I’m so out of the habit of writing I don’t seem to know how to get started again. And I still can’t sit down at the computer at home without my arm starting up. I’ve been super sick with a nasty head cold for over a week now. Had to reschedule my MRI from last week to next week, and if I’m still coughing by Tuesday will probably have to postpone it again.
Highlights of the past week, despite the unbelievable amount of mucus, include Anders coming home from South Africa to be surprised by A NEW BED! and Karin in one of the starring roles of her high school play!
You see, I half-assedly promised my husband a new bed over a year ago, for our 20th wedding anniversary. The issue has been that I LOVE our bed (MY bed, I should say) and he hates it. The reason I love it is because I found it at an antique store in Chicago when I lived alone and it’s a beautiful black walnut head- and footboard. He hates it because it’s an American double. It’s TINY for two people but we managed just fine and I sort of had this “love me, love my bed” thing going on. But I admit, it’s REALLY small. Plus it squeaks. But.
So a year ago, I promised him a new bed. But beds in Sweden are crazy insane expensive. A queen or king-sized bed here costs on average 20,000 kronor (2-3 thousand bucks give or take), and that doesn’t include bed linens, which we would need all new since the ones for a double bed obviously won’t work on anything bigger. And what with Martin’s graduation and our tickets for the US trip last summer and all the birthdays and then Christmas, there was just no way. But I’ve had a bit of a guilty conscience about it all this time.
To top things off, the few times I looked, I didn’t LIKE any of the beds available. Everything is so modern and ugly and boxy and fabric-covered headboards. Or no headboards. Or else blond wood, which doesn’t match anything and isn’t really my style at all. Anders left on a Saturday for South Africa and on Sunday I stopped by two of the bed/furniture stores in Lund just to get an idea of what was available and how much and had all my worst fears confirmed: ugly and super-expensive. SIGH.
The very next day, my friend Debbie forwarded me an email from a woman in the other international club who is moving back to the States in June and selling a pile of furniture, including a continental style king-size bed…for 1000 kronor. That’s about $110. How could I NOT buy it? So I bought it. Even though it’s got a fabric-covered headboard (dark grey) and is exactly the style I didn’t really want. She bought it new 4 years ago and it was a guest room bed, barely used, and she said no one had even slept in it at all for the past 1.5 years.
So, despite the fact that I should have been IN BED, I spent the middle weekend of Anders’ trip renting a trailer (which I’ve never done before), borrowing Debbie’s husband, picking up the bed (with Martin’s help, too) and getting it installed. Of course, this meant that the day before Martin and I had to take apart Karin’s bed (which I finally managed to sell, thank goodness) and then take apart OUR bed and reinstall it in Karin’s room, AND go to IKEA to buy some new linens, which I ended up being really happy with.
Anders worked for a week in South Africa and then took a 5-day hiking safari in Kruger National Park. He saw elephants, hippos, rhinos, lions, zebras, baboons and tons of other animals and had a fantastic time. But he certainly wasn’t expecting to come home to a new bed! And one that was such a bargain! 😀
On Friday, we went to see Karin perform in her high school’s yearly play, one that the theater group wrote themselves. It’s a thing here: all the big high schools put on musicals in which they have over 165 kids involved, all in different groups responsible for writing the script, the songs, taking care of sets, props, makeup, costumes, PR, etc, plus the actual dancers and actors. Karin had all last week off for rehearsals at Lunds City Theater and they had a smash success premiere on Thursday. We took Anders’ mom and my friend Camilla and had dinner in Lund before the show. It was really great and Karin was a knock-out. She had one of the lead roles, and a romantic part and even sang a duet with the guy her character was in love with (not the one in the photo below). Well done! You can see more pics and videos on my Facebook page (thanks to Martin!). She had so much fun that she’s considering being one of the theater group mentors for next year.
