Time To Act Against Trimmed Up Mopeds

I use a moped to get work as an environmentally friendly alternative to having a second car and I think it’s great. But I don't know how many times I've been cruising along only to have some young kid zoom past me on a trimmed up moped, doing will over 40km/h. This is the problem with mopeds in Sweden. It's too easy for young kids (mostly boys) to trim up the mopeds and then drive around like idiots taking no responsibility for the consequences of their actions.

The new suggestion that moped riders should need a drivers licence is a bit hard but so be it if it puts a stop to these assholes who think its fine to do 50+km/hr on a cycle path. What surprises me most is that the parents of these kids allow them to do this. I don't understand how the parents can sit back whilst their sons and daughters are out on trimmed up bikes running such an increased risk of hurting themselves and others.

Instead of introducing a driving license maybe instead it would be enough to raise the age limit to drive a moped to 18years. In this way it would not penalise those people who use a moped precisely because it does not require a driving license. Also the penalties for trimming the bikes up should be raised.

Banning Smoking at Home!

A women has been banned from smoking in her own garden because her neighbour has complained that the smoke is ruining his quality of life.

This is crazy...She's outdoors, it's her house so why should she not be allowed to light up. The neighbour is being pedantic and I think using the rules just get back at his neighbour. Sure he might get some smoke blowing over, but he'll just have to live with it, thats what being neighbours means. When my neighbour wants to cut his lawn late in the evening I don't try to get the courts to stop him because the noise pollution is damaging my quality of life. Of course peole will say that the passive smoke is damaging his health, but come on...any effect must be negligable.

Don't ignore the symptoms, fix the cause

Being burnt out(Ref: SvD) is a terrible thing to happen to somebody. I have experience of seeing close friends go through this and it has had profound effects on them and their families.

One of my friends was off sick for about 2 months and luckily they were able to pull out of the downward spiral of depression which so often follows those who are burnt out. They were able to change jobs and get themselves back on their feet.

They were lucky...And even so they still have symptoms such as memory problems, low stress tolerance and anxiety.

What we really need to do is tackle the work environments which give rise to this condition in the first place. Poor working conditions, poor management and support, setting people unrealistic goals and then not giving them the tools needed to achieve them all add to the problem. This is the key to having less people off work due to being burnt out, not ingoring their symptoms and sending them back.

Being burnt out is not like catching a cold, it is like being hit by a car. It's not something you catch it is something which is done to you.

The fact that my friend was able to take those weeks off allowed them to recover. Taking this away will just drive more people into the ground and hide what is becoming a real social problem.

Gonna Get Myself Connected

VLT ran an article today discussing how more and more people are living out their social lives on the Internet. Some 100 000 Swedes are now members of some sort of social internet site and these sites are becoming a more integrated part of our social lives so that there is less of a distinction between the friends you meet in the flesh and the friend you meet online.

Ten years ago this phenomena was purely for the geeks, but now anybody and create a life for themselves on the net. Both my wife and I write bloggs, I have accounts on social networking sites Friends Reunited and Facebook and my wife also publishes pictures on Flickr.

I use this blogg to just sound off about stuff I see around me and most of the time it feels like I’m having a conversation with somebody over coffee, even though I have no idea who you are reading this right now…(also, you don’t get to interrupt me, which is nice :o).

Facebook is different though, as I use it to keep in touch with friends back in the UK who I have not seen for years. You can use it to chat to people and upload pictures of what you are doing or where you have been and see what your friends have been up to, you can also send people virtual fish if they have a virtual aquarium and even start a virtual food fight! I rarely ever ring me friends back in the UK now, as all our conversations are done over the internet.

I wonder though what it will be like in 15 years time, when my kids are teenagers and bulky computers and keyboards will be old technology…

‘Look, son, you are not getting a Web4.0 Brain Implant and that’s final!’

See - I'm not making this shit up!

With reference to 'A Land of Two Seasons'

On the back page ofthe local newspaper, VLT, they have a Question of the Day section. Today's question was, 'What do you do so as not to start getting stressed after the summer vacation?'. One guy replied, 'I started work today so I try to think of something like, it's not long until the christmas vacation'.....

