That “some snow” we got yesterday? We got some more overnight. And then some more during the day. And more, and more, and more, and still there seemed to be no end to it. I shovelled the staircases in the morning, and by the time I got home in the afternoon I could hardly see the stairs under the snow.

Naturally the city snow ploughs had no chance of keeping up with this record snowfall. (The most snow Stockholm has had in November in 111 years, apparently.) The pavements were buried knee deep in snow with narrow tracks tramped through it, barely wide enough for a single person.

The commuter train service worked surprisingly well through all this, and I was incredibly pleased that I do not commute by car or bus. By late afternoon, all bus services in Stockholm had been cancelled. The queues and traffic jams were horrendous – because the snow came so early, quite a lot of cars had not switched to winter tyres yet but decided to drive out anyway. I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time…

The city mostly looked battled and overwhelmed; Spånga looked like a winter wonderland.