I was sitting in the restaurant at the Vasa Museum today, when I noticed a couple sitting at the next table. They sounded French. They were there for lunch and, all through and after their meal, he didn’t take his eyes off his phone while she sat, silent looking wistfully off into the middle distance. I wondered why they had nothing to talk about and what it was he found more interesting than her. I found it quite sad.
I took the above surreptitious photo without noticing the stupid water bottle. You’ll have to take my word for it that he is staring intently at his phone.
I was at the Vasa Museet restaurant to meet Mirinda, Lisa, Jack and Max for lunch before heading for the Nordiska Museet. Mirinda had gone in earlier, leaving me with the puppies for a few extra hours of company. One of them almost made me late.
I had put them out the back to go to the loo, using the poo buffer I’d allowed. They did their usual wandering around then commenced the necessaries. Emma finished first and came bouncing back in, unaware I was about to leave them. Of Freya, there was no sign. I continued getting ready to leave.
With five minutes before departure looming, I went looking for the still missing Freya. She was standing awkwardly in the middle of the grass looking balefully at me. I called her. She started towards me.
Just as she entered the house, she gave herself a vigorous shake, sending bits of poo everywhere.
I then had to clean her, and the floor, up. It was not pleasant, particularly having to cut off a big, congealed lump of poo stuck fast to her butt. Still, I finished and was at the bus stop a full two minutes before its arrival. But I could have done without the stress and pressure.
Lisa, Jack and Max were in Stockholm as part of, what Lisa is calling, a sabbatical. Jack is calling it a holiday. They have already been to Greece and Berlin and are here to see us. And they loved the Vasa – how could they not?
Mind you, by the time we reached the Nordisk, Lisa and Jack were looking pretty tired. This could be because Lisa keeps getting up at all hours to attended meetings with various boards in Australia each day. As I mentioned to Mirinda, it doesn’t sound like a very appealing sabbatical.
The Nordisk was marvellous. When I went back in 2021, they were installing a new section on traditional celebrations. Today I got to see it. What great fun. From St Lucia to the painting of Easter eggs, the gallery is a year of what the Swedes do best – getting together to celebrate things.
The exhibition on climate change was excellent, though incredibly depressing. I wanted to ask Max what they thought of the future but figured there was little point. Most people either don’t believe anything will happen, or that someone will come along with a miracle bit of technology and fix it. That sounds a bit like waiting for the Messiah to me. Pointless.
The exhibition highlights how much ice is melting at the polar caps and includes little titbits of information such as: Every round-trip flight between New York and London costs the Arctic another three square metres of ice, as reported in Expressen in 2017.
I preferred the Inuit creation myth about a crow that came and told the people he could show them light rather than the perpetual darkness they were living in. The people had never seen light, but the more they heard about it, the more they wanted to. They told the crow to fly off and get them some.
The crow flew until, exhausted, he turned himself into a mote of dust and rested with a handy family. It was quite a special family because it had a box full of daylight in the form of balls. When one of the children started playing with one of the balls, the crow quickly turned back into a bird, stole the ball and returned home with it in his beak.
When he arrived, exhausted again, the ball fell from his beak and shattered on the ground. Light went everywhere, making people very happy. Except…the ball was only strong enough to light half of each year, which is why it’s dark for the other half.
As I said, I do love a creation myth.
Lisa, Jack and Max are rumoured to be coming over to visit us tomorrow. Let’s hope the weather is pleasant.
