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a flight long enough to type about the last few days
This got long, let me break it into reasonable sized chunks...
After we got home from the trip to Umafolk Friday night-Saturday morning, I managed to take a quick 20 minute nap, and then the rest of Saturday was spent being useful. Some sewing projects, some pre-packing for the Italy trip, updating finances, etc., yet I managed to get to bed and sleep at only 21:20, since I was tired from the adventure/driving/staying up late/sleeping poorly on the couch the night before.
However, I woke up around 01:30 or 02:00 when![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lord_kjar came to bed and my brain suddenly gave me an inspiration on how to approach the pleating for O's poofy Viking trousers that we had started cutting earlier. So I got up and did the changes to the pinning for that, finishing around 03:00, at which point I sent him a text message telling him that I had, and guessing that he was long since asleep. But he replied straight away, saying that he had gone to the uni pub and ran into an old friend he hadn't seen in years, so was only just home, giving him two very late nights in a row.
I went back to sleep at that point, and slept till nearly 08:00, which gave me a good night's rest, since I have never minded getting my sleep in different segments.
Sunday was another day to be busy around the house. I baked some yummy Saffron-pumpkin bread rolls, and one braided loaf of the same dough, which we ate with soup for lunch withlord_kjar's little brother, his wife, and son. They took home with them our old band saw, which needs some major maintenance to make it function. I am not clear if he will fix it, or use the parts for other projects, but since we have obtained another which works as is, I am content to just have the old one gone.
After they went home we started unpacking C's kitchen boxes, which, of course, meant also going through our cupboards and drawers to see what wants to go to make room for her stuff. In some cases what we already had in a given category was better than what she brought, so hers went either into the box she will take with her to the temporary job she will be working this summer down south, or into a box for storage. In other cases hers was better example of that type of object, and ours went either to the get rid of pile, or storage pile, or the take with her this summer pile, depending on what it was. I am looking forward to the next time I have time and energy to bake a pie, since it is my habit to make a big batch of pie crust dough, bake one pie, and then freeze the rest of the dough already rolled out into pie plates. I have only had one very large ceramic pie plate, so the ones which went into the freezer were the smaller pie plates. But she has a large one the same size as mine, so now I can bake one straight away, and freeze another large shell.
Needless to say, this process took hours, and we didn't manage to make it to folk dance that evening. O. arrived soon after we started on the kitchen stuff, so I alternated between the kitchen project and helping him with the tunic he is working on, which he decided was higher on the priority list to stitch than the trousers.
Give how long it took to go through the kitchen stuff, I wound up staying up too late cuddling that night, which wasn't really a surprise, but it made getting up Monday a bit of a challenge.
Yet we managed to get up in good enough time as to walk in to the office and still get there on time to meet E. and E. to practice our acroyoga routine with the music that E. (my apprentice) will be playing whilst E. (my acroyoga partner) balances me on her feet, etc. We are all three happy with how it is coming together, and at the end of the session we filmed it on E.'s ipad. It was fun to see how it looks not in the mirror, and since we made a few minor mistakes in that run through, it should be interesting to film it again in a few months and compare our progress.
Since it was -20 C that morning I had opted to wear snow pants and my fur hood and muff in addition to my normal coat. However, it warmed up to -10 C over the course of the day, which meant the walk home after work was a bit hot and sweaty, since it is easier to wear all that than to carry it, and, really, it needs to be at least -15 C before that many layers are needed for walking.
Having the layers did mean I could enjoy an adventure on the way home though. When I got to the snow machine tracks over the ice I went that way, instead of continuing along the road. It was so pretty to go that way. We are far enough from solstice now that, even though it was already after 16:00, the sun hadn't set yet, and the evening sun on the snow was lovely, as was the pinkish orange southern sky.
However, when I got to the bottom of our property and left the snow machine tracks, the going slowed way down. I haven't been that way since last it snowed, and my last tracks didn't show at all. While we haven't had much snow this year, it is still knee deep, except for where it has drifted deeper. At first I followed some moose tracks, but they didn't go a useful direction for long, so I switched to some deer tracks, but, of course by the time I left the trees and came to the bottom of our field, the deer, too, had decided to go a different direction than I wanted. So I started straight across the field, at which point I decided that since my legs were hot in those snow pants, and it was hard walking, I may as well crawl, since it might cool the legs to be kneeling in the snow.
