Caliban - Opinion and Righteous Anger

There once was a vile band called Wet Wet Wet, who perpetrated a sequence of criminally limp-wristed ballads, the like of which would make that woeful git James Blunt proud. But the title of this blog entry doesn't refer to them.

Nor does it refer to the once popular term for moderate politicians in the British Conservative party; nor even to a type of stew used in Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine;

No, I'm talking about the state of being liquid or covered in liquid; more specifically, I'm talking about the weather today in Stockholm. It was wet; really very wet; wetter, in fact, than something completely not dry.

If I'm waffling, it's because there's not much to report.

After breakfast (which featured lots of pickled herring, although none in our party had the balls to partake), we walked around Gamla Stan and bought Eloïse a new raincoat. The old town of Gamla Stan is beautiful and, if Stockholm consisted of no more than this, I would still love the place. We got quite wet whilst walking around Gamla Stan.

Then, we walked around Södermalm and got even wetter. We took a break from the rain for lunch, then went outside again and continued to soak up the rain.

Outside, as I write this, I believe it's still raining.

What can you do? We're outdoor types and we knew the risk in coming to this part of Europe in the first few days of March. We can walk around all day in the rain without having our spirits dampened, but it's definitely not ideal.

Still, wet or dry, I can cheerfully proclaim that I absolutely adore Stockholm. I had expected to be awed by Copenhagen and to find Stockholm merely pleasant, but the opposite has proved to be the case. Copenhagen, for all of its good points, left me with a sense of mild dissatisfaction, whereas Stockholm has blown me away with its charming historic old town, its harbour, its lovely cafés and its completely relaxed feel; and that was just day one.

The rain today also failed to deter a crowd of people, mostly and unsurprisingly of Serbian origin, from demonstrating in the centre of the old town against the recent proclamation of independence by Kosovo. The Swedish government, like the Dutch, have yet to recognise Kosovo as a sovereign state, so the demonstrators' hope is that they can still be persuaded not to.

Anyway, as I said, there's not much to report today; apart from the fact that it was very wet.

In spite of not really being museum people, today we went to not one, but two.

It was drizzling outside, but very mildly, so that wasn't really the reason for staying mostly inside today. No, the two museums in question were simply too good to pass up.

The first was the Vasamuseet (Vasa Museum), located on the island of Djurgården. We slowly made our way over there after first walking around Gamla Stan, the drizzle today light enough that I could now take a few snaps.

The walk to Djurgården was really lovely, in spite of the rain and low temperature. Just when you think you're leaving the waterways behind you, you turn a corner and there's another stretch of water, filled with boats and offering beautiful views into the distance.

Anyway, I highly recommend the Vasa Museum. It's a maritime museum, housing an almost intact 17th century gunship (the Vasa) that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628 after travelling scarcely more than a kilometre. And there it lay, for the next 350 years, in the silt at the bottom of the Swedish waters, until it was dredged up and salvaged in 1961.

The low salt content of the Baltic waters meant that the ship was preserved very well. Nevertheless, the Swedes spent the next couple of decades restoring the ship to her former glory and the result has to be seen to be believed. Maritime history is not normally my bag, but the Vasa is fantastic and absolutely not to be missed.

A late lunch was had at Blå Porten, around the corner from the Vasa Museum on Djurgårdsvägen. What an excellent place, but so popular. The place was full to the gills with locals and, once we'd sunk our teeth into the food, it became obvious why.

Next, we walked back in the direction of Gamla Stan in order to visit the Musikmuseet (Music Museum).

This museum contained a lot of musical instruments, many of which the public are allowed to play. Eloïse had a great time, banging on drums and xylophones and generally getting it out of her system.

The highlight for me was seeing Benny Andersson's (of ABBA fame) 1974 Yamaha synthesiser. I wish there had been other items of ABBA memorabilia, but all there was was an old Washburn guitar belonging to Björn. ABBA surely warrant their own museum, never mind an exhibit or two.

