My post-lockdown commute back to work

[Mendip]

@mendip - hang in there & good luck in your future plans. Request: can you get a can of surstromming & sample it? Do it with the windows open, though. Cheers!

I'll check it out Katie... but if it makes me ill I won't be happy!

Hopefully you can get it in a normal supermarket and I won't have to go to some specialist shop for stinking rotten fish?

Lom?

[Headworx]

This office bird Mendip, I'd ask her if she wants to come over to your room after work for coffee and a knee-trembler in the shower. If she looks horrified, tell her you've got tea bags as well.

Follow me for more relationship advice @ knee-tremblers.com

[baldrick]

'I did something about it'

not using string with your chewing gum means you have not got modern worlds best maintenance practices in use

[OhOh]

I hope you've left an invoice for the shower maintenance.

[Mendip]

The shower was fixed with a waterproof plaster wrapped around the railing, not chewing gum, which would have been a complete bodge.

And there will be no invoice... it's all part of the service. To be honest it was nice to see I hadn't lost my touch because the gardener sorts out that kind of thing at home.


I didn't follow your advice today Headworx... my Swedish ain't good enough for technical stuff

I'm thinking of going with knäskakare...

Lom, is that the correct term for a knee trembler? I don't want to get it wrong and make a fool of myself in front of everyone in the office.

But to be honest I'm really not sure the whole thing is a good idea... the walls are paper thin in this pace.


Katie, I located your surstömming today... but only in huge tins. I don't really want to spend 10 quid on a dirty great load of rotten fish... I was hoping to find a fun-size tin.

But, I promise I'll try some before this trip is finished... probably...

[katie23]

^aww. Sorry to hear that there are no small tins of surstromming. Thanks for the effort. Happy weekend!

[Saint Willy]

Katie, I located your surstömming today... but only in huge tins. I don't really want to spend 10 quid on a dirty great load of rotten fish... I was hoping to find a fun-size tin.

But, I promise I'll try some before this trip is finished... probably...

Tin too big?

I thought you were from South West England, not a Norvener.

[lom]

I'm thinking of going with knäskakare...

Lom, is that the correct term for a knee trembler? I don't want to get it wrong and make a fool of myself in front of everyone in the office.

It is the direct translation but in Sweden girls become knee weak (knäsvag) and when their knees gets weak enough then they fell for you.

[lom]

Katie, I located your surstömming today... but only in huge tins. I don't really want to spend 10 quid on a dirty great load of rotten fish... I was hoping to find a fun-size tin.

Don't do it, it is unlikely that you will appreciate surströmming.
You are a Briton and already have problems with Scandinavian food so you'd better stick to the whistling ready-made meals until you get back home to peas and pies, surströmming is not for everyone!

Today is Saturday, no school day for my grand childs so I will bring them and their father to Tony's Bamboo Cafe in Hua Thanon so that they can learn what a Big Boys English Breakfast is.

[Saint Willy]

Don't do it,

you'd better stick to

You are a Briton and

That sounds like a challenge, Mendip!

[lom]

Today is Saturday, no school day for my grand childs so I will bring them and their father to Tony's Bamboo Cafe in Hua Thanon so that they can learn what a Big Boys English Breakfast is.

and lovely it was.
Brought home some of his homemade pies and homemade English breakfast and Lincolnshire sausages.

[ootai]

Today is Saturday, no school day for my grand childs so I will bring them and their father to Tony's Bamboo Cafe in Hua Thanon so that they can learn what a Big Boys English Breakfast is.

Lom
Where is this "Hua Thanon" you speak of? I live in Hua Thanon in Buriram and there is no café serving English breakfast's here or I would be a regular.
Love my breakfasts its probably the only meal when I never eat Thai food i.e. rice and chilli?

[lom]

^
It is here, look at those lovely pictures:
Google Maps

[Mendip]

It is the direct translation but in Sweden girls become knee weak (knäsvag) and when their knees gets weak enough then they fell for you.

This girl doesn't seem to be 'knee weak' for me... in fact she's been giving me some strange looks.

I think it'll be safer not to try out my new Swedish phrases on her.

Don't do it, it is unlikely that you will appreciate surströmming.
You are a Briton and already have problems with Scandinavian food so you'd better stick to the whistling ready-made meals until you get back home to peas and pies, surströmming is not for everyone!

Today is Saturday, no school day for my grand childs so I will bring them and their father to Tony's Bamboo Cafe in Hua Thanon so that they can learn what a Big Boys English Breakfast is.

and lovely it was.
Brought home some of his homemade pies and homemade English breakfast and Lincolnshire sausages.

There's something very unfair in life when I'm a Briton yet stuck in Gothenburg and considering eating some rotten stinking fish in a can, and you're a 'Goth' and eating superb British food in Koh Samui. I was obviously bad in a previous carnation.

Last night I had a whistling Swedish meatballs and potatoes in gravy as they've run out of whistling lasagnes. It was awful.

That sounds like a challenge, Mendip!

Not really... I've heard rumours about this stuff. But, in the interests of research I will try some if I can find a small tin somewhere.

Just the fact that this is tinned food yet has to be kept in a fridge is warning enough.

[Mendip]

Despite the food and long work hours I am enjoying Sweden. It's got a nice feel to it and I think I prefer it to Norway.

Things are going well with the work and I may end up hanging my hat with these guys for a while... just need to persuade them to pay Norwegian rates.

Last night I wandered up to the Systembolaget for my weekly box of wine and saw this guy fly fishing.

Lom... my experience of the Baltic Sea (from working on the Nordstream pipeline) was that it's pretty polluted and void of fish... I'm guessing as this guy was fly fishing, he'd be after salmon or sea trout... are there really such fish around so close to Gothenburg or was he maybe just bored? Admittedly I didn't see him catch anything.



