Evening Out with the PWG

The PWG are the Professional Womens' Group of Göteborg and they are a branch of the League of Extraordinary Women. I think they probably started out as a networking group but the focus this year is self-preservation in our homes away from home. Once a month, they arrange an evening out. In January, it was about Personal Style and Fashion, Image, that sort of thing. Next month, there's a fashion show. Tonight, we went to Arkan Hotel in Arlanda for dinner and an evening at their spa.

Spa in North America means massage, facial, manicure, pedicure. Spa here is something completely different. Massage is available, as is a facial, but the rest is do-it-yourself rejuvenation and it was divine. I started with a short back massage, which was very nice. I had said to Peter that I needed to have a Swedish massage while I was in Sweden to see if it was any different from Swedish massage at home. It's not. After my massage, I joined the others. One starts by washing off the bad energy. You have your choice of a private shower or the japanese style washing room. Once that ritual is complete, you don your bathrobe and flipflops and head into the spa proper to continue your rejuvenation.

The spa at Arkan is a 2-story space with massive windows overlooking the harbour and docks at Torslanda. As we were there at night, we saw lights. Cloudy tonight (storm coming in - snow due Saturday), otherwise, the stars would have been magnificent. Both floors have several lounging areas. The main floor has one beside a fireplace, for example. There are 4 poster beds facing the windows where you can lie down and have a rest. There are 2 copper antique bathtubs filled with warm riverrocks to lie on. Light and dark and lack-of-light are issues here, so there are the dark room and the light room and you need a balance of both. The dark room contains water beds where you can lie down and rest for up to 15 minutes. The light room is all white with special sunlight-mimicking lighting, intended to give you back all the brightness you're missing. Don't stay in there too long, especially at night, or it's the same effect as several expressos, I'm told.

Upstairs, are the water rooms. There is a large seating area where herbal tea is available som du vill. On one side of this area is a hot pool, about 1 foot deep. One side is lit with blue lights, the other with red. It's enormous, and running through the middle of it is a 2 foot deep ice cold pool. The bottom of the ice pool is lined with river rocks. The idea is that going from hot to cold stimulates your immune response (I think). After lounging in the hot water, you're supposed to walk through the ice water, then go back into the hot. It's easier the 2nd time around. On the opposite side of the seating area are the saunas. Sauna #1 is a salt steam room at 47C. On the ceiling are lights that cycle through all the colours of the spectrum. There's a giant geode in the middle of the space. It's steamy. Sauna #2 is 55C. Brighter. Marble benches. The ice sauna is what it says it is. It smells wonderful - eucalyptus - and it's a small room with a pile of crushed ice. Your body steams when you go into it, and it genuinely doesn't feel that cold. Sauna #3 hot is hotter than 55C and smells of typical cinnamon / cedar sauna. Dark, big windows over the bay, definitely my favourite space, with the blue / red / ice cold pool a close second. There is also a jacuzzi, an ice-cold plunge pool, a shower where you dump a pail of ice water over yourself (I climbed down into the plunge pool - pail? forget it!) and a bench overlooking the bay where you can soak your feet. There are also more lounge chairs.

Dinner was really nice. It was definitely somewhere I will find an excuse to go back to spend an afternoon. Check the pictures in the link - they do it justice - and the site will flip to English for you.

Somebody's going to sleep well tonight...

http://www.arkenkonferenscenter.se/art-garden-spa.aspx

Parting with the Red Sea

After our day out at Petra, we spent the rest of the week lying around on the beach and by the pools. Wednesday, we lost Egypt because it was so cloudy you couldn't see across the Sea. We thought we'd get a storm that night but we didn't. Thursday through to the end of our stay, we had cloudless skies and higher temperatures.

