READY SET GO

Today is my first day of a 2-week vacation, if you count weekends as part of vacation. I’m off work until January 2, a whole new year. So it’s the start of something, and the end of something: another year. I’ve been counting down the days at work until vacation started and this last couple of weeks nearly did me in. I don’t think I’ve ever been so close to hitting the wall before. Add medical issues on top of work stress, and other things, and it’s been a LOT, this year. So, I’m not sad to see the end of it, and having 2 weeks off to decompress and recharge really means a lot.

I’m dealing with an infected lymph node under my left arm, which has been the cause of a lot of pain and misery over the past 2 weeks. I’ve been to see the doctor or nurse every other day to get it tended to and treated, and new compresses applied. They refuse to give me antibiotics, saying that it just needs to drain and heal by itself. But it’s not in the best place to do that, and it seems to be a pretty hefty infection…I’m very hopeful that it will heal by itself, but I suspect it’s going to need a push.

Last night, I met up with Debbie and Camilla at Camilla’s place, and Camilla made a delicious Palak Paneer soup, which I was a little doubtful about at first, because she added tofu to it, and I’m not much of a tofu fan, but it was really good. We had wholemeal bread and seed crackers with it. Then we exchanged gifts, and afterwards we went to a Friday concert at Malmö Opera: Ravel, John Williams and Rimskij-Korsakov. I LOVED the Ravel, which was pieces from Le Tombeau de Couperin: heavy on the stringed instruments which are my favorite, plus clarinet and oboe. SO GOOD. The Williams section was not his film music, but a concert for tuba and orchestra, which had me giggling because the bass tuba, while played by an excellent soloist, sounded so much like an elephant in distress that I could not stop laughing. The last part was also lovely, but quite long and not as melodic as the Ravel.

This is the second concert that we’ve attended and we’re planning to go to the one for Brahms in May. Debbie and Camilla are going to one in April, which is Mozart, which I am very bummed to miss, because I love Mozart, but it’s the day before I get back from the States.

Yesterday was a day for giving and receiving presents. I organized a Secret Santa for my team at work, and delivery was yesterday. My Secret Santa gave me a moose-themed tea towel and a pen with a moose warning symbol on it: perfect! Then I went to lunch with my English-speaking Axis gang (though Barbara was missing) and we also exchanged gifts. I got the one from Helen, which turned out to be a homemade loaf of wholemeal bread (stuffed with pumpkin and other seeds), AND an entire grocery bag filled with the ingredients to make it, plus the recipe! From Camilla, I got a traditional style Swedish candlestick holder in beautiful sunset-shaded glass and 2 candles for it, and a fun “girl talk topics” game card set from Debbie.

I started off my first day of vacation being a slug in the morning, as per usual for a Saturday with no plans. Slept in, then played iPad games and scrolled through Instagram before getting up. After I ate lunch, I did house chores with Martin’s help, and am still in the middle of laundry. I drove Martin to work, and then stopped at Willy’s on the way home to buy bagels so we are stocked up for the next 2 weeks. John called right before I had to leave with Martin but we were able to chat for about 15 minutes or so. Anders went to Malmö to pick up our new kitchen tiles (but has to go back because the warehouse was closed) and to IKEA to get a cabinet to hold our new oven. He’s planning to start the kitchen renovation project now by getting the oven and stove installed. 🙂 We’ll be a construction site quite soon!

Now, I’m going to make a new Spotify playlist for classical music, because I really want to listen to Ravel and Mozart and others like I used to. Way past due.

Mood: happy
Music: Rina Sawayama—Where You Are