Prepositions are very confusing

Seven tap dancing whirlwinds from seven different countries combined on the stage at the Södra Teatern tonight to present Caboom, a world of choreographed chaos that held us in awe. It came courtesy of the Sebastian Weber Dance Company and was the opening night performance for the Stockholm Tap Festival and was brilliant.

The Stockholm Tap Festival celebrated its 11th year in 2023 though it’s not been held for the past four years because of the pandemic. The two guys above, who I think are Andrew Liebmann and Jonas Nermyr, welcomed the packed house to this return. I thought they were a bit overwhelmed with the size of the audience.

Some of the audience was overwhelmed with the numbering system so that evened things up a bit. We were in row one while the row in front of us was numbered as zero with the added confusion of having 901, 902, 903, etc stamped on the seats.

Other than the weird extra row, the theatre itself was lovely. Very much a traditional proscenium arch theatre with lots of curly trimmings, ornate decoration and boxes designed to show off the inhabitants rather than the performance.

It is the oldest active theatre in Stockholm, having opened in 1859. Remarkably, it has seven stages, though we only saw the one tonight. That was sufficient because the show was more than enough to satisfy. In fact, I likened tonight’s performance to modern art; surprising at every tap. Sometimes serious, sometimes humorous, always extraordinary. An excellent night out. Not that it started there.

We’d walked up from Meatballs for the People, a marvellous restaurant we visited back in May 2021. Interestingly, they have streamlined their operation somewhat. Back when we visited in 2021, you chose a style of meal then chose the types of meatballs to go with it. For instance, I had wild boar meatballs in ramen. Now there’s only four dishes. You still choose what meatballs you want.

We don’t know why they changed the system but I reckon it was because people were getting confused with having to make two choices – style and meatballs – rather than it being more simple. I could be wrong. I often am.

Changes aside, our meals were superb. They were so good that I even bought a light weight beanie with their name and logo on it. I’ve been looking for a light weight beanie for a while, my thick reindeer one being a bit too thick, feeling like it’s making my brains boil whenever I wear it. The one tonight was the first I’ve actually liked.

We had headed into Stockholm in the late afternoon and the traffic was horrendous. This meant two very long bus rides, during which Mirinda entertained and delighted with her Swedish reading and translating skills. She did admit that she found prepositions confusing but I reckon she’s picking the language up really well.

She had a few chances to use Swedish as we first visited a phone shop in order to buy a prepaid sim card. We need a Swedish phone number in order to open a bank account. So that’s another thing ticked off on our journey of Scandi integration.

The trip home wasn’t too bad, though we had to catch three buses and walk the final kilometre rather than waiting 18 minutes for a closer stopping bus. Not to worry though because it helped walk off the meal we had.

Mirinda indulged in two gin tonic à la Meatballs. They are served with apple, black pepper and lingon syrup. They get a big thumbs up from my wife. Obviously, I had beer.

Oh, and before we get too excited about Spring, it snowed again today.