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Mind the Gap

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 18:34:05 GMT

A lot has happened since I last posted, so I thought I would try and do a series of posts to bring things up to date. Something to read over the Christmas period. I am also currently in the midst of an internet blackout. When moving abode, it seems broadband is the only utility that cannot get it's act together when you move, and we have to wait for a whole calendar month for someone to flick a switch. So I am probably posting this from a friend's house, a public internet location, or more likely from an unsecured wireless connection that a neighbour has kindly (though unknowingly) left unsecured for my usage. How kind.

So what's been going on? Well since I last posted I have done two of the most stressful life events that can happen to you which does not involve hatching, matching or dispatching of one's self. We have moved to a new apartment in the “city” (achem), and got myself a proper (Swedish employer) job! I'll post about this whole bizarre experience soon, but for me the most important thing for is that this is a major step towards me being properly integrated here.

I have taken the Swedish winter head on, continued cycling into the minus degrees centigrade, won a few games of poker, attended a rather fun Christmas auction, and spent some time investigating the huge diversity of cable channels we now have in our apartment. Which is not as dodgy as it sounds.

My niece has turned three years old, and I am looking forward to seeing her next month in the UK and reinforcing the line: “My! Haven't you grown!”, and seeing how much she has grown. It's weird, kids grow quickly, but when I was one, I didn't notice. My brother and his wife are expecting another addition next year, so that's quite exciting.

The pharmaceutical factory where I worked for nine years, and gave me employment here in Sweden for about 18 months is closing, and this week many departments are closing, including the one where I worked for 5 years. It is all a bit sad, especially for my home town. My family has had several associations with this company over the years (we recently found my late mother's pay slips from the late 60's), and I have that “end of an era” feeling even though I have left it all behind a while ago.

With no reliable internet connection, I am currently “between jobs”, and I hoping to have a calm Christmas, while trying not to over indulge myself with all the usual goodies that tempt you at this time of year.

More soon.

That is all.

LostInTheWoods

A Religious Experience

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 10:45:11 GMT

Today I had a religious experience. Well kind of.

I am not a religious person, although I was brought up going to Sunday school, going to church as being part of the duty of being a Scout and our family having a particular pew in church. I guess my mind on this was made up through my experiences in younger life, too many inconsistencies in religion and the fact I was being asked to believe in things that cannot be proved. So I guess what I am saying is that I am an antsiest.

My position is not like some of the people out there, who find themselves being agnostics, or lapsed this or that, through being basically lazy. I have thought about this a lot, for a long time, and I am a non-believer.

OK, this morning I found myself home alone, and the door bell rang. I was expecting one of our friends who sometimes comes around, but as soon as I opened the door I realised who it was..... Jehovah Witnesses. Swedish Jehovah Witnesses. A middle aged lady with her VERY bored, hyperactive son (about 10 years old I would guess). Straight away I played my trump card, no point wasting each others time

[Me in Swedish]: “I am sorry I don't understand, I cannot read so good, I am English.”
[JW in Swedish]: “Oh, erm really?”
[Me in Swedish]: “yes.”
[JW in Swedish]: “But you are not an Englishman?”
I reckon she thought I was Swedish and I was pretending.....
[Me in Swedish]: “Yes I am. I am an Englishman”

Her son said “cool!”, I didn't know what to say, I am guessing the fact that they had found a “engelsman” had made is day. This tells me a lot about how exciting he was finding “spreading the word”.

At this point I thought, “Yes!”, I wouldn't have to discuss my lack of believe, and she would not have to see me as a challenge.

[JW in Swedish]: “Have you learnt any Swedish?”
[Me in Swedish]: “Erm, yes I have been to school, swedish for immigrants.”
[JW in Swedish]: “Oh OK, I think I have got something here you can read....”

She produced a booklet in 42 languages!!! On one page was English, and I scanned it, to me it read:

“blah blah blah... Jesus... blah blah blah...God... blah blah blah... pray...blah blah blah...”

Dang it. So had to explain in Swedish my position. Which according to Jehovah Witnesses means: “Any who are not deemed faithful by God will be destroyed with no hope of resurrection.” So our conversation came to an abrupt end. Hey, I thought God was supposed to be a nice guy?

I have no objection to people believing in what the believe, but I will never knock door to door preaching my beliefs. I have always wondered whether Jehovah Witnesses would be more successful without their house to house preaching? I have no idea. But I do remember my Dad used to invite them in for a good old chat for hours about his church. Never once was he interested in converting, but I guess he saw it as giving as good as he got.

