Back and Re-energised

Happy Easter! I'm back from my short 4-day break-cum-spiritual holiday. Man, I'm just so relaxed now. It's excellent. I'm ready to work hard now.

Wednesday
Left for Marieudd at about 1500hrs from Church but we made many, many detours along the way. First we had to go to St. Johannesgatan to get Fr. Philip. Since we had to wait for him to set up his LAN network, we made a list of the menu of what we would cook for the days we'd spend at Marieudd. Next, we went to ICA Maxi to get our groceries and back again to Philip's place to get his luggage. Back to Church to get the English hymn books, and finally at 1900hrs, we were one our way to Marieudd.

We had a pancake dinner with tonnes of different fillings; from whipped cream (excellent) to raspberries; from Nutella to peanut butter; from cream cheese to rasins. The amount of food was simply decadent.

Because I ate my pancake so methodically, Philip and Lucy took the opportunity to play with my food. Yes. The pancake was a battle field with journalists, the Red Cross, enemy, the enemy flag, floods, bombs, etc. They even made up the strategy of which I was attacking the enemy though eating the thing. Oh yes... now they have a new term for my way of eating. The A****t. An oft repeated phrase over the weekend.

After which we went for sauna and a dip in the ice cold lake. The amazing thing was even though the lake was less frozen than before, we could still manage to get to the ice hole that was made the last time.

Maundy Thursday
The day started off with a typical breakfast of bran and muesli. After which Philip went to Stockholm for the Chrism Mass and to get Maru and French Lucy. The rest of us stayed back, so I went for a walk in the forest. Saw a woodpecker, and the rat-a-tat-tat sounds it makes. Amazingly fast, like a machine gun.

We had a tuna pie for lunch. It was excellent stuff, and after which it was our own activities again until the rest returned at 1500hrs. We then settled on what to do for Mass, and dinner.

Christof arrived at 1800hrs just before the start of Mass at 1900. Perfect timing. Dinner after the Mass was roast lamb. Yum... It looked so simple to make. Yet so time consuming.

Good Friday
We started Good Friday with our normal breakfast. This was my one full meal of the day. Lunch was OTOT sandwiches if you wanted and dinner was vegetable soup.

We had our Mass at 1500hrs, and this time I was roped in to be the altar server. Oh. My. Goodness. I had to wear the ugliest of things ever! Long white Mortica Adams dress with lace at the end of the sleeves and on the collar. Yucks... Good thing there were no pictures of me wearing that. No pictures of the Mass.

We went for a walk after Mass and passed a moose hunting/watching tower. Imagine that! It was really beautiful in the forest. The first spring flowers were indeed starting to bloom and the air was just so clean and crisp. The only sad thing was the mess on the ground because of the fallen trees and some cut trees. Certain groups of conservationists prefer to cut trees down and grow others in place. This reduces diversity but they don't seem to care. But the untouched places were absolutely pretty. These are the images you see of Sweden, be it in your mind or on pictures, when you hear about it. Absolutely beautiful.

After dinner, we went out to 'hunt' moose. These huge animals with spindly legs are supposed to come out during dusk. Sad to say, we didn't see any. It was a good walk though.

Holy Saturday
It was again another typical breakfast, and again I was roped in to be the altar server for the Easter Vigil Mass that night. Horrors! I had to take a reading, and also perform the altar-boy duties??? Busy, busy night. It was really tough running around like that. But I have to admit. I had a good time. Although I hated wearing that horrible dress.

The altar-servers training took place immediately after breakfast, so I didn't have much time to walk around the forest again.

However, it was an extremely beautiful day. The sun was shining and the wind was mild. Maru and I suggested to have lunch outside, and of course Philip agreed. Perfect! A simple but good lunch of toasties (pieces of bread baked in the oven with ham and cheese on top) and this odd drink the Swedes have for Christmas and Easter. I don't fancy it that much. Neither did the American Katie. OMG! I have the same taste as an American??? Horrors! The best description I have for it is 'root beer gone bad'.

Although we had tonnes to do. More training for the readers, it was impossible to ignore the call of the sun. We had to sit there and enjoy the warmth that was so sorely missed during the long winter this year. In fact, we just laid there from 1300 to 1500hrs, and went for a walk to the rocks after that until 1630.

Philip had his crazy idea about walking on the ice again. Oh man... He just can't seem to give that up. Oh well. He took a nice little swim in the ice cold lake after a while. Hilarious!

Dinner was brown rice and diced chicken cooked in Uncle Ben's Chinese sweet and sour sauce. I do not recommend trying that. It wasn't horrible, but it certainly wasn't good. We had chocolate mousse (made by yours truly) and ice cream for dessert.

Mass took place after sunset when it was totally dark. The lights of the houses were all put out, and we had a fire made outside for the procession of the Easter candle into the Church. After which were the readings, renewal of bapismal vows and the eucharistic celebration.

After Mass, which took more than two hours, we went back and gorged on tonnes and tonnes of chocolates and candies. Goodness... This was terrible. I never thought I would ever say I got sick of the sweets. No one, and I really do mean no one, should try this. Ever. Serious. 5 of us decided to take a walk to burn off that feeling. Nice walk. Went back, showered, talked until about 0230 before going to bed.

Easter Sunday
We had a late breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast and grilled tomatoes. English breakfast, they call it. Hmm... I don't know why though. But it was a day of cleaning and clearing, with a Mass held at 1030hrs. Lunch was leftovers from the previous days and after that it was more cleaning.

In fact, it's the cleanest Marieudd has been in years. Great. And this was done only by four people; Maru, French Lucy, Christof and me. The sense of satisfaction after seeing the transformation is simply overwhelming.

Philip drove us back and dropped us off right at our door steps. That was so kind of him. Got back at about 1700hrs. I'm bushed. Will arrange and post some photos another day.

This was great. Spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally.