SPRINGISH THINGS

It’s officially spring here in southern Sweden, despite being still February and a full week away from March. Sweden’s meteorological office, SMHI, defines spring as having arrived if the temperature has been above freezing for a week. I call borderline bullshit though, since I had to scrape my car windows this morning and it was ONE degree Celsius at 8 am, which means it was definitely freezing or below overnight (again).

We’re still wearing winter coats, scarves, and gloves, though I’ve haven’t worn my heaviest winter coat for a few weeks now…which is nice because it weighs a ton. And of course it’s windy, which it always is here in Skåne, so with the windchill it often feels quite a lot colder than the actual temperature would lead you to believe. I’ve still been turning on the heat in the Tesla steering wheel every morning when I drive to work, too. I had to scrape the windows today because my scheduling got turned off somehow. The car is supposed to pre-condition by 7:45 am on weekdays when the car is at home, but for some reason, it was showing as 11:37 pm when I checked why the car was cold as ice and covered with it, to boot, this morning. I’m working from home the rest of the week anyway, so no scraping for me if it ices over again.

Went for a lovely lunch with 3 of my English-speaking gang of girlfriends and colleagues. The menu I saw in advance wasn’t very inspiring, but when we got there, we found they also had several pizza options in addition to their daily specials. They had a white pizza, which I’m very partial to, and that’s what I ordered. It had a “white sauce”, taleggio cheese, “almond” potatoes (mandelpotatis), deep-fried kale, and lemon. It was delicious, and I have half leftover to eat tomorrow for lunch, so double-win!

It’s funny, I had never even HAD kale until about 5 years ago or so, when Anders’ sister served a creamed kale dish for Christmas, which was AMAZING, and then Karin started bringing it home and oven-roasting it fresh with olive oil and sea salt, and I was hooked. I don’t buy it much, but I sure like it when I get it. We have pie night coming up on March 4…maybe I’ll buy a bag of kale and serve it oven-roasted as a veggie side appetizer in addition to the taco pies and fruit pizzas that we provide. Yum! We have 29 people signed up for pie night, and even if the usual 2-3 drop off the day of due to illness or whatever, that will be an excellent turnout.

Today I had my hair done, and tomorrow I have a massage (both after work). My right shoulder is quite painful, probably because I’ve been sitting wrong at work with one leg tucked up under me. I try to stop doing that, and keep forgetting until my shoulder starts stabbing at me. Anders comes home from Kumla tomorrow night, and Martin is working the next 4 mornings. When I get done writing this post, Martin and I are going to start my Christmas-present jigsaw puzzle. It’s the last “new” one we have. We did the one I gave Martin for Christmas and it was MISSING A PIECE. O! The humanity! (talk about first world problems) After that, we’ll probably take a long jigsaw puzzle break, as we’ve been pretty much continually working on one after the other for the last year or so…though I DID get back my old ones from Camilla not too long ago and we’ve never done those. 😀

Conversation at work fika last Friday concerning the pastry which was a dark-chocolate covered biskvi*:
Helena: Usually the buttercream is chocolate, but this seems to be flavored with something else (it was white)
Me: It’s not vanilla.
Helena: I think maybe it’s arrack**?
Me: No, that’s not quite it. Arrack tastes like liquorice.
Anna: I think it’s punsch. It tastes kind of like punsch***.
Me: No, punsch is flavored with arrack. That’s liquorice, too.
Emelie: Maybe it’s some sort of liqueur.
Me: Maybe that’s where liquorice got its name! It’s LIQUOR-ISH!
Emelie: *makes head-exploding gestures*
Me: *giggles madly*

*Biskvi is a delicious Swedish pastry with a base made from almonds and sugar, topped with buttercream and covered with a thin layer of chocolate. First made in France during the 19th century.
**Arrack is an anise-like unsweetened distilled spirit.
***Punsch is an alcoholic liqueur made by the mixing of spirits (arrack, brandy or rum) with arrack tea (lemon and spices), sugar, and water.

Mood: contented
Music: Laura Izibor—Shine