Red or White

Help me decide! Should I get red or white Hunter wellies?!

Show Without Tell

Show & Tell: Who Next?

My post will be coming later today but I wanted to ask whom I should pass the stick to? Both Saltis and Taina have expressed interest but not sure which month's relay they prefer?

Snowmobile

Luckily not my car!

MJ Memory

I watched "This Is It", the Michael Jackson movie, with my friend Jenny tonight. We reminisced about the 1992 concert we went to together - and I told her about the 1997 concert that she unfortunately missed.

We also talked about how our mutual friend Maria and I, at age 12 or 13, repeatedly rang J. S. - the boy three classes up whom we were all in love with - and played "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" (he hung up every time). I thought it was Jenny and I who terrorised J. S. with MJ music as Jenny and I sent him a diploma for being the greatest guy ever* (or similar) in the post (wonder if he kept it??) but apparently it was Maria and me :)

Good times!





* Like many guys who were cute and cool at that age, J. S. did not turn out to be the kind of guy we would want to be with now...

No Bike Weather

My bike is there somewhere! This year's winter seems to be never ending and spring feels far away.



à la iPhone

Show & Tell: Life after Death

Image from www.bloodhoundrealty.com

I have chosen a more serious topic for this week's Show & Tell (though it's of course possible to joke about it as well, as with any topic; up to you!) because I thought it would be interesting to hear people's thoughts and ideas on the afterlife. I wrote when I set out my themes a few weeks ago: apologies for the morbid subject but I find it interesting to think about what happens after we die, if anything, and how miniscule our lifespan (as individuals) is in the history of the universe, or even that of mankind.

I don't have any particular belief "this is what will happen to me" but I hope and want to believe that something does happen, that we go somewhere, to a new world or a parallel dimension...somewhere, something. Some sort of heaven but maybe not necessarily the heaven described by any of the religions. Maybe Nangijala. That would be nice. Without Katla.

Image from www.makemymood.com

We live such a short time on earth if you consider how long earth has been around or even how long humanity has been around. Makes you humble. And at the same time feel like there must be something more to it. But maybe we just want to, have to, think that because it's so unthinkable that we are so insignificant in the scheme of things. I think the urge to be immortal, to live on, is one reason why we have children. In addition to the want to love and care, and to be loved and cared for, of course.

I think about organ donation. In many ways passing on your organs, either as a live or a dead donor, is a way to live on as well. I registered as an organ donor years ago, however I have said no to research because I rather want my organs to go to someone. But I'm starting to reconsider since research is so important too and maybe my body proves to be better fit for research, who knows. I don't believe my body need to stay intact after I die because if there is a life after death, it's my soul that will move on. I don't think I need my body. If I do need one I'm sure I will get a new one.

Image from www2.warwick.ac.uk

I think by the time you're old and you know you are dying you just accept it. It's natural in a way. But when you are young it's difficult to think about death. Young people who know they are dying from an illness accept their fate as well, most of them at least. I think a calm descends on you. It's more difficult for those around you. And the person dying is more sad for the life they will not lead than being scared about dying itself. So death is really about the lack of life than about death as such. Life after death is probably much more difficult for those left alive. In a way, life after death is about them, those left behind.

Image from utopiaorbust.files.wordpress.com

Lastly, Swedish funeral arrangements. The Muslim custom of burying their deceased within 24 hours is a bit rushed and exaggerated; even three days may not be enough time for far away relatives to return, and by that time the sad news may not even have sunk in. But waiting three and sometimes even four weeks as is the case in Sweden is a scandal! A week is appropriate, two weeks if necessary. I understand that if Sweden only (for the most part) hold funerals on Fridays (for some reason??) it will be difficult to book that special church that meant so much to the deceased. But it seems like people nowadays can hardly fit in a funeral in their busy lives and that's the real reason, not church booking arrangements. Sweden has very lax laws on this apparently whilst for example Norway and Denmark have one or two weeks maximum before the deceased must be buried. I think it's disgrace to deceased to let him or her lie just there in the morgue. Sure, they are dead but still. Out of respect to when they were alive.

Just some randoms thoughts.

Become Obama's Ghost Blogger

Or Social Networks Manager, which is the fancy title. You may not have so much time for your own Facebook, Twitter or Blogger account however, since it's not "your usual 9-5 job".

Paradise Awaits

We've booked a holiday to the Maldives!!!

