My morning flight to Uppsala was scheduled to depart at 06:00, so we needed to be on the road by 04:45 at the absolute latest. Therefore I set the dawn light for 04:10, and a backup alarm for 04:15 (everything was already packed).
I woke before the dawn light even started, so I did a quick 15 minutes pilates session before getting ready, and we were still out the door by 04:33.
I didn’t try to work on the flight as the person seated next to me had broad shoulders and wore a coat with padded arms, so spilled well into my side of the seat, so typing on a computer, or even sewing, would have been cramped and uncomfortable so I took a nap instead.
I landade at Arlanda airport around 1 hour before my colleagues who flew out of Umeå, so after finding a toilet I then looked up their gate and waked to the other end of the terminal to meet them. By the time I had come so far there wasn’t much time to wait before they had landed.
They are staying for other meetings, so both had checked baggage, so we went to baggage claim, and Phil’s bag came out straight away, but Ershad’s didn’t. So we went to the “my bag didn’t arrive” counter and they started to look for it in their system. When it looked like it might be a while Ershad suggested that we head to catch our train, while he waited for the bag.
So we did, but luck smiled on Ershad, and he caught up with us, with his luggage, just before the train arrived.
We stopped at a cafe on the way to uni for second breakfast. I don’t normally like sandwiches, but they had one that looked interesting, an avocado and artichoke cream on a fruit bread base. So I asked what was in the artichoke cream besides artichoke, so she let me read the label on the jar. No vinegar. Yes, I will try that. I really enjoyed it. I love artichoke. I love avacodo. I like bread with cranberries in it. Combining them with a dusting of sesame seeds and chilli turns out to be good, too.
After we had eaten we walked over to the uni, where first we met with some of our Swedigarch colleagues to discuss a workshop we want to do this spring, and discussed potential dates. Assuming that the people not present today who need to participate in the workshop agree to the date, then it looks like I will need to be in Göteborg Tuesday after Double Wars, in which case I would go there straight from the event and fly home after.
Then we joined even more colleges for lunch, which was good company. The cafeteria food was cafeteria food. Their only vegetarian option was stir fried noodles with a hint of vegetables for colour, and not much flavour beyond salt and oil. Being hungry, I ate it anyway.
After lunch we met with the people who provided one of the data sets that we will ingest into our database, which was a productive meeting with lots of useful information, and a lovely fika with cardamon bread and blueberry bread. Yum!
After that meeting ended at 16:00 my colleagues went on to the castle for another meeting, and I met Hjalmar and Sofie. I was hungry, and desperate for vegetables after two high starch meals on a row, so we went for Ethiopian food, and sat and talked and worked on sewing projects till it was time for me to head to the train station and return to the airport.
They say that one needs 1.5 hours at Arlanda to get through security and to the gate. When taking the last flight of the day on a Tuesday the lines are nonexistent, so I had time to clean up my meeting notes a bit and do some yoga before it was time to board.
I also impulse bought Keldor a little gift. He likes liquorice, so when I saw a shop selling nothing but liquorice I looked in. He also likes foods containing tar. So I asked if they had anything containing both. They did, three different types to choose from, so I picked one at random. I hope he likes it. Note: I don’t like liquorice. I don’t like tar. He’s on his own with this candy, no matter if he likes it or not.
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