For Stieg Larsson Fans... with a Sense of Humour

I haven't read the Stieg Larsson trilogy yet, partly for the very reason Nora Ephron makes fun of in this column and partly because I become anti when too many people like the same thing :) I'm familiar with the story though as I've seen the films. So I very much enjoyed this piece!

What else? I'm at the Almedalen political week until Thursday morning. Posts from a previous Almedalen visit here in case you're wondering what it is!

Political Flute

This evening I attended an Almedalen political week type event. Once a month until the general election in September, Politikerbloggen, in cooperation with TV4, will interview a party leader in an informal format (a stand-up comedian warmed up the audience). It airs only on the web but there was a lot of other media present who will undoubtably broadcast or write about in some way. Up tonight was Christian Democrat Göran Hägglund, who I would never vote for but who is always fun to listen to, as he's quite the comedian himself.

If you're wondering why he's holding a flute it's because the hosts wanted him to demonstrate why (or how) he had the highest mark in music when he was in secondary school. I can reveal that he managed to get at least one tone out of it! :)

Wednesday Recipe: Sponge Cake... and Travel Preparations

I feel I have been neglecting the blog lately. To my defence I can say that I've been busy researching over one hundred B&Bs in Cape Cod (well, perhaps not that many but not far from it!) and recovering from a very bad cold I caught in Gotland (must have been all that shaking hands and kissing on the cheeks with the political elite at Almedalen). We're also having very nice weather at the moment so yesterday after work we went for a picnic in Tessinparken and today to the beach in Lidingö (though I thought the water was a little bit chilly so I didn't go for a swim).

Time for this week's recipe!

Fatfree Sponge Cake
4 eggs
3 dl sugar
1.5 dl flour
1.5 dl potato starch
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
1.5 dl water

Oven: 175'C

1. Grease a baking tin and bread it with coconut flakes
2. Mix the yokes and the sugar
3. Slowly add the water and stir carefully
4. Mix flour, potato starch, baking powder and vanilla in a separate bowl
5. Add the "dry mix" to the egg, sugar and water
6. Beat the egg whites until you have a foam-like mix (like you would when making meringues)
7. Carefully add the egg whites to the batter. Don't stir!
8. Bake for 35 mins

I haven't actually tried it yet but it sounds very delicious with the coconut! It apparently goes well with strawberries!

Report from Almedalen

I'm spending a few days - for work purposes (though I'm quite happy I get the chance to go for personal reasons too) - at Almedalen, the political week taking place in Visby, Gotland, the second week of July every year.

This year is a bit special as it is 40 years ago Olof Palme started the tradition of political speeches, seminars and networking in Almedalen. This year is also special because all party leaders are here, which according to the official statistics has only ever happened before during an election year. The experts say that this is partly due to the fact that the alliance government (coalition of four parties) is faring very badly in the polls and partly because Sweden has entered a sort of permanent election campaign even though this year is right between two elections (last one 2006, next one 2010). They also say that it is because of some current high profile issues (e.g. the newly passed highly controversial wire tapping legislation) and that politicians have become more professional and more PR conscious (there are quite a few lobbyists here!).

My idea was to blog a little bit about the seminars I attend every day (this year is a record year with 660 seminars organised), about the political speeches (one political party per day) and about all the networking and mingling going on, but turns out that all of that takes so much of my time so that it is now 01.36 and I need to get some sleep (though the music from the nearby marina is pretty loud so we'll see how that goes). But I promise a longer report and perhaps some photos once I'm back home. I'm staying over the weekend to explore the rest of Gotland - Peter comes down on Thursday - but I will be back on Sunday.