Five in the morning after a real night, the soft white in-between time of the high Nordic summer being long gone. My last Uppland dawn would be an exaggeration but a summer of changes is now coming to a climax (“climax” jars but it’s old, originally from the Greek word for ladder).
My old flat in Gamla Uppsala, close by the ancient graves, is clean and empty except for a surprisingly heavy microwave oven, which my less absent-minded neighbours assure me is mine. Today’s task is to move it to my new flat, further east in the city, even smaller than my old flat, half the size.
A few luxurious moments in bed planning the day before becoming fully awake and aware of the treacherous landscape of perilously perched possessions separating me from morning coffee.
Not long ago, Gandhian simplicity with my bed, my table and a few clothes and now I have to struggle to keep in mind that this chaos is not chronic, that I can master all these objects ganging up on me.
At some mist-shrouded future time, well-organised self-storage units, the pressure on space relieved by my other flat in Berlin. But I’m still far from knowing that my biography of St Jerome, patron saint of translators, is in box B14 just by the door. Instead, a task for the future, an estimated eighty boxes of books to be sifted.
I’ve enjoyed living in Uppsala, both the city and the surrounding landscape, with its relatively dense population of places, each with their own peculiarities and stories, reminding me of homeland Dorset. It’s pleased me more than desolate miles of pine forest with interesting nature but less culture. But I’ve wanted to be in too many other places as well – Germany, the UK, France and India among others, to become socially rooted here. I shall continue with my Uppland projects – I want to know more about the mediaeval wall painter Albertus Pictor who was active in these parts and about Uppland’s physical geography, geology etc but as one project among many. And the delights of big city life, a language and culture to be learnt, the exciting contours of the new, will take energy and space.