NordenBladet — The Palace, with the Royal Apartments, the museums and gift shop, is open Tuesday to Sunday at 10:00–16:00. Stroll on your own or join the guided tours!
Welcome to The Royal Palace in Stockholm. You are welcome to stroll round in the Royal Apartments*, the Treasury with the State regalia and the Tre Kronor Museum – about the palace’s medieval history. Guided tours are available all openings days.
Don’t miss the Royal Gift Shop and the changing of the Royal Guards at the Outer Court Yard.
In the Royal Apartments you will see interiors from four centuries. The photo shows Oskar II’s Drawing Room. Photo: Alexis Daflos/The Royal Court
At Museum Tre Kronor you will learn about the Palace’s medieval history. Photo: Alexis Daflos/The Royal Court
At the Royal Gift Shop, at the Outer Courtyard, you will find quality souvenires and products with links to the Royal Collections. Photo: Alexis Daflos/The Royal Court
________________________ *The Royal Apartments closes fully or partially in conjunction with His Majesty The Kings offiacial receptions.
Featured image: The Royal Palace is housing the State regalia at the Treasury (Alexis Daflos/The Royal Court)
Source: Swedish Royal Court Find us also on Twitter: @NordenBladet
NordenBladet – Sveriges Riksbank, or simply Riksbanken, is the central bank* of Sweden. It is the world’s oldest central bank and the 3rd oldest bank.
The Riksbank began operations in 1668. Previously, Sweden was served by the Stockholms Banco (also known as the Bank of Palmstruch), which was founded by Johan Palmstruch in 1656. Although the bank was private, it was the king who chose its management: in a letter to Palmstruch, he gave permission to its operations according to stated regulations. But Stockholms Banco collapsed as a result of the issuing of too many notes without the necessary collateral. Palmstruch, who was considered responsible for the bank’s losses, was condemned to death, but later received clemency. On 17 September 1668, the privilege of Palmstruch to operate a bank was transferred to the Riksens Ständers Bank (“Bank of the Estates of the Realm”) and was run under the auspices of the parliament of the day. Due to the failure of Stockholm Banco, the new bank was managed under the direct control of the Riksdag of the Estates to prevent the interference from the king. When a new Riksdag was instituted in 1866, the name of the bank was changed to Sveriges Riksbank.
Having learnt the lesson of the Stockholms Banco experience, the Riksbank was not permitted to issue bank-notes. Nevertheless, in 1701, permission was granted to issue so called credit-notes”. Some time in the middle of the 18th century, counterfeit notes began appearing, which caused serious problems. To prevent forgeries, it was decided that the Riksbank should produce its own paper for bank-notes and a paper-mill, Tumba Bruk, was founded in Tumba, on the outskirts of Stockholm.
A few years later, the first commercial banks were founded and these were also allowed to issue bank-notes. The bank-notes represented a claim to the bank without interest paid, and thus became a considerable source of income for banks. Nonetheless, security in the form of a deposit at the Riksbank was required to cover the value of all notes issued.
During the 19th century, the Riksbank maintained a dominant position as a credit institution and issuer of bank-notes. The bank also managed national trade transactions as well as continuing to provide credit to the general public. The first branch-office was opened in 1824, later followed with subsidiary branches opening in each county (län). The present operational activities as a central bank differ from those during the 19th century. For example, no interest-rate-related activities were conducted.
The position of the Riksbank as a central bank dates back to 1897, when the first Riksbank Act was accepted concurrently with a law giving the Riksbank the exclusive right to issue bank-notes. This copyright concluded its role and importance regarding monetary policy in a modern sense, as the exclusive right to issue notes is a condition when conducting monetary policy and defending the value of a currency. Behind the decision were repeated demands that the private banks should cease to issue notes as it was considered that the ensuing profits should befall the general public.
The Swedish currency was backed by gold and the paper-certificates could be exchanged for gold coins until 1931, when a specialized temporary law freed the bank from this obligation. This law was renewed every year until the new constitution was ratified in 1975 which split the bank from the government into a stand-alone organization not obligated to exchange notes for gold.
