Happy New Year!

The picture shows Persian sweets, one of the desserts featuring at our New Year's Eve potluck dinner tonight.

Winter Leisure

View from yesterday's walk. Today it's been very mild, so the snow is melting fast. Fortunately it's going to get cold again tomorrow, at least -10'C, so that should avoid complete thawing. We headed out to the country house today and are currently cosied up in front of the fire while waiting for our dinner and overnight guests to arrive.

Happy Christmas! / God jul!

Show & Tell: Half-Year Check, Second Half 2009

I'm over two weeks late with my Show & Tell posts so I thought I'd better get them done before it's time for the last theme of the month (and before Christmas). Nilla's second theme of the month was Lucia - more about that below - and her third theme, to provide a half-year check, i.e. an inventory of the last six months of 2009 through photos, starts here! (All photos can be enlarged with a simple click!)

JULY

I worked most of July. It was the first month of the Swedish Presidency of the EU so it was quite hectic despite it being the height of the Swedish holiday period. I went twice to London on business and to the political week in Almedalen (a Swedish institution!) as usual. A very good friend and colleague H. sadly left us for Oslo :( On the bright side Peter's cousin S. got married and we had a great time at the wedding, or the party rather (which included inpromptu rope jumping and climbing...).



AUGUST

August equals holiday! We spent a lovely week in the southern and south-western parts of Sweden, followed by 10 days or so in the US, seeing both the west and east coasts (which reminds me I haven't finished my travel diaries from there). Since I will definitely write more posts about the US holiday I have just included our Swedish road trip in the collage.



SEPTEMBER

I went back to work on 1 September. It was still summer though for most of September, resulting in lunches out on terraces and balconies up until the very end of the month! I went on a very interesting work trip to London, where we simulated the climate negotiations (which went roughly in the same directions as the real ones...) As for our social calendar, we fit in one wedding and two crayfish parties.

OCTOBER

October was cold, much colder than normal, and we didn't have much sunshine (though it wasn't as bad as November...). Highlights of the month were a Michael Jackson tribute party, taking a friend's daughter to Walking with Dinosaurs and attending our good friends C. & J.'s son's baptism.



NOVEMBER


If October was bad weather-wise, November was just pure misery. Stockholm had 17 instead of the usual 55 hours of sun (average). Luckily we saw some sun on a weekend trip to Berlin (which I blogged about here). November featured the births of two babies in my circle of friends, a christening and a surprise party for a friend who turned 40 (same friend whose son was baptised the month before). We also bought some wild boar from a friend whose husband goes hunting and made minced meat (among other things); the mince are now meatballs that we will devour as part of our Christmas meal tomorrow!



DECEMBER

And now it's December, a month dominated by Advent and Christmas preparations. Which brings us to Lucia. Nowadays, at least for the last four years, the only Lucia celebration that I'm a part of is the one at work. I'm not a singer (even though I always used to be on the school choir) so I don't join the other girls (yeah, mostly girls), instead I just enjoy the glögg and lussekatter with the performance. But when I think of Lucia in general I think about memories of Lucia performances with my cousins for my grandparents at 6 am in the morning, being one of the contestants for the "role" of Lucia in ninth grade (didn't win needless to say), going to pretty wild "Lucia wake" parties during upper secondary school, and celebrating Lucia at (or organised by) the Swedish churches in New York, London and Brussels.

December also saw a great colleague leaving us after four years - he's the one in the Pippi wig! :)

Check out my last inventory from June!

From Hopenhagen to Nopenhagen

Or Brokenhagen. What else can we call Copenhagen? Crapenhagen perhaps?

Yes, it didn't turn out the way we wanted it to, or the way it needed to. But we cannot give up. We must see this as a start, even though we wanted it to be an end - the end to fossil-fuel, planet destroying practices. Because even if many countries started addressing climate change ages ago, major emitters such as the US and China* were not there, as in where the EU and climate progressives such as Brazil are. Now they are. Because even though the Copenhagen Accord is in many ways a disappointment, it is the first time the US and China actually signs up to anything that in effect means they admit guilt and that they too have a responsibility. Sure, it is not legally binding but I'm confident the political and public pressure from around the world will be so big that there is no way back for them. A representative from one of the Indian NGOs (I think) said: "it takes a long time to get the elephant moving but once it is moving it is very difficult to stop it".