That is all.

LostInTheWoods

Gone Huntin'

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 09:47:31 GMT

I live very close to two plateaued mountains which are “eco parks” and they also have a population of elk that occasionally pay a visit to my town. Well, October is the month when they should head back deep into the forest, as it is hunting season, and everyone starts to wear bright orange. Well nearly everyone....

Some of my cycling takes me off-road, along horse riding and gravel tracks, and they are often deserted. But the other day, on one of the tracks I use to shorten my route, I saw two guys looking through binoculars at the back of a black classic car (sorry, no more detail on the car..... I was moving at a pace). Didn't think much of it, then further down the track I approached two guys in full hunting gear with what must have been loaded rifles, and the hats with the orange fluorescent bands around them.

I got home and had a worrying conversation with Renee (for it is she) about being out in the woods at this time of year. She said that basically if you are not wearing high visibility gear, you could be mistaken as fast moving 'game'. Jokes about wearing a cycling helmet with antlers didn't go down too well, and I am staying on tarmac until the season is over. I am a complete chicken.

We don't really have much hunting, now foxes are safe, and I come from a highly cultivated cramped part of England, so all this is very foreign to me.

We also recently received the every second year visit from the King of Sweden who comes down here to hunt some elk. This year his party, which included Prince Carl Phillip, got six of them. Elk does make good eatin' (I've only ever had it once), but six is a lot for the freezer.

The King of Sweden

The Royal Hunting Party

That is all.
LostInTheWoods

Gimme Shelter

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 09:09:18 GMT

We currently live in a one bedroom apartment, and I have my 'office' in our main living room. So we are a little cramped. This was meant to be only a short term stop gap for when we first moved here, as it was cheap, and neither of us had gainful employment.

Over two years on, it is time to move. A change is as good as a rest, and we have decided to move to somewhere bigger and a little better located for public transport. In Sweden, rented accommodation is quite reasonably priced, and of a good standard. So we have been looking at a few places, and the viewings are held with everyone who is interested, all turning up at the same time.

Yesterday, there was a flat available, but I had to go alone to view it as Renee had to work. So I got on my bike and cycled the 7 km to the apartment. Upon arrival I met a guy from the company who owns the apartments, but once he twigged Swedish was not my native tongue (it didn't take him too long), he spoke with eyes wide open, and at a very slow speed.

This annoys me a little. The west part of Sweden is where the people talk quickly, sometimes too fast for me, words get merged. So “my name is” becomes “ma-nar-is”, it happens a lot in the English language too. But I don't want to be spoken too like my IQ was equal to my age either. I want somewhere in the middle. It is OK with people who know me, but strangers take on the famous “talk slowly and loud” tactic that so many of my fellow countrymen employ when they go abroad.

Anyway the apartment was OK, and we have applied for it, it will take a couple of days to get a decision. Here are a few of the pictures I took:

We are looking to buy a house sometime in the future, when one of us finds that elusive “steady” job, but for now we just need to move.

That is all.

LostInTheWoods

Hummer

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 07:02:38 GMT

After a long break, I am fired up for this blog again. No idea why I didn't post, but I think it had something to do with the weather. In Northern Europe this summer, the weather has been awful, hardly any sun and on most days rain. This had a big impact on the usual simmer-time activities, which lead me to not wishing to write about how it is still rainy and grey. Hence the halt. This is the trouble with “user generated content”, it is that sometimes the user requires a break, and needs to get their head together.

Last Friday, we made our occasional visit to Sweden's west coast to visit Renee's (for it is she) mother and her fiancée (Frank). Renee's father came too under his own steam, and we feasted on crayfish, prawns, meatballs and “Jansson's Temptation” (which I need to explain, see below). Just some time to catch up, as we hadn't seen each other for about six weeks, and there was the usual low key family business to take care of (Renee and her Mum exchange clothes, I check their PC is running OK, and this time we received a job lot of redcurrants).

Jansson's Temptation: Normally a Christmas dish, this is basically a gratin made with strips of potato, onion, sprats (the Swedes call them anchovies) and cream. An acquired taste for a foreigner. You can get the recipe here. The “anchovies” you can get from your nearest IKEA.

The next day we went out on the boat (called ”Ida”), which is an old fishing boat, but for the past thirty years has been used for pleasure boating. What was not made clear to me was that we were on a mission.