Light drizzle, followed by snow, leading into a cloudy dry spell, culminating in the sun peeking through scant patches of blue at the very end of the day. That was today's weather in a nutshell. The temperature hovered around zero all day.

The day started with a walk to the neighbourhood of Norrmalm, which was quite distinct from Södermalm and obviously completely different to Gamla Stan. Norrmalm is full of big department stores and clothes shops, such as H&M. (I hadn't even realised that H&M was of Swedish origin until this trip.)

Norrmalm didn't hold much for us. The area is much the same as any other large European shopping area. On the other hand, it's certainly not an ugly part of town.

We stopped at the Hästens shop on Regeringsgatan. Well, how can you come to Sweden and not visit Hästens? That was our thought, at least. We left with a new sheet and a pair of pyjamas for Eloïse ., but not before admiring the 462,000 kr. (about €49,500: slighly cheaper than back home!) costing Vividus.

We then walked east to the neighbourhood of Östermalm, which again, was very distinct from Stockholm's other neighbourhoods.

After lunch, we briefly stopped at the hotel to drop off a few things and then went back to Södermalm for a walking tour. This took in some fantastic views of the city and later carried us through the newer residential areas of this neighbourhood.

I absolutely adore Stockholm; it bears repeating.

If I were 24 again, sick to death of life in England, and ready to move away, would I still choose Amsterdam? As poorly travelled as I was, it was the obvious choice at the time, but Stockholm could give Amsterdam a run for its money on many counts.

I love Reykjavík, too, and have often wondered how life might have turned out if I'd moved there in my twenties instead, but Stockholm has Reykjavík beaten in several significant ways. It's a far more beautiful city, for one thing.

One thing's for certain: If I were 24 again and living in England today, I'd still be packing my bags and getting ready to leave. That country seems bleaker today -- if that's possible -- than it did even in 1991.

But, armed with the knowledge I have now, would I still move to lovely Amsterdam? It's an intriguing question, complicated by the fact that The Netherlands today is not the same country, either socially or politically, that it was in 1991; and I have no idea in which significant ways Sweden has changed during the same period.

Travel always evokes these ponderous moods in me.

It's not all good news here, of course. There are fewer bikers, for example, and I have yet to see a single bakfiets. Incidentally, that was one thing the otherwise lacklustre Copenhagen had right: even the postmen there rode bakfietsen, which makes perfect sense in their profession.

Stockholm has hills, too, a notion that is a real novelty to me these days. They really add character, although they also go some way towards explaining the lesser number of cyclists.

Anyway, while five days in Copenhagen were more than enough, after three days here we already find ourselves wondering how we're going to cram everything into the next and last couple of days. One comforting thought is that it's so easy to return, either by car or plane.

Life on the northern European mainland is good, wherever you happen to be.

What Americans call Thousand Island dressing is known in Sweden as Rhode Island dressing. That's a conversation stopper for your next party, if ever there was one.

I forgot to preface this entry by saying that the content would be of interest only to those who hail from Rhode Island (or one of those in the Thousand Island group, wherever that may be).

Yesterday's brief glimpse of the sun during the last vestiges of daylight proved predictive of today's weather: blue skies and glorious sun, all day long! The temperature was sub-zero, but who cares? It was fantastic weather.

This was the day we'd been waiting for to take to the water for the winter sightseeing tour. Unfortunately, this has been the mildest winter that Stockholm has seen since records began in 1760, so there was no ice for our boat to plough a path through, but the setting was a gorgeous one all the same.

The boat excursion took us as far as the closest island in the bewilderingly extensive Stockholm archipelago, namely the island of Fjäderholmarna. There, we turned and headed back to port.

They say that, if you took the Stockholm archipelago's 2400 islands and laid their coastline out end to end, it would stretch 1/4 of the way around the world. You may not have heard much if anything about the Stockholm archipelago, but it's apparently one of the biggest in the world. It's supposed to be a thing of incredible beauty.

One thing's for certain: we definitely intend to come back in warmer weather and see the archipelago at its best.

