Pre-Election Saturday

Waking up fairly cough-free this morning, I decided to try and get myself into town for a couple of errands that I didn't feel up for earlier in the week. I took the bus part of the way there, but then walked back.

With the election coming up tomorrow, there were quite a lot of people about in the main square, as all the political parties have information booths up (no doubt they've been there all week). There's also a portable cabin for early voting, and today there was a long queue of people waiting to make use of that. 

Reports in the media say we've already broken previous records this year when it comes to the number of people preferring to vote early - and I made my contribution to that myself back on Monday. (I didn't have to go into town for that, as I could do it at a place closer to home.) 

 

These flags across a shopping street in the city centre are part of the past summer's art biennial. I did not stop to try and figure out the symbolism - and just as well that I didn't, as I'd never have succeeded...  Looking it up now on the Art Museum's Instagram page:

"Michelle Eistrup’s series of flags along Stora Brogatan draws on the heritage of Bakongo culture from Central Africa, which spread across the Americas due to the transatlantic slave trade. The flags form a “dictionary” of Bakongo gestures and evoke diasporic knowledge systems. They are organized into four sections, which represent the parallel cycles of the sun and of human life — sunrise and spiritual awakening, noon and maturity, sunset and decline, midnight and regeneration." 

On my way home, I walked through a corner of the city park, and noted that there are autumn colours to be seen in some of the trees now.

 

One of my favourite sculptures - I don't recall its name now, but I think it's been there since one of our first art biennials. For me as "Narnian" (referring to my blog name) it always makes me think of ancient mythological portals between worlds... 

Linking to Weekend Street/Reflection #294

RIP - King Harald V of Norway

 9 September, 2026

King Harald V of Norway, born 21 February 1937, passed away on Friday 28 August 2026, 89 years old. The funeral was held at the Oslo Cathedral on 9th September; and was broadcasted live also here in Sweden. Members of the Swedish royal family were attending as well. I watched most of it, and snapped some photos off my TV screen... 

The Swedish crown princess Victoria (goddaughter to king Harald) read a prayer at the ceremony in the cathedral, and our king Carl XVI Gustaf (himself 80 years old now) as well as the Danish king Frederik X walked on foot behind the coffin together with the new king Haakon of Norway (son of the old king), in quite a long procession through the streets of Oslo, to the old kings' final resting place.  

 

Walking behind the coffin: 

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, 
King Haakon VIII of Norway, 
King Frederik X of Denmark

More details can be found in a separate Wiki article: Death and state funeral of Harald V 

 

Flush in a Flash

My cold (cf my Monday post) has probably kept running a pretty normal course, but especially the coughing has been tiresome. (Still is, even if that too is getting better now.) 

On Tuesday I had the laundry room booked for the afternoon. I was in luck and could start an hour early (11 instead of 12) and didn't have to run more than two loads, but that still felt enough. In the evening I also had to start preparing for ... 

AI generated image

 

... Wednesday, when we (tenants) had been forewarned that plumbers were coming to high pressure flush all the drains in our building, one flat at a time; and for that we were asked to remove anything that might make their access to drains and pipes etc difficult. In the kitchen, this meant not only removing stuff on top of (and in) the sink, but also emptying the cupboard underneath, where I keep various bins, bags and boxes for waste and recycling. And in the bathroom, anything under and close to the wash basin, and near the drain in the shower (which isn't glass-enclosed, only has a curtain). I did not really expect them to find much problem with my drains - but as I couldn't recall this procedure having been done before while I've lived here, I wasn't quite sure how much "mess" to expect... So I pretty much emptied the whole bathroom. (Universal truth: One never really realises how much stuff one keeps in small spaces until one has to move it somewhere else...) 

As I live in the middle of the building (with 18 flats altogether) I knew they weren't likely to start with me; but as I had no idea how fast or slow the procedure would be, I still preferred to be up and dressed and "ready" before 8 on Wednesday (which was their starting time). They did come to me before noon, and as there was no real problem here, the flushing procedure as such was over in "no time at all"... 

... But after they (he) left, for me still remained the job to put things back in place... And as it's rare to have every nook and cranny of the bathroom that empty, I did take advantage of that for a more thorough than usual cleaning of that room before putting "stuff" back. Like behind pipes - of which there are a lot more in reality than in the AI image above... (AI did  well with the Wisteria pattern on my shower curtain, though!) 

All in all, combined with the remnants of my cold, enough "work" for me to feel rather exhausted afterwards...

... Although it can't really have taken me as long as it felt, because I know I then spent most of the afternoon watching the funeral of the Norwegian King Harald on TV. (I took some photos off my TV screen of that, but out of respect I think I'll put those in a separate post!)

Foggy Head, Foggy Future

 

I'll let this foggy photo from Sunday morning represent two different things. 

First, the fact that over the past week the inside of my head has been feeling rather foggy as well; as during the previous weekend I managed to contract a cold, involving all the usual ingredients, from a sore throat and headaches to running nose and a barking cough. No point in trying to pin down exactly where I might have caught it from, as last weekend, with my brother here, we spent three days visiting several different restaurants, shops, museums - and public restrooms...

Second, the foggy view may also represent the fact that we have a general election coming up in Sweden next Sunday. As usual (every four years) we have three elections at the same time: National (parliament), regional and local. So both national and local media lately have been full of political debates, and little else - and that will continue for a while yet!

In our parliament we currently have eight parties, divided into two opposing "blocks". The previous election result four years ago took a long time to sort out and ended in a right-wing government. We're probably in for a similar situation once again this time - i.e. that it may again take time to sort out the results, and who is willing to cooperate with whom, to form a new government.   

While nursing myself through the various foggy stages of cold symptoms this week I've also personally spent a bit of time looking at "vote compasses" online.  I actually did five of them (three national, one local and one regional). As they all came out rather alike for me, I decided yesterday that I'm not likely to change my mind, but might as well go and vote early (which we're allowed to do). I've made use of that a few times in later years, to avoid the queues on the final election day; and did so again today. It's still a week of "wait and see" ahead until votes are counted - and even longer until we have a new government sorted. But at least for my own part I won't have to worry about whether it will be raining or not on Sunday...

If anyone would like more details about the election as such, see Wikipedia: 2026 Swedish general election

Chasing the Rainbow

Last night when I looked out of my living room window, around 19:40, the sky to the south-west had strange colour - and when I stepped out on the balcony for a closer look, to the east I could also see part of an impressive rainbow (and even a double one).

The first photo taken with my phone, 
the second one with my Sony camera shortly after.

As I could only see part of the rainbow from my balcony, I decided to go outside to check if I could see more. 

Alas I found that the high fence around the old football field (about to turned into a park and just now partly dug up)  didn't make it easy to take photos from the ground either...

But by walking a bit further to the left, and finding a wider hole in the fence, I managed to get a wider view - but still couldn't fit the whole rainbow into the same photo. 

But at the cloud-free other end of the wide bow, the sky was blue!

Back up on my balcony a while later, looking west rather than east, with the evening sun hitting the clouds in the sky, it was a strange (and even somewhat ominous) shade of glowing pinkish orange:

 Linking to Skywatch Friday