The following Saturday, Renee and I went out to the theatre to watch the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
And what a little beauty it was. The costumes, the performances. Sensational stuff. I can see why people take out second mortgages on homes to buy tickets to see these plays. The guy sounded exactly like Frankie Valli and all the songs they played were bang on.
So - there is a 'highly recommended' from yours truly.
We had a few drinks during the show and headed out to farewell Tara, a Contiki friend, who had unfortunately decided that another unbearable winter in the UK was not for her. It was a shame to see her go, so we all went out to a really cool blues / jazz bar and boogied on down. My dance moves consisted of a rotation of the left foot using my big toe as a pivot, hip swinging to coincide and a rocking motion of my arms, in finger clicking position.
"It was a teenage wedding and the old folks wished them well......"
The big finale of the night came when, on the night bus ride home (biggest pain in the ass ever, btw), I saw four foxes roaming the streets! I had seen two on the bus ride itself (outside the bus - not just chilling in a window seat) and then I said to Renee
"Whats the bet there is a fox down this sidestreet", as we walked on home from the bus stop.
"You little Anzac!!!" Sure enough, there was.
Then just as we were walking into the flat another burst out behind the garbage cans and ran across the street. That rounded out the Quad-fecta.
Last Friday, I took work off an hour early and made my way to Gatwick Airport for a weekend in Sweden that we had booked. It almost didn't happen mind you. With my trigger happy fingers I had mistakenly booked our return flight home a week later than what it should have been.
"Damn it" I said out loud in a less PC way, and I instantly started looking for an alternative one way flight back from Sweden to replace that initial one. The numbers rang true to me.
"180 POUNDS!!!! EACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I couldn't believe the price of it (or the amount of exclamation points it took to describe the situation).
This discovery had essentially made the flight not worth all the effort. However, my eagle eye was at work and I managed to find a return flight a few days later for fairly cheap so I grabbed it. All up the flights were around NZ$100 return. Which still isn't bad.
So, we were all set to meet up with my mate Richie in Sweden. The tubes were chaos and trying to find Renee posed a mission. We got to the airport in time to see our flight had been delayed.
This spelt problem, with a p-r-o-b-l-e-m. Richie was meeting us at the other end. With the delayed flight it meant he had to meet us at the central station at 2am, which he did hang around for.
What a trooper. We couldn't thank him enough. Lucky we had purchased some duty free alcohol to make amends. On the tube ride to his place, this guy asked where I was from, and in a proud voice I said "New Zealand". He then went off his (drugged up) rocker and started calling us racists.
"Be careful round here" he warned, "People don't like you guys because you are all racists, all you Australians are"
Richie puffed out his chest and stepped up to the plate "Yeah, but he said he was from NEW ZEALAND. Its a different country. Its like saying Sweden and Norway are the same country"
This didn't phase the guy.
"It doesn't matter" he said "Same thing. You're all racists"
"What the hell was that all about" I asked as the guy gingerly made his way off the train.
Richie shrugged.
The Saturday was spent hurriedly making our way around Stockholm in blur to see everything and still have a good time. Which, with our well travelled expertise, was easily done. First off, Richie sent us to a mysterious museum that was meant to be a little pearler.
"Whats in it man?" I quizzed.
"I don't want to ruin it for you"
"OK" I though and I balked at the price of entry.
'Better be one hell of a ............ thing' I thought with a puzzled yet intrigued look on my face.
We got up to the ticket counter and were about to pay when I got a tap on my shoulder and there was a couple with two free tickets to give us.
"Ohhhhh chur bro" I said in a heavy kiwi accent and they giggled.
To be fair to Richie, the museum was a little ripper. The mystery of it..... should I tell you ........ OK, I will. It was a 400 year old pirate ship they had recently drawn up from the murky depths of the ocean. And what a ship it was. The timber had been heavily water beaten and gave the entire ship a ghost like appearance. And it was HUGE. Around 80 metres long maybe, and just as high. The whole museum was about the life and death of this vessel. Check it out in my photos if you wish. It was hard to get proper photos without the use of a tripod so I tried to make some of the photos resemble the ghost ship that it is.
This set our spirits in good steed. We met Richie afterwards, in the centre of Stockholm, for a bite to eat and then he took us on a walking tour of the city. Stockholm is what is known as an archipelago, which is essentially a city built around a whole plethora of small islands.
We strolled from island to island, before we got the need for a drink and we decided to head up to a bar in one of the highest spots in the city for a quick beer. The only beer they serve in Stockholm is Carlsberg, and I tell you, it is shithouse. It was lucky the place had good views, I can tell you that much.
That night, we went to the supermarket and put together a whole antipasto platter of Swedish foods, one of the main delicacies being a shrimp coleslaw. Oh yes, they are heavily into their seafood over there. We made our way through the bottle of vodka and a bottle of Jagermeister that night and slept (coma'd) at around 2am.
Just joking Mum, I didn't coma.
The next day we were due to leave early afternoon so we had another stroll through the city and finished the trip off with a burger from the Swedish McDonalds, known as MAX. It was pretty good stuff.
Two things I noticed from Sweden, and I will impart my new found wisdom onto you; it is bloody expensive and it is bloody cold. We had great weather, but being in my usual state of dangerously unprepared (Bear Grylls - have I shamed thee???), I was shivering, even though I had a SINGLET on, under my top, of course. Im not a bogan.
If it weren't for Richie our trip would have been all the more expensive, so a big ups to him for putting us up. It is always good to go to a foreign land and know someone.
Iceland in 5 weeks. Till then.