Another day, another test

Two years ago, I was out driving in the UK, stopping at the Newt in Somerset, and apparently at some Starbucks to expand on my (slightly embarrassing) collection of coffee mugs. The day before, I had flown across the North Sea reading Ian Flemming (which is probably even more embarrassing).

This morning, after another negative self-test, I went up to campus to teach for three hours, a decision that I come to slightly regret afterwards when feeling pretty miserable. If I am lucky, this is just something that quickly blows over and I will be able to return to the classroom tomorrow. If not, I would not be too surprised given how many people around me who have been sick recently.

Coffee grounds 2.0

Parsnip

Asking Anna what she wanted for dinner, she replied “halloumi” which had me scratching my head. Searching for halloumi recipes, I stumbled upon a salad with bacon, kale and baby spinach which I just had to try, even if I recognize that the “bacon” part sort of voids any vegetarian aspirations.

Meanwhile in the UK, the 100-mile “Arc of Attrition” is taking place around the southernmost tip of Cornwall, and just like Kullamannen, it is simply breath-taking to see people finishing after 34 hours out on the course.

KLM

In three weeks’ time, Anna and I are off to Newcastle where I will run Northumberland Ultra. For the first time, we are flying KLM which, after numerous schedule changes, will give us an evening in Amsterdam. 

Eating some leftover Tortilla Española for breakfast, I am very much looking forward to trading Tomtebo for Victorian architecture and industrial grit as I add another piece to my English puzzle. The 58k race will follow long desolated beaches up to the wind-worn Bamburgh Castle. Thinking back to South Devon Ultra in the early days of the pandemic, it feels fitting to once again be back racing on the British Isles as restrictions are lifted and life is hopefully returning.

Busy

Though slowly, the light is again returning to the North. Compared to a month ago, the difference is quite visible. With the sun no longer hiding at the horizon, I am spending my days biking back and forth between Innertavle and lecture hall F where I do most of my teaching.

Staffed at 119% this year with 321 excess hours, and most of my teaching planned in January and September, it is perhaps not that surprising that things have felt a bit busy with little time to update Rawls & Me. 

As for the running, my left calf has still not fully recovered after last weekend’s incident. Today, it started to hurt about 7 km into my 10 km morning run so I guess I will have to go a bit easy. The good news is that I have at least been able to keep up the gym routine and also done some swimming at Navet this week.

In Search of Lost Time

Teaching classical political philosophy today, I somehow felt like I belong to a different and bygone world. As all my literary references fell flat, I could not help thinking that if this is the state of reading among university students of social science, what does that say about society at large?

As often, it may be useful to start with oneself. Clearly, I read a lot less today compared to what I did ten or fifteen years ago, finding myself spending way too much time watching running videos or animated “History Matters” documentaries on Youtube, not to mention doomscrolling news on Ukraine or Taiwan, when I know very well that picking up a good book would be much more existentially fulfilling.

Cramp

About 4 km into my run and halfway up the hill to Mariehem, my left calf started cramping to an extent that I had to briefly lie down in the snow. I rarely have these kinds of problems, so I was a bit surprised by how much it actually hurt. Still, with no phone, and Elin waiting at the other end of town for our Sunday morning run, I began limping and eventually jogging towards the west. Though the pain remained possible to manage, I am not sure if it was such a wise decision to continue. In any case, with the new Covid-rules, it is not possible to buy a bus ticket from the driver, so I guess I did not have much of a choice. If nothing else, every experience like this gives some extra mental strength when race day comes.

Leftover noodles

Today, I made some stir fried salmon with instant noodles and scallion for lunch. However, thanks to the avocado and the Staropramen beer, the result did not turn out quite as frugal as I intended when looking through the fridge for leftovers...

Otherwise, I am easing back into the running after getting the Moderna booster a week ago, hoping to make it to 40 km at least this week. Though obviously crazy, I also just signed up for the 50k edition of Höga Kusten Winter Trail in mid-February. Together with Fjällmaraton 100k in August, I thus intend to make 2022 the year when I confront my fears and run further than ever before.