After the excellent boat tour, we had lunch and then took Eloïse to Junibacken, a children's house on Djurgården. Here, the worlds of many Swedish children's characters are recreated, including Pippi Longstocking's Villa Villekulla.

Eloïse had a great time at the Junibacken, including attending a children's theatrical performance at the end of the day. She didn't seem to mind that it was all in Swedish and sat glued to her seat, watching the story unfold on stage.

Incidentally, I mentioned a few days ago in my blog entry about the Music Museum that ABBA really deserve a museum in their own right. Well, I learned today that such a museum will be opening its doors in 2009.

I'm sad to say that tomorrow will mark our last day in Stockholm. It's been a tremendous first visit and we're eager to come back again soon. Eloïse apparently spontaneously announced to Sarah today that she's going to move her, so she's evidently enjoyed herself here, too.

Today was another Icelandic jumper day. Happily, I had mine with me, so got another day's wear out of it.

We spent the entire day at Skansen, although a good chunk of the morning was spent walking over to Djurgården, which entailed waiting for Eloïse as she climbed on pretty much every bench and other obstacle along the way.

The weather was glorious sunshine again, with just a few wisps of cloud overhead. Beautiful.

Skansen is the original open air museum, i.e. the one that put the word skansen in the English language. Being the first, it's naturally also the oldest open air museum in the world.

Various buildings from different ages and parts of Sweden have been moved intact to this museum, so that we, today, may gain a better understanding of how our Swedish predecessors lived.

It's not just a collection of old buildings, though; Skansen is also home to a zoo, which includes ponies that the children can ride. Eloïse confidently climbed onto a pony and was led around the paths for several minutes, while Papa scurried to take photos. I think that was probably the high point of the day for all of us.

By the end of the day, we were pretty knackered, so instead of walking home, we took the ferry from Allmänna grand back to Slussen.

Dinner was at the excellent Fyra Knop crêperie. Twice before, we'd tried to get in there, but it had been fully booked. Today, we had the presence of mind to call it from Skansen and make a reservation. We weren't disappointed. The place is already packed out by 18:00 every day of the week, so be sure to reserve if you want to eat there. I highly recommend it.

It's with quite some sadness that we leave Stockholm behind us tomorrow. We could fill another day here with no trouble, but we've done most of what we set out to and, in any case, feel sure we'll return. We want to spend time in the archipelago and then head north to see some more of this huge country. And then there's the ABBA museum opening next year, too.

So, tomorrow we drive to Göteborg. We're not sure yet whether we'll take the obvious route or a slightly longer one, which avoids retracing our steps along the E4 to Jönköping. Let's see what time we can get out of here tomorrow.

I'm not sure if we'll have any Internet access at the next hotel, so this could well be the last entry until we get home on Sunday.

We spend Thursday and Friday night in Göteborg, then have a very long drive on Saturday through Denmark to Hamburg in Germany. That will involve us taking the Rødby to Puttgarden ferry once more.

Then, on Sunday, we'll drive the final leg of our journey from Hamburg back to Amsterdam.

So, that's a lot of driving over the next four days; about 1450 km' worth. The same distance on the outward journey was driven in two days out of twelve, which was a much nicer pace. Still, as long as the roads aren't congested, it'll be a largely enjoyable drive.

It's spelt Gothenburg in English, but pronounced yuh-te-bory in Swedish; just so you know.

In the end, we took a slight variation on my alternative route and travelled 480 km today. We're now a mere 1093 km from home.

It was a pleasant enough drive from Stockholm, though with a few too many single lane 90 kmh stretches for my liking.

We rolled into town just after five, so it was dark by the time we'd unloaded the bags, checked in, parked the car and headed out for dinner. Already, though, one can sense that this city has a very different feel to it than Stockholm. My first impression is that the old town has been much less well preserved.

It was several degrees warmer today than yesterday. Although still cold, it felt like the beginning of spring when compared to the last few days.

We really have only tomorrow to look around this city before heading to Hamburg on Saturday, so we aim to get up on time, eat breakfast and get out on the streets.

