Postcard from Trinidad & Tobago

There's been a lot of rain here in the past few days - it's supposed to be start of the dry season now but it's apparently getting later and later every year.

The weather's great right now though, dry and sunny with a light sea breeze and I'm working about 14km off the coast of Tobago. The helicopter flight here was a highlight, flying from Port of Spain (the capital), right over the north coast of Trinidad and much of Tobago.

Trinidad is much larger and is reasonably industrial - and much of it is covered in forest. Everyone drives everywhere and the traffic is a real problem, especially going in to PoS in the morning or out at night. It's supposed to be too dangerous to walk anywhere. Tobago is small and is much more popular as a tourist destination, mostly because of its great beaches.

Spent a few days working in town. Food is an adventure, and there seems to be a big gap between the expensive western-style restaurants and the authentic local restaurants and street vendors. The price doesn't affect the taste of the food, though - so by way of recommendation we started having lunch at Shiann's roti restaurant, a small place in Port of Spain. Roti is one of the most popular local foods. You get a choice of a variety of curries - potato, vegetable, chicken, goat and/or duck - with or without hot sauce, all wrapped up in a soft bread. Very tasty. Apparently the world-famous cricketer and national hero Brian Lara often comes in for his roti on a Saturday morning.

More later, and a merry Christmas to all.

Wood: stacked!

Got all the wood stacked today, both mine and the neighbours'. It was fairly quick, with three of us and 2 wheelbarrows. So it's all under cover and there should be enough to last at least until the spring. There are various ways to stack the wood, the golden rule is to make sure the pile doesn't collapse!

Sveriges största rockband

Last night I went to Lund to see Kent, Sweden's (self-proclaimed) biggest rock band.

They're almost certainly the biggest band that actually sings in Swedish. They had some international airplay a few years ago with an album release in English (Hagnesta Hill, also released in Swedish) but they never really made it big outside Sweden.

On stage think well-rehearsed and note-perfect, with a synchronised lightshow to match. No improvisation here, folks...

Renewable energy

Today the firewood arrived. A man in a dump-truck came and tipped 8 cubic metres of dry, cut firewood in front of the house. My neighbours got another 8 - the truck has a divider, so they can easily dump the wood at separate houses. The mission for the day is to get as much wood stacked under cover (be it in the wood pile, house, sauna, wherever) as possible, and cover the rest before the rain comes. It'll take a few days before everything is shifted. The neighbours are off to Stockholm on the weekend, so they've got all the stacking to look forward to when they come home.

Vinter däcken

Winter tyres are compulsory in Sweden from the first of December. I picked mine up the other day, together with some shiny new 6-spoke rims. The rims were second-hand and cost less than the new tyres, so I got a good deal... and come the spring it will be easy to change them back.

The tyres are Nordic winter tyres, with quite a deep tread. There is also the option of having studded tyres (dubbade däcken), but down here in the south it is not such a big issue. Snow chains are illegal in Sweden.

The tyre changing operation is very efficient - you drive in and onto the car hoist, and by the time you've paid your bill, the new wheels and tyres are on and the old wheels are covered and loaded in the back. The whole process takes about 10 minutes. There's also a tyre-hotel for storing the summer tyres, which is useful if you live in an apartment.

500 litres of wet cement

Before:


After:


New floor insulation has been put in under the ground floor of the white house, and this morning the cement truck arrived. 4 men turned up, hooked up the water hose to their truck, and started mixing the cement. A large pipe runs from a small cement mixer in the back of the truck, and when it's ready, the men in the truck radio the men in the house and start pumping the cement. It comes out as a slurry - completely wet, as if filling a bath. The benefit of this is it's perfectly flat. There's no need to smooth it or get it even. So after pumping 15cm of cement, they reel up the hoses and off they go. The whole operation is over in under and an hour, and the cement dries in a day or two. It'll be a couple of weeks before it's properly dry and the wooden floor can be re-laid on top of it.

A crisp winter's day

Got back from a job today to this... not a cloud in the sky. Good time to take some photos.

it really IS time to leave the country...

Got GB sticker, ready to travel...

I'm now in Sweden, having left the UK. This time with car - full to the brim with "stuff". Trip went well, via Great Eccleston (Lancashire) and the Harwich to Esbjerg ferry. The ferry was rough - on the tail end of a storm. The previous ferry had been cancelled due to bad weather. At about 1am the rubbish bin under the desk in the cabin went flying across the room - needless to say it was pretty hard to sleep. Unfortunately because of the weather the ferry arrived late and the drive across Denmark had to be done in darkness. Even so there were some spectacular views over some very long bridges.


Ready to board the ferry at Harwich


Arriving in Esbjerg (Denmark)

Jaså, sugen på aprock?

Greetings... I am a week behind! So here goes.

At the back of my mind this time in Sweden was the thought that I might not have such a good time and I might lose interest in this whole moving thing. No chance! I picked a great week to go. Kick-off with lunch in the sun & shopping in Malmö. Then a 30th birthday that night with the guys from Babian (www.babian.nu) and more. Played croquet and there was guitar playing until sunrise. Plus I got to eat silltort (herring cake) which is a savoury, fattening cake made with cream and with herring inside. Mostly new faces, but lots of great people and many I'm sure I will see again.

Friday night was a trip to Tipifesten in Jonstorp, near Ängelholm and Helsingborg. Tipifesten, I was told, is tent festival, but I think it translates more closely as teepee - the american indian style tent. Tältet is the word for a more convential tent. Anyway, it was a small festival with probably around 300 people. Very friendly. For some reason they were serving VB (Victoria Bitter) which was the beer of choice at university in Melbourne. Why it was here, no idea - as it's imported from Australia. But at 20sek (A$4) for a stubby (375ml glass bottle) why not?! Nevertheless, the highlight of the festival was of course seeing Babian play for the first time. Yes, they rock. And/or roll.

More later.

First trip

Greetings, all...

I just bought a ticket for Sweden this week. I'm excited. Now I've been there several times, but this time it's serious.

Thanks to the lovely weather that is Aberdeen I really need to get out of here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?world=0014

So I'm looking for a house. Something near Malmö, something small. Somewhere to put my stuff until I can sell my flat in the 'deen.