Primus

Unlike last year, when we had plenty of snow and temperatures steady below zero, this winter has been a throwback to 2019 with repeated rain-on-snow events and temperatures more akin to Kalmar in south Sweden where I grew up.

As I spend my days teaching, I have invested in a new “Primus” thermos bottle to bring with me to the classroom. While I sadly have had to cancel all classes with the 100+ social work students who are starting in mid-February due to the new restrictions, this semester has still meant a lot more campus teaching than previously during the pandemic. While I recognize that I may test positive any day, I am making the most of the time that I have, including going for a memorable afterwork at "Lottas" last night with some colleagues from the unit for police education. 

Lecturing in the age of Covid

With rules mandating that every other seat is left empty and prohibiting group exercises, I have kicked off this semester of campus teaching. While I have been bending the rules a bit to allow for more student-to-student interaction, the first two days have still left me more exhausted than usual. With five more hours of lectures coming up tomorrow, I am already kind of tired of my own voice.

Still, after escaping to Argentina, at least in liquid form, and then playing a bit with continents as I made tabouleh with pomegranate for dinner, I should say that life is nevertheless quite okay. 

Gruyère

This winter, we have gone big on soups. Tonight, the turn had come to a portobello mushroom soup with Gruyère cheese, pancetta and parsley, super yummy, and perfect comfort food under a steel grey sky as Russian “Ivan Gren” landing ships gather in the Baltic and the Swedish troops on Gotland are being reinforced. Thinking back on my own trip there in October, it all feels strangely surreal. Let’s just hope that cooler heads will once again prevail.

Holy cannoli

To my surprise, our local café "Crosta" is now selling Sicilian cannoli which is most welcome since I feel quite under the weather after my booster. Hopefully, all will be back to normal before Monday when I start teaching. Though it has been a long time coming, the university vice-chancellor finally announced new rules for the spring semester, including capping the maximum number of students to 50 for lectures and giving some flexibility with regard to how closely we have to follow the syllabus. For my political philosophy class, I have already planned for a hybrid version with both campus teaching and pre-recorded lectures in case the students (or I for that matter) get sick.

Down in Ukraine, the situation remains tense. The other day, Leonid Bershidsky had a great piece on how important it is to look beyond Putin and offer the Russian people real hope of European integration. I could not agree more. While this ideally should have been done already in the 1990s, we urgently need to break the underlying antagonistic logic and realize that there cannot be any winners in a conflict with nuclear weapons.

Moderna

After receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for my first two doses in Lycksele, I got to top up with a booster dose of Moderna today on campus here in Umeå. Considering the level of community transmission right now, I am most grateful that the minimum interval was just reduced from six to five months, even it means that I will have to discontinue my running challenge. Though rare, heart muscle inflammation is apparently more common among those who receive the Moderna vaccine, and that is something I really want to avoid.

Hausbrandt

With William starting the new school year at home due to a lingering cough, the so called “life puzzle” is again under strain. Taking a break from the marking, I was at least able to briefly escape to the swimming pool today which made wonders to my laptop neck.

Otherwise, the school just sent out the first alert that someone had tested positive for Covid. Given the extreme transmissibility of the omicron variant, this feels a bit like yesterday’s news. Looking at the data, it seems pretty clear that we will all be exposed and that nothing short of a China-style lockdown, if even that, would be sufficient at this point.

On an happier note, and for those of us who never stopped dreaming about Europe, I just imported some coffee from Café Hausbrandt in Trieste, including a big red bag of “Academia” beans. Like in the good old pre-covid days, I plan to make a large thermos with Americano every morning to bring along to my lectures.

Lovely linearity

Like last year, Idre Fjällmaraton is organizing a series of virtual races through the winter months. The first one, called “Natten”, is a 11 km headlamp race starting at 6 pm tonight. Though tempted, I decided to stick to the strict linearity of my January challenge by running ten exhausting kilometres on the USM treadmill instead, a decision made easier by the fact that it was a freezing -20 degrees outside.

