Language or indeed languages have always interested me and I make the assumption that growing up bi-lingual has been influential in this respect. Perhaps not exactly on a daily basis but still quite frequently discovering the common root or history of a word disguised in spelling or pronounciation still gives me a kick as well as more often than not serving as a reminder of a shared European heritage. Experimenting on English words by pronouncing them exactly as they are spelled will reveal a treasure trove of Anglo Saxon, German or Nordic linguistic cousins as a compliment to the slightly more identifiable Latin ones. A pre-requisite is of course at least a rudimentary knowledge of another European language. Enough of that, where enough rather serves as a good example of the above.
On the way back home to Stockholm or in fact Märsta which is situated next to Arlanda airport I asked my wife something that was puzzling me. ”Wasn´t that Mr. Ericsson we were talking to or did I miss that it was his assistant?” thinking that my newly acquired skills in Swedish were letting me down. Gunilla confirmed to me that it was in fact Mr. Ericsson who had shown us the house and was also making preparations for our purchase of said. She had addressed him in the third person using his name as if she were talking about him not to him; ”we would very much appreciate it if Mr Ericsson could arrange to send the papers to Stockholm.” She explained to me that in very polite Swedish a person is addressed in this manner. This was nothing I had come across in Stockholm and I began wondering if the 380 kilometres we had travelled West were representative of as many months in time. Even in those days the so called ”du (thou) reform” was already widely accepted and the more formal ”ni” (you) rapidly becoming extinct other than in a plural context.
In September 1972 Gunilla and I bought what in Sweden is called a summer house often referred to in English as a weekend retreat or maybe even a second home. Living in Stockholm at the time we had plans to move to the country once Gunilla had finished her studies in Uppsala. My job as a sales representative for Holt Rinehart and Winston only required for me to be within easy commuting distance of an airport. For several reasons things didn´t turn out as we had expected and our summer home never became our permanent country home other than for a few months.
Neither of us had ever heard of Ekshärad before yet had a vague understanding that the county of Värmland was about as far West from Stockholm as you could go and still be speaking Swedish albeit with a strong regional dialect that at times would seem as close to Norwegian as Swedish. I´ll be getting back to that another time.
The advertisement in Dagens Nyheter referred to a property which sounded like something we were looking for so we rented a bright yellow VW beetle and headed West. Bypasses, not to mention motorways were virtually non existant in those days so the 380 kilometre trip took us about 6 hours, something we had anticipated, inspiring an extremely early start. At the estate agent´s office we were given a description of the property and a landmark to ensure we took the correct turning off the road. My parting question to the estate agent on how far the turning was rendered a slight shrug and a reassuring ”just a bit up the road.”
Off we went and stretching ”just a bit up the road” to include about 30 kilometres we then decided we must have missed the turning and returned for more detailed instructions. NB mobile phones were still science fiction in those days.
”It´s just a bit up the road” turned out to be a distance of 80 kilometres. 8 miles which is what he actually said has a much better kling to it until translated into kilometres.
Having already travelled 6 hours we were in no mood to continue a further 80 kilometres and took our chances with that day´s local property advertisements instead. The lesson I learnt here was that a Swedish mile may be the mathematical equivalent of 10 kilometres but in a Swedish understanding of distance it is more on a par with an English mile.
That afternoon another estate agent showed us two properties and we set our hearts on buying Stenåsen, a former 6 acre smallholding. A timber house, two up two down, an enormous barn altogether a total of 7 outbuildings including a ”jordkällare” or earth cellar. Being a little unsure that again my newly aquired skills in Swedish were letting me down Gunilla had to confirm to me that the finishing price was actually 38000 Swedish kronor which is the rough equivalent of £3000.
We signed the contract that late afternoon giving us a few days to pay the 10% deposit.