We just need to move on and get down to work. There is no point in looking back (beyond learning useful lessons on what went wrong in the preparatory work and how the UN international negotiations process can be improved, etc.). I may be a naïve optimist but I think it is likely that the world's countries can make this into a legally binding agreement within a two-year period.

* China has the largest share of global greenhouse gas emissions though not per capita

Singing in Christmas

My friend H sings in one of the Sofia church (Södermalm, Stockholm) choirs and this is probably the fourth year I go and listen to their annual Christmas concert. Highly recommended! Walking there in a foot of snow helped us getting into the right mood and spirit. Now I'm back home sipping ginger cookie flavoured coffee - yummy!

Still Snowing

Or again rather.

Hopenhagen

Things aren't going that well in Copenhagen though there are still some signs of hope. Send all your thoughts of hope and all the energy you can spare to the negotiators trying to agree a new climate change deal for the world by the end of Friday!

Snow Storm

Visibility down to 100m at times. I'm doing a pretty good job at fixing a white Christmas for the Swedish homecomers, so far at least!

White Bliss Proper!

Annika and all other Swedish expats coming home for Christmas, I'll (try to) make it stay!!

Travelling Reader

Read an excellent quote!

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
- Saint Augustine

Speaking of reading (i.e. not travelling but actual reading), hands up those who think I will reach my goal of 20 read books for 2009?! Have read 14 so far and am reading two at the moment. 17 days to go. I should say that these days I read mostly when on leave, which I will be for a few days this holiday season, or travelling.

Semi-White Bliss

The other snow disappeared quickly but now we have some new one. Will see how long it lasts...

It's Snowing!

Not that much snow yet but it's the most we've got so far this winter.

No Pun Intended

No 16 is my favourite!

1. Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent.

2. A jumper cable walks into a bar. The bartender says,"I'll serve you, but don't start anything".

3. Two peanuts walk into a bar, and one was a salted.

4. A dyslexic man walked into a bra.

5. A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm, and says: "A beer please, and one for the road".

6. Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: "Does this taste funny to you?"

7. "Doc, I can't stop singing The Green, Green Grass of Home." "That sounds like Tom JonesSyndrome." "Is it common?" "Well, It's Not Unusual."

8. Two cows are standing next to each other in a field. Daisy says to Dolly, "I was artificially inseminated this morning." "I don't believe you", says Dolly. "It's true; no bull!" exclaims Daisy.

9. An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to look at either.

10. Déjà Moo: The feeling that you've heard this bull before.

11. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day, but I couldn't find any.

12. A man woke up in a hospital after a serious accident. He shouted, "Doctor, doctor, I can't feel my legs!" The doctor replied, "I know, I amputated your arms!"

13. I went to a seafood disco last week... And pulled a mussel.

14. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh.

15. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says, "Dam!"

16. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Not surprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.

17. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel, and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office, and asked them to move along. "But why", they asked, as they moved off. "Because", he said, "I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."

18. A woman has twins, and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt , and is named 'Ahmal'. The other goes to a family in Spain, they name him 'Juan'. Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal".

19. A dwarf, who was a mystic, escaped from jail. The call went out that there was a small medium at large.

20. And finally, there was the person who sent twenty different puns to his friends, with the hope that at least ten of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

Show & Tell: Christmas Presents

Not everyone looks forward to Christmas. The single mother who cannot afford to buy presents. The child who knows his or her parents will drink too much and fight their way through Christmas. The child swimming in presents but gasping for love from distant though present parents.

Read an article by Eva Franchell* on the Nordic Council site that made me reflect for a moment.

Her piece is titled Three images of Sweden just before Christmas 2009.

Rosengård on the outskirts of Malmö - Children living in misery and pure poverty. Cockroaches and mold. Ten people in a two-bedroom flat. 10% of Swedish children are considered poor** - in Rosengård it is 60%***.

Nyfors, Eskilstuna - Young people looking for jobs that are not to be found. 7% unemployment. Young people start their life as adults with a trip to the welfare office. Or resort to crime.

Stureplan, Stockholm - A handbag still costs over 10,000 SEK (920 euros). The international crisis is not to be seen. The shops are expecting record sales also this Christmas.

Eva writes that the market analysts in Stockholm are saying that the crisis is over. But, she continues, for many people around Sweden it has just begun. The share of Swedes on welfare benefits has increased with 20% compared to last year - but most of them do not live in Stockholm, at least not in the centre, instead they live in industrial towns where some companies, usually those supplying other, bigger industries, have had to close or lay off workers. The municipalities have received their share of the national rescue package but often it is only enough to cover the additional welfare benefits expenses.

