It was my birthday yesterday. 62. What a weird number to be. I had a busy day planned so I got up fairly early. Anders is working from home this week, and he had roses and presents waiting for me. A poster of 100 Swedish sights to see that you can stamp off once you have seen them or been there. And 2 gorgeous hanging bird baths. I had asked for one, and he found 2 really nice ceramic ones…one in deep teal and one in off-white. The only problem is that they only have a center hole with a rope to hang by and they are quite heavy, so when you put water in them, they tilt and all the water spills out. Anders is going to put his engineer brain to work to figure out a better solution for hanging them.
I had lunch in Lund at MEAT with Lisel, Suzanne, and Barbara, all American friends that I originally met through the AIC, who all now work at Axis with me in various marketing positions. We’ve been getting together for birthday lunches for several years now. They are all back at work since this Monday, though Suzanne was leaving for another week of vacation today. Lunch was really good: steak tartar and for dessert, a delicious raspberry sorbet with chocolate crumbs, caramel, and fresh raspberries.
Then I went home and hung out for a few hours before Anders and I left to go to Lund and meet Martin to take the train to Malmö. We went to dinner at Lola Maria on Lillatorget. It’s right smack in the middle of Malmöfestivalen, which I hadn’t realized when we booked it, but taking the train worked perfectly. The food was decent but WAY overpriced, and since there were 6 of us, it was a very expensive evening. We had Martin and Theo, and Karin and Essie, with us, which was really nice. Essie brought me a huge bouquet of flowers and some dark chocolate. And the kids have promised a “bratbaby” day, as I told them I wanted time with them for my present. (I’m hoping watching the new Spiderman movie is included!). We’ve booked Sept 11 for our day together. Someone told the wait staff it was my birthday while I was in the bathroom, and one of the last dishes showed up with lit candles saying “29” on them. Haha! I stopped being able to be 29 for the nth time years ago. Anders laughed and turned the 9 to the other side to make 62, so they were actually perfect for my birthday number!
Since about Friday, I’ve had something wrong with my right big toe. I either nicked it cutting my toenails or the toenail is ingrown, and it is PAINFUL. It’s quite obviously infected as well, so I’ve been soaking the foot in a hot salt bath daily to see if it helps. It hurts to touch, and to walk with shoes on, and just generally. Alvedon helps, and the soaks seem to help a bit, but if it’s not improved by tomorrow, I’ll have to call and make an appointment with the healthcare clinic to have it looked at. Which I’m quite frankly dreading, because it REALLY hurts to be touched, and I’m sure they will have to in order to do anything. GAH. Not how I wanted to spend my last week of vacation. I was supposed to go secondhand shopping with Karin in Copenhagen tomorrow, but I had to cancel as I can’t possibly walk that much with the condition it’s in right now. Double GAH.
Tomorrow night Karin and Essie are coming home around dinner time and most likely staying the night. Then they are taking Anders’ tent and stealing my car and going camping over Thursday night. They’ll be back Friday at some point. Debbie is coming over on Thursday afternoon to hang out, and Saturday we are going to Maria and Mikael’s for a crayfish party. Really really really hope my toe is better before I have to go back to work on Monday.
Mood: okay
Music: Tori Amos—A Sorta Fairytale