Busy morning after rising late: showered, dressed, made bed, ordered the kids around, cleaned up, laundry in, dishes loaded and washed, recyclables packed up, made rice krispie treats and 40 deviled eggs, finished my book and am ready to start another, uploaded activity changes to AWC site, answered emails, caught up on blog reading, updated book & CD wish lists, cleaned out old emails.
We have a BBQ party to go to tonight, but I suspect since the weather is cold and rainy that we’ll be migrating indoors instead. It’s a potluck (hence the treats and eggs) with friends, though Anders won’t be along as he is driving up north to meet a friend for a bicycle race tomorrow morning.
Last night we went to the opening day of Malmö Festival, a week-long party in the center of town. For the first few years we lived in Sweden, we always went, even when the kids were really small, then there were several years where we avoided it like the plague, sick of the noise and the crowds and the inevitable excess. We’ve been going again the past few years, catching bands we like in concert (last night: Calaisa) and indulging at least once in festival food: langos, churros, wild pig kebabs, chicken satay, etc. It’s fun to walk around the squares and the cobblestoned streets with so many other people in such a good mood. Everyone loves a party when the sun is shining and the air is cool.
Usually we hit the little carnival areas, for the kids’ sake, but last night we ate first and wandered about, looking at the jewelry booths and down the long strip of the “Market Street” that was mostly just a bunch of cheap crap. We met up with friends, lost them again, re-found them for awhile, and then lost them for good. We stopped by the American store to say hello to the new owner (who is English!) and snagged a big bag of Tootsie candies thanks to his generosity and carnival mood. On the canal in front of the store, some enterprising young men had roped off an area in the water and were charging kids and young adults 40 kronor for 5 minutes in huge “Water Balls“. The kids waited in line for 30 minutes for those 5 minutes and declared it well worth the wait. It took so long that we never even made it over to the carnival before the concert started, but still by the end of the night, we were all well-satisfied and happy with our evening of festivaling.
Once or twice during the festival week is usually more than enough for us, so we’ll see if we make it back into town before the end next Friday. We have plans nearly every evening this week, as usually seems to be the case this time of year, and school starts on Wednesday, so things will really be back to real-life routines by the end of next weekend…at least until it’s time for me to go to the States! Whee!
Pints and Pints of (Belated) Delicious Birthday Wishes to Ice Cream Geek!