The Queen

Shortly before I heard the news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, I had been sorting through some cards that I received for my birthday two weeks ago, and had just decided to also keep this envelope that came with one of them:

I've had penfriends in Britain ever since way back in my teens; and looking at this envelope again, it suddenly struck me how weird it will be to see the Queen's face on the British stamps replaced with that of King Charles III!

I'm so glad she got to do her Platinum Jubilee, though.

Geraniums and Politics

 

Because of the roof work going on in spring/early summer, I never got round to buying any flowering plants for my balcony this year. When I could reclaim the space, I took out this geranium just for a bit of extra greenery out there, though - it wasn't in bloom then and hadn't been since last year when I bought it. Now, a week into September, with the nights getting cooler (even if not yet frosty) it has suddenly changed its mind and decided to bloom after all. It's of a type that we call "English" - what they call it in England, I'm not sure!

As mentioned in a post related to my birthday at the end of August, we have a general election coming up in Sweden on Sunday (11 September). So intense election campaigning and speculations going on over the past couple of weeks. Although I chose to vote in advance this time, there is of course no getting away from all the last-minute media debates. I've continued to follow those, and alas it keeps looking very likely that we're headed for a similar kind of mess as after the previous election, four years ago - i.e. without a clear majority to form a stable government. (We have eight parties in the parliament, and on each 'side' there's one or two who won't negotiate with one or two others.) With the war in Ukraine, our own country on the verge of joining NATO (if Turkey decides to let us in), and galloping energy crisis and inflation, it's a bit of a nail-biter situation, to say the least.

 

Senior Shopping

For my birthday last week, a friend sent me an H&M gift card. Their only shop here at the moment (there used to be two) is at the big shopping center 'across town' (from my point of view). It's not somewhere I go very often, as I can usually find what I need closer to home. But yesterday seemed a good day for it, so I decided to continue my "extended birthday celebrations" with a shopping trip. Changing buses is still a messy business here because of reconstruction work going on in the city; but I can walk to the railway station (15 min), and get a bus from there that takes me to within walking distance (another 10 min) from my destination.

I've hardly ever been into that H&M in that shopping mall, as there are other chain stores that are usually my first choice when I go shopping for clothes. If not for the gift card, I'd probably have turned around at their entrance this time as well. Apparently, the latest fashion is designed for people wanting to show off their bellies:

I had to proceed a lot deeper into the store to finally find an item that I really felt I wanted: A peaked winter cap. Actually that's something I would have gone looking for later on in the season anyway, if I hadn't happened to find it now. So I bought that. It only cost me half the value of the gift card; but fortunately it's the kind of card that doesn't have to be spent all at once. So as I didn't find anything else that I really wanted, I left it at that for now. 

...Trying on the new hat at home...

Just browsing one store had somehow manged to make me both tired and hungry (it was about lunch time), so after that I went and bought a hot dog and a bottle of water, and sat down for a while on bench outdoors in the sun before proceeding to the next mall - where my favourite clothing shop is... Turned out they were having an end-of-summer sale: 50% off on a lot of summer fashion items. Which was of course hard to resist!

So I came out of there with three items. One was a lilac t-shirt I had my eye on already back in the spring, but decided not to buy then, as I realised I didn't really have anything else in my wardrobe to match it. Now, I happened to also find a lilac shirt that did. And both at half price... Perfect for next summer, even if this one is nearly over.

I also found a red tennis shirt, which I think will match a red cardigan I bought last autumn in the same shop. (That cardigan is still in summer storage down in the basement, so haven't checked yet. But even if not, it will also go with grey or black or dark blue.)

Now I come to a part of the story that I hesitate to share - but with a special wink to Sandra the Madsnapper, I will... It's about how I almost went shoplifting instead of shopping!

The shop where I (eventually) bought the items above has two floors. I found these items upstairs. The desk where you pay is downstairs. On my way down the escalator, with the clothes hanging over my arm, my thoughts were already far ahead of the rest of me, thinking that I should visit the toilet  before heading back home. 

Getting off the escalator, the entrance/exit is straight ahead of me. I walk out into the mall, proceed down the indoors "street" corridor with other shops on both sides, take another escalator up to the second floor of the mall where the toilets are... And, having got that far - I suddenly become aware that I'm still carrying three items of clothing folded over my arm (still on their hangers) that I haven't paid for!!! 

Highly embarrassed, I turn around, go back down the other escalator, back along the street corridor (not crowded, but also not empty), and back into the shop. There were no "beeps" to warn me (or anyone else), neither when I went out nor when I went back in (as there usually are in most big shops these days). Not a single person seemed to have taken any notice of me carrying a bunch of clothes fully visible over my arm, still with hangers in them, neither when I went out nor when I went back in (nor while I was walking along the corridor outside). The cash desk is at the back of the shop on the entrance floor, and not really overlooking neither the escalators nor the entrance, as there are a lot of clothes racks in the way in between. So once back inside, I decided to just ignore the whole incident myself as well. I walked up to the cash desk as if I'd come straight down from upstairs and had never made that detour to the outside world; paid for my items and left with a clean conscience. Walked out of the shop again, now with my purchases neatly folded in a bag with the shop's name on it. Back up to the toilets; then sat down for a minute or two on a bench to check the bus time table on my phone; and managed to precisely catch the next one back home (i.e. to the railway station, from where I again walked the last bit back). 

