All Normal (?)

 

Mostly grey skies here today, but I managed a turn around the old cemetery in the early afternoon before it started to rain. In the trees, various shades of yellow keep taking over  more and more every day... (Pretty much following the normal pattern for this time of year, I think!)

When I got back home, the post had been delivered, and brought an unexpected letter from my health care centre - just to inform me that the blood tests they took last week for an upcoming doctor's appointment on Monday next week were... "normal"!

That's a relief, of course. But a surprise in the sense that it's the first time in 35+ years of annual (or almost annual) checkups that I've been sent such a letter in advance, rather than just being told the results by the doctor when we meet! Whether that's to do with new routines for the whole clinic or just this new doctor (whom I've never yet met), I don't know!  

Now I just keep my fingers crossed that the knowledge that I probably at least have no need to fear a sudden new diagnosis of diabetes or high cholesterol (or whatever) will also have a general positive effect on my blood pressure at the actual appoinment... 

Not long after opening that letter, my phone rang. It turned out to be a nurse from the same health care centre, wanting to change my booked vaccination appointment from next Friday to 1½ week later. I actually did not mind that at all, as I had been wondering myself (looking at my calendar) if perhaps I had managed to get next week a bit too full... An extra day of "nothing special planned" felt rather welcome!

 

Keeping Up with Modern Technology

Yesterday was rainy, and I did not go out - it was also Laundry Day for me anyway, and I had enough to do indoors. Today the sun made an appearance again, and in the afternon I decided to go for a walk to the supermarket for a few items. 

Above: I stopped on the bridge across the river to snap a photo of yellow leaves dropping to the ground now (and into the water as well)... 
Below: Some very red Rowan trees next to a tall building.

 

For over ten years now I've been doing most of my grocery shopping online with home delivery (from the same supermarket that I walked to now); but once in a while I like to go myself for some speical item, or just to try to keep up with changes in the store. When I do go in person, I always self-scan the few items I bought (with a hand-held scanner), so don't have to stand in line to check out. I've been doing that for even longer than I've been using their home delivery service, and it's routine procedure for me. ... 

 

However, recently they have also made some changes to their self-checkout area; and for the second time this year, I found myself bewildered when getting there. I blipped my card at one of the stations and then clicked on what I thought was the right button that came up - but my self-scanned items did not appear on the screen. So I had to ask for help from a young girl (member of staff), who patiently took me through the explanations of how these check-out points were for customers not carrying a scanner with them through the store, but doing the scanning at the check-out; whereas those ones (pointing) are for customers who used a scanner along the way... 

It all suddenly gave me a feeling of being old and confused and out-of-date... (And in this particular case, I suppose that's exactly what I was!) ...  I'm not normally very chatty in stores, but it also made me want to explain, "in my defense", that the reason that the two different ways of "self scanning" had escaped me was that I do most of my shopping online these days! (Hoping somewhere at the back of my head, I suppose, that this might restore her opinion of me as perhaps not totally out of touch with the modern world after all...) 

After I got back home, I learned that there's also a third scanning method now - downloading their special app to my phone, and then scan a QR code at the exit to pay. However much they claim that to be "simple", I don't think I'll complicate my life further by adding that to my personal mix of options. I just hope that they'll continue their home delivery service!!

Autumn Colours

Storm Amy has gone away, whereever storms go when they're "done"... I was able to go  for a rain-free walk around the old cemetery this afternoon; and everything looked pretty much normal for the time of year - not much evidence of a storm having passed. But Autumn keeps making steady progress now, changing the general colour scheme; and no doubt an increasing number of leaves dropping to the ground will be keeping the cemetery workers very busy over the next month or two... 

 

 

Linking to Through My Lens

 

Weekend Reflections, and Storm Amy

 The Calm Before the Storm 

Wednesday, 1 October 2025

Friday, 3 October 2025

October is Breast Cancer Awareness (and fundraising) month here in Sweden - and if memory serves me right, I think in a number of other countries as well (?) Anyway, when walking into town on Friday, I found these temporary pink decorations added on one of the bridges across the river... Reminding me both of the friends I have lost to breast cancer over the years - and those who survived. (Note to self: Make an extra donation to cancer research.)

The Storm 

With sunny and calm autumn weather all week so far, it was almost hard to believe the forecasts about the storm expected to blow in over us on Saturday, and likely to wreak havoc here and there. I decided to take the warnings seriously, though, so spent Friday afternoon taking in some things from my balcony.  I took my foldable "sun chair" down to winter storage in the basement, made room for my geraniums on the window sill in the living room, and even tied my wooden bench to the balcony railing. Felt a bit silly doing that with the sun shining from a perfect blue sky - but...