The previous day Renee's father and Frank had laid down nine lobster pots, and we were going to check them. Lobster is “hummer” in Swedish (like the oversized Jeep), so as you can see, Swedish can be an easy language to remember. Sometimes.

The first one came up, and amazingly there was a lobster inside! We measured it to make sure we didn't have to throw it back (it passed by 1 cm), clamped it's claws shut with elastic bands and put it in a bucket of water. We checked all the other pots, but we found nothing except crabs which were definitely too small to eat.

The catch:

Frank and Renee's father were chuffed to bits, this was their first lobster in the three years they had been trying. We took it back, and got the pot on to cook it. It was cooked, but I was not around to eat it, but maybe next time. But they took a picture for me:

A big part of moving away from where you have spent most of your life is to experience new things. Not in a hundred years would I have experienced a morning like that living in the UK. It seems to me that there are more possibilities here.

That is all.

LostInTheWoods

On My Doorstep

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 09:45:54 GMT

We live not too far away from two rather interesting hills, called 'Halleberg' and 'Hunneberg'. They are 110m above ground level and are large plateaus, and their unusual shape was caused by a diabase sheet that covered the plateaus and protected them from weathering and erosion. These hills have the highest density of elk (moose, plural of moose is.... meeses??) in Sweden, and the King comes here in October to bag a few.

A visiting friend of mine and I decided to visit “The Elk Museum” which is situated on Hunneberg (the larger of the two hills) a couple of years ago. We learned as much as is humanly possible about elk. In fact we got elk overload. We learnt about their habitat, their young, behaviour at different times of the year, their eye-sight, insulating properties of their hair ... and on the second floor, how they have been tracked, stalked, killed, gutted, and carried home over the years. Lovely.

At this time of year there are many foreign visitors to my little part of Sweden, mainly Germans and Dutch attracted to these hills. They seem to mainly arrive in camper vans, of amazing proportions and attract a measure of controversy. Which is, that this kind of visitor will stock up their camper with all the luxuries of home: food, wine, toilet roll (you know the essentials) at home and basically spend very little of their money here in Sweden apart from what they pay in petrol, and the occasional camp site fee. A lot of what these visitors come for is free. The nature, the peace and quiet, the elk spotting opportunities and the fresh air are all free, and they themselves add nothing to the local economy.

Also, for quite a while these road signs used to go missing from the side of the road, and (allegedly) finding their way to Germany:

Now they occasionally pepper these signs with drill holes to make the signs less appealing.

Yesterday I cycled around the “Ringvägen” (“The Ring Road”) on Hunneberg two times. It is a beautiful ride and was only ruined when I ran out of drinking water. I am very lucky to live near such lovely countryside, with so few people in it. This makes a stark contrast to where I lived in the UK, which is a crowded corner of the island.

The elk count was zero, but I am not too keen on running into one of these massive beasts thank you very much. I nearly did once. To my British eyes, I first thought the elk standing in the middle of the track was a horse. A horse with, er... antlers. So it's not a horse is it? Getting closer now, what do I do, turn and run, or try and blast past it? I decided to cycle past as fast as I could, and do you know what? I don't think the elk could be bothered with me at all. Didn't move an inch. So not a really exciting outcome to the tale, but my heart was really pumping for a while afterwards.

That is all.

LostInTheWoods

School's Out (Part 2)

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 09:02:11 GMT

OK, this is really the end of the school term... we had a coffee party, which involved a few guessing games and then lots of goodbyes...

The end of another school year, which since I was sixteen I have celebrated alone, as I always seem to come home to an empty house. I always play the same song, at high volume... a personal ritual of mine. The song? Well it's an Alice Cooper classic (or is that klassik?) and is very appropriate.

“School's out forever, School's out for summer, School's out with fever, School's out completely”

That is all.
LostInTheWoods

Turn the light off and close the door on your way out.....

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 10:16:47 GMT

Just been to:

for a few days, so I have not been in:

and I had not:

for my exam.....

I guess like most people reading this, I have taken a few exams in my time, but today was a little bit weird. Today I took my “Swedish for Immigrants” exam, which consisted of four papers. The first two were quite similar, question and answer kind of thing, and then in the third paper I had to draft a letter to the local council.

After doing these I was told to go to classroom number 10. So I toddled off and found the room empty apart from some tables and chairs, an exam paper and a portable stereo. On the board was written: “Tryck på play” (“Press Play”), so I was my own exam invigilator. But I was good, I didn't cheat, I listened to the tape and I felt I did quite well as I understood all the conversation snippets. So at the end I stopped the tape, turned the lights off and went in search of my teacher.