Thursday, we swam in the Sea. I kept forgetting it wasn't just a lake, but the seashells would remind me. It was the most incredible blue, and you could see straight down to the bottom. Andrew saw parrotfish, chickenfish, a trumpetfish, and lots of sea urchins attached to the rocks. There were lots of lifeguards at the resort, and they would follow you, in a good way, to keep you out of harm's way. When we wandered past the hotel border on the beach, a lifeguard came with us and found better shells than any of us did. When a group went out to swim off the dock (made in Canada dock btw), the lifeguard came out instead of staying by his chair. I was impressed by the staff. They presented an outstanding level of service.

Our daily routine was essentially: breakfast buffet y 9:30 followed by a wander past the shops and marina in the property next door, which led to a wander on the beach; suncream, swimsuits, Elizabeth would find a shady spot to do hw, I would park on the beach with a book, Peter and Andrew would swim or pingpong; about 4, head to the pool bar for a beer and afternoon pizza before going up to the sunset deck to watch the sunset; email on sunset deck; dinner about 7; tv in hotelroom (channels in arabic, french, german, russian, and english).

Elizabeth made a small impression. Wednesday when it was threatening to storm, we had our pre-dinner drink at the lobby bar. The waitress wanted to know E's name so we told her. While we were waiting in the lobby for the bus back to the airport, A&E took a quick trip back to say goodbye to the beach and the waitress came over to ask where Elizabeth was. The immigration agent at the Aqaba airport (the one working beside the one dealing with us) looked at Elizabeth and called her "Barbie". Then he wanted to know what her real name was. No end of teasing about that one, right Barbie?

I met Baba Ghanoush. I had met his friend Tabouli and his cousin Tatziki before, but I met a new cousin who's name might be Mammoush. I'm not sure though - he was anonymous most nights and then his nametag changed, but he was a tasty combination of pureed roasted red pepper and couscous and I'mnotsurewhatelse. The food at the resort was really good. I'm not sure how we'll cope without waffles drowned in Nutella with whipped cream for breakfast...

Jordan was beautiful. I would like to go back to see the Dead Sea and the desert. We were in the south surrounded by rocks. I am told that up north in Amman it is green and lush, almost too green according to the driver who took us to Petra, and I should like to see that too. We didn't see any of the unrest that was happening in other parts of the Middle East. The protests on Friday in Amman were a regular Friday thing from what we understood. It's a beautiful part of the world. Too bad so many of us are scared off of travelling there because of the unrest. I'm glad we found a quiet part so we could go and discover.

Petra (camels)

Today we went to Petra. It's one of the 7 wonders of the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The only visual any of us had for it was as the temple Indiana Jones' goes into in the Last Crusade looking for the Holy Grail. We didn't know there's a whole lot more to it. The Treasury is the first facade of the ancient city that you come across, but it is only a minor part.

Let me talk camels before I give you a tour of the other parts of Petra. Jordan is camel country. No Shel - I haven't kissed one but I'll do my best next time I see one. On our drive up to Petra today, we saw camels in the desert, a camel in a backyard (just hanging out), camels for hire at Petra (in case you wanted to ride up or down from the basin). The best camel sighting was on the highway just outside of Aqaba on our way home, mid-afternoon. He was standing in the middle of the right hand lane of the highway, tethered to a palm tree, having a snack and everyone just went around like there's a camel in the middle of the road every day.

The walk down to the ancient city is 4km. It follows an ancient riverbed through a narrow canyon, a siq. The Nabataeans carved water troughs into the walls of the siq to bring the water down to the city. They carved tombs and caves out of the sandstone. To access the Urn tomb, you have to climb tiny steps very high up the canyon wall. Think several stories up - I don't know how many - it was just really 'up'! After walking down the street of Facades, you follow the street of Colonnades past 2 enormous temples. The tombs have survived 3 earthquakes over the past 2000 years - the dwelling caves haven't. I think one could wander around that part of the desert for days, tripping over more artifacts from the city. One of the temples was only uncovered in the early 1990s, and they're still working away at it. Imagine how much else is still out there, waiting to be found...

