...so, we DID harass Näcken

Apart from being an electric engineer I also gladly take part in health related work. I guess that's me making up for not completing my studies to become a medical doctor :)

This Friday we wandered around Uppsala for more than three hours, talking to teenagers (mostly) and trying to get them to understand that veneral diseases are once again spreading rapidly, that some of them (for instance Chlamydia) sometimes are hard to notice but that they still can harm your body causing sterility among both men and women.

At midnight we set out to harass Näcken (as portrayed by Swedish artist Bror Hjorth). He is (ahem) big, but finally one of the participants managed to cover his private parts with a condom.

Tracing a new (?) trend

Mom sent me an article from the local newspapper of my old hometown (Karlstad), obviously pepole care for statues there too.

Swedish speaking blogreaders might be able to read the article if you click on the picture.

The statues? From top to bottom:

"Sola i Karlstad" (rougly translated "the sun of Karlstad"), legendary - always sunny-happy - waitress some hundred years ago.

Gustaf Fröding, local poet, very famous in Sweden (ugly statue! he looks like something out of a horror movie)

Nils Ferlin, also local poet, and very famous. Even UGLIER statue!

Saluting Engineers III & IV

What salute to London's engineers would be complete without old Ismbard K?

And finally that nice mr Farraday whose monument can be found by the Thames outside of...

The insititue of Electrical Engineers

Trafalfgar Square 3 March

I have a number of favourite subjects - perhaps I am hoping for the definitive photograph. I will get plenty of chances to capture the Triton fountains but this was probably my last chance to photograph the Lapper statue.

Saluting Engineers 1

James Henry Greathead

This statue of civil engineer J H Greathead is in the City of London by the Royal Exchange and the Mansion House (the ceremonial residence of the Lord Mayor of London). While most statues seem to be of politicians and military figures - there is one of the Duke of Wellington close by - some commemorate those who built London. South Aftican J H Greathead's contribution to the coty was the development of the Greathead shield which made the creation of the tube system that much easier.

Oh dear deer, part two

Someone obviously felt sorry for him and lent him a woollen scarf, although it's much warmer now than one week ago.

Walkabout, Västerås, February the 23'rd

At first - let's stop in the small garden outside my building. My oh my, how inspiring. Not.

Well, you see that little thingee sticking up almost in the middle of the snow? That's what's left of last year's peony-colony. In a couple of months they will return. That's what keeps me going right now. Spring. There WILL be a tad of spring and summer this year too :-D


Graffiti or art? Well, this kind of "graffiti" I like to call "art" - street art. I love these small pictures that can be seen in sometimes hard-to-find places.

This MIB guards the house of the local newspaper. I hope they won't wash him off. He's handsome.

On we go, let's stop in Rudbecksparken for a while.

(It was very late in the afternoon/early evening, hence the gloomy colours - think of them as mysterious if that'll make'em more beautiful ;))

Look up - is this the equivalent of a high rise, but for a colony of magpies?

Nah, think again. This is where Santa grows all his...

...misteltoe! Before I moved to Västerås, I had never seen it grow wild, but in this region you can find them everywhere. Quite nice for being an utter parasite, don't you think?

Now - if they grow wild, does the kissing-rule still apply?

This little guy guards the park.

Daytime, he often gets attention from kids, trying to sit on him, trying to feed him and so on. Nighttime, he's magic. The illusion of a small deer (oooh, dear deer!") standing on watch is perfect, when you are only - barely - able to see the outline.

I don't know who's (whose? sh*t, my English grammar skills are deteriorating) work this is yet but it almost looks like something made by Arvid Knöppel (Swedish artist, 1892-1970) .

The equivalent to Hodge?

No, this cat never belonged to a famous person, it's just famous (well, that depends on how to define famous) for sitting on the stairs outside the local newspaper i Västerås, VLT, and for having been kidnapped in the beginning of the nineties. He/She was later found again in a forest close to the city centre.

I paid it a visit last week (I was going to the small café "Kalle på Spången" in the house at the corner in the background) but none of the pictures were any good so I used an old one, from June 2006.

I met a copy in Gothenburg just a few weeks ago, inside AEC.

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a note, added 070221

Today I found out that the cat is named "Jönssons katt", designed by Anders Jönsson, available at Svenskt Tenn for SEK5300:- - okidoki!

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Hodge?
Hodge - A very fine cat indeed

Is there something wrong with this fountain?

This is one of the fountains in Trafalgar Square (just below the Alison Lapper statue). The figures are of Tritons and are all very classical but there seems to be something wrong with this picture- as if someone ate a dodgy kebab!

Alison Lapper - Trafalgar Square

This has to be the best statue on display in London at the moment. It currently occupies the fourth plinth in Trafalgar square (this plinth had been earmarked for a statue of William IV, but nobody could be bothered to raise the funds!) A few years ago it was decided to use the fourth plinth to display challenging works of art.

The statue of Alison Lapper, an artist in her own right, got a mixed reception from the critics (what do they know?) but it has proven to be quite popular. Unfortunately its time on the fourth plinth comes to an end in April. The replacement does not look that inspiring, sadly.

By the way since you all use your real names I thought I would do likewise so no more jamsodonnell - not here anyway!

Tomb of the unknown yuppie

These are photos of a lifesize statue of a LIFFE trader (LIFFE was the London Futures and finance exchange in the City of London and was staffed by a lot of loud, arrogant and nauseating little jerks win loud coloured jackets), They all got the push when LIFFE computerised in the mid 90s and the trading pits (or bear pits) were closed. All that remains of them is this statue which I daresay many have walked straight into! If yu are ever in London it is near Cannon Street railway station