Mes photos est arrive

Ended up buying a card reader in the end.
 So here are a few shots taken around the street where I live, plus some random pics of a lovely hotel I got to stay in in Helsinki. I am not the best photographer, plus it’s a fairly new camera so still working out all the settings, but [...]

Doing your laundry in Sweden

The title is banal and I never thought I would ever be writing  a blog post on washing my clothes however….
The Swedes take this very very seriously.
There are very few launderettes in Sweden and most apartment blocks have their own laundry room. I think us Brits are spoilt with washing machines in our kitchens.
Roger the [...]

Opening a bank account in Sweden.

Today is officially the first day I have lost my rag in Sweden.
It’s funny really as a dear friend of mine emailed me recently asking what has happened to my writing style. I explained that its early days and that right now I am trying to get into the habit of regular posts.
I also explained that I am still [...]

How the Swedes Queue.

My night out in Copenhagen got very messy. I broke my golden rule of not getting drunk the day before a flight, I was not a pretty sight at the airport.
I did learn an important word though baksmälla – hangover!
Today I went to the SEB bank to try and get a Swedish bank account sorted out. They have a [...]

VisitBritain Ignores Wales

As a few of you know I work in the travel game. I get to go to a lot of travel and tourism trade fairs around Europe.
Something has been gnawing at me for awhile and today I kicked it off.
VisitBritain is the tourism arm that represents tourism to our home nations. They get millions of [...]

Swedish News in English

As most of you know I am bit of a news junkie., I spend most of my online time reading the news from different parts of the world.
One of the best resources for English speakers in Sweden is The Local. It’s an online newspaper covering the major stories and the quirky ones from Sweden in [...]

Getting Frisky

Most people know that Scandinavia has some of the most robust gender equality laws and attitudes on the planet.
I remember when I first came to Stockholm in 1994, that there were far more women in higher placed jobs in Sweden than in the UK, certainly in the political world. Now thankfully the UK has caught up [...]

Swedish for Beginners

Wow 2 hours in a classroom that was tough.  Not the actual Swedish but just concentrating for 2 hours in that environment.
I am happy with the class though, the teacher Doris is obviously experienced and has a great way of teaching. She quizzed me in Swedish as soon as I got there (10 mins early [...]

Swedish Lunch

I am happy, all my boxes arrived yesterday, all intact. So I spent yesterday unpacking most of my stuff.  I now have my beloved cook books, dvds and my XBOX 360!
If you have found this blog because you are looking for a company that deals with moving boxes to Sweden (bloody good SEO on my part [...]

Adapting to the high Swedish prices

I stupidly left the adaptor at home for the UK laptop today so I headed off to a shop called Teknik Magasinet  (The tech shop.)
Two adaptors were nearly 16GBP! I nearly collapsed, yes I have noticed price differences in the supermarket but not to the point where I felt completely fleeced!!! I have a feeling [...]