A cold ride to work this morning

This morning my mobile phone claimed that it was -28 C in Västerås, and whilst that was a slight exaggeration the real thermometers outside the house did show about -21.

I have two caps that I can put on under by helmet when I ride, one is an ordinary one, the other a balaclava (known as a 'råneluva' ≃ robber's hat, in Swedish!). I put them both on this morning!

My eyelashes froze! This isn't as bad as you might expect, but you need to keep wiping them so that you can still see.


When I arrived my colleague was talking on the phone, and described me as wearing a burka with a helmet!

It's going to stay about the same temperature all day. It should warm up a bit in the next few days, but then we can expect more snow. No need to worry about not getting a white Christmas this year! - God Jul!

Dwight Eisenhower, April 16, 1953

I just found this:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

-- Dwight Eisenhower, April 16, 1953

Nobel Peace Prize

I've just listened to the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. Always a moving ceremony, especially so today when the prize winner's seat is empty except for the medal and certificate.

Liv Ullman read the statement he (Liu Xiaobo) made during his latest trial. What a speech! Part of it was a very moving statement of his love for his wife (starts with If I may be permitted to say so... four paragraphs from the end). The most surprising thing about it was that he was allowed to make it at all, and that it was so long! Here's the text (taken from this website).

I Have No Enemies BY LIU XIAOBO | OCTOBER 8, 2010

In the course of my life, for more than half a century, June 1989 was the major turning point. Up to that point, I was a member of the first class to enter university when college entrance examinations were reinstated following the Cultural Revolution (Class of '77). From BA to MA and on to PhD, my academic career was all smooth sailing. Upon receiving my degrees, I stayed on to teach at Beijing Normal University. As a teacher, I was well received by the students. At the same time, I was a public intellectual, writing articles and books that created quite a stir during the 1980s, frequently receiving invitations to give talks around the country, and going abroad as a visiting scholar upon invitation from Europe and America. What I demanded of myself was this: whether as a person or as a writer, I would lead a life of honesty, responsibility, and dignity. After that, because I had returned from the U.S. to take part in the 1989 Movement, I was thrown into prison for 'the crime of counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement.' I also lost my beloved lectern and could no longer publish essays or give talks in China. Merely for publishing different political views and taking part in a peaceful democracy movement, a teacher lost his lectern, a writer lost his right to publish, and a public intellectual lost the opportunity to give talks publicly. This is a tragedy, both for me personally and for a China that has already seen thirty years of Reform and Opening Up.

When I think about it, my most dramatic experiences after June Fourth have been, surprisingly, associated with courts: My two opportunities to address the public have both been provided by trial sessions at the Beijing Municipal Intermediate People's Court, once in January 1991, and again today. Although the crimes I have been charged with on the two occasions are different in name, their real substance is basically the same, both are speech crimes.


Twenty years have passed, but the ghosts of June Fourth have not yet been laid to rest. Upon release from Qincheng Prison in 1991, I, who had been led onto the path of political dissent by the psychological chains of June Fourth, lost the right to speak publicly in my own country and could only speak through the foreign media. Because of this, I was subjected to year-round monitoring, kept under residential surveillance (May 1995 to January 1996) and sent to Reeducation-Through-Labor (October 1996 to October 1999). And now I have been once again shoved into the dock by the enemy mentality of the regime. But I still want to say to this regime, which is depriving me of my freedom, that I stand by the convictions I expressed in my 'June Second Hunger Strike Declaration' twenty years ago, I have no enemies and no hatred. None of the police who monitored, arrested, and interrogated me, none of the prosecutors who indicted me, and none of the judges who judged me are my enemies. Although there is no way I can accept your monitoring, arrests, indictments, and verdicts, I respect your professions and your integrity, including those of the two prosecutors, Zhang Rongge and Pan Xueqing, who are now bringing charges against me on behalf of the prosecution. During interrogation on December 3, I could sense your respect and your good faith.

Hatred can rot away at a person's intelligence and conscience. Enemy mentality will poison the spirit of a nation, incite cruel mortal struggles, destroy a society's tolerance and humanity, and hinder a nation's progress toward freedom and democracy. That is why I hope to be able to transcend my personal experiences as I look upon our nation's development and social change, to counter the regime's hostility with utmost goodwill, and to dispel hatred with love.

