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In Stamford, Swedish in America

Midsommar away again

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

June 26, 2019

As I wrote in last post, we ended up celebrating Midsommar a day late. Thor had a spa appointment at noon on Saturday so after dropping him off we went home and I created a wreath of the daisies we had bought a few days earlier while Jim cut apples in pieces. I fixed my hair a little, changed clothes and made an apple pie.
We packed a picnic bag and drove to Cove Island. We found a spot in the shade. It was a bit cloudy and windy, but it felt Swedish haha. After awhile, we drove back home and not long after we could go pick Thor up at the spa. We had asked for a short haircut but leave a little in the face, but his face was as short as the rest, oh well, it’s hot outside and it’ll grow back. He kinda looks like a tiny fox or more like a cat now, not so much like a Thor, but whatever, he’s still cute.
For dinner we had grilled salmon and potatis with dill on everything, our apartment smelled like my grandma’s house back when I was a kid.
We grabbed drinks and took our exhausted puppy up to the rooftop and watched the sunset. 

We had a perfect Midsummer celebration! I’m very happy with how the day turned out. Midsummer is the one day a year when I really want to be in Sweden. The hours of light in a day during summer is one of my favorite things in life. When I was a kid I never pulled the curtains down when I went to sleep. I loved waking up when the sun hit my face in the morning. You don’t get as many hours of sleep during summer months but it’s worth it. On Midsummer, the sun doesn’t really go down, I love it!
This was my 9th (!!) Midsommar away from Sweden. Every year I tell my husband the same thing “Maybe next year we can celebrate Midsommar in Sweden”. I said it this year again and we’ll see:) 

Thor celebrated Midsommar on Friday when he was still fluffy

In Dance, Europe, France, Travel

Palais Garnier | Paris Opera House

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

June 8, 2019

Palais Garnier, the Paris Opera House, was by far the most interesting thing that we saw on our trip to Paris. Of course I wanted to go there since I’m interested in ballet but I didn’t do much research on it actually. I had read that you can go in but I didn’t know if it was going to be worth paying for. And then I saw a picture on instagram when I was scrolling around on Paris stuff the day before our trip. A picture of a spectacular golden room and I looked it up and it was the opera house. I told Jim that I definitely wanted to go to this without actually showing him the picture I had found, I did not care if he wanted to go or not, we were going! He said ok and afterwards he also said that this was a very interesting place that he was glad that he had seen:)

Last week, the day after my treatment, I felt that I had to do something since I had been resting at home all day. So I decided to go see a movie at the Avon Theater. The White Crow, a movie about Rudolf Nureyev and how he ended up in France. I don’t know anyone interested in dance in Stamford so I went by myself. The movie was kinda eeh, but ok for someone like myself who likes dance and for someone that knows who he was. I’m glad that I saw this movie after I had been to Paris and after visiting Palais Garnier cause when he walks up to the opera house or when he is performing on that stage I could really picture it. It is so different to experience a movie if you know the places they show. Movies filmed in NYC that I saw when I was a kid is just so much more fun to watch now again when I know the city. 

We did not have to stand in line for too long to go in and this was in the busy afternoon. It was $24 for two people. Definitely worth it especially because of the golden room. I liked to see the stage of course (which was a lot smaller than other stages I’ve been on or seen) where all the amazing dancers have performed at over time.

This is Fanny 🙂
Wikipedia: Francesca “Fanny” Cerrito was an Italian ballet dancer and choreographer. She was a ballerina noted for the brilliance, strength, and vivacity of her dancing. She was also one of few women in the 19th century to be recognized for her talent as a choreographer.

In New York City, Stamford

a day in NYC and first weekend in June

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

June 3, 2019

Hello! How are you lovelies? I am tip top. Woke up a bit later than I wanted today, but whatever. I have many things I want to do today, very motivated:) Most of it is by the computer which is boring for my little fluffis, but I will take breaks and take him for walks. It is a bit hot for him to go outside in the middle of the day though so I have to keep it short. His fluff is getting long now and our two regular groomers are fully booked so I’m not sure what to do, probably have to find someone new. 

