Kajplats 9 in my hometown Västerås where we had a sea food platter with lobster, crayfish etc and the lake just behind us.
This summer has been awful weather, but the sun in shining now so why do I complain. What I wanted to say was that last night I ate lobster, shrimps, crayfish, all fresh from the sea form a platter on a pedestal. By the lake. A really fun evening of conversation with my husband and later on some friends – all without children. It’s the first time in ages I’ve been out like that without kids around. And it’s such a relief to be able to carry on a conversation without being interrupted. I drank a mohito with ice, lime and mentol leaves only. No alcohol or sugar for the pregnant woman. It wasn’t as fun as I hope it’ll be to go out in a year, but it was – for now – enough of a relief from the usual routines of motherhood.
I saw a friend of mine. Actually what I first saw was the back of a head, in a black head wrap. And the thought that struck me was that the woman had cancer and was hiding her hairlessness. Then I saw the pram next to her table with a new born. And I knew it must be my old school friend; I’d seen on Facebook that she’d had a baby and at the same time gotten breast cancer. I took two steps to face her, it was her face, but puffed and swollen. Of course, I haven’t seen her for probably ten years, and she’s had a baby recently, but the change together with the turban seemed sickly and her look wasn’t welcoming. I chose a table further away with my back to her and didn’t think about her for the rest of the evening. I think she’s happy though, to finally have a child, and have moved back to her home town with the much older man she met.
365 days 