In November 1992, the fixed exchange rate regime of the Swedish Krona collapsed. A few months later, in January 1993, the Governing Board of the Riksbank developed a new monetary policy regime based on a floating exchange rate and an inflation target. These policies were extensively influenced by assistance from the Bank of Canada, which had extensive previous experience controlling inflation, while being a similar small open economy, heavily subject to foreign exchange rate swings.
From 1991 to 1993, Sweden experienced its most severe recession since the 1930s termed the “Swedish banking rescue”. It forced inflation down to around 2%, and inflation continued to be low during the subsequent years of strong growth in the late 1990s.
During the 2000s, the operations and administrative departments were downsized on behalf of the policy departments Financial Stability Department and Monetary Policy Department. A direct consequence of the changing times was that the Riksbank closed down all its branches in Sweden and outsourced the handling of coins and bills to a private company. Today the policy departments are the core of the central bank and they employ about half of the bank’s 350 full-time posts.
Logo:
Motto:
The motto of the Bank is Hinc robur et securitas, which is Latin for “Herefore strength and safety” (“Härav styrka och säkerhet”).
Hedquarters:
Brunkebergstorg 11, 103 37 Stockholm, Sweden
_________________________________ * A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages a state’s currency, money supply, and interest rates. Central banks also usually oversee the commercial banking system of their respective countries. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central bank possesses a monopoly on increasing the monetary base in the state, and usually also prints the national currency, which usually serves as the state’s legal tender. Central banks also act as a “lender of last resort” to the banking sector during times of financial crisis. Most central banks usually also have supervisory and regulatory powers to ensure the solvency of member institutions, prevent bank runs, and prevent reckless or fraudulent behavior by member banks.
Central banks in most developed nations are institutionally designed to be independent from political interference. Still, limited control by the executive and legislative bodies usually exists.
Featured image: Sveriges Riksbank in Stockholm (NordenBladet)
NordenBladet – The drive to promote Sweden is being given a new and extended dimension in the form of cinema films specially packaged for presentation, discussion and marketing via Swedish embassies and consulates the world over.
Swedish cinema often leaves a strong impression of our country, in many different ways, and has long been a much appreciated part of the relation-building process between Sweden and other countries.
The film package contains a high-quality selection of up to 20 or so current Swedish feature films, short films and documentaries, gathered together with a uniform graphic profile and accompanying information matter. The package is being distributed to about a hundred Swedish embassies and consulates, and will provide a basis for non-commercial film screenings in contexts both large and small – often at local film festivals and at events organised at universities and cultural institutions. If you have questions about these screenings, please contact your local embassy/consulate.
The overarching aim is to communicate images of Sweden and to increase both knowledge about Swedish cinema and its presence elsewhere. This promotion package will also offer Swedish cinema greater exposure abroad than when individual films are launched at film festivals and fairs etc. The screenings are often attended by industry representatives from the films taking part and by other professional media representatives in the country concerned. The Film Box is augmented by digital tools for use in planning, marketing and following up screenings.
A vital feature of this promotional activity is the fact that the films included in the box have been translated and subtitled in the major global languages so as to reach non-English-speaking audiences as well. The subtitle files will be freely available for the various producers involved to use as they see fit.
NordenBladet – That who seeks cheap marketing is already making a huge tactical mistake before the marketing starts. There is no such thing as cheap marketing if you are actually looking for good results to the advertisement of your products and wish for success and increasing sales numbers. There are good solutions and favourable solutions, but never is this cheap. Things that are cheap are and will remain cheap (tenth rank and abandoned) and when you choose the cheap way then your product and service will be cheap and destined to perish before advertising. Either your product-service is so good that it needs no further advertising or it needs professional and tergeted advertising, which will cost.
