The day after

M won the election! We have a new prime minister! Fredrik Reinfeldt is his name. It feels unusual to have a new prime minister, but it feels good.

The last one, Goran Persson has been our prime minister for 15 years. I think the Swedish people felt it was time for a change and choosed an another party than S.
I also think that the Swedish people will vote back to S at the next election about 4 years. That depends on how M will manage until then...

The Swedish election

Today is the Swedish Election. I have been voted today. As a Swede, I feel like it is every Swede's duty to vote, but that is a good duty as Sweden is a democracy! Not every one vote, some are "stay-at-home" and don't vote. We can't do anything about them, but it's their choice not to use their human rights to vote.

Anyway, here in Sweden we have about 6 big parties to choose from, some are rightish, other are leftish. They are: M, Fp, Kd, C, S and V (abbreviation of the parties, I'm too lazy to write their full names). There are many other small parties to choose from, but not many vote on them, yet.
Right now S is holding power. Let's see if the Swedish people vote on S tonight or on another party?

Tonight I will sit up waiting for the election results, they show it on TV and it is always exciting to see which party will win!

"I met Lassie"

The day before yesterday, I went to the supermarket to buy a chest of drawers and a toaster. Then I went to Max to eat some hamburger. Guess who I saw there! A famous guy from Swedish Big Brother - Olivier. I have forgotten his last name, but it's the French crazy fun guy who moved to Sweden. He is just as gorgeous in real life as in TV! Great to see him there!

An autumn tradition in Sweden

Last night, I have been to "Surstromming party" at our deaf club. "Surstromming" = fermented baltic herring. We eat raw herring with potatoes, tomatoes and onions, and also "tunnbrod" which is a kind of bread. You can see it on the pics here. And yes, you read it right, we eat raw herring!

Every year around August 19-30, we have Surstromming parties. It is big here in Sweden, especially in the northern parts of Sweden. I know that some, or most foreigners hate the taste of this Surstromming. But they are not used to it! It's not that bad, it just takes time to get used to this.

Dating advices

Some dating advices I got from my mum and sister:

- Children? It doesn't matter if he already has children. Children grow fast. You just blink and whooosh! suddenly they are grown up and leave the nest.

- Weekend-dad? That is good too. This shows he is a responsible person who take care of his children.

- Drinks? Honestly is good. If he says he never drink, you have to ask yourself why... does he lie about his real drinking habits?
But! Avoid those who take drugs.

- Age different? It doesn't matter, the most important is what you feel for each other.

- Never married? These guys are cute, but unexperienced. Maybe he try to wash red socks with white clothes or something like that. Maybe he even lives with his mother. But don't worry, that's no big problem. That can be taken care of.

Autumn now

Today the children are back at school again, and I am back at work after my summer holiday. According to my calendar, autumn is here now.

This summer has been hot, 30-35 C and that's too hot!! I couldn't even walk without sweating. Now the weather's starting to cool off a little. Today was 21 C, that's more normal for a Swedish summer.

Sure, it's great with a warm summer, but it should not last too long!
Two months of hot weather is enough for me! Now it's time for autumn.

Oh, and it's time for autumn fashion! The autumn clothes are already in the shops, and I can't wait for my salary on the 25th!!! I can't wait for shopping!

My summer holiday

I am back home again.
This is what I have done during my summer holiday:

I have read books.
I have travelled to 2 countries.
I have been shopping.
I have eaten 3 birthday cakes.
I have spent times with my family.
I have been out on 2 dates.
I have eaten ice cream.
I haven't bathed in the sea, but have waded in the water on the beach.
And this summer I succeeded to get a nice suntan without getting burnt!

One of the books I have read, and a bag that I have shopped

I waded in the water on this beach: Sassnitz, Germany

My Norwegian date

Now I have met the Norwegian date. We met in Orebro, Sweden, had a cup of coffee and chatted for a while. He was a nice guy and I wouldn't mind get hitched with him. But I found out that he is already dating an another woman. He said they have dated for a while and he is thinking of moving in with her. Hmpfff, then why did he date me?? Strange...

