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…and my very favorite city to visit when having the time to do so. Coming into Heathrow Airport, I started to consider the many many exciting and educational places that could be visited in this wonderful metro area. Should I pay a visit to The Globe Theater? Museums around town? Boat ride along the Thames?

I came upon a slightly different idea for amusement during our few weekend days here. Why not visit Kew Gardens? Kew is about 10 miles from Paddington Station and I wasn’t sure just what the best way was to get there. To my surprise, it was just to take The Tube, an easy ride via Earl’s Court and directly to the Kew Station.

Kew is probably the best place in the world to see thousands of plants, flowers and trees from our earth. Starting in the 19th century, Kew has collected botanical specimens and taken well care of these for all of London, or the world, to see, take guided tours and learn from. Perhaps not the first thing most would visit on a trip to London but a wonderful time can be had for the daring tourist.

Fortunately, the weather was superb. The entrance fee was not harsh in comparison to other attractions (Kew = £13,50 adults / London Eye = £18,90 online for one trip) and once inside you can stay the whole day and walk around the place taking in everything that Kew has to show. Some people even take picnic lunches and easily spend a day!

One drawback about Kew is the closeness to Heathrow. Every 90 seconds the air is filled with a noisy jet coming in for a landing. To bad, but that’s how city planners decided!

My favorite Kew place was the treetop walk. I also fell in love with the hundreds of different trees growing within the whole compound. The greenhouses were full of exotic plants but the “waterlilly house” was on the top of my list. And this summer they had a special exhibition area with a butterfly room, where many butterflies were flying loose inside for everyone to get near with.

So, tired of the Tower Bridge, Picadilly blasé or no time for Big Ben when in London? Wear a pair of good walking shoes and try a day’s outing to Kew Gardens. It’s much more than a walk in the park!

…the power of oak trees, I again went to Käringsboda today and tried to clear my thoughts out about several things. Perhaps it worked for a short time. Here’s some images I caught along the way…

…to think that returning to Sweden would be easy. It was not just to drive over the Öresund Bridge nor just to return to our house in Jokkmokk and think that life continues in a normal and expected way. To return to Sweden meant to be registered back into the digital systems and bureaucracy of the Swedish Social Services and Swedish Tax Agency on an official base. And, with traditional Swedish “suspicion”, it isn’t easy to return.

According to the Swedish Tax Agency, Swedish citizens are to register their intent of staying in another country, should this stay be more than one year. Abidingly, we did the paperwork. We left the country for Shetland. We returned to the unexpected run-around and administrative stupidity of just one of Sweden’s inability of making things work.

To be able to have a television, mobile phone, broadband, any type of identification and do many bank errands Sweden has a system of each individual being cleared via credit checks. These credit checks are based on the computer information of social services and the tax agency. Now, here’s the important part… if you’re not on this system, you can’t get television, phones, broadband, ID’s etc.

To get back in the system, one informs the Swedish Tax agency, who collaborates with Social Services. For myself, it wasn’t enough to go to the local social services to register. I had to take the time to go to the offices in Stockholm, wait in line to get a queue number and wait a couple of hours more to show my passport and register my existence in the country. This I did August 14. Worse off was for my wife. The Social Services office in Jokkmokk no longer exists and the closest office for her was a two-hour drive and one-day-away-from-work away.

In spite of registration, I am still, at this writing, not in the system. A phone call to Social Services and an overworked service administrator revealed I had to wait at least 6 months! C’mon Sweden!

It’s easy to deduct that Sweden does not work! Sweden is becoming a backward country with good marketing skills to hide its unofficial backwardness. It was easier to leave Sweden than to return to it. It was easier to start living in Shetland than returning to Sweden.

I have a feeling that, next time we consider living in another country, we will not follow Swedish laws that make the return part a real head-banging pain-in-the-butt. It feels like being punished for obeying the laws. But, that’s Sweden for ya. Think twice before leaving it…then, think a third time with returning!

…,especially those who plan on being away for a longer period of time, have sometimes thought of freighting personal items to their point of destination. Often between countries, postal services are the only alternative available and not entirely to a satisfactory result and that appeals to a tight budget.

When we started to plan our sabbatical to Shetland, we considered sending a few “boxes” ahead of time. This idea was largely to ease the costs of gasoline required for the trip as well as thinking in an environmentally way. But, having intensely searched internet and a dozen or so phone calls to shipping and freighting companies in Sweden, the trouble and search became too negative and we had to make compromises. The Swedish excuses for this were that shipping companies didn’t know where Shetland was, they never ship things for private people only businesses (which wasn’t a problem) or they would charge colossal amounts for insurance on less than 1 cubic meter; thus giving a we-don’t-wanna-give-you-service response.

Now, when returning to Sweden and the remote rural area of the sub-arctic, we again decided to try to ship a few boxes using a local Shetland shipping and freighting company. To our wonder and amazement, we stumbled upon one of the world’s most sincere, capable, knowledgeable and service-minded professional shipper this side of the world… Streamline Shipping of Lerwick!

Our first “trial” box with Streamline got to its destination in a week’s time…door-to-door service. Today, I sent two more personal item boxes and was met with the same service enthusiasm as the first i.e. handshakes, nothing impossible, first name friendliness, yes-sirs and…”come back and we’ll treat ya t’ some ice cream”!

With my question of ever needing to freight things from the sub-arctic to Shetland in the future, there were absolutely no problems. Mike Davies, the manager of Streamline in Shetland, only needed a post number, names & addresses and Streamline would take care of the rest! It was just to contact them. I got personal help with paperwork from Ms. McDonald, office administrator, and she even followed me to the warehouse, rolled my boxes away and gave me a handshake and the invitation of ice cream.

Streamline works with other similar companies, has a large park of trucks and a container ship and centers its business with Scotland and the U.K. But, I’m confident they can deliver anything from here to yonder.

The next time we need that all important we-care-about-you service with shipping requests, I won’t even consider Swedish shippers with the attitude I was met with. Streamline is now at the top of my list and I’ll recommend Streamline Shipping in Shetland any day!

PS- This is not a paid advert but comments from a satisfied customer
PSS- Jeppe is almost loaded, the flat almost clean and we’re off soon.

…I take time to walk around Lerwick. I’ve done this occasionally during winter and have a routine of going by houses and gardens that I find interesting. I do my “round” and keep track on other people’s gardens and flowers.

I have never really been interested in gardening before. Lawn maintenance, yes! Garden flowers and plants, no! A portion of the latter explanation could be determined because of living in the sub-arctic for so long. Seven months of white winter and three months of green winter. The other two months are useless for growing.

But, I have been thoroughly intrigued with the skills, abilities and determination that Shetlanders put into their gardens and I have immensely appreciated being a consumer of these visual delights, that can be found all over.

Some gardens are super. Some gardens could be better. I just want to take my hat off to everyone that has a little patch of flowers near their house. Please see the new picture gallery under Images called: Lerwick Garden Work. While viewing, consider the efforts and variety of personalities behind the images.

For myself, I really get enthused by what I see and could seriously get into gardening someday. You, too, can perhaps become inspired?