It has been a long Easter holiday. Wednesday evening I arrived in Borås and my mother picked me up. I have occupied the couch at my sister's place until today. There I met my niece for the first time. Inez is a cute, but somewhat opinionated, baby. She seems to be hungry most of the time and lets everybody know about it. She was also slobering on all the clothes I brought with me, but she got away with it.
My mother and I did some shopping, of course. Not much, but I came home with a knitted cardigan, a pair of jeans (60 SEK - very cheap), and some small items. My mother had also knitted a scarf for me and made new cushions (so that they match my curtains). I visited her a few times and we made some necklaces together.
One of the events included a visit to a day spa. The adult women each got a facial treatment there. It was very nice to get massage and to get pampered like that.
The celebration of my birthday was the Sunday lunch. It was outside of town at a place that used to be a farm. They now have a restaurant in what used to be the stable. A very popular place that serves buffet style meals. Great food; salmon, herring, chicken, meatballs and many other things. Choices for dessert included chocolate mousse, lemon mousse, waffles, brownie, meringue and cookies. Yummy!
I opened my presents yesterday, which was the actual birthday. I got a gift certificate at a ticket office and a ticket for a circus show. Earlier I have received other gift certificates for flowers and a day spa treatment, for instance. Thank you!
This morning my mother brought me to the second hand store she is a volunteer at. She showed me the large section with sewing materials, buttons, thread, fabric and lots of other things. The basement was also filled with unsorted goods and I can understand that she has a lot to do there. At 10 she dropped me off at the train station and I took the train to Halmstad. This is where Olga lived (the relative who wrote daily notes in almanacs for most of her life). I had lunch at a Greek restaurant and then walked over to the church. It said in her almanacs that she had donated money to some of the stained-glass windows, so I took photos of them. The market hall where Olga had a cheese store 1930-1955, is now a second hand clothing store, and nothing was left of the old interiors. I walked out to the cemetery and understood right away that I would never find the gravestones without help (huge cemetery and no map). I located three people working there, and they knew what sections I referred to, so I finally found the markers for Olga + her parents, Olga's sister + family and Olga's nephew. After taking photos of the stones, I walked back to town, passing by the house Olga had lived in (I recognized it from our visits in the 1980s). I rested at a coffee place and then went on a short shopping spree in my favorite clothing store, Kappahl. I got three items; a nightgown and two tops. I returned back home by train in the evening.
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