Dont come to Sweden if you have two asses!

Funny!

Show me the way to row home!

Be careful of drunken Swedes!

Joking aside here but its an interesting phenomenen because the way I see it Swedes are fairly conservative with alcohol at home but when they get out of Sweden they tend to go a bit mad. Just look at Spain and places like that, its because the alcohol is so much cheaper outside of Sverige that they cant help it.

In some ways this is rubbing off on me. Not in terms of boozing but shopping! I had a few hours to kill in Berlin last Saturday before my flight and I went off to KaDeWe, shopping! I needed a summer raincoat and the ones I liked in Sweden were about three or four times the price of the one I bought in Berlin. Normally, shopping (unless its for gadgets) is my idea of hell but because things are, lets face it, much more expensive in Sweden then when I am abroad I tend to go to more shops.  Sad eh!

I am writing to you from Copenhagen, the weather is lovely, shame I have meetings all day. I just watched the CNN weather and they were talking about Stockholm. 25 degrees with a sunrise at 3.30am and sunset at 10pm. Nice!

Some things in Sweden are great and

some things stink and this stinks!

MCB sent me this link earlier today and quite frankly I am lost for words. I wonder what the Swedish politicians will say on this? Hopefully they will jump on this school harshly because this is incredible!

How any teacher can confiscate a little boys party invites is beyond me. I wonder if Josef Stalin runs the local Education authority down there?

Swedish Politics -The Centre Party

I can hear some of you moaning already

Although my Swedish isnt good enough to listen to political debate I try and keep abreast of what the Swedish Political Parties are saying.

I was looking at their websites last nights to see who, if I had the vote I would go for.

There was no point me looking at the Social Democrats or the Left Party so my first port of call was the Alliance for Sweden site. The Alliance is a coalition of the Moderates, Christian Democrats, Liberal and Centre Parties.  Basically the Swedish SDP have run the country for most of the last 100 years apart from the odd blip. We are now in the middle of one of those blips as the Alliance for Sweden got a majority in 2006.

I checked out the Centre Party first. Luckily they had a section in English.

The preamble appealled to my liberal instincts:

‘The Centre Party has a strong confidence in human will and the ability to take responsibility and be a participant in society. To be able to decide for oneself, quality of life, equal opportunity and business are values that distinguish the Centre Party policy.’

Looking at their policies they come across very Green (but then what Party doesnt thesedays?) and very liberal, more classic liberal than liberal in the US sense of the word. Its funny how life affects you. In years gone by I wouldnt really have bothered too much about ‘work and business’ sections of a manifesto. However employment law, the workplace and business is an important part of my job here so its something that interests me.

I like the Center Partys’ stance on this:

work and business activity:

 

 

 

 

Sweden shall be one of the countries in the world where the conditions for starting and running a company are the best. It is important to us that it becomes more profitable and less complicated to be a company owner. We would like it to be easier to employ persons and that those who work shall retain more of their salary.’

The Swedish Center Party are Swedens third largest political Party, overtaking the Liberal Swedish Peoples Party at the 2006 General Election. Their background is very much rural with the farmers providing it with a solid political base though of late they have been taking votes from the Peoples Party in the urban areas. This is the part that concerns me as I am uncomfortable supporting a Party with a vested interest. Of course its impossible to agree with every single policy that Party believes in but its opposition to nuclear power puts me off them. Unless they are putting forward another solution of course.  Too many Parties are anti nuclear power but then have no answers of their own for the energy crisis.

The Center Partys leader is Maud Olofsson. She is the Minister for Energy and Enterprise in the Alliance Government. She has been involved with the Center Party since her youth and has also served as Managing Director for the Rural Economy and Agricultural Societies. She was elected to Party leader in 2001.

Her standpoint according to Wikipaedia is traditional Centre Party with an emphasis on rural Sweden, though in fairness she describes the party as Social Liberal. I do like a lot of what I read on their site but I wonder if anyone can point out what are the fundamental differences between the Center Party and the Swedish Folkpartiet (Peoples Party)?

More on the topic soon. Next up will be the Christian Democrats who I can tell you now I most certainly would not vote for!

