LostInTheWoods

OK I know, over a week late, but over Christmas and New Year I deliberately neglected this blog, as it requires a modicum of effort, that I was just not prepared to expend. Lazy. I know.

I have been in Sweden on many occasions before moving here, but sometimes I discover things that never cease to amaze me. Over the Christmas period I discovered several little curious nuggets.

Firstly, it 'twas the night before we flew home, and we had a couple of Swedish guests come around. I don't wish to embarrass them by naming them, but the lady is the kind of interesting person I would love to write a book about. Don't ask me how, but we had drifted onto the subject of nuclear four minute warnings (as I said, interesting ).

Now being an eighties child, there was always the urban myth of there being a four minute warning, upon hearing the siren, we were to run under cover and await our fate. In my case, it would be a quick death. My brother and I grew up less than twenty miles from a nuclear toting American Air Force base, and an atomic weapons research establishment. So if it all kicked off, we were toast. Not that we thought about it that much, as I guess if there was a nuclear apocalypse, nowhere will be a picnic.

Anyhoo, according to our guests, it seems Sweden has such an emergency warning, and amazingly enough it is still tested regularly (every three months). Which is a little weird, but also reassuring. Apart from the fact: I have never heard it!!! I usually stick with “Ignorance is Bliss”, but in this instance it seems I have no choice.

The other thing I did not know, is that all Swedish residents used to be issued with a set of dog tags (see below) which contained all your personals. Apparently, this was for in case of nuclear attack, so afterwards the authorities could deduce who was... erm .. toast. Anyway, they don't issue them any more, but my girlfriend has hers in a safe deposit box in the local bank. Let's hope she will never need to go down and crack it open.

The last thing I discovered is linguistic. It is something people say not at New Year here, just a little after. Why I make note of this is, is because this is the kind of thing I should know by now. What a dumbass. It is “god fortsättning”, which translates into “good continuing”, which is nice.

Thanks for reading this post.
That is all.

LostInTheWoods