Eva makes the issue political - and rightly so; politics is about people's different views about people and society - but I'm not going to do that today. I just want to highlight that there are people even in Sweden, both before and after the economic crisis, who are not that well off and could do with some help. And what better time than Christmas to think of a fellow human being. Because I do believe that we're all the same deep down irrespective of where we live, in the rich suburb or on the street. We all have the same needs to eat, sleep and love.

So, buy some presents for your loved ones as you usually do - I will - but for every gift you buy, send a thought to those less fortunate in society and preferably a monetary gift too.

For example, to/through Stadsmissionen:

Or Rädda Barnen:



* Probably most known as the best friend of Anna Lindh, the Swedish Foreign Minister who was murdered in 2003
** This is in an international comparison very low but it doesn't make their plight more bearable.
*** But there is also hope in Rosengård. The now world-famous footballer Zlatan comes from Rosengård. But, as Eva rightly points out, Zlatan is not only a symbol of hope and success despite humble origins; but also of growing inequalities between rich and poor


Show & Tell
I should also say that Nilla is our Show & Tell hostess for December. You can see the rest of her topics in one of the right-hand column.

Secret Santa

One lucky blogger out there will get this in the mail soon! :-)

Impulsive Drinking

6 o'clock post-Christmas shopping, pre-dinner drink, just like that!

Interesting (?) Fact of the Day

This morning when I was reading Arte & Marte, the biannual magazine published by the Swedish House of Nobility*, something caught my eye on the Family News pages (you know, those pages listing marriages, birth, deaths, etc.). It read:

Gyllenhaal, Maggie Ruth, *1977, actress, and John Peter Sarsgaard, *1971, actor, married 2 May 2009

I didn't know that the Gyllenhaals were members of the Swedish nobility, let alone any nobility?!! Guess you learn something new every day! Even if it's värdelöst vetande (worthless knowledge), as we say in Sweden :)

* One member of this household happens to be a member of this house as well, and it's not me...

Finally...

...some sunshine! And a temperature drop that brings out that longed for Christmas spirit. November was such a miserable month! A total of 17.5 hours of sunshine compared to the normal 55 hours. And a proof that the weather has been upside down; average temperatures in November were higher than those in October!

The Scale of the Challenge

Today I went to an interesting seminar about climate change organised by the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. After the presentations (one on the science and one on the security implications of climate change - both very interesting but I won't go into the detail here) there was a panel debate with four Swedish politicians - Sofia Arkelsten from the Moderate (Conservative) party, the Left party's Jens Holm, Claes Västerteg from the Centre party (former agrarian party, now small business party) and Social democrat Anders Ygeman.

Their first task was to envision a Sweden eleven years from now, in 2020...

...that would have had to reduce emissions by 50% compared to 2009 levels*. In the scenario emissions trading is not allowed and since it's only eleven years away we cannot count on much of the new technology, such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) or electric cars to have come through the pipeline yet, or on any new nuclear plants having been built (or at least not to be in operation yet).

So what did our group of politicians come up with?

• - Transport - the main quick fix as these represent a large chunk of our emissions - is very, very expensive. The tax on petrol is at least 27 SEK per liter. We have not seen the benefits of investment in the rail sector yet.
• - Taxes and other economic instruments are our main tools. A massive tax on CO2 is in place. Aviation and heavy transport by lorries are subject to further levies. All cities have a congestion tax.
• - We heat our homes with electricity - biofuels (still) emit too much and are thus costly considering the high CO2 tax in place.
• - We are moving to the cities as urban areas are more energy efficient. More effective use of space means that - by building smarter and denser - we don't need to travel as much and waste collection, sewage and other logistics are also more efficient.
• - Usually we can't afford to go on vacation but if we do we stay away longer.
• - We have stopped eating meat as it is too costly from a CO2 perspective**, with the exception of game and some grazing animals.
• - Renovations and refurbishment of homes that improve energy efficiency and/or reduce emissions, e.g. solar panels, insulation, are tax deductible.
• - We are discussing closing down industries in Sweden to reach the goal but we are concerned that will just move emissions elsewhere. We need to take a global perspective.

Radical as it may sound it illustrates well the scale of the problem. If we are to stop the increase in global average temperatures at two degrees this may be the only way to go.

