See, we bought this apartment. In Swedish it's called 'bostadsrättslägenhet' and it's very diffrent from just renting. You have to get a big loan from the bank (which you will not get if you're not creditworthy enough) and you buy in to a co-operative tenant-owners' building society.

According to my English dictionary we now own a co-operative building society apartment.

It sounds much more complicated than a 'bostadsrättslägenhet' :-)

The laundry-room in our new house is a bit shabby. But it has three washing machines! This means laundry days can be shorter and more efficient than before. Isn't it fantastic? :-)

Today I washed all our dirty linen including all the towels from the bathroom and the bedclothes. I feel like the perfect housewife!

Swedish is my first language, my mother tongue. I can do anything with my Swedish tools.

English is my second language. I speak fluently and I can make myself understood in almost all situations. Sometimes, in complicated discussions where a high level of accuracy is required, I do feel I lack the exact right tools I want to use. I'm not very good in small talk either. But my English toolbox usually get the job done.

German is my third language. I would like to think I speak it pretty well but I know my grammar sucks and I lack a lot of useful words. My German toolbox sort of rattle, because it's kind of empty down there. But I know I could fill it up with useful things if I gave it some time.

View on Västra Hamnen from Ribersborg.

My hometown Malmö is number four on Grist's list over the world's green cities! This is Grist's explanation:

Malmö, Sweden Known for its extensive parks and green space, Sweden's third-largest city is a model of sustainable urban development. With the goal of making Malmö an "ekostaden" (eco-city), several neighborhoods have already been transformed using innovative design and are planning to become more socially, environmentally, and economically responsive. Two words, Malmö: organic meatballs.

Reykjavik (Iceland), Portland (Oregon, US) and Curitiba (Brazil) is topping the list. What's also interesting with this article is that Grist is using photos from Flickr to illustrate the diffrent cities. For a nonprofit organization living from grants and reader contributions, its a very smart and cheap way to be allowed to use a photo without paying for it.

I like working shift. Normal office hours: Monday-Friday 9-5 is not really my thing at all. There are of course some disadvantages working shift, like working weekends or days when normal people have free like Boxing Day or New Years Day but the compensation makes it worth it. I also like having a free day in the middle of the week because it feels so much easier to do all the boring stuff, like washing and cleaning, on a Wednesday then on a Saturday.

Another good thing is that I don't have to hurry in the morning. I can sleep almost as long as I want and then eat my breakfast and drink my coffe without any stress. I read the paper carefully and I even have time to watch some tv before going to work. This last week I've started to watch The Sopranos all from the beginning! One or two episodes before cycling off to work. A perfect start of the day :-)

I am in New York! This city is great but I'm exhausted after being here touristing for 6 days so I'm kind of glad we're going home tomorrow. But I definately want to come back to experience more. I bringing some books home, I bought them on Barnes & Noble on 2nd Ave/54th Str.

Animal Farm - George Orwell
To kill a mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Reading Group - Elizabeth Noble
How to write your own life story - Lois Daniel

More blogs on: new york

Author Janet Fitch (who wrote White Oleander) is being interviewd about her writing.

You're Alice's Adventures in Wonderland!

by Lewis Carroll

After stumbling down the wrong turn in life, you've had your mind opened to a number of strange and curious things. As life grows curiouser and curiouser, you have to ask yourself what's real and what's the picture of illusion. Little is coming to your aid in discerning fantasy from fact, but the line between them is so blurry that it's starting not to matter. Be careful around rabbit holes and those who smile to much, and just avoid hat shops altogether.
Which book are you?

I have to admit I haven't read Alice in Wonderland, although it is considered a classical. Maybe I should do that now? By the way, I'm hoping to get accepted at an summer college class in English, starting in three weeks from now! It focuses on grammar and translation and should be a good thing for me in order to improve my language skills.

Apart from being a wonderful story about love, the book got me thinking about some things:

Infidelity When do you cross the line? Is it okey inviting a man for dinner when you're husband is not home? Is infidelity only the-going-to-bed part?

Love Is it worth giving up the love of your life becuase you are afraid the village gossip would break down the family if you create a scandal by running away from home?

Honesty After her death, Francesca writes a letter to her both children Carolyn and Michael, explaining about the love affair she had with Robert Kincaid all those years ago and how much it meant to her. She also explains that without meeting him, having those wonderful 4 days together, maybe she wouldn't have been able to stay with them on the farm for such a long time. A affair that keeps the marriage together, what a contradiction. She askes them to understand this and to accept Robert as a part of their family. She ends her letter like this:

Robert Kincaid taught me what it was like being a woman in away that few women, maybe none, will ever experience. He was fine and warm, and he deserves, certainly, your respect and maybe your love. I hope you can give him both of those. In his own way, through me, he was good to you.

As a child I think I would have some difficulties understanding why my mother's lover should have a place in the family. But maybe that is possible? Then it definately deserves recognition. It's a way of looking at the family and its consisting parts that reminds me of the German psychotherapist Bert Hellinger's theories.

Hellinger looks upon the family as a system and all persons within this system have to be recognised. If someone for some reason is shut out, this influences the whole system and most probably someone else will try and take that persons place. In this case, maybe Michael or Carolyn would feel their mothers lost love and somehow, without knowing, trying to compensate her. This leads to a disturbance in the system. Hellinger also includes former lovers. If a person was a big part of your life, he or she too deserve a place in the family.

After the first chock, maybe reading the letter Francesca left is a relief to her children. Now they finally get to know a part of her she shut them out of when she was alive. And Carolyn gets an explaination to the strange fight about the pinkt dress they had when she was a teenager.

More blogs on The bridges of Madison County:
Ingrid got an assignment to write a reader response about book.
Priyanka Kumar identifies herself with Robert Kincaid.
Catwomen mixes a review of the movie and the book.

says Debbie Weil, a corporate blogging consultant in Washington and the author of The Corporate Blogging Book in an interview in Wall Street Journal. I find this statement interesting, usually this is the advice given to companies or organisations in trouble. "It's better that you speak to the media and give your side of the story, otherwise they will only speak to your opponants and print their version".

So in order to get a job nowdaws, you need a blog to prove your competent enough. But watch out, recently a guy in Sweden didn't get a job because his presumtive employer found his girlfriend's blog where she wrote "I hope he doesn't get the job in Norrköping because I don't want to move there". He found out when the company returned his application and attached to it was a printout from the blog with this sentence underlined. Read the article from Siftidningen in Swedish here.

Conclusion: blogs can help but also be a hindrance in getting your dream job!

Instead of travelling around with their caravan this year, my parents decided to put it at a caravan site for the whole summer. They also bought a large tent which they've attached to the caravan, so they have enough room for everything. This makes it's more of a summer house than a caravan actually :) We went to visit them this weekend to check everyting out. The caravan site is in Varberg, on the west coast of Sweden and located just next to the sea. It takes about 3 minutes to walk down to the beach from where they live. Which we of course did although it's far too cold to go swimming yet. I really long for the summer! Maybe you can tell from the photo above, I just had to take my shoes off and try how cold or warm the water was...