On my way back with the wine I came across this... a clutch of these scooters that had been dumped on the side of the road. With an app on your phone you could just log in, unlock and jump on one of these death traps. While it's not for me, I love that it's possible... in the UK these would just be stolen or vandalised and ruined immediately. I just can't see this system possible in the UK.



And I saw some more street art for Chitty.

It looks a bit 'lesbianish' but I also thought that maybe it's some kind of a naughty massage place... ya know what these Scandinavians are like... I think I'll take a look one evening.

[Mendip]

I started the day a bit pissed of today... another early start on a Saturday... and my bladdy shower head is slipping down the railing again. The plaster wasn't as waterproof as the label suggested and I was thinking of maybe trying Baldrick's string and chewing gum solution.

Later I called my lovely young daughter on Skype and the topic of Christmas came up... every year we go to the UK to stay with my mum for three weeks and it's the highlight of my daughter's year.

I had to tell her it was looking pretty unlikely this year (I didn't want to give her an outright negative) and that I was having problems even getting home myself after this work is finished. She was obviously disappointed and asked what would happen if I could never get home again. That did nothing to cheer me up.

So... I decided to 'do something about it'...

A few weeks ago while I was on the Havila Subsea the bracelet on my old watch broke. I bought this watch in 1992 as a present to meself after one of my first successful, long offshore projects. It was second hand in 1992, I think it dates back to 1984.



The bracelet has worn through... and after some investigation the robbing Swiss b@stards want a stunning £1500 to replace the bracelet. Obviously not an option, and this has been bugging me for a while.



But yesterday I was told I'd have maybe another three weeks or so work here... and I've decided to treat myself to a replacement watch. It can't be all about providing for the family and feeding Isaan's soi dog population. A mate in the UK is on to it, and now that I've made the decision it has cheered me up no end, and given me something to look forward to once I get finished up here. And one more decent watch should see me through for the duration if it lasts as long as the last one...

And... it just gets better and better...

I came across this in the office today... a limitless supply of shower head repair kits!

[Headworx]

Mendip it's a pity you bought an Air King instead of something like a Sub, Explorer, or Sea Dweller all those years ago as Air Kings are one of the least desired of vintage Rolex models. Even beaten up like that though, its still worth probably 2 to 2.5k USD (where as sports watches from Rolex of that age can be 10k++ but obviously nobody saw that coming back then)

And just to add, I'm not sure of price but those old Oyster bracelets can be refurbished. There was a guy in Hong Kong doing them a few years ago, Michael someone...

[lom]

Lom... my experience of the Baltic Sea (from working on the Nordstream pipeline) was that it's pretty polluted and void of fish...

Not void of fish in the upper part where many rivers from northern Sweden has their outlets of freshwater and where there is not much farming so less fertilizer run-off pollution than in the south.
Here you find big salmons and the Baltic herring (strömming) which prosper in the brackish water.

I'm guessing as this guy was fly fishing, he'd be after salmon or sea trout... are there really such fish around so close to Gothenburg or was he maybe just bored?

There are both salmon and sea trout in the Gothenburg harbor so it could be either of them.

[Mendip]

^^ HW... story of my life, I've never been very good at spotting an investment.

What I liked about the Airking Date was that it isn't at all gaudy and most people don't realise it is a Rolex.

It's served me well but always kept awful time... now I'm thinking of upgrading to a chromometer. A DateJust maybe.

Many years ago I was badly bitten by a dog and one of its canine teeth went straight through the glass and buckled the face of that Airking... that watch saved me from a very deep bite on my wrist. And yet I still keep messing with dogs.

The 1500 quid quote was £1000 for a new bracelet but Rolex insisted on doing a service first, which is another £500... plus all that would need doing.

For now I'm thinking of hanging on to it for messing around outside and maybe getting a leather strap?

[Headworx]

^The leather strap idea is a good one, or a NATO band would work perfectly as well. If it's not keeping decent time of +/- 5 seconds a day - which is normal for Swiss automatic movements - I'd have it serviced. There's a Rolex shop that can do that on Wireless Rd near the Conrad, there's other places too but I stay in that area when in Bangkok () and the cost of servicing a Submariner was something like 13.5k Baht last time I had one done about 3 years ago.

[Klondyke]

https://teakdoor.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=58608&d=1602321835[/IMG]

You can get it exchanged in Thailand on the road (once you are back) for few hundred Baht, no breakage over 10 years...

[Mendip]

^ Aah, but it just wouldn't be the same Klondyke!

I used to get regular requests from colleagues for fake Rolexes from Thailand, and I tried to explain that there are good fakes and bad fakes.

One Canadian, being a cheapskate, wanted a bad fake. I found one for him but the actual number bars were falling off the face by the time I'd got it back to the boat for him!

[Saint Willy]

You can get it exchanged in Thailand on the road (once you are back) for few hundred Baht, no breakage over 10 years...

for a shite bracelet, no thanks.

[Mendip]

You also display a new winebox, Gato Negro, which is mentioned among the best 2020 red wine boxes and it got 3 + out of 5 in a test.

Gosa Monastrell 2019, SEK 219:-, got 4 +. "A popular wine that goes perfectly with hamburger or grilled meat."

It goes pretty well with cold chicken as well Lom... I hope you realise how much I respect your opinion!

Although to be honest I think the Gato Negro was better...



I'm a bit worried about what's happening to me... I've even started watching 'The Bridge' on Netfilx and am thoroughly enjoying it.

[Klondyke]

there are good fakes and bad fakes.

And have you ever tried the goof fakes?