Everyone knows that it was Reform and Opening Up that brought about our country's development and social change. In my view, Reform and Opening Up began with the abandonment of the 'using class struggle as guiding principle' government policy of the Mao era and, in its place, a commitment to economic development and social harmony. The process of abandoning the 'philosophy of struggle' was also a process of gradual weakening of the enemy mentality and elimination of the psychology of hatred, and a process of squeezing out the 'wolf's milk' that had seeped into human nature.1 It was this process that provided a relaxed climate, at home and abroad, for Reform and Opening Up, gentle and humane grounds for restoring mutual affection among people and peaceful coexistence among those with different interests and values, thereby providing encouragement in keeping with humanity for the bursting forth of creativity and the restoration of compassion among our countrymen. One could say that relinquishing the 'anti-imperialist and anti-revisionist' stance in foreign relations and 'class struggle' at home has been the basic premise that has enabled Reform and Opening Up to continue to this very day. The market trend in the economy, the diversification of culture, and the gradual shift in social order toward the rule of law have all benefitted from the weakening of the 'enemy mentality.' Even in the political arena, where progress is slowest, the weakening of the enemy mentality has led to an ever-growing tolerance for social pluralism on the part of the regime and substantial decrease in the force of persecution of political dissidents, and the official designation of the 1989 Movement has also been changed from 'turmoil and riot' to 'political disturbance.' The weakening of the enemy mentality has paved the way for the regime to gradually accept the universality of human rights. In [1997 and] 1998 the Chinese government made a commitment to sign two major United Nations international human rights covenants,2 signaling China's acceptance of universal human rights standards. In 2004, the National People's Congress (NPC) amended the Constitution, writing into the Constitution for the first time that 'the state respects and guarantees human rights,' signaling that human rights have already become one of the fundamental principles of China's rule of law. At the same time, the current regime puts forth the ideas of 'putting people first' and 'creating a harmonious society,' signaling progress in the CPC's concept of rule.

I have also been able to feel this progress on the macro level through my own personal experience since my arrest.

Although I continue to maintain that I am innocent and that the charges against me are unconstitutional, during the one plus year since I have lost my freedom, I have been locked up at two different locations and gone through four pretrial police interrogators, three prosecutors, and two judges, but in handling my case, they have not been disrespectful, overstepped time limitations, or tried to force a confession. Their manner has been moderate and reasonable; moreover, they have often shown goodwill. On June 23, I was moved from a location where I was kept under residential surveillance to the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau's No. 1 Detention Center, known as 'Beikan.' During my six months at Beikan, I saw improvements in prison management.

In 1996, I spent time at the old Beikan (located at Banbuqiao). Compared to the old Beikan of more than a decade ago, the present Beikan is a huge improvement, both in terms of the 'hardware', the facilities, and the 'software', the management. In particular, the humane management pioneered by the new Beikan, based on respect for the rights and integrity of detainees, has brought flexible management to bear on every aspect of the behavior of the correctional staff, and has found expression in the 'comforting broadcasts,' Repentance magazine, and music before meals, on waking and at bedtime. This style of management allows detainees to experience a sense of dignity and warmth, and stirs their consciousness in maintaining prison order and opposing the bullies among inmates. Not only has it provided a humane living environment for detainees, it has also greatly improved the environment for their litigation to take place and their state of mind. I've had close contact with correctional officer Liu Zheng, who has been in charge of me in my cell, and his respect and care for detainees could be seen in every detail of his work, permeating his every word and deed, and giving one a warm feeling. It was perhaps my good fortune to have gotten to know this sincere, honest, conscientious, and kind correctional officer during my time at Beikan.

It is precisely because of such convictions and personal experience that I firmly believe that China's political progress will not stop, and I, filled with optimism, look forward to the advent of a future free China. For there is no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom, and China will in the end become a nation ruled by law, where human rights reign supreme. I also hope that this sort of progress can be reflected in this trial as I await the impartial ruling of the collegial bench, a ruling that will withstand the test of history.

