The Norrmalms Syndrom
Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Fri 7 Dec 2012 07:43
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There is a term in psychology called the
Norrmalmstorgs syndrom. It was discovered around 1975 when a bank robbery became
a record breaking 20 days of hostage taking in a bank at Norrmalms Torg /
Stockholm. The syndrom happened after 10 days or so, the hostages actually
startied to sympathize with the robbers. The situation was so absurd that when
the police finally broke in the hostages tried to protect the
robbers.
The explanation is of course that when your
life is dependent on somebody you cannot afford to make that your
enemy.
Most sailboat owners "love" their boat. I guess.
Even in Falmouth the junk yard of boats laying around the mud in low tide have
names that tell you about a relation that might not last any longer. A boat
needs to be taken care of and it shows imidiately whe you loose grip on
her.
What happens with that relation when you realize
that your life is dependent upon her? What love comes out of that "hostage"
situation?
I wrote in an earlier blog this summer about the
question, can you love a boat? Well not the material itself, but the thought,
the experience from people dead long ago, that learned that life could be a
little bit easier with that angle on a wooden step and so on.
Our 23 year old boat is not just a boat built from
nothing, she is hudred years of seafaring experience. Yet, still, hell
could break loose with a fire or a big leak. And therefore I will not let her
lull me into some false security. I love her and we are dependent on her for our
lifes sake.
I make my rounds, I shine my torch into the bildge
at night, Iook at the rig and every sound needs an explanation.
People said to us before we left, how brave you
are, and I thought: - are we?
Yes we are, in this situation we have to take every
step possible to make sure nothing happens. We are i the middle of the
Atlantic soon, long way to go in both directions. It comes over me sometimes,
wow, this ocean is so BIG! We live on it, sleep and brush our teeth. I have
brushed m kids teeth twice a day times 9, that makes it 18 times 2 kids and
myself, 54 times! And we have probably another 10 days to go...
Celebration
We actually had a "mid trip cake" today, a total
disaster. Ellinor was sleeping and Andreas wanted a real cake. I got them into
making a "Rulltårta" that is a flat cake you bake and then roll around some good
filling. Well those that bake with their kids should have Nobels Peace Prize. It
all starts out when I bring out a cart of eggs and tell Andreas not to touch
anything. I turn around for more ingredients and I hear - OHHHP!
So focus moves from making a cake to clean
eggs.
Next thing is that we do not have 220 V unless we
charge so I got the kids to whip the eggs and sugar by manual force. They do it
slowly like making a soup so I tell them faster.
I now, I know, Ellinor would never had done such a
stupid thing! Kids can be very fast and even here the natural forces apply (more
coriolis than usual I think).
To make a short story long we finally had the cake
in the oven and since it was already 28 degrees Centigrade in the kitchen it all
became even better ( as a sauna).
In the recipe it says baking soda, well I do not
know spanish and thought that was what it meant on the package, but it was
yeast.
In the recipe you are supposed to have a special
paper that you bake on (smörpapper) but "you take what you have, said Kajsa
Wolf" and I took aluminium foil.
Out comes the cake and it looks really good. Let it
cool, put on some strawberry jam on it and now comes the Grande Finale, lets
roll the cake!
-What the....?
The cake is stiff and the aluminium foil does not
come off!
Well, keep a happy face,since we are celebrating a
sailing event, let's make cakes that look like sailing boats!
And the kids just go about, no problems, they
are the ideal fatalists.
They don't care about the Normalms
Syndrom!
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