Ice Sports, The Olympics & Tall Paul

So the Olympics are on, and every 4 years the sport of curling reappears with its mad broom sweeping and becomes the butt of jokes and derision. But although its a minority sport up here, it is taken seriously, especially since the Swedish womens team is quite good at it. Gold medallists, in fact, claimed on the very last stone of the match. It's just a bit unfortunate the ladies celebrated with a kiss on the lips, which of course is the photo that is front page everywhere. At LTU we had a small winterfestival which allowed me to try a bit of curling. I cast a few stones, hit the witches hat (not the one I was aiming for), and also got to clean up after myself. An OCD's wet dream.




In other Olympics news, everyone here remembers Stephen Bradbury (but not always by name) as the Aussie who got gold by skating slow and waiting for everyone else to fall over. Noone knows about our latest gold medal efforts. And in a bit of surprise, the Swedish hockey team is through to the final, so tomorrow at 1:30 the country will grind to a halt as everyone will go and watch the match. For an even bigger thrill they are playing traditional rivals Finland.

I also had a visit from tall Paul Mathison, an old Big Band buddy who has been in the UK and Ireland for 3 years now. it was great to catch up, and one thing we did in Luleå was hit the ice road that was made on the Baltic Sea around the peninsula that the town center is built on. Snow is a good insulator because of all the trapped air, so they remove the snow regularaly to make sure the ice was exposed and could freeze to a sufficient thickness, around 50cm. We went for a relaxed a bit of ice skating, but unfortunately the day of >0 temperatures meant it was not flat anymore and had a few bumps. So I had to leave my sprirals and axels in my trickbag, and just go for a smooth skate.



The pole is for testing the thickness of the ice, the blue thing hand spikes in case you slip through the ice and need to clamber out, and the yellow thing a rope. All overkill on the well ice road, but it came with the skate hire, so why not use it.

Jokkmokk Marknad

About thjree weeks ago now I went to the Jokkmokk market on a bright, sunny, -25oC day. Jokkmokk is just above the arctic circle, and the market started as a traditional Sami market over 400 years ago. Thesedays it is still a major event, and attracts big crowds, even from overseas. The market has also modernised alot, so along with the reindeerskins and meat and furs and traditional handicrafts you can also get more modern things, like hardware, freezer bags, scented oils and whacky t-shirts.



There were also traditional activities like "jojking", which is Sami yodeling, and reindeer races.

Things Swedes Don't Know

This is a book I bought, and one day hope to be able to read fully, titled Who is Björn, and Who is Benny. Yes, even the Swedes don't know which ABBA person is which.

Why did I buy the book? Not because I really wanted to know. But the language is less flowery than usual fiction, and has more simple explanations. The chapters are also short, less than 10 pages each, so I can read a bit and once I've worked it all out feel like I've accompliswhed something. And I want to know the answers to the "other interesting mysteries", like why don't men go to the toilet together, why do people kick the tyres of a car when checking one out, and when will Jesus come back. I'll let you know what the answer is to that one.

So which is Björn, and which is Benny? Björn means Bear in Swedish, and unfortunately, it is Benny who is chubby and has the beard and is most bearlike. When he was younger, he was beard-free. C'mon, you all know it, just admit it. OK it's the guy on the left.

Apparently ABBA considered every other possible arrangement of letters, from their surnames to middle names, thought about changing their names, and took years to come up with the one that is now so well known. Actually their surnames made the word FULA, which means 'ugly'...

Lots more ABBA trivia to come... no. Not really. I promise.