Let us start from day one. A blogger/website that offers services for a sandwich will not lead you to success. Why is that? You think that for the purpose of SEO advancement a link to your product in every possible blog is a bonus. Think again unless you want to be limited to registering for yourself in some cheap American webhost hundreds of domains, proceed with copy-paste web pages and keep spreading your links. Cheap – certainly, meaningful – not. It is equally meaningless to advertise yourself for a small sum in some random blog. The world is reigned by top domains that have very real followers, and as head of the big Scandinavian media group and two very big, decade-running and influencial blog environments I can assure you that this is something that will not change anytime soon. When meanwhile media publishers might have got the feeling that bloggers were eating the sausage from their sandwich, this is the past today – stronger bloggers have grown their blogs into media enterprises and businesses (for example Chiara Ferragni, Kenza Zouiten, Therése Lindgren, Isabella Löwengrip, Perez Hilton etc), yet most of the regular bloggers who might even enjoy tens of thousands of readers, are not stepping on the heals, not even on the shadow of big media.
I give a number of talks and interviews on the topic of social media and media. The first question that I am always asked is: „How have I succeeded to getso many readers and social media followers?”. Another frequent question is: „Have I myself ever bought in followers or what is my opinion on buying in followers?”.the third most frequent question is: „How have I managed to develop OHMYGOSSIP also into a garment brand and how have i managed to market it besides the web sites also in America and Brazil?”.
Very often have I been giving answers to these questions, but let us repeat them for the sake of clarity. When you wish your product/service to be bought, to be sought for and to bring in the money for you then No1 you would be interested only in a specific target group and organic or actual followers. A figure somewhere on someone’s Facebook/Twitter/Instagram account is valuable only if the followers are real – not robots, not fake accounts – actual people. Therefore any kind of purchase of followers is absurd, pointless.
Further on, it is unwise to suggest that thse who have actual followers will for some reason free of charge or for very symbolic cost advertise you. Those whose actual numbers of followers, like NordenBladet and OHMYGOSSIP sites, are big, those do not sell to you banner ads or ad-articles for symbolic sums. What then is the sum and threshold where you can start buying ad-articles in Scandinavia/Northern countries? These numbers may vary from one edition to another, but ad-article prizes in Sweden/Norway/Denmark are minimum 2500 EUR per story and in Finland/Estonia 1500-2000 EUR per one story. This is the baseline, top expenditures are not fixed, since each company will assess how valuable they are and how high they wish to fly (how many advertisment-images, ad links, reflection in social media they expect). We mostly offer a package deal, the articles being published simultaneously in four languages (sometimes five), and the best prices start from 100 000 SEK or ca 9600 euros.
It is not very simple to increase reader numbers – it is the results of years of work. Serious entrepreneurs know this and have the readiness to cover the costs for providing quality reader numbers. My message here is the following – should you wish to attain actual results, take the truthful path. Followers will not fall from the sky and if you wish to be advertised then this also will not simpl fall from the sky – for someone else to tender and promote your business, you need to pay an honest price. Shoud anyone promise you the result without proper payment, they will deceit you. Everything has a price and you will not access a valuable result below its actual price.
NordenBladet – Her Majesty’s sepulchral monument is now set up and stands in Saint Bridget’s Chapel at Roskilde Cathedral. Here, The Queen will be laid to rest alongside nearly 40 Danish kings and queens from the early Middle Ages until today.
The preparation of the monument has been underway since 2003, when the sculptor, professor Bjørn Nørgaard, was commissioned to create a modern sepulchral monument that can be incorporated into the large number of royal grave monuments at Roskilde Cathedral. From the project’s beginning, Bjørn Nørgaard was in close dialogue with The Queen and Prince Henrik about the idea and the design of the work “Sarcophagus”.
The artwork represents The Queen and Prince Henrik’s joint efforts through 50 years, and The Prince’s decision to not be entombed at Roskilde Cathedral has not brought about changes in the artwork. The base is crafted in sandstone from France, and the three pillars supporting the sarcophagus are of Danish granite, Faroese basalt and Greenlandic marble, respectively. The elephant heads on the pillars are cast in silver. The sarcophagus itself is of cast glass, and, in a hollow space in the glass, two figures representing The Queen and Prince Henrik are sand-blasted on the inner side. Allegories, heraldry and symbols in gilded bronze are found on the top. The Queen will be laid to rest in a crypt under the sepulchral monument.