Time to grab some kip.

It seems as if we've only just arrived here; and, really, that's quite accurate.

We walked our feet off today. I'm almost glad tomorrow is a driving day.

Göteborg is a bit of a mixed bag. It's a very vibrant city; a very young city. That stems from the large university population.

It's not what I would call beautiful, but there are areas with definite charm, such as Haga and, a little further on, Linné. It's vaguely reminiscent of Amsterdam, but has failed to protect its historic areas and is not nearly as charming.

Eloïse and the unborn did well today, with several purchases at the two Villervalla shops in Haga. Scandinavian children's clothes are so appealing, as, indeed, is so much of Scandinavia.

Also purchased today was a pot of organic lingonberry jam. When in Rome, etc.

Anyway, it's a long haul to Hamburg tomorrow, so it's time to go horizontal for a few hours.

Eloïse today started complaining about "too many hotels", so she, for one, is ready to head home.

It was a long drive from Göteborg to Hamburg, 614 km to be precise. A good portion of that was spent just driving south in Sweden.

Eloïse pretty much slept through the whole of Denmark. She dropped off as we came over the Øresundsbron and awoke as I was purchasing the ferry ticket at the port in Rødby.

This time, our arrival at the port was perfectly timed and the ferry departed a couple of minutes after we drove aboard. Again, the crossing offered just enough time for some quick duty-free shopping, a light meal and some time for Eloïse on the slide.

On the other side, a frustrating lorry-laden single lane road led away from the port at Puttgarden before finally opening up into a nice, unrestricted stretch of autobahn. The world passes by very quickly at 200 km and nicely elevates your average speed for the day.

We were glad to arrive in Hamburg, where we checked into our final hotel and relaxed for a while. In the evening, we found delicious galettes at Ti Breizh. Highly recommended if you find yourself in the area.

This morning, we looked around Hamburg's city centre, grabbed some breakfast and then drove the 466 km from Hamburg to Amsterdam. Again, the unrestricted stretches of the autobahn allowed me to enjoy what our car is capable of, but they were few and far between.

Upon arrival in The Netherlands, it was raining lightly. The rain intensified the further we travelled west and it was absolutely pouring down by the time we reached Amsterdam.

Looking back, we had a tremendously successful holiday. Although the time of year was perhaps not the best for visiting even southern Scandinavia, the weather that we had was generally good. It was cold and there wasn't a lot of sunshine, but it mercifully remained dry for the majority of our stay.

Copenhagen, in hindsight, was a disappointment. I had expected it to be a much more attractive city and feel very distinctive. It was saved by its excellent café culture, but I still can't help but feel somewhat disappointed.

Stockholm, on the other hand, was the surprise hit. I would go as far as to call it a well-kept European secret. You never hear anyone rave about the place and, having been there, it's a mystery to me why.

Göteborg was somewhere in the middle in terms of its appeal. Our stay was short, though, so it warrants a return trip.

We've already started discussing ideas for our summer holiday, by which point there will be four of us. The birth is just a few weeks away now, so I suppose I should do the travel research sooner rather than later.

It has been brought to my attention that the Atom feed for this site was very poorly formatted. If you read my twaddle using this feed, you'll be pleased to know that the problem has now been fixed.

I've also added an RSS 2.0 feed feed, should anyone prefer or need that.

We've now rolled past the 37th week of pregnancy, which means that Eloïse 's imminent sibling is now medically considered full-term. In simple terms, if Sarah went into labour right now, midwifery protocols would allow a midwife to assist us with an attempted home birth. Naturally, a home birth is our strong preference, so this is a pleasing milestone to have reached.

Work on the garden overhaul is in full swing and has been for more than a week. It currently looks as if a rather large bomb has been dropped on it. Over the last few days, multiple skips full of soil and gravel have been hauled away, hedges have been moved around, holes have been dug and a tree has been shifted from one side of the garden to the other.