Anyway, two weeks later he called me on the MSN chat. He told me he want to date me again. What? What happened to his other date? He wants me to visit his home in Norway, but that is not going to happen. Obviously he can't make up his mind.

I keep on searching...

Another birthday this summer

My niece had her birthday a couple of days ago. This is her birthday cake. As you can see, there are seven candles on her cake, as she turned 7 years old. She will begin 1st class in school in August. Exciting for her!

Leo also wants to eat some birthday cake.

Lilly have jumped on the table and eats some of the cake. We had already eaten the cake, so we let the cat eat the leftovers.

Misse is fine now

Misse is taking a walk

Misse hurted her paw a few days earlier but is doing fine now.
She doesn't seems to have problem with her paw anymore.

I hope she doesn't get into more cat fights, but stay calm this time.

But you never know what she's doing when she's out at night!

A shameless cat

Last night, we had some evening tea with sandwiches.
Curry, the cat tries to grab a sandwich.
My sister stopped him.
So, this time, Curry didn't get a chance to eat from our food.
But Curry is already secretly planning his next coup for a good sandwich.

Cat accident

Misse the cat

I am back to Sweden again, now staying at mum's house near Malmo.
Will stay here during the rest of the summer.

An accident happened to mum's cat, we don't know exactly what had happened. She has a big sore on her paw and is limping.

At first we thought the cat had jumped off a roof, but the veterinarian thinks it was in a fight with an another cat. The veterinarian told my mum to give the cat medicine every day for one week.

Misse's paw in bandage

My English date in Newcastle

The "Millenium bridge" in Newcastle

Last week, I have travelled to Newcastle, England for a couple of days. I met my English date and spent some days with him there. It was hot and sunny there, about 30 C degrees, little hotter than at home in Sweden. It rained one day, the other days was sunny.
How did Newcastle got its name? A long time ago, someone built a castle for himself there, and then he told people about his new castle upon Tyne. That's how Newcastle got its name.

The village Whitby and the old ruins

I visited some villages outside of Newcastle: Whitby, York, Stockton, Darlington.
Whitby is a special little village, the tv-series "Emmerdale" and "Heart beat" have been filmed on location there. Whitby Abbey, the ruins have inspired Bram Stoker to the movie Dracula.
There is some kind of a Dracula-festival going on there once every year, people dress as Dracula, witches, magician etc and do some partying there.
Whitby is also known for an another thing - Captain James Cook have lived there (you know the captain who sailed to New Zeeland and Australia).

The village York and the Roman Wall

York is an old town from the Roman Empire and you can go on a ghost trail there, as the tourist broschures says. According to the tourist broschures, ghost are walking around in York, especially on the Roman Wall. The Romans built a wall to prevent York from beeing attacked by the Scots.
It seems that some Roman soldiers have been left there and still patrol on the wall, but now as ghosts. Notice the picture, that there is no fence to avoid people to fall off, and it was a steep hill down there. It was little nervous to walk there, and I had to walk carefully not to fall down.

Dog statues in Stockton

There are some cute dog statues in Stockton. Other than that, there isn't much to see there.

The date went fine and he was an nice man. I must think about this for a while.

Gone fishing

Today I am almost alone at my work, except 2 colleagues, because everybody have gone fishing. They are on summer holiday. I will work this week, but next week I will start my summer holiday too.

In Sweden people have the right to take 5 weeks holiday from their work. Most people take 4 weeks holiday in July month, because July is the warmest month here in Sweden. The 5^th week, most people save it for Christmas-New Years holidays.

So, from next Monday, I will be off work for 4 weeks on my summer vacation, and I can go on the two dates I wrote about earlier. Most of the summer, I will stay at mum's house and spend time with my family. During a couple of days, I will travel to Newcastle, England and meet the English date. Then I will meet my second date, the Norwegian date in Sweden during one day.

Have a nice summer everybody!

Dating on the Net

This summer I will go on two dates. One from Norway and the other from England. I have chatted with both on MSN, and we have decided to meet IRL. Both communicates in Sign Language, one with Norwegian Sign Language, and the other in British Sign Language (BSL).