As the sepulchral monument will first be displayed to the public after The Queen’s death, a covering has been prepared so that visitors to the Cathedral will have a chance to visit the chapel, even though the sepulchral monument has been set up. Both the sepulchral monument and the covering are by Bjørn Nørgaard, and a 1:10 copy of the monument is exhibited in Roskilde Cathedral, where visitors can follow the crafting of a modern sepulchral monument through information boards and a coming exhibition, which is expected to be opened at the end of June.
The work and the costs of the monument have been held within the Danish Parliament’s stipulated appropriation under the Budget Act.
Since the 1400s, Roskilde Cathedral has served as the burial place for the Danish Royal House. The sepulchral monument enters into a long tradition of inscribing an epitaph in Roskilde Cathedral to the sovereign’s life and deeds.
NordenBladet — On Monday 16 April, The King presented the Compass Rose Scholarship to four young leaders who have demonstrated extraordinary courage, consideration and energy. During the ceremony, young leaders who have completed Value-Based Leadership training also received diplomas from The King.
During the afternoon’s ceremony in the Bernadotte Library at the Royal Palace of Stockholm, the Young Leadership Foundation’s Compass Rose Scholarship was presented for the 12th year running. The 50,000 kronor scholarship is presented to young leaders under the age of 25 who have demonstrated particular courage, consideration and energy. To date, 34 young leaders have received the scholarship.
This year’s scholarship winners were:
24-year-old Paulina Olsson from Varberg, co-founder of Peppy Pals. Paulina was presented with the scholarship for “having worked, with value-based leadership, to teach children about soft human values and empathy, using technology”.
23-year-old Omid Mahmoudi from Malmö, founder of the Association for Unaccompanied Children and Otto Meeting Place. Omid was presented with the scholarship for “having demonstrated, with value-based leadership, that the power and faith in the future of an unaccompanied child brings hope and change to many people together”.
23-year-old Julius Kramer from Stockholm, former officer of the Agenda 2030 delegation and director of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM). Julius was presented with the scholarship for “having worked, with value-based leadership, full of humble learning and action, to promote both important social issues and our fellow human beings”.
21-year-old Gustav Plantin from Staffanstorp, Chairman of Staffanstorp United. Gustav was presented with the scholarship for “having worked, with value-based leadership, to change opposition into tolerance and cooperation, and having contributed towards a better society using football as a tool”.
During the afternoon’s ceremony in the Bernadotte Library, many young leaders who had completed Value-Based Leadership training received their diplomas. The aim of the training is to strength young leaders’ leadership by clarifying values and providing guidance on how these can be shown in behaviour and in all life’s decisions and actions.
Young Leadership
The Young Leadership Foundation, opens in new window was a gift to The King on his 60th birthday, at the initiative of the Scouts. The foundation works to highlight young leaders with good value-based leadership skills. The foundation’s values are based on the values of the Scout Movement, and courage, consideration and energy are central to good value-based leadership.
The Compass Rose Scholarship is awarded to young people who, regardless of their formal title, have shown through their actions that they have taken responsibility and demonstrated involvement above and beyond the ordinary, and who can show that the scholarship can help them to keep developing good leadership. The King’s Young Leadership Foundation operates the scholarship programme. The scholarship amount is SEK 50,000 per scholarship, to be used for personal leadership development.
Value-based leadership is a folk high school course which is arranged by the Scouts and the Scouts’ Folk High School in cooperation with industry and other voluntary youth organisations, with the support of The King’s Young Leadership Foundation.
