Mirinda had Swedish class today so, as usual, she clambered into Max and headed for the station. A short time later I received a series of frantic text messages asking why the trains were not appearing. It seemed that her normal train had been cancelled and so was the next one.
The only information I was able to find was the fact that there is going to be track work going on for the next few weekends and trains would be stopping at different stations but, other than that, there appeared to be no problems.
Needless to say, I now have a number of apps on my phone which successfully supply me with conflicting information about the state of Swedish trains.
The trains were not the only cancellations today.
Originally, Fi and I were going to attend a piano and soprano concert hosted by the Chamber Music in Trosa (Trosa Kammarmusik) group. I went to the Ukrainian music concert a couple of weeks ago and, having secured the programme of events, thought Fi might like to join me for this one. She proclaimed she’d love to.
We spent most of the day together, heading into Trosa for lunch at Två Små Svin only to find it closed up tight. They had a big Octoberfest thing on yesterday so we figured they were all a bit ‘under the weather’ today. The empty stroller left outside was a bit concerning but the baby seemed to have escaped.
We walked up a convenient alley and ate at Tre Små Rum instead.
Unfortunately, the crows didn’t bother us. I say ‘unfortunately’ because Fi was really looking forward to squirting them with one of the water bottle deterrents supplied by the owners. Still, apart from that, the food was excellent and the rain held off for as long as it took us to eat it.
The crows were not the only birds in our day. Early on, a blue tit decided it would be fun to fly into the glass room only to discover it couldn’t find the exit. I was in my office, but the girls came to tell me something was amiss. I followed them out to the glass room and spotted the poor little bird flapping away at the glass.
I managed to corral it in a corner and opened one of the other glass panels for it to fly off home. It looked very thankful to me. But, back at Tre Små Rum…
…the rain started as we were heading home. And the wind. There was a powerful wind which, combined with the rain, made it a bit cold. Or so Fi said. I didn’t notice. I am still wearing shorts and t-shirt given the temperature hasn’t really wandered very far from around 18°.
The rain (and the wind) didn’t last too long and we were soon dry and warm once more as we retraced our steps back to the house. We had an hour respite before we had to leave for the concert so we sat and chatted.
I noticed an email had popped up on my phone during one of my routine checks to see if Mirinda was still having any problems. She didn’t. In fact, having failed to get a train at Vagnhärad, she drove over to Gnesta and caught one from there. She missed the first half of her class but at least made the second.
No, the email that popped up was from the organisers of the concert. One of the performers had called in sick and the concert had to be cancelled. Devastation reigned. For a bit. Then I made an apple tart and things started to brighten up again.
The other day, Mirinda returned from Nicoline’s place bearing a big bag full of apples from her various, overladen trees. They have sat in our big red fruit bowl ever since. The apples, not the overladen trees.
So, instead of attending the cancelled concert, I made a Romanian apple cake (tort de mere).
It was delicious after dinner with a bit of cream.
