Height of Futility

This must be the most useless and unnecessary device ever!!  Who buys this sort of stuff??!! What's wrong with a little bit of reflective tape (since the sales argument is "both for decorate purposes and for safety reasons when out during dark hours"?!

On a Spiritual Note

Note found in the letterbox this morning (my translation from the original Swedish):

Mr Omarou

Fortune teller, international marabout

Born with spiritual power. I am famous around the world. I can solve all Your problems e.g. love, health, family problems, business, legal issues, financial transactions, weight loss. You will be told how to protect yourself and your family from the enemy and how you can bring your loved ones back into your life. Guaranteed result.

Speaks English, interpreter in Swedish.

Call and book a meeting!

Royal Visit

By the King of the Forest. My parents have a moose chilling in their garden.



Via Anna's iPhone

American Phenomenon (for my Swedish bloggers friends in the US)

Status update on my friend A's Facebook a few moments ago:

Took some potato salad from the salad bar only to find it wasn't potatoes but marshmallows... Yuck! I'm sorry, but only on this side of the ocean....

(A is Scottish and has lived in the US for almost a year now.)

Guilt-Free Champagne

You may not have thought about it much but every time you pop open a bottle of Champagne (as you do on a regular Friday...er...maybe not), you release a lot of carbon dioxide into the air*. But due to new technique you will soon be able to drink bubbly without worrying (as much) about your carbon footprint. The new standard bottle will reduce CO2 with 8,000 tonnes per year, equivalent of emissions from 4,000 cars, made possible by reducing the thickness and thus the weight of the bottle from 900 to 835 gr.

* Not literally though; it's really about the production and shipping of bottles.

(Adult) Hello Kitty Fans, Look Here!

Costantly buying Hello Kitty toys and clothes for your children (daughters?) but never anything for yourself? Now you can buy Hello Kitty wine!

Choose between red, white, bubbly rosé and bubbly dessert wine. (Apparently not sold in Sweden yet but it's probably just a question of time.)

Public Transport's Deadly Sins

1) Someone standing on the wrong side on the escalator is a classic that is never acceptable. Count on it happening when you can hear your train rolling onto the platform and the next train is not until ten minutes later...

2) Children should not travel on public transport, especially if they are loud. It only takes one screaming baby for you to take the car to work for the next 20 years.

3) To listen to music is always nice - but only if you have chosen it yourself. A lively ring tone, accordion players and kids with a yearning for tinnitus and leaking headphones is a big no-no!

4) Body odour is another classic. Eat a lot of garlic, avoid showering for a week and wear something you found in the rubbish and you can guarantee a whole train car to yourself.

5) Something everyone should know: a bus/tube train is not the same as a moving fast-food stand. Neither kebab, pizza or beer smell as good as it tastes. Travel first. Eat later. That is how you do it.

6) Rush hour and Monday morning on the underground: person in large bulky jacket, with a ruggsack and bad body awareness who suddenly turns around. How many passengers get an elbow in the neck and a ruggsack in the face?

7) Okay, they are old and frail and do not know where they are getting off. But do they need to stand first in the queue, talk to the driver for 10 minutes and then hobble towards a seat at the back of the bus? Count on a 15-minute delay.

8) Everybody running towards the train have a chance to catch the train, but only one makes it. Despite the car only being half full. Why? This is what surely happened: the person who made it first threw him/herself in, realised s/he made it and stopped abruptly just inside the doors. Nobody else succeeded in getting inside the car since s/he was blocking the opening, the doors closed and the train started rolling with the rest of the group still on the platform.

9) Zero manners and etiquette in public transport: don't get up for elders, put your feet on the seat, brag about your latest shag or malarkey your best friend really loud on your mobile phone, cough without covering your mouth and do not let those leaving the train get off first.

10) Give your accessories a seat. Of course your doggy or your bag shouldn't have to be on the floor!

List found in Östermalmsnytt (my translation/interpretation).

Human Hot Water Bottles

If it had been April Fools today I wouldn't have believed this news item...

Apparently three Holiday Inn hotels in the UK are piloting human bedwarmers to warm up guests' beds. Those afraid of germs don't need to worry; the bedwarmers will be dressed in special garments. The bedwarmer will stay until the bed has reached a comfortable temperature of 20 degrees Celcius.

When Dagens nyheter asked what their readers thought of this innovative approach to drafty and bad insulated English buildings, 92% replied "no, thanks" while 8% said "yes, sounds cosy".

How would you vote?! Personally I always try to bring Peter on my business trips if I can :)

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...

X-mas Present Tip

How did I spend 32 winters without a snowballer?! Now when I know it exists there is obviously no going back! Need to get one for this year's snowball fight against the American colleagues from next door!

And here are the instructions!

Coffee Revisited

Found some coffee facts in one of the recent editions of SvD that are an interesting addition to my coffee post a couple of weeks ago.

