Brrrrr

It was cold today. There was low cloud and sleet and snow all day long. Brrrr. It's the sort of damp cold that goes right through to your bones.

It has always been a problem to heat these vast rooms. It is criminal that the chimneys were destroyed when the building was split up into apartments - a big roaring log fire is exactly what is needed in these spaces. Instead the little electric radiators cost a fortune to run and stuggle to make a difference, not helped by the draughty window frames and huge windows or the fact that nobody has been here for the last five weeks.

It wasn't too bad this morning whilst I was doing physical work. There were curtain tracks to fix and light bulbs to change both inside and outside in the courtyard and a shower head to repair - all of which involved carting ladders about the place and much climbing. I still feel a bit nervous on ladders on my own even though it is now over two years since I came off them during the renovation.

I really noticed the cold this afternoon when I was working on my computer. When I got up from my desk my nose was frozen and I had shivers running down my back. Soup and casserole is what I have been eating today - on and off all day actually because the effect seems to wear off after about an hour. I shall go and put myself in bed shortly - that's the warmest place.

I was very impressed that the car started first time and seems to be non the worse for being neglected and sitting about in all weathers for the last 40 days. I think maybe I should get a cover for it if I am going to be away for longer periods next year.

Obviously it wasn't the sort of day for being out and about so I still haven't been down to see what's new in town or catch up on any gossip over a coffee with anyone. Maybe tomorrow.

Bye Bye Stockholm

Snow .... sun .... snow .....sun - the weather can't decide what it's doing. One thing stays constant though - it's damn cold.

We have spent the last two days wandering the streets of Stockholm, in and out of shops, admiring the architecture and the cold wintry views. It is a lovely city. It feels empty and quiet compared to London and extremely civilised. I would love to come back in the summer when the pavement cafes would be full of people enjoying 'fika' (relaxing with coffee and friends) and it would be a lot warmer!

We toyed with going to a museum today but ended up just wandering around more shops in the city centre - H&M, of course and NK, the big department store (Stockholm's equivalent of Selfridges). We looked but we didn't buy.

We lunched at one of the city's top fish restaurants, Wedholms Fisk. It is obviously a place for business lunches and was full of suited men - virtually all men which surprised me. We felt decidedly underdressed but what the hell - we wanted a proper white table cloth, top notch fish lunch and that was what we got - very good value from the lunchtime special menu - one plate of salmon, herring, cod and halibut between us and two glasses of a delicious Spanish wine from Galicia - excellent.

And so our Swedish sojourn comes to an end - just remains to pack our bags and head off to Arlanda airport for our flight back to London. 'Tack', Sandra and 'tack', Stockholm for a great weekend away.