Did Somebody Call For a Doctor?

The food itself is not entirely related, but since I'm somewhat reluctant to post pictures of people without their permission, the food will have to do. Though I didn't ask GP if he minded if I took his photo.

I feel compelled to write something about the food. We were at The Boatbuilders Yard, and I ordered the crab boil, which I thought had soft-shell crab, but I must have been mistaken, because that wasn't soft shell at all. It tasted OK, but was too fiddly to eat while trying to talk to new people.

Anyway, today was the welcome back / farewell catch-up with GP, who has been in Tanzania for the past 13 (I think he said?) months, and returned last week. He leaves for New Zealand on Tuesday, so there wasn't that much time to catch up.

I mentioned my plan to travel solo. I don't remember if I've written about it yet, but as I have a bit more leave banked up than MrFodder, I've been thinking about going on a solo holiday. The destination is currently undecided, but so far, the suggestions have been: Tasmania, New Zealand, Singapore, and Canada - all fairly safe choices for a solo trip.

However, given the Sweden Incident, I find the entire situation hilarious and I'm in awe at how well Sweden is taking the entire thing. Aftonbladet posted a summary of what actually happened in Sweden that day:

• 3:24 PM (local time): A man set himself on fire at Sergels torg, a plaza in central Stockholm. He was taken to the hospital with severe burns. There is so far no information on his motives but the intelligence service is not part of the investigation.
• 6:42 PM: The famous singer Owe Thörnqvist had some technical problems during rehearsal for the singing competition ”Melodifestivalen”. (However, the 87 year old singer still managed to secure the victory the very next day.)
• 8:23 PM: A man died in hospital, after an accident in the workplace earlier that day in the city of Borås.
• 8:46 PM: Due to harsh weather in the northern parts of Sweden the road E10 was closed between Katterjåkk and Riksgränsen. Due to strong winds and snow in the region the Met office also issued an avalanche warning.
• 12:17 AM: Police officers initiated a chase for a fleeing Peugeot through central parts of the Swedish capital of Stockholm. The pursuit ended in police officers ramming the suspect at Engelbrektsgatan. The driver is now accused of driving under the influence, traffic violation and car theft.
• IN LIGHTER NEWS:
• 11:23 AM: Ok, let’s not be fake news, this story took place in the autumn, but was reported Friday before lunch and we thought you would like it. A wooden moose got the attention of a lovesick moose bull. It all happened in 79 year old Ove Lindqvist’s garden in Byske outside Skellefteå, northern Sweden. ”I thought it was going to start a fight, instead it humped the wooden moose thrice”, he said.

I started looking at Sweden's tourist website, and to be honest, the country sounds amazing. You can see the Northern Lights, go skiing, visit cafes - they even have a cinnamon bun day (4th of October)! Their country hands over their official Twitter account to a different person every week - though I imagine the people have to be vetted first, so it's not like randoms can just take over. I know you can't judge an entire country by a few people, but Sweden just sounds like such a cool place to be. GP told me he was at a bar with his Swedish friend. His friend met a bunch of people, and they all greeted him in Swedish, and continued talking in Swedish. As soon as his friend introduced him (GP) and mentioned that he is from Australia, they all swapped to using English instead. He also said that Swedes will continually apologise for their poor English while speaking flawless English.

I originally wanted to go during our honeymoon, because I wanted to go to Ikea, but it was too far out of the way to get to by train from any of the countries we were staying at, so unfortunately, it got dropped off the list. At the moment though, it's pretty close to the top of my list of places I want to go by myself. The only other one that's really tempting at the moment is New Zealand, because it's so close and I can meet the kiwi WoW people.

I'm still pretty undecided, but hearing GP's adventures today is sparking my wanderlust, even though we got back from Japan recently. I don't think I should really be travelling so soon though, as I'm still settling in to my new team, though I did deal with my first production incident yesterday!

Unrelated to travel, I mentioned that I'm currently doing the couch to 10k challenge, and one of GP's friends, Nat, suggested I try the Bay Trail, which she said is a perfect 10 kilometres. She said the scenery is lovely, and it's mostly a dirt / gravel trail, so you aren't running on concrete the entire time (which I'm guessing is better for your legs?). I can't seem to find the route she mentioned, which she said goes from Hampton station to Blackrock and back, but it shouldn't be too hard to work out one for myself. I've decided that will be my new goal for the year.

Even though I'm not a huge fan of socialising, and I was invited to two other after work drinks events this week, I did enjoy myself, and it was nice to catch-up with GP before he heads off again.