Dreaming of Freedom

For those of you interested in anti war events in Norwich then check out this list of upcoming events…

- Ammunition (reloaded), Art Show, 3rd-15th Nov., 11am-5pm
- Public Opening Night, Friday 7th Nov., from 6pm, Everyone welcome!

- Film Show: Occupation 101, Thursday, Nov 6th, 7.00pm, UEA Arts Room 01.02

- Remembrance of all victims of war, Sunday 9th Nov, 12.30pm, Peace Pillar

- Norfolk CAAT’s meeting, Monday, Nov. 17th, 7.30 pm, Birdcage Public House

- Vigil: 7th Anniversary of the ‘Liberation’ of Afghanistan, Thursday Nov
20th, 7:00pm, opposite the Forum

Meanwhile here in Sweden hot off the press, Bill Quigley (a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans) has been writing about Swedish anti war campaigners. Avrusta (Disarm in English) held a big non violent disarmament action at Eskilstuna and at Karlskoga on the 16th of October. Schnews were of course suitably impressed by the action. I get the impression that Avrusta are much like Trident Ploughshares who are known for their commitment to non violent disarmament actions.

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The weather was really quite lovely today so after a morning in front of the computer, I went out for a cycle and went scrumping apples. I had to do a fair bit of jumping up and even found myself climbing up a bit of a tree.

I’ve finally finished and got my Dad’s website up and running. I’ll probably make a million changes before long but for now you can check the new Gunns Gallery website.

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So being back in Norwich was great. Mum and I spent many productive hours restoring the garden to it’s former glory. We also re-felted the roof on the garden shed. There is a general roofing problem at the house at the moment and roofers are up on the roof re-roofing it to match our brilliant shed job.
It was nice catching up with friends and enjoying the English sunshine for a while. I wandered around Norwich, spent time in the steel and glass Forum, and followed part of the trail of elephants scattered throughout the city. The elephants are lovely works of art and people in Norwich were obviously enjoying looking at them.
I’m now back in Sweden and the weather is of course lovely. After several days of gardening and cleaning in Norwich it was a relief to lie in this morning and wake to muesli and yoghurt.

I’ve just been watching a video of my cousin’s trip from Market Harborough to Mongolia. It looks so cool and I’m so impressed that not only did he do it but he followed it up by cycling across China. Was it China? Email me George and tell me all the details so that I will no longer be ignorant of your exploits.

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The other day K and I cycled down to Röda Sten(Red Stone). It’s an art gallery down on the water front. Unlike the places I usually frequent it isn’t free, in fact it costs 40ske in to get in. It was worth it as there was some interesting art work there, including an instillation created by Anna Sandgren called The Game.

Today I wandered down to the centre and discovered that there are
free tours at the Stadmuseum. Free city tours Wednesday-Friday 2pm and tours of the museum Saturday and Sunday 2pm.

Tomorrow is the last Friday of the month which means it’s the Critical Mass here in Gothenburg. I haven’t yet been on one but here are some pictures of previous ones.

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I cycled up to the Konstmuseum today. Most of the place is still being renovated but the 5th floor is due to open again on the 25th June and the 6th floor on the 2nd July so I’m getting quite excited about that. Meanwhile downstairs there is a good exhibition of Thomas Zornat’s work which I took to. He has a great style and I loved his misty window raindrop pictures.
I also went into the Konsthallen to look at the new exhibition entitled Tomorrow Always Belongs To Us. It’s pretty hardcore modern art but they’ve produced a great little booklet that explains where the artists are coming from and what inspires them, which really helps if you’re a modern art novice like me.

Meanwhile Gothenburg is grey and drizzly. Outside the seagulls are calling to each other and the elderflower are just going off and if I’m going to make another batch of elderflower cordial I had better go out to pick some.

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I went back to the Röhsska Museum today and wandered around looking at the beautiful objects. It’s such a nice little museum and it always makes me want to study art and design which is all the more tantalizing because the building is opposite the School of Design and Craft.
Afterwards I cycled around Gothenburg in the sunshine and popped into the famous fish market. From the outside it looks like a long low church. Inside the walls are lined with stalls selling everything from shrimps to scary looking fish. Apart from stopping to listen to a three man band do a rendition of the Beatles song - Can’t Buy Me Love - I cycled non stop along the beautiful cycle paths back home and discovered that the Esperanto Centre for Gothenburg is located really close to my flat.

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I finally went to the design museum here it’s called the Röhsska Museet and it has an interesting collection of stuff from the last 3 hundred years. I spent a good hour or so wandering round and got a chance to watch some of the film Surplus: Terrorized Into Being Consumers which was showing. Somehow just going to the museum made me come home and spend a few hours on my novel. I also felt creative enough to put up my new Gothenburg page

Today we’re going to see an exhibition of some art and design work by first year students today which should be interesting. I’m also hoping to nip into
the Maritime Museum and Aquarium - which is supposed to be Gothenburg’s most popular museum.

