Intermezzo IV

So this blog shouldn't be as depressing as the last one I wrote, but happy it won't be! No, just kidding... I would first of all like to thank, yet again, all those nice reactions I got on my last blog and the sympathy from everybody!

As always it is good to start from the beginning... The first two weeks was spent on the road in Europe! You would think, coming home would mean relaxing and doing nothing, but in my case this never seems to be the case... I still am travelling even when I get back home, though this time it was more then usual, at least at first.

First stop was Rennes in Brittany, where I went to visit Aline. It happened to be her birthday, so good timing on my part! Rennes is quite a nice city, when the weather is good, and it was when I was there... But that is rare, the weather for the most part is quite a lot like England or Holland for that matter, no sun, lots of wind and clouds and a steady drizzle. But as I said, I brought sunshine with me as a present for Aline. So we strolled around the old town, had picnics in the park and ate a lot of good French cheese with baguettes! Also of course had to have some French wine and I tried some mead, which is the drink of Brittany so it seems, or at least it is for the older generation. After two days, Aline had had enough of me hanging around, eating all her good cheese and drinking all her wine, and kicked me out of the house and onto the train!

Next in line, after a long journey, was Sweden. And Sweden was one of the reason I came home earlier then my original plan (that and my usual lack of funds)... You see my parents have been married 40 years and they wanted to celebrate it in Sweden. Why Sweden? Well, my mother is Swedish and when I was young, back in 1984, my grandparents celebrated their 50th anniversary at a lakeside manor together with their children and grandchildren... My mother's original idea was to book the same manor, but they never replied to her inquiries, so she booked another manor in the same neighbourhood. We did however pass by the old manor and had a family photo taken at the same spot where one was taken back in 1984!

The manor where we stayed in turned out to be much better anyway, we had a whole side building to ourselves, which was great as there were quite a few kids running around. Like this no other guests could be disturbed. It also was supposed to be haunted, but the lady who had been seen sitting in my room staring out of the window was nowhere to be seen when I was around! Stupid ghosts! They always appear to those people who believe in them and are scared of them!

So no ghosts, but plenty of fun... It was the first time in I don't know how many years, that my brother and my sister and I where all together and the first time ever that their families had seen each other, at least the kids... You see my brother lives with his family in Peru and my sister lives with her family in Dubai and I... Well I live everywhere and try to visit them at times... So we drank and we ate and we had picnics and swam at the many, many lakes surrounding the area, we took a rather luxury raft (with table and BBQ) down a river, an old steam boat over a lake and managed to squeeze in some time in the sauna at our manor too... At least some of us did, my father is not one for sauna's or for swimming for that matter... In the meantime my brother and my sisters kids did what they do best, run, play, fight (especially with me of course) and drive the parents mad! As uncle all I have to contend with is a kid hanging on my leg, another on my arm and one trying to put pony tails into my hair!

Anyway to cut things short, a good time was had by all... But all good things must end one time and after a week, the fun was over, it was time to go home and say goodbye to part of the family. My brother and his family went back to Finland (my brothers wife is Finnish) from where they would fly back to Peru. The rest of us were going to make our way back home. On the way back we stopped of at Saga, my mother’s cousin of 90, who is still as fit as a fiddle! I noticed she was especially fast when we went with her to a liquor shop to buy some wine, it was hard to keep up with her as she more or less ran in! After one day with her, it was really time to drive home as my sister and her family had a flight to catch. So we made the long journey home, this time overland via Denmark...

At home I still had two days with my sister. My brother also dropped by, as he had a few days to spare before heading for a conference in Istanbul (yeah I am not the only one in the family who moves around a lot!)... A last BBQ, a visit to some friends and then all was quiet again, just me and my parents...

Since that time I have mostly been waiting for screenings, trials and what not, interspersed with the cancelling of the afore mentioned screenings and trials, much to my frustration. Murphy has been following me all the way, you know the one with his horrible little law, which states: 'everything that can go wrong will go wrong'. I have decided to just give up on the travels this year, because my last screening and trial were cancelled as well. The waiting is not over yet. Of course being of sunny disposition I shall call this a sabbatical from my travelling and devote my time to the simple pleasures of nothingness... I have a great place to wile away my time, unlimited amount of that time at my disposal, great parents and well, I haven't been home in five years for such an extended period of time so I can actually see the changing of the seasons, which I haven't seen for a long while.

And that ends this nice little tale, written in a flat little country by a somewhat strange little man, who unfortunatly is growing around the waist due to copious amounts of good food prepared by his loving little parents.

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Part of trip: The great journey east!

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