Thursday 22nd August, 2013

We are for anchor by..... Rodloga (Ulric to please type in all relevant nautical details)



On our way here we met the cutest family of swans swimming in the other direction: Mum, Dad and six cygnets, baby swans. Ulric said: "I can't imagine how they do it. we have our hands full with three small humans.. Fancy having six small ones to feed and love and entertain!" Over dinner he muses: I suppose swans don't need to deal with car seats and flight tickets and moving into the catchment area of good schools.. So I suppose it is all right for swans to have six cygnets.."



Ulric and Brendan are on the 'cooking team', preparing salmon steaks. Quinn is on the i-pad. Elliott is hopping around on deck.



Home life has appeared on the horizon like a far off island. The boys are asking about the exact day they go back to school (a different day for all of them this year). Elliott is extremely keen to start secondary school. Quinn reassures me that the school is less strict than the image Aske's presents. I am beginning to wonder what has piled up in my in-box, but I figure I am better off not knowing.for now..



Barbara G, the film maker, asked me to give some thought to ideas for other films about shamanism we could make for Life Force TV. This morning I sat down for half an hour and wrote a list of possibilities. I will send her a 'proposal' when we get home.



Dad remains obsessed with the Shipping Forecast. After sitting through the Swedish version Quinn asked what on earth the word 'sjutton' means as it is mentioned for every area. Actually it means 17 and what they are saying is 'sjutton grader', meaning the temperature in different parts of Sweden is 17 degrees Celsius at the moment. Shall we introduce Quinn to the 'mild curse' FY SJUTTON?! Maybe not. However, only in Sweden can the number 17 end up being used as a swear word..



Ulric and I sat on deck earlier today. We looked out at the Stockholm archipelago and started visioning a life 'beyond school holidays' and the boys needing us on a daily basis. I am extremely keen to have a house, and land, in Sweden one day. Then when Ulric goes off on his 'circumnavigations' I could run courses in shamanism on Swedish land. We were trying to work out a good place to buy a house and land. Blekinge perhaps (near Karlskrona where our journey started!) or Hoega Kusten (the coast North of Stockholm). Ulric even made the "wild" suggestion of Lapland. That would be cool: a house in Haparanda where I can get snowed in every winter, the Gulf of Bothnia all iced up outside my window, SOLITUDE AT LAST!!! It would be interesting to get to know the Sami people and maybe invite Sami teachers to run courses at my School of Sacred Art & Shamanism..



It is easy to get carried away on the wings of dreams! And it is easy to dream about living in Scandinavia during the warm accessible time of the year. Finding a balance between a 'professional life in the public eye' and solitude in the Far North. will always be a leitmotiv in my life I guess.



Ulric seems very pleased with his salmon steaks. I don't even think he called Farmor to ask for advice this time. (usually there is a panic phone call!) I called Oma this morning and told her about the curious seal population of Gotska Sandon. I am missing those seals.. Last night there was a huge splash near our boat in the darkness. I called Ulric thinking there was a big seal at large in the harbour. But no, it was a man in foul weather gear who took a step wrong and fell in the water. They had positioned a brand new car on a small pontoon all of its own with lots of spotlights on it (a marketing ploy!). I guess this man got so wrapped up in the fancy car that he took one step back for a different view and SPLASH. ended up in the icy Baltic waters, face to face with.'torsk' - cod, or a seal?!



Brendan sticks his head through the hatch: I CAN SEE A BEE AT SEA!



Ulric tries to impress on the boys the importance of working hard and having a good 'work ethic'. Says Quinn: 'You yourself are wearing a tee shirt today that says: WORK LESS, SAIL MORE! Dad.. so you words are not very convincing.



Over dinner (in the cockpit) Elliott says his dream is going to CANDY LAND. I say: but that does not exist yet, surely? No Mum, but when parents say 'sweet dreams!' to their children at night, that is where all children go, they go to Candy Land..



Imelda Almqvist