We saw a 450 year old tree today. And caught the view from 1050m above sea level, which impressed Peter to no end given that we'd started at the hotel at sea level. And didn't run over a camel. Indiana Jones - eat your heart out.

sun-starved skin

This is a different sort of holiday for us. This year, we have been in the habit of going to a place and trying to squeeze as much as is humanly possible into every day, sight-seeing and touring like crazy people. Jordan isn't supposed to be that sort of a trip - this is supposed to be a week on a beach, very low key, very slow, very little planning required. Let me tell you - relaxing is harder than it's supposed to be! I challenged myself to sit for 4 hours this afternoon. The first 4 minutes were easy. After that, notsomuch.To the book club - sorry about the book I picked - I don't know why it won a Nobel prize - that would be an interesting discussion point - let's hope it gets better! (The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk)

We slept in. Headed off to the hotel buffet breakfast about 9:30. Beef bacon. In this culture, beef over pork makes sense, but Peter said it was like fried cold cuts, so i think I'll live without 'bacon' this week. Ate outside in the sun. Lovely. Made arrangements with the excursions director. Went for a big walk to explore. Our resort is "connected" to a couple of others on this stretch of the Red Sea. On either side is no man's land. Honestly - it's empty space. There's a wall on the beach at the end of our resort. If you go around it, there is empty space, and on the far side of the empty space is a barbed wire fence. If you go the other way, you will find 2 other resorts in various states of construction. All the design is a little bit Disney - it really looks like Aladdin and Jasmine could come around the corner at any moment. Is this because this is typical architechture and I'm just not used to it, or is it really a caricature for the tourists? It's pretty either way.

Andrew spent his afternoon in the pool. Only one of them is heated. The jacuzzi has cold water too. We figure that if the temperature hits 35C in the high season, most people would want a cold jacuzzi so it probably isn't wired for heat. Our air temp today was about 23 with a good breeze. Great for catching some rays with our sun-starved bodies. Elizabeth actually sat in the shade for a hour doing homework on her laptop (less glare in the shade).

It doesn't feel like just another resort in the Caribbean. Elizabeth thinks that's because it isn't green and lush. We have palm trees, but they were imported. The hills across the water (though whether that's Israel or Egypt we haven't figured out) as well as the hills that surround us, are red and sandstoney-looking. I also think it's because we're aware we're in the Middle East. True, this part of Jordan is very westerinized (this from the excursions director) but... My own personal SITCII / Samantha-Carrie-Miranda-Charlotee-in- Abu-Dhabi moment happened when I walked past a women on my way to the beach. She was watching her young children play in the pool and she was wearing a burka. Another woman in the pool was covered head to toe in a full body wetsuit. The rest of us weren't - just regular bathing suit stuff, though everyone covered up if they were walking around. The resort is far from full and it's very quiet compared to what I've experienced in the Caribbean. Maybe there's no buzz because there aren't that many people?

So tomorrow we head to the desert. Move over Indiana Jones - we're off to Petra!

made it to Jordan

Before I get going, let me just say that I don't read Arabic so trying to figure out which of the series of characters at the top was log in was a real trial and error.

So, we're here. Radisson Blu Tala Bay in Aqaba Jordan. It's been a long day of travelling. We got up this morning at 1:30, aiming to leave at 2 for the drive to Stockholm. The roads were icy. We'd be driving along in the ridge of clearer pavement with a ribbon of shiny ice along the side, and then we'd hit patches of ridgy ice in the middle of the road. It occurred to me about 3 hours in that driving across Sweden in the dead of winter might not have been the smartest thing to do, but we made it to Arlanda in 5 hours, with plenty of time to spare to clear security and eat breakfast before our 11:10 departure.

The flight was 4 1/2 hours. SAS is a seriously no frills airline. They won't even give you a glass of water - you have to buy it! We flew over mountains. I don't know whose mountains. Too bad countries aren't really coloured the pretty colours they are in atlases so you can tell who's who. What I found interesting flying over the desert in Jordan, is that it isn't flat and sandy like the Sahara. It's hilly. (see picture). Getting through the airport was a breeze. No fuss about visas. The Apollo travel reps were right there where they said they'd be (and only spoke swedish) and directed us out to the right bus to take us to our resort. The rep on the bus (who only spoke swedish) pointed out cool things like ISRAEL RIGHT THERE ACROSS THE WATER and See that bright light? That's the point where Israel ends and Egypt begins. It was dark by this point, so we didn't see much other than street lights. The stars are magnificent though.