They politicians went on discussing if society will succeed making a change (even if not as drastic and radical as the above), what the necessary changes in the economy and in consumption patterns will be and how we can consume without destroying the planet, but that's another post!

* This would be tougher than any of the targets that the EU has committed too so far or that are on the table in the climate change negotiations. Sweden's commitment is 40% by 2020 on 1990 levels.
**Today, 2009, emissions from meat production is equal that of 4 million cars on Swedish streets.

Show & Tell: Advent

Short post today just to give you a flavour of what is gradually making its way from the basement up to the flat. Unfortunately I couldn't go to church today due to helping a friend with a home refurbishment project, otherwise Advent is my favourite time of the year churchwise. It feels like Advent came so quickly this year. Can't believe Christmas is less than a month away! I think it has to do with the relatively mild weather we've been having. I want snow! Well, not snow from now on to Christmas but at least one proper snowfall so that it starts feeling like winter and the holiday season!

Thanks Simone!

Had a great time listening to Peter Barlach's story telling, guitar playing and singing tonight, thanks to tickets kindly passed on by Simone, aka Fritt ur hjärtat!

I Knew That!

Swedish men are apparently the world's most beautiful men! But I knew that already of course! ;) And it's not just my claim - a dating site especially for beautiful people* says so, or more exactly, the users of the site say so.

Swedish guys are followed by their Brazilian and Danish counterparts, in that order, whilst British men are at the bottom of the list, the poor sods!

As far as the other sex is concerned, Swedish women came in second after their Norwegian sisters.

An Oxford study has also concluded that Swedish men make the best husbands so it's looking good for Swedish women! Or women of other nationalities who have caught a Swede in her net! :)


* Questionable on moral and principal grounds in my opinion but...

Show & Tell: Signs

This will be quite a short post but at least it is on the actual day for a change!

Simone's third theme is Signs. I found these great signs when I was looking for the toilets in the basement of a bar in London on one of my trips there this year:

I also want to warn you that it can be very dangerous to swim in a outdoor hotel pool (or spa???) in the US! No lifeguard even though the pool was at least 3x3 metres big! ;)



See also my previous signpost - dedicated to Marianne!

P.S. Will add all Show & Tell participants to one of the right-hand columns soon!

Show & Tell: From Below & Berlin

I missed last week's Show & Tell due to my trip to Berlin so I thought I'd show you that city from below. Many of them might not really qualify as photos taken from below but they will have to do! :)

Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche - The ruins of the church in Western Berlin is one of the city's most memorable symbols, but is called "the hollow tooth" by the locals. This neoroman church was named in the honour of Vilhelm I. After having been severely damaged during WWII the church was kept as it was as a memorial. In 1963 a new and modern church designed by Egon Eiermann was opened next to the old church - you can see the modern clock tower here.

The inside still has mosaics picturing scenes from the German empire, including the so-called Hohenzollerm mosaics with the Preussian kings, queens and dukes.

Windows, stairs and mosaics in what is left of the altar room


More from below views of the altar room


The main staircase in the Jüdisches Museum, the Jewish Museum. Daniel Liebeskind designed this new fantastic building for portraying the history of the Jewish people in Germany (or the territory of present-day Germany) over the last 1,000 years. This is a really great museum in its layout and how it tells the story of centuries of Jewish-German relations. It's one of the best museums I've been to, on par with the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. The so-called Holocaust Tower in its own part of the building is a unheated cement room with only natural light from a narrow opening in the ceiling, which is supposed to symbolise a gas chamber (though the architect says it should be interpreted in the mind of the visitor).


The concert hall at Gendarmenmarkt, a "piazza" in Italian renaissance style. The name "Gendarmenmarkt" comes from a regiment, gens d'armes, stationed nearby. The piazza is from the 17th century but the concert hall is from 1818-1821.

One of two domes that surround the concert hall in Gendarmenmarkt, the French and the German cathedrals from the 18th century. There is also a smaller French church in the square, founded by Berlin's Huguenot community, while the German dome was built by German protestants.

One of the domes, don't know if it's the French or the German one.

Underneath the autumn trees in Gendarmenmarkt

The 1.3 km stretch of the Berlin Wall that has been kept and is now East Side Gallery. The artworks were restored this year ahead of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall, usually by the same artists who painted them 20 years ago.

Peter posing in front of the Berlin Dome, the largest and most lavish cathedral in the city, from the late 19th century. We never went inside though but maybe we should have, because I read in the guidebook that it was reopened in 1993 after 40 years of renovation.