.... STOP PRESS.... STOP PRESS.... STOP PRESS....

I have just received a call from my teacher and I have passed!! Wahoo!! Aparantly I did OK nearing on really well. Serweet. Now I can concentrate on finding a job and have a piece of paper to show a potential employer that they will not need to speak English with me the whole time. I am really pleased. Think I might go and have a celebratory kip(sleep).

That is all.
LostInTheWoods

Schools Out Forever

Wed, 30 May 2007 13:16:08 GMT

Today was the last lesson for me on the “Swedish for Immigrants” course, and I guess if you have been reading my droning on, you would know that I have really enjoyed it, and I have learnt a lot apart from the Swedish language. I have learnt a lot from my fellow pupils, who most have come from countries that have been at war recently, or in the case of the Iraqi women, are still in deadly turmoil. People are pretty much the same the world over, and (WARNING: Hippy Moment) why we all just can't get on with each other is at time baffling.

I would like to thank my teacher, who may not crack through the curriculum at break neck speed, she always had a host of interesting things to say, and is the first person who has managed to stick bits of grammar to my brain (SViPT... verb number two...).

So the exam is next Tuesday, but I am not going to get much of a chance to revise between then and now.... after that, the next stage is a “What are you going to do next?” discussion with my teacher, and then a goodbye coffee party, and then that's it... the next chapter will begin.

So the nine months I have invested in learning this lingo has been well worth it, but I still have a long way to go.... at my rate I will hit fluency in about twenty years....

That is all.

LostInTheWoods

Strejk!

Mon, 28 May 2007 18:08:38 GMT

Back in January Renee and I booked a flight to the UK for my fathers birthday. I knew the trip was coming up but thought nothing of it until on Friday I read this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6690785.stm

So SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) cabin crew were going to go on strike (or “strejk” in Swedish). We have always flown with SAS as they are very efficient and they fly to Heathrow which is the right side of London for us. [Side note: A lot of budget airlines say they fly to 'London' which is not true, they fly towards London when the plane takes off, but land up to 30 miles away.]

But as the weekend progressed, and the negotiations were still in dead lock, flights were being cancelled on a rolling day ahead fashion, we have been getting a little nervous....

Unions here in Sweden are very strong. But this is the first strike I have encountered, and from a group of individuals that are so calm and polite when I have had dealings with them. I know, that's there job, but they have never seemed the militant type to me.

So we have re-booked and are going to fly out of the country with a Danish cabin crew, and then onto London. We lose five hours of our trip, and it is a bit irritating, but I think this demonstrates the pressures that the conventional carriers are experiencing in a market place, where you can find cheap seats with a budget airline that can cost as little as 1p (2¢) one way.

Not only do we get the politicians we deserve, it seems as customers we get the market we deserve. Economic karma. I don't think I will try and chase savings any more, I will fly with what is the most convenient, because one day it might disappear.

That is all.

LostInTheWoods

Alcofrolics

Sat, 19 May 2007 03:23:27 GMT

Anyone who has lived in, or visited the UK in the last 10 years could have not failed to notice the increase of alcohol consumption there. In my younger years, I too, could be found doing very stupid and embarrassing things under the influence, of which I am not proud. But, as I got older I have tended not to drink as much, and since moving to Sweden, my consumption is now totally minimal. Good for my health I know, but this change has been a forced one, due to several different factors.

First a little background, Sweden is part of what is known informally as the “The Vodka Belt”. These are the countries in the northern part of Europe, and include Russia and other eastern Slavic states (see below), where vodka is the most popular alcoholic beverage, and I can well believe this. I had a friend who visited Moscow and saw people buying their daily bottle of vodka with their morning paper.

Historically people in Sweden have tried to solve the problem of excessive drinking of spirits by forming a temperance movement (1905), by holding a prohibition referendum (1922) and by instigating a state monopoly on the sale of alcohol (1870). Today this state monopoly is called “Systebolaget” (or “The System Company”) and is the only place you can legally buy beverages of 3.5% alc by vol or higher. The “System” as it is affectionately known, is a whole blog post in it's own right, so I'll give that some explanation another time.

