather was very kind to us - the expected snow held off - in fact the sun shone most of the time and the wind was minimal - it was perfect and very beautiful.
We stayed on the island of Sandhamn, which is out at the far end of the archipelago virtually out in the Baltic Sea. We reached the island via a 30 minute drive and an hours ferry ride. Sandra had prepared a picnic for us to eat on the way, which inevitably included some salmon and dill salad and shrimps and reindeer and horseradish paste - at last, some genuine local food.
The whole archipelago is extremely beautiful - thousands of tree covered islands with traditional wooded houses dotted along their coastlines. It is a sailors and nature lovers paradise and the ferry service makes the whole area very accessible for those without their own boats and for visitors.
We took a fairly early ferry and so arrived on Sandhamn mid-morning and well before our rooms were ready. There really was nothing else to do other than take a walk and nose around, from a suitable distance, the mostly empty houses. There were still patches of snow on the ground but it was really quite warm in the sheltered sunny spots. We walked the whole length of one coastline and then back to the village of Sandhamn along the central 'road'. It was the longest walk I had done for a while - exhilarating, refreshing, tiring - we were all ready for a beer and some lunch when we got back, so we dropped into the island pub.
Fresh air, exercise, food and alcohol meant that an afternoon nap was inevitable. Sandra and Mats went off to the sauna, naturally - but we had forgotten to bring swimmies with us so we gave it a miss. I've heard about Swedes in saunas!
Later we drank cocktails in the bar and had a delicious dinner at the hotel and woke early to see the sun rise over the Baltic - well nearly - we looked out of the window at it before snuggling back down for a bit longer.
Back in town, Mats went off to do some work on his boat and Debrah, Sandra and me went off for a stroll and a coffee - 'fika' in Swedish - the art of socialising at a cafe - I love the way different languages have words that don't directly translate into an English word.
We stayed on the island of Sandhamn, which is out at the far end of the archipelago virtually out in the Baltic Sea. We reached the island via a 30 minute drive and an hours ferry ride. Sandra had prepared a picnic for us to eat on the way, which inevitably included some salmon and dill salad and shrimps and reindeer and horseradish paste - at last, some genuine local food.
The whole archipelago is extremely beautiful - thousands of tree covered islands with traditional wooded houses dotted along their coastlines. It is a sailors and nature lovers paradise and the ferry service makes the whole area very accessible for those without their own boats and for visitors.
We took a fairly early ferry and so arrived on Sandhamn mid-morning and well before our rooms were ready. There really was nothing else to do other than take a walk and nose around, from a suitable distance, the mostly empty houses. There were still patches of snow on the ground but it was really quite warm in the sheltered sunny spots. We walked the whole length of one coastline and then back to the village of Sandhamn along the central 'road'. It was the longest walk I had done for a while - exhilarating, refreshing, tiring - we were all ready for a beer and some lunch when we got back, so we dropped into the island pub.
Fresh air, exercise, food and alcohol meant that an afternoon nap was inevitable. Sandra and Mats went off to the sauna, naturally - but we had forgotten to bring swimmies with us so we gave it a miss. I've heard about Swedes in saunas!
Later we drank cocktails in the bar and had a delicious dinner at the hotel and woke early to see the sun rise over the Baltic - well nearly - we looked out of the window at it before snuggling back down for a bit longer.
Back in town, Mats went off to do some work on his boat and Debrah, Sandra and me went off for a stroll and a coffee - 'fika' in Swedish - the art of socialising at a cafe - I love the way different languages have words that don't directly translate into an English word.
Saturday, 21 March 2009
Stockholm
I am looking out of the windows of Sandra's corner apartment in Stockholm and strangely it has the feel of New York (without the skyscrapers) - the grid system of broad streets in this part of town, the taxis, the apartment blocks, the pizza shop downstairs, the coffee shop across the road and the corner supermarket.
Sandra has a lovely apartment in the Sodermalm district, just 5 minutes from the centre of the city (by taxi) and she has generously lent the place to us for the weekend - she is staying with her man in another part of town.
Our weekend started 24 hours ago at Heathrow Terminal 5. It was my first time through the new terminal and very impressive it was too - it seemed quite spacious and a lot less frenetic than any previous visit to Heathrow, which wasn't difficult.
It also made a change to be flying with an airline that wasn't Ryanair - in this case it was British Airways. More legroom, more hand luggage, free food and drinks - and not much more expensive than many Ryanair tickets bought over the years.
We arrived in Stockholm in bright sunshine but there is snow on the ground in the countryside and ice in the sea. We could have gone south to Carcassonne, where it has been 20 degrees plus this week, but we came north to Stockholm where it is just above freezing.
My first impressions are all good. The city seems incredibly clean and there are so few people too by comparison with London. We dropped our bags at Sandra's office and went off for a walk, a browse in the shops and a coffee - I love the blankets they put on the outside chairs in the cafes to keep the smokers warm.
Last night we met Mats for the first time and we all went out for supper together to a bustling grill restaurant in the city centre. I was expecting more pickled fish and elk stew, but apparently that lies in store for us today, when we are sailing out into the archipeligo and staying overnight on one the islands - I so have clothes for a city break rather than a country/sailing excursion, but I'm sure I'll cope.
Sandra has a lovely apartment in the Sodermalm district, just 5 minutes from the centre of the city (by taxi) and she has generously lent the place to us for the weekend - she is staying with her man in another part of town.
Our weekend started 24 hours ago at Heathrow Terminal 5. It was my first time through the new terminal and very impressive it was too - it seemed quite spacious and a lot less frenetic than any previous visit to Heathrow, which wasn't difficult.
