Monday afternoon three of my friends came for a visit. They brought me a present; a bottle of spiced dark rum. We sat down listening to music, chatting and eating some food. They said that they'd like to help me with some simple practical work, and I decided that we do that tomorrow. Then it came to my mind that couple of months ago I happened to buy a board game from a local flea market - the game is called 'Drinking Ludo', I had no idea how to play it, but for several reasons I felt that I want to buy it. So now, with a group of friends around, maybe it was about the time to try the game. I opened the box, and it yielded a board made of glass, and 16 tiny shot glasses, which makes 4 for each player. There were no instructions included, but we soon found them on the internet. The rules were rather simple, which is probably good, since the game includes a lot of emptying the shot glasses =) And guess what - I happen to have a full bottle of spiced dark rum, so let's play! We listened to a lot of LPs, laughed a lot, and about half the bottle got consumed until we had a winner.

Tuesday morning we slept long, and woke up slowly. After a good dose of coffee and breakfast we were ready for some practical work. The weather was so windy that there weren't any mosquitoes, which was pleasant. So we went to the forest next to my yard, where there are a lot of felled young trees. We cut the branches and hauled the slender tree trunks to my yard. Those trees were cut already the previous summer, and the forest owners told me that I can collect them for firewood. That summer I managed to collect only a little of them, and I was always thinking that I should organize a small group of friends to help me - but I never did. So now I was extremely happy to see things just flowing smoothly. Four people working for two hours equals to me working alone for eight hours. So, rather quickly we got a nice heap of trees on my yard, waiting to be cut and chopped for firewood. I'd estimate that the heap makes about half the firewood I use per year.

After the working session I cooked potatoes and fried onions and reindeer meat for my merry voluntary workers. After the food we had some coffee and chocolate. One of the friends read a book aloud, and we hanged around listening to the story. Thinking of it - this must have been one of the ways our ancestors passed time; after day's work people would've gathered to listen to a storyteller tell stories. Sure, why not - it was extremely relaxing just to slowly sip coffee and to listen to the story, letting the imagination to picture the places and characters described in the story.

My friends continued their journeys, and I had one customer for massage. Now I'm back at home, I take a sip of that dark rum, feeling happy and grateful for the way my life is right now.