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Home, sweet home
Apr. 23rd, 2006 12:09 pmYesterday I got back home after a week visiting my mother. It was a lovely week - I hadn't been down to Skåne for two years, so I really enjoyed spending time with her. We started out by going on a gallery tour on Monday. In Skåne, especially the southeastern part (called Österlen), there are a lot of galleries. If you see three houses together, chances are that at least one of them is a gallery and/or café. The place is absolutely littered with artists and their work.
On Tuesday, mother had to work, and I spent most of the day relaxing and doing nothing much.
Wednesday she needed to go to Lund for a seminar. I drove her and one of her colleagues there and spent the day doing touristy things. I found that Lund has a city-wide wireless network - surfing is free, and if you want to use other network services the fee is a measly SEK 49:- per month. (That's about USD 6 or GBP 4, I think - and that's per month!) Needless to say I got an account and spent part of the day in the city library with my laptop. Then I went around looking at the city which has changed somewhat since I used to spend time there in my teens.
Thursday, what did we do on Thursday... Mother had to go to a meeting in Simrishamn, and I drove her there. I wandered around the town a little and looked at their fountain which is decorated with pictures of the city and area history. I talked a bit with an artist who was relaxing in the park before opening his gallery. Then I went and found a hairdresser who had time to give me a cut and dye job. It's interesting how you can walk into a hairdresser and say much the same thing ("I want it short so I don't get hair all over my face when it's windy) and come out looking very different from when you say the same thing at another place. But I like the new style which is all that matters.
On Friday Mother had to go to Simrishamn again. I spent the morning with Agne, the man she lives with (the word "boyfriend" seems wrong for a guy who's past 60). We took a walk in the forest around their house. Then Mother came back and we had lunch, after which she and I went to look at stuff for the kitchen they're going to build. Mother and Agne have just expanded their house by tacking on a wing and part of the old living room will now become a large kitchen. I got a severe case of house-envy.
In the evening we went for dinner to Blåsingsborg, one of my favourite restaurants in the area. In the summer you need to book a table well in advance, and even in this season the restaurant was full. They've also got a hotel part and a conference area as well as tour riding on Icelandic ponies.
Yesterday my brother-in-law showed up. My sister lives some 50 kms south of Gothenburg, but they're considering moving to Skåne, so the BIL wanted to see a house that was going to be shown. Only he'd gotten the day wrong - the showing was for today... Mother and I went together up to Vittskövle, a 16th century castle. We walked around the grounds a while and then had lunch at a nearby café. Then I went off northwards for the drive back to Stockholm. I stopped in Linköping and had dinner with a friend at the best hamburger place in Sweden. I got home shortly before nine pm, which was earlier than I'd expected. The advantage of driving on a Saturday is that there's a lot less traffic than if I'd driven today as I'd originally planned.
Another advantage is that today I can go riding on Samurai, which obviously wouldn't have worked if I'd been en route. Even if I've done a fair bit of walking, riding is a better exercise and I look forward to seeing Samurai again.
On Tuesday, mother had to work, and I spent most of the day relaxing and doing nothing much.
Wednesday she needed to go to Lund for a seminar. I drove her and one of her colleagues there and spent the day doing touristy things. I found that Lund has a city-wide wireless network - surfing is free, and if you want to use other network services the fee is a measly SEK 49:- per month. (That's about USD 6 or GBP 4, I think - and that's per month!) Needless to say I got an account and spent part of the day in the city library with my laptop. Then I went around looking at the city which has changed somewhat since I used to spend time there in my teens.
Thursday, what did we do on Thursday... Mother had to go to a meeting in Simrishamn, and I drove her there. I wandered around the town a little and looked at their fountain which is decorated with pictures of the city and area history. I talked a bit with an artist who was relaxing in the park before opening his gallery. Then I went and found a hairdresser who had time to give me a cut and dye job. It's interesting how you can walk into a hairdresser and say much the same thing ("I want it short so I don't get hair all over my face when it's windy) and come out looking very different from when you say the same thing at another place. But I like the new style which is all that matters.
On Friday Mother had to go to Simrishamn again. I spent the morning with Agne, the man she lives with (the word "boyfriend" seems wrong for a guy who's past 60). We took a walk in the forest around their house. Then Mother came back and we had lunch, after which she and I went to look at stuff for the kitchen they're going to build. Mother and Agne have just expanded their house by tacking on a wing and part of the old living room will now become a large kitchen. I got a severe case of house-envy.
In the evening we went for dinner to Blåsingsborg, one of my favourite restaurants in the area. In the summer you need to book a table well in advance, and even in this season the restaurant was full. They've also got a hotel part and a conference area as well as tour riding on Icelandic ponies.
Yesterday my brother-in-law showed up. My sister lives some 50 kms south of Gothenburg, but they're considering moving to Skåne, so the BIL wanted to see a house that was going to be shown. Only he'd gotten the day wrong - the showing was for today... Mother and I went together up to Vittskövle, a 16th century castle. We walked around the grounds a while and then had lunch at a nearby café. Then I went off northwards for the drive back to Stockholm. I stopped in Linköping and had dinner with a friend at the best hamburger place in Sweden. I got home shortly before nine pm, which was earlier than I'd expected. The advantage of driving on a Saturday is that there's a lot less traffic than if I'd driven today as I'd originally planned.
Another advantage is that today I can go riding on Samurai, which obviously wouldn't have worked if I'd been en route. Even if I've done a fair bit of walking, riding is a better exercise and I look forward to seeing Samurai again.
