James O'Brien

“The people of Stockholm are happy again”, I said to Sandra over a glass of wine at Linje 10, a rather groovy bar at Hornstull.

It was actually the second time I’d been in the area, as I’d also been there around lunchtime for a bit of a wander and a spontaneous haircut and beard-trim.

“Having a haircut and a beard trim is far too serious to leave to the Swedish language skills of a five year old”, I told her of my experience earlier in the day. Unfortunately the English language skills of the woman doing the trimming weren’t all that good either, and so we relied upon a bit of my Swedish, a bit of her English, and the translation skills of another customer.

In the afternoon I also went for a bit of a wander around the city, and everywhere you could sense the happiness the people of Stockholm were feeling with the weather. I’ve only been here for a month, but they’ve had to endure five or six months (probably more) of quite dark, dreary weather. Thankfully since I’ve been in Stockholm there have been mostly blue skies every day.

But today was an exceptional day. It was the first day I’ve actually felt a little bit hot. For a while I even had a little lie down in the park (and a snooze). Elsewhere, the outdoor restaurants and bars were quite full, as people took advantage of the return of “outdoors weather”.

“There was laughter on the trains”, I told Sandra. Normally, the public transport system as an eery silence to it, but today there was laughter and conversation.

“The best month is May”, Sandra told me, adding, “Right up until mid-summer everyone is feeling good, and the weather’s great, and after mid-summer is when they all disappear to the country”.

“Should I stay a little longer?”, I wondered out loud.