If I may be permitted to say so, the most fortunate experience of these past twenty years has been the selfless love I have received from my wife, Liu Xia. She could not be present as an observer in court today, but I still want to say to you, my dear, that I firmly believe your love for me will remain the same as it has always been. Throughout all these years that I have lived without freedom, our love was full of bitterness imposed by outside circumstances, but as I savor its aftertaste, it remains boundless. I am serving my sentence in a tangible prison, while you wait in the intangible prison of the heart. Your love is the sunlight that leaps over high walls and penetrates the iron bars of my prison window, stroking every inch of my skin, warming every cell of my body, allowing me to always keep peace, openness, and brightness in my heart, and filling every minute of my time in prison with meaning. My love for you, on the other hand, is so full of remorse and regret that it at times makes me stagger under its weight. I am an insensate stone in the wilderness, whipped by fierce wind and torrential rain, so cold that no one dares touch me. But my love is solid and sharp, capable of piercing through any obstacle. Even if I were crushed into powder, I would still use my ashes to embrace you.

My dear, with your love I can calmly face my impending trial, having no regrets about the choices I've made and optimistically awaiting tomorrow. I look forward to [the day] when my country is a land with freedom of expression, where the speech of every citizen will be treated equally well; where different values, ideas, beliefs, and political views . . . can both compete with each other and peacefully coexist; where both majority and minority views will be equally guaranteed, and where the political views that differ from those currently in power, in particular, will be fully respected and protected; where all political views will spread out under the sun for people to choose from, where every citizen can state political views without fear, and where no one can under any circumstances suffer political persecution for voicing divergent political views. I hope that I will be the last victim of China's endless literary inquisitions and that from now on no one will be incriminated because of speech.

Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity, and the mother of truth. To strangle freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, stifle humanity, and suppress truth.

In order to exercise the right to freedom of speech conferred by the Constitution, one should fulfill the social responsibility of a Chinese citizen. There is nothing criminal in anything I have done. [But] if charges are brought against me because of this, I have no complaints.

E18

Tomorrow Margaret and I will be amongst about 2000 others who will be cycling, running, riding inlines, rullskidor (wheeled skiis) and wheel chairs along a new bit of motorway.

The E18 is the main road between Stockholm and Oslo. For most of the way between Västerås and Stockholm it is motorway, except the stretch between Enköping and Västerås. The worst part of this will shortly be replaced by the new motorway bit, which is almost completed. It is along this bit that we will be riding tomorrow morning.

For those of you that understand Swedish the website at http://e18-loppet.se/ has the details, and promises to show the results!

I believe similar events happened prior to the opening of the Channel Tunnel, and the Öresunds bridge, but I don't suppose this will attract quite the same international interest that both of those occasions did! Although I expect the VLT (our local paper) to be there, and quite possibly the various local TV stations as well.

The cycle course is 30km long. It will be interesting to see what it's like to ride on a motorway. The slopes and curves are of course designed to be advantageous to motor traffic which means that the hills will be relatively shallow, but very long! It will probably be rather open (bad news if it's windy). There are two tunnels shown on the map, that'll be a first!

In the scale of cycle rides 30km isn't very long. This should mean that the speeds of the faster riders will be very fast. I hope that I can find a group that goes at about my speed.


Result: I came in 17th (out of 400+) with an average speed of 33.6kph.

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We are in the starting phase of renovating our kitchen. This also means that we have to change the floor in the kitchen, allrum (the sort of dining room) and the hallway. This also means that all that area needs to be redecorated.........

AC working at last!

Well finally the air conditioning in my car seems to be working. Today it went to Bilia (Volvo) here in Västerås where they did what I'd read was the usual fix for this model of car! Two other places had done different things, neither of which helped.

The first place, our nearest car workshop (where I usually get it serviced) just topped up the gas and said that it was all right. Because it wasn't all right I took it into a garage while on holiday in Skåne while the temperature was about 30 degrees. They said there was in fact a little too much gas in it, adjusted that, and tried it for a few minutes and declared that it was OK. Later the same day the very nice man had a demonstration of the fact that it wasn't fixed! He then fiddled with it for an hour or so, while I was there, and only managed to make it somewhat worse! At least I didn't pay anything for that hour's work!

Of course it won't be as hot again now until next year, but it did keep pumping out cold air all the way back from Volvo, and they did do what I expected them to (or rather just hoped they would do).

