Another wander around Kista in the snow – previously.
Kista in the snow again
Neil Hopcroft
A digital misfit
Arlanda runestone
Trying to find my way out of Arlanda Airport upon return from my travels over the holidays I found theres a rune stone on display in terminal 5 – it was found, if I remember correctly, during the building of the road from Stockholm to the airport and moved to its current place of display.
“Gunnarr and Bjôrn and Þorgrímr raised this stone in memory of Þorsteinn, their brother, who was dead in the east with Ingvarr, and made this bridge.”
Hornstull
Nearest to Långholmen on the island of Södermalm is an area called Hornstull. This is where Högalids kyrka is. Among other things. The waterfront here looking toward Liljeholmen is beautiful, with The Street market nestled under the road bridge and a pair of railway bridges in the distance.
Långholmen
Over the bridge toward Södermalm from Marieberg is the park-island of Långholmen.
Marieberg
On the other side of Kungsholmen is an area called Marieberg – I walked through Rålambshovsparken and across the bridge toward Långholmen.
Gamla stan
In the centre of Stockholm is the island of Gamla Stan (actually an area consisting of several islands, for the pedants out there), the old town. While I was walking around I happened upon the Nobel Museum, which was having an open day. So I took a look inside. I guess the biggest surprise (for me at least, I’m sure you all know this) was to find that Alfred Nobel made his money from the manufacture of explosives.
Book review: How to Read a Room
[audiobook]
Navigate any Situation, Lead with Confidence and Create an Impact at Work. https://www.mikebechtle.com/books/how-to-read-a-room/
I got this audiobook with the aim of understanding a bit more about what is going on in meetings of various sorts. I had forgotten, at the time, that I don’t actually attend meetings that much any more, so I’m not sure I can really get much value from the information contained within.
The book starts out as a fairly standard ‘change your mindset’ business leader book, then takes a bit of a detour via ‘how to win friends and influence people’ before getting to the interesting parts.
There are some useful observations, but they are mostly a collection of near-obvious things, like:
- Watch the room before you interact with anyone
- Don’t be in a rush
- When you talk with someone, make smalltalk by asking questions and listening to their answers
- Be engaged, don’t look around or at the clock or the door
Later in the book he covers how to apply these techniques to online meetings, again bringing me little that I don’t already do, camera on, good lighting, be in charge of the mute button.
The final part of the book talks about servant leadership, which was a little more interesting. This is about leading from positions which are not formally leadership positions. Bringing positive attitudes and communications styles to teams which are in some ways dysfunctional.
All-in-all, a mildly interesting book but I probably wouldn’t bother unless you really are new to all these communications approaches. It did make me nostalgic for the days I used to actually talk to people face to face, but there are so many down sides to that that I am unsure I could go back to it any time soon.
City Centre
Wandering around Kista again
Exploring Kista some more, on my way back from Lilla Rinkeby I found a few more things to photograph.
Lilla Rinkeby
Wandering around another part of Kista, next to the nature reserve there is another, quite different, nature reserve. This is a marshy area with a walkway across the swamp to a little birdwatching shelter. The day I was there it had frozen overnight so the walkway was treacherous.
