What a morning it was. Following my usual slow start and eventual waking of Mirinda with her tea, Harald arrived to start attaching our carpentry joy. He had picked up the pieces the other day and taken them home to paint prior to the hanging. And, today was to be the start.
He arrived at about 9am and started on the lounge room side, happily beavering away.
I was in my study. Suddenly, my laptop threw a tizz wazz and decided to restart itself. Unfortunately, the ‘restarting’ screen didn’t do anything of the sort. It just sat doing nothing. Unfortunately, this happened just after Mirinda sent me six documents to print before we left.
At about this time, Harald knocked at the glassroom door, clutching his thumb which he’d tried to cut off with his saw. There was a lot of blood. Memories of The Great Chainsaw Incident of 2023 came flooding back. Mirinda took him into the kitchen and put his wound under a running tap.
There was then the fruitless search for a first aid kit which we do not have and yet really should. Once again we added one to our imaginary essentials to have at home list. Then Mirinda did her best to stem the flow of blood gushing out of Harald with paper towel, too small bandaids and an old towel.
She looked like she had everything under control so I popped back to see how my laptop was going. It hadn’t gone at all. In fact, nothing had changed. It was, supposedly, still restarting. I was to have a reading session with Nicoline but that had to be cancelled. I know I could have used my phone but the laptop needed to be fixed and we were due to leave in a couple of hours.
Eventually, I managed to start the laptop in safe mode (something I used to know how to do but, because it’s been so long, and I’m a right gamal huvud, I was forced to search for the instructions). And, finally, with almost a loud whoop of joy, I managed to reboot the laptop properly and I could print the six documents which started the panic in the first place.
Harald, on the other hand, the one without the horrific gash in it, called his son to come and pick him up and drive him to the hospital to get some stitches.
It had been a rather hectic couple of hours but, eventually, peace descended on the house. The house sitters took the girls for a walk around the mountain and Mirinda and I had a relaxing coffee.
Emma, as you’d expect, is wary of Kevin but she’s definitely fond of Elena. We drove to the station and, rather than sit on my lap like she normally does on the back seat, Emma curled up next to Elena with her head on her leg. I don’t think there’s going to be a problem.
The train into Stockholm was uneventful as was the bus ride up to the hotel we booked into for tonight. It’s just down the road from the eye clinic we have to visit in the morning. It is very comfortable, but it has a rather scary staircase.
After such a crazy morning, we eased into the afternoon and evening with a late lunch then delicious tapas for dinner.
Tapas 28 was not far down the road from the hotel. We were going to wander down to the water but, when the rain started, Mirinda declared it wouldn’t be much fun, so tapas became our new destination. It was an excellent decision.
The plates were very inventive (sadly there was no berenjenas) and utterly delicious. We returned to the hotel full and happy. And ready for bed.
Mind you, the tiredness didn’t stop me from taking this photo of an unexpected German Beer Hall.
Apologies for the cut off sign. I couldn’t step back any further and it was raining. I don’t know the guy. I think he’d come outside for a smoke. He would have got quite wet.
And Harald sent Mirinda a photo of his bound hand, saying he’d have to be off work for a while. Poor Harald. He was going off on holiday but now has no idea if he’ll be able to drive.
