October 2020

When I write this, it was a long time ago, that I have been active on my blog, but actually the “Corona”pandemic we have now makes me infirm, especially my psyche. I did not take a lot of walks and I did not make a lot at home. I felt very lonely. I think that is natural, when one lives alone. Even the online chats with my children – which happens not often enough, but with my eldest son, Marcus, did not help. Being a person, who has been “always on the go”, this pandemic is really bad for me, even I have not had COVID-19, what I am grateful about. Anyway this month was one of the better ones. But let’s start.

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1st to 10th Oct 2020

There did not happen a lot as you can imagine by my lines above. I was taking walks with my new girlfriend Irma three times a week. I also checked my weight and was down 500 g to 71kg – I had dropped much less than I expected. I have got a parcel from Marcus and finished my blog for last month. The weather was like in November. There were no sun, even October usually has a lot of sun to come with. I am still active in answering my emails.

I played boules again and we were happy, that it was not raining that day, but the upcoming was worse. It was raining all the day long. I had to take a blood test and also were going to my line dance group.

The 9th was a little special, because I had a lot of help of Irene, another friend – she is demonstrating with me for the climate. We talk a lot, when we are standing in front of the town hall with our signs and I told her, that I will go to the Red Cross 2:a hand shop for a plate for biscuits as well as I am looking for a picnic basket for my daughter in law. Irene offered me both, for free. She also drove me to the supermarket, to pick up a layer cake, which I was offered for free of the supermarket, because of my 70th birthday. Irene also told me, that I can recycle the picnic basket if my daughter in law do not like it. At the supermarket, when I had picked the layer cake and other items and was in the queue for the cashier, I found out, that I had forgotten my credit card as well as my member card for the supermarket and my ID-card at home (or maybe dropped it somewhere). Though I was waiting for Irene, asking her, what to do. She told me, it will be ok to pay with “Swish”, a special kind to do payments from ones own account to the account of the seller. This is mostly used between private people. I asked an employee of the supermarket, if that is possible and it was, but there was still the problem of the free layer cake. I had the needed coupon with me, but, as I wrote, not my member card. The cashier called someone else and so she found a code to make it work.

Even the 10th was a little special. I am buying my vegetables at a special farmers market. It is called “Reko-ring” and a group on Facebook. The farmers put there offers online in the group and the buyers answer what and how much of it, they want to buy. One day a fortnight the farmers come driving to the city center of Katrineholm and bring the orders. It is always the same weekday. One of the small farmers also sell flowers – some for meals, others for decoration. I would like to have a bouquet on my birthday, but it was too early to order for Tuesday. Though I asked, if it was possible to get it closer to my birtday in any way. This day the farmer was coming to town and delivered the bouquet right to my door – she had errands in our city as well.

Usually I was told never to celebrate a birthday before the correct date, but my son Samuel with it’s family came this Saturday. I was happy to see them, even I was a little nervous for COVID-19. I had cooked a vegan Indian pot and all did like it. By the way, they arrived late, though the flowers arrived before them. Surprisingly they also had a flower bouqet with them. It was a nice lite and calm party and brought some sunshine in my life.

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11th – 20th Oct 2020

This week was my birthday and I had invited the three women, I am closest with here in Katrineholm, to an Asian restaurant. That restaurant opened only a few weeks before the “Corona”pandemic started. A while it was fully closed, but opened again during the summer month and still is open. I had reserved a table in a corner, where not so many people will pass. It was a Monday, though I expected not a lot of customers either. My son Marcus had congratulated me the day before, when we met on Skype. My son Samuel did call me this day and congratulated me again. Just minutes later he sent me 5.000 SEK as a birthday gift – even they have had a gift with them, when they had visit me on Saturday. My son Daniel did it, when I had sent a photo of the gifts via Signal (a kind of messenger) and my daughter (Maria) the upcoming day. She had forgotten, that it was my birthday.

To the restaurant: My girlfriends Irene, Irma and Lotta arrived with different gifts to our dinner and even they had not known each other before, it was a wonderful combination av gifts with flowers, chocolate and warm mittens and wrist warmers of wool. I had taken the bouquet of flowers, I had bought, with me, because I did not know, that I will get some. We could have ordered from the menu, but also eat of the buffet. We all took of the last named, but I regretted it, because they had only a few vegetarian dishes and no really vegan disk. I could have ordered a vegetarian disk instead, that would have suited me more, even it was not vegan. All my friends had a splendid time meanwhile I was mostly occupied by eating ;-). It was a great atmosphere.

