Well we've finally gone and done it. The old English bed we brought with us when we moved from the UK has gone into retirement. Well, from us anyway. No doubt it will continue to give good service to someone else, somewhere else, but it's days with us are numbered. Now we have brand new Swedish twin beds and the only thing I can say is we should have done it years ago. They are blissfully wonderful.

Our old bed was a bit special being one of the gold coloured metal bed frame type and we had only had it a year or two when we decided to relocate to Sweden. I didn't realise that beds could be different in other countries but they are. Not just in style either. Sizes are completely different and they are just made in different ways. What would be just a hard base on an English divan is the actual mattress here in Sweden and then there is a smaller softer second mattress thingy on top of that. They are unbelievably comfortable.

We bought the new beds last Thursday and they were delivered yesterday. Because the twin beds together were much bigger than our so-called 'double' English bed this purchasing decision has caused a major upheaval in our apartment. It was necessary to move from the small bedroom at the back of the flat to the main bedroom at the front. The then liberated small bedroom was to be reassigned as Katarina's 'office-workroom-studio'.

From Thursday onwards right up to yesterday evening it has been a lot moving, shifting, pushing, carrying, straining, heaving and complaining to get everything re-organised. During which time I found myself quite unconsciously singing Bernard Cribbins song 'Right Said Fred'. I wonder how many people remember that. Not many I'll wager!

If you have never seen this video you are in for a real treat. This is absolutely the very best classic material you can get. If you have seen and remember it, go watch it anyway. Take a trip down memory lane it will still bring a smile to your face.

(Minor inconvenience. Seems EMI have blocked the video on the Posterous blog page. You have to click through to YouTube to play it. A link is provided.)

Bye the way. Anyone interested in a secondhand genuine English bed?

=========================================================
David J. Meredith
Casual Blogger.
Härnösand den 24 augusti 2011.
Web Page: http://www.dasanka.net/
=========================================================

For the last few days Katarina and I have been reading distressing news
reports from back in the mother country. Headlines like "London's Burning"
have been common.

Well last night it was Härnösand that was burning, or at least one of its
houses was anyway. The pictures above show how it looked when viewed from
one of our bedroom windows.

Two other people have posted some close up slideshows on the Internet which
show awesome and terrifying detail. Here are short links:

http://bit.ly/qf4Smp

and

http://bit.ly/nHBAyF

I can't really tell you much about the fire. Hardly any information was
revealed in the paper today. We were told only that the one person inside at
the time got out safely and nobody else was injured. The police however have
recorded the incident as suspected arson as apparently the fire was burning
in two places at the same time.

I don't know about you but I find that strange. I mean, was the one person
inside the suspected arsonist? If not, then in my book that would be more
like attempted murder. This is so typical of the Swedish press. Often you
are left with so many unanswered questions. It's very frustrating.

=========================================================
David J. Meredith
Casual Blogger.
Härnösand den 11 augusti 2011.
Web Page: http://www.dasanka.net/
=========================================================

Departure

Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It was 04:00 a.m. Wednesday 13th June
2001.

The hire-car driver was early. We were ready anyway. It's just that we knew
we would be down in Manchester too early.

Still, it felt good to be under way. We had been occupying our two empty
house for nearly a week now with absolutely nothing but our four cats and a
couple of old beds lent to us by friends so we at least had something to
sleep on.

The removal men (Swedish guys) had arrived a week earlier and emptied the
houses of all our possessions both furniture and personal items. All our
'stuff' was (hopefully) somewhere in Sweden by now and we wanted to be
reunited with it as soon as possible.

Leaving my home town was no wrench. I couldn't wait to get away. I think
Katarina had more regrets than me but she was at least going home or at
least returning to her native country if not her actual home town.

We both felt so discouraged with England. There had been riots in the nearby
streets over the last months and everything seemed to be deteriorating. We
didn't feel safe anymore and the future looked bleak. Even though we both
had good paying employment it was unsatisfying and we just felt we were
going nowhere. We felt we were being driven away from the country whilst at
the same time our love and passion for the Scandinavian lifestyle was
forever pulling us in that direction.