Is Sign Language international, maybe you ask now?
No, Sign Language is not international. Every country has it own Sign Language.
As you know, Switzerland even has several languages: German, Italian, French and Romanch, if I remember it right from my school time.
It’s the same with Sign Language. In Switzerland there are French and German Sign Language.
In Sweden, we only have one Sign Language – the Swedish Sign Language - thank goodness!

Sign Language is different in every country. Some examples:
In Sweden, we sign the word “yes” by signing the alphabeth letters “J” and “A”.
But in Norway and England they sign ”yes” different from the Swedish Sign Language.

Sweden: “Yes” in Swedish Sign Language, but in England this sign means ”stop”.

Norway: This Norwegian sign for “yes” means “maybe” in England, and “childish behavior” in Sweden.

England: “Yes” in England, but in Sweden it means “nodding” or “pretend to understand” or “be deceived”.

Confusing? No, not if you have learned to understand the different Sign Languages.

I have learned some BSL (British Sign Language) but not the Norwegian Sign Language. I think we can understand each other well even thought I don't know Norwegian Sign Language.

After the ordaining

Many people came to Johan's ordaining to priest, I heard it came about 300 people. I haven't been there myself, but those who have been there told me it was a beautiful and a great event. No music or psalm singing, but dance and deaf poetry instead of music. The bishop had learned some sign language, and signed to Johan on the ordaining.

You can see some pictures from Anne-Maj's blog here.
She also signs about this day in her vlog and she shows more pics in her video.

First deaf priest in Sweden

Johan Selin from Harnosand, Sweden, will be ordained to priest on Sunday 11th June. This is a great event, because Johan is the first deaf who will be ordained to priest in the Swedish Church.

Anne-Maj write more about this in her blog. If you know Swedish Sign Language, you can read it here. She has interviewed Johan Selin, and he told her that he used to play priest when he was a child. Later, after his one-year work in Tanzania, he decided to study to priest, which he has succeded at it now. Johan did his studies in Uppsala, near Stockholm, which is far away from his wife and two children. But he could to go home on the weekends, and came back to the studies on weekdays.

Johan wanted to change the church for deaf people, and raised a debate about Sign Language in church services. The priests had too little knowledges in Sign Language by then. Now, the hearing priests have got further training in Sign Language, and now signs in the church services.

We can also learn from Anne-Maj's blog that in U.K there are 3-4 deaf priests, and a couple more in other places around the world. But here in Sweden, Johan is the first deaf who will be ordained to priest.

Congratulation to Johan Selin!

A talking cake

Last year in May, my friend from Stockholm sent a MMS to me. It was a birthday-greeting from him to me, a picture of a birthday cake with the text "Happy Birthday to you!" (in Swedish of course). My friend found the cake on three:s homepage and sent it to me. That was a funny cake.
Later in the summer, my sister had her birthday in July. I sent the birthday-cake as MMS to her, with same text and congratulated her on her birthday.

Some minutes later, I got a text message from her, saying "Happy Birthday on your 39-years day? I am only 36 years!" What? I haven't written that! Where did she get that from?

My sister explained to me, it was the birthday-cake that talked and said that. Oops! I didn't know that the cake talked too! Because I'm deaf, I didn't heard that.

But my sister understood that I couldn't hear what the cake said.
She was happy anyway. :-D

Strawberry-cake

My strawberry cake from last year,

taken with my mobile cam.

Soon it's my birthday. My wishing list? I don't know what to wish, I think I have everything I need...

Now I know what to wish!

- Eat strawberry-cake.

Fresh strawberries are usually not available in shops up here in north during the winter and most of the spring. The strawberries usually come to the shops in the end of May.

So I have made it to my own tradition to always have strawberries on my birthday cake. And it also become a première to eat strawberries on my day.

Strawberries....yummy!

The tourists are here now

Yesterday morning, when I walked to work, I saw a group of Indian men walking in front of me to city. They had just arrived with the train and were walking from the train station to city with their luggage. Probably tourists. They were wearing typical Indian clothes, Indian "skirts" or whatever you call it, those clothes Indian males are wearing in India.

It was cold outside + 4 C in the morning.

Poor guys! They must have been freezing when they got off the train!
How will they manage in Sweden? :-D