Ingrid bought a moped before Christmas, with all her savings and some support from us as an early Christmas gift. It’s been standing in our garage, doing nothing, for months. She already had her license as well, so she’s been anxious to take it out for many weeks but the weather hasn’t allowed it. Now that the streets are finally mostly ice-free, it’s a go.

Today she and Eric replaced the moped’s broken footplate. This project involved detaching literally all fairings and assorted other bits (which she listed for me but I already forgot) to access the footplate, and then putting them back again. It took hours. But now the moped is all ready!

(Ingrid’s closest group of friends are nearly all boys, and all very interested in cars and mopeds. Ingrid knows way more about sports cars than I did at her age.)

My brother came to visit, for his birthday. We baked a lemon poppyseed cake and played Small World. It was a tight race for the top – Eric won, one point ahead of me and two points ahead of Adrian.

We took Nystagmus to a vet clinic for a vaccination top-up, and for some weight and diet advice.

The vaccination he didn’t even notice. As for his weight, it turns out that he’s just a little bit overweight, not as much as he looks – his belly pouch is bigger than average, for a cat of his age, and makes him look fatter than he is. But he could still do with a little less fat around his ribs. So we’ll keep feeding him as we have been, and following up his weight.

The trip was also good crate training. Nysse doesn’t mind his crate at all, actually jumps in voluntarily, but he mewled quite pitifully when we started driving. His last trip must have been a bit traumatizing, with being uprooted from his home and taken to a new one. I guess he feared something similar might happen this time. Hopefully we can teach him that crates and car rides don’t have to be bad things.

We promised Adrian a visit to his favourite restaurant, Ri Cora, for his birthday. Which was nearly 3 months ago.

First we were going to do it when we were in town anyway for Forever Piaf, but left it until too late with the booking so we didn’t get a table. Then we had a similar booking problem a few weeks later: just when we had agreed a day and time that worked for all of us, and I was about to press the button, the last few available tables got booked right as I was looking at it. And then there were weekends with other things in the way.

Now finally we made a new attempt and I was surprised to find tables for the same evening. Which works great, because Adrian’s school has a study day for staff tomorrow, so he doesn’t need to get up on time, so it’s OK if he’s a bit tired afterwards.

Ri Cora is Adrian’s absolute favourite restaurant because of the limitless egg rolls and dumplings he can eat. Ingrid also loves it, although she samples the buffet more widely, and prefers sushi to most dumplings.

The buffet has been completely unchanged for the last three or four years. Nothing changes, not even which fresh fruit they serve (melon, watermelon, pineapple, grapes, strawberries), or the ice cream flavours (blueberry, melon, Oreo, plus one I’ve forgotten), or the “season’s roast vegetables” which are always potatoes, sweet potatoes, sweetcorn and broccoli, completely regardless of the actual season. But predictable also means reliable, and the staff are always attentive and friendly, and make sure the buffet is fresh and clean and filled up. While I wouldn’t want to eat there very often, it’s a pretty decent place, as buffets go.

We visited Eric’s brother and his family, including a new baby son.

This was the quietest baby I’ve yet to see in the Bergheden family. It was almost spooky. No crying, no screaming, only some small meeps at times.

We went for a walk on Järvafältet. Eric wanted to do some recon for their upcoming scout hike. And since we were going out anyway, we might as well grill some sausages, too.

I’m really pleased with the pop-up grill I bought a while back. Easy to pack, lightweight, easy to assemble. The only small problem it has is that the coals end up slightly too far from the food, but that’s easily fixed by propping up the bottom slightly with a rock once the actual fire is finished and the coals are down to a glow.

Friday night is movie night.

He’s building a thing. Sawing, hammering, filing and sanding.

Two guys, four screens.

Both are playing Genshin Impact. Adrian is supplementing the game with music on YouTube, Eric is looking up something or other.