A glorious still evening with the haunting call of a crane (called a 'trana' in yer swedish) somewhere in the distance. Its a shame i couldnt put up the audio. It was the faintest, faintest sound. I put it up on the boys Wassup-app and described it as similar to an elephant trumpeting, but an elephant where someone is squeezing the balls of the aforementionned pachyderm. So quite high-pitched. Wow, its almost like being there!

Bought some clothes in the sale at a cooool Malmö streetwear shop. They were super nice and massively helpful in a good way. i was after a particular hoodie with an orange print of the Malmö griffin. They have 2 shops in the Mo and the one i wanted was in the other one. Nice lady at the till goes to talk to a fella. He comes out and says he can screenprint one for me right now. Boom! How nice is that. That's nice. Then we get talking a bit and i'd rather not have the one with the Danish o on the front (even though thats kinda their thing and they've been going 20 years. Its a nod to Skåne being part of Denmark before. In 1658 it came back to Suede. But i digress)

Anyway he says no problemo he can do this one instead. so its like a one-off superspecial hoodie! It was still hot from the machine when i got it in my paws. Jo wants to see it, so here it is...

I iz a gangsta innit?

It's soon voting time in Sweden (in september. Hopefully my joint citizenship will be sorted by then so I can vote both local and national. It's taken about 18 months so far.) and May the first is always a political day. Here at Möllevångstorget though someones been just a leetle bit naughty with our glorious mayoress.

The angels of sleep and the daemons of wakefulness. Had a visit from both this weekend. Oh, the shocked joy of waking and realising its past 10 o’clock. It must be YEARS since that happenend last. Maybe 7 years!?
Then last night a fretful Klara timed her worries beautifully to keep me awake from 4.30 till i got up at 6. Ho-hum. Celestial swings and roundabouts. 

Had some nice sunday walks with my grrls today. A long ramble with K n A with opportunities for climbing, chucking things in streams, and avoiding some kind of medieval battle complete with, swords, axes and spears.

I like the last one. Diminutive cosmonaut goes back in time to collect precious  gold for the tractor beam repairs. Acts nonchalant, as natives battle in background.

We hit the church for a cuddly toy concert. Sing about bears, and unicorns, spiders and monkeys. In hell this probably goes on 24/7 but for less than an hour its quite sweet. The vicarette/ priestess?  hijacks the whole thing for a bit talking about Noah and ’is hark. Apparently, according to the kiddywinks he had a few dinosaurs in there. I think her point had something to do with doves and that the church is a bit like a boat isnt it? And we’re all in it together. But frankly she lost me when she shoved the fifth/sixth squidgy animal into the tea cosy ark. The harlequin elephant also had me guessing.

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I’m enjoying these early beers in Lund. In around 5 on Saturday to meet Rob with a fistful of villagers in hand. We sit in the Red Room right at the back of Arimans in the shadow of the cathedral. Recline in plush red armchairs and gulp at the first Hof organic. Possibly a former professors apartment.
A teddy bears picnic at the Barbican becomes barbequed cuddly toys somehow and Rob gets the giggles. He's in the midst of first baby time so he needs 'em.
Home by 9 and sober by the time i go to bed. Awesome!
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Very interesting discussions over on WhatsApp all about the power of thought and presence. Who we are, where we are (past, future, now), is reflection good or bad and where does the boundary lie. And whether M people really know the Absolute Truth.
I’ve been wrestling with an unpleasant cold this week, some frightfully throbby headaches and lots of that (turn away now if you dont like snot descriptions) sticky luminous stuff that they should probably use on cycle helmets or something.
Also the wind! Its been blowing non stop all week. Really hard gusts at times. The type that make the house stretch likes it going to fart. The suns been out too so i feel quite weather beaten like a soft cowboy.

On to the Palace of Vapours for a veggie lunch and a well earned beer before entering the inner sanctum.
Later a dusk walk in another palace. 
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Took Astrid for a quick ride in my spaceship today. Here she's looking out the porthole at Caasiopeia.

​Alright we went to the dentist.

And so with a bang from the farside of snow and wind it arrives. Outside nearly all day and plenty of it spent in shorts. On the suntrap that is The Deck. Just blissful. Lots of cycling action for the girls. Bikes dragged out of the garage and pumped up, saddles raised.
​We started the day with a walk through the woods to the playground behind the library, spotting sheeps and chucking stones in the stream on the way. A quick trip to Konsum for sandwich fillings and free fruit for the little ones. Then Deck time.

Later head out into the woods for a walk in my barefoot shoes. Bearfoot shoes? Sarsps. The idea is to give my feet some variety and maybe strenthen my toes a little bit. I would like to start jogging in the woods and I think it could be fun to run in these. We'll see. It's quite a freaky feeling, specially when I sink into some nice cool, damp mud. Feet feel quite buzzy when I come home. Like a little massage.

Time for a martial arts technique camp. Now thats great translating! Teknikläger. You know, you go you train new stuff to move up a belt.

So I wake up witha bit of a headache, some kind of cold thing going on. Get to the place, nice old building in not so nice Svedala. Svedala seems like one big motorway service station. There is a centre, I've been there at least once, but the rest just seems like somewhere you stop on the way somewhere else.
I forgot my white belt, the beginners 'I know nothing belt' and had to borrow a red melt. Which is like the belt of a master. Someone a black belt would look up to. So, i get the Fear. They're gonna get me for this. But, actually everyone was very nice.
​After a couple of hours though my brain was soup from all the different moves. You train your next belt, but also the moves of two other (at least) next belts.
At the end 2 people get their belts. Tyrell: "Is this to be an empathy test? Capillary dilation, the so-called blush response?" Shockingly, with my achey soup-head, I am one of them.
Afterwards a quick bath and the over to TnT's for their sons birthday bash. Kids are happy bouncing on the trampoline, Hanna makes a new friend. All good. Tina tells me of a conspiracy theory whereby Shakespeare didnt actually write his stuff it was some Earl. I deny it fiercely. Then there's a bit about how, no, Stoke on Trent is not Stratford on Avon.