Catching the last edge of daylight in the west-facing window, while engrossed in a good book.

Quite often I want to read a book with a certain kind of feeling – not a particular genre, nor type of plot. But book recommendations are all based on genre and plot elements and other such parameters that are easy to evaluate but not relevant to me. I could easily find, say, standalone books in the fantasy genre by female authors, and with some reasonable effort narrow it down to, say, books that have or don’t have magic/romance/battles/mysteries/fairy-tale inspiration etc. There are blog posts and recommendation lists galore, on Goodreads and elsewhere.

But I often want books where the mood is of a certain kind, and the writing style is like that, and I can’t even really describe that mood and that writing style very clearly, so it’s very much hit and miss. I’ve come to love the “sample” feature on Kindle and often go through many, many samples before actually buying a book.

That might be the feature that ends up converting me to preferring e-books: browsing physical books has to be done in a book store and there’s a limit to how many hours I can stand in a shop, sampling books, before I get hungry and tired.

But right now I have stumbled upon a series of books that hit just the right spot so I’m glad I have several more days to enjoy them before going back to work.

The usual pattern repeats itself. After a week of hanging around at home and eating too much, we’re restless, so we go out walking. Eric and Adrian went geocaching in Ursvik for a few hours. It was all muddy and slippery and started raining towards the end of our walk, but it still felt pretty good.

Is there even a point to writing a review for the year that ended? I thought. But what is obvious and top of mind for everybody right now, won’t be as obvious a few years from now.

2020 was the year of the coronavirus and its associated disease, covid-19. It became a topic during the last week of February in conjunction with winter break, when many people go on ski trips either in the Swedish mountains or in the Alps. (We went to Åre: day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6, day 7.)

There were plentiful reports of lots of people being hospitalized with covid-19 in Italy but the Swedish authorities still thought it unnecessary for tourists returning from the Alps to self-quarantine. Just two weeks later the situation had deteriorated enough for the authorities to recommend working from home. People were stockpiling toilet paper, fearing a full lockdown, which never came. The summer was a bit better (the virus being less active during the summer, just like other coronaviruses such as the common cold) but in autumn it all went downhill again.

Some countries managed to contain the virus and limit its spread but Sweden plainly didn’t, and the situation now is worse than ever. Hospitals are nearly full and people are dying in record amounts. 8727 deaths thus far in Sweden, which is about 870 deaths per million people – ten times more than Norway (80 per million) and Finland (100). The authorities keep trying to redirect comparisons towards the worst-hit countries instead and of course we could be up there with France, Italy, Spain and the UK (1000+ deaths per million) or even Belgium (near 1700) but given that we are closer in all ways to our neighbouring countries, this just looks like a futile effort to deflect blame.

I started working from home on March 13. While things were calmer in the spring and summer I made a handful of trips to the office for workshops and retrospectives, but I haven’t been there at all since early September.

Working from home felt unfamiliar at first. Then during summer I quite enjoyed it. It’s more flexible than working in the office: I could have lunch outside in the sun, or work in the garden. I dug and planted bushes behind the house as well as a new flowerbed. Not commuting saves me at least an hour and a half every day – I’ve never been so little stressed about times and schedules. And I am mostly more productive this way.

Now during the dark, dull half of the year I am enjoying it rather less, especially with all the extra restrictions.

Eric has been working in the office mostly (or sometimes at a customer’s office) but commuting by bicycle. Ingrid and Adrian’s daily lives have been least affected. Adrian’s least of all; Ingrid would be hanging out at the movies or McDonald’s or a gaming centre with her friends, if it wasn’t for the virus.

All trips abroad for the rest of the year were cancelled and most domestic trips as well, some before booking and some after. We were forced to cancel our annual trip to Estonia. We replaced our usual summer hiking trip with a week in Gotland, just before the larger crowds got there. (Day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6. I missed my ski tour in Norway and my autumn hike in Jämtland, but replaced it with two lowland hikes (Kinnekulleleden day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, and Sörmlandsleden day 1, day 2, day 3.)

And of course we have been to no concerts, theatre, dance performances, museums, or other culture (apart from one movie, with two empty seats between each family group for distancing, back when the cinemas were still open) since March. No visits to gyms or swimming pools. No scout camp. No birthday parties and no Christmas celebration with the extended Bergheden family. Only a funeral.

For the past month or so I’ve started to really chafe at the restrictions. I used to get fresh air, exercise and at least a little bit of variety from cycling on small errands in the middle of the day, but since November all that is also strongly discouraged. I feel locked in, and I struggle to find ways to fill my time at home. Reading, knitting, blogging, cooking, etc… All nice activities, but I would enjoy them more if I could choose them freely, rather than doing them because I cannot do much else. Reading a new book is still just more reading. I want out.

Even though vaccines are on their way (and the first doses have arrived) covid-19 will be with us for many months still. But I’m about to start working on a new project at work in a few weeks: something new in my life! And the days will become longer, and January and February are usually colder than December, so perhaps we will get freezing weather and firm ground so that I can go walking without wading in mud.

PS: other notable events or achievements for this year include developing my Sonos companion app which I am quite proud of, and finally finishing my green cardigan.

I also made two skirts, one scarf, two pairs of socks and two pairs of mittens.

This was also the year of the wasp invasion in Ingrid’s room.

We don’t do much to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Have a semi-fancy lunch (this year with bonus festive napkins) and a three-course dinner, by the end of which we are usually all stuffed and have to save half of our dessert for later. Go for a walk between the meals. Play a board game or two (this year: Ticket to Ride and Mysterium.) By nine-ish we’re all sort of tired and grumble mildly about having to stay up several more hours. Then we watch a movie to make time pass (this year: two episodes of The Mandalorian).

About fifteen minutes before midnight we bring out our tallest ladder, put it up against the wall next to the porch, and climb up onto our flat roof to watch the fireworks. The roof surface used to be metal but is now asphalt, so it is very conveniently grippy and not the least bit slippery. Especially when the temperature is well above zero.

From the roof we have a great view of fireworks near and far: the neighbours right across the street, the larger fireworks shot up from nearby sports fields, all the way to Kista and Solvalla. I never remember to bring my camera and always promise to do so next time.

When the pace of fireworks slackens we climb down, get inside, toast each other in some sparkling non-alcoholic beverage (this year: Lorina sparkling pink lemonade) and go straight to bed.

This year’s toasts were for a new year with fewer pandemics, that might allow us to go to the movies! and a buffet restaurant! – or maybe just go to the city at all!