Week in summary

This last week has not been the most eventful, action-packed week of my life. It has been heavy, grey and boring, much like the sky.  Though, of course, in the immortal words of someone or another, it's all in the attitude.
There have been a few highlights, however.

The "Just a tad Worrying" happening - that goes to Psychokitty, who trotted downstair, lined up and looked at her grey fluffy mouse, her black fluffy ex-mouse and the clear plastic innards of ex-mouse, picked up the grey mouse, trotted back upstairs, came down, ate and went upstairs and started to play with the toy.  This was a worryingly large amount of thought for a small cat.  Maybe they could take over the world?

The Most Exciting happening - I collected the last stamp and got a free cup of coffee on my way to the voluntary job at the Second Hand Shop.  Yippee, a free small latte....

Most in need of faith happening - Graham doesn't have much work on at the moment.  Hopefully there is a January/February slump, just as there is in the UK. Still, it gives opportunity to demonstrate a large amount of faith and it did drive me to apply for 3 whole jobs.  Yes, three.

Most suspenseful happening - Three jobs? you say, "gosh, Karin, what were they?" errhh, some sort of admin things, I think.  I'm afraid that I think that I'm caught in the too qualified, but hasn't got the language skill for long reports trap. That, and I haven't worked out the Arbetesformedling's website yet....... Oh well, I'll just have to google "starting an art gallery in your woodshed".  I bet someone's already done it!
Anyway, now I'm waiting for no response.

Apart from that, we've had 15cm snow, it's snowing now. The sun has come out 3 times. I've made a Mississippi Mud Pie. And that's the Week that Was.

On the way to a merry time

I can't believe just how stressed I am about the coming holiday season. A time to remember to best happening in the world, meet friends and family, revive family feuds that were in danger of fizzling out and keeping other fine traditions. I do't know whether it's just lacknof practice, but just the trip over is giving me spots. All we are doing is taking the 5:24 train to Göteborg, staying in a hotel over night and leaving at 5.20 am to go to the airport. I suspect that the logistics of trying to see everyone we want to, which we haven't managed to do, was too much for me. Especially as Christmas is not really the best time to meet up, what with everyone travelling too. And the cat! Would she come back from her morning prowl? Arggghhhh.
Poor, poor Graham. He ended up getting quite stressed too.

I know I've already forgotten my leather gloves and only have my warm mittens.

Still, after a day getting ready for a heart attack, we're sitting in the hotel room watching Jul med Ernst (thoroughly recommended) and chilling, waiting for the flight tomorrow morning and the bigger city at a much warmer temperature.

Snow, snow, snow

The swing under the apple tree

 Some pictures from the recent snow.  It's gone up to +2 for the last couple of days, but not all the snow has melted and it's going below zero again, so there are hopes for a white Christmas.

Hang the washing out?

Driving through the forest

The Road into Bet

Our house with the Advent lights.

A Goal to Aim for

One of my dreams is that when I grow up I'll be organised, disciplined and good at something I can make money out of. I have got one out of three, but am slightly despairing of reaching the Meatloaf ideal of 2 out of 3 not being bad. I haven't even finished The Purpose Driven Life! Though it is rather good and I would recommend it, only if it makes you face stuff you'd really rather not.

When I was young I wanted to be the CEO of the World Health Organisation. When I was a little older I thought that CEO of a hospital would be fine. Now it's the Mad Woman in the Forest I'm aiming for. I have the one cat, but must admit that the bourgeoise husband is a bit of a handicap. I'm also at a bit of a loss on how to make a living, ideally something that involves no sense of discipline or personal responsibility at all.  I suppose hippydom would be OK, but I'm not really keen on a scraggy beard, wearing purple and 50 children and again, the husband is not keen on the concept of a yurt.

Accordingly, having read several (american, so it must be right) web sites, I am announcing my goal to the world. Well, at least to the approx 3 people who read this blog. (does that count?) This apparantly makes me more accountable and more likely to have drive and self belief. I do believe that I exist and I know who I am, but this is No Enough! Whatever...

Anyway- I announce that I will be (ed- should read am!) an artist and will hold my first exhibition the week after Easter 2013.

Driving through the Snow...

There are things my driving instructor, though marvellous, didn't tell me. Here is a short list:

1). When it's very cold and snowy, bits of the car's bottom can stick to the ground.  When you drive away,you will leave them behind. Don't worry though, the engine hasn't dropped out after 40km, yet.

2). In the cold 50 tonne blocks of ice will fall off lorrries into the middle of the road. I have no idea what to do when faced with one of these.  Swerve and possibly go off the road or into on coming traffic? Drive over? Hit? It appears they disappear rather than avoid a face off... So far....

3). The doors can freeze fast shut. With you in. Driving. I have developed good hip flexibility and thank God for my all ready powerful thighs.

