Yesterday, I made my fourth visit to IKEA since I came here in November. I know – it is crazy! (And no wonder that I resent this settled, “creating-a-nice-home kind of life.) But I think I can kind of discount one of the visits since it was with a group of au-pairs on our way to a Lucia practice just to eat Swedish meatballs and lingonberries at the IKEA restaurant. Yesterday’s visit was because I actually managed to come home with the wrong bed when I got the furniture in late November. So Mr. M was nice enough to go out with me again. (Since I still do not have a drivers licence, IKEA visits are a bit complicated. On the other hand, it is only when I need to go to IKEA that I actually wished I had a licence, so I am never really motivated to get one.) Of course, IKEA is what it is and so you always get out of there with a lot more stuff than you intended. I also got some food and crackers from the IKEA store, and am now enjoying the Swedish traditional sandwich “caviar” Kalles that the European Commission no longer allows us to call caviar but which is still going strong in the Swedish kitchens.

So my apartment is slowly but surely getting furnished. It is with mixed feelings but I think it is the right thing to do. I will post pics as soon as I get the bed together. I am still a bit jet-lagged, and so I fell asleep at 8 pm yesterday and woke up at 6:30 this morning. But when starting fixing with the bed and some other things that I had bought, it turned out that I need to use a hammer, and I am now trying to be a good neighbour and not start hammering before noon. Am enjoying my Kalles sandwich in the meantime.