Since I couldn’t get the beach and sun I wanted, or the new places with the new friends I’d planned to visit and meet, I decided to make a total U-turn for my time off. Some winter and cold instead, in a familiar place with old friends. Arrived in a dark Luleå on Friday afternoon to spend the weekend with two old friends and their 15 months old daughter. A weekend of no plans, no stress, snow, darkness, Winnie the Pooh, Teletubbies and experiencing – live – how far food can get from a plate with just a tiny spoon and two tiny hands. (Three meter of spherical radius proved not be enough to stay safe.) Had hardly taken my shoes off and gotten the first cup of tea in my hands before the white wonder started to fall outside the windows. Of course I was going to get the first snow of the year, beautiful. 
The following couple of days were spent playing in the snow, and going for walks, during the few hours when the sun was up, and indoor activities the rest of the time, with baking ginger bread as one of the highlights. We decided quite early in the process that the biscuits should be divided into two categories. One tin for the ones including baby sneezes and which had been poked by ten little fingers and rolled with a rolling pin covered in saliva, and one category for the rest.
Last night was the night for the big happening, Miss Happy’s best friend was going to stay the night while his parents had a, probably very well deserved, evening by themselves with dinner and cultural events. The basic maths I thought I’d learned in primary school was turned upside-down right away; 1+1 does not make 2, but rather 4 or 10 or so. Two trolls, three adults, two cameras and a sea of toys. It weren’t the mini people who were the exhausted ones after an hour on the floor. The little friend also inspired me for some tactics to use when hitting town on weekend nights. Why wait for someone to give you a cuddle, you just need to walk straight up and do the attack-hugging thing. Don’t give the victim a chance to resist and if they don’t respond quickly enough, you can quickly turn the attempted hug into a headlock. Seems to be very efficient to get some physical contact when needed.
As a very rare reaction, I wasn’t too bothered that my flight southwards was delayed when going back this morning. I actually didn’t mind hanging out up there for another little while, not even at the airport. So far, there are two places in the world where I’ve experienced that my shoulders drop a few inches and all my possible worries seem to leave my body when I step outside the airport on arrival. Northern Sweden, with Luleå, Kiruna and the pristine Villvattnet, is one of them. To see the golden fan-like piece of art outside the exit at Kallax, stop, have a look around, take a deep breath and…exhale slowly… Gone. Makes me wonder why I ever left in the first place.
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