It's hard to imagine at this stage what the finished article will look like, but it's pleasing that work is finally under way. We've been discussing a garden overhaul since we moved into our previous house, so it feels as if it's been stalled for a long time. Our current house's garden was perhaps our greatest concern when deciding whether or not to purchase the property, so I'm glad that this feature is now being improved.

This is a fairly large-scale project and will take at least another week or so to complete. We're excited at the prospect of having the new garden ready for the spring. We hope Eloïse is going to enjoy playing out there, and we plan to spend our fair share of time out there, too, once warmer weather arrives.

It's the little preparations for the impending birth that bring home the inexorable truth of what is about to happen.

Earlier this week, I fitted the new EasyFix car-seat base on the back seat of the car. Even now, it's still amazing to think that a new baby will be sat there in just a few weeks. That'll provide some good in-car entertainment for Eloïse , as the new baby's seat will, of course, face backwards. On the other hand, we rarely use the car, so it probably won't be until our next driving holiday that we reap the benefit of the children keeping each other amused.

The Bugaboo Cameleon's fleece upholstery has been washed and is looking almost as good as new again. Sarah has reassembled the carry cot, which has been unused since Eloïse graduated to the seat, and I have fitted a new riding board. With this addition, Eloïse can ride along at the back of the pram while one of us pushes it. I think she's going to like that.

Thuiszorg delivered a bedpan to our door at the start of the week. That's needed for the labour process, just in case Sarah needs to dump a load in the bed during all of the huffing and puffing. It's great that you can borrow these things for free and then return them when you've finished with them.

I finally got my arse in gear today and did a dry-run of setting up the delivery pool in the bathroom. It was much easier to set up than the pool we used during the birth of Eloïse . The pool has an inflatable base, plus three inflatable wall chambers. The multiple chamber construction makes it much sturdier, so that it can be leant on and support a lot of weight during labour.

There's even an inflatable seat built into the pool and handles around the edge. Personally, I think we're going to get a lot more benefit from this pool than from the one we used in Mountain View. We have an air pump for inflating it, plus a water pump for emptying it of water. A length of hose will be connected to the shower in order to fill the pool. We even have an aquarium scoop for removing any, err, detritus that accumulates along the way.

At this point, we're fairly well prepared for the manifestation of the new bairn. All of the materials to be used during the labour and birth are ready, as, indeed, are the items for the start of life: nappies, clothes, etc.

It's just a matter of time now and enjoying our last few weeks (or days, if fate would have it) as a threesome.

I'm a fat bastard. There's just no denying it. Why would I even bother to try?

I lost a fair bit of weight after leaving the USA, but I've put it all back on again. No longer can I blame Google's double-dipped chocolate malt balls (that's whopping great Maltesers, if you didn't know), whose close proximity to my office and completely free nature (apart from the obvious cost to my waistline) turned me into a helpless slave to the kitchen sugar snack bins.

Digression: why did (does?) Google stock sugary snacks on the first floor, where the engineers worked, but healthy snacks downstairs, where the non-technical people worked? Was it a cynical ploy to increase the productivity of the already fevered geek brains?

All I know is that I must have eaten my weight in M&Ms and malt balls while I worked for Google.

Anyway, as I said, my current lifestyle is just as sedentary as it was in the US. In fact, it's worse, because I don't even have to bike to work any more. And I'm getting older, so the weight is becoming harder to shift.

Google also had a gym, where I used to work out, but I'm too lazy to sign up for a local gym here. Well, the signing up isn't the problem; it's dragging yourself out of the house when you really don't feel like it. Consequently, I find myself in a nasty catch 22 situation: too lazy to go to the gym, which means I don't exercise enough, which makes me indolent and with too little energy.

Since I'm not yet so lazy that I won't go upstairs, the solution is to bring the mountain to Mohammed or, in this case, the gym to the house. In other words, I'm going to put a piece of gym equipment in the room next to our bedroom.

Specifically, I've ordered a Tunturi C85 crosstrainer. It should be delivered and assembled on Friday, at which point -- assuming no other deliveries on Friday! -- I'll be able to start working out on it.

