It's been a while. I don't really know why. Probably mainly because I've been dealing with a little bit of depression and all that comes with that - but also because I have had a bit of writers
V and I are looking for a new place. Our lease is up in June so I've started looking now, in hopes that we will find something much much before that. The good thing is that our lease has the option to extend if we need to so it's not like we'll be out on the street if we don't find a place. Always reassuring, that. I touched on how difficult it is to find a place in Sweden, here. So that's what's going on on the home front. I do like the place we are in, and I highly dislike moving - BUT it would be nice to find a place that's a bit less expensive if possible, and we really miss having Bilbo home with us.
Not long ago I posted something on my personal Facebook wall about how nice it was seeing Bilbo and several people were unaware that he doesn't live with us!
Bilbo lives with my in-laws! We found the place we live in now, and the landlord doesn't want pets in the house - plus he likes to birdwatch, so there was no convincing him. V sees Bilbo every day and gives him cuddles, and overall, Bilbo is very happy with the situation. He especially likes that he's able to play outside all the time now that it's warming up for spring. I posted a video on the SpiritedShannon Facebook page playing a cat version of "fetch". Go check it out. I'll wait here. If you're feeling generous, feel free to like my page while you're there!
Since we've been in Sweden, we've had our eyes open at second hand shops for bicycles for each of us. Something I love about Stockholm is that everything in the city is built with bike traffic in mind - as well as most places outside the city. I find that very refreshing after all the tiny Irish roads (you can catch a few examples in this post) where walking or bicycling on the road is just not safe, in my opinion. We have a favourite second hand shop in Skarpnäck that is open Thursday thru Sunday and has the lowest prices around. We visit it almost every week and have found all kinds of great stuff. Now that the snow is starting to melt, they've started selling bicycles and last week we found a great bike for me!
I'm so excited about it! It needs a little TLC but V knows quite a bit about bikes so he'll help me fix it up and replace the parts that need it - and eventually, repaint it. I'm still deciding on a colour but I'm thinking it's down to either robin-egg blue or a creamy peach. Fun! Right now I'm waiting for some replacement spokes for the rear wheel before I can ride around on it. There's a shop not far from our house and I think that will be my first destination! It's perfect because Tyresö is installing sidewalks along the road where we live and it's going pretty quickly. They should be done by the time I get my spokes, so that's another thing to be excited about.
Remember my last bike? After we took it apart, we found that it just needed too many parts replaced to be really useable and we gave it away only a couple weeks after we got it. It was fine because the bike was not exactly what I wanted anyway and I felt a little like I was settling for something. This time around, we have found exactly the perfect bike for me and I am over the moon about it.
In other news, our friends are coming to visit us again from Finland this weekend so I'm sure there will be much to share with you after that! So say we all.
