Didn’t I just say goodbye to September? What happened to the month of October? No really, I’m serious. This month has whizzed by and I feel like I blinked and now it’s over. That means it’s November as you read this, and if you’ve followed me for a while, you know that November is my least favorite month of the year. I have a couple of fun things planned for the month, so keep your fingers crossed that it’ll be less miserable than usual.
But before we worry about that, let’s take a look back at my October.
October started magnificently. On the first morning, the sky was on fire; October was showing off like it was a peacock, saying Look at how pretty I am. This picture doesn’t do it justice; the sky was glowing, and it took my breath away.
I did a lot of traveling in October, which I guess is one of the reasons that it went by so quickly. The first trip was purely pleasure; the hubby and I went to visit the grandbaby and her parents. We hadn’t been there for so long (they’ve been hanging out at our place a lot), so a visit was long overdue. The weather was fabulous and all of us went for a walk. We bought a cup of tea (or coffee) and strolled by the water and it was lovely.
Here they are, the loves of my life. Little W and my darling daughter, owners of my heart, the lights of my life.
I’ve spent a lot of time on trains last month. We took the train to visit Little W, and the week after I went on a work trip Monday through Wednesday, going from the south of Sweden where I live to Stockholm, where we (me and my colleagues) had a customer event. Then we took the train from Stockholm to Gothenburg where we had another customer event, and then we took yet another train from Gothenburg back home.
Me and my colleague arrived in Stockholm on Monday evening, and we had a lovely dinner and stayed at a nice hotel. It was fun to hang out with my coworkers outside of the office, and getting to know them a little better. On Tuesday morning we did the first work event, which was very successful.
Tuesday evening in Gothenburg, and this is the view from the rooftop bar on the fourteenth floor at our hotel. We started with a glass of wine while enjoying the view, and then, for the second evening in a row, me and my colleagues had dinner together. Wednesday morning was a repetition of the day before and after a bowl of pho for lunch, we finally headed home.
I spent the weekend following that ordeal reading by the fire, swearing to my husband that I was never in a million years leaving home again. That was unfortunately a lie, because…
…the following Tuesday, we repeated the customer event thing for the third time, this time in Malmö which is much closer to both home and the office, so I left my ordinary time in the morning and was back home after lunch. This was the best event by far, and everyone participating was very satisfied.
But no one was happier than I when the whole thing was over and I could go back home, elated about the fact that there are no more work trips on my schedule for the foreseeable future!
Then on the Friday after the last work trip, my long-time BFFs came for a visit and stayed the entire weekend. It was their first visit since I moved back to Sweden; the intention was that it would happen long before it did, but the pandemic got in the way. But finally, we all had a free weekend at the same time, and OMG, it was so much fun! On Friday, I made dinner and we ate and drank wine and talked and talked and talked. On Saturday, we had lunch at the local restaurant, and then we went back home and spent the rest of the day by the fire and talking some more.
On Sunday, I was sad to see them go, but I have high hopes they’ll be back soon-ish. 🙂
I decided that this is a great final picture for this post, because despite all the traveling and the visitors and the writing and the regular day job, I managed to find time to have a glass of wine and read a good book. I’ve been reading lots of physical books this month as opposed to ebooks, and books that aren’t romance! This, for example, is the Swedish translation of Circe, that I really liked even if it didn’t manage to meet my expectations. I’m a sucker for old Greek/Roman myths, and this book was very well written, even lyrical in places, but I somehow felt a little distanced from the story and the main character. It moved me, but not in the intense way I expected it to.
But it’s definitely worth a read, if you like mythology and beautifully written books.
That’s it, that’s the ten pictures from October 2022. How was your month? Tell me something you did! 🙂
Nell Iris 