So this was a major change for me. In the UK alcohol is available in many different retail locations; newsagents, local shops, supermarkets, farmer's markets, off-licenses (shops that sell primarily alcoholic drinks) and even petrol stations. You are never far away from somewhere where you can pick up a carry home. Pubs opened traditionally at 11am, could be open all day, and now can apply for 24hr opening. So finding a social setting in which to drink your favourite tipple, was also not that far away and it was more than likely to be open when you had a thirst that needed slaking.

Where I live today, small town Sweden, the nearest pub is 12km* away, and it is a bit expensive. The nearest System is 7km away, which is not too bad on the bike, but there is only so much beer you should carry in a rucksack on a bicycle. So from a convenience point of view, getting a long cool beer is more effort. This is probably not true in the big cities (Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö) but boy, do you pay.

The other factor that has reduced my drinking, is that many Swedes do not offer beer when you visit them (unless they have recently been to Denmark or Germany on a beer run), it is the norm to drink coffee at all times of the day.

So the stuff is not engrained in the everyday culture as it is in Britain. Don't get me wrong, I have seen spectacular over drinking here that has amazed (and concerned) me, but regular everyday consumption is not as high. And I have the figures to back me up....

Alcohol consumption, litres per capita (for the year 2003):
United Kingdom: 9.29
Sweden: 5.62
(Source: World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe)

But there is something I really do miss. The cosy English pub, with good beer and a great atmosphere. Definitely on my list of things I wish I could put onto a barge and haul across the North Sea. Oh well.....

That is all.
LostInTheWoods

* Sorry guys, I have totally abandoned imperial measurements. Too damn confusing. There are miles (English and American) as I used to use. Swedish miles (10km – that's about 6 miles), and kilometres, which is used for most measurements of distance here.

Eurovision Song Contest

Tue, 15 May 2007 11:45:33 GMT

(Or “vote for your neighbour“ Contest)

For those of you who live outside of Europe, much of this post will not mean that much to you. Part of growing up in Europe requires you to experience the annual “weird Uncle” of European culture.

The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC to aficionados) is held every year in May and throws up some truly bizarre characters and songs. Some participants you may have heard of (Lulu, Cliff Richard, ABBA etc) and many you would not know from Adam.

I wasn't going to blog about it this...but things have got a little out of hand....

On Saturday evening, we did the traditional thing of sitting around, with munchies and beer to watch all the songs. Some were real dirges while others were good songs, though they may be in a foreign tongue. The best bit is the voting results, which determines who is going to win and the country that will have the honour of hosting the competition next year.

Every country has to phone vote on the twenty three songs on offer, a country cannot vote for their own entrant. Every year there is a little political voting, but this year it went crazy. With the addition of a lot of small Eastern European countries, and the former Yugoslavia countries all voting for each other, so basically people were voting for their neighbours rather than for the songs.

Places 1 to 16 (out of 24) were taken up of countries not in Western Europe. So there have been calls for the voting system to be changed to prevent this. The voting has always been political, but now it has got to the stage that no matter how good your song is, if you are not from the right country, you just will not win.

Some Members of Parliament in the UK are putting forward a Parliamentary motion to get the voting rules changed. The head of the Malta contingent confirmed that Malta (on a public phone vote) gave the UK full marks as a protest against all the vote-for-ya-neighbour shenanigans (it couldn't have been for our song, it was awful). Sweden's entrant apparently was not overly chuffed at what happened, seeing his efforts being beaten by weaker acts.

I cannot put the whole debacle any better than Sir Terry Wogan:“I've said it so many times it has become a cliche. We won the Cold War but we lost the Eurovision.”

So it has all kicked off, but this does over shadow the winning entry, from Serbia, that is actually quite good (although it is in Serbian) and was the best song on the night. There are a few Serbians in my class and they are proud as punch, good thing too, this was their first year entering the competition. I guess it is only fair for small countries to get a bit of the spotlight.....

That is all.

LostInTheWoods

School Report

Mon, 14 May 2007 15:58:11 GMT

The end of the school year is rapidly approaching. In class we are now doing passed papers of the exam we will do at the end of the month. I've made things a little complicated, as I am going to be on a plane when I should be taking the exam, so “special” arrangements are being made.

Last week I passed the Swedish oral exam (make your own jokes here, if you feel the need), which was a bit of a surprise for me, as the last time I did one of those was “way back when” (1990) for my German GSCE (GCSE(s) are exams you take when you are about to leave school in the UK). During that oral exam, I froze. Rather than falling back on the three years of torturous study to string together a sentence, I had tried to learn of by heart a few choice phrases. None of which fitted the topic I had to discuss. Bugger.