That went much faster, though I must admit that my body doesn't have the conditioning necessary for crawling quickly over knee deep snow whilst wearing a pack. I had to stop every 20 steps to catch me breath. I recommend this workout to those of you looking to get into better shape.
How much slower does the knee deep snow make it? Well, that route home from work is a between one quarter and one half a km shorter than going by the road, yet the whole walk was 1 hour, 8 minutes, compared to the 45 minutes the other route takes.
Needless to say, between a busy day and not so much sleep, followed by the walk home, I was rather tired by the time I got home, and was delighted to discover that C. had made a vegetarian lasagne while I was at work. It has often happened over the years that I was the one at home cooking something yummy, which I had ready when my loved one(s) got home from work, but this is the first time I got to experience the other side of that equation It was really nice!
Granted, I was so tired that rather than eating in her company I took the food to the beanbag and curled up with a book, but that was exactly what I needed. I finished reading and eating just on time to grab the sewing basket and head to Nyckelharpa night.
This was the first Nyckelharpa night we have attended this year. Our hosts always take a long winter holiday in Thailand, and they haven't been back very long. We could have made it to the one two weeks ago, but I was on my way home from Norway that Monday, and andlord_kjar was in Göteborg helping C. pack for her move north. It was so good to be there again after the long break. There isn't much nicer than making progress on sewing while listening to Swedish folk music played on four Nyckelharpas (and, now that C. has moved north, a flute).
I made good progress on my Thorsbjerg trousers that evening--all but finishing the seam on one foot and adding the belt loops is done. I am really happy with how these are coming out. The way the fabric on the legs wraps around and attaches to that square butt panel means that one has amazing flexibility while wearing them, even when making them quite close fitted. I tried them for acroyoga practice on Tuesday, and have no problems with any of the poses and transitions needed for the performance we will do at the SCA event in Reengarda in a week and a half.
After Nyckelharpa night I realized that I should check in with my friends in Milan before flying south Wednesday, so sat down to the computer, where I also discovered some messages about our Medieval Days event at Hangnän this summer, so rather than packing for the trip, I dealt with that, including doing the paperwork to make it an official SCA event, which I guess makes me the autocrat, even though there are four of us working on it.
Tuesday, as always, is a long day. I got to work, started up the ICP-MS (which is working again after last week's repairs), and left the plasma to warm up while I went to the gym to work out. That worked so well I should make a habit of it. The uni gym is much closer to the lab than to my office, and the plasma needs at least 20 minutes, and an hour is better before we will get the best results from the mass spectrometer.
After my workout I returned to the lab and did some analyses and then returned to my office, where I worked till time to return to the gym for my meeting with my personal trainer at 13:00. That was a great session, the highlight of which was him showing me how to do a rubber band assisted handstand. (Take one of those giant rubber bands, hook it over the pull-up bar, loop your arms through like it is a backpack, and then go into the handstand, with your feet resting against the band, which is then quite taut.) This is a wonderful way to do the handstand--there is no problem finding the middle balance point with that band there. I even managed to switch from holding onto the band with my toes for dear life to only resting the feet against it (tightly, one on each side) by the end of my first try.
Then I returned to my office, where I met O. so that I could take out the many braids I had put into his hair a week or so ago. His hair isn't yet long enough for him to see the ends of the braids, which would make it hard for him to untie the brightly coloured yarn I had braided into his hair. Whilst I did the unbraiding we discussed plans and timing for the SCA event we want to run in between the Medieval Days event this summer and Norrskensfest in November. We are now leaning towards the weekend of 15 September, so as to miss both exams and the welcome to the new students weeks at Uni.
By the time I got all of the braids out (his hair is very curly, and would be just as happy to stay entwined with itself, thank you very much) I was slightly late for meeting V. for the massage he owed me, but that was ok, as he was running late, too.
Then, after a lovely massage, it was Phire practice, followed by choir, and then finally home where I could pack for my flight the next morning. Needless to say I was quite exhausted by the time I finally made it to bed at 23:30.
