Curling and Politics

Anette Norberg learned curling as a girl  in Härnösand many years ago, and went on to lead Sweden's hugely successful women's curling team which won gold at the 2006 and 2010 Olympics, as well as the World Championship in 2005 and 2006.  She was part of the inspiration for the building of Härnösands new curling hall, opened about 10 years ago. It meant that we are one of two towns in Sweden that offers a 6th form college education that includes curling!
We'd watched the students practicing earlier in the day. Yes, that floor really is made of ice!
However, we weren't here to watch curling. We were here to have a meeting of the town's Planning Committee. This was the first time we'd met in person this year. Covid has meant the last 10 meeting have all been via video conference, so it was great to be in the same room, speaking directly to each other, and listening to presentations where the presenter was standing in front of us! (See extra.)
Let's hope it lasts, because we were in a similar position a year ago and by November the pandemic had returned in full force. Hopefully the high proportion of vaccinated folks means our return to social mixing can continue.
If the Covid pandemic really is in retreat then next March this curling hall will be the venue for the Swedish Curling Championships and they'll be a lot more people crowded into the building than there were today!