4). Mad locals are mad locals whatever the weather. Salt stops working at around -10, but hey! Why let that stop a good fast drive down the middle of the road.

5) if it snows and is below -5C the windscreen doesn't freeze. Result! No scrapping the windows in the morning or wrapping up large sheets of plastic.

6) you will come to love seat warmers and steering wheel warmers with a deep and abiding passion. Our car has neither.

7). Don't park using your brakes. Don't lock the car.  
This means completely relearning everything I was taught about parking, however, brakes freeze as do locks. They sell lock antifreeze in handbag/pocket size, presumably for town use. I couldn't imagine not locking the car in towns. It's the sequence of events needed to park and unpark the car that is staving off dementia at the moment.

Entering the Dark Side

I’d always know that the Swedes didn’t like show-offs, but I thought that they’d always pursued excellence, being a very practical people.  However, I hadn’t realised the full extent to which the society had been warped by austerity and the ruling classes and that it was encapsulated in the term Jantelagen.  We read an extract from a novel written in the 1930s in my Swedish class. The book was set in a small town and describes a boy growing up and his attempted escape.  Of course, it was based on real life and caused somewhat of a sensation at the time. 

The author described the 10 commandments that were more real to the lives of the townsfolk than the real 10 commandments.  They go a long way to explain why Scandinavia has such a high alcoholic and suicide rate, why people hate the church, and the behaviour of various relatives, but why the church took these and ran with them I don’t know, though can guess.   I was totally horrified by them, so here they are, and here are some of the things the Bible has to say about them.  Add your own!

1.    You're not to think you are anything special.
Ephesians 1:4, 1 Peter 2:9, John 15:19, John 3:16.

2.    You're not to think you are as good as us.
1 Corinthians 12:26

3.    You're not to think you are smarter than us.
1 Corinthians 12:26

4.    You're not to convince yourself that you are better than us.
1 Corinthians 12:26, Romans 12:10, Romans 14:1

5.    You're not to think you know more than us.
Matthew 13:11, Romans 15:14, 1Corinthians 8:1

6.    You're not to think you are more important than us.
Romans 12:10

7.    You're not to think you are good at anything.
1 Corinthians 12:7, James 5:17, I Corinthians 10:31

8.    You're not to laugh at us.
Proverbs 14:9, Psalm 52:6, Romans 12:15.

9.    You're not to think anyone cares about you.
John 21:16, 1 Corinthians 10:24, Philippians 4:10-16, Matthew 25:35-40, James 1:27,  

10. You're not to think you can teach us anything.
Romans 12:7, Luke 11:52

Of course it’s wrong to boast, be prideful, to discriminate, to mock and think you are better than everyone else, and there are a gazillion verses about that, there is a balance.  However, it’s when we look for the best in others, encouraging that, that the best comes out in us. “Accepting one another”.  My Bible hero is Barnabas, because I always wish that I had had encouragement and so much want others to have the encouragement I can give them.  Fail too many times of course, but at least I try and have Jesus to thank for that!

I should also say that society is recognising things and trying to change positively. It'll be a while before we turn into America.....

Life of Leisure?

Graham has decreed that I need to get a job. Therefore, being a dutiful wife and also wondering why I keep going over budget, I duly went to the Arbetsförmedling office in Mullsjö.  M is smaller than Jönköping, so I thought there would be less hanging around.

After hanging around for a bit (and with 3 people coming in after me - worrying or what!), I got called into the office and we looked at each other. "errh, I haven't got a job and would like one?" I said, "I assume that's the right question?".  He looked at me and smiled. "If we had a box of jobs, you would get one straightaway".  Bless 'im.  He showed me how the website worked, told me to fill in the bits, was well impressed I'd got my CV already (???what??? how can that be impressive???)

Anyway, went home and filled in the website pages, in between baking for the Sewing Mafia's annual auction.  It was quite easy, though there was a bit for "what skills do you have that you don't use for your normal job" that was difficult. You had to choose from a drop down list as well and they didn't have 'playing Zelda', which was probably just as well as I'm not really that good at it.  I put down embroidery and gardening on the grounds that one of the ladies in our knitting group got a job at Volvo because they figured that her sewing skills meant that she was good at assembling small bits and working out what to put where when things went wrong. Good call!
It was also a bit like Twitter cos you have to do a job description in 220 characters. I hope the employers deduce that conciseness is a skill that totally belongs to me, notwithstanding a liking for sentences that could be out of Dickens or the Puritans.

If I'm totally marvellous, and there are zillions of jobs for my admittedly somewhat esoteric skill set, someone could call me this minute, but the Man At Mullsjö said to come on Friday and he'd talk me through the next bit.  I've even got his card and an officially signed bit of paper.