Luckily, the Luleå airport is small, and only 20 minutes from our house, so we didn't need to leave till just after 06:00, which got me there with enough time to clear security (no queue at all) re-fill my water before walking straight onto the plane, which had a 06:55 departure time.
I slept on the first flight, till I felt that slight change in pressure that signals the pre-decent, at which point I got up to use the toilet before they switched on the fasten seat belt sign, which gave me time to eat my breakfast before landing.
At the Stockholm security to enter the other terminal I was disturbed to discover that my (work) computer had dropped two screws into the plastic tray used to carry it through xray. So I put them into the plastic bag with my toiletries and asked the nice guards on duty if they had a suggestion of someplace that might have a screwdriver. They suggested I try the electronics shop, but, sadly, they couldn't help me, so I have to hope I don't loose them till I get somewhere that does have screwdrivers.
Today's journey is much easier than the home trip will be, as I am flying direct from Stockholm to Milan's Linate airport, which is the one right on the edge of the city, quite near where I used to live, so I can take normal city public transit instead of the expensive and long airport bus trip needed from the other two airports. (But on the return I will need to fly Venice-Munich-Stockholm-Luleå, which will mean a much longer travel day.)
I land in about am hour, and then I will make my way across the city to the home of U., who was the person listed on the Drachenwald web page as an SCA contact in Milan back when I moved there in 2009. He will be heading out to teach sword fighting this evening, but is home during the day. With luck my friend L. will meet me at his place later.
But, of course, I can't post this till later, anyway, by which time I will know if it went according to plan.
...and, now, hours later, I can report that it did go according to plan. I bought a two day public transit pass, took the city bus in from the airport, and hopped off as it passed near a train station, walked the couple of blocks over, and down to the tracks, and then took that line till it intersected with the line that goes to my friend's house, arriving here sometime between 13:30 and 14:00. We spent a couple hours visiting, and then he went out to rescue a damsel in distress before heading to the sword fighting lesson he teaches on Wednesday, and I am enjoying a quiet evening in his apartment, where I plan to catch up on stuff on the computer, hopefully do my workout (which I didn't get up on time to do this morning), and certainlly do my yoga. L. may still make it over here later tonight. This morning she said she would be with her mother till 18:00, which is pretty much now.
After we got home from the trip to Umafolk Friday night-Saturday morning, I managed to take a quick 20 minute nap, and then the rest of Saturday was spent being useful. Some sewing projects, some pre-packing for the Italy trip, updating finances, etc., yet I managed to get to bed and sleep at only 21:20, since I was tired from the adventure/driving/staying up late/sleeping poorly on the couch the night before.
However, I woke up around 01:30 or 02:00 when
lord_kjar came to bed and my brain suddenly gave me an inspiration on how to approach the pleating for O's poofy Viking trousers that we had started cutting earlier. So I got up and did the changes to the pinning for that, finishing around 03:00, at which point I sent him a text message telling him that I had, and guessing that he was long since asleep. But he replied straight away, saying that he had gone to the uni pub and ran into an old friend he hadn't seen in years, so was only just home, giving him two very late nights in a row.I went back to sleep at that point, and slept till nearly 08:00, which gave me a good night's rest, since I have never minded getting my sleep in different segments.
Sunday was another day to be busy around the house. I baked some yummy Saffron-pumpkin bread rolls, and one braided loaf of the same dough, which we ate with soup for lunch with
lord_kjar's little brother, his wife, and son. They took home with them our old band saw, which needs some major maintenance to make it function. I am not clear if he will fix it, or use the parts for other projects, but since we have obtained another which works as is, I am content to just have the old one gone.After they went home we started unpacking C's kitchen boxes, which, of course, meant also going through our cupboards and drawers to see what wants to go to make room for her stuff. In some cases what we already had in a given category was better than what she brought, so hers went either into the box she will take with her to the temporary job she will be working this summer down south, or into a box for storage. In other cases hers was better example of that type of object, and ours went either to the get rid of pile, or storage pile, or the take with her this summer pile, depending on what it was. I am looking forward to the next time I have time and energy to bake a pie, since it is my habit to make a big batch of pie crust dough, bake one pie, and then freeze the rest of the dough already rolled out into pie plates. I have only had one very large ceramic pie plate, so the ones which went into the freezer were the smaller pie plates. But she has a large one the same size as mine, so now I can bake one straight away, and freeze another large shell.
