The Stockholm syndrome

Dazed, I sit in a guest bed at the Scout Council headquatres in Stockholm, after a full day of meetings. I feel slightly shattered, after having gotten up at the crack of dawn, literally, to travel for 5 hours. On the train I wrote a text on project method. At 11 I met with the ArtDirector. We agreed on most things, had a lovely Japanees lunch box together, and I came away with a few reasonably concrete, and slightly pressing tasks.

Then I met with the woman who is responsable for coordinating the Activities Teams, to get information about what activities and camps to use as examples in the book. We both went away feeling that we knew too little about what the Temperence Scouts and the YMCA really have on offer in that respect... Need contacts!

Fredrik, my "boss", and I sat down for a spell, catching up, and then he took me on a tour to introduce me to everyone in the office. The Scout Council share the premises with a couple of the Scout organisations' administrative staff, the Scout magazine editors and WJS admin in Sweden, so there were a few people to meet.

Then we had coffee. Much needed.

Then the chief editor of the Scout magazine and I sat down to go through the last couple of years' issues to find usable articles for the book, and then I had a lie down in one of the two guest rooms on the conference floor.

Didn't have time to fall a sleep, because I was due to meet one of the key writers of the main programme policy document in town, to discuss his coments on my synopsis over dinner. I did feel a bit overwhelmed by this point in time, but he turned out to be a lovely young man. He took me to a very British style pub, where we had a Seafood casserole, a couple of pints, and very fruitful discussions about my synopsis, the programme, modern leadership, key points of the scout method, the importance of learning by doing and reflecting, B-P's stance on sexual education, and a few other things, before I felt the day taking it's toll.

He walked me to the Underground station, and I almost fell asleep on the train back to the offices, where I finally managed to get through the coded doors, didn't get stuck in the elevator, found a bathroom to brush my teeth, and are now sitting on the bed, feeling slightly lonely.

Got to get some shut-eye. Tomorrow at nine, I have a meeting with the Recruitment Strategy manager, and someone else, before I have a working lunch with Fredrik, before I take the train back to the provinces.

Goodnight!