A warning sign graphically describes what you will get if you get too close to the bars below.
Now the hole in the bars was just big enough to rest the camera lens, for a long range shot of Shere Kahn and friends, I didn’t see this divil coming out of stage right until I felt his whiskers rubbing against my right hand. I let out a low wail and jumped backwards about 4 metres much to the delight of the other visitors. I was shaking for about an hour after, good job he was just curious and not hungry.
I only found out after I had moved to Sweden that the state controls the sale of alcohol in “System Bolaget” stores, they are actually very well stocked have decent opening hours and a good selection so it is not all that bad and there are pubs and hotels and restaurants also where alcohol is served but absolutely no carry outs like back in Ireland where a 6-pack at closing time is very popular or was a few years ago anyway.
The System Bolaget is a very popular destination and is always thronged full of people on a Friday afternoon, getting the binge quantity of booze in for the weekend, you’d swear that it was New Years Eve every Friday, unless you have witnessed New Years Eve in the “Bolaget” then it’s like the end of the world. You never see an idle staff member in the Bolaget on a Friday and not many people have less than 3 or 4 bottles, it could be Swedish practicality that one person is buying for many, (and possibly many underage drinkers) unless the gangs of drunken youths are getting pissed on wine gums and low alcohol beer from the super market, they are more than likely getting stuff bought out for them. In the logical manner here they only drink at the weekend, really polluted drunk, then stay sober all week.
Then you have hooch, moonshine or what they call here “Hembrand” or distilled at home, leaves several people blind and dead every year so the technique is not what you would call reliable, but the very expensive spirit price drives production and casualties underground.
Last and by no means least you have private importation. The Swedish drive to Denmark and Germany to avail of the cheap booze there, they have much lower tax in Germany so it is popular to fill up the Volvo Estate with beer wine and spirits, and drive back to Sweden. The customs service is being reduced all the time so nowadays you don’t even have to worry too much about being over the limit, the only thing that you will be done for is overlaoding your vehicle, the cops will stop you if you have more weight in the car than it was designed for, to hell with the booze for a lifetime in the car, the back axle will crack before the customs will get involved. The big irony is that Swedish breweries export vast quantities of beer to Germany in big trucks, to be driven back into Sweden in a fleet of Volvos, so the citizens feel they are getting a good deal, the state feels that it is protecting the citizens from alcohol by controlling the sale and keeping the taxes high, even though the own the company that sells the spirits and they own the company that makes Absolut Vodka , and they have no way of controlling the quantity of booze being privately imported. They also recently lost a case to stop people from importing on the net. If they reduced the tax a bit it would mean that they would make more money from the increased sales volume, but then the anti-alcohol lobby would be bleating about increased consumption, the statistics show an increase as it is, if you counted all the black market alcohol, private imports etc. the stats would be horrible, better to keep the status quo. Never mind about all the waste of petrol and the effect on the environment with all the Volvos shunting back and forth to Germany.
So much for environmentally friendly and logical Sweden.
The Chief Officer from the Wilson Garston http://timstimes.net/2007/12/30/drunken-sailor/ that ran aground on Christmas Day received a prison sentence of 3 months for “grovsjöfylleri” as they say in Swedish. For being drunk in charge of a ship in other words. The 33 year old Russian officer was alone on the bridge at the time and was asleep due to the influence alcohol and medication. He had 0.89 per mg of alcohol in his blood, the law in Sweden states that 1,0 mg is “grovsjöfylleri” but in this case because he was asleep and the ship grounded he got that sentence.
Swedish links Sydsvenskan with photographs and here also Sydsvenskan which shows how the ship became a tourist attraction.
A pilot getting ready to board, this sight may become a thing of the past in Sweden according to an article today from the newspaper Göteborgs Posten. An inquiry has been carried out by the Swedish Government into making pilotage more effective, one of the proposals is that ships can be piloted from land with the use of modern techniques available to navigators today. An overhaul of the pilotage legislation is also proposed as well as increased pilot dispensations for ships that are regular visitors to ports.
No surprise to read in the article that Pilots are against the idea of piloting from land by VHF and or computer, one pilot said that you have to be onboard to be able to steer a ship correctly, to be able to feel the characteristics of a ship. I agree in part with the Pilots but also feel that there are many occasions where the services of a pilot are not required, and in some ports you can be delayed because you have to wait for a pilot, to take you out on a 15 minute pilotage, you may have to wait a few hours for that 15 minutes.
The answer is not easy, but more flexibility is required in some cases and compulsory pilotage should be continued where local knowledge is important for safe berthing of ships, or ships carrying dangerous goods
The suggestions are hardly new thinking in any case, in Rotterdam you get a VHF pilot if the weather is too bad for a pilot to board, a bit of an irony really, if the weather is too bad for the pilot to board they trust the master to navigate whereas in better weather you need a pilot on the bridge? Pilotage dispensations are hardly a new idea either, ferry Masters have been getting dispensations for years, more widespread issuing of dispensations will have to be carefully thought through though, an oil spill or collision in port with no pilot on board is unwelcome to say the least.
The real reason for the inquiry is probably more likely to do with the difficulty in finding enough qualified people to do the job of pilot, a problem across the industry, than any need for using new technology. New technology didn’t help the container ship LT Cortesia from going aground in the English Channel, and you can bet your last dollar that it would never have happened had they a deep sea pilot onboard.
Lots Utredninging ( Pilotage inquiry) in Swedish
Göteborgs Posten article.in Swedish
Originally uploaded by kristian gos
Stoc Regina, Stockholm seen at Karlstad on lake Vänern, Sweden. Photo taken by Kristian Gos 20th December 2006.
Fantastic mirror image, hard to believe it is late December.
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