What’s your idea of the perfect vacation? I waffle between not wanting to do anything at all but sleep in, lay on the sofa and read, and read some more, to making travel plans and go-go-going every day, getting something out of every minute. This week, the first of a 4-week vacation, has been a nice mix of the two, which suits my waffling heart to a T. I had plans every day but not the whole day and some of them fell through or were changed and all of them involved nice things.
It’s only 2 days until the Swedish midsommar celebrations and Anders is preparing 3 kinds of herring to take with us to the party at Mats & Annelott’s. My brother & Simone arrive tomorrow, and the house is clean and I feel calm and prepared for next week’s trip up north to the coast.
I’ve had lunch with friends and a massage and a dinner with Geena, during all of which I got things that I needed: closure, advice, confirmation, relaxation and laughter. My children have been well-behaved in public, helpful at home and Martin even told me that the computer discipline-time-division that we instituted a couple of weeks ago was a good idea and was working well.
Today while we were sitting in the balcony having fika with my in-laws in Malmö, we looked out over a sea of green trees and wheeling seagulls and were horrified to watch 3 teenage boys come traipsing across the park, strewing garbage about them. They chucked a coke can into a flower garden, flung the plastic lids from 2 pringle cans across the playground, emptied the crumbs onto the path and then dropped and stomped the cans themselves before turning and strolling away. HONESTLY. My kids raced downstairs a few minutes later, completely burning with righteous indignation, picked up the garbage and put it in the public garbage containers that were 6 feet away from where the boys had been standing.
The sun has been shining all day and it started warming up (finally! finally? please say finally) after lunch, and I acquiesced to Karin’s request to please please please take them to the pool. I don’t really like going to the pool because 1) I don’t do bathing suits and 2) if I sit and read in the sun (even in the shade), my vision is blurry for the rest of the day, but I DO like going to the pool because hey! It’s the POOL. It’s blue and shiny and there is an ineffable sound of joy in the splashing and shrieking and carrying on. So we swung by home and picked up bathing stuff and a camping chair for me and went to the pool. I started Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (HAR!) and after awhile, gave up on reading and just sat in the sun with the heat pounding down on my shoulders. It was almost like getting a bonus massage.
So this has been a week at home, and next week is a week away, then we have another week at home and another week away. If that doesn’t sound like a recipe for lizardek’s perfect vacation, I don’t know what does.
If anyone has tips for things to do around Smögen in Sweden (1.5 hours north of Gothenburg) or around Vaals in the Netherlands, I’d be glad to hear them. We have some things already planned, but more ideas would be very welcome!
Cool Stuff for Bibliophiles: Turning the Pages