I remember my German teacher (who I mentioned here) looking at me with a pleading face, pleading that I would remember something during the two years she taught me. Looking back I feel a bit sorry for her, during those twenty minutes that felt like an eternity, as she waited for for the linguistic dollard sat in front of her to remember something.... she must of thought “What am I doing teaching?”. No surprise then, at the end of the year she announced she was leaving teaching to pursue a career in law. True.

So with only a number of days left that I can count on my hands, the countdown to the exam has begun. Four parts left; reading, listening, comprehension and an essay, and hopefully I will pass.

I'll keep you posted.

That is all.
LostInTheWoods

An English Island

Fri, 11 May 2007 14:28:07 GMT

At school we have a 30 minute break, when it is time to get the obligatory mug of strong black coffee, eat a snack and chat with current and previous classmates. Occasionally, like the other today, I found myself excluded, and I sought refuge in the computer room to start writing this. There are so many cliques, and not the usual 'High School' cliques you may be thinking of.

First their are the native Swedes, mainly women, who don't seem to speak to any of us immigrants. They seem keen to keep their distance, I am not sure why.

Then there are the far eastern, women from the Phillapines and Thailand. They are diminutive and very chatty. I do speak to a few of these women who are in my class (in Swedish), and I find them to be very pleasant.

OK, where in the world shall I go next.... OK, the Middle East. These definitely fall into two camps, the Muslim and the non-Muslim. They Muslim women (who are from Iraq) are quite reserved, but once I had to work with one of them in class, the floodgates opened and we discussed the usual immigrant topics. The women who I work with has fled Basra, and is one of the 9000 refugees Sweden has taken in since the beginning of the Iraq war. We are yet to talk politics or the current situation in Iraq, but in the mean time we are able to make each other laugh.

The folks from places like Morocco and Lebanon are all very friendly, they speak English as a second language, and are obviously quite westernised.

Another clique is the Polish. It seems Poland is emptying itself of it's populace and they are heading to other parts of Europe. Good for them I say. They are quite fun to have around and no matter how hard they try to teach me, I am unable to pronounce a single Polish word.

Another clique are the Russians. Nearly all of them blonde(?). I know one of them quite well, so I do have a kind of a way into this group.

The are also many young adults from the former Yugoslavia here too... another war torn country to add to the list.

So outside of these groups there are not many people who don't fit into one of these groups. It is in this exclusive club that I find myself, and some days it just works out that nobody wants to go to the trouble of speaking to me in a second language on their break. I understand this totally, but it is very strange being an English speaker and being a lingual minority amongst so many different nationalities.

Going to school with people, a lot of whom have fled war, or poverty, or come to Sweden with a partner (and the culture shock than entails) has been a very humbling experience for me. It is their blogs you should be reading, not mine. My leap from the island to here has been a comparatively small one compared to a lot of these people's. I guess I can articulate what I experience for English speaking people, and they cannot.

So I wish to “big up” all my classmates, and thank them for changing my opinion of people from foreign lands.

That is all.

LostInTheWoods

Digs and Wishy Washy

Mon, 07 May 2007 08:18:03 GMT

I just thought I would discuss something that I noticed prior to moving here, which to British understanding may seem a bit odd.

“An Englishman's home is his castle” someone once said, and if you look at house prices there at the moment, you would think you were buying a castle and not a three bedroom semi-detached. Anyway, the reason I mention this is that here people do not see home ownership as the be all and end all.

Many Swedish people (and me) live in apartments, which are roomy and well maintained. Like most apartments there are things that are communal; parking, open areas, hallways etc, but the one thing that I never came across before was communal clothes washing facilities.

Called a “tvättstuga” (my translation: “small washing house”), these rooms are always in the basement of an apartment block, and often contain drying areas, sinks for hand washing (not the washing of hands, once a big confusion), electric mangles(?!) and other paraphernalia to assist in getting your clothes clean. The centrepiece is communal washing machine. Which has a tough life, as it is used most days by residents in the apartment block. Six people live in our block, so our machine is let off lightly.

In every tvättstuga is a rota, where you write up your name for when you want to use the white box of cleaning magic. All very organised. All very Swedish. But, if you overrun your time, uh oh.... you will be asking for a whole world of trouble..... This doesn't happen much where I live, people are quite laid back and there is little tvättstuga congestion.

