DominicHamon.com
Life is like a grapefruit
Jag kan tala Svenska
I haven’t written anything here in a while because my creative juices have been drained by my new position writing over at Guerrilla Geek.
Last week I was in Sweden. Ostensibly for a family thing, but also to take a break and spend some time with Mirto‘s family. I’ve been there once before, about nine years ago, and both times I’ve felt oddly at home there. I say oddly as I have no connection to Sweden other than my wife having been born there. Given that I’m blonde with blue eyes, and have familial connections to both Yorkshire and Normandy, there’s a good chance that far back in my genealogy someone in my family tree encountered a Viking in a, you know, biblical manner. However it’s unlikely that my genes felt the connection.
On the subject of having the appearance of a Swede1, there were a few tense moments during the week where a native would speak to me in Swedish expecting me to understand, but speak to my wife in English assuming she was a tourist. An arctic wind blew through the room during those moments.
There are some similarities in the environment of Stockholm to where I grew up in Jersey. It too had granite cliffs and was surrounded by water and the constant crying of seagulls was a regular sound throughout the year. Of course, it was a little warmer where I grew up, and I spent more time on the beach than I would be comfortable doing in Sweden. The population of Stockholm is approximately the same as my home, though that population is focused in an urban centre rather than spread over a rural island.
Don’t get me wrong, I love living in San Francisco and cannot see a time when I’ve done everything there is to do here or get bored with the city. And if I ever do, well there’s a big ol’ country out there to explore. However there is something about Sweden that just feels more like home. Maybe it was the rain and sense of gentle irony.
- As in a Swedish person, not a rutabaga ↩︎
Posted on 2011/04/20 in personal | | Leave a comment
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Comment
Name *
Email *
Website
Recent Posts
- London Calling
- The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
- The only winning move is not to play
- s/GOOG/TWTR/
- URL shortener in go
- All the small things
- gomud
- Hole hearted
- Typed data for performance boost
Archives
- April 2018
- May 2015
- August 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- November 2013
- September 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- September 2012
- May 2012
- March 2012
- January 2012
- September 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- July 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
Search
Search
Copyright © Dominic Hamon 2021. WordPress theme by Ryan Hellyer.