24-year-old Paulina Olsson from Varberg, co-founder of Peppy Pals, receives the Compass Rose Scholarship. Photo: Henrik Garlöv/royalcourt.se
23-year-old Omid Mahmoudi from Malmö, founder of the Association for Unaccompanied Children and Otto Meeting Place, receives the Compass Rose Scholarship during the ceremony in the Bernadotte Library. Photo: Henrik Garlöv/royalcourt.se
23-year-old Julius Kramer from Stockholm, former officer of the Agenda 2030 delegation and director of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), receives the Compass Rose Scholarship. Photo: Henrik Garlöv/royalcourt.se
21-year-old Gustav Plantin from Staffanstorp, Chairman of Staffanstorp United, receives the Compass Rose Scholarship. Photo: Henrik Garlöv/royalcourt.se
Featured image: The King welcomes the scholarship winners and Secretary General of the Swedish Scout Movement Katarina Hedberg to the drawing room of the Bernadotte Library before the ceremony. Photo: Henrik Garlöv/royalcourt.se
Source: Swedish Royal Court Find us also on Twitter: @NordenBladet
NordenBladet — On Tuesday 17 April, The King held an audience with India’s Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi at the Royal Palace of Stockholm. The Crown Princess also took part in the audience.
During his visit to Sweden, the Prime Minister also held discussions with Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and met Minister for Enterprise and Innovation Mikael Damberg and Swedish business leaders during a visit to Stockholm City Hall.
Prime Minister Modi’s visit also included a Nordic-Indian summit at the Grand Hôtel, attended by all the Nordic heads of government.
Featured image: The King and The Crown Princess received India’s Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi in Princess Sibylla’s Apartments at the Royal Palace of Stockholm. Photo: Henrik Garlöv/royalcourt.se
Source: Swedish Royal Court Find us also on Twitter: @NordenBladet
NordenBladet — On Wednesday 11 April, the Global Child Forum 2018 was held at the Royal Palace of Stockholm. More than 300 participants from around the world came together to discuss children’s rights issues.
This was the tenth Global Child Forum on children’s rights. The participants represented global businesses, financial institutions, the UN, academia and the Swedish Government.
The day began with The King welcoming the participants with a speech in which he emphasised the fact that the children’s rights perspective needs to be a feature of all operations:
“Business impacts on children. And therefore, we must let children impact on business. Leaders of the corporate and finance sectors are in a unique position to protect and advance children’s rights.”
The King also emphasised the importance of cooperation between different sectors:
“For children’s rights to be truly realised, collaboration is necessary. Companies, governments and civil society must work together, side by side.”
Speakers during the day included CEO and Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact Lise Kingo, Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, whose Missing Chapter Foundation works to give children a voice in society, and Minister for Enterprise Mikael Damberg.
Two young Indonesian representatives from the Time to Talk! organisation, Fauza Ananda and Ruth Kesia, spoke about their experiences of child labour.
The day concluded with a speech by The Crown Princess about how the UN’s 17 global sustainable development goals, for which The Crown Princess is an advocate, are all linked to children’s rights.
“Goal number one, no poverty, is for the child who is married off because her parents can’t afford to say no. […] Goal number 16, peace, justice and strong institutions, is for all the children whose childhoods are taken away from them by violence and persecution. I could go on. But I think you see my point: that all Global Goals are, in fact, children’s rights goals.”
The Global Child Forum
The Global Child Forum was initiated by the Royal Family in 2009, and is an independent platform that brings together world-leading players for in-depth dialogue and to raise awareness of children’s rights. The aim is to identify solutions to the most pressing issues when it comes to businesses’ opportunities to influence children’s rights.
