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The ICA was strangely deserted this morning. When I mentioned it to Louise a little later she reckoned it was because most people were probably nursing hangovers after the excesses of last night. I guess that could be why the Old Men’s Club at the Bistro were absent.
One person who was not absent was an older woman who I sometimes see slowly wandering the aisles. She pushes a trolley, wearing far too many clothes, a bucket hat pulled down over her ears and wearing what appear to be old-fashioned pilot goggles.
She is rather eccentric and always chats to the people on the check-out. She also takes ages to do anything so the queue steadily grows when she has arrived to pay. There isn’t any obvious impatience on display which is rather nice, I think.
Anyway, she was there this morning, behind me and I vaguely heard her chatting to the woman on the check-out who had just asked me how much Swedish I knew. The eccentric woman was speaking Swedish…I think. And the woman on the check-out was answering in Swedish.
The only reason I bring up the language spoken is because, a short while later, as I was sitting on the bench outside, collecting my thoughts and the will to walk home in the blazing heat of the morning, I overheard a conversation between the eccentric woman and a young man. I say ‘overheard’ but it would have been harder to ignore given how loud she was. Note that I only really heard her side of the conversation which was completely in English.
She had asked him what a greenkeeper did for a living, and after he told her, she asked him if he could come and cut her grass for her. After a short discussion, he agreed and asked for her number. This took a while but, eventually, he had it in his phone.
It was a strange interaction between two people in the middle of an almost deserted car park, who seemed to be complete strangers, in Sweden, in English. Still, it was lovely to hear how kind and considerate he appeared to be.
Another strange thing was this pair of sandals, sitting at the bottom of a street lamp post.
Was this a strange new kind of advertising by Primark, trying to hook into the current World Cup? Or simply a pair that had fallen from a small child’s feet as it was carried home? A bit odd.
Still, following the overheard conversation about mowing, I dragged myself home for some grass cutting of my own.
Both of our phones warned us this morning that there were impending thunderstorms, due to arrive in the afternoon and I wanted to get ahead of the game before the deluge arrived. It did arrive, at around 16:00 and was not that bad although there was a fair bit of water drenching the grass, making it grow again having just been chopped down.
I realise that’s just Nature’s way of exacting revenge but I still find it a bit depressing. Almost as depressing as the result of the Netherlands v Sweden game this evening.
Nicoline can stop reading now
It was with great expectation that I sat down in the now named Football House to watch the game. For once it was at a reasonable hour (19:00) so, after an early dinner of Chez Gaz Swedish meatballs which, apparently, are better than the ones from ICA, I headed for the renamed stuga and switched the TV on.
The previously named stuga has been renamed for the duration of the World Cup given that’s where I have been sent to watch the football. According to Nicoline, it should be renamed something else anyway because stuga means house and it’s confusing when we have two on the same block.
But that is all by the by. I was there, along with Freya, to watch some exciting football. Freya was with me because she had gone downhill again and Mirinda had taken Emma for a long walk.
And it was exciting…for the Netherlands. They scored after five minutes than never looked back. They attacked, ran through the Swedes as if they were not there, and scored four more times. Okay, Sweden scored twice though the first was off side and cancelled, but, seriously, they were outclassed, outplayed and out of the game.
And it all started so well. Now they have to beat Japan in order to get out of the group stage. Incidenatlly, Japan beat Tunisia 4-0 tonight. It’s going to be difficult for Sweden, I think.
I’m hoping for better things from England on Tuesday night when they play Ghana.
