Thought I wouldn’t put up a blog today
Didn’t really have anything to say
It would be silent as a log
Today on my little blog
But words kept poppin’ out, okay
So here it is anyway
Just do it, ha de Gött!
Picture from a busy Saturday in Göteborg with tram congestion in front of the old central post office. Straight ahead is ‘Slussen’, the lock for the canal ‘Fattighusån’. At the end in line with the high rise 900 meters away lies the building that named this canal, ‘Fattighuset’, the Alms-House. The canal has a name that implies that is a small river, ‘ån’ in Swedish. Why this name? Guess it’s an evidence of the humor in Göteborg.
The work started in 1620 but the king stopped the work due to lack of money. I wish a certain ruler of today will run out of money fast. The work was re-started in 1639 and finished in 1641. Connecting the Main Harbor Canal with the small river ‘Möndalsån’ became very important for the trade and development of the city.
As they say in Göteborg, ha de Gött!
Näcken is a humanoid shape shifting water spirit in Scandinavian folklore. He appears in all Germanic peoples folklore and the English name is Nicor. Näcken sits in the stream or a lake and tries to lure innocent people, mostly young women and children to drown. He does this by playing the Violin, the Devils instrument. There is also female Näcken that lures young men to the same fate.
Näck translated to English means, nude. Yes, it’s true we Scandinavians living in the country side love to do some nude swimming, specially after the Sauna bath. After all, there is usually not very many around to see you.
One dress makes us all equal, ha de Gött!
Brass, straight lines, motion in perfect symmetry
Capital of violence
Cohesive, chest ornaments, balcony of small men
Capital of violence
Fear, drumming boots, waving of enabling masses
Capital of violence
Heroes, historic claims, brothers in arms
Capital of violence
King, leader of choice, our way of life
Capital of violence
Portrait, son and daughter, tears of a mother
Capital of violence
Flags, coffins draped, flapping in the wind
Capital of violence
My heart goes out to all mothers seeing their sons and daughters coming back in a black bag.
Rusty ball-bearing in dire need of some lubrication.
Leonardo Da Vinci is by some named the inventor of the ball bearing but the already the Romans used wooden ball bearings. The first modern ball bearing was patented by Philip Vaughan, a Welsh inventor, in 1794.
Sven Wingquist, a Swedish inventor invented a self-aligning ball bearing in 1907. This revolutionary invention became the foundation for one of Sweden’s most successful international companies, SKF. SKF stands for Svenska Kullager Fabriken, simply Swedish Ball Bearing Factory.
My first two and half years I lived across the street from the huge factory with its fasade of red clay bricks. Now a trip to Gamlestaden in Göteborg must be planned for some photos.
Aim for a smooth ride, ha de Gött!
It is called the Queens Mountain, Drottningberget in Swedish, and it is an ancient fortress. More accurate a hill-fort. The natural form of the rock is what create the attributes of a fortress. There is very little man made constructions made. The height and the flat plateau on the top together with the availability of water made it perfect to stand ground. I have no idea where the royal name come from but maybe there was a female ruler in the settlement.
44 meter up surrounded by steep cliffs it was an easy place to defend by simply throwing stones in the head of the attacking enemy. I wonder if this is why the soldiers helmet was invented, still used today. There is only two ways up without any climbing gear, trust me I’ve tried. Here you can see some remains of walls and collected throw size stones. With the sea level a few meters higher up it was most likely attackers came from the sea.
Keep it simple, ha de Gött!
Lonely fisherman sailing out to sea
Navigating shallow waters, inserts and island
Cliffs scraped naked by wind, not a single tree
Confidently steers along coast and strand
True and simple, a way to be
Life is a voyage, navigate with caution, ha de Gött!
There was a warm light breeze
I sat there thinking
why good times never, last a bit longer
the fish had gone
taken an afternoon nap
sleeping it off, in the soft bottom clay
sail past me, silently
in the soft summer wind
the last day, of summer
Best things in life are free, ha de Gött!
Invisible vibrations through the air, like telepathy. Waves of communication. Satellites circling the planet like wasps. Information and big data, internet of things, radio ga-ga, television. Smarter and dumber than ever in history, never lonelier.
The huge satellite dishes in the picture has a diameter of 32 and 30 meters. Tanum Teleport was built in 1971 for telephony and data transfer with the help of satellites as relay stations. The first videophone call over the Atlantic Ocean was made on the inauguration day 18 December 1971. A hightech landmark to manifest Sweden’s ambition to be a Information Technology nation to reckon with. Still stand as a landmark today but the facility, at peak employing 30 persons, was closed 2002. The facility played a part as the predecessor to Internet, Arpanet, in 1973 establishes its first international satellite link. Transfer rate of whopping 2,4 kbps.
We have two ears but only one mouth. Should we not listen twice as much as we speak! Ha de Gött!
Try something clever to write, to the point.
But imagination was lost, frozen.
Ha de Gött!
UlleHaddock 