What did they do? They adjusted the electric clutch on the compressor. If you look up '1999 V70 AC fel' you will eventually find blog entries like:

Du kanske behöver schimsa ac-kompressorn, det är ju ett rätt vanligt fel på volvobilarna.
(You might need to adjust the shims in the AC compressor, a rather common fault in Volvo cars)

Grittleton 2010

Well I've been there and done that now. I put some pictures and videos on http://frank.mcnamara.se/Grit-2010.

It was, as always, great! We played the Frank Bridge sextet for strings. Our normal Rosemary, David & Jean group got two guest members in Pippa (1st cello) and Sean (2nd viola). You can see the result of efforts in the video that Sean arranged of our concert performance.

The other work was a quartet by C. V. Stanford. This is (justifiably) unknown! There is no known recording, and whilst this was an interesting experience one could understand why his music is known as 'bad Brahms'! We did perform one movement to another group in an informal session.

The afternoons were almost kept completely free, but the evenings were completely filled with informal sessions which included an unusually high number of Brahms Sextets this year. One highlight was playing the Mendelssohn Octet with Livia. She's 90 years old and as bright as a button!

Livia is an interesting person. She does both weeks (most of us are exhausted after one). She was Britain's first female professional horn player with the Halle Orchestra. She later stopped playing horn and went onto the violin when her front teeth became damaged (not uncommon problem for horn players).

The journey home was nice. Solbritt and I got a lift with Rosemary back to Fleet where we played, together with John, David and Jean, the Schubert double cello quintet, one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. All this while Rosemary made lunch! We ate lunch in the garden in the sunshine, then Rosemary took us to the airport. A very nice way to break up a journey!

Thanks Rosemary and everyone else who helped make Grittleton 2010 yet another fine experience.

Grittleton 2010 soon

It's been a while since I last wrote in here, and that's because not much of interest has happened since last time. At least nothing that fits well in this format.

This morning I went for a 30km ride in perfect weather. The sky was clear blue, temperature was 12C, and the wind speed was more or less 0.

Grittleton
On Sunday I fly to England for my annual orgy of chamber music called the Grittleton Chamber Music course. I'll be playing with old friends most of whom I met on the course during the past years. I haven't missed a year since my début in 1982.

The course is organised in a rather unusual way. Usually music courses are shorter, spanning just a weekend, and are open to pre-formed groups. This makes the administration of these courses very simple, at least compared to Grittleton.

Every participant plays in two organised groups. These groups, usually but not always string quartets, meet each morning. The first groups meet for a session lasting an hour and a half (I think) during which a coach is present for about 30 minutes. Then there's a coffee/tea break, then the second groups meet for a similar session, again with a coach for part of the time. The coaches are professional musicians, experienced in chamber music, not infrequently active chamber music performers.

For the remainder of the day after lunch everyone is free to play with informally organised groups. A series of session times is delimited by lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and 'late tea'. A few of these sessions are used for organised activities, including a staff concert, the junior course concert, and a barn-dance!

These two aspects, the fact that everyone plays in two organised groups, and the informal groups, make Grittleton very special, and more or less unique amongst chamber music courses. It's through this mixture that one gets to play with a very large number of different people, and a vast range of music! The course is amongst the largest of it's type with about 20 groups, i.e. ~100 players in each of two consecutive weeks.

Up until a change of management some years back Grittleton was extremely cheap (it still is very cheap but not quite as cheap!). This was achieved by reusing as much as possible (to an unbelievable extent), and paying the coaches very badly! The coaches were frequently retired and some were very old and frankly past it. This last aspect has changed in the years under the current management, and now the coaching has become very much better.

This year I will be playing first viola in the Frank Bridge sextet for string (2 violins, 2 violas & 2 cellos) in my first group, and a quartet by Stanford in the second. The Stanford work is completely unknown to me, but I've played the second cello part (on double bass) of the Frank Bridge at a Mazer evening.

I expect that I'll take a few pictures, and will probably put some of them on the net somewhere. http://frank.mcnamara.se/Grit-2009/ has a few from last year.

The hardest part of going to Grittleton is getting there! I have to fly, which I don't like. The other difficult part is going back to normal life afterwards! That's very hard, so please bare with me if I'm even more grumpy that usual for a while when I get back.

