Celebration, Emily and the shed

Today, in 2020, we first stepped foot in Sweden. And, while we’ve chopped and changed a bit, back and forth, it still represents one of our massive changes of life. A bit like our red house, while our outside is pretty much the same as they have always been, inside we are quite different to the people we were back in 2019.

And so, tonight, over Persian roast chicken, we raised our glasses to an excellent idea and brilliant result.

Apart from that small relaxed celebration, today was pretty much a big flurry of activity. Mirinda was putting the finishing touches to her packing, I was putting the finishing touches to her itinerary, and Harald and Roger were making great strides with the shed.

I should explain the window which wasn’t there before.

When we first bought the red house, we were astounded to find that the window in the bedroom of the stuga didn’t open. It worked as far as being see through was concerned, but was a right pain if you liked a general circulation of air.

Mirinda asked Harald to price up how much it would cost to get a new window that would open. He did and it was quite expensive. Then, when Harald started removing the stuff out of the shed in order to start his repair work, he found a complete opening window which could easily replace the one in the stuga. He suggested using it and putting the unopening one in the shed.

Perfect, we thought, and it is. From a dark, dingy storage space, it is now full of light and a lot more appeal. Dare I say kerb appeal given it can be seen from the road.

Anyway, then, in a strange moment of advantageous coincidence, he discovered a couple of windows hanging about from another job he was working on. He decided that the shed should have three windows. And so now, it does.

Of course, Mirinda is now wondering how we can use it as a garden office.

In other news, today I heard that 38% of tourists surveyed last year, visited Paris because of the TV show Emily in Paris. Those of us who have visited Paris for years, quite a few times before Emily was born, in fact, think this is silly given the tremendous amount of other media that shows the French capital in an excellent and very appealing, light.

To be fair, watching Emily in Paris made both of us homesick for Paris. So there is that.