This is a view from our apartment peephole out onto the landing. Not that we are super nosey or anything, but it's sometimes nice to take a look and see what is happening and who is at the door. Today it has been filled with workmen, installing an acoustic ceiling in this rather cavernous area and I can't believe the difference it has made. When I came home, I noticed how muffled the sound was and not even Lambi realised I was home until I opened the door to the apartment. What a hit!

You can see that they have been painting the area as well. There is a darker mushroom beige at the bottom with a lighter tone above. I believe they are also installing a frieze later this week. It looks so much better than the institutional lunatic asylum green that was there before. We have also had the tilers in today installing the marble slab in the bathroom and fixing the grouting around the doorway, though I was startled to read that water is going to be cut off for two days later in the week. We are not allowed to use anything and they will be installing what they called a skogstoalett (literally a forest toilet) in our bathroom for those days. A "forest toilet"? What - like a hole in the ground full of leaves? I can't wait and see what it really is.



As you can see, the snow continues to lie around in drifts, but as it has been sunny, I don't mind looking at the fluffy landscape. I've also been out in it a lot over the weekend as Lambi is in season again and so is determined to cover every square inch of town in pursuit of a mate. Still, if you have to be stuck outside, there is really no better place to be than surrounded by all of this natural beauty.



Our friend Kirsty has been in Stockholm for a few days enjoying the snow but suffering terribly from sinus aches brought on by the very dry air here. Tomorrow it is forecast to cold and mostly sunny, so we are going to "do" Gamla Stan (the old town) with Kirsty and meet up with some other friends there as well. This is one of my favourite areas of Stockholm, so I'm looking forward to wandering around and soaking up the atmosphere.

I had to smile when I saw this cartoon strip in the freebie Metro paper last week.



For those who don't read Swedish, among other things, the guy is complaining of racism in Sweden, claiming he was sacked because he was an immigrant. His friend protests that in fact his apartment was full of lollies he stole from the kiosk where he worked . His response was to say that it wasn't the point. No-one would have suspected him if he was Swedish.

What made me smile was that I seriously had the identical conversation with a Turkish immigrant here while I was doing my advanced Swedish class. He burst into class one evening claiming he'd been sacked because he was an immigrant. All of us in the class were immigrants, so he got a sympathetic reception. I asked what he did for a job and he told me that he delivered the junk mail advertising in our area. Further questioning revealed that he felt it was unfair to expect him to deliver in our area as most apartment buildings were three storeys high with no lifts. Did we realise how tiring it was? "And nobody reads the junk mail anyway" he reasoned. So apparently he was doing us all a favour (in his eyes) by putting it straight into the recycling bins. Sort of sparing us the hassle.

What our intrepid friend didn't realise is that his employer had several "control" households in the area. They ring in once a week and let the agency know which ads were delivered that week. Oops! Det var inte meningen! So it wasn't too long before they discovered that he was being paid, but he wasn't delivering the ads.

There was nothing I could say that convinced him that he might actually be in the wrong here. According to him, if he had been Swedish, they would never have had controllers in his area.

So it was with a real sense of deja-vu that I read the cartoon.