Back to Work!

Clive, Sean (UK), me, Johanna & Peter (Germany)
with medals after completing Vätternrundan.

Now I'm back at work, while most others are just starting their holidays. Ah well, I have a week in August to look forward to.

I completed Vätternrundan (300km bike ride) in record time of about 14h 30m, despite two punctures, rain and cold! The first puncture was half way up a hill about half way between Hammarsundsbro and Medevi. There was a very helpful family of spectators that helped me fix that one, but I should have changed the tyre as well as the tube, since the next puncture just about 10km from the finish was almost certainly caused by the fact that the tyre had stretched and wasn't sitting properly on the rim.

Up to the second puncture I was going to be just a few minutes over 14 hours.

I had the company of two guests from England and two from Germany.

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Last week Margaret and I were in Båstad for the chamber music festival. We stayed in a stuga (cottage) in a place called Förslöv some 12km from Båstad. We were attracted to the festival because the Vertavo quartet from Norway were playing. They are our favourite quartet, and they didn't disappoint.

In the beginning of the week I was a little put off by the fact that we were amongst the youngest there! But I warmed to the people despite the fact that they speak Swedish on their own very special (i.e. difficult to understand) way. Except for the scramble for seats it was a very nice experience.

I was a bit irritated by the AC (air conditioning) in the car which didn't work despite the money spent on it before departure. I tried to get help locally but that only actually made it worse, so now I have a non functioning, probably empty of gas, AC.

Tjej- and Halvvättern

The weather Gods were not kind to Margaret and Jo on Saturday when they completed the 100km Tjejvättern cycle ride for women.

They had to fight through a strong head wind, although they were spared the rain that the later riders had to put up with. Omberg hill was just as steep and long as ever, but at least it is enclosed in forest so they exchanged wind for hill climbing!

They managed a time of just under 6 hours, which considering the conditions, was a good time.

Jo had raised a whole load of money for charity by doing this as well! We just do these things for our own amusement.

On the Sunday the wind had dropped although it wasn't very warm. I gt round the 150km Halvvättern in, for me, record time.

Now we have to see if my improved performance holds for the coming real test of the 300km Vätternrundan. My Grittleton friend Sean and a friend of his are coming from England to partake, and so is another Grittletonian from Germany, Peter, with his girlfriend Johanna.

Watch this space! (Or look us up on http://www.vatternrundan.se/). I have start number 645 and start at 20:20. The other numbers to look out for are 5789, 5790, 8026 & 8027.

130km ride completed

I rode the 130km ride organised by Västerås CK. (get a google translation of this site).

We were about 20 cyclist, and rode together (for most of the way), which is why it went so fast. When I spoke to one guy at the front I said that I could keep up on the flat and down hill, but tended to get left behind up hill. He said the fast boys 'ride like madmen!'

One other (older than me) man and I couldn't keep up towards the end, and dropped back. One of the leaders dropped back to help us home. He was very nice.

When we arrived back at Västerås' main square we got applause from the other guys that had been there a while. A hot dog and a cheese roll were very welcome, as was the fact that we'd driven into town, so we didn't have to ride all the way home!

I plotted the route with my phone, and you can see the results (I think) at this site.

Energitrampet cancelled!

Energitrampet is a cycle ride organised here in Västerås every year. Usually about 1 - 2000 cyclists ride the three different distances (125km, 70km & 25km). This year it has been canceled because of insufficient interest!

All of us that have registered got a mail late last night, and will get more information about getting our money back.

It's a good job that this was the one cycle fixture that we don't have any overseas guests coming to! I'm confident that the two weekends in Motala won't suffer the same fate, Vätternrundan was fully booked up last October!

A different cycle ride is being organised on Thursday (Assencion day, a public holiday here), and might be seen as competition to Energitrampet. It's a lot cheaper, and probably even more simply arranged. Not much advertising has been seen for this event, but the one advert we saw indicates that the town council is supporting it, so perhaps they would prefer this event. Time will tell.

I'm off shortly to play viola in Mozart's Requiem in Sala. This meant that I couldn't ride with VCK where I would have heard all the gossip about this! I did,however have a nice ride with Margie. She has ridden to Sätrabrunn, and will after a treatment and relaxing afternoon there will ride on to Sala to listen to the concert.

