I went to Stockholm and only let about five people know about my trip. You couldn’t really expect me to hide something as big as that from my husband and son? Call it a “retreat”. The apartment I stayed in made me feel like George Bernard Shaw once said about Croatia’s Gem,

If you want to see heaven on earth, come to Dubrovnik

De som söker himmelen på jorden måste komma till Dubrovnik

I like! However, I would also “like” to add, if you want to see a piece of heaven in Scandinavia, come to “en levande stad i Europa“… and get to know one of their legal councillors. However, she’s one of these people who would probably agree with Cicero, the Roman author and politician from some time around 100 BC, and I quote,

Men decide far more problems by hate, love, lust, rage, sorrow, joy, hope, fear, illusion, or some other inward emotion, than by reality, authority, any legal standard, judicial precedent, or statute.

In other words, she let Maria be Maria, even if that means Maria wants zulu time (UTC) speaking to the world.

Did I say that I forgot my mobile phone? Sometimes I’m glad for my amnesia for that one “mistake” resulted in so many meetings with complete strangers. For example, I couldn’t call “my lawyer” to tell her that I was running about one hour late due to our time optimism, for it had nothing to do with my SAS flight SK152 being 15 minutes late? In my non-mobile creativeness I figured I could let (SWEDISH) Ericsson“take me forward” by letting someone who lives down under (a hill?) drop me off at Haga Forum in style (i.e. a-hugely-expensive-Maria-can-not-bring-herself-to-afford-TAXI).

If you’re interested, I can really recommend the film Taxi Driver. For some reason it reminds me of Sin City. I am also infatuated with Jodie Foster. Jodie, I’m glad you didn’t take the roll in Hannibal, even though that is one film where I can, not-bring-myself-to-write-but-what-the-heck, relate.

P.S. Doug Horton got it right; it took me forever.

“If you love something let it go free. If it doesn’t come back, you never had it. If it comes back, love it forever.”

P.P.S. Thanks (for the German/Swedish) BECK.