"Slow mode"

We've through some big celebrations weekends here in Sweden lately: The fifth marked Sweden's national day, the crown princess got married on the 19th, midsummer was last week. At the same time, June also marks the beginning of the big Swedish vacation period. If you lived here, you'd notice how gradually, over June and July, Sweden would go on slow mode. Most offices will soon be closed or trimmed down for the summer holiday – without contest THE most awaited and important holiday period of the year. That summer is so long-awaited and short probably explains all the celebration, too. If you want to celebrate out in the sun, it's really now or never. Everybody knows that the sun in northern altitudes is only up this long for a short, short period of the year.

So for how long exactly is the sun out? Well, about 19 hours. Maybe more.

But I'm telling you, they are long, relaxed days.


Trying to take maximum advantage of each long "day" is probably the closest we would get to prolonging the summer. Summer evenings are particularly lovely. They're like an extra day within the day – the only difference being that you've already been to work.

I love summer nights. They're quiet and cool, sounds are muted; everything is in Swedish "slow mode" – even the sunset! There's no pressure to do anything at all during this part of the day; yet you could still do what you wished if you wanted to, since the sun's still up. Wonderful!

We mostly sit out in the balcony these weekends and evenings, staying clear of celebration obligations and just using the time to enjoy "slow mode" (Since our move at the end of January this year, we had been fixing our balcony just for enjoying it this summer). We're not even in the mood for cooking heavy food, so even our lunches are prepared slow mode-style (eaten "slow mode" too, for sure):


The only thing that's NOT in slow mode these days are plants. They grow like adolescents in puberty with all this sun. I just took these plant pictures a week ago, and already we've already grown about 6 more cherry tomatoes (none of them are ripe yet though) and we've grown about 5 more chilies. They could be more; I stopped counting since a new one seems to sprout every day. The jalapeño in the picture had grown to more than double this size.


I should go out now, water them, and ask their opinions about summer evenings.

Let the reminiscing begin!

There are too many stories to tell about mom and dad's visit that I would probably have blog material for months to come. I think a good strategy might be to save some for those days when I can't blog of anything, at least if they're not somewhat of färskvara, a "perishable good," metaphorically speaking: that is, an event that'll become irrelevant to talk about about a few week's time.

Well, this story is at least just a few days old, from a certain point of view. From another, the story is exactly a hundred years old.


The story of a hundred years begins, obviously, in 1910. The man in the picture, Carl Cederström, became Sweden's first aviator. Eventually, he established a flight school in Malmen, located in Linköping. 1910 also marked Sweden's first airshow (in Stockholm), and in the same year, a plane was manufactured in Sweden for the first time (in Skåne).

A lot has happened in Swedish aviation history those hundred years. Throughout the cold war, with Sweden as a neutral country that had to defend itself, SAAB (based in Linköping) designed and produced a number of military planes. SAAB's newest military plane, the multirole JAS Gripen (Griffin) is still in use by the Swedish, Czech, Hungarian and South African air force.

One wishing to see these planes can just go to the Air Force Museum which is located, aptly, in Malmen where the story of Swedish aviation all begins. The museum, which I wrote about in 2008, has recently been renovated and expanded.

An even better alternative is to catch an airshow and see these planes in action – in their element. And where's a better place to see this than in the home of Carl Cederström's old flight school, and the home of SAAB?


Anyway, that's what we did with mom and dad on their last weekend here last July 13.

We mostly watched the first part of the airshow, when helicopters and smaller planes were on demonstration. The big planes and the other SAABs came later in the afternoon, so we missed that. We did see the JAS Gripen though (below). It made a thundering noise as it swept in circles and waves on top of our heads, before disappearing into the wild blue yonder!


I must say that the most theatrical part of the airshow has been provided not by Swedes, but by Frenchmen. (In fairness, the the Swedes tried to match the theatrics with a mock battle involving army trucks, tanks, an unmanned reconnaissance plane and the JAS Gripen. The Gripen "rockets" were nothing more than smoky firecrackers, though). The French group, a 7-man stunt team called Breitling Jet Team, performed dangerous-looking maneuvers to the tune of lively, ala-Top Gun score and a narration by a Frenchman. (The link above takes you to their official site. More about them in Wiki here).

Super camera zoom!

Milliseconds before a cross-over

All of Breitling Jet Team's symmetric plane formations and stunts had names (such as "Blackbird", etc). The best stunt – in the dangerousness scale, as it seemed to me as a spectator – also wins the best name: PacMan! Five planes going in one direction spread out and "eat" up two others going straight at them. Picture of the PacMan here, to make up for my confusing description. If words alone got you curious, there's also a YouTube clip of the plane formations, from someone who was also in Malmen. It's a joy to look at, and the formation transitions are so smooth, the team make the planes look as graceful as birds. Someone else also managed to get a video of the PacMan stunt.

A day to remember!

Just before the airshow began and before loads of people flocked to the airfield, there were also displays of different kinds in Malmen. Walking around there was enjoyable in itself too, I think. I do think mom and dad had a blast! (No pun intended there about the following picture:)

Small lady with a big gun. Mom insisted that the flag should be visible in the picture. Man, was she agile in climbing that truck!

Mom and dad in a helicopter. Dad's shy to pose, but once he was in the helicopter, he seemed alright with the idea!

Marcus also had fun at the medics' demonstration, where he experienced being strapped to a vacuum mat. :-)

And here's yours truly, a chick on a truck:


As I said: A day to remember!

Two good excuses for not blogging the whole month

Mom, and Dad.


After a whole month of Swedish adventures and experiences, they will fly to Germany on Tuesday morning. In Plankstadt, they'll be with my sister's family until mid-July, before leaving again for Metro Manila — their home sweet home, halfway around the world.

The month felt long, but strangely — as their departure date nears — also short in some respects. There's always something you can think of doing before it's time to pack your bags.

Yet, the month was far from uneventful. Among the happenings these past weeks were the most memorable ones in my (our) life: the day we got wed; a reuinion with my highschool friend Kristine; long car trips in an old SAAB. There were also tiring days; but on the whole, the month has been rather good to us.

The month has not only been good to mom and dad, but also good for them. Through their daily walks and our excursions, we also saw mom greatly improve from hardly climbing to the top of stairs, to insisting on jogging uphills — not to mention going up and down steep ladder steps in a submarine and walking up a steep pass in Ågelsjön, 171 meters over sea level at the highest point. Her "Swedish fitness program" culminated in a 15.6-kilometer trip around the lake Nedre Glottern — and she felt well the next day! Dad — the boy scout at heart who once said he'd want to live in the wilderness of Alaska if he were to do something so unthinkable as to leave the Philippines — was in wonder of all the new plants he saw around him. It was fun to see his curiosity about species (even though we couldn't answer all his questions) and see the look in his face when he heard the Aspen trees rustle at the sound of the wind for the first time. Recalling our adventures at the end of the day over beer and some whisky will always be memorable — as is mom taking a liking to drinking Martini and snaps!

I feel happy to see that Sweden has grown in them, just as this beautiful country — cold as it may be when we complain in the winters — has definitely grown on me.