It was exactly four weeks after our move to Rinkeby in Sweden in the autumn of 1971, when Pappa took me to Stockholm Stadium to see Finland play Sweden. I’d not been to an ice-hockey match since Ilves played Tappara in the Jäähalli in Tampere the previous winter. My team lost to their local rivals. … [Read more...]
Pappa’s Girl Part 5
Stockholm 1971‘This part of town is called Rinkeby. It’s ten stops on the Tunnelbana from the centre of town,’ Pappa told us, ‘That’s what the underground train is called.’We were walking up the stairs to the second floor of a large block. Our flat was the fourth door along a covered walkway. I … [Read more...]
My Nordic Adventure: Part Three – the rest of it (almost)
It's taken me all day to write this blog post about my wonderful, luxuriously long break 'at home' in Finland and Sweden. The words just haven't flown today, on my first day back in London. Even the internet has been intermittent - something to do with the large full moon, perhaps?Or it may be that … [Read more...]
Strindberg’s Apartment at The New Diorama Theatre
The New Diorama Theatre is a small 80 seat venue in central London, a mere hop and skip away from Great Portland Street and Regent's Park tube stations. It's a busy area on a weekday, but on a Saturday evening this side of Euston Road was deserted. The offices and a few cafes catering for the nine … [Read more...]
Living out of a suitcase
I'm planning a capsule wardrobe to pack from the capsule wardrobe I took with me from London. Luckily I bought a few items in the shops in Stockholm today (more of this later with hopefully pictures) which makes life a little easier, still I'm not particularly looking forward to the next week. I'm … [Read more...]
Sleepless in Stockholm
I can't sleep. Perhaps it's the noise of the city after two weeks of gazing at the sea in Åland, perhaps just the excitement of being in Stockholm in mid-August, just when the city wakes up from its summer slumber. The children go back to school here today; the Stockholmare return from their … [Read more...]
A rainy day in Stockholm and the best jeans in the world
I've always loved Stockholm. Perhaps it's because I spent my formative years there, or it may just be all that water which surrounds the city and its beautiful buildings.In any case, when the opportunity arose to spend a day in Stockholm together with Husband and Daughter I grabbed it with both … [Read more...]
Home thoughts
Being back in your home country can be equally as tricky as being a foreigner - immigrant - abroad.First of all there are all the emotions that family re-unions can ignite. Sometimes they are beautiful and lovely, sometimes an old, deeply buried resentment raises its ugly head and bites the … [Read more...]
The princess kisses a frog and gets a prince
I was glued to my screen for hours yesterday watching live streaming from Stockholm where Princess Victoria married his commoner fiancé, Daniel Westling, or His Royal Highness Prince Daniel, as he'snow to be known.This story seems like a modern fairytale indeed. The unhappy, anorexic … [Read more...]
How I came to be in England – Part 33
The Englishman and I took our first ever flight together from Helsinki to Stockholm on the day before Christmas Eve in 1983. Though there was no snow on the ground, and the landscape looked dark and miserable, it was magical. To be standing together in the passport queue, rather than saying goodbye … [Read more...]