One of the speakers at the conference was Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands. Photo: Henrik Garlöv/royalcourt.se
Princess Sofia speaks with participants during the round-table discussions. Photo: Henrik Garlöv/royalcourt.se
Prince Daniel takes part in one of the Global Child Forum’s round-table discussions, or ‘Action Labs’. Photo: Henrik Garlöv/royalcourt.se
Featured image: The King and Queen with Ruth Kesia and Fauza Ananda from Indonesia, who represented the organisation Time to Talk! at the Global Child Forum 2018. Photo: Henrik Garlöv/royalcourt.se
Source: Swedish Royal Court Find us also on Twitter: @NordenBladet
NordenBladet – the City of Tartu Rowing Club SAK Tartu (Sõudespinning Estonia) member Hanna-Liisa Ennet (38) performed a world record result in the beginning of April, completing the indoor rowing ultradistance 1000 km – an accomplishment that in Estonian indoor rowing history has been achieved just once before by the Estonian sportsmen-tandem (athletes Rait Merisaar and Rainer Saad) – thereby being the one female rower in Estonia ever to have completed this extreme distance in a limited timeframe and furthermore, to have completed the distance individually as opposed to tandem, rowing the entire distance solo without shifts.
„The leading motivational prerequisite to cover the 1000 km distance is the person’s inner drive to do so. Once you have the necessary motivation, you just need to develop the habit of being seated on the erg, catching one meter after another – adapting your muscular and skeletal apparatus and advancing the overall endurance of the system. It is important to choose the optimal pace and setting, and distributing the work load timewise and muscle group engagement wise,” says ultrarower Hanna-Liisa Ennet to NordenBladet.ee.
„Completion of the Million Meter world record row is definitely the biggest and most exciting event in my life so far. The experience is rendered especially unique in the light that the international community of such „crazy” ultra rowers is very narrow and there are just a few who have successfully completed this particular challenge. The Million Meter community is small but supercool! Hereby I have to admit that it is difficult to achieve anything significant without a great team of allies – I have been lucky to have a great team in this enterprise and I wish to thank all the support team members for being there in order to help, supervise and encourage as well as just being there beside me,” added Ennet.
Who: Hanna-Liisa Ennet (38yrs) When: Monday, 2nd April 2018, 02.00 am until Monday, 9th April 2018, 01.00 am What: Individual Million Meters on Concept2 Indoor Rower Supervised by: Rait Merisaar, Rowing Club SAK Tartu Category: F30-39 Hwt
Excerpts from Hanna-Liisa Ennet’s Million Meter sports journal:
The idea of completing an ultradistance emerged perhaps in November last year, when our Rowing Club boss, coach and world record holder Rait Merisaar forwarded me a story about a recent individual Million Meter world record row, written down in a fascinating style by the ultra distance indoor rower David Plumb. On the one hand the story was of course extraordinary from the point of view of the accomplishment, and on the other hand the text itself was very enjoyable. So it happened that I read the story repeatedly until I started to wonder if I myself might actually be capable of accomplishing something like that, too.
By the end December last year I had been entertaining the idea for a while, in January I already took concrete steps to start moving towards achieving this goal – I participated in the Virtual Team Challenge and covered the distance of circa a thousand kilometres within 31 days. However, my target was something bigger. I wished to cover 1000 km in a narrow time frame. In February we had conversations with the coach about the optimal rowing schedule options and within February and the beginning of March we had a solid plan and detailed schedule on the table.
The ambitious plan (Plan A) was to row 1000 km in seven days. Counting calendar days it actually took a little bit of the eighth, too, but if we count start time then the assignment to cover 1000 km was completed quite exactly within seven days.
The million meters total was eventually built up from 21 km units: morning sessions comprised 3 half marathons and evening sessions comprised 4 half marathons. A half marathon is 21097m in distance and it normally would take up to 2 hours to row one (my times are mostly 1:40 … 1:50). the Million Meter schedule had foreseen seven halfies to be completed every day – except for Day 4 when the schedule had foreseen half the working load, and Day 1 when the schedule had foreseen 8 half marathons (4 full marathons) during the day. When doing longer distances it is predictable that the times deviate a bit from one’s usual standards, since the pace of rowing 1000 km (47 half marathons) cannot remain the same as it is when you pop in the gym for just one half marathon with fresh and relaxed muscles.
