Black Friday

As this most commercial of traditions has taken hold in Sweden, it is difficult not to get drawn into the hysteria. With my beloved VJ Sarve Xante already at 640 km with ten more kilometres being added basically every day, I simply could not resist a pair of Icebug “Newrun GTX” shoes which, in addition to carbide steel studs have a Goretex upper, something that I think will make all the difference as I continue running through the winter. Completely unrelated, but as for running in Umeå, I also have to share the startling discovery that I made earlier today, namely that Sage Canaday was here in 2015 and ran some of my favourite trails (click here for the Youtube video).

Otherwise, and contrary to my fears, it was possible to bike out to Innertavle as the municipality has done a really good job clearing the roads overnight. However, when the sky cleared up, the quicksilver dropped and right now the “real feel” temperature is -18 degrees. In light of this, I may be excused for some more Italian escapism, in this case topped up with A month in Siena by Hisham Matar which I am very much looking forward to reading once I finished Find me. Finally, for those who are curious, the Beirut bowl today comes with crayfish, avocado, caramelized onions and lots of chili.