The concept of a communal washing machine is totally alien to British people (and maybe to you to), unless you pay to use one in a laundrette. But I think it is a good idea, because if we had one in our flat, it would take up space and it would be redundant for most of the time. Plus, as the cost of the machine is included in the rent, there is no need to spend ready cash on one. I guess we will pay for a quarter of it if we stay here long enough....

That is all.
LostInTheWoods

Walpurgis Night

Tue, 01 May 2007 05:53:03 GMT

I've been in Sweden for coming up to two years now, but this exact time of year I have never been here for a few boring reasons, so there was a window of opportunity for a cultural curve ball. Last night Sweden celebrated “Walpurgis Night” or “Valborgsmässoafton” in Swedish (I know exactly what you are thinking, WTF is “Walpurgis Night”?).

OK, so a quick scoot over to Mr Wiki, and he says:
“Historically the Walpurgisnacht is derived from Pagan spring customs, where the arrival of spring was celebrated with bonfires at night. Viking fertility celebrations took place around February 25 and due to Walburga being declared a saint at that time of year, her name became associated with the celebrations. Walburga was honored in the same way that Vikings had celebrated spring and as they spread throughout Europe, the two dates became mixed together and created the Walpurgis Night celebration. The main mascot of Walpurgis Day is the witch.”

Now, I love a pagan festival as much as the next man, so I thought I would observe this, before participation. We certainly don't celebrate the coming of Spring in the UK, we drift from cold rain to warm rain, with a few hot sunny days mixed in.

In practical terms, the celebration in our local town consisted of (rather impressive I must say) marching bands marching through the town, followed by random members of the populace. In one case, directly behind the band was a troupe (guessing the collective noun) of majorettes, and in another, a group of Scouts. Swedish flags were paraded at the front of each procession, and today, even the buses had little Swedish flags flapping from their roofs.

The bigger of the two parades I encountered yesterday, marched to the edge of the big lake, where already lit, was the biggest chuffing bonfire I have ever seen. It was mainly surrounded by water, so this is probably why it was allowed to be so huge. If you were in the witch burning business, this fire could have incinerated several covens in one go.

There was a podium for speakers and a choir, whose whole repertoire revolved around the coming of Spring. More band music, another couple of songs about Spring, a great long speech that apparently I did not/could not fully appreciate, and I then started to get pins and needles in my legs. But then the fireworks kicked off, and they turned out to be fairly impressive. Afterwards it was all back to the church for tea and ciabattas(?!).

I am still a little confused about what actually we were celebrating. With things like Christmas, Easter, St Patrick's Day and National Potato Day (29^th January; a date for your diary), you kind of know why you are doing what you are doing. I am still not convinced by the whole thing. I guess if I grew up here, I would get it, and not try to over analyse it.

But big whizzing pop bang fireworks are always good, so I'll be back next year for them anyway. Oohhh.... aahhhh....

That is all.

LostInTheWoods

Local Protest

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 14:04:20 GMT

A while back Aaron posted the following query in a comment:

“Ok so we see what the UK thinks about free speech. But how does that kind of stuff (peaceful protests and the govt's reaction) go down in Sweden?”

Well, I have been thinking about this for a long time, not living in, or that close to a big city it is hard to gauge. So what follows as an explanation is an educated bunch of assumptions. Sorry, for the moment that is the best I can do...

I get the impression that Sweden is a very free and open society. It is very democratic, from the government down to children in the classroom, democracy is seen as essential for being “a good Swede”. Consensus is also seen as vital, and I have yet to experience this in a work place (I have not yet got that first job here), but I have read that not much happens without it.

This week there was a demonstration in the square of my local town. There are plans to knock down a structurally deteriorating school/college. This would mean the students would have to go an “Uber-college” outside of the centre. So the demonstration happened, and apparently five hundred people attended. In a town that has a population of 37,1000, so 1.3% of the population turned up... which I thought was quite impressive, considering if this had been the UK, you may have seen a letter of protest in the local paper and little else.

I really struggle with Aaron's query, as I just don't have the history here yet... but the one thing I would say, it wouldn't surprise me if the demonstration was very well organised, timed to the minute, with prepared speakers and completely peaceful.

That is all.

LostInTheWoods

Tyring...

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 09:12:10 GMT

We are in the throws of a warm spring, and it is now time to take off the “winter tyres” (studded) and put on the “summer tyres” (normal everyday rubber). By law during the six months of winter, your car must have a set of winter tyres. Which means extra wheels, and the tyres are not cheap (£100/$200 each). So this is the most overt extra expense when you first come here.

