Piano recital with Roland Pöntinen

27 January 2019

Afternoon well spent in The Concert House to listen to a piano recital. I am not musically talented but I did enjoy the music, although I almost fell asleep. The music is soothing to the ears and it will definitely serve well as a bedtime music. By the way, this event is brought to you by Kompis Sverige!

It is a 2-hour event. There were 40 seats reserved for us. I am really thankful for this opportunity!

Skiing - My second time

20 January 2019

I had a free 1-hour ski lesson today at Spånga Sports Center with the same group that organised this last year - Hej Främling (Hie Sweden). Similar to Kompis Sverige, it is a non-profit organisation that organises activities for foreigners in Sweden. Last year, the activity was held in the evening and it was dark at 4pm. This year, it is at 11am and it was bright and sunny, and not to mention icy cold at -7 degrees! This activity today will be my second time attempting to learn how to ski. I am still not financially secure to pay for skiing lessons, in case you are wondering why is it only my second time and I am not going for more lessons. 

Last year, I wore a size 39 pair of boots and this year, I got size 40. They could not find a size 39 for me, and so they gave me a 40. It fitted me nicely but I fell down more times than I did last year. I lost count actually. I even fell more times than I did when I skated. Ugh. My friend informed me that ski shoes have to be tight, and it could be a reason on why I fell numerous times. 

We had an instructor who taught us how to walk on the skis without ski poles. It was a bit difficult as I had no grip on anything. I skied around the stadium twice and I got tired of falling, so I returned the skis and I hope that I will have better luck next week. They have 4 free ski lessons and I will be missing the last 2. 

Nordiska Museet (Nordic Museum) 2019

16 January 2019

Today, I made a visit to Nordic Museum with Kompis Sverige. We had a guide with us who explained to us on one of the exhibitions in the museum. We visited the exhibition on 'Table Settings'. I had seen the exhibition before when I visited Nordic Museum in 2015 as a tourist. I declared the museum as my favourite museum in Sweden. 

I took a selfie here because it was coincidentally, World Selfie Day! Haha! I have never heard of such a day before. Everyone takes selfie everyday. The Museum put up an announcement to encourage the visitors to take a selfie in the museum and tag the museum with the hashtag of World Selfie Day and get a chance to be featured on the museum's Instagram. But I did not upload my selfie in my Instagram.

These are the 7 types of cookies that must be served in a typical Swedish family during fika (social activity that include coffee or tea with sweet stuff i.e. cookies or cakes). 

It snowed that evening and when I stepped out from the museum, the sight of the fresh snow was soothing to the eyes. 

Tastebud : Johan & Nyström (Norrlandsgatan)

20 January 2019

A friend recommended this place as one of the best cafe in town - Johan & Nyström. There are a few branches in town. Stockholm has LOTS of cafes. I am not kidding when I highlight the word 'LOTS'. I think it is because of the fika activity they have here. Fika means to drink coffee or tea and eat something sweet as a social activity. You can even have a first date during fika so you can end the event early if the date sucks. Anyway, I was here because I joined a Chinese Language cafe. I joined Swedish Language cafe previously and then, I realised that I was losing grasp of my Mandarin as I seldom speak it. This is a group of people that meet up in cafes and train with one another in the said language.

Back to the cafe. This cafe has 4 branches in Stockholm and we went to the one that is located on Norrlandsgatan 20. I checked the website and this cafe is owned by Espresso House. I had the brewed coffee for SEK37/RM18.50 (thought it was the cheapest until I saw that the espresso cost SEK32). I can’t bring myself to order hand-brewed La Esperanza coffee (from Nicaragua) for SEK70. Normal coffee usually includes second fillings which I did ask. 

To understand why I said expensive, a small cup of coffee in a 7-11 cost SEK20/RM10. My friend had a cup of tea that has the price of either SEK35 or SEK40. Also, a hard boiled egg costs SEK15/RM7.50. It is not even herbal tea egg. Still, there were no empty seats in the cafe. 

Schumann's Cello Concert - Symphony Orchestra 2019

9 January 2019

The first local activity that I joined for the year was a symphony orchestra. It was a Christmas present by Konserthuset (The Concert House) to Kompis Sverige. It was my first time watching the orchestra and I watched them from the second floor. The first part before the recess was a cello concert. The second part after the recess included drums and harps. I wondered if one musician played a wrong tune, can it be heard? It was a 1 hour, 50 minutes that includes a 20-minute break. My apologies for my lack of description. As you can conclude very well from my lack of description, I am not proficient in music. Sometimes, I call myself 'tone deaf'. Haha!

This is me during the recess. It was a 20-minute recess for coffee or tea or toilet.

The second session has more musicians. It was Franz Schmidt Symphony No. 4 which I enjoyed.