Volcano disturbs string quartets!

Tomorrow (Friday 16-April) I'm booked on a flight to London Heathrow so that I can partake in a string quartet course with my friends from Grittleton, Rosemary, David and Jean.

I got a mail this morning from Rosemary pointing me to a web site which explained that the air space over the UK was to be closed from 12 noon because of an approaching ash cloud from the volcanic eruption on Iceland.

At the time of writing air space over most of northern Europe is affected. The last I read was that in the UK it was going to stay closed until 06:00 tomorrow. My flight is due to leave Stockholm 11:10.

If I don't make it, it'll be the first time I've been stopped by a volcanic ash cloud from doing anything!

I was particularly amused by one news piece here. They asked some expert how said that the volcano is still issuing ash, and this could carry on for some time. He quoted two previous eruptions, one of which continued for over a year! I wonder how the airlines would cope with that!

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Added Sunday a.m.

Well as will be well known by now nobody has been flying anywhere this weekend. They managed to find a replacement viola player and are presumably having a good time! I've been working in the garden which is looking a lot better for it, and today I'm going to ride with the local cycle club. This weekend tuned out not quite as planned. At least I had the good fortune to be stranded at home unlike many who are now trying to get to their homes.

The racer out for first time this year

This weather this weekend has been fantastic here. Sunny days and low winds without rain. I managed to get out on my bike and get a few km start on this year's training for Vätternrundan. All the snow is gone from the roads, although there is plenty left in the fields, which are in places completely flooded. The cycle paths are still covered in a thick layer of grit, so I ride on the roads where possible.

I recorded some of the rides on my new phone, which you can see here and here.

Today Margie also came out for a ride.

As you can see from the pictures we also had time for a visit with Victor to the sand pit near by.

Hot cross buns were baked earlier in the week so that I could take some to our English classes.

All in all a busy weekend!

Disappointing Brodskis good Stenhammar

Yesterday Margie and I went to Stockholm for one of our regular quartet concerts. We heard the Stenhammar quartet play very well.

They started with a quartet by the seldom played Swedish female composer Elfrida Andrée, not great music, but very nice and worth hearing more of. This was following the Shostacovich 9th, a great work very well played. After the interval they made a very good job of a late Beethoven. As an extra piece they play a charming little Elergy by Tor Aulin (I must try and locate the notes of this).

All in all a very enjoyable concert.

Sadly I can't say the same of a concert here in Västerås with the Brodski quartet. The Brodskis are internationally well know partly because they play both the 'normal' quartet repertoire and also play with a number of singers from other areas, including Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney.

The leader must be the newest and youngest. This quartet play standing, which the lower three do without moving too much. Unfortunately the leader moved and even stamped his feet occasionally! This was rather distracting, and I thought that even the quality of tone wasn't up to the standard I had expected. They played the Puccini Chrysanthemums but it felt a bit weak.

The Brodskis are playing the last of our Stockholm concerts in May, so it'll be interesting to see if they do better in the most prestige full Stockholm, or if they just need to get a new leader!

Fank Bridge at Mazer

We played all our Frank Bridge works at Mazer on Monday.

An Irish Melody: Allegro moderato

Novelletten
Andante moderato, Presto, Allegro vivo

Three Pieces: Allegretto, Moderato, Allegro marcato

John lead the Irish Melody, and Lena lead the other two works. This gave me the excuse to explain how many movements etc., and let them know that we expected applause particularly after the Irish Melody so that we could move around!

The drive home wasn't quite as difficult as feared, although a snow storm had be raging the road was relatively quiet and well ploughed.

Off sick!

When I went to the office yesterday morning I felt fine, although I felt the need for a toilet visit. However shortly after I realised that I wasn't up to much, and mostly just took it very easy, until about 11 when I suddenly had to be sick into the dustbin in my office!

At this point I got Tomas to drive me home and I have felt like death warmed up. I went to bed and am only now 24 hours later beginning to feel human again.

I think I must have what's called here 'Vinter kräksjuka' (~winter vomiting sickness). This is exactly what Margaret had earlier in the week, although she didn't actually through up.