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Those of you who take an active interest in such things will have noticed that I’ve been learning some CSS in order to make my website look a little better. Under K’s kind tuition I feel I have made some headway and although the website isn’t radically different it’s a little improved.

There has been more glorious weather in Gothenburg and we’ve just been out flat viewing. If you’re looking for places in Sweden then Blocket is the website to go to it’s the equivalent of gumtree and you can find everything for sale or rent on there. The flat was near Liseberg the big theme park here - we’re saving our trip there for another day so we sat outside on a little white bench underneath a very old tree and breathed in the scent of the hyacinth which was very nice.

On the way back I stopped off in Götaplatsen to go to Konstmuseum although as it’s undergoing renovation there isn’t much to see. I nipped next door to Konsthall only to find out that I’d been in the other day by waling through from Konstmuseum.

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We’ve spent the last two days cycling into the centre in the lovely sunshine. Yesterday we went on a voyage of discovery to the library. There are a surprising number of books in English, that browsing along the shelves you come across. This all seems perfectly normal because in Sweden everyone speaks English. You can use the internet for free for up to one hour even if you don’t have a library card - all you need to do is ask at the information desk and provide identification. You can borrow books only if you have a library card and you can only get one of those if you have the all pervasive personal number - you need to be a registered resident to get one but you can’t really do anything without it.

The library is at the top of the Avenue (big main street in the centre) and right at the top in Götaplatsen (big square) looking imposing and very 1920s is the big Göteborg Museum of Art. We popped in to look at their free exhibitions and discovered for a mere 40 Swedish Kroner (about £3.35) you can have unlimited access to 5 museums in Gothenburg for the rest of the year. The museums are: Göteborg Museum of Art, Göteborg City Museum, the Maritime Museum and Aquarium, the Röhsska Museum and the Natural History Museum.

Today I tried out my pass and went to the Natural History Museum. The museum is a fine example of its kind and if you like stuffed animals you’ll appreciate the place. I was lured by the numerous chairs, the cafe and the free toilets. The museum had a large selection of stuffed creatures in glass and wood cases and would be a great place to take children. It reminded me of the Natural History Museum in London before it was jazzed up, although it’s much smaller. The museum is set in the green of Slottsskogen so afterwards I wandered around admiring the little lake and waterfall in the fabulous sunshine.

Cycling into the centre takes about 20 minutes or so from where we are staying and it’s a nice cycle ride because of the cycle tracks. It’s as if bikes are actually considered a form of transport here; they have their own miniature roads and little traffic lights. It’s a refreshing change to England if you’re a cyclist. The mixture of pedestrians, bikes, cars, trams and buses makes for a good scene. It’s definitely the future, although none of the concepts are new.

Although it’s a short cycle ride, both days we have found ourselves waylaid the the old area of Haga, where small cafes lure you in with fine selections of coffee and cakes. This green city with its cafes and good transport is definitely the place for me.

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I have just got back from a wee holiday in Dublin. We nipped over there for Keyvan’s graduation - an exciting event held in The Helix at Dublin City University. The only slightly odd thing about the ceremony was the lack of motarboards but we all pulled through. There was a good speech from Olivia O’Leary who was receiving an honorary degree. I felt quite stirred up after she talked about the principles the OU was founded on - accessible education for all and feasible distance learning.

After a brief sojourn at the Helix with the chocolate dipped strawberries, bucks fizz and medieval costumes we headed back into Dublin centre and wandered around for the rest of the weekend. I managed to check out Trinity College and the National Gallery of Ireland. I saw the outside of Dublin Castle, the National Museum of Ireland, The National Library of Ireland the Guinness factory and the Gallery of Photography. I saw the inside the National Photographic Archive which is near the Gallery of Photography, while Keyvan and his family munched on delicious food at Zaytoon - a Persian fast food style restaurant nearby. I also popped into a display about organic cotton in one of the many side streets in that area, which was on because of the Ethical Fashion week.

I spent time on O’Connell Street admiring the digital art by Julian Opie. His work is worth a look if you get a chance. I know his work from portraits of Blur he did for an album cover.

I also spent some quality time in the cinema on O’Connell Street just because I haven’t been to the cinema for what is getting on for years now. We saw In Bruges - an odd black comedy that is actually amusing in parts. As the main character came from Dublin that added to my cinematic experience.

It did rain - as I gather is to be expected in Ireland but Monday was pleasant enough with a warming amount of sunshine. I didn’t see as much of Dublin as I would have liked so I can’t really tell you much about the place. The best thing about the city was the good transport infrastructure. They had an amazing number of buses that actually ran on time and were easy to use. The tram was also good. I’m a big fan of trams - I like Sheffield for almost solely that reason and I’m looking forward to see another tram system in action in Gothenburg. There should be trams in every city and I’m hoping that Norwich get their act into gear and put one in soon. A city with a good public transport infrastructure can’t be all bad but I didn’t really get enough time to get a good look around Dublin so I’ve been left with a slightly dreary impression of a run down city with sooty buildings that the rain doesn’t clean.

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