Changing all four wheels in the hot Spring sun was sweaty work. The car now is a lot quieter when you drive, it doesn't sound like you are driving on gravel the whole time. I don't know how much damage the roads take, as only a small percentage of the time are you driving on ice/snow, the rest of the time the studs are chipping away at the road surface.

So with summer tyres on, it is downhill to the summer... and that reminds me... nobody can remember when it last rained!!?? I can remember when it last snowed, but no other precipitation has been seen in these parts for months. Very odd.

Another sign of summer is the explosion of teenagers burning around on loud mopeds. I swear they drill holes in the exhausts (mufflers for you Americans), the noise is astounding. Now I come to think of it the variety of vehicles on the road differs dramatically in the summer to what you find in the winter.

Along with the for mentioned mopeds, you see Honda Goldwings, Trikes and massive American cars from the 50's. Some Swedes spend their disposable income on a designated summer ride, that is kept under wraps in the cold winter months, and brought out to show off in the summer. This makes a change from the usual SAABs, Volvos and ever increasing number of Toyotas (is Toyota going to take over the world?), but if I were ever to have a summer ride, I would have to opt for a British classic. Keep the flag flying and all that....

That is all.
LostInTheWoods

Rubbish.

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 18:29:11 GMT

I have recently got into a debate about littering and rubbish with some people in the UK. I feel there is no need to go into that here, but it did make me think that my attitude to household waste and recycling, and how it has changed since moving here.

When I lived in the UK, both Renee and I tried to recycle as much as we could, and I had a worm bin in the garden for compostable waste. We tried to stick to the three R's; repair, recycle and reuse.

Since moving to Sweden things are a lot simpler, and less effort is required to do all this stuff. I shall try to explain how all this works in a light and painless way.....

Most supermarkets and local food shops have automatic machines that accept plastic bottles/drink cans/crates of glass bottles to be returned through a "hole in the wall" machine and they are worth:

(double these values for American cents):
Bottles (5p-40p)
Cans (5p)
Crate and bottles (dunno, I buy my beer in 'English' bottles, but our guess is about £4)

The machine prints out a receipt with a bar code on it and the sum accumulated is deducted from your shopping bill when you give it to the cashier. This money is of course included in the price of the bottle of drink when you buy it. The amount is identified by a little icon on the label:

Bottle banks/paper/packaging/battery/can/plastic recycling centres are situated in residential areas, not in supermarket car parks (not everyone has a car see...) All dirty stuff has to be washed before placing in a bank - That's my job. At first this seems a bind, but you quickly get used to it, and it only takes a couple of minutes.

All food waste is disposed of in green plastic bags (for composting), and everything else in red (for incineration). The “green” waste is converted not only into compost, but also bio-gas which some buses run on. The incinerated waste is used to heat homes. All very clever.

About 100m down the road is my local recycling station, where we also have a clothes bank for old clothes. So everything is convenient and easy, and you end up doing all this stuff without even thinking about it.....

That is all.

LostInTheWoods

Glad Påsk! (Happy Easter!) Part 3

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 14:29:10 GMT

Over the Easter period we went to the west coast and we ate the traditional fare of boiled eggs with caviare, poached salmon, boiled ham, meatballs, anchovy gratin, pickled herring and fresh prawns. Yum.

Afterwards we made out way to the “Easter Fire” which was down by the coast (a few minutes walk away). There was a firework display and a fire:

So, over these three posts, I hope I have demonstrated the diverse things that occur at Easter here. Like most Christian festivals, there are non-religious things being celebrated. The coming of spring and summer is also inherent in these celebrations.

But.. look at the sight that greeted us this morning out of our bedroom window:

Yeah, I know. I should remember where I am.

That is all.
LostInTheWoods

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Mind the Gap

A Religious Experience

Gone Huntin'

Gimme Shelter

Hummer

On My Doorstep

School's Out (Part 2)

Turn the light off and close the door on your way out.....

Schools Out Forever

Strejk!

Alcofrolics

Eurovision Song Contest

(Or “vote for your neighbour“ Contest)

School Report

An English Island

Digs and Wishy Washy

Walpurgis Night

Local Protest

Tyring...

Rubbish.

Glad Påsk! (Happy Easter!)  Part 3

Glad Påsk! (Happy Easter!) Part 3