Frozen shoelaces

Five days ago saw us hit a 25 year anniversary. Not of our marriage, I hasten to add. That isn’t until May and has been longer than 25 years. No, this anniversary was of our arrival in Europe on 20 February 1998. Each year we try and go out to dinner to toast the beginning of our Big Adventure.

We were going to celebrate last Tuesday in Stockholm, but Fifi wasn’t free. We were then going to celebrate on Thursday in Stockholm, but Freya was poorly. And so, unperturbed by disappointment, we went to Toscanini’s tonight instead.

It was also a final opportunity to visit our favourite local restaurant, given we leave for Ekero next week. This is also true of Tyresö Centrum. Mirinda will have to go and visit the newly rebuilt café.

Actually, I went up first thing this morning to go shopping. I wanted fish and the local Coop isn’t big on fresh fish. To be fair, it doesn’t have any. Frozen and smoked, yes, but fresh? No. And so the Ica fresh fish counter is the place to go.

And, while I’ll obviously miss Tyresö, I’ll not miss the almost constant building works going on in Ica. They were once more working on the check-outs today, leaving only two open. I’m sure it’ll all be worth it though, unfortunately, not for me.

And, to add insult to injury, they didn’t have any pork scratchings.

Not that that was the saddest news today. I was reliably informed by the very helpful Espresso House barista that hazelnut syrup will no longer be available from March 16. It seems their hazelnut lattes were a passing fad. I find that deeply upsetting.

Something I found slightly upsetting this morning was the state of my shoelaces. Because I’ve been wearing spikes on the soles of my shoes, I have sometimes, accidentally, left my shoes outside rather than take the spikes off. During the night, the sub zero temperature solidified my laces. It made tying them a bit like trying to knot a twig.

Still, among all the disappointment, we had a lovely dinner, served by a rather funny half Sicilian with a strange opinion of the Scottish.

And, before I forget, here’s how the old/new café looked today.

Now, I wonder if they’ll have hazelnut syrup…