Day 456: Poo bus

I just read this...

I'm sure my British readers are thinking "Wow, what an ecological milestone, well done!"
All I can think is...

Where the fuck has England been for the last few years? 75% of all buses in Stockholm are run on the same biogas as that one "miraculous" poo bus. According to the website of the transport organisation their aim is to have at least 95% fossil-fuel-free forms of transport in greater Stockholm and I'm sure there are Stockholmers who think even that's not good enough! And it's not just Stockholm, in Uppsala, too, the aim is to be free from petrol by 2020. I haven't done the research on the other counties in Sweden but I'm sure that they have high targets for the same thing.

Perhaps England is doing something else with all its sewage? Like making fertiliser or somesuch? I know there are lots of new electric hybrid buses driving around in London now, why not go one step further and have biogas hybrid? Take a quick look at Transport for London's climate targets, they're suggesting around 50% reduction in emissions by 2025. Okay, there are ten times as many people there, but that means ten times the sewage, right? And ten times the taxpayers money that could go on the upgrades? And ten times the amount of people using the transport? I don't know, I'm not an economist. But it still feels like Sweden is doing something right here.

Day 444: Another guide to candles

Last week I painstakingly researched candles for my post illuminating (ha. see what I did there?) how obsessed Sweden is with the things. At the bottom I sarcastically added that people should tell me about all the candles I IGNORANTLY missed out.

Well, apparently I missed a few.

So before I get hunted down by the Swedish population and slapped to death with herrings, or stoned  with meatballs, or locked in an IKEA and forced to make flatpacks until my fingers fall off and my brain bleeds, here are a few more candles!

PRISMALJUS (prism-shaped candle)

Why have regular when you can have angular?

    GILLELJUS (block candle)

IT'S JUST A FRIKKIN' BLOCKLJUS!

KUPELJUS (fat pillar candle)

For when a regular pillar candle leaves you unsatisfied

GRAVLJUS (grave candle)

For candles in the wind

ALTARLJUS (altar candle)

Priests like them long and long
lasting

ANTIKLJUS (olden-day candle)

A long, rounded candle for those who like it olden-day style

KALENDERLJUS (calendar candle)

If you can't figure out what this is for then you don't deserve to know

TÅRTLJUS (cake candle)

Blow them real good!

ANDAKTSLJUS (church candle)

Because there aren't already enough candles for the church

 DOPLJUS (baptism candle)

Aka. burn your newborn's face - aw how lovely!

LAMPETT (mirror sconce)

SCONCE an English word none of us use enough.

JULGRANSLJUS (christmas tree candle)

Nothing says Christmas like waking up to a burnt down house

SNÖLYKTA (snow lantern)

no house? no money? no candles? Swedes find a way (candles are IMPORTANT)

I've officially had enough of candles now. Far too much of my precious brain space is taken up with knowing candle names in Swedish. But I will say this: the Swedish company Liljeholmens has so fucking many candles I could write about 50 blog posts. If you REALLY NEED MORE CANDLES you bunch of weirdos, ask them.

http://www.liljeholmens.se/

Day 438: Allhelgona

  

This evening I've been hanging around in a graveyard.

Halloween is relatively new to Sweden, kids dress up and ask for sweets because they're copying the Americans. The traditional festival is All Hallows held over the first weekend in November. With the exception of the booze shop being closed (so you have to stock up for those Halloween parties in advance, kids) you wouldn't notice much difference unless you took a trip to the graveyards. 

Swedes (like a few other nationalities around the world) honour their dead on All Hallows. They visit the graves of their families and lay candles and a fir wreath by their tombstone. In contrast to English cemeteries, which have a motley assortment of tended and untended graves, weeds, overgrown patches, empty patches and god only knows what else, Swedish cemeteries are neatly and carefully tended, the one I was in had Zen-garden style raked gravel over each plot.

People sometimes travel far to honour their dead, my boyfriend's parents drove to the other side of the country to visit his mother's home town and the graves of his grandparents. There are a lot of people planting, tidying and lighting candles. Even though it was raining like mad yesterday many of the lanterns are still going and the graveyards are beautiful to see with all the little lights.

Today's best find was probably the grave of the master girdlemaker...