Carter’s blog: Svenska dagen 2010-08-23

Blog 8:

Dear readers I will start this blog with some worrying news, my 4th-gen iPod has begun to seriously play up. It started on Saturday afternoon whilst raining heavily outside, creating a suitably foreboding atmosphere. At the time I was listening to Radiohead’s In Rainbows at track 7 (Reckoner). It seems that when listening to music through iTunes the iPod is struggling to access tracks from the hard drive. The iPod and the music on it have got some sentimental value and I hope that it is not terminally ill. I’ve backed up the music on it, freed up some disk space and run a defragmentation and it seems to be working slightly better now so fingers crossed.

iPod strife aside the last few weeks have been rather busy but without me actually achieving anything of substance. I have had my first experience of Swedish healthcare as I had to visit a dentist after developing an abscess in my mouth. The abscess at its worst was excruciatingly painful, preventing me from performing even the most basic of human functions. After a day at peak intensity I couldn't handle it any more. Propped up by 600mg of ibuprofen every 4 hours I went to find a dentist. Fortunately there seems to be an abundance of dental practices in Stockholm with easy access. As far as I can gather they are all private practices which receive government subsidies for treatments. I found a dental practice close to where I live and was seen by a dentist within 15 minutes after walking in off the street without an appointment. The dentist took an x-ray and prescribed some antibiotics. After taking the antibiotics for a day the pain subsided as the infection stopped spreading in my jaw. It was too late though to stop me from looking like Peter Beardsley; with one side of my face very ‘puffy’ as Sarah took great mirth in describing it! I have to say I’ve been quite impressed with my treatment so far, the service has been good and the practice is clean and modern. My next visit will be my third and final to finish the job off by placing the filling on the root canals. The only down side like most things in Sweden is the cost, 5400SEK and counting!

After I had been taking the prescribed antibiotics for a couple of days Sarah arrived from Manchester for a 10 day visit, my face was still slightly swollen from the infection much to Sarah’s amusement. At first we didn’t really do much except sleep and eat, during this time the sun was shining outside. As the week wore on we became slightly more active and left the house only to be greeted with intense downpours of rain. On our adventures we visited several restaurants, walked around the Sankt Eriksplan and Odengatan area’s close to where I now live. We went to see my friend Michael’s band play in a nice restaurant/bar called Landet, I couldn’t drink though because of the antibiotics. We also visited the Vasamuséet (on the second attempt) to see the ill fated Royal Ship Vasa that sunk on its maiden voyage due to poor design and engineering. The Vasa was raised from the deep in the 1960’s and a museum was built around the ship. On Sarah’s last full day I could drink alcohol again after finishing my antibiotics so we went to a bar for a drink then on to a nice restaurant close to Karlberg station for a meal. Even though Sarah was here for much longer than usual the time still flew over and she was off back to Manchester post haste.

The weekend following Sarah’s visit I ended up gong to a festival in Gothenberg called Way Out West with Michael and two of his friends Martin and Adam. I made a last minute decision at about 2:30pm on Thursday and had bought my ticket and set off for Gothenburg by 5:30pm the same day. The festival is based in Slottsskogen park in Gotheberg city centre so it’s not a camping festival which brings the added benefit of enhanced personal hygiene. This also meant that at night time there were several bars, clubs and even a church that doubled as late night venues to see more bands and DJs etc. You could gain entry to these with your festival wrist band. All these added to the festival's charm. During the two days at the festival I got to see quite a few high profile bands, Paul Weller, The National, Iggy and the Stooges, The Chemical Brothers and much to Sarah’s chagrin Mumford & Sons. Two other bands of note were Marina & the Diamonds and The xx, I have developed a  tiny  obsession with both that started at Glastonbury. At the moment I’m particularly enjoying The xx; their minimalist low-fi sound, simple baselines with a slight electro touch are pleasing my ears. They also give quite a cool no-image, no-pretence performance, playing in almost darkness which is just as well as they’re not the most photogenic band. It will be interesting to see what they do with their next album, can they develop their sound or will they fester and just regurgitate their current one.

We were quite lucky with the weather at the festival as it rained quite a bit when we first arrived but it then held off for the next two days. If the rain would have continued it would have been a nightmare at the festival site as I had no wellies or waterproofs with me and the site was already quite muddy in places. Apparently Gothenberg, just like Manchester, is renowned for how much it rains with it being on the west coast of Sweden. What I saw of Gothenberg centre was quite nice and I would like to go back to explore a bit more.

Well then my friends the Stockholm Project adventure continues. With my dentist visit and forthcoming trips back to England the budget is quite strained at the moment so I think my Swedish adventures are likely to continue at a slower pace over the coming weeks; I currently have 170SEK to last me until Thursday! This also means I won't be able to replace my failing iPod in the immediate future too :-(. Whatever happens though in spite of my abject poverty, come rain or shine you’ll here about my gentler paced adventures here first in Blog number 9.