I'm actually looking forward to it, as it has enough gadgetry to keep me amused whilst using it. Most gym equipment is terribly boring to use if you have no distractions. It will be interesting to see, for example, if the T-Road feature (basically a video of a road or path along which you progress by exercising) is a novelty that soon becomes tiresome, or whether it can hold one's interest over a prolonged period.

Last Christmas, Eloïse was given a children's book with a difference by her Uncle Jack. The book in question was Goodbye, Penguins by Greg Stones.

Round at Jack's house one afternoon, he had the great idea of filming Eloïse 's spirited rendition, as she reads this book with verve. The result is very entertaining, especially if you've read the book (which very few people have, since the print run was only 550 copies).

Many thanks to Uncle Jack McKenna for the camera work, editing and playing himself as sofa companion.

We've put a copy of this video on our MythTV, where Eloïse likes to watch and read along with herself.

We've just emerged from the coldest Easter in 40 years in this country. And, whilst Easter may have ended, the chilly weather certainly hasn't.

Today alone, we've had snow, sleet and hail. The gardeners continued their work, regardless. It's basically been snowing here since last Friday. You never get a white Christmas in Amsterdam, but you can have a white Easter.

The traffic jams in the Netherlands were almost at an all-time worst this morning. Only one day in February 1999 had worse traffic jams (measured in total length of all jams across the entire country). I'm glad I don't commute.

I was the meedraai parent at the peuterspeelzaal today, which meant I got to help out with the afternoon's activities. It's its own reward, as you get to see your own child playing and enjoying herself in a wonderfully stimulating environment.

Tomorrow, Sarah hits 38 weeks of pregnancy. If Eloïse is anything to go by, that would put the birth of our next baby just eight days away.

Lots has been done. Lots is getting done.

Work on the garden steadily continues. Our electrician removed lots of old underground cabling from the garden yesterday, clearing the way for new cables to go in. We still have to pick out new lighting fixtures, though.

The garden path is mostly laid now. The bricks look really nice, composed, as they are, by four subtly different colours.

I've completed and submitted our taxes for 2007. Like last year, I commend the Belastingdienst for making a Linux version of the income tax return program available.

The new wireless Sonos zone that I set up in the conservatory last month is now wired. Our electrician got into the crawl space under the house today and pulled a cable to hook up the second network port. The Sonos ZP-100 is now plugged into this, providing a 4 port switch at the back, into which Sarah can now plug her laptop and enjoy faster, reliable network use.

A clock thermostat has been fitted in the main bathroom. This avoids having the floor heating turned on all the time. I've no idea why the previous owner of the house didn't have one fitted. The floor heating on the ground and second floors has always had clock thermostats.

The crosstrainer I ordered is apparently in short supply. The Dutch distributor doesn't have one to send to the shop where I ordered it, so my unit was unfortunately not delivered today. Hopefully, it will arrive next week.

I've started programming in earnest again. It feels good. I'll write more on this separately another time, as I'm under the weather and about to go to bed.

Today was the day. When the call of nature comes, there's no stopping it; and I'm not just taking about the need to pee.

Sarah went into full labour on Sunday morning. Aided by me, our doula (Jacky) and our midwife (Laura), she gave birth to a healthy baby boy at 13:31 CEST on 2008-03-30.

The baby was born underwater, using our birthing pool.

It was quite an experience. There was just enough time before the contractions came on really strong to take one last pregnancy photo.

The grandparents will (rightfully) hang me out to dry if I don't post some photos, so I've now taken care of that.

There are lots of photos of the labour, too, but these need to go before the eyes of the maternal censor before they can withstand the scrutiny of the Internet.

Mother and son are in excellent health. Big sister is very happy with her new sibling.

Mr. X doesn't have a proper name yet, which is why he's called Mr. X. Until he came out this afternoon, he didn't even have a gender in our mind, never mind a name. Give us time. In any case, Dutch law requires that we register his birth by Wednesday.

I'm off to bed. The kraamzorg will be here bright and early in the morning.