With Katarina having family in Sweden and me having lost connection with
mine in England many years ago I suppose it was inevitable what was going to
happen. We had bought ourselves a typical Swedish red house with the sea on
one side and forest on the other a year earlier. Now we were going to take
up residence in it permanently. The way the hire-car driver talked about the
deteriorating state of English society and what a hell-hole it was becoming
just added to our already self-convinced decision that we were doing the
right thing.

We were heading down to one of the small private shipping companies based on
the periphery of Manchester International airport. I had hired this company
to organise the transportation of our four cats and their office had to be
the first port of call as we had to leave the cats with them before heading
off to the departure area in the main terminal. It had been agreed with this
hire-car driver that this was how it was going to work. The trouble was that
we had arrived more than two hours early. The guy who constituted our
shipping company was probably still in bed.

It was obvious this driver had his own plans. He had arrived to collect us
early and then drove the almost empty roads at full speed and it was obvious
he had no intention of hanging around while we waited for the shipping guy
to arrive and open up shop.

The driver went off looking to see if there was somewhere we and our four
cats could stay while we waited. You have to remember this is not an airport
terminal. It's more like an industrial estate built on the cargo side of a
huge aerodrome type complex. You couldn't just saunter off around the corner
to the departure lounge. That was nearly a half-hour drive away.

The driver had luck which was fortunate for us because I'm convinced he
would have just unloaded the rather large cat transportation cages and our
baggage onto the pavement and simply left us. That's essentially what he did
anyway but an all night company had agreed to allow us to sit in a side room
of their premises until our company opened. The driver dumped us and the
cats and was gone. He obviously couldn't wait to get back to his "hell-hole
of a going downhill society" (which he envied us for getting away from) to
catch another fare and some more cash!

This would never have happened had we been able to travel to the airport in
an ordinary taxi but that wasn't an option. Our shipping company had
previously supplied us with special custom made transportation cages for the
cats. They were much bigger than standard cat boxes as they had to meet
specific regulations and as such they were quite heavy and bulky. It meant
we had to hire something bigger than the traditional car. It had been
difficult as there hadn't been much choice on offer so we had finished up
with this 'hire-car driver' who had in fact been a bit reluctant right from
the start. If only we had had the kind of multi-person taxis that we have
here in Sweden, it would never have been a problem at all.

We will be eternally grateful to those people in that small warehouse. We
had to sit in there for over two hours with our cats and we had nothing with
us except our standard travelling luggage. Those people were even kind
enough to make us some coffee and served us some biscuits. When they thought
it was time for our guy to arrive they rang his building and told him what
had happened. He came and collected us and we were all transported back to
his office. There were lots of thanks and appreciations offered and we were
so glad to see this small act of human kindness offered on the very day we
were departing our country and what had become its increasingly gloomy
outlook.

From there on in all went well. Our shipping guy really looked after us. We
even got to see our cats in the loading hanger where they would wait before
been taken out to the aeroplane. We were concerned about how we were going
to get to the main airport departure area but our guy drove us out there
personally and took us right to the door. He was effectively our seeing you
off party as we stepped out into a new life of, well, we didn't really know
what.

As we sat waiting for the boarding call. One last pleasant surprise
happened. We knew our cats were going to travel on the same plane as us but
we wouldn't be able to see them as they would be down in a special area of
the cargo hold. As we watched the baggage handlers going about their loading
tasks we saw one little trolley arrive with just our cat boxes on it. Thus
we got to see the cats loaded onto the plane which we ourselves would be sat
on in just a few more minutes. The handlers lifted and carried the boxes
with great care which was nice to see but most of all was the total
reassurance that our cats hadn't by some stupid error got left behind. They
were on the same plane as us.

Thus we departed England. Destination Sweden and this time we weren't on
holiday. There was no return aeroplane to catch in a couple of weeks time.
And as it turns out we have never been back. Not once in all these ten
years.