The start time was 02.00 am on April 2, 2018. From then on the start times were 03.00 am every day. By the end of Day 1 I was planning to cover 168 km, by the end of Day 2 I was planning to cover 315 km, by the end of Day 3 I was planning to cover 462 km, by the end of Day 4 I was planning to cover 546 km, by the end of Day 5 I was planning to cover 693 km, by the end of Day 6 I was planning to cover 840 km and by the end of Day 7 I was planning to cover the full distance 1000 km. I was able to stick to the plan during the entire week, therefore it didn’t scare me for once that it might perhaps turn out necessary to reschedule the row in the middle of the week, or that it might turn out inevitable to discontinue at some point. It occurred just once that we had a serious 10-minute dispute and discussion with the supervisor about how to proceed with the plan, since towards the end of Day 3 the day’s final 21km unit was lagging behind schedule. I had been wondering to myself whether it were reasonable to build in some modifications to the week’s plan. However, the plan remained exactly as it had been printed out before Day 1, thanks to the experience and convincing arguments from the supervisor Rait Merisaar – so I proceeded by covering the final unit that same night and never brought up the question of possible rowing schedule modifications later that week.
Still, there was this one exception concerning the final day, when the starting time 03.00 am was postponed 1,5 hours due to falling asleep later the previous evening – I went to sleep at around midnight and didn’t wake until half past 3 am; besides, yet an additional delay in the starting time was due to my wrists and fingers – after having rowed many hundreds of kilometres my hands had become spastic and numb at the same time so that freshly after waking I couldn’t get them anywhere near fine working order before a 30-minute stretching and stimulating massage.
The most grievous point was the one day before it all began. The previous week had dashed by, full of preparations, always in a hurry, getting everything ready, thinking it all through, purchasing the final products. Lunchtime was gone before I noticed and instead of building up the energy reserve I lost a few kilos – due to involuntarily skipping meals and permanently rushing and perhaps worrying more than usual. Two days before the start I was also supposed to refrain from training, so I didn’t move as much as usually and as a result the system reacted to these interruptions: I developed a slight fever and had a running nose. Both manifestations I attribute to performance anxiety and therefore I didn’t contemplate any modifications or trade-offs to the rowing schedule.
—
During the first week of April I completed individual million meters (1000 km) on the erg. Indoor rowing ultra distances have earlier been pushed just once by Estonian sportsmen – by the tandem Rait Merisaar and Rainer Saad. The extreme distance is a strain for the body as well as the mind, assuming preparations and planning, and also quite a bit of courage to choose the road less travelled, to put it figuratively.
Among the more interesting questions for me about this eneterprise is the question of motivation: why would one choose to spend an entire week seated on the erg, pulling the handle? It could perhaps be thrilling to spend an hour in the gym, or to train two hours, ten hours, maybe even as long as 24 hours – but why remain on the erg for a week?
One option to answer this is to ask back: why not?
Why wouldn’t you want to challenge yourself with a task more difficult than the average and why wouldn’t you wish to learn your boundaries and your possible reactions in extreme situations? When facing a strange and voluminous task we oftentimes exaggerate the importance of the task and frustrate ourselves with mere thoughts about it, not acting upon it. Looking back it often happens that the enterprises that used to seem weighty at first somehow later seem quite ordinary or at least sufficiently manageable and the discrepancy between perceiving the magnitude of that what is still ahead and what has already passed is the obstacle keeping us back from trying new things, dreaming big, and planning accordingly. We tend to automatically put the label „Of great magnitude and risk” to a task, instead of dividing the assignment into building blocks and milestones, and getting things done „one day at a time”, not being excessively disturbed by the volume of the entire enterprise along the way.
For me personally, besides the rowing part itself, the planning of the million meters row was equally exciting. One of my role models, the successful British Olympian Sir Steve Redgrave has emphasized the benefits of visualization: when getting ready for a competition it is equally important – besides proceeding with the regular training routine – to imagine the situation of the competition and be mentally in the process of the competition in full detail. For example: to visualize having been seated on the erg for the entire day, for two days, for three days – what kind of thoughts I might be having, what kind of desires, what kind of mood, what I might like to eat, what I might wish to do during the breaks. Once I have these answers ready in advance I will have all the time uniquely for focussing on the task of covering the distance. Also, by excluding possible surprises the level of anxiety and fright would be lower, knowing that there is no significant obstacle potentially impeding the accomplishment of the enterprise or perhaps even coercing me to stop.
