This week has been a friendly week with Valentine´s Day this Tuesday. Important to take care of each other. Yesterday I went to see Molly, and she was very happy as usual. I was planning to go skiing with her but it was so rainy. Snow, rain, darkness, but we know it will get better soon. Since I will join “Tjejmilen” this year, you will see me jogging in the countryside.

I went by train and bus to the countryside. Every year we have chaos in Sweden due to the snow. We know it is coming every year, and we get surprised like it never happened before. This year has been extremely chilly, and it has affected the trains in Sweden. The CEO of SJ went public and apologized for all the delays. She got a lot of criticism. I liked what she did. She was honest.

Happy Valentines weekend

I have already started 2024 with a new habit for my workouts. Perhaps because I have a new watch. A very kind and supporting watch that tells me nice things when I do exercise. However, I had to turn off the watch noticing when to continue walking to reach 10 000 steps a day. It reminded me too many times a day. Instead, I have started 3 minutes of mindfulness. Just relax and do nothing for three minutes, and during that time I monitor my heartbeat. What to think about during 3 minutes? I got reminded of when I practiced Aikido, almost 25 years ago. We always started with some quiet time and we were told to have a calm picture in our mind. I still remember but I will not reveal my meditation picture in my mind.

During the years when I wrote “Generations” I did a lot of running. I do not understand why but when I finished writing I didn´t want to run anymore. I started to go by bicycle instead. A few years have passed and now I have started to miss running. For some weeks I have thought about it and now I have decided. I will go for the run “Tjejmilen” on the 31st of August. And most likely, I will also join “Hässelbyloppet” later in October.

Are you joining me?

Wonderful with snow. The fact that I wobbled a little on my cross-country skis made me think of ice skating. Not ice hockey, but I remembered my figure skates. Either you went to the lake, or there was a hockey rink that you could go to. By chance, I happened to see this boat in the photo below one evening. The ice gives way to the archipelago boats in Stockholm. I love this chilly picture.

I couldn’t leave the thought of skates and looked for my old ones. Realized relatively quickly that they were probably outgrown a long time ago. Have now ordered skates which I am waiting for. Maybe it will premiere this week if the weather holds. I am waiting for – what can I say – women’s skates. They are so good with a brake on the tip of the toe. Need to take a course to be able to brake with the skate blades.

In the middle of winter, we must prepare even more for war. It is true, in Sweden, we have had peace for 210 years. We need to think and integrate ourselves with the outside world. At the same time, I wonder what the Swedish armed forces know that we ordinary citizens don’t.

It is a new year and new things are going on. I am enjoying winter because summer will soon be here.

We have a few busy months ahead of us before spring. I sincerely hope that there will be some snow left. It feels so fresh when you are outside when it is a few degrees below zero. I was very pleased to be able to start the new year with skiing. This time it was considerably steadier. My skiing memory is there somewhere. Molly, on the other hand, thought there was too much snow.

Lovely with a few Christmas days, and I celebrated my birthday which I hardly ever do. A few days before my birthday I was visited by a friend and her sister. Her birthday is in September so we got to celebrate a little together as we are the same age. I had intended to visit her in Sri Lanka, but she came to me instead.

We have known each other for 20 years and she also likes music. Starts the year with “Hate it or love it”. I then mostly think about turning a year older. Adding that I now like to celebrate birthdays. I feel gratitude.