Yoga mat, who'da thought

When you are packing up your life and sell off a bunch of it to make a big move, like onto a boat, sometimes you have to guess about what is going to be useful and what you can kind of do without.  I debated about bringing the yoga mat with me, thinking it would take up a lot of space and not be super useful…really how much yoga would I do?  I wanted to do a lot, it’s good for me, but I wasn’t sure I really would.

Well, I was right in some ways, I haven’t done any yet, though maybe today as we are having a rest day as Chuck has diarrhea and the next stop is a minimum 5 hour cruise….but the yoga mat has proved to be worth it’s weight in gold. 

It’s primary use has been to cover over the dog’s bed at night.  This started the first night when it was absolutely PERISHING on the boat and the dog would have been very cold, so I stretched it over the gap, lay a folded blanket on top and he had a cosy cave that was draft free, or mostly. 

See?  Kinda like this:

Then, the other day when we were sailing, well motor sailing into a fairly good sea, Chuck was fairly unhappy and was moving around like an fragile old man who finds the sidewalk he’s standing on covered in ice.  Pretty much exactly like that, so I laid out the yoga mat on the floor downstairs, it is designed to be non-slip, and Chuck was so much happier!!!!

So, it’s new second role in life, non-skid flooring for the cabin when we are underway in a sea.

You never know what’s going to prove useful.

Disappointment (mild)

I bought this:

Now, in a lot of Eastern Europe they make the most outstandingly delicious sour cherry juice, so when I saw it I got a little excited.  I poured out a glass and it was surprisingly light coloured and clear....and I tasted it...

bleaaaaaahhhhh, sooooo sweet, as in koolaid made by a 10 year old who doubled the sugar sweet. 

Ugh

The Swedes seem to have a bit of a sweet tooth, super sweet juice, sweet mustard (?!?!? it is good)  the pickled beets were very sweet......even the muesli is sweetened.

Sailing finally

Well, sometimes things move slowly.  We had hoped to get the boat down near Amsterdam by now, but we are still in Sweden, indeed today is the first day we have managed to leave the harbour for more than an hour or so. 

It has, however, been lovely to get a sail in.  And to visit a new place and to see a bit of Sweden and Denmark before we head south.  We're going to be heading back to Canada in a couple of weeks for the summer and will be back here in September at which time we will have to sail rapidly south to get out of the storms in October! 

For now, it is all heat and relaxation. Getting to know the boat.  In many ways she is very familiar, being a sistership to our other boat, Oreneta, but still different in subtle ways.  I cannot say I love her the same was as I do Oreneta, but I am certain that will come with time. 

Some general comments about Sweden, the Ikea maze and restaurant?  In most stores.  Swedes stare like Catalans do. It is slightly infuriating.  Things go slowly here, but very honestly.  This is an example,

This is a fence post, just a normal fence post.  It is capped in copper.  Does anyone have any idea how expensive copper is?  REALLY expensive.  In Spain, this would last a day before it was stolen, and no. one. would use it.  They had it on a good 50 posts at least!  In Catalunya, it would have been, honestly, gone in a day.

Sweden

Well, we've been in a marina in Landskrona for a month now, and we are finally getting all the Is dotted and Ts crossed. 

When we arrived we had paid a down payment on the boat pending inspection of the hull and engine.  We waited a very long time to get hauled, the hull looked amazing, the engine was fine, and that was great.  We sat on the hard for a week for 1 day's work, and got launched again.  Finished paying for the boat, which took a while as my beloved (not) bank in Canada limited the amount I could send every day...then we had to get the paperwork back and forth.....

Then we contacted the insurance company we had arranged.  In the meantime, they had decided that Canadians could not be covered, so that was out. 

Yesterday we got insurance from a new company!!!  YEAH!!! Now we're waiting on the dingy.  An inflatable kayak...Denmark has a system of free mooring bouys all over the country, but we gotta get his Chuckiness ashore, hence the kayak....

anyway, so I am spending the day hanging out by the harbourmaster's office waiting for UPS, who was supposed to come tomorrow, but will probably come at 6pm today!!! 

Either way, once we get that, assuming it works, we're all set to go...YEAH!

Here's a couple of photos:

The boat is marvelous, we are very happy with it and that is pretty great too.  She is a slightly updated version of the boat we have in Canada, one great plus is a little more insulation, and a slightly higher cabin....slightly less storage too, but it's all good. 

We may be able to even go sailing some day!

Arran Island

Wow. What a wonderful place!!! The man and eldest came here last year and both said I would love it, so when I goth the chance, I came for a visit.  Yesterday was the f6day.  I got crazy lucky with the weather and I have a sunburn!!! As I am inclined to do, I walked alot.  Fortunately I missed the bus out of Brodick so I stare d walking from there and had a wonderful march along, first to Lamlash where I had a stupendous sausage roll(it was delicious, I've never like sausage rolls, but this was amazing)

They also had a pretty good raspberry and almond croissant.  I have to stop maligning British cooking.

