Neil Hopcroft

It was never my intention to write a travel guide to Stockholm, more to give some impression of what it is like to live there as a foreigner. Maybe I’ll pick that up again at some point, for now, though, I’ve got a bit of a breathing space so figured I’d update here. Of course, give me a shout if you are heading there and I can give you some ideas of things to do.

The breathing spaces are still few and far between, so there still won’t be any consistent updates for a while, I aim to take advantage of those few moments.

Stockholm itself is made up of a number of islands, with mainland to the north and south, the Baltic to the east and lake Malaren to the west. There is an archipelago constisting of some 26000 islands of various sizes stretching out into the sea toward Finland.

A trip on the Waxholmsbolaget boat up to the small town of Vaxholm, 45 minutes away, is one of the best ways to understand the city. You get to see some of the pivotal sights and understand how the city is both divided and held together by the water.

The boat itself is a fairly small foot passenger ferry, although it does have a cafe, and the journey a little confusing if you’re not acquainted with the Swedish way of doing things – you board the boat and once on buy a ticket any time during your journey to your destination, as long as you have a ticket they will let you off again.

Return boats don’t run very frequently, so make sure you don’t miss the one you intend to catch, Vaxholm, while a pleasant little town, *is* a little town and cannot provide much in the way of entertainments for a four hour stretch between boats. There are plenty of cafes and restaurants overlooking the harbour, though, so if you’re worried you can just take a coffee in one of those and watch out for the boat.

Assistant: “Can I help you sir?”
Me: “I was wondering if you had any more books?”
He proudly leads me back to the aisle full of ‘Computing for seniors’ books that I’ve just visited.
“What are you looking for sir?”
“I’m after a book on C#, I found this one but the topic I’m interested in is mentioned only in a line of a table on page 658, I’d really like a book that covers the topic in more depth. Do you have any other books on C#?”
“That is all we have, what is the topic you need such information about?”
“Recommendations for linkage between managed and unmanaged code for third party distributable libraries, ideally packaging of both into a single DLL, but I realise that is probably a little ambitious.”
“Oh”

Its been a while, I know, and I’ve been up to a few things that I’ve not really written about here. The most significant of which is becoming a father, more on that later but lets take a little look further back than that first.

Maybe I should pick up where I left off, the last proper entries I made here I was just heading off for a new life in Sweden, to be joined shortly by my new (at that time) partner. Things got off to a shaky start staying in the Kista Ibis, but we eventually got an apartment at the Memory Hotel, then in the nearby suburb of Sollentuna.

Sweden is a fantastic country, the people are pragmatic and not afraid of real work, the history is extensively documented and binds the country together, it is a part of Europe without losing the things that make it Sweden. Travel is endemic in the culture, but so is a sense of identity with home community, many people travel, living abroad for months or years, only to return to their home town later in life.

Less fantastic (albeit fantasy) was the Sony Ericsson approach to project planning, they seemed like a company running to keep up without having any idea which direction they should be running in.

I posted many of the pictures from our adventures in Stockholm, so I’m not going to repeat what I said there – nearly 600 entries all already available for your browsing pleasure – instead, I’m aiming to talk a little about some of the things about these places which cannot be captured by the camera.

There are days I think I’m not very good at my job, then I get a phone call like this:

TS: Hello, I am calling from technical support, we have a report of your computer running slowly
Me: Oh, really, where did you say you were calling from?
TS: Technical support, sir, you have a computer that is running slowly?
Me: How did you get this number?
TS: It comes from Internet Explorer, it has notified us that your computer is running slowly, you do have a computer, sir?
Me: I don’t use Internet Explorer, I think you are mistaken
TS: I can prove it to you, sir
Me: Really?
TS: Yes, go to the start button on your computer
Me: I don’t have a start button, I’ve got a command prompt, it says ‘root@janus4:’
TS: This is your phone number 01440……?
Me: Yes, but you didn’t get that from Internet Explorer
TS: Yes we did, I can prove it to you, sir
Me: I still don’t use Internet Explorer
TS: Would you like to talk to a supervisor?
Me: Yes please
… at which point I lay the handset down out of earshot until the line goes free

Theres something about this kind of social media that feels like obligation – I must write, publish to my audience, entertain you, bewilder, amaze, amuse.

Now, though, I’m looking at the last few years and seeing that maybe my audience here is me, and finding the time to write is not the act of a self-publicist, rather the notes become messages to my future self, a bunch of memories fixed in time, in a way that memories of holidays decay to only be of those things photographed or otherwise memento-ised. The distinction between the experiencing self and the remembering self. The patches in between, the feelings, the smells, the landscapes that just don’t fit in the lens, get lost with the minutia.

Facebook, fun though it is, doesn’t give me the depth of record I’m seeking, its like a conversation down the pub, forgotten by the morning, without leaving any kind of lasting impression. Even with Livejournal I’m handing over the responsibility for the data to another entity, although they seem to have a better idea about continuity.

Historically I’ve not been good at continuing these revivals, maybe thats because I’ve been thinking about the wrong audience, or maybe I’m just a bit useless. Its worth another try.

Born 2011-08-02 19:09, weighing 8lb 6oz

As some of you might know, it is my 40th year and it would seem a shame to let it pass uncelebrated. So I am intending to have a series of activites throughout the year to mark this occassion. Let me know if you would be interested in coming along to any or all of the following. Or if you have an idea for something I have missed.

The whirlwind stops spinning, just for a moment. Long enough for me to write a little about how things have settled here. I’ve started working for Service2Media in Enschede, we have rented a weird house/flat in the centre of the nearby town of Almelo (home town of Wubbo Ockels, the first Dutch astronaut and twinned with Preston). Let me know if you would like to come and visit.

Of course, the complications are that I’m actually working from England part of the time, and Holland for the other part, so I’m commuting between and working from home. Which is something that is going to take a bit of getting used to. This is probably not a long term arrangement, but will continue for a while. But it does mean that there is rather more whirlwind around for the forseeable future.

I am intending to head to the Nokia Development conference in London in a couple of weeks, so let me know if you are going to be there and we’ll see if we can meet up.

When did I turn into the kind of person fellow travellers talk to?