283 days and 11 1/2 hours to go!...

Monday morning, the first one of this newly started August... So far, there's a fresh breeze that greets us once in a while, but that surely won't last. The sun is shinning in full blast and, soon enough, the temperatures will be going up up up...

It has been an interesting weekend... Little Miss B. got her last swimming-class for the swimming-school-year of 2009/2010 on Saturday morning and then, after some shopping and some cleaning, we hit the beach almost in the evening, but in almost the right time - the sun was still out to allow a dip in the sea water and there were almost no folks out and about on the beach. Just the way I like it! :-)

On Sunday it became official that we still have a living-room, a pantry and a hallway - the mess was cleared and it's now possible to walk about in these divisions of the house without having to climb over piles of junk that belong to the kitchen. And, after a bit of a movie afternoon, there was even time to try out our new oven... :-)

On the top of the page number 583 of Vår Kokbok, you can find the recipe for (the not so Swedish) "Halvmjuka Tjocka Chokladrutor", a.k.a., Brownies. :-)

Easy to make - especially when you're baking in a cooking-show style, with someone having already laid out all the ingredients for you - and quite tasty! And I guess that was step nr. 1 on my crazy half-imposed mission of cooking my way through this Swedish cook book. :-)

But back to our vacation recollection and back to the 1st of June... :-) As you know, or should know, the 1st of June is the International Children's Day, but also one of Mr. B. name's days. :-) So, even though we were away from our routine, I had some presents up my sleeve... or, rather, stashed in my suitcase. ;-)

The 1st of June was also the day we went to meet my friend Mica. :-)

Well, Mica started off by being a penpal, someone with whom I'd exchange letters and e-mails and eventually grow a friendship out of it, but it did go crazily fast as we both felt such a connection right from the start. So she pretty much has been a dear friend from the start, which I finally had the privilege to meet face to face this past June. :-)

For those of you who are learning a new language, I'd strongly advise that you get yourself a penpal that speaks that language. Not only you'll have the opportunity to practice the language, if you're in that stage of learning, you'll also have the opportunity to have a support to clear some of your language doubts, get to know the other person's culture and habits and, on the plus side, eventually get a friend for life. :-)

Anyway, back to Mica... :-) We were about 299 kms away from where Mica lives, which is near Skara, and, to be really honest with you, though I usually don't mind driving and even enjoy it, I confess that I was scared senseless of picking up someone's car, twice the size of the one I'm used to driving, and take off in a foreign country for that stretch of road. But then again... what don't we do for our friends? :-)

Half panic stricken, half muttering to myself, we hit the road. Mr. B. was in charge of photography and road-map reading; Miss B. was in charge of the often blurted out "Are we there yet?" and also of the occasional bursts of singing. :-)

The landscape was amazing and the driving painless. All of a sudden, my fear was conquered and I was feeling on top of the world... when it kind of dawned on me that it wouldn't be such a piece of cake to drive if all was covered in snow and we were in the peak of Winter rather than closing in on Summer. Huh! That's me! When one problem seems to be scattering away from my mind, another one immediately settles in. :-P

Around lunch time we stopped by the side of the road, just by a lake, to have something, with a wonderful view as a background.

Later on and upon arriving in Skara, we made a pit-stop in MacDonald's... Finally, I got served something that claimed to be espresso coffee (yay!!) but that tasted far far far away from it (yuck!), but, hey!, bonus points for trying! ;-) In addition, it was also a rather enlightening moment, in which we were surrounded by more than 10 sparrows who were desperately trying to have a go at my burger, much to the despair of Mr. B., who was getting more and more uncomfortable with such sight. :-)

And then, after he had played hero-of-the-day, Mr. B. decided to take a change and pretend he knew what he was doing with the road map, which resulted in us being kind of lost for about an hour, only to, after a few phone calls, end up on a clogged road... It seems like this June was "put-asphalt-on-your-road" month in Sweden and so that's what people were doing as we approached Mica's home. After some waiting around, in the vain hope that the two trucks that were parked side by side clogging the entire road would move, one of the construction workers suggested me to drive, kind of tilted, on the side of the road - "Are you kidding?!" - and so that's pretty much what I did... :-S

After a lovely dinner with Mica and her family, in which I was even entitled to a pre-birthday cake (with passion fruit and everything!! :-)), we had to get going, because another long stretch of road was waiting for us. But before that, we made a quick stop in the center of Skara, as I wanted to see the "pants" (Mica, if you're reading this, you better explain about the pants!)! ;-)

To explain, some months back, I managed to lay my hands on a book I've been most curious to read. In the Summer of 2002, Mr. B. was reading a trilogy about knights templar and the beginning of today's Sweden by Jan Guillou.

The first book in that trilogy is called "Vägen till Jerusalem" (= Road to Jerusalem) and I manage to grab hold of it in Portuguese, but not of the remaining others. On the other hand, I did manage to get the movie that was made out of those books - "Arn, the Knight Templar" - and so I could get the whole picture of what happens next.

I have heard many comments, good and bad, about both the author and the books/movie, but I choose not to take a position. I read the book in Portuguese, so it's hard to judge the quality of its original writing. On the other hand, it has been my first and, so far, my last book by Guillou, so I have nothing to measure it against. On the plus side, though, is the fact that it's a historical novel, which I love, and so the fact that I can get historical facts out of a novel is something I truly appreciate. On the other hand, Guillou, though half-French and half-Norwegian, both Swedish and French by nationality, was born in Södertälje, which, for good and bad, is where Mr. B. comes from, and, by that same reason, holds a special place in my world. For more information on Jan Guillou and his trilogy about the templar knights, here goes a few links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Guillou and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arn_Magnusson

Back to that first book I read, it starts off with a passage that takes place in Skara's cathedral, so, obviously, having it so close, I had to take the time for a quick visit.

Skara's small historic center is beautiful and the sunset was amazing... And, soon enough, it was 10 p.m. and we were headed "home", facing the other 299 kms to our destination. Soon enough darkness installed itself and a small rådjur (= roe deer) decided to pop by and stroll down the other lane, to both delight and scare me.

And that's how we left Mica... and we've missing her since... :-)