I had to cancel my English last night, and have told them that I'm not going to orchestra tonight either.

We suspect that the source of infection is probably young Victor. I called in to see him and Johnnie on Tuesday evening to deliver their router which they'd left here. Their house is coming on very nicely now, and Victor got his first bath in the new bathroom while I was there!

Skiing and quartet playing short holiday

Last Tuesday evening my friends Roesmary and Kit arrived for a short visit. They came to try out cross country skiing, and she came to play chamber music at the biannual play-in organised by the Mazer String Quartet Society at Riddersvik on Saturday.

They were a little nervous about the -15C when they arrived, but soon discovered that it's surprisingly comfortable. This is because the air dries out. The snow was also extremely good just when they arrived.

We went out on the Wednesday to Rocklunda where the local skiing club does an excellent job preparing the tracks. They have an approx 1km loop round a football pitch which is almost flat, which is absolutely perfect to learn on. This leads onto their other tracks which are somewhat more varied and pass through beautiful forrest.

They had been to one of only three cross country ski clubs in the UK, which by an enormous coincidence happens to be situated in their town! So their only experience was one attempt using either grass skis, or roller skis!

They were very good students, and after a loop round the football field, we ventured into the forrest!

On Friday I'd invited Solbritt (cellist) round, and we played string trios. On Saturday was the excuse for the visit, when we went to Riddersvik. Because Rosemary had to get back to England she isn't able to play at the Mazer Monday evening which was the original idea behind the visit, but John, solbritt, myself and another very good violinist are going to perform Frank Bridge this evening.

They joined in with the whole winter experience while here, including shovelling snow!

Tomorrow I have to go back to work!

Victor and snow

I went woth Victor and Ruth to his swimming class today. When we got back I took some pictures showing just how much higher the snow is than Victor! Quite unbelievable how much snow we've had this year.

New Phone

While I'm waiting for the servers I'm working on in Falun to get restarted after some electrical work is being done, I'm going to write a little about my latest acquisition, an HTC Hero mobile phone.

It's a smart phone based on the Android OS, which is in turn based on Linux, and produced by Google.

I had to decide between that and an iPhone. It was a very close thing, but the Android/Google/Linux thing swung it in the end. It is a more open platform than the iPhone, which means that no one company can decide if an application is allowed to be supported, which is the case for the iPhone. It also has a more multitasking nature to it, although I'm not completely convinced that that makes any actual difference!

During the first few days I noticed, even when I'd stopped playing with it a lot, that the battery consumption was rather bad, on the first night it claimed to have about half charged battery when I went to bed, and had stopped before I got up!

After a bit of googling I discuvered that there is a known bug in the built in SMS program that stops it from going to sleep once you've sent a message! The solution/work-around is to disable that program and install any of the several alternative SMS programs. Since doing this it has behaved much better.

Trio Zilliacus Persson Raitinen

Margie and I went to a concert in Lilla Salen here in Västerås on Saturday afternoon with Trio Zilliacus Persson Raitinen. They played a very good programme ending with the great Mozart Divertimento.

We like to sit right at the front and get the full experience, coughs and all! Most people won't sit in the very front row, but it must have been almost full, because there were already a few people in the front row when we sat down, and it filled up completely.

This is a group well worth hearing. The string trio repertoire isn't very large, and there's one great master piece (the Mozart). Zilliacus and Persson played the second Mozart Duo first. This is a seldom heard very fine piece for Violin and Viola. The first duo is played slightly more often, and is a touch easier to play!

After that the cellist played a wonderful cello solo piece by Sibelius which was only discovered relatively recently when clearing out a summer house (or some such place).

Then there was a modern work, which was more enjoyable that we expected! After the interval was the tour-de-force, a work I know very well, since in the seventies while these three were in dagis, when our quartet lost one the the violinists (she moved to Hampshire) we worked at this not realising quite how difficult it was!

After the concert we went and ate a very nice meal in Ruffinos followed by too many beers in the Sky Bar.

All in all a very nice day.

New UK Passport

I've just filled in the papers and sent them off together with a 'certified' photo.

I have two passports to go with my two citizenships (British & Swedish). The procedure for getting the two could hardly be more different!