It also made a change to be flying with an airline that wasn't Ryanair - in this case it was British Airways. More legroom, more hand luggage, free food and drinks - and not much more expensive than many Ryanair tickets bought over the years.
We arrived in Stockholm in bright sunshine but there is snow on the ground in the countryside and ice in the sea. We could have gone south to Carcassonne, where it has been 20 degrees plus this week, but we came north to Stockholm where it is just above freezing.
My first impressions are all good. The city seems incredibly clean and there are so few people too by comparison with London. We dropped our bags at Sandra's office and went off for a walk, a browse in the shops and a coffee - I love the blankets they put on the outside chairs in the cafes to keep the smokers warm.
Last night we met Mats for the first time and we all went out for supper together to a bustling grill restaurant in the city centre. I was expecting more pickled fish and elk stew, but apparently that lies in store for us today, when we are sailing out into the archipeligo and staying overnight on one the islands - I so have clothes for a city break rather than a country/sailing excursion, but I'm sure I'll cope.
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Family stuff
Christian really liked the college and it's facilities and he really liked Falmouth and he thought the interview went well - so now he, and we, just have to wait and see if he gets an offer. Let's hope so - for his sake!
Yesterday, I went down to Sussex to see my Mum and Dad and took my Mum a big bunch of flowers ahead of Mothers Day this weekend - very beautiful they were - chosen by Debrah at Borough Market when I dropped her off at work.
The drive both ways was horrendous - stop start stop start, traffic lights, roadworks - two hours to go 50 miles. Driving in the South East of England is something I haven't missed whilst I was in France.
It was good to see Mum and Dad though. They were looking well and in good spirit. Mum is 80 this year so we (the family) need to sort out what we are going to do to mark the occasion - that won't be easy to sort out - family events are always difficult, but we'll sort something in the end I'm sure.
Yesterday, I went down to Sussex to see my Mum and Dad and took my Mum a big bunch of flowers ahead of Mothers Day this weekend - very beautiful they were - chosen by Debrah at Borough Market when I dropped her off at work.
The drive both ways was horrendous - stop start stop start, traffic lights, roadworks - two hours to go 50 miles. Driving in the South East of England is something I haven't missed whilst I was in France.
It was good to see Mum and Dad though. They were looking well and in good spirit. Mum is 80 this year so we (the family) need to sort out what we are going to do to mark the occasion - that won't be easy to sort out - family events are always difficult, but we'll sort something in the end I'm sure.
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Kids
Just when you think that your children are growing up and starting to act more responsibly. Just when you think you can trust them. Just when you think you can start to step back from having to wipe their noses all the time - they let you down.
So it has been with Christian over the last few days. Tomorrow he has his interview at Falmouth for the degree course he really wants to do next year. Falmouth is not just round the corner from London so the whole trip needed a bit of planning. As of Sunday evening he had been out since Friday morning and had no train, no place to stay and no work prepared. So we organised his train for him (we were always going to pay for it of course) and his bed and breakfast and Debrah spent 3 hours on Monday evening helping him sort out his portfolio - and then - he forgot to take his sketch book and his lunch with him and he missed the train because he left too late - unbelievable.
Debrah is understandably furious with him. I have tried to be calm because I want him to focus on the interview - he has eventually made it to Falmouth about 4 hours later than planned and at considerable extra cost. Fingers crossed that he doesn't screw anything up tomorrow.
It had been a lovely weekend up until that point. We had a delicious dinner at Orrery on Friday evening and then a bit of shopping on Saturday followed by one of Debrah's fabulous Thai green curry's on Saturday evening and then even more shopping on Sunday. The sun was shining and Spring feels like it is on the way - hurrah.
This week I have joined the Facebook fraternity (better late than never) and Twitter (getting in there earlyish on that one) - both of which I am loving. I now have three places to leave my rambling nonsense and views. When I can afford it (whenever that is) I will get myself a decent up to date mobile rather than the antique steam driven machine I am still using - then I can be permanently on the air.
The other downside to this week is that I am blowing my nose a lot - I can't believe I have another cold - and only two days before going to Stockholm for the weekend. Must be time for another lemsip.
So it has been with Christian over the last few days. Tomorrow he has his interview at Falmouth for the degree course he really wants to do next year. Falmouth is not just round the corner from London so the whole trip needed a bit of planning. As of Sunday evening he had been out since Friday morning and had no train, no place to stay and no work prepared. So we organised his train for him (we were always going to pay for it of course) and his bed and breakfast and Debrah spent 3 hours on Monday evening helping him sort out his portfolio - and then - he forgot to take his sketch book and his lunch with him and he missed the train because he left too late - unbelievable.
Debrah is understandably furious with him. I have tried to be calm because I want him to focus on the interview - he has eventually made it to Falmouth about 4 hours later than planned and at considerable extra cost. Fingers crossed that he doesn't screw anything up tomorrow.
It had been a lovely weekend up until that point. We had a delicious dinner at Orrery on Friday evening and then a bit of shopping on Saturday followed by one of Debrah's fabulous Thai green curry's on Saturday evening and then even more shopping on Sunday. The sun was shining and Spring feels like it is on the way - hurrah.
This week I have joined the Facebook fraternity (better late than never) and Twitter (getting in there earlyish on that one) - both of which I am loving. I now have three places to leave my rambling nonsense and views. When I can afford it (whenever that is) I will get myself a decent up to date mobile rather than the antique steam driven machine I am still using - then I can be permanently on the air.
The other downside to this week is that I am blowing my nose a lot - I can't believe I have another cold - and only two days before going to Stockholm for the weekend. Must be time for another lemsip.
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