A Swede walks into a bar...

At around 4.30 in the afternoon every day, the buzzing of one of the antique flourescent lights that live on the ceiling of my office becomes completely unbearable and I have to turn it off. For some reason I don't notice it all morning, or for most of the afternoon.

I made my first Terrible Joke in Swedish the other day, something which I'm sure you'll agree is something of a milestone. It happened when we were having "fika", which is the Swedish coffee break that happens at 10 in the morning, and then again at 3 in the afternoon. The conversation went something like this.

Alex (Marianne's 10 year son): I need someone to lend a hand with my plans for world domination.
Marrianne: Not now, it's fika (coffee break) time.
Alex: But Mussolini didn't have this problem. Come now, I command you!
Marrianne: Alex, fika!
John: But Alex is a pojke (boy), not a flicka (girl).
All: Leave the building immediately...

It says more for my Swedish than it does for the quality of the jokes at Bombadil, but only marginally.

The weather at the beginning of the week was particularly English, that is to say cold and windy with grey skies. It's gone back to being Swedish now, with cold air, low humidity, blue skies and sun. I prefer it this way. I took some photographs of the ice on the lake today. I think ice may be my new obsession as my previous obsession with trees was wearing a little thin. (There's a joke in there somewhere, not quite sure where though...)