Needless to say, this process took hours, and we didn't manage to make it to folk dance that evening. O. arrived soon after we started on the kitchen stuff, so I alternated between the kitchen project and helping him with the tunic he is working on, which he decided was higher on the priority list to stitch than the trousers.
Give how long it took to go through the kitchen stuff, I wound up staying up too late cuddling that night, which wasn't really a surprise, but it made getting up Monday a bit of a challenge.
Yet we managed to get up in good enough time as to walk in to the office and still get there on time to meet E. and E. to practice our acroyoga routine with the music that E. (my apprentice) will be playing whilst E. (my acroyoga partner) balances me on her feet, etc. We are all three happy with how it is coming together, and at the end of the session we filmed it on E.'s ipad. It was fun to see how it looks not in the mirror, and since we made a few minor mistakes in that run through, it should be interesting to film it again in a few months and compare our progress.
Since it was -20 C that morning I had opted to wear snow pants and my fur hood and muff in addition to my normal coat. However, it warmed up to -10 C over the course of the day, which meant the walk home after work was a bit hot and sweaty, since it is easier to wear all that than to carry it, and, really, it needs to be at least -15 C before that many layers are needed for walking.
Having the layers did mean I could enjoy an adventure on the way home though. When I got to the snow machine tracks over the ice I went that way, instead of continuing along the road. It was so pretty to go that way. We are far enough from solstice now that, even though it was already after 16:00, the sun hadn't set yet, and the evening sun on the snow was lovely, as was the pinkish orange southern sky.
However, when I got to the bottom of our property and left the snow machine tracks, the going slowed way down. I haven't been that way since last it snowed, and my last tracks didn't show at all. While we haven't had much snow this year, it is still knee deep, except for where it has drifted deeper. At first I followed some moose tracks, but they didn't go a useful direction for long, so I switched to some deer tracks, but, of course by the time I left the trees and came to the bottom of our field, the deer, too, had decided to go a different direction than I wanted. So I started straight across the field, at which point I decided that since my legs were hot in those snow pants, and it was hard walking, I may as well crawl, since it might cool the legs to be kneeling in the snow.
That went much faster, though I must admit that my body doesn't have the conditioning necessary for crawling quickly over knee deep snow whilst wearing a pack. I had to stop every 20 steps to catch me breath. I recommend this workout to those of you looking to get into better shape.
How much slower does the knee deep snow make it? Well, that route home from work is a between one quarter and one half a km shorter than going by the road, yet the whole walk was 1 hour, 8 minutes, compared to the 45 minutes the other route takes.
Needless to say, between a busy day and not so much sleep, followed by the walk home, I was rather tired by the time I got home, and was delighted to discover that C. had made a vegetarian lasagne while I was at work. It has often happened over the years that I was the one at home cooking something yummy, which I had ready when my loved one(s) got home from work, but this is the first time I got to experience the other side of that equation It was really nice!
Granted, I was so tired that rather than eating in her company I took the food to the beanbag and curled up with a book, but that was exactly what I needed. I finished reading and eating just on time to grab the sewing basket and head to Nyckelharpa night.
This was the first Nyckelharpa night we have attended this year. Our hosts always take a long winter holiday in Thailand, and they haven't been back very long. We could have made it to the one two weeks ago, but I was on my way home from Norway that Monday, and and
lord_kjar was in Göteborg helping C. pack for her move north. It was so good to be there again after the long break. There isn't much nicer than making progress on sewing while listening to Swedish folk music played on four Nyckelharpas (and, now that C. has moved north, a flute).I made good progress on my Thorsbjerg trousers that evening--all but finishing the seam on one foot and adding the belt loops is done. I am really happy with how these are coming out. The way the fabric on the legs wraps around and attaches to that square butt panel means that one has amazing flexibility while wearing them, even when making them quite close fitted. I tried them for acroyoga practice on Tuesday, and have no problems with any of the poses and transitions needed for the performance we will do at the SCA event in Reengarda in a week and a half.