The resort seems to be absolutely massive. We appear to be the only people in this wing - adjoining rooms (boys and girls). There's an outdoor gym on the beach (which from a distance looks like a playground - yes well a playground for grown-ups) and more pools than I can count. Our weather forecast isn't promising heat, just sun. E and I will put our suits on anyway and try and catch some rays with these pale sun-starved bodies.

Considering the distance we've travelled, it's been remarkably stress-free day, but boy am I tired.

Good grief - I'm in the Middle East! Cool.

Travels

We're off again tomorrow. It's Sportslov - winter break. Most people go skiing. We're off in search of some heat and sun. Plan is to leave Gborg at 2am to drive across the country to Stockholm Arlanda airport. We're hoping to get there for about 8am, in good time for our 11am flight. There was one possible flight from here, but it wasn't scheduled to land at Arlanda until after 9, and the one thing I've learned through our travels and from picking Peter up at the airport, planes never fly when they say they will. I was afraid we'd end up late for our connection because there wouldn't be enough of a time cushion. SAS, Sweden's airline, boasts being the world's most on-time airline. Based on my experience with them, that doesn't say much for the others.

So we're going to Jordan. Yes, that Jordan - the one beside Egypt and beside the Red Sea. We're going to Tala Bay to sit by the pool and swim in the sea and hopefully take a daytrip to Petra. I'll be interested to see if the resort feels different from resorts in the Caribbean.

Stay tuned...

Kóngavegur - Kings Road

Icelandic film this morning to wrap up my selections at GIFF.

It was quirky, fun, entertaining, didn't make you think too much.

I'm not going to bother summarizing the plot and doing an analysis - it wasn't that kind of film.

Best character: Grandma.

Opening scene. This is before you know she's Grandma. Old woman in hooded ski jacket trimmed with fur is sitting in a space you think is an office. On her lap is an animal, but I missed what kind. The man she's talking to is photocopying the screen of his laptop.

Her: weren't you going to buy a printer?

Him: shouldn't you go walk the dog?

Her: it's a seal

Him: it's a dead seal

Her: sometimes the dead are more alive than the living

And sure enough, they are. She carries around a seal, a dead, stuffed seal. Taxidermy stuffed. Turns out the seal is her purse. She keeps all her money tucked inside it (him?). And she seems to have all the money.

Lots of other quirky characters, living in this trailer park in the middle-of-nowhere Iceland. Take the odd pair of peace-loving substance users. They spend most of their time sitting in their car, smoking, and listening to music. When Grandma joins them, the seal is carefully placed on the hood of the car and his leash is tied to the antenna. In case he tries to run away.

Thus ends the 34th Göteborg Film Festival. In retrospect, I should have gone to some of the lectures. There was one on the line between documentary and journalism as in where does the one end and the other begin, that would have been interesting. I didn't do too badly - 5 films in a week. My swedish teacher said she went hard core last year - took the week off work and watched 4 films a day. I enjoyed all of my selections for different reasons. The Nordic ones, Happy Happy and Kings Road, had a lightness to them that you don't find in more mainstream stuff. This was my first experience with independent film. I will definitely have to do this again.

Never Let Me Go

Cloning. Curious that both my children have done projects about cloning this year, and that what this film was about. Sort of a "Logan's Run"/ "Coma" sci fi kind of thing about an England that has decided to erradicate terminal illness by breeding clones whose organs are harvested for transplant. The film follows 3 central characters from childhood at a rural institution through to their young adult lives and completion. They never contemplate their fate. They accept it, more or less. There are no fantastic attempts at escape, no monumental emotional breakdowns. Just a slow, steady, methodical exploration of what it's like to know that your life will be short, and that while you can live and love more or less as you like, ultimately your purpose is to serve the "originals". Most of them donate 3 or 4 times before they "complete". They live in a parallel society that rarely interacts with the society they were created to serve.

