The weekend Before The Weekend Before Christmas

It has been an eventful sixty hours. Some activity was expected, some was unwanted. It started on Friday.

It was, of course, Saint Lucia Day in Sweden, and one of the days I least look forward to. Working in a preschool on this day has the tendency to stress and tire me out. The logistics of such a day, from receiving porridge for lunch (gröt is a dessert, catering firm, not a main meal) to shortened lunch breaks, hurried snacks, chaos as the children get ready to go to the sports hall where the Lucia songs are sung, stress to get there and get dressed in time, and discomfort in the aftermath of the performence at spending time with running children and many, many relatives of the children.

I survived, though, despite working overtime, and finally made my way home. Outside the front door I met Jo and Zelda, who were going to a birthday party. I offered to go instead of Jo. Although I did not wish to spend any more time with parents, I knew them better than Jo, and it meant that she could get back to see a friend who had crashed at ours after some minor problem at home. And then, just as Zelda was handed over, we met our neighbours coming out of the lift.

I asked them how they were, expecting a cursory “fine”, only to be told that it was not “fine”, and that their eldest duaghter was going to the hospital to have a tumour operated on. As I was being told this bomb of information, a group of women came through the front door and bypassed us to get into the lift. The news went in, but I found it difficult to find a respone. I was already tired from the day, slighty put out by the change of plans with Zelda, confused further by the sudden entrance of four ladies, and somewhat stunned by the words I was hearing. I managed to blurt out a “ring if there is anything we can do”, and we went our seperate ways.

After the two hour party, I came home to see our friend, who was extremely vocal about the Raspberry pie computers he had in his bag (it does look like an interesting project and something I may look into after Christmas).

The next day was filled with shopping, doing a kladdventskalender and then, in the evening, going to Gröna Lund to partake in the vegan julbord they have there. We went last year with some friends (Nina, Daniel, Alvar and Nika to be exact), enjoying the atmosphere of a very well put together event. It was similar food to last year, and I must say that it wasn’t that impressive. A lot of the food is processed stuff we can buy from our local vegan supermarket, Goodstore. It also took a long time for our food to come and the service was not all that good. That said, the food was only a small part of the whole evening, but none the less important. The children all had a wonderful time, being able to walk around outside. They spent a long time at one of the carnival games (throwing balls into bins), where they found out that the girl behind the attraction was also vegan. We went home late and Zelda did her usual thing of falling asleep a few seconds after asking if she could do so, on the tram home.

Sunday was slightly more relaxed, with the family helping Jo in her kladdventskalender quest. Afterwards we bought bagels from Bagel Street Café, came home so the girls could have a play date with Alvar and Nika, watched a Sunday night film and met the neighbours, who had just come back from the hospital. All went well, but the next few months are a waiting game to see what happens to the tumour.

I woke up this morning not feeling well. I had been feeling rough for a week or so, and the weekend is paying its toll.