"i was a shitty nothing"

his words, not mine.

met with a family friend's friend and his daughter for lunch and a post-lunch stroll. thank goodness for concerned parents whose concern is contagious because their friends feel their abject fear that i'll die alone in stockholm and no one would be none the wiser. or get kidnapped, whichever sounds more terrifying. so M, a friend of my mother's, has imposed me onto his indulgent swedish friends, Z and S. i met with Z a few hours after landing in stockholm and he brought me to the most chic restaurant i've visited thus far where we hung with the hipsters and borrowed some cool. S treated me to lunch today, with his daughter, V, at a quaint restaurant on the corner of one of the cobblestoned streets at gamla stan. i should've taken some photos but was afraid they'd judge my family and apparent lack of upbringing so i restrained my trigger-happy thumb. had a quick lunch because V had to go back to work (she's a studio at gamla stan!) then S took me for a walk around lake malaren.

S was born in gamla stan into a family of steverdores 6 generations-strong! his family name's still on their former office premises, even though it was sold decades ago. i was intrigued to hear of S' family history and how he used to work in the docks in the summer. he later, incidentally, was drafted into the navy for military service where the titular quote is from. whilst in the navy, he went on a four month cruise (?) around south america and africa and the US of A but because he wasn't an officer trainee, he didn't have a curfew so he refers to his time on board (and off!) the ship as 'heaven because i was just 19 and you know what 19 year old boys get up to ^^' HILARIOUS.

so he brought me on a walk around gamla stan then we took some scenic path up to the cliffs on the south bank of lake malaren for picture postcard views of the lake and kungsholmen on the northen bank. S's a really interesting guy! he's a semi-retired lawyer with an illustrious career that spanned decades, straddling both public service and working in the private sector. boring legal stuff aside, he's spent the last seven years learning italian in rome, diving, cooking and golfing. what a life!