When I was going to pay, my friends made up to share the amount for the dinner between them – as another birthday present for me. Though, when I was back at the table, Irma asked me for my phone number, she could not find it anymore. I did not know, what it was about, though I gave it to her. Just a second afterwards I have got a signal on my phone, telling me, that I have got a payment by Swish. I couldn’t explain myself, what kind of payment I have got and opened the app. By this I became aware, that my friends had divided the price for the dinner by three and all of them had sent me a third of the price. The did not only pay for their own dinner, but mine as well. I told them, that I had invited them, but they told me, in Sweden it is common, that the person, who has birthday do not pay the restaurant note. Inviting at home, one has to take all the costs of the invitation, but that is a different thing.

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I finally got right with the heating. A technician of my landlord took a look at it one day, checked the temperature in the room and of the heating system and went back the other day to tell me, that our boiler had only 30°C warm water and the other one in the neighborhood has 38°C. Though he adjusted that and since that I actually are OK with the temperature in my home. Three times during these days I have been with Irma taking a 7 km walk. Unfortunately neither Irene nor I was demonstrating for the climate this week. We did not feel good and, telling the truth, I was watching the whole series of ”Weissensee” by the Internet the night before and was too tired to be at the town hall at 11am.

I could not chat with Marcus on Skype this week, he did not attend Skype and a couple of days later he told me by email, that he had been sleeping for almost 48 hours. I was quiet worried until I have got that email.

At the end of this period I also was to the supermarkets. It was drizzling most of the week, though I had to do my shopping in that light rain. In addition to the shopping, I have got the DVDs ”Little House of the Prairie”, which I had sent for and also posted two big letters with biscuits. One of them for Marcus and the other one for Samuel and his family. That helped me, that I do not have to eat homemade biscuits for a year.

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21st to 31st Oct 2020

The 21st was a special day, because of the activities. I have had a little pain in my right foot, though I supported it with an elastic bandage. First Irma and I made our 7 km walk and afterwards I was going by bike to an address some km away for a used item. It was in the same area of Katrineholm, where I had bought my television bench. I also was to the line dance class and in the evening to a new bugg (rock ’n’ roll) class. That were three and an half hours of dancing! I made it, even my foot hurt a little. – I had another day with both line dance and bugg classes. There were three bugg classes and I have the same partner all the time. It is unfortunate, that these dance classes are on the same weekday, but I love dancing bugg so much and I really needed it now against depression.

Irma had not much time for walking this week, therefore I made it once by my own. By the weather I did use my new warm lined Wellingtons, but mostly I do not go by my own. I always have so many other things to do, I say to myself, but it is more, that I need another person to enjoy the walk. I also was playing boules once or twice.

I made a little more unusual things in my kitchen under those days. One of them was to grate paprika by my kitchen system and I can tell you, that is not a good idea. There were mostly liquid. I used that in the hummus I made afterwards.

At the supermarket there was a woman, who coughed right on a shelf and at the service desk was another one, who did not keep distance behind me. She only reacted, when I told her for the third time and she answered angry, that she just is moving backwards.

The 30th I was alone in front of the town hall, demonstrating for the climate. Irene still had a cold and she told me, that she did had taken a test for COVID-19, but not got the result yet. A reporter of he local newspaper visited me and asked me among other questions, how I feel, that there are so many hate comments on Facebook (in the group where I announce our weekly activity). It became an article as well.

For Halloween I had bought sweets and filled small bags with some of them. Then I put them beside my apartment door with a sign: Happy Halloween, 1 bag/child. A neighbor with children thanked me the next day for it. I think, all these problems with the pandemic is much worse for children as for us and maybe also a little hard to understand.

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By the way, even I had a birthday celebration, I have not gained weight, which I am very happy about it.

At least, I did look for another apartment. There are apartments in the make in the center of our town. I had got a time for a meeting, where I was shown the floor plan and told the rent of the apartments I was maybe interested in. I signed up for one as an interested. Fortunately, I have got a print out of the floor plan for that apartment. At home I first checked the rent/square meter against mine I have now – and of course it was more, even the rent for the new apartment would be less than for the apartment I have now. Moreover I really checked the floor plan and actually, I missed it before. There is no possibility to have a bookshelf in that new apartment. The kitchen and living room is combined and one cannot put a table in the kitchen area. How would it look like to have a bookshelf behind the table. The table would be in the middle of the room and very little space between all of them: The couch, the table with the chairs (of course) and the bookshelf. To have the bookshelf between the couch and the table would not be a good decision either. Though I wrote an email and told that landlord, that I am no longer interested in the new apartment.

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… follow me during the month of November 2020 as well.