Top of the Berlin Dome

From the bottom of the stairs of the Reichstag. The Reichstag was built in the late 19th century by Paul Wallot as a symbol of German power but was subsequently destroyed in a fire in 1933 and during WWII. In 1997-1999 the British architect Sir Norman Foster transformed the building to one of the world's most modern parliamentary buildings - with its famous glass dome - but you wouldn't think so from jut looking at the front.

A happy Peter below Brandenburger Tor. In addition to the Reichstag, Brandenburger Tor is probably the most well-known structure in Berlin. The gateway was erected in 1789-91 with ancient Greece as the model. The Quadriga sculpture on top is a peace symbol but despite its symbolism the gate has been marched through by many a rulers, statesmen, military parades and demonstrators.

Wednesday Recipe: Whose Idea Was It?!

No time to do a recipe today (haven't had time to cook lately and won't until next week - busy times!) but I wanted to post something so I googled "Wednesday recipe"! Found that myself and Petchie were the top 4 results (potato & fennel gratin, kale soup, salmon & avocado salad and Swedish sandwich cake) but below that there were other blogs I didn't know about which also seem to have a Wednesday recipe thing going! Although not sure there is a connection between them. But maybe we should join forces?!

Elvina!

My friend Malin managed the feat of timing the birth of her second child - a baby girl with the beautiful name Elvina - with her older daughter's tenth birthday! !

Congratulations Malin & Ronny! And Filippa, who's a big sister!



More pics on Malin's blog!

I also want to congratulate Åsa & Rikard who became parents to beautiful Wera last week!

Stockhome

Back home after a lovely weekend in Berlin. I took a piece of the wall and the city with me, literally and in my heart. A new favourite!

Berlin!

Show & Tell will have to wait a few days because I'm off to Berlin for the weekend. I've never been so I'm really looking forward to it! Poor Peter will have to work while I do the sights. Hopefully he'll have some free time on Sunday. I have brought lots of magazines and a book - holidays and weekends at the country house seem to be when I read there days; all other time is computer time hahaha :-)

Wednesday Recipe: Food for the Soul

Went to see, or listen really, to the opera Nabucco with two colleagues tonight. When we got there I had a pleasant surprise! It was a Södertälje Opera production, i.e. from my home town! I have read really good reviews about them but never seen (or heard) them before. I can just confirm what has been written; high quality stuff! Now I just need to read what the opera is about and about the characters because I didn't get much of the story...

Show & Tell: The Dinner of My Dreams

Simone takes over Show & Tell for the month of November. She starts off in style with a very difficult topic! The Dinner of My Dreams - three guests, four with yourself. What is the seating plan, the menu, wine selection, table setting, etc.

Just when I was about to sit down and write this the show Simone got the idea from was on TV. What a coincidence!

I could answer my wedding dinner, because I dream about getting married. I could also write about a dinner with Peter and two kids around the table, the two (or three) kids I hope to have one day. But I really hope to have more than three guests at my wedding and neither my own kids nor Peter would really qualify as "guests". A dinner with friends would not be a dream dinner either since I meet them regularly anyway and I hope we will continue to do so until we're turn 100 at least.

So I will have to opt for guests that I would like to meet, but not just meet for meeting's sake but in order to try to influence them. With a month left (from tomorrow) before the start of the negotiations about a new climate change agreement in Copenhagen, getting an agreement that would be strong and effective enough to eventually stop climate change would be the topic of the day, the raison d'être for the dinner.

At the moment the international negotiations are heading for disaster. If not complete failure at least a very watered down agreement*. The last round of negotiations before Copenhagen, which took place in Barcelona over the last couple of days, didn't make much progress. And the EU-India Summit over in Delhi today wasn't a huge hit either.

Image from photobucket.com

So who are the key people I would need to convince that the planet is worth saving; that we don't have that much time; that even though we can't see climate change yet** and/or it's such a difficult thing to comprehend, it IS happening; that we cannot close our eyes and pretend it's not happening anymore, etcetera etcetera?

Yes, Obama, that's where we need to go. Forward. To the future. A green future. (Image from climaticoanalysis.org)

China's President Hu Jintao (image from thehindu.com)

I can't decide if Russia or Canada gets the third seat. At the moment Canada is hiding behind US but if I got the US onboard I'm sure Canada would come running. Russia is a problem in terms of hot air and is closer to some of the oil states that would be useful to have onboard too. India is another potential third guest but one which I don't think will be a real problem once China is game. I could also choose to have another climate advocate at the table, for example Australia or Japan, but they will make good extras instead.