Better go before it sinks, we figured. Though I am feeling a bit guilty for indirectly contributing to its predicament - we have to fly to get there of course and I live in the Western world where we are all historically responsible for climate change - so I need to do a bit of research about any climate adaptation projects in the Maldives that I can donate to (i.e. climate compensate).

When Valentine's Day coincides with that important football match...

Coming Soon!

When I host Show & Tell I try to write and publish my posts on the actual day but today is not such a day. I have a hectic weekend ahead of me (and a busy day at work today), so you will need to watch this space on Sunday.

Until then, have a nice weekend!

Winter Still

à la iPhone

Show & Tell: My First Job

Not sure what I was thinking when I picked this topic because I don't seem to have any photos to illustrate my first job, or any jobs I've had for that matter*. Well, I have some photos from my first REAL job, but I'm not going to write just about that (the hostess can cheat, can't she?).

But let's start with my first real job then! With real I mean the first permanent job after finished studies and relevant to my background and skills, etc.

My first job was at a small consultancy called Spintrack (the company has since gone bankrupt - I guess they couldn't operate without me - and been restarted by one of the founders), which specialised in "public finance". This means public funding of different kinds (from the Swedish state, local or regional government, the EU, etc.) of private or public projects, mainly within research and innovation or business development. We helped companies, usually small ones, and public organisations such as universities, government agencies or municipalities / municipal companies identify funding opportunities - grants, loans, credits - and then apply for it, administer any won grants and report concluded projects. Usually organisations don't have the skills or resources to do this themselves. We mostly worked on research money from the EU - and here's where my EU degree came in handy.

S, H and P in our offices in Drottninggatan late 2003 or early 2004

We also did other things, non-funding related, and my political science background helped here too; such as a study of conditions for SMEs (small and medium-sized companies) in different OECD countries. For a while I also expanded my skills area and worked together with one of our associated consultants on IT governance projects, which - in very few words - means making the necessary changes within an organisation to allow IT become an integral part of the management structure. IT moving from some guys in a basement room to the board room so-to-speak.

Christmas buffet and show at Hamburgerbörs, 2003

Towards the end of my time at Spintrack I also helped companies write tenders for public contracts and started a Microsoft-run project called European Union Grants Advisor (EUGA) together with a colleague. I stayed at Spintrack for two years and three months before moving to my current job where I've been for four years now. Time for a change me thinks!

But this is all very boring CV stuff! So let's go to the more exciting jobs I've had!

My life as a child labourer, or how I learnt responsibility and money's worth
* Helped out my uncle with marketing: filling envelopes with advertising material and sealing them = my very first paid job
* Distributed advertising material but not for long; the preparation work was too time-consuming, especially in relation to the pay, and I think my parents ended up doing quite a lot of it
* Sold jultidningar, i.e. went around the neighbourhood to take up orders for books and magazine subscriptions, including Christmas magazine specials, to be delivered in time for Christmas

Summer jobs or how I tried to get work experience and earn some own money
* Worked in the mail room and distributed the internal mail at Scania; I covered the head office building and not the factory floor, hence felt very "important" (one summer)
* Distributed mornings newspapers around my neighbourhood; I only lasted two-three weeks because working between the hours of 3-7AM when all your friends have regular summer job hours and want to hang out in the evenings don't really work
* Learnt a lot about supply control and logistical systems at Scania Parts Logistics (their spare parts supply chain) (several summers and Decembers) = my first proper summer job

And let's not forget my aupair year in the US in between upper secondary school and university!

These kids are now 22 and 20! And Deacon has gone to dog heaven

Pay my way through school-jobs (well, in addition to Swedish study grants and loans)
* Worked up to 20 hours a week at Fred Perry in Covent Garden in London during my last year of the Bachelor up until March when I had to concentrate on finals = my first and last (?) job in a shop (which reminds me of the fact that I have never worked as a waitress, which otherwise seems like a classic summer or extra job)
* Covered for the librarian at the Middle East Centre during two-thirds of my two years in Oxford

My short-but-could-return political career
* Treasurer of the local SSU (Social Democrat youth organisation) club in Södertälje at age 16 or 17
* Held a political post on a small local council (for Disability issues) at age 18-21
* Attempted to convince Swedes to vote yes to the euro in 2003. Failed (we still have the krona) but it was a fun summer! This was not an elected post as I worked for and was paid by Sverige i Europa but it was political campaigning so... (anecdote: I actually voted no to EU membership in 1994 but pretty soon after changed my mind and became a strong EU - and eventually euro - supporter)

Work on the euro campaign trail was rather varying; I spent one week travelling around camp sites in a caravan with these colleagues

There are a few other jobs I haven't mentioned but that's it from me today!

