Newsletter 2018This last year has contained both good (mostly) and bad (some). Good has been spending time with friends and relatives, having interesting engaging jobs, theater evenings, travels and everything that makes life enjoyable. Bad has been the reminders that as the years pass, we cannot do everything we could when we were twenty, and also that people have started to disappear from our lives. Not becuase it is their choice, but because they have gone to the next great adventure. It has been a reminder to do everything we want to do as soon as possible. We have tried to spend even more time with friends and family while doing interesting and fun things.All the interesting things started in January when we went to a really nice party at Mossbylund, a spa/restaurant/hotel with really good food, nice surroundings and nice warm outdoor pools. Kersti then went to South Africa and Namibia with her sewing circle and visited schools and elephants. Every four years, May in Lund means carneval. We try to host a Carnevalm everytime, with people in the garden doing barbecue, drinking beer and staying the night. Going to the theater is a slightly more sophisticated pastime than beer, and we have seen Godspell, West Side story and a couple of student farces. Does Brit Floyd count as sophisticated?  We have also realized that our new car actually is very good for spending time with people. It can transport seven adults, which means we can always fit in one more on outings. We needed to switch cars as the kids did not really fit inte the back seat of the old one as they are now very tall, handsome and broad of shoulder. Maybe it was mostly their egos? Anyway, after trying many different cars we realized that there is actually only one where three adults are comfortable in the back seat, a Volkswagen Sharan. Can you imagine that we have been married for 20 years? As we find it amazing and worthy of a celebration we invited people to have cake in our garden. That was also very nice. Actually, Carl's sister Anne and her Tord have been married for 30 years now, and their parents for 60 years. We had a 110 year celebration together this summer.  This summer we also visited Champagne and drank Champagne. Lots of Champagne. This is strongly recommended for a more entertaining life. The best part was when lots of people dressed in their best were traipsing around the grape fields, trying to harvest grapes. It felt like slightly like being in a Monte Python production. We really enjoyed it. Carl's father Carl-Eric has performed a great deed, he has scanned all the thousands of slides that Kersti's father Kurt has captured. Sadly, the image quality is not always the best, but being able to look at all these images means a lot. Here is an old favourite, showing a very young Kersti.
Axel turned 17 and attends the second year of a technical high school. He still enjoys it a lot, especially since he will not have any more German classes. He still builds and plays the guitar, and he has repaired a mandolin. Kersti supplied him with a banjo, as she wants to hear it played. This summer he was employed by the city in a three week project where they developed the entrepeneurial sides of young people. He got to learn how to start and run a company. Ha planned to start the production of luxury cutting boards. https://www.facebook.com/Almspecialisten/. Johan turned 15 and attends 9th grade. He thinks a lot about the future and what to do with his life. One life goal is to grow at least one cm taller than Axel. One of Johan's great pleasures in life right now is to invite a bunch of young people who does role plays until 4 am or ... preferrably, all night. This summer he attended a summer camp for young people who want to discuss life questions without adding religion to the mix. A society called Protus arranges these great camps. The young people also learned that sleeping is over-rated and vegan food is survivable, as long as you do not exclude honey. This camp was a really good alternative to traditional confirmation camps. Johan also spent a lot of hours building and driving his quadcopter and playing computer games.  Both Axel and Johan have attended a course in Swedish folkdancing and know how to do both walzer and polka. Kersti still works at Phase Holographic Imaging. She has switched jobs on the job and travels less. She is focusing on developing new uses for the holographic microscope. Even though she has cut back on traveling, she still visited Chicago, Amsterdam and Phialdelphia. All of them are nice cities, even though the Chrismas decorations in Philly are sometimes more interesting than beautiful.Carl is still at Axis. He is
currently considering what will be the next great success after
the radar. As usual, he is making thesis students and summer students
comfortable. He considers himself the informal student comissioner at
Axis. It is a good, although imaginary, title. He has been travleing to
boring places like Bahamas and Dallas, but also to a snowy Germany
where he by coincidence found beer drinkning to be on the agenda.
Last update: March 4, 2019 |