The Swedish Passport:
Turn up at the police station in town, take a queue number, wait five minutes, talk to a lady behind a desk, show driving licence, get photo taken, pay 400 kr, go away. Come back a week later and collect a nice new passport.

The British Passport:
Download and print and fill in the forms. Go into town to get a photo taken, which much satisfy exacting standards so that a biometric passport can be made. Get two photos, one of which has to be certified (see above) by someone who knows me for at least two years, mustn't be a family member etc. etc. Send all this registered post together with the old passport to Düsseldorf (yes in Germany), where they will take 10 days to produce the new passport, which they will send by DHL back to me. The price?
10-year adult passport - €143
Return shipment is handled by DHL Worldwide and costs €28

The only advantage that the UK passport seems to have is the fact that it is valid for 10 years as opposed to the Swedish one which is only good for 5 years.

400 SEK / 5 = 80 SEK per year

€171 / 10 = €17.1 ~= 175 SEK per year

Why bother? - I don't know, perhaps I just need something to moan about. Perhaps I want to keep my options open!

I suppose I should include in the Swedish side of the equation the 1500SEK naturalisation cost, but since I don't know how long I'm going to live, I don't know how many years that has to be spread over! If I've got less than about 16 years (3+ have already gone), the UK passport comes out cheaper!

All of this is of course spurious, I chose to take up Swedish nationality. I didn't need to, and many British people who live here don't bother. Why did I do it? Besides the practical point of making some things a little simpler (actually very few things) and being allowed to vote for the parliament (non Swedish residents of more than a number of years can vote in local elections anyway) the only real reason I can think of is that it better reflects my status. I am now a mixture of British and Swedish. I'll never sound quite like a native Swedish speaker, although some of my English has been a little affected. I'm not a 'more English than the English' type of ex-pat, nor am I 100% Swedish.

Which passport do I use when travelling? So far, with the exception of once when I was trying to confuse the British system (into UK Bristih, out again Swedish), I've used my Swedish passport. This has been at least in part because the Swedish one has the newer computer readable text, and biometric stuff, which makes it quicker.

When my Swedish Passport runs out (end of next year) when I get a new one I'll need to give my finger prints. The Swedish passports have incorporated this for some time now. Ignoring the invasion of my privacy issues, I wonder if/when the British get round to this how that will work. Will I need to travel to Düsseldorf to get this done?

The whole identity thing in the British system is ridiculous! I happen to be a director of a UK company. In order to establish my identity with Companies House I had to send them a 'utility bill' with my name and address on. This was of course in Swedish. My offer of an English extract taken directly from the Swedish Population Register, was rejected! They'd rather have an incomprehensible (for them) bill for groceries than a complete description from the Swedish state! What security doesn't one have in a British Passport where the identity control is based on a foreign language grocery bill, or the signature of a friend they might ring up?

End of rant! (for today at least)

English in a new place

I've just got back from the first English Conversation study circle session this year.

ABF is moving out of the place it has been in for the past ?? years, and my study circle is being run in another place. I got a key, and was told the code to open the front door, but when I finally got there it was in a bit of a mess! The room numbers don't line up with what I have on my instructions, but that doesn't matter since we seem to be the only group there (this evening at least) and so I could pick the best room!

I had decided to arrive a bit early, but before leaving my 'proper job' Margie rang to ask if I could collect her from town. She'd been at a meeting for work and wasn't feeling very well, so I just about had enough time to drive in, collect her and take her home, and then drive in again. This meant that I had to park in the multi-story and pay (about 40kr) instead of parking somewhat further away for free and walking.

When I got there none of my students were there of course. The first one turned up just a few minutes late, but I had to ring around them. One sounded dreadful when she answered, so it was clear that she wasn't well enough to come. Another was waiting at the old place, and the third one to arrive had had an accident in the car park!

So we were three plus me. 50% isn't actually too bad under the circumstances, and we put the worlds to rights in the correct way.

The new place doesn't have any coffee machine, so I need to make sure that the three that didn't come get to know that. Margie will also need to tell her students. I think her courses start next week. Of course the facilities might have improved by then. I don't think this place has been officially opened yet! I wonder if I'll get an invite?

Some pictures

Lego for adults!

Actually sorting out Lego by adults for Victor.