This came from a 24 year old student!

A Land of Two Seasons

One thing that really strikes me about Sweden is how polarized the passage of time is between the two key events of Christmas and the summer holidays.

No sooner has the last of the New Years hangover worn off than people start dreaming and anticipating the arrival of summer and the long vacation. I guess this is to give them hope that the cold and the dark can’t last forever and eventually the snow will melt and the warmth will return and everything will be sunny and bright.

As soon as the people return from the summer vacation they begin to be more aware that in only a few weeks time the days will begin to get shorter, the trees browner and the summer will begin to loose its grip on the land.

In Sweden the summer vacation comes with so much expectation that people really need a good one to re-invigorate their souls and recharge the mental batteries for the long haul through winter. In years like this, when that dream is washed away by the endless rain, the disappointment can leave and empty hole which dampens the spirits for the rest of the year.

In England the seasons pass more slowly and the winters are shorter and less dark, spring and autumn last months, not weeks and the summer vacation, though shorter, is not built up so much as here in Sweden. I think this allows people more time to adjust to the passing of time and to stay more rooted to the here and now rather than in Sweden where I sometimes feel that people are always looking ahead to either winter or summer.

So as my summer vacation has come to an end, every warm day feels like an opportunity missed as I sit at work slaving away at my keyboard. Maybe I should cheer myself up by singing a few Christmas carols….

Were the dildos really necessary?

The English are well known for being a bit uptight about sex. Its all part of the culture of remaining in control and keeping things private, where the only things remaining stiff are the upper lips.

Being a modern bloke I'm much more relaxed about these things but even I was surprised to open up the local newspaper this weekend (VLT) to see a two page review of different dildos and sex aides. I guess the context for this was that it was the midsommar edition and the midsommar pole is basically a huge phallic symbol. I'm just not sure its what I want to see first thing in the morning while eating breakfast...

This does however reinforce the English stereotype of the Swedes as being more sexually open and promiscuous. I don't really see this stereotype now I live in Sweden but the problem is that in the UK the most well know Swedes as Svennis, a man who would do well to exercise the same kind of 'ball control' as his players, and Ulrika Jonsson, who is Britain's top Eurotramp. Ulrika was not only linked to Svennis, but also, and this puts her in a real class of her own, when called upon to host a UK version of the bachelor...slept with the bachelor.

The third most famous Swede in the UK is of course the Swedish Chef from the Muppet Show and although he was never involved in any sex scandals was never the less regularly seen in his kitchen choking the chicken...

Midsommar

Midsommar is a good time to start a blog about life in Sweden as it is the biggest holiday in Sweden and has no parallel in England. The closest thing would be a May Day celebration or a harvest festival. Both exist to celebrate summer and the renual of life and both include dancing around a pole and merry making with your friends and neighbours.

The big difference though is that the whole thing is taken much more seriously here in Sweden. It really does feel bigger than Christmas. People begin talking about midsommar weeks before the event and everybody keeps asking each other, 'What are you doing for midsommar?. It's a time for families to meet up and enjoy the long sunlit day and be thankful that the winter is a distant memory and soon the summer holidays start.

Of course this all sort of falls apart if you don't have a family or if your family is in another country. Even my wife's parents are out the country at this time of year so we really have nobody but ourselves to make merry with. In previous years this has put a real downer on the day and it became just like any other long weekend (except all the shops were shut). I felt very left out and lonely seeing everyone enjoying themselves and socialising, like it was just one giant party and I hadn't been invited.

Things only changed when my son was born as I felt it was my duty to make sure he never felt left out of Swedish life, so now we go to the local midsommar celebration every year and join in the singing and the dancing. I realised it was all just a state of mind and all I needed to do to feel I belonged was to sit back and enjoy the atmosphere of people coming together and sharing a common experience.

Still, when I woke up to feed my daughter at 3.00am this morning, the rain was pounding against the window, but I could still here drunken laughter coming from the neighbourhood and maybe I've got it all wrong and that's the real spirit of midsommar.