So, come this morning, YT was chomping at the bit to go back to the ÚTSALA in the decrepit old building. [I failed to mention last time that it’s only open on Fridays and Saturdays and yesterday we were very sensibly deterred due to weather.] EPI was less enthusiastic about going, preferring to spend his day off doing things other than poking around in a dark cold warehouse containing piles of dusty old stuff. But went along to humour YT.
As soon as we got there I made a beeline for the ‘Sunday Morning by W.H. Grindley Turnstall England’ china, and was ever-so relieved to see that there were piles of plates, bowls and things left. But alas, on picking up the first plate, what did I see? It had a hole in the middle. As did the next one. And the next. And the bowls. And, well, virtually everything in the whole damn set.
Holes.
Once again we were in the Twilight Zone. As EPI launched into wisecrack mode, YT found a woman wearing a red T-shirt and demanded an explanation. Turns out the plates and bowls and things were virtually all parts of two-tiered cookie serving plates [similar to these]. And the holes were so you could put the contraption thingy through.
Slight letdown.
But not for long. By this time EPI was getting into the whole groove of the place and we ended up spending about an hour in there, YT drifting through with that same blissful grin on her face as before. And we did not come away empty-handed, no sir. Our rummaging yielded the following results:
- Six small bowls to match my ‘Sunday Morning’ tea set
- One teapot
- One contraption with flame device [don’t know what they’re called] for setting teapot on so tea stays warm [we will never use this, I’m sure]
- One gorgeous cheese board of dark wood with built-in groove for special cheese knife [that sadly went AWOL on the way home]
- Two gizmos for measuring the air pressure in your tires
- One outdoor thermostat [no more relying on mbl.is for weather report temps]
- Two small milk jugs [as one just wasn’t enough]
- One nutcracker made of wood
And yes, we showed remarkable restraint.
MEANWHILE, ALL WAS WHITE WITH SNOW TODAY
… Following yesterday’s major winter blast. Today’s weather was gorgeous, if cold – the sun was shining and cast a stunning gold-blue hue on the fresh snow. Suddenly it’s winter and Christmas is just around the corner. Temperatures at the moment are… well, I never! The mbl.is website is not responding [prolly sulking in protest of my new auto-thermostat. And the thermostat is still sitting in its little case in the hallway, un-put-up outside. So I’ll just have to venture a guess…] – and my guess is… -2°C. Sunrise today was at 08.58 and sunset at 17.24.