... when Storm Amy arrived on Saturday, she did prove to be quite capricious. I can't say I noticed her wreaking any serious havoc just around my street (and we stayed connected to electricity and internet all day) - but I followed her adventures on my local newspaper app during the day, and it seems she behaved quite badly elsewhere in town, uprooting and throwing big trees around (blocking roads, and damaging buildings), and even managed to tear an old steamboat loose from its jetty in the lake north of town...  
 

My own photo of the steamboat on a calmer day...

Photo from our local newspaper

The photo above, copied from the local newspaper's website, shows how a tree fell on an apartment building (not in my street, but another part of town). Luckily it did not break any windows, but it caused some damage to a couple of balconies. 

Today it still kept raining all day; but in the afternoon the wind had died down, and I went for a short walk around a few of the neighbouring buildings in connection with taking out some rubbish to the bins at the corner. (Only about 10 minutes or so, though, and in spite of both umbrella and raincoat I also felt need to change my trousers when I got back in...) 

Linking to Weekend Street/Reflections 

 

Some Thoughts about Faith, Tradition and Identity

 

Yesterday, fellow blogger Yorkshire Pudding published a blog post entitled "Jews" - related to a recent tragic attack outside a synagogue in Manchester, in which two Jewish people were killed and three left in a serious condition after a car ramming and stabbing attack. 

YP asks some questions, like:  "How can it be that someone who is a native born citizen of Great Britain [or some other country] may self-define more eagerly through their religious heritage than through their nationality?" and "If you were born into a Jewish family in another land - what is your relationship with the state of Israel and [---] why should it be more intense than a Christian's relationship with The Holy Land?" and  "[One Jewish woman declared] that she would now have to emigrate from this country where she was born and raised and I thought - why?" (For the full context, I recommend that you read the whole post.)

Very complex issues, not easily answered, and I certainly can't claim to be an expert on any of it. But it did trigger some thoughts for me, and also a memory from my childhood. Because of the complexity, I chose to write my thoughts down in a separate text document first, before sending a comment to YP's blog. And on second thought, I decided to share it here on my own blog as well. (If nothing else, that will make it easier for myself to re-find it later, if I should want to.)

*******

I'd say it's all deeply rooted in history and inherited traditions even more than in “faith” – and that the bigger question is why some people still persecute others because of their origin (which is really something that none of us have chosen ourselves). 

I'd also say that a Christian's relationship with the “Holy Land” is totally different because the Christian tradition from start was to spread their faith to the whole world. (Jesus told his disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations” Matthew 28:19) Jewish history on the other hand goes back to nomad times long before they had a country of their own to begin with. I think a bigger question is why others are still persecuting Jews living elsewhere than in Israel. Considering the history of how the Jews were persecuted under the Nazi regime in Germany back in the 1930s/40s, I'm not surprised at all if a single terrorist attack anywhere in modern times still causes panic among people of Jewish heritage, whether they're very religious or not. 

I think my own first awareness of "different" religious beliefs/traditions was when I was about 10 or 11 years old (i.e. in the mid 1960s). We got a new boy in my class in school, who was Jewish (born somewhere in Eastern Europe). Back in those days we were all still going to school half days on Saturdays here in Sweden. We were also still taught “Christianity” rather than “Religion”, and each morning started with singing a psalm, and prayers were said before going to lunch. But unlike the rest of us, this new Jewish boy was excused from attending school on Saturdays (the Jewish Sabbath). And our teacher took some time to explain the difference in traditions to us. I suppose it probably made us a bit jealous that this boy got more “time off” from school than the rest of us – but as far as I can remember, we came to just accept it as a fact. (Or at least I did.) 

In 1968, the same year I started  “secondary school” (at age 13), no school on Saturdays was introduced nation wide, so then that wasn't an issue any more. And Christianity was replaced by Religion on the curriculum - aiming to give us all a bit more insight into different traditions. (I'm not trying to make out that this solved all problems, though!!) 

For my own part, I do identify myself as Christian. (I had a brief period of regarding myself as atheist in my early teens, but then gave that up!) 

*******

PS. "On third thought" it strikes me that there are actually quite a few other people(s) around the world too being (or having been) persecuted for either religious or political reasons, and forced to live with "split identities" - as in not always finding it easy to know whether to identify oneself primarily according to one's religious faith - or lack of it - or one's country of "origin" vs where one happens to have ended up (by choice or by chance!) later in life...

The Tip of the Tap

 

Of course I was up and dressed at 7.15 today, even if it seemed unlikely that my flat, right in the middle of a building, would be the very first to get a visit from the plumbers who had forewarned that I could expect them to turn up some time between 7.15 am on Thursday and 4 pm on Friday (cf previous post).  