Anyhow… On Friday I had a full day to myself again. Jim took Thor to work at 7:20 am and I enjoyed my breakfast in front of youtube for a bit. I had really planned out my morning well, no stress at all, I felt very calm. Breakfast, cleaning up a bit in the apartment, getting ready and then I went for a walk to the train station. On my way there the maintenance guy called and asked if he could enter our apartment (our bedroom curtain was broke again) and I assured him that Thor would not be there and bother him, hahah. 
I came to Manhattan a bit early so I walked over to Tudor City Parks. I have not been there since I performed with The Equus Projects there 2013. Then I walked to the Swedish Consulate for my 11:30 appointment. I was there for one minute and then I took the subway down to our old neighborhood, Financial District/Battery Park City. Oh my, it looks quite different. I bought coffee and tuna bagel at the market across from our old apartment and I didn’t recognize the place inside, a lot of improvements. With my lunch I walked over to the park where Midsummer celebration is every year. I sat on the grass on a blanket that I had with me for a few hours. Read my book, ate lunch and watched people walking by. I sat in the shade of course since I can’t be in the sun after chemo. It was a pretty hot day and I was wearing long pants, a thinner sweater and eventually a hat along with sunscreen to protect myself.  I was a sweaty betty for sure.
I walked up along the Hudson River and then into Soho and took the subway up to Grand Central and I arrived just in time for the last off-peak train to Stamford (peak trains costs more and are usually packed). My day was perfect. My legs were sore and I felt a bit tired, but I’m glad that I decided to stay in the city instead of going back home after picking up my passport.

My favorite place in the city is gone :'( Right after we moved they started to build a new bridge over the highway. This is outside of the vet and the grocery store next to our apartment.
The whole neighborhood including the dog parks is a shit show right now, I’m glad we moved before
First time that my passport photo didn’t look too terrible 🙂

On Saturday we had plans with D and G but late Friday night they booked a last minute “babymoon” trip to Belize. I needed to rest my legs that was still sore from the shots and from all the walking I did on Manhattan, so I didn’t mind not having plans anymore. We had a relaxed morning and in the afternoon we made burgers on the rooftop and then took Thor for a longer walk to the park close by. At night I was watching something on my tablet while Jim watched Svengoolie on TV – I was not at all interested in the movie they showed, Billy the kid versus Dracula from 1966, even the name sounds terrible.

On Sunday I got up two hours before my boys and did stuff on my computer. We had decided to go see the Avengers at the movie theater in the afternoon since the weather was kinda crappy in the morning, but when it was time to leave it was sunny outside and we decided to skip the 3 hour long movie and go have lunch at a bar instead. And then we had a pretty relaxed afternoon. This weekend we started to watch the new tv-show Chernobyl that everyone is talking about. Not sure if I like it or not. Have you seen it?

Not a too exciting weekend, but that’s ok. I couldn’t enjoy the sun anyway and I felt that I needed to stay calm and relaxed after treatment. Not all weekends need to involve some super extreme stuff, hanging out with hubby and puppy is enough:)

In Stamford, USA

Memorial Day Weekend

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

May 28, 2019

Good morning, hope you had a wonderful three-day-weekend!

On Saturday morning we took Thor with us to Mianus River Park and hiked for an hour. Lots of bugs out and we don’t have bug spray for T (please remember that most human bug sprays are toxic for dogs), so we kept it shorter. I don’t remember much of what else we did that day. I cleaned the apartment, we drove to get a gift at the Scandinavian store, I did laundry, J went to the gym, we ate steak for dinner and watched the movie “Glass” at night. That’s it.

On Sunday I went to Daniela’s baby shower.

Yesterday I woke up at 6, took Thor out, made coffee and then sat on the terrace for maybe three hours just reading my book. J and T joined me when they woke up. So nice that it’s finally summer and we can enjoy the outside! Sunday was the hottest day this year so far with a temperature above 86°F, a day when it doesn’t matter if you shower cause you’ll end up wet and sticky once you go outside again:) 
After Jim was done at the gym we walked over to Tigin on Bedford to have lunch outside. They have a spicy bloody mary that I like and together with the fish tacos that I ordered it got pretty spicy. J went home and I continued to Target to buy black shorts to use under dresses but they didn’t have any, but I did end up with a cute pants-dress. When I had spent way too much time at Target I walked over to a Mexican place where J and Thor sat. 
At night we watched the movie “Zodiac” from 2007. Not the greatest movie, it was long too and this true story had no real ending, they never solved it. But it was a little interesting I guess.

This morning I got up early to get my blood test done. Now I’m hoping my doctor will send me a message or call me tomorrow with good news. Fingers crossed!