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KSP said something last night that got me thinking. How come people don’t say the last of the month? Like “The last of August,” for instance. After all, we say the first, so why not the last? For a start, it would save people like me from having to go through the mnemonic in their head whenever they are trying to work out if it’s 30 or 31 days. The one that goes “30 days have September, April, June and November…“
Actually, as I approach the last of June, I’ll have to start concentrating on writing and recording my latest Letter from Sweden. I had planned to write about the visit of the M20. I don’t see why not.
By the way, planning was the only way I could manage to successfully prepare and serve dinner yesterday. Here is my itinerary.
Incidentally, this was the third iteration of my schedule.
I have no idea how anyone could create a dinner party without having an itinerary. One that gets refined over about a week leading up to the event.
Of course, I didn’t need an itinerary to clear up this morning. I just worked through it, washing up load by washing up load. (The spelling and grammar checker in my browser just suggested that ‘washing up load’ should, maybe be spelled ‘washing upload’ but does not indicate where I can upload it to. Pity, really as it would be quite handy if an AI bot could have done it all instead of me. Now there’s an excellent use for AI.)
So, yes, four loads and the kitchen was returned to normal and all was right with the world. I was astonished to find that we had used almost every glass on the glass shelf. Mirinda, who looks after our guest’s libations at social events, explained it by saying that there were pre-dinner drinks then two different wines and, basically, she just put them all out on the table. It was a lucky thing that Louise didn’t come because there wouldn’t have been enough. She’d have had to bring her own.
Speaking of Louise, she popped over this afternoon to apologise for not coming to dinner. I told her it was fine, that as Mirinda said, I was an idiot for not telling her what time it was kicking off. She said that, no, she was the idiot for not checking what date the Trosa run was on, which her boys wanted to see.
She ended up staying for fika, sitting in the glassroom with Mirinda, throwing the ball for Emma and chatting about the various professions of men she meets. Actually, earlier I had unintentionally ignored her at the ICA while she was busy talking to a Scot. She loves the accent. Alas, I didn’t hear what he did for a living.
Speaking of the dogs, Freya was much improved today. We cooled the house down to make her more comfortable and, by lunchtime, she was a bit more active than yesterday. She even ate her meals, something she hasn’t been that keen on doing on her off days. The remaining bits of confit de canard may have helped.
Mirinda waited for the sun to be gone before taking Emma for a walk at Stensund where they almost met a dangerous and manic Dalmatian. By the time they got back to the house, there was just time for some strawberries on the deck before it was time for me to head to the Football House for the last England group game against Panama.
Nicoline can stop reading now
It was a bit of a nervous watch, if I’m being honest. The England team (playing in red while Panama played in white, which is odd because they are usually the other way around) looked disorganised, giving the ball away too easily and not looking like a winning team until near the end of the second half.
Maybe they figured they didn’t need to bother given they were through to the knock-out rounds anyway. Obviously, I don’t know but it was frustrating when I thought that Panama would be a walk over to some extent.
Then, near the end of the second half, England scored two excellent goals, and the game was put to bed.
So England topped the group and Panama are going home. England next face Congo DR on Wednesday at the ridiculously reasonable time of 6pm. Less reasonable is the Sweden v France game on Tuesday which kicks off at 11pm.
While I think Sweden is unlikely to beat France, obviously I have to watch the game.
