Flower Power

Yesterday we had yet another check up with our midwife Ulla-Karin. Everything looked fine. The bump is still on the average curve, the heart sounded strong and the piglet is in the starting position. Dave asked when Ulla-Karin thinks it will be born and her guess is on the 31st. We'll see if she is right, she is after all a professional ;-)

After the checkup we went for our traditional coffee and then Dave took the train to work. Yesterday the weather was actually quite nice so I decided to take a walk to "Stadsparken" (the city park) where Ulla-Karin had told us about a huge tulip exhibition. If you didn't know it already the whole of Sweden and Uppsala especially is a bit Carl von Linné crazy this year since it is 300 years since he was born. I didn't know this but yesterday was the actual birthday so there was loads going on in town.

It must be a good year to be a gardener this year because Uppsala (and other towns as well) are spending more than ever on decorating with flowers and I must say that what they had done in Stadsparken was really nice. Here are a few samples:
After my stroll in the park I went in to town where they had rolled out a lawn on the shopping street. Quite weird but nice. When I got to the center square there was a lot of police and a few people standing around so I asked a policeman what was going on and he said that the Japanese Emperor's car was about to drive past so of course I had to stick around. And sure enough, after a few minutes a procession of posh cars drove past. Most of them had dark windows so it was hard to see who was inside, but the emperor's car actually had it's windows down and he and his wife was waving as they drove past. Me and a cute old lady next to me had quite a giggle about it. "The emperor waved to us!!" It must have been a big moment for him!

Back to maybe more interesting stuff. No piglet delivery yet and no signs of it starting either. Not that there seems to be much of an advance warning though. Our friends Linda and Eric who had the same date as us had a baby boy yesterday morning and just the day before yesterday I got an email from her complaining about how nothing was happening, so...