The preparation period was actually very brief, yet thanks to the pressing urge that overwhelmed me, a practical action plan materialized and over these few months I also pulled myself together to the best emotional and physical condition or quite close to that. I also managed to get ready with the logistics and the technical preliminaries. January had been the month of another challenge, so in February I mostly took it easy and rather than tiring myself more, tried to monitor my individual peculiarities of recovery, keeping in mind that the end of an enormous effort is not the finish line but instead the end of the recovery phase. I visited the sports doctor in order to have my health checked and to avoid possible hazards – the test showed wonderful results and that added to my self-confidence and pleasant excitement concerning the project. In the beginning of March I trained more intensely after the transition period, towards the end of March continued with the usual training routine, aiming to save energy and maintain a balance between fitness and fatigue. A week before the Big Row I took a holiday from work, to peacefully ponder the rowing schedule and the week’s agenda, to aquire and own it, and attain readiness to contribute the maximum to this goal, knowing that if everything goes as planned I would be enjoying the fruits of the work in a week’s time. Early enough I had already prepared many pairs of sporting kits – training shirts and leggings, sports shoes, etc. Also I had packed an exhaustive first aid suitcase for any possible complaint (and didn’t use it), I had the drinking bottles and sports drinks all ready and the food list compiled.
Two days before the start I catered the meals for the week. The amount of food was plenty and so there was at once one worry less: at least I wouldn’t be hungry during the week! Since I had carefully planned my healthy meals during the preparation period, eating at least one warm meal every day, including meat and dairy products, then during the Million Meter row I had intended to kind of take advantage of that preparation. During the million meter row I mainly consumed liquids, mostly sports drinks. During one half marathon (21097m) I usually consumed about 500ml of liquids. During the breaks I also preferred fluid food – strawberry/banana protein drinks, rhubarb kissel. Not once during that week did I crave for the salty or the normal food – I only ate tiny bits out of a sense of duty. Regarding all the extreme physical activity I wouldn’t have been able to eat an entire plateful at a time anyway.
Very special thanks: Rait Merisaar – for preparations, good advice, and being an example
The Million Meters support team: Rait Merisaar, Piret Väljaots, Anneli ja Jüri Ennet, Liisi Toom, Ardi Sažko, Marian Hiire, Eve Külasalu, Rachel Kõllo, Maris Kaurov, Vahur Soosaar
Also, my acknowldgements to people who have earlier and in various ways inspired me and have been my idols, friends, training partners, companions and role models in sports: Olympic gold medalist Sir Steve Redgrave, David Plumb, Ian Holmes, Tiina Kapten, Rainer Saad, Markel Pärnsalu, Kevin Kriisa, Aleksei Lipintsov, Andres Siiman.
NordenBladet — On Monday 9 April, a diplomatic reception was held at the Royal Palace of Stockholm. A few times a year, newly-appointed ambassadors and their spouses are given the opportunity to meet The King and The Queen during a reception at the Royal Palace of Stockholm. The Crown Princess and Prince Daniel also took part in Monday’s diplomatic reception.
The first time newly-appointed ambassadors meet The King is when they submit their credentials at a formal audience. At the diplomatic reception, they also have the chance to meet The Queen and other ambassadors, as well as representatives from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
The reception was attended by ambassadors and their spouses from the Dominican Republic, Portugal, Turkey, Ethiopia, Lebanon, South Korea, Egypt and Iraq.
The Dominican Republic’s ambassador is welcomed by The King and Queen and The Crown Princess Couple. Photo: royalcourt.se
Featured image: The King welcomes Iraq’s ambassador. (Photo: royalcourt.se)
Source: Swedish Royal Court Find us also on Twitter: @NordenBladet
