Day 108: Flappy Stockholmers

Sorry for the low quality pic but I was trying to take it without the woman seeing me photographing her shoes. Look at her back foot. See the boot isn't zipped closed?

There's a weird trend in Stockholm right now where people don't do up their boots. They just leave them open, flapping around. I wouldn't have noticed it, but one of my students at school had her shoes wide open and I pointed it out to her. She said "yes it's on purpose". I asked why, she said "I don't know, to express my individuality?" Unfortunately it's not so individual.

I bet this stupid trend dies a death when the snow comes.

Day 100: How you know Christmas is coming

The vending machines here are seasonal. They've started selling julmust now, a christmas special drink which is suspiciously similar to påskmust, the easter seasonal drink...

Day 95: Strange Public Art 3

Charlie Chaplin on a Windmill? Why not.

Day 92: Cynical advertising

Article: Bromma Airport closed after accident

Advert: Switch to Bromma!

Day 91: Between a rock and, er, another rock

 I don't envy Swedish builders.

To build foundations they have to drill down into endless hard rock, insert TNT into the gap and then blow apart the stone.

Then, they have to clear away all the rubble and repeat over and over again until the area is clear. This seems to me a slow and meticulous process (although, ok, they get to use TNT which might alleviate the repetitiveness somewhat)

There isn't much of this going on in London, where the ground is much softer and if we used TNT it would just cause mud and clay to splat all over the place. Fun perhaps but not productive.

Day 83: Informative street signs

Okay so it's, sadly, not a real street sign. It's next to the fictitious house of the Swedish story character Pelle Svanslös.

Still cute though!

Day 81: Happy Halloween

A girl I work with drew this. Aww.

Since I work with international kids, they are quite keen on Halloween and trick or treating. Swedish children are becoming increasingly more interested in Halloween thanks to Americanisation, but mostly they are in it for the sweets and not the costumes.

I've never seen a nation so obsessed with pick N mix sweets!! A powerful bribery tool against children.

Day 77: What it means to be liberal?

In the fridge at school today. Maybe a teacher was having a rough time?

Day 74: Do you have a flag?

Today is "FN Dagen" or UN Day.

There are several days in the Swedish calendar which would pass by completely unnoticed if not for the little Swedish flags that appear on the tops of buses and on the flagpoles of the more observant members of society.

Day 71: I think they want me to buy things

I've received a lot of coupons and offers in the post for various services in my area...What could it mean?

They must know I've recently moved here because I only just got my person number, see how easy it is for them to target me as a consumer now I'm just another number on a government list...