Peter Potatoes

Several years ago Sandra lived with us in London for a few months before she moved back to Stockholm - now she is more than repaying the favour by letting us live in her apartment in Stockholm, whilst she stays with Mats.

Staying in an apartment is so much better than staying in a hotel room - especially one as lovely as this. It has authentic period features (probably 1920's) - parquet flooring in the living room and painted wood floors elsewhere. It makes our London apartment seem really small, even though it is only marginally bigger - the layout and use of space sees to that.

This evening, partly because of Sandra's time with us in London, I found myself cooking a traditional English roast dinner for our hosts - rack of lamb with roast potatoes (Peter potatoes apparently) sprouts, cabbage, parsnips and a freshly made mint sauce. Bizarrely, cooking dinner myself and then settling down on the sofa with Debrah after Sandra and Mats have left only adds to the perception of us being in our apartment, rather than the other way around.

The forecast snow finally arrived late this afternoon - reminding us that we are still in the Swedish winter, but strangely enough it just adds to the feeling that we are looking out onto a New York scene - weird.

We awoke this morning to the sun rising above a tranquil and springlike Baltic Sea and we will go to bed looking out onto a snowy wet dark winter scene - what a long and strange day it has been