Last day of April

It's the little moments that count, isn't it. Today, I was one of about ten percent in our office who went to the office. On a day like this, where there's a weekend, one working day, then a holiday, not many people bother coming in, they rather take the day off for a minibreak. I'm not judging, I'm planning on doing the same on the 18th of May, the Friday squeezed in between Ascension Day and the weekend. If only I'd find cheap tickets to fly somewhere, anywhere... Anyway, I digress. I had a lovely working day, it's amazing how much shorter a 6 hour day is compared to the usual 8. Right now I am watching two 3-year olds play, Em and L (remember him?). In a moment of unusual kindness (probably caused by the fact I had just been given a lift to do my weekly shopping and a trip to IKEA), I offered to babysit L overnight! What was I thinking, what of my own 1st May sleep-in??? Well, it's all paying off in this moment as I watch the two cousins sit in the sunlight that's shining in on us, heads leaned against each other, Em teaching L how to lay the Peppa Pig puzzle. What a wonderful Kodak moment! Of course, if I had a Kodak camera, or any functioning camera for that matter, I'd have captured it!

Crazy sun worship?

Yesterday I took some sneaky photos. If I were a man I'd probably be called a pervert, but I had to take them as they represent something that perplexes me. Once again, since Sunday, the sun is out and with it, the bodies. The block of flats I stay in probably contains about hundred flats with a green area in the middle that has a playground and a barbecue area. Yesterday when I was getting my breakfast ready, I noticed this outside my window:


Then, as I opened the blinds in the sitting room I saw this:


What amuses, but perplexes me is how these women lose all their inhibitions as soon as there's a bit of sunshine, these are after all women who would probably not change anywhere outside fitting rooms in shops. Sometimes they also lose their sense of moral decency, like when I saw a woman around Clapham Junction tanning on another person's grave!

Two things that entertained me even more was that the woman in the latter two photos was tanning on the green patch behind the flats where most people let their dogs...ease themselves AND when she got up to go in (probably to have lunch because she came out within an hour), she actually put on clothes!

(Special thanks to my lovely camera for allowing me to capture these moments, through my blinds and in the comfort of my own home!)

Last weekend of May

...of course any homesickness I had disappeared when the weather went from ok to great! This whole weekend we've had up to 25 degrees and sunshine, without the humidity of Ghana which usually prevents me from wearing my natural hair straight. The weather is a major issue in Sweden especially as we head towards summer. It can turn from 25 to 12 degrees overnight. When the weather is good, so are people's moods and suddenly everybody is out and about. For us that meant carneval in Hammarkullen (an area mainly inhabited by foreigners), picnic in Slottsskogen, the main city park and walks along the river, Göta Älv.







Above and below: Röda Sten, where a soldier apparently collapsed and bloodied the rock. Every year the rock is re-painted red to remind us of his blood (and almost as often private persons sabotage this by painting the rock a different colour or adding white dots for a polkadot effect!)



Leaving us all a bit tired...

Friday lunch

When i got to work earlier today, I didn't think I'd stay long. Just outside my window, a politial rally was going on. As the noise got louder (or just more irritating with time?) it began to feel like it was coming from inside my head, pushing against the sides of my scull till the whole thing would explode in a mess. Then someone's car alarm went off, joining into the symphony of noise and chanting. As I thought 'I can't take this anymore!', I decided to calm myself by digging into my lunch.

Maybe because I was hungry, irritated and needed calming, or maybe the salad was just that good, but today the Greek Pasta Salad from Sunshine (Osu), (or Little Indian Sunshine Salad Bar as it's actually called, not Little Miss India Sunshine as I've called it for two years), was so delicious I devoured the whole thing! For some reason, I never usually manage to finish their salads but this one was fantastic. With a small Star by the side, I was soon satisfied. No, I don't mean a Star Beer (knew I'd get those in the know),

but rather the small Star juices (I had Carrot & Orange) that they sell at Sunshine.

I just hope this keeps me content until dinner tonight at seven with K and our lesser halves :) Yes, it looks like I'll finally be going to check out Rhapsody's! Poet, believe me, it's not by choice that I'm going there, would much rather have abandoned it until the hype fizzled out.

...Just like I am yet to see Titanic. Has that hype died yet?