=========================================================
David J. Meredith
Casual Blogger.
Härnösand den 13 juni 2011.
Web Page: http://www.dasanka.net/
=========================================================

The Sunday routine. Another weeks' supply set up and ready to go. That plus
5 injections a day. Sometimes it all seems so boring. Yet at the same time I
am so grateful. In many parts of the world it wouldn't be an option or at
the very least it would be an incredibly expensive one.

=========================================================
David J. Meredith
Casual Blogger.
Härnösand den 01 maj 2011.
Web Site Blog: http://happiness.dasanka.net/
=========================================================

I came across this by accident whilst searching to see if the latest
'Kommissarie Winter' episodes (a Swedish TV series screened in 2010) were
available on DVD yet.

Like many of my contemporaries I couldn't keep my eyes off this beautiful
women. I was in love. Her music rocked the world when I was in my twenties.
(Is this why I'm in Sweden - something deep and subconscious?)

Anyway, there she is locked in passionate embrace with my favourite detective actor of today Magnus Krepper (Kommissarie Winter). (I'm in my sixties now.)

And a haunting melody from a forgotten black and white BBC TV detective
series of my young boyhood days. (Why did this song burn itself into my soul
the way it did?)

All rolled together in a clip on today's YouTube.

I nearly fell off my chair!

=========================================================
David J. Meredith
Casual Blogger.
Härnösand den 26 april 2011.
A New Blog: http://happiness.dasanka.net/
=========================================================

Happy anniversary David. Twenty-one years ago today I stepped onto Swedish
soil for the first time. I was a guest of the Swedish white collar union
which we simply referred to as the SKTF. (We couldn't pronounce the Swedish
name, Sveriges Kommunaltjänstemannaförbund.) I was a delegate on a follow-up
exchange visit representing the health service section of my union NALGO the
(then) English equivalent of Sweden's SKTF. I didn't know it at the time but
it was a visit that was to change the course of my life forever.

This was not the first exchange visit in this program but it was where I
came on board. It had actually all started back in 1987 and there were more
exchanges to happen in the future. The previous year had seen 13 SKTF
delegates visit our region in the United Kingdom and in 1990 it was our turn
to send a different team of representatives over to Sweden.

The visits were essentially educational but built on the firm idea of
fostering and strengthening International Relations. Hence the symbol of a
bridge spanning our two countries used on official literature. 21 years ago
we were trying to build bridges. (As opposed to blowing them up.) It was a
very optimistic feeling. Perhaps we were too naive.

Anyway on subsequent exchanges we had more and different delegates to the
Yorkshire & Humberside district. It was always hard work but enormously
rewarding and on one of those visits I met my future wife to be, Katarina.

Yes folks there's a deeper story in all this. A book perhaps? Maybe one
chapter has already been written. Sometime ago I wrote a short account of
how I proposed on Valentine's day. It's called: Valentines Day, Valentine's
Day - A Personal Story. This is the link if you want to read it:

http://www.dasanka.net/articles/valentinestory.htm

Today I am now a Swedish national, passport and all, and I have lived here
10 years and I have never been back to the UK in all that time. Not even for
a holiday. To be honest, I think it is highly unlikely I will return. 21
years ago today I experienced Sweden for the very first time, a country that
was destined to eventually become my home. So yes, today is a very special
day.

=========================================================
David J. Meredith
Casual Blogger.
Härnösand den 02 april 2011.
Web Page: http://www.dasanka.net/
=========================================================

Our sky this morning - 10:15 a.m.

It's been a long time since I saw anything as obvious as this.

But:

Is it chemtrails or contrails. What do you think?

=========================================================
David J. Meredith
Casual Blogger.
Härnösand den 31 mars 2011.
Web Page: http://www.dasanka.net/
=========================================================

Imagine picking up your newspaper tomorrow morning and reading the following
headline.

"Full Day Of Vicious Fighting Leaves 28,000 Dead!"

The article would go on to tell you how something like 50,000 armed people met
up and set about each other hell bent on killing and maiming in any way they
could.

Still, 28,000 dead. Look at the picture above. That's where it happened.

28,000! I don't know about you but I have difficulties trying to visualise
this kind of carnage. I think I'm pretty good with my imagination and my
ability to create mental pictures but trying to put myself there at the end
of that day looking out over the once green farming fields now covered with
28,000 dead mutilated bodies defies my most strenuous attempts. I'm lost. I
can't do it. Mental impossibility locks in.