* Okay, I found some in the end

Birgitta Continues

Just had to write again about our new EU Minister and all the talk about her pregnancy and how it will or won't affect her carrying out her duties and how it has (or should) lead to a wider discussion about women's role in working life.

Terri Eriksson writes in Aftonbladet "the Middle Ages called and they want their view of women back". Great line!

A translation of her article:

"When Dominika Psczynski had a baby in the beginning of the 2000s she went back to work after two weeks and hired a nanny to take the night shift.

The critics did not waste time. She was called "cheating mum" (who did not suffer through night watch, to be a mother = to suffer) and was interviewed under headings such as "How could you, Dominika?". Then it was Perrellis's turn, when she was back on the stage four days after the delivery. And when she soon thereafter crashed her car after a Christmas show, there were even some wacko debaters who were given screen time to point out that this was Charlotte's fault - she should not have worked but have stayed home like other sound mothers.

Then it wouldn't have happened!

This week the [differing] opinions come thick and fast about our new pregnant EU Minister Birgitta Ohlsson. People have spent time on discussing everything except EU policy: What will she do with the baby? Will she breast-feed? How will the association between mother and child go? How modern or unmodern is her husband? Does she have a heart of stone? Aren't mothers still most important in the end?

She shouldn't have taken the job, some say. Some wacko debater has again been allowed space to condemn a mother who starts working a few weeks after giving birth (can you remember if a "leadership consultant and linguist" has been allowed to make a statement about a political posting before?).

Well, what can one say? I saw that a person on the Internet wrote just apropos of the Ohlsson debate that women's greatest enemies are not male chauvinist pigs, it is women who think that chauvinism is correct. I wish I had thought of that first.

When we sit there and are retired and look back on this period of time when we thought we were so modern, we will be astonished that a pregnant minister could be subject to that much crap.

At the same time both Research Minister Tobias Krantz and Defence Minister Sten Tolgfors will become fathers - and participate in the election campaign - without anyone having any kind of moral aspects on that. Does Tolgfors have a heart of stone?

Because you cannot surely mean that we still, actually, really, live in a time where it doesn't matter at all what new fathers do, while the mothers' every departure from sitting at home and breast-feeding becomes a public concern?

Besides I wonder how it is that female politicians always, always are judged harder than men. In addition to Birgitta Ohlsson's pregnancy the national has recently been shaken by a debate about Mona Sahlin's bloody handbag. No one, which former Gender Equality Ombudsman Claes Borgström pointed out, has cared about analysing Fredrik Reinfeldt's extremely expensive suit, luxury watch or expensive car. I promise they are more expensive. The difference is that he got away with it.

Just like the government's not especially present dads with young children Krantz, Tolgfors and Billström."

Gudrun Schyman, Leader of Feminist Initiative, says (you can always count on Gudrun) that it is of course possible to give birth while holding a ministerial post. "There are so many antiquated conceptions about parenthood and about how women should behave. They are two in this, right? And she's not married to an old patriarch! All of it is a logistical question." She added that she never had so much inspiration in politics and in life in general when her children were young.

So what do I, Anna, think? I probably wouldn't go back to work four days after delivery or hire a night nanny unless there was a very special reason. BUT this is not about the details, this is about something bigger; the roles of women and men, not just as parents, but in society in general, and how the "rules" are not the same for women and men.

Dream Jobs

As a prelude to this week's Friday theme...

A survey among Swedish men and women resulted in the following list of dream jobs (out of list of 131 professions):

Women's dream careers
1. Economist / financial
2. Interior design / architect
3. HR Manager / Head of Personnel
4. Author
5. Psychologist
6. Doctor
7. Life coach / career coach (not student and career guidance counsellor, i.e. syokonsulent, I guess??)
8. Lawyer
9. Marketing
10. Animal carer (not veterinarian?)

Men's dream careers
1. Engineer
2. Entrepreneur (that's not a profession as such for me, it's more a tool for doing something if that makes sense??)
3. Musician
4. Pilot
5. Management (consultant)
6. Adventurer
7. Photographer
8. Author
9. Architect
10. HR Manager / Head of Personnel

I was really surprised that musician and adventurer are high on the men's list and life/career coach and animal carer on women's. Also, I didn't know so many people dream about writing books.

The survey has been carried out by Manpower and Kairos Future and can be found here.

Birgitta Rules!

