Trumped by a Possum

(The road to Mora. We travelled this road a couple of weeks ago and will be embarking once again on a journey there tomorrow! The Tjejvasa takes place on Saturday. Gulp.)

You may or may not remember how or when this whole song and dance got started. And by song and dance I mean this blog and my sometimes crazy stories. This particular story that I am about to tell has roots in my very first post when my husband and I had embarked on a friendly game of competition. 

Fast forward (or rewind) to this past Friday morning, which was February 14th. The alarm went off earlier than usual. Or so it seemed. My husband was covered in pillows and blankets and a soft snore could be heard as I quietly made my way out of bed to go make coffee, feed the cat, & prepare a special Valentine breakfast in bed.  Being the hopeless romantic that I am, I was planning to use a cookie cutter to cut heart shapes into a couple of cardamom bullar (buns) I'd picked up. I had hoped to find something already heart-shaped but this would have to do. I can't help it. I just love hearts. 

Cat fed, coffee brewed, and heart bullar ready, I headed up to surprise my Valentine. I tip-toed quietly into the dark bedroom, careful not to jolt him awake, and whispered "Happy Valentines's Day" to the pillow and blanket covered bed lump. He had been out with some work colleagues the night before so I knew he was extra tired. Ha. Suddenly he jumped up and spun around to face me and with the most joyous expression you can imagine, he exclaimed, “Fipin!" He was playing possum. 

What??! I was completely and utterly stunned. I just stood there with the tray in my hands staring at him. Was it true? Yes, I had a vague recollection of our game way back around the Christmas holidays when we set the date for Valentine’s day at 7:00 a.m. (But didn't you mean the year 2015??!!) If you don’t remember, Filipin is a game played when you eat hazelnuts, whole in the shell hazelnuts that you must crack open to eat. The game occurs when you open a shell and discover two hazelnuts inside of one shell. A rare find, but completely possible. You then choose a player and the two of you set a date and time in the future, could be near, could be far, and the first person to say “filipin” after that date and time wins. 

Being so focused on this upcoming cross-country ski event and all of the training and stresses it entails, I was obviously off of my game. I have won most of our past games but perhaps this will begin a new trend. I can honestly say however, that seeing his face so bright and cheery and happy made it worth losing. (No, I’m not a sore loser. What makes you think that? :-p) 

Ps. God-willing, I will complete the Tjejklassik this Saturday when I (hopefully) reach the Tjejvasa finish. More on that later ;-). 

Day 361: Blåtåget (The Blue Train)

Today is the day after the day after Christmas. I'm sitting here on a train, headed back to Stockholm. But not just any train, The Blue Train (Blåtåget), which is a train that was originally built back in the 60's. It was recently renovated and restored and current shuttles people from Stockholm and Uppsala to Gothenburg, with stops in a few other Swedish cities. My husband secretly tried to book us first class tickets round trip to Gothenburg but unfortunately they were mostly sold out and he managed to only get regular tickets for the leg of our trip home. He saved it as a surprise for today and I'm really glad that he did. He is really good with secrets and surprises. He doesn't even provide the slightest hint.

I am not so good with surprises however. I get so excited that I nearly burst with the desire to share the tiniest of hints and then sometimes I give the entire thing away in the process. When I was just a kid I "completely ruined" my mom's birthday by telling her every single gift we bought her. My dad and brother were not so impressed but I think my mom thought it was pretty cute and fun. Nowadays I find it is best if I keep my mouth shut tight until the surprise or gift is revealed naturally.

After we arrived at the train station I left my husband with the luggage while I ran around purchasing drinks and a small treat (you have to have at least one) to take on our trip, still unaware of the train surprise. When I finally made my way back to him with my purchases he said very evenly and coolly, "You are going to like this train. It is an old fashioned train from the 60's that has been restored and is now in operation again." He also explained that he especially purchased tickets for this train as opposed to the super fast SJ X2000 that we have normally taken in the past. At first I didn't understand but as we approached the train and he continued to explain that The Blue Train (Blåtåget), was run and operated separately from the other trains and they had limited trips each day, so you have to book tickets well in advance, it finally sunk in.

What a cool train! We were merely in second class seats but we had so much room you would have thought we were in first class. The train had a separate dining car where you could have a sit-down dinner and be waited on and everything. There was also a separate bar car where you could purchase assorted drinks and snacks and there was a full-size piano as well. It felt like we were straight out of an old James Bond film. We will definitely take this train again (and again). How fun and what a super neat surprise to bring our Christmas trip to a close.

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and that you got lots of fun gifts and not so many bags of coal and switches. ;-)

Here are a few photos from The Blue Train...

The bar car.

Sitting in our seats looking straight ahead... the wall was complete with a mirror and framed art... How very cool!

Check out the fold-down table on the back of the chair in front of us... I could barely reach it there was so much space between us and the seats in front of us... nice for our legs to stretch out.

A view of the bar and piano car from outside.

Blå Tåget (The Blue Train).