Coffee history

• The first coffee house is said to have existed in Mecca in the 15th century
• Legend has it that coffee arrived in Europe as the Turkish siege of Vienna ceased at the end of the 17th century, when the Turks supposedly left behind hundreds of bags of coffee
• In Sweden Stockholm was first with coffee houses in the early 18th century. One of the most famous ones was Maja-Lisas in the Old Town (well, not "old" then)
• Shortly after the arrival of coffee in Sweden drinking coffee was banned and subject to a fine. But the coffee prohibition didn't last long

Today

• There are 2,200 cafées around Sweden, 300 of which are in Stockholm

Black gold

• Gross profit* on a single shot of espresso: 91.8%
• Gross profit on the accompaying cinnamon bun: 71.3%
• Gross profit on mineral water: 80.9%

* Sales price minus the purchase price, before costs for staff, etc. have been deducted.

Lingua Franca

Continuing on the education theme, which language should I learn?

You Should Learn French

C'est super! You appreciate the finer things in life... wine, art, cheese, love affairs. You are definitely a Parisian at heart. You just need your tongue to catch up...

What Language Should You Learn?

Luckily I already know French (well, used to is probably the more correct phrase...) so I don't need to do anything! ;) C'est super!

Extraterrestrial Accommodation

Looking for a new place with something extra? Here it is.

Photo: Scanpix

Show & Tell: Favourite Clothes

This week's theme for Show & Tell is favourite item of clothing. That's a really easy choice for me. My favourite garment is the dress jacket. I counted to 16 jackets in my wardrobe:

• 2 black thin striped
• 1 light gray thin striped
• 1 dark blue thin striped
• 1 grey thin striped
• 1 thin striped
• 1 bright pink
• 1 moss green in some sort of felt material
• 1 green, sort of mix between regular green and turquoise
• 1 brown in velvet
• 1 pink in velvet
• 1 brown in corduroy
• 1 white
• 1 mint
• 1 checkered in white and pink
• 1 speckled in black and white (appears grey)

Some are part of a two-piece but most of them are just excellent attire on their own, especially with jeans.

I don't have a red one though....

* Picture from Enter Annie's World

...maybe I should get one?! But my boyfriend says I can't buy anymore for a while...

It's A Small World

When we were in South Africa in December we met a very nice Swedish middle-aged couple on the tour to Robben Island (Mandela's infamous prison island) and Cape Town townships. The following day we ran into them again on Table Mountain. Once back home in Sweden Peter ran into the wife in Stockholm. Then, last week, when I was flying to London I ended up in the same row of seats as the husband! What's the chance of that?!! Made me think of that ride at Disney World in Florida, "It's A Small World", and now that song is stuck in my head as well :)

Mobile

I found a list over at Skolfröken's. It's simple, take your mobile, go to Contacts.

Have you kissed no 7?
Haha, no, that's Angela who I subletted my flat to.

Do you hang out with no 19?
No, that's a former colleague who I haven't seen since I ran into her last summer. We did e-mail last week about meeting up though.

Do you like no 26?
Yes, very much so. Eleonor is one of the girls in my group of oldest friends. She's very frank and not afraid of talking about everything from sex to details of her last stomach flu.

Is no 15 your best friend?
Not really, but we have known each other for a long, long time since she's my aunt (dad's sister). I had a very nice time with her when I spent some alone-time with her at her (and my uncle's) flat in the south of Spain a year and a half ago.

Is no 11 a cutie?
Anoushka is a really cutie; she's both petite and sweet! :) I saw her in London last week actually, otherwise I saw her last at her wedding to Chris back in September.

Do you love no 10?
A friend from Oxford. I like her a lot - she's sweet and fun - but I wouldn't say I love her as I don't know her that well.

Is no 20 good?
One of my best "abroad friends", Céline. She's very good. Especially at making you feel like you always hang out even though we don't see each other more than every or every other year.

Have you met no 9 this week?
No, but I would have loved to see AnnCatherine because she just had a little baby girl a few weeks ago.

Has no 16 been in the same class as you?
No, definitely not as he's at least 10 years older than me. He's one of my two bosses at my previous job.

Do you know if no 31 has a relationship?
Nope, she's an old classmate from upper secondary school. I have reconnected with her on Facebook and ran into her a couple of weeks, but we haven't gone out for the planned drink yet so I have no clue.

This was fun, except for that the numbers were so low that I only got to the letter E (with that final no 31) in my phonebook.

Nonsense Pondering

Is it just me or have you ever seen Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes's daughter Suri in a pram or a pushchair? They are always carrying her, everywhere. It must be some Scientology crap, just like that barley (wheat) formula babies are supposed to drink according to the Scientologists, instead of breastmilk or regular formula. It's probably good for little Suri to run around, but sometimes she'd probably like to take a nap in a comfortable pushchair instead of her mum's shoulder.