So I think Russia would be my best shot.

Russia's President Medvedev (although Putin would probably be knocking on my door trying to take Medvedev's place) (image from rusecounion.ru)

The EU has taken most of the necessary decisions so the EU wouldn't really need to be at the table but could come and slip in some arguments while serving our food (first course). Besides, I represent the EU anyway. Australia and Japan would be cooking and come out and check on us once in a while. The "progressive developing countries", for example Brazil, Mexico or South Korea, could come and shout some encouraging words together with the main course. The G77 would accompany the dessert and the Maldives' President*** would serve the cheese. By the time the coffee comes we should have a deal!

What would we eat and drink? Only organic and/or fair trade produce of course. But I would also try to serve meat, fish and vegetables that may go extinct in a world with rising temperatures to make the point that this is something we may not enjoy in the future.

Let's hope we can stop the world from this scenario:




* In all likelihood there will be some sort of deal, but a weak one, or something like a statement or political intention, and next year will be full of further negotiations to seal the deal. This is an alternative that wouldn't be all bad but it would be even better if a deal could be reached in December 2009 already.
** We can really but not not in all parts of the world, and not in the countries which need to take the decisions, and not enough in other parts of the world for people to really understand.
*** Did you know that the Maldive government held a government meeting in the sea, fully dressed in diving suits to demonstrate to the world what sea level rise means for low lying states and/or the least developed states!

Image by/from Mohammed Seeneen/Associated Press

A Pin for the Environment

Image from tugboatlars.se

I remember reading on Vardag i kängurulandet (hey! where are you?!) that it's illegal to hang laundry on a clothesline in an Australian backyard/garden. When I met Kicki in Stockholm in March after she had moved back to Sweden we talked about how strange it was to have such a ban, both in general - from a Swedish perspective hanging out your laundry is such a normal thing to do - and in these times of climate change. I don't know if things are changing in Australia - I would assume so with them being quite a proactive force in the international climate change negotiations, finally - but they are definitely changing in another country with such a ban, the US.

Several US states forbid residents to dry clothes outside for the reason that many people view clotheslines as a menace similar to rusty old cars or other junk in driveways, and in essence, something that marks a community as poor, which in turn lowers property values. But times are a-changing and several states (e.g. Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Vermont, Florida and Utah) have replaced the ban with legislation protecting people's right to hang laundry outdoors, for environmental reasons. Apparently dryers alone use at least 6% of all household electricity consumption so it sounds like a move other states - and countries - should be making.

Wednesday Recipe... or Swedish Homogeneity

As I've been home with a cold for two days I haven't really been flipping interesting recipes in the kitchen. I did make an omelette for lunch today but there wasn't anything special about it, and tonight I devoured a frozen pizza (Peter is having dinner at his parents - it's his dad's birthday - but I didn't feel like going).

So I thought I'd re-tell a cartoon strip I read in Svenska Dagbladet the other day. It's part of the series Stockholmsnatt ("Stockholm night") by Pelle Forshed and Stefan Thungren.

I read several blogs owned and written by Swedes living abroad and being an ex-expat myself I find discussions about Swedish character and Swedishness quite interesting. One thing they (not just bloggers but also "experts") say about us Swedes is that we are very fashion conscientious. For example, did you know that many fashion houses try their designs on the Swedish market before deciding whether to give them a go elsewhere?! The positive side to this is that we all look pretty good most of the time; the negative is of course that we all look the same, i.e. boring. Guess you can't have it both ways!

Anyway, here's the strip and a translation:




Guy 1: "So, this thing about Swedish fashion design being conformed is actually nonsense, there is an obscene amount of brands to choose between these days..."

Guy 2: "Yeah, but does that matter when all of them seem to have the same idea at the same time. Autumn has looked like one long sequel to Brokeback Mountain..."

Guy 1: "Oh bother! I could see right away that you are wearing Our Legacy and he Acne... The buttons and the seams give it away, completely different feeling. For me the difference is as as big as between dotted and striped..."

Guy 2: "Okay..."

Guy 2: "Apparently eskimos* have like 32 different words for snow... If you constantly live in the same barren environment I guess you are forced to become creative and see nuances in everything."

Guy 3: "Do you also get a feeling that we are approaching a solution to the mystery of the Swedish fashion people's..?"


* The pc word is "inuit" I know.