Mirinda does not like riding in the back seat of a car. She says it makes her car sick. She has always said this, at least as long as I’ve known her. It makes her queasy, she says. If you add to this a rather rich and full Italian lunch, and you could be in for a projectile catastrophe.
In fact, we had a lovely lunch at Capricci, over at the Honstull market. Their tiramisu was particularly delicious. Highly recommended. It would have been a shame to see it again due to sitting behind KSP.

Tonight Mirinda was picked up by KSP and Anna Boom-Boom and, for expediency, was ushered into the back of the car. I wished them well as they drove off, with fingers crossed.
They were heading for a fairy filled wander in some woods, along with Nicoline. At the time of writing, I have no idea whether anyone was sprayed with vomit. I wasn’t invited.
To be honest, I was more than happy for the exclusion. After last night’s ATM wandering, and around four and half hours sleep, all I wanted to do was crash at the flat. Which I did after wishing them a fun and magical night.
My day had started with me heading out to the ICA to change a 500kr note in order to pay the laundry man. As it turned out, it wasn’t necessary. As it turned out, neither was my late night meander around Stockholm: The laundry man accepts Swish.
He was awfully nice, cheerful and pleasant but, seriously, why can’t he say on his website that he accepts cash and Swish? The site is fancy enough. And he has all the prices. Grrr.
So, yes, I headed up to the laundromat and spent two hours waiting for the clothes to be done. As I waited, lots of foreigners entered and told the same sad story: It’s well-nigh on impossible to get cash in Stockholm. Not just me, then.
Eventually, back at the flat, we headed out to Hornstull and wandered up and down the stalls of street food and tat. Weather-wise, the day was quite dull, so there wasn’t as many people about as would be were the sun out in full heat. Though I have to wonder how hot this woman was inside her inflatable cow.

At the far end of the market, the stalls dwindled as we found Tantoberget, a magical place filled with flowers, produce and cute little buildings. It is a land of allotments, cared for by loving gardeners. Very much a place of natural great beauty and somewhere Mirinda absolutely loved. She even stood and chatted in the garden of one chap, who explained how it all worked.
He had been on the waiting list for his plot for 15 years and is now a member of The Södra Tantolunden Allotment Garden Association. The association was started in 1917, although gardening had already taken place in the area in 1915, initially to grow potatoes. It is still a rule that, while you can grow as many flowers, shrubs and trees as you can fit on your plot, you have to include produce as well.
I have to admit that exhaustion did get the better of me after the first 300 plots so I sat on a convenient bench and read while Mirinda continued her extensive tour. She said the colours were particularly vivid through her new eyes.

Two of the small houses are preserved at Skansen. A red cottage from 1921 and a yellow one from the 1940’s. It’s a very serious business, gardening at Tanto.
And, that was about it for my day. Having left Mirinda in the capabale hands of KSP and Anna Boom-Boom, I headed back to the flat, rewatched an espiode of Seinfeld then fell asleep. I also listened to an episode of The Archers, but I’m going to have to listen that again, as I fell asleep in the middle of it.
NB: We are not including today in our International Cuisine Challenge because we didn’t really have dinner. Italian for lunch does not count according to Mirinda’s rules of the game.