Superwoman in the Swedish Outback
People have asked me on multiple occasions how I managed it all... remodelling the space that is now the Costa Del Kapsalon, staying open during the move of the salon, coming up with the new name and taking care of the blog.
For the blog I'm lucky to have the ultimate and not so secret nor discreet weapon : Gladys. But sadly... for all other matters, there is nu such weapon at my disposal. Maybe some people would compare it to a shark that needs to keep on swimming in order not to drown. Personally, to me, it sometimes feels more like a horse in panic who’d run into a wall breaking its own neck. But then sometimes you meet someone who has a take on life that is so very different from your own, that in a way, it becomes an eyeopener.
The weekend before the last weekend of opening the Costa Del Kapsalon I went to visit some friends in the Swedish outback. I call it the outback because if you need to drive 20 minutes to just reach the only supermarket or shop that's there, ‘remote' just doesn’t feel like a strong enough word anymore. It was my friend C’s birthday and another couple of friends tricked me into going by telling me it was the easter weekend and I would close that Sunday anyway. Gullible as I apparently am, I believed these tricksters and booked that ticket months ago.
At my Friends birthday party, I met her sister in law, and over cake we started talking about life and such, the further as the conversation took us the more clear it became that this was not on ordinary woman. She had a quite unique understanding of life, and the things that make it a good one. So let me share her story with you:
A few years ago, when the relationship between her and the father of her children ended, she had no place to go so they lived separately in the same house on different floors. Knowing that she didn’t want to jeopardise the relationship she had with her two beautiful girls by working more to pay for rent or a mortgage she decided it would be a better long-term solution to build her own house. The land is cheap in the outback and since her parents already owned some, she ordered some cut down trees, rented a machine on petrol to cut boards out of them and build herself a house. Yep thats right, this superwoman build her own house.
I asked her if she had many help from other villagers? Perhaps some strong men to help her cut the wood and heavy beams? Nope, she looked at me with this clever little smile that made me realise I still didn't quit comprehend who I was dealing with. Oh yes, she said, some people helped her to put the big beam for the roof in, but other then that, she took pride into doing everything herself. Also in the beginning she didn’t have any electricity, so she cut a lot of the boards and planks by hand. Superwoman indeed.
The total price for building her house, was under 10.000 euro. She used as much second hand and recycled materials as possible and the results are, as you can see, mind blowing. She works 2 days of 6 hours a day, per week. Has no bills, because she survives from natural spring water that occurs on the land, she taps a little bit of electricity from her brothers house, she doesn't have the need for internet at home and doesn’t own a car. She spends all her free time with her family, making bon-fires and telling stories with her daughters teaching them stuff about the woods and what nature can provide.
I find her story so incredibly wonderful and it made me think : I work at least 12 hours a day and often more, sometimes I wake up at 4 in the morning, not being able to sleep anymore because all the things that I got going on keep running trough my head. Also it made me realise I have so much stuff compared to her and yet it felt like she was so much more rich. Rich in experience, rich in life.
So standing there a week later in what was looking more like a trashbelt then a cosy hair salon. i said to myself : if Superwoman can build her own house, I can set up a hair salon in two days.
