Sailing on the Stockholm archipelago: in which our heroine is not eaten by a kraken
It was quite fun, actually. It is, as advertised, stupidly beautiful...stretches of sea interspersed by small, rocky islands that you can sail right up to. The weather was good for sailing - a bit of rain, but not much, and mostly good wind. I steered (I'm sure there's a more nautical term for this) for a while, and managed not to crash into anything. Anchoring was fun too - lots of jumping on and off rocks, dragging ropes around, bashing into things, and generally have an enjoyably chaotic time of it.
A note about the flora here: you can eat most of it, and not die. A weird concept, coming from Australia. There are cherries, and blueberries, and raspberries, and cloudberries, and wild strawberries, and all of it just hangs around waiting to be snacked on. Exploring the islands was therefore delightful...wander around some rocks for a while, most of which are just challenging enough to climb that I felt quite satisfied with myself, eat some berries, take a photo, then back to the boat to sit around discussing how lovely everything is.
Of course, it wasn't all fun and games. I had to swim, too, a word which I'm using in its loosest sense here. A revelation which may come as a shock to those of you who know me only through my tough exterior, and have been amazed by my exploits hunting buffalo and wrestling alligators: I am terrified of being in deep water. So jumping into very cold, black, deep water around the boat did not appeal. Unfortunately, it seems that Crazy Swedes required it of me (there were some mutterings about 'hygiene') as a pre-breakfast ritual, so I did give it a go. The first time I was in and out so fast they joked that I must have bounced, but the second time I managed to stay in long enough to wash myself before climbing out in a fit of terror.
It's all a bit silly, given how utterly harmless most of the Swedish fauna seems to be. Apparently there are only three kinds of snake, none of which can do you serious damage. One of the Crazy Swedes, Jens, found one of the most-harmless snakes stuck in a crack in the rocks. I had assumed, until now, that snakes knew better than to get themselves stuck, but it seems not. Jens had to pull its tail to get it out. I supervised.
When we got back to Ingmarsö I was thoroughly tuckered out. I am always tuckered out after sailing, which seems odd because it mostly seems to involve sitting around being gently lulled by the waves. Still, I was very glad to sit down and think about tea and possibly some reading, but Children had other ideas. I don't really understand why children seem so taken with me this trip, possibly it's something to do with them not being able to understand a word I say.
Anyway, pretty much as soon as we got in Children dragged me off for "hoppa", which turned out to be a trampoline. They managed to explain most of the rules of the game they were playing to me, and I kind of got the hang of it. And then we played a different game, which seemed to have just one rule: everyone jump on Sky. Luckily I got saved after a while, and I am now hiding from Children.
In other news: I have been thinking more about writing and thesis-stuff and life. I got an email back from my supervisor about some stuff I sent him, and that's cheered me a bit. And I will be giving a couple more lectures this semester, which I am just working up to be being thoroughly nervous about.
And that's all.
A note about the flora here: you can eat most of it, and not die. A weird concept, coming from Australia. There are cherries, and blueberries, and raspberries, and cloudberries, and wild strawberries, and all of it just hangs around waiting to be snacked on. Exploring the islands was therefore delightful...wander around some rocks for a while, most of which are just challenging enough to climb that I felt quite satisfied with myself, eat some berries, take a photo, then back to the boat to sit around discussing how lovely everything is.
Of course, it wasn't all fun and games. I had to swim, too, a word which I'm using in its loosest sense here. A revelation which may come as a shock to those of you who know me only through my tough exterior, and have been amazed by my exploits hunting buffalo and wrestling alligators: I am terrified of being in deep water. So jumping into very cold, black, deep water around the boat did not appeal. Unfortunately, it seems that Crazy Swedes required it of me (there were some mutterings about 'hygiene') as a pre-breakfast ritual, so I did give it a go. The first time I was in and out so fast they joked that I must have bounced, but the second time I managed to stay in long enough to wash myself before climbing out in a fit of terror.
It's all a bit silly, given how utterly harmless most of the Swedish fauna seems to be. Apparently there are only three kinds of snake, none of which can do you serious damage. One of the Crazy Swedes, Jens, found one of the most-harmless snakes stuck in a crack in the rocks. I had assumed, until now, that snakes knew better than to get themselves stuck, but it seems not. Jens had to pull its tail to get it out. I supervised.
When we got back to Ingmarsö I was thoroughly tuckered out. I am always tuckered out after sailing, which seems odd because it mostly seems to involve sitting around being gently lulled by the waves. Still, I was very glad to sit down and think about tea and possibly some reading, but Children had other ideas. I don't really understand why children seem so taken with me this trip, possibly it's something to do with them not being able to understand a word I say.
Anyway, pretty much as soon as we got in Children dragged me off for "hoppa", which turned out to be a trampoline. They managed to explain most of the rules of the game they were playing to me, and I kind of got the hang of it. And then we played a different game, which seemed to have just one rule: everyone jump on Sky. Luckily I got saved after a while, and I am now hiding from Children.
In other news: I have been thinking more about writing and thesis-stuff and life. I got an email back from my supervisor about some stuff I sent him, and that's cheered me a bit. And I will be giving a couple more lectures this semester, which I am just working up to be being thoroughly nervous about.
And that's all.