Stockholm

We arrived in Stockholm on the 23rd to a very quiet city - although it was a Saturday, the main street which should have been as busy as Oxford Circus was almost deserted.  After a bit of investigating, we found out that we had come to Sweden in the middle of Midsommar (Midsummer), a Swedish celebration on the 21st-24th of June as big as Easter or Christmas.

 The main street heading towards Gamla Stan, the old town.  Our hotel was very central so we walked everywhere on our first day, 'wearing out our shoe leather' as my Dad would say!  These lions are dotted about everywhere, I think they serve to remind motorists that these streets are pedestrianized.

We climbed the tower of City Hall for some amazing views and to orientate ourselves to Stockholm.  Lots and lots of stairs to go all the way up to the bells.

 Dave had some fun with panoramas, so that you can see the way Stockholm is built on an archipelago.  Lots of islands connected by a latticework of bridges.




A wedding couple were having their photo shoot around City Hall.  Further into town, all was very quiet and we had the streets almost to ourselves.

Though I did find a new friend...

Happy Diamond Jubilee!

Chris and Sophie visited this weekend and we joined in the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in central London.

Chris brought along a flag to join in the spirit of things!

Some people went a lot further:

Everywhere was packed with onlookers.

We struggled to get a good vantage spot, but eventually Char spotted a place peeking out between the trees opposite Battersea Power Station which gave a better view than most.

First up was a floating belfry, ringing out the pageant...

Followed by the specially made Gloriana row boat, leading the man-powered vessels:

Row boats of all shapes and sizes, including dragon boats:

Olympic rowers, canoes and kayaks:

And even a Maori waka, manned by very determined but scantily dressed Maoris for the weather conditions!

And also beautiful Venetian gondolas:

Although we watched one gondola give up and get a tow, not tough enough for the very British weather conditions:

Then a boat of heralds and yeoman came by, signalling the arrival of the royal barge, the Spirit of Chartwell.

The royal barge did make a fantastic sight, passing in front of the iconic power station:

But where was the Queen? Aha - she's escaping inside for some reason, closely followed by Prince Philip:

Meanwhile Kate, William, Harry and Charles were busy on top deck waving:

We've now have a very good run of Queen sightings in the last 12 months, especially with our Maundy Money post last year.

What a memorable day it was. And we even managed to get back into a tube station before the rain started to bucket down! But very impressed by the Queen's stamina for sticking it out despite the unpleasant conditions...

Skydive without a parachute?!

Skydive without a parachute? Why would you want to do that? That's obviously not a concern for local stunt man Gary Connery who I watched yesterday jump out of a helicopter at 2500ft and skydive without using a parachute. A world first. Instead he flew a wingsuit into a huge pile of cardboard boxes (18000 of them they tell us...).

So yes, he walked away apparently unharmed. But why? Who knows!

Apologies that the video resolution above is so poor that he is only a dot for most of it! A better one is on the Telegraph's website.

The Telegraph's take on it all: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9285794/Gary-Connery-stuntman-in-amazing-2400ft-skydive-without-parachute.html

House Progress

We spent a wet and miserable bank holiday Monday in Ikea, getting some odds and ends to furnish the house. Some of the rooms have come on nicely lately!

Our living room is looking less dated, although much is still to be done:

...remember it used to look like this?

And our study/guest room is close to finishing now. Just a few shelves and pictures to put on the wall we think...

Which used to look something like this:

(unfortunately Char started on this room before I managed to get a proper 'before' picture!)

Shark Attack

One day while sitting on the top deck of the double-decker bus heading into Oxford, we heard a mother telling her children to look out the window so that they could see the shark. We were intrigued and kept our eyes out for the shark... and were really impressed. The Headington Shark is a famous local landmark, and pretty unique I think!

Music for a Rainy Day

Some Florence and the Machine to cheer up a rainy day.

Carbon Life

Last night we went to the Royal Opera House to see the Royal Ballet triple bill: Polyphonia, Sweet Violets and Carbon Life. I was blown away by Carbon Life - the innovative dance style choreographed by Wayne McGregor(not your traditional ballet), amazingly fresh costumes and fantastic music featuring Mark Ronson, Boy George (Boy George!) and orchestration by Rufus Wainwright.

Our seats were right at the front, in the circle stalls which meant that our view was restricted but made up for it by being so close that you could hear the dancers breathing.

We've been so busy with DIY lately this was a welcome escape for some inspiration. Thank you, Kathy for the tickets!