After Nyckelharpa night I realized that I should check in with my friends in Milan before flying south Wednesday, so sat down to the computer, where I also discovered some messages about our Medieval Days event at Hangnän this summer, so rather than packing for the trip, I dealt with that, including doing the paperwork to make it an official SCA event, which I guess makes me the autocrat, even though there are four of us working on it.
Tuesday, as always, is a long day. I got to work, started up the ICP-MS (which is working again after last week's repairs), and left the plasma to warm up while I went to the gym to work out. That worked so well I should make a habit of it. The uni gym is much closer to the lab than to my office, and the plasma needs at least 20 minutes, and an hour is better before we will get the best results from the mass spectrometer.
After my workout I returned to the lab and did some analyses and then returned to my office, where I worked till time to return to the gym for my meeting with my personal trainer at 13:00. That was a great session, the highlight of which was him showing me how to do a rubber band assisted handstand. (Take one of those giant rubber bands, hook it over the pull-up bar, loop your arms through like it is a backpack, and then go into the handstand, with your feet resting against the band, which is then quite taut.) This is a wonderful way to do the handstand--there is no problem finding the middle balance point with that band there. I even managed to switch from holding onto the band with my toes for dear life to only resting the feet against it (tightly, one on each side) by the end of my first try.
Then I returned to my office, where I met O. so that I could take out the many braids I had put into his hair a week or so ago. His hair isn't yet long enough for him to see the ends of the braids, which would make it hard for him to untie the brightly coloured yarn I had braided into his hair. Whilst I did the unbraiding we discussed plans and timing for the SCA event we want to run in between the Medieval Days event this summer and Norrskensfest in November. We are now leaning towards the weekend of 15 September, so as to miss both exams and the welcome to the new students weeks at Uni.
By the time I got all of the braids out (his hair is very curly, and would be just as happy to stay entwined with itself, thank you very much) I was slightly late for meeting V. for the massage he owed me, but that was ok, as he was running late, too.
Then, after a lovely massage, it was Phire practice, followed by choir, and then finally home where I could pack for my flight the next morning. Needless to say I was quite exhausted by the time I finally made it to bed at 23:30.
Luckily, the Luleå airport is small, and only 20 minutes from our house, so we didn't need to leave till just after 06:00, which got me there with enough time to clear security (no queue at all) re-fill my water before walking straight onto the plane, which had a 06:55 departure time.
I slept on the first flight, till I felt that slight change in pressure that signals the pre-decent, at which point I got up to use the toilet before they switched on the fasten seat belt sign, which gave me time to eat my breakfast before landing.
At the Stockholm security to enter the other terminal I was disturbed to discover that my (work) computer had dropped two screws into the plastic tray used to carry it through xray. So I put them into the plastic bag with my toiletries and asked the nice guards on duty if they had a suggestion of someplace that might have a screwdriver. They suggested I try the electronics shop, but, sadly, they couldn't help me, so I have to hope I don't loose them till I get somewhere that does have screwdrivers.
Today's journey is much easier than the home trip will be, as I am flying direct from Stockholm to Milan's Linate airport, which is the one right on the edge of the city, quite near where I used to live, so I can take normal city public transit instead of the expensive and long airport bus trip needed from the other two airports. (But on the return I will need to fly Venice-Munich-Stockholm-Luleå, which will mean a much longer travel day.)
I land in about am hour, and then I will make my way across the city to the home of U., who was the person listed on the Drachenwald web page as an SCA contact in Milan back when I moved there in 2009. He will be heading out to teach sword fighting this evening, but is home during the day. With luck my friend L. will meet me at his place later.
But, of course, I can't post this till later, anyway, by which time I will know if it went according to plan.
...and, now, hours later, I can report that it did go according to plan. I bought a two day public transit pass, took the city bus in from the airport, and hopped off as it passed near a train station, walked the couple of blocks over, and down to the tracks, and then took that line till it intersected with the line that goes to my friend's house, arriving here sometime between 13:30 and 14:00. We spent a couple hours visiting, and then he went out to rescue a damsel in distress before heading to the sword fighting lesson he teaches on Wednesday, and I am enjoying a quiet evening in his apartment, where I plan to catch up on stuff on the computer, hopefully do my workout (which I didn't get up on time to do this morning), and certainlly do my yoga. L. may still make it over here later tonight. This morning she said she would be with her mother till 18:00, which is pretty much now.