I saw chunky pregnant sheep and some with babies

I saw amazing colours up on the tops and had a nap!!! I adore having a nap in the open, especially in the midst of a long walk.  Not a soul to be seen.  Didn't see anyone for hours today.

I climbed - really waded through Heather bog and moss-to the high point tin the area, Trig he'd.  It was a lovely view over much of the island, then started down.  Still wading.  Found waterfalls, stumbled through woods, ended up mid shin deep in mud, and found a road, which sped my passage.  There are some spectacular falls,to finish myself off, I slogged back up hill to the 'Giant's Graves'  Neolíticmulti-chamberwd burial constructions.  They don't look like much now without some information and imagination but the were very cool, especially with the evening light..

À marvelous day, ended with delicious mushroom soup in my room.  I wonder if the cook is Hungarian, the soup was like the delicious ones you get there and the lady at the front is Hungarian as well.

I am Canadian

This is an interesting aspect of moving onto a boat and going travelling.  I have dual nationality, British and Canadian.  Living here, I use the British passport as it means I can work, and I am also, and think of myself as, a Spanish resident.  And at a certain level, identify as Catalan, partially as so many of the Catalans do the same with me.  I have been confered this status.

As we move away from here, and our tax status changes, I am starting to feel more overtly Canadian. 

It is a light happy feeling in many ways and has caught me a bit by surprise.  It's not that I have ever not felt Canadian, but it was mixed into  a range of other identities.  Now it is coming down more to one.  Not entirely, my ties here are still strong.  I maintain my residency status, but there is a shift there and it is interesting.

The days just fly by

You know when you do so much in a day it feels like what you did that morning was about a week ago?  Yeah, that.

So, today, I went to work.  Fine.

Did some crap around the house to get ready to leave, friends came by and moved out all the plants and took the last of the books!  YEAH!!!  And stored our wood stove, and, being great friends, invited us to lunch!

Sold the stove, so no more cooking for us.  A student is going to lend us a camping stove and I'm going to reclaim my kettle from work, but food is going to be a bit cold for the next two weeks.

Went to lunch and that was fabulous.  My oh my.  While we were there, we sold 2 wooden armchairs.  That was good.  Really, youngest sold it as she was hanging out here with her new puppy Spit. 

Then took Chuck for a long walk, that was lovely....

We wandered pretty slowly, well I did, he was kinda racing around me.  He HATES puppies, and Spit gets up. in. his. face.  Literally.  So he was pretty happy to hit the hills.

We saw lovely wisteria. Smells gorgeous

And this magnificent enormous (for here) tree.  I should have got someone to stand there so you get some perspective.  It's BIG.

Now sitting by the last fire unless we get more wood.  Kinda sad now I think of that.

Good writing

It is amazing how quality of writing can make such a huge difference to a book.  I am currently reading a book called Epic Measures, that should, ostensibly, be the MOST boring book.  It follows a nerdy, abrasive workaholic genius as he does statistical analysis on everyone in the globe to improve health care.  There is a lot of writing about graphs.

It is utterly compelling.

Good on you Jeremy Smith.

Then there is Andrea Wulf, who writes what should be the most utterly (to me) interesting books!  Titles like The Invention of Nature, writing about Humbolt,  Chasing Venus, astronomers travelling throughout the globe facing all manner of adventure and adversity to watch the transit of Venus, The Founding Gardners, looking at the Founding generation of the US impacted on the gardens and landscapes of the US.  All three of those I have tried, and given up.  I want to read the books, I think they would be fascinating, but MAN they are bone dry.  I have tried, and tried again, but I abandoned all three.

She has more amazing titles, that I would love to know about, but I think I won't bother, cause she. does. not. write. well.

I am staying up too late at night to read Epic Measures though.

letting go

The process of leaving this time round is a hard one.  I keep thinking about this and trying to figure out why.  The last time we left to go sailing the kids were little and it was a ton of work, but in my memory anyway, it was all go.  No looking back at all. 

Now, it's harder.  There are things I am going to very actively miss.

I think that there may be two reasons for this, one is that I have worked so very hard to integrate into the culture, learn the language, make friends, find my place, that it is hard to walk away from all of that.

The other is that Toronto is my home.  It will always be there for me.  I have tons of friends and I know the streets, and there is family there and work.  It will always be and has always been mine, and we go back every year.  I know we will go back every year. 

We can commit to coming back here every year, but will that happen?  The dentist and the dermatologist will be the ties that force us back.  Odd isn't it, the things you like so little about a place are what will bring you back.  That said, she's a great dentist and I adore my dermatologist despite his extremely awkward social manner. It's just that it is something that we h.a.v.e. to do. 

I hope we come back regularly.  There is so much I love here. 

2m²

That's the size of the locker we're renting.  2m².  It's not very big.

We have a lot of stuff, fortunately I have always loved tetris (remind me to NEVER download it to my phone!)

The alleys between the lockers aren't very big, so I had trouble backing up enough to be able to see this properly, but here's what it kind of looks like...

 That's almost all books, the other bits and pieces are going in soon...it is in fact even fuller, but we have't loaded up the ceiling space yet!!!!