 

 

 

 

PC versus Mac

I have to say I am getting really cheesed off with Windows Vista. Nothing but bloody problems. I bought a new laptop last year from Acer and its been appalling. I have never known a machine to crash so often.  Two friends have already recommend I move across to the Mac.  I hadnt previously considered this as I have always used a PC but maybe its high time I moved across, what do you think?

I am really angry because I installed the new Vista update last night and now Itunes won’t play an of my Itunes songs!

Happy Birthday sung in Swedish

I was left a very nice voicemail this morning as Ms W and her friends called me singing Happy Birthday in Swedish. Very nice. Its different from the English but Happy Birthday in Swedish translates to:

Yes, may you (he, she, they) live, Yes, may you (he, she, they) live,

Yes, may you (he, she, they) live for a hundred years.

Yes, may you (he, she, they) live, Yes, may you (he, she, they) live,

Yes, may you (he, she, they) live for a hundred years.

 

Oh sure, you (he, she, they) will live, Oh sure, you (he, she, they) will live,

Oh sure, you (he, she, they) will live for a hundred years.

Oh sure, you (he, she, they) will live, Oh sure, you (he, she, they) will live,

Oh sure, you (he, she, they) will live for a hundred years.

 

“A four fold cheer … cheer for you (him,her, them). HURRAH, HURRAH, HURRAH, HURRAH.”

and the Swedish version

Ja, må du (han,hon, dom) leva, Ja, må du (han,hon, dom) leva,

Ja, må du (han,hon, dom) leva uti hundrade år.

Ja, må du (han,hon, dom) leva, Ja, må du (han,hon, dom) leva,

Ja, må du (han,hon, dom) leva uti hundrade år.

 

Ja, visst ska du (han, hon, dom) leva, Ja, visst ska du (han, hon, dom) leva,

Ja, visst ska du (han, hon, dom) leva uti hundrade år.

Ja, visst ska du (han, hon, dom) leva, Ja, visst ska du (han, hon, dom) leva,

Ja, visst ska du (han, hon, dom) leva uti hundrade år.

 

“Ett fyraldigt leve… leve du (han, hon, dom). HURRAH, HURRAH, HURRAH, HURRAH.”

Anyway I have a flight to catch, ciao for now as they say in Llandow.

Birthday in Berlin

Tomorrow am off to Berlin for three days with work, we have a big managers meetings so should be interesting. Am going to spend my birthday there as yes folks I am 23 tomorrow!

Will be spending a Friday night in Berlin as the flights to Stockholm were pretty lousy, oh well its just lucky that Berlin is my favourite European city then.

Speak soon!

 

Back to Bassics

I finally got round to sorting out some bass lessons in Stockholm.

I trawled a few forums and asked about and when I saw this guys page I knew I had to drop him a line. He can play from Iron Maide to classical stuff.

He is moving apartments at the moment so he came to me. I have to say he is very good. He started me right at the beginning, explaining the amp, the controls etc. Very thorough.

Within the space of an hour he put me right on a few things and I am determined to succeed with this. Its a long road ahead but the goal will be fantastic!

Dream Ticket

You will notice that not every post is about Sweden thesedays. Now I am living here full time (more on that later) there will be the occasional post on other matters.

This is what I think the world needs

Diamonds are Forever

I am not getting too far with my plan of watching Bond with Swedish subtitles as ‘homework.’

I watched Dr No which I really enjoyed, primarily because its the first one. Its interesting the way he is referred to as a ‘detective’ than a secret agent.

Last night I watched Diamonds are Forever. I picked it out because its set in Vegas and I havent watched it in years. I had forgotten how good it was. I think this has the humour missing in other Connery efforts and the led the way for the main man Mr Moore to take over in Live and Let Die.

It was wierd watching a film which was made in ‘71 in Vegas and in 2008 I walked down some of those streets and played in some of the casinos. In the shots for the big car stunt you can clearly see the Golden Nugget casino. Its changed a little since then but I had a drink with two charming ladies from California on the balcony facing that street.

As a kid watching this, I was a massive Bond fan, I would never have thought that one day I would be on those streets. It seemed a world away from my existence.

They filmed in 8 Vegas hotels and the airport. They used Circus Circus a lot which you can see on my photos from Vegas.

The problem with watching Bond with Swedish subtitles is that I have to remember to read them, I forget I am supposed to be learning as I get drawn into the film itself.

Maybe I should read the books in Swedish instead!