Freya started circus school today. She’ll attend one fifty-five minute lesson a week for the next fifteen weeks. Today’s class got Freya doing forward rolls, balancing a bean bag on her head and spinning plates, among other things. It should be a great way for Freya to expend her insatiable need to be active, as well as improving her dexterity, balance and other motor skills. Oh, and I suppose it’ll be fun, too.

Some years ago Jo and I discussed an eventual move to our house in the north. It’s located in a small village in the middle of nowhere and embodies all that Stockholm isn’t: a tranquil, low stress hideaway where you make your own entertainment. The idea of permanently relocating ourselves to the countryside has been put on the shelf – at least for the time being – because Stockholm, ironically, embodies all that our house isn’t. As a family we want and need things that Stockholm offers: friends, vegan restaurants and food shops, parks, swimming pools…circus school. The list goes on.

I want our daughters to live a city life, despite the problems of pollution, congestion, crime etc. I was born an raised in a moderately sized town, and I appreciate the (limited) options I had. Freya and Zelda live in a capital city ten times the size of my hometown. I cannot even imagine what their childhood memories will be like.