Sweden has a new EU minister as of yesterday*, Birgitta Ohlsson, from the Liberal party. I don't vote for her party but if I could vote for one person (well, you could but I want to cast my vote on someone from "my" party) I would pick her. She's young and modern, intelligent, ambitious, and most importantly, she drives the gender equality agenda. She was a controversial choice for that very reason; being outspoken on human rights and democracy, and especially on women's rights, and as an MP has often voted against the government (where her party is one of four coalition partners). She is also a controversial choice for some people because she's pregnant and due in July. To these critics** she said: "I'm married to a modern man and not a dinosaur". Such a great response!

* The former minister, Cecilia Malmström, was appointed EU Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs, so stepped down as minister. Ohlsson's appointment lasts until the general election in mid-September.
** One woman, Eva Sternberg, has written a column in Expressen and I don't know if she's serious or ironic??!! I sure hope it is the latter!

February Show & Tell

Miss January hands over to Girl February, who chooses the following topics:

• - World peace...

Nah, just kidding! Here they come:

5 February: My first job (Mitt första jobb)

12 February: Cars (Bilar) - Sorry, no Valentine topic this year! :)

19 February: Life after death (Livet efter döden) - Apologies for the morbid subject but I find it interesting to think about what happens after we die, if anything, and how miniscule our lifespan (as individuals) is in the history of the universe, or even that of mankind

26 February: Show without tell (Visa utan att berätta) - A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. Tell us something with one or more pictures. No words allowed!

A mix of easy and challenging I hope! Thanks to Sparkling for taking such good care of January!

Show & Tell: Tea

Sparkling's last theme is tea (thanks for great topics!!).

I love tea! I drink several cups a day! My routine is tea in the morning, then coffee when I get to work, a cup of tea at 11ish, coffee after lunch and then tea in the afternoon around 3-4pm. Then a cup of tea again before bedtime. Sometimes I drink coffee after dinner but then only decaf unless it's the weekend. I don't worry about the caffeine in tea though because black tea has thirty times less caffeine than coffee (and red and green tea even less). I always drink black and red tea (and white) with milk but never take milk in green tea or infusions.

My absolute favourite tea is called Sir Williams. We always get ours at Sibyllan's tea shop in Sibyllegatan in Stockholm, but you can buy it under the name Mittens rike at Kahl's tea shops as well. It has a slightly smoky taste*, bergamot, hibiscus and a hint of jasmine. It contains seven different Chinese teas, e.g. Earl Grey, Jasmine, Lapsang and green tea.

Sir William's looks like this when you buy it from Sibyllan (image borrowed from Snor & Glamour - great name for a blog by the way!

Another favourite of mine, which I buy from the same tea shop is Earl Grey Cream, an Earl Grey tea flavoured with vanilla and bergamot. There's a Lady Grey Cream too but it's a bit too flowery and sweet for me (the combination taste sweeter somehow).



Another favourite is Rooibos tea. But it has to be plain Rooibos, not flavoured ones that unfortunately seems to be the only versions Swedish cafés serve. Very few Swedish tea brands (or teas sold in Sweden) do Rooibos well so I try to buy mine in the UK. But the kind my South African friend, living in the UK, brings from her home is the best!

In terms of tea in general, I like most teas unless they are too sweet or too fruity. It feels wrong for me to throw out tea I don't like that much. Unless it's awful I will drink it eventually, or bring it to work since others may like it (except the Brits I work with are like most British tea drinkers; they don't have a very sophisticated tea taste buds so prefer English Breakfast or PG Tips type tea**).

An early tea memory is drinking tea at my (maternal) grandmother's who was the one that introduced milk in my tea (if I remember correctly) and dunking cookies :) Another tea memory is having tea with my other (paternal) grandmother while watching House of Eliott on TV every Monday (think it was Mondays?). She usually had hers with lemon while I stuck to milk. Good memories to have now when one is no longer with us and the mind of the other is not so with it anymore.

Show & Tell themes for February coming later today!!


* But not that smoky cause I don't like smoky teas such as pure Lapsang
** A funny story about the difference between Swedish and British tea drinkers: In my work I often accompany British delegations on visits to Sweden. They often gets a searching look in their eye when going through the selection of teas at a Swedish meeting or a Swedish café. They are quick to ask "don't you have any normal tea?". "Of course", says the Swedish meeting host or the Swedish waitress, "here you go", and presents some Earl Grey tea bags. "No, regular tea", the Brit replies, because Earl Grey, whilst being the default tea in Sweden, is considered fancy in the UK. A little example of culture clash :)