'Senior moment'? Or just something that could easily happen at any time of life? 

The only similar incident that comes to mind for me was decades ago. That time I only nearly walked away with a small cotton reel, which I had happened to put in my pocket while needing my hand for something else. But I think I remembered before actually leaving the shop (so escaped committing a crime that time as well). 

Should perhaps add that the once or twice in my life that I've been stopped by "beeps" when leaving a shop, it wasn't my fault at all, but the cashier having missed to remove the whatsit when I payed!

Weekend Reflections

 

Photo from my walk today

 It's been a weekend for reflections, in more than one sense of the word.

On Saturday, I did something I haven't done in a long time. Definitely not since the pandemic; but not for quite a while before that either. I revisited a church where I used to be active back in the 90s, but over the past twenty years have only visited very occasionally. Initially this was related only to my own health issues; but with time, there is also an added factor of inevitably running into far too many people (at the same time) that I used to know, but have lost touch with; and all the questions and suggestions that often follow on such encounters (however well-intended). So in later years, when (now and then) I've wanted to attend a church service, I've usually gone to another church, where I rarely run into more than one or two people I know.

What made me go this time was that one friend (L) with whom I have kept in touch over the years - in spite of, or perhaps even thanks to, her living abroad - happened to be in town for a visit, and was going to lead a church seminar for a couple of hours on Saturday morning, about the work she and her husband are involved with in Asia. Another friend (E) texted me to say that if I wanted to come, she could give me a lift, and she didn't think there would be a whole lot of people there. So I thought well, perhaps it's as good a time as any to test my 'fears' against reality. And it probably was - even if, as a socializing experiment, I think I still have to declare the outcome kind of ambiguous.

It was nice to meet L in person though, and listen to her talk about her work 'live' and a bit more in detail. There probably weren't more than a dozen or so people there altogether (fewer than I expected). Two more (besides E and L) were friends I've also stayed in touch with on Facebook. (One of them L's father-in-law; I also used to be friends with his wife, who sadly passed away with cancer some years ago.) Most of the rest were new faces to me. One of those was the new pastor, who seemed rather puzzled to find an unknown 'stray sheep' wandering in at this kind of gathering. During the coffee/tea break, he did his best to fill the shoes of absent old friends (so to speak) - he even managed to fit in a suggestion that perhaps I'd like to join a group of some kind...  Just doing his shepherding job of course (and he wasn't really intrusive) but in my own head I made note that I really do still find it mentally exhausting to try and sum up my life to strangers in just a few sentences... (Not getting easier with the years ticking on - even if I suppose blogging keeps giving me a bit of practice of sorts. But in the written form I feel more in control!)

Meanwhile, sitting still on a hard chair without arm-rests for the better part of two hours is also definitely still not a good thing for my body. After I got back home, I spent most of the afternoon lying down, plus in need of more painkillers than normally. (And have tried to compensate with a very lazy and "slow" day today...) 

That's not to say I regret going. L's lecture was about feeling out of place vs belonging, and freedom. Her job includes 'pastoral care' and her approach is down-to-earth as much as spiritual. One exercise she had prepared for us to try was that she had spread out a lot of very different photos on a table, and asked each of us to pick one that to us seemed to represent "freedom", and then (no obligation, but everyone did) share our thoughts. (In general, I have no particular difficulty with that kind of sharing.) Interestingly (to myself) I found myself without much hesitation picking up an image of a keyboard and computer screen. My motivation (and also really what this whole post is leading up to):  To me it (the internet) represents "freedom from time and space", as in making it possible to have meaningful communication with other people, even across the world - without having to be in the same room, or even in the same time zone! (And of course, since the corona virus, this has become even more important for a lot more people.)

In this context, just pointing to L as an example was enough (to me she is "the Queen of Facebook" - no one else I know uses it to the extent she does, to keep in touch with people all over the world, and to share both everyday trivial things and more profound thoughts). But of course in my mind I was also thinking of "Blogland", and how much that has come to mean to me over the 13 years gone by since I created my first blog (2009). It's still amazing to me that I'm still in touch with several people I got to know very early on in this sphere of the internet (and others a bit later), even though we never (yet) met 'in person'.

So thanks for "being here"! :-)

 

Sunrise Skywatch

 

 

Yesterday morning (31 August) I happened to be out of bed at the right time to catch this dramatic sunrise sky from my kitchen window.