One writer says the numbers are greatly exaggerated. It was only 9000. Do
you know what? It doesn't help. Visualising 9000 hacked up dead bodies still
leaves me totally unproductive. Anyway other sources claim higher numbers,
ranging from 30,000 to 38,000. Whatever, imagine the clean up operation
afterwards. It beggars belief!

Scary headline eh? But the event really happened, and I probably had
relatives involved in it. It took place 550 years ago today, in my very own
county of Yorkshire in England. It was called, 'The Battle of Towton' and it
was to be recorded as the "largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on
English soil". Today you could walk across that beautiful agricultural land
and guess what - nobody would care. (Unless a grumpy farmer was around. No
'allemansrätten' there.) 550 years ago you would have been slipping in the
blood. If you could have found a place to put your foot down.

What caused all the mayhem? Pretty much the same as is happening in Libya
right now. Power and money hungry differing tribes wanting to rule the
country.

Of course there was no United Nations to step in and take sides then and the
atrocities that took place would probably not even have been considered
atrocities. Though there is no doubt there were many. Those fleeing the
fields trying to save their lives were mown down and even those that
surrendered faired no better. Those that made it to nearby towns to hide
were hunted out and killed. Reconciliation and/or mercy were not words of
that time. How such men would explain their behaviour today at The Hague has
to remain a mystery. 'Crimes Against Humanity' was still a term to be
invented.

550 years ago! How far have we come? The knives, swords, bows and arrows,
pikes and axes have been replaced by machine guns, tanks, Tornado jets and
Tomahawk cruise missiles. The killing is not so much close up face to face
anymore. Brutal and impersonal death, suffering and human misery is still
with us and for much the same reasons as it ever was.

I cry for our world. Why can't we move on?

=========================================================
David J. Meredith
Casual Blogger.
Härnösand den 29 mars 2011.
Web Page: http://www.dasanka.net/
=========================================================

At last! The ice has gone and the sea is back.

David J. Meredith - Casual Blogger.
Härnösand den 22 mars 2011.
Web Page: http://www.dasanka.net/about-us.htm

Thinking about stupidity. Not the, you should take a breathalyzer test
before you get behind the keyboard of your Facebook account type. No. It's
the more serious stuff that can hurt real bad and yet could have been
avoided if just a few ounces of the old brain matter had been put to use.

Voltaire may have been exaggerating when he said that the only way to
understand the mathematical concept of infinity is to contemplate the extent
of human stupidity. Exaggeration or not there are times that the shear
stupidity of some of my fellow human beings does leave me in a state of
absolute disbelief.

A good example is a news article I saw last week. I can't stop thinking
about it. The headline read, "Swedish 'Indoor Grill Party' Goes Wrong". Yes,
indoors; really! You can read it for yourself here: http://bit.ly/hfzYcL

When I first came across this news article my mind did one of those leaps to
something relevant. At least relevant to me anyway and it had nothing to do
with barbecues.

It was a passage from Earl Nightingale's original motivational work, "The
Strangest Secret". Originally recorded back in 1956 on a vinyl record he
begins this masterpiece with the words:

Not long ago Albert Schweitzer, the great doctor and Nobel Prize winner, was
being interviewed in London, and a reporter asked him, "Doctor, what's wrong
with men today?" The great doctor was silent a moment and then he said, "Men
simply don't think."

It's was that line, "Men simply don't think", that reverberated around my
head several times. It still does when I think about somebody having a
barbecue party indoors.

I wish I could draw. The visual picture in my mind is of a guy stood in
front of his barbecue stove, apron on, meat tongs and such like in his hands
whilst streams of black smoke roll up the wall and billow in clouds across
the ceiling. Meanwhile he, totally oblivious to the smoke, is looking back
over his shoulder watching his TV. OMG!

=========================================================
David J. Meredith
Casual Blogger.
Härnösand den 27 januari 2011.
Web Page: http://www.dasanka.net/
=========================================================