Yesterday, I also finally challenged myself to try “Yoga for runners” with Adriene. Considering my limited range of motion, it must have looked pretty funny. Luckily, I was all alone on my yoga mat, so I did not have to feel embarrassed. Anyhow, with Strava having a 30 minute per week yoga challenge in January, I will give it another shot before long and, hopefully, I will gain some flexibility. 

Otherwise, a new round of Covid restrictions was just announced but it is still unclear what exactly they will mean for my classes that are starting next week...

Fire

At long last, Eddie got his wish fulfilled and we made a fire on the beach. With the temperature down to -20 degrees, I remember going swimming at the same spot, thinking that life here really follows the seasons.

While the boys play Monopoly on the kitchen floor, I am back to grading theses and following the news from Kazakhstan. Having long been a relative stable country in an otherwise turbulent region, its descent into violence is another reminder of the inherent fragility of authoritarian regimes. Yet, in light of the Russia-supported crackdown, democracy is clearly not around the corner either.

Lens flare

With no need for Photoshop, the morning sun flared through the lens of my phone. Today is Thursday the 6th of January and I am barely a week into my insane challenge to run the same number of kilometres as the day in the month. So far, so good, despite a real feel temperature of -17 degrees.

Yesterday, England lifted both the quarantine requirement and the pre-departure test for fully vaccinated travellers from Europe, meaning that the chances of Anna and me going to Northumberland in late February just increased significantly. The only requirement that remains is to take a lateral flow test once in the UK and pray that it turns out negative. Of course, we will take multiple self-tests on our own before leaving in order to minimize the risk of ending up in quarantine. If all goes well, this means that I may really have the 58k Northumberland Ultra to look forward to. 

Gain-of-Function

With the origins of SARS-CoV-2 still shrouded in mystery, there are now suggestions that the omicron variant could also possibly be the result of an accidental lab leak related to Gain-of-Function research. Without expert knowledge, it is of course difficult to evaluate these claims. Given the millions of people who have died from Covid and the associated toxic political fallout, it may take many years and much more advanced science until we can say with any certainty what actually happened in the early 2020s.

For now, there is still some optimism that the omicron variant may mark the end of the pandemic as it finally brings about that coveted herd immunity or, at least, makes every new wave of the pandemic less severe. In any case, the appetite for large-scale social interventions and new lockdowns is quickly waning.

Rowing and skiing

Though one may not think so from the picture above, the gym was as packed as it always is in early January. Having become increasingly fatalistic with regard to Covid, I just thanked my lucky star that I do not live in the UK where my phone would probably have been flooded with pings after every visit. In any case, the gym tends to become much less crowded past Quitters’ Day ;-)

In the afternoon, Eddie and I went skiing down to Strömpilen to pick up a parcel and share a semla. As much as I have appreciated “transportlöpning” in the past, “transportskidåkning” could very well be the next thing.

Naka Island

During the winter of 2014, Anna and I travelled around South-East Asia with Eddie who was 1.5 years old at the time. Browsing the real Gold List, I was reminded of that trip when I saw Six Senses Yao Noi listed, which happens to be just next to Naka Island where the pictures below were taken. Fighting through the snowstorm on skis with Eddie, it definitely felt like a world away. Obviously, with the Covid situation, returning is off the radar but I guess a Sentimental Sunday never hurts.

Pumpernickel

Overnight, the weather turned mild and windy with snow. Running in my sturdy Salomon Snowspike CSWP, I did my two kilometres before returning home to play “Sverige Runt” from the 1980’s with Eddie. The game offers a flashback to a time when Lund was the only university in southernmost Sweden and pandemics were something that belonged to the past or the odd science-fiction novel.

Innocent enough

Waking up to a new year under cold skies, I felt strangely liberated by my new strict training regime and the fact that I could not go for a long run today. Instead, I raced down to Kyrkstugan and back for a total of one kilometre before making an oriental lunch with lentils, raisins and cilantro. Tomorrow, I will double the distance...