It's a very sad movie. By the end, Kathy is the only one still alive. She hasn't started her donations yet because she's been working as a carer, someone who travels to support the others through the process of donation and recovery. The man she loved her entire life has just completed. Circumstances were such that they spent most of their lives apart and only had a short time together and in love. Because he's gone, she's decided to stop being a carer and become a donor. Being so incredibly alone that the only solution is to complete, is just so desperately sad. I wonder if Kathy would have been better off not to have found him again, if they'd never had the chance to be together, if their love had remained unrequited. I think she'd have suffered less if they hadn't reconnected at the 11th hour.

Charlotte Rampling is the headmistress of the boarding school where they are raised. Near the end of the film, she suggests that society isn't ready to consider ending the cloning program because society doesn't want to have to deal with cancer, leukemia, or other major illnesses any more. The ethics of the program don't come into play.

Stem cells. Seems innocent enough to me. Seems like a good idea to me. Seems like a plan to aid the greater good. Is it just the first step toward breeding people for replacement parts?

Happy Happy / Sykt Lykkleg

Today I saw my 3rd film from the Göteborg Film Festival, the Norwegian film, Happy Happy or Sykt Lykkleg. Film is supposed to make you think. Here's the problem - I don't know what I think.

Basic premise - two neighbouring houses in the middle of nowhere, rural Norway. Very isolated. Very snowy. Couple #1, Kaya and Eirik own the houses and have rented one to Elizabeth and Sigve. Each couple has a child: Kaya and Eirik's Theodor is white, Elizabeth and Sigve's Noa is adopted and black.

Let's start with the children. Theodor is helping Noa unpack. Noa doesn't talk much and seems to be younger than Theodor. Theodor finds a book about slavery, tells Noa that in olden days, he'd have been his slave, then continues through the length of the film acting out slave / master scenes from the book. Eirik has taught Theodor to be disrespectful of his mother, and the 2 of them often gang up on her. I know fathers who are like this, treating their spouses so horribly, and teaching their sons that women are to be manipulated and marriage is about always being right and making sure the men always have the power. It makes me very angry. My favourite 'kid' bit of the movie occurs at Christmas dinner. Theodor has coerced Noa into a staring contest over their risgröt (rice pudding). Elizabeth has had enough of something completely different, and exits the room after dunking Theodor's face into his pudding. Hooray. He got his.

The adults are not so easy. Eirik controls Kaja. She's a sweet girl who only wants to be loved and he won't love her. Turns out he's gay. How about that. Elizabeth and Sigve have moved to the middle of nowhere for a fresh start because she had an affair. She is mean, calculating, and cold. Both couples are together simply because they are. Sigve and Kaja find compassion, love, and tenderness in each other's arms, which is wonderful for the few days while it lasts, then Elizabeth finds out, tells Eirik, and well, it all goes downhill from there.

The neat tidy ending is that Elizabeth and Sigve decide to put themselves back together again, so they pack up and head somewhere else. Kaja decides she will leave Eirik, so she does - she and Theodor stay in their house and Eirik moves into the one across the yard.

Here's my issue: the marriages. It all ended up so neat and tidy. I think Kaja's gotten the short end of the straw, but she never does. She takes it all in stride. I can see why she wants to stay close to Eirik - she's her family, and he does soften towards her, but only after his pass at Sigve doesn't get the response he was hoping for. I think what it boils down to is that we all just want to be loved and some of us will work harder and compromise more for it than others. I don't think being loved should be a matter of taking the consolation prize or settling for a less than acceptable compromise simply because having someone is better than being totally alone. I don't think the pursuit of 'happy' is waste of time but I do think the state of 'happy' can be elusive. So, I guess the moral of the story isn't so much carpe diem, as it's live in the moment.