Actually I rather expected they wouldn't be showing up at my door until Friday - but they (two guys) did ring on my door just before 2 pm today. It also turned out that the whole job only took about 5 minutes rather than the predicted 20. In the kitchen it was only the "tip" of the tap that they replaced; and in the bathroom the shower hose and head. 

They also did some quick checks for leaks; but there was no exchange of the actual taps (faucets) involved. 

 I suppose the whole project is about trying to minimize waste of water. 

The new shower head is much larger than the old one and somehow looks a bit intimidating... I haven't tried it yet but suspect it may take some getting used to? 

While waiting for the plumbers, not knowing when or if they'd come, I was vacuuming the rooms that they would have no reason to enter; and it occurred to me to also undertake the very rare task of also pulling out the extra bed from under the sofa in my living room - which is a sofa-bed in itself, but also has an extra bed tucked in underneath. I had no idea when I last did that (it's been years since the extra bed was used), or what dusty horrors might be revealed... It wasn't too bad though. There's really very little room under there even for dust to gather. 

One surprise that turned up from under the sofa was this little guy, though - who I vaguely recall missing last Christmas...

 

 

I gave him to Skipper now, to look after until December...  
 

 ...when he can be reunited with the Santa Claus family...  

I was happy to find this classic Swedish Christmas song below translated to English on YouTube. Saves me the trouble of thinking of other ways to explain why my brain connects both "tip" and "tap" (cf the heading I chose for this post) with Christmas!

Progress of Autumn, and Things To Do

 

Where did September go? In many ways, and not least because of mild and sunny weather, it was a month that felt more like the end of summer than the beginning of autumn. Now October is upon us, however - and it seems to come with a long list of Things To Do.

It started already on Monday this week, with having to get up early and go out for a walk without even having had breakfast first - something which I can assure you is not my usual habit. It pretty much only happens when I have to go and have fasting blood tests taken - which was also the cause this time, for an "annual" doctor's "follow-up" appointment coming up in a couple of weeks. The "annual" has in later years been replaced with at least 18 months but I can't think of one word for that. The "follow-up" part is also not quite what it used to be, since nowadays it seems to be a new doctor every time. But a general check-up of  chronic condtions and prescribed meds, anyway.

I've also had reminders about upcoming vaccinations (flu+covid), but I'll have to book a separate appointment for those. And I need to get a haircut, but I don't know where to fit that in until some other things are over and done with...!

On today's to-do-list was Laundry Day + putting in an online order of groceries for delivery tomorrow. Usually I choose delivery on Thursday or Friday, but this week I needed to make it Wednesday, because on Thursday or Friday - at any time during either of those days - I have been forewarned to expect a visit from plumbers to install new taps (faucets) in both kitchen and bathroom. (They'll be doing this in all the apartments in my area, all in one fell swoop - not just mine.)

I hate (ok, strong word...) fuzzy time indications like "between 7.15 on Thursday and 16.00 on Friday" (even if I suppose it must be implied that I can probably relax between 16.00 on Thursday and 7.15 on Friday!) ... They say the job as such will only take about 20 minutes in each apartment; but not knowing when those 20 minutes will be still makes it problematic to plan the day(s). Of course I'll have to be up and dressed at 7.15 (way before my usual breakfast time) "just in case", plus I'll be worrying that they'll ring on my door just as I'm in the bathroom, or preparing lunch, or whatever... And I predict that  I probably won't settle down to much blogging until it's over and done with!

 

Autumn is happening fast now. The two photos at the top were taken on Saturday, on my walk back home from visiting the market in town. The photo here at the bottom of the post shows the same trees today - only three days later. (It should be added that these trees are among the very earliest to turn all yellow, though. I don't know what kind they are.)

Autumn Street Market, Part 2

Another sunny autumn day here; and I decided to challenge my "crowd phobia" by going back to the market (cf yesterday's post) and try to snap some more photos. This time bringing my separate Sony camera - as I found it difficult to take photos with my phone in the crowd yesterday.

It wasn't really much easier today, though. Besides probably even more people today than yesterday, there were such sharp contrasts between the bright sky and the deep shadows down among the market stalls that my camera had serious difficulties handling that. I had to do a lot of editing on most of the photos when I got back home, to get them to show anything but silhouettes! But hopefully they'll give you a somewhat better idea of the market street life - which in itself is very different compared to an "ordinary" day in our city centre...

Photos in the order that I took them: 

 Approaching the city centre - not yet having reached the market area around the square.

