Day 29: The World Is Revolving in Rhythm

So, more on bathroom renovering. That's renovations for the English speakers among you. These days, I speak Swenglish. It's kind of fun. It used to not to appeal to my better sense of order because it seemed so impure. More recently, I've discovered its beauty. It's like when Yiddish entered the American language.

But I digress. The bathroom is beginning to fall into place. I'm proud to say, I was able to stick to my budget AND am quite pleased with my selections. I'm aiming for functional and a new look that compliments the parts of my bathroom that I really like but with a floor that's easy to keep clean.

The sink and mirror are keepers

A place that will inspire me to look in the mirror and be proud of the reflection I see. Well, that's the plan anyway :-))

And now, off to celebrate Eva in her new flat, The Oasis.

More tomorrow...till then, I wish us happy moments one and all.

Day 28: Mosaic...and Music

You know it's going to be a good day when the staff at Espresso House are singing along to Stevie Wonder and it's not even 10 AM yet. Funny, though, how they got very self-conscious about it as soon as I started singing along too. Still, for a moment there we were all caught up in the refrain...I just called to say how much I ca-a-are, yes I do...and everyone was smiling.

A short while later, Helen showed up and off we went to Kakel&Design where Helen helped me pick out tiles for the bathroom floor and walls. Visualization is not one of my strengths and it felt great to have a friend along. As it turned out, I knew a lot more about what I wanted than I thought I did and the entire process took about an hour. It would no doubt have taken much longer if I'd done it alone.

I am writing the blog tonight at my neighbor's kitchen table. She is away until the end of June and never even hesitated when I asked if I could stay in her apartment while the bathroom in mine is being revamped. So it strikes me how much better I've gotten over the years asking people for help. And how much happier my life is as a result. People are almost always happy to help out, which really shouldn't surprise me because I know how good it makes me feel when I can do something to lighten someone else's load.

After Kakel&Design and a yummy lunch, we paid a visit to Claes Ohlsson (a store, not a person) where Helen picked up some food storage containers and I found a ceiling lamp and shower head at a fraction of the price that the tile store was asking. It always makes me happy to get a bargain, so all in all...a good day. And I mean it from the bottom of my heart!

Some of the tile I picked out...for the rest you'll have to wait till it's all installed and done :-))

Day 27: Jump Shot

The exuberance of youth makes me happy. Today, I got to spend some time with one of my Sweeties (for the uninitiated: I am the adopted aunt to eight-and-half-year-old twin boys who I've known since they were one day old). We went to the park where, after a while, we borrowed a basketball and shot some hoops. It  felt great to be able to play together, at something other than Lego :-)

My feet are achy and I am soooo ready for sleep. But I don't regret a moment of our game, or the great conversations we had in between hoops. Next time, I promise to wear sneakers!

Day 26: Don't sing a nocturne just yet...

Just took this photo of the garden.

Wish I could somehow transmit the fragrance of it all to you too. May I add that it 9:33 PM? Now that's happy! Love this time of year when the days are long and the nights are days. 

Day 25: Taxes

You're no doubt asking yourself, "What could taxes possibly be doing in a blog about finding happy?" I admit it's not the first topic that comes to mind. After nearly 17 years living in Sweden, I still have to file tax returns in both countries (USA and Sweden). The deadline in the US for foreign returns is June 15 so I am thrilled to be done with plenty of time to spare!

That, however, is not the happy part. The happy part is that when I sat down to do the returns I found two files on my computer that made the entire process so much simpler. The first is a spreadsheet I used last year to convert all currencies to US dollars. The second is a Word document called Tax Events 2011 which I had totally forgotten about. I just had to smile at myself for having created that document, listing items I should remember when filing my US taxes. How cool is that?

No refund this year...but no taxes due either! And when I logged on to my Swedish bank account to check some figures, I noticed that the tax refund from the Swedish return had already been posted to the account. All in all, a pretty happy tax experience.

Day 24: Quack

The Chinese restaurant around the corner from where I live has a Monday night special: Peking duck for 295 Swedish crowns. I was there tonight for the second time with a group of ex-pats via the Stockholm Foodies MeetUp group. With three persons to a duck, the feast is on and for a modest 100 crowns you get a three course meal.

The chef slicing our ducks at table-side

Course one is breast of duck served with pancakes, julienne onions and cucumber, with a hoisin sauce. You create your own duck breast wrap and munch away. For the second course, the dark meat is deboned, shredded and served with a chili and spices dipping powder. We can't quite figure out what exactly it's composed of and cannot get the waitress to divulge (despite having a native Chinese speaker at the table!). Whatever it is, we all agree it's very flavorful. The final course is a duck broth, creamy and rich in flavor, with the remaining thigh bones thrown in for good measure.

Everyone leaves with a full stomach and a smile...eating duck makes me happy!

Day 23: Grinda

For the fifth summer in a row, a couple of my singing buddies have organized an outing to Grinda, an island in the Stockholm Archipelago. This year, for the first time, I was finally able to join them. The Archipelago, with its 30,000 or so islands, is one of the country's treasures and is trafficked by boats that travel to a number of the most popular islands.

The trip to Grinda is just under two hours, with boats departing a few times daily from a dock in the middle of town, just opposite the royal palace. People live on the islands closest to the city and use the boats to commute into town for work or pleasure. As I climbed on board today, I was greeted by some familiar faces also on their way to the song fest.

Grinda is popular among campers during the summer and I can see why. It is peaceful, beautiful and quiet. We wend our way along the paths, past cows and sheep grazing in the pastures,

to a small pier where we settle down to eat our picnic lunches and lift our voices in song.

As we begin our second song, so do the raindrops and soon we are in the midst of a typical Swedish summer downpour. I drape the plastic tablecloth that I brought to sit on over myself, creating a small tent in an effort to keep dry. From within my small shelter I can hear the others laughing and sighing over our back luck. No one makes a move to leave, everyone confident that the rain will pass enabling our singing outing to continue as planned. I marvel at the Swedish perseverance which does eventually pay off as the rain subsides and the sun makes an appearance.

We finish our meal and get back to the real purpose of our trip...singing. We are not professionals. We do not sing together regularly. We are simply a collection of people who share this common interest in singing and being out in nature, happy to be combining the two. We sing mostly in Swedish and once again I note that at this point I know more folk songs in Swedish than I do in English. How odd, I think, and marvelous.

On my way home I am rewarded by this beautiful shaft of light that illuminates the Stockholm skyline.

The heavens are welcoming me home...