Those who had dared drive their cars into the very heart of the city centre on this day probably regretted it ... But once there, they would have no choice but to continue (very slowly...) along the few narrow one-way streets still open for traffic! 

Entering the area arond the square, surrounded by market stalls. I'd say probably at least 1/3 of all the stalls were aimed at children, selling colourful toys, sweets, balloons, caps etc. 

 

I think this stall was selling strawberries, but they can hardly have been Swedish ones, as that season must be over since quite a while back.

 Various food trucks in the square - but I had had lunch before going into town...

 

No child should have had to go home from the market balloon-less! 
... or at least not from lack of balloons for sale ...

No lack of cuddly toys either... As I'm not a grandparent, I haven't got a clue what any of these are, or what's a "must have" or not at the moment!

 

I could happily have bought any one of these baskets, though - if not for for the fact that I already have quite enough baskets of various kinds and sizes around my flat for covenient storing of  this, that and whatever...

 Not part of the market as such, but I loved the sunflower decorations put up in the window of my favourite tea shop by the square.

There were "hats" (??) like these hanging from any number of market stalls, but I did not see any children wearing any... (Nor any grown-ups, for that matter!)

 

 

 

I did not buy anythng today either - except an ice cream to eat on my way home, but that was not from a market stall!

Autumn Street Market

 

It's the last weekend in September, so time for the annual autumn street market. (We have two major market weekends here - spring and autumn.) The autumn weather just now is perfect for it, so I went for a stroll into town to have a look around, even though there was nothing special I wanted.  
 

Basically there are, or used to be, three kinds of market stalls that I tend to feel drawn to at these events: Socks, handbags and postcards. (My camera is also drawn towards balloons! But I never actually buy any of those...)  

There used to be a stall selling cheap postcards (plus some other "paper" stuff), always at the same corner of the square - but they haven't returned after the covid years, when the whole market was very much reduced. I guess the increase in postage has contributed to not many people being all that interested in buying and sending postcards any more. (Even I don't send very many now - and I still have a good supply left from earlier years.) 

There were several stalls selling handbags, but I had sternly reminded myself before going out, that I'm not in need of any new bag at the moment. (On the contrary, I have a bag full of  bags that should be handed in to a charity shop!!!) 

My favourite sock stall was in the same place as usual - but I had also checked my supply of socks before going out, and realised that I also have a good supply of socks bought at previous markets, that should last me at least until next spring...

So I returned home without having spent any money at all. Moreover, when I checked my camera, I realised I had only taken two photos! The market was simply too crowded!

Linking to Weekend Street/Reflections 

PS: Went back the next day, with my other camera. More photos in my next post.

The Times They Are A'Changing

Once upon a time (1624-1998), the town where I live (Borås) had a Regiment (of the infantry kind). When I moved here to live, about 40 years ago, the regiment was still active; but I'm not sure I ever went to have a closer look at the buildings until after they were "demilitarized". But it's not all that far from where I live now, so over the past 16 years, I've probably been walking that way perhaps at least once every two years or so. Anyway I've watched the area change and grow... Initially, just the old regiment buildings converted to house businesses and apartments instead. Then some modern apartment buildings added in between the old ones. And from there it has continued to develop to a whole new housing district... Today it occurred to me that it had been a while since I last checked it out, so I decided to walk that way again and check out the newest additions. Doing so, I realised that now it really must have been more than just one year since I was there last. 

 Just approaching the old main regiment buildings from below, they still look pretty much the same. There are even still a couple of cannons standing in front of the main building, to remind of "old times". 

 

The old entrance gates have been kept, too.

 

But behind the old regiment buildings, there are lot of new buildings now.

 

Still a bit of a mix between new and old here and there...

 

But there are whole streets of new tall apartment buildings added! 

Who are all the people living here?? And do they like it?? I haven't got a clue!! 

Statistics tell me that the town's population has increased by 18.6% since 2000, though - and is now around 114 000. And in another decade, the number is expected to have grown to 140 000 (at least according to Google AI).

On my way home I had to pause at a railway crossing to wait for a train. So did a lot cars (no doubt in a lot more hurry than I was). I did not take any photos of the queues waiting on both sides of the crossing; but they were long... Which made me realised that I also happened to be out in rush hour traffic (around 4 pm) - which is something that I normally have the privilege of being able to avoid, these days.

While waiting, I was also pondering the political changes we've been through since the old regiment was closed in 1998. Back then, Sweden was in a phase of disarmament. Now, we're part of NATO, and in a phase of strengthening our defense again... Not sure if there will ever be a new regiment stationed just here again - but old military training grounds in the area are still being used. (We just recently had a such a weekend when constant shooting cold be heard "in the background" from where I live.)