The Squeee

Here's for picking more Swedish classics! :D In the 1960s and 1970s, many old houses were demolished to give room for new (and, let's face it, ugly) housing developments. This 1967 song by Anna-Lena Löfgren is called Lyckliga gatan ("The Happy Street") and is about how the street where she grew up has been destroyed in order to become a part of the concrete jungle. It's a very emotional song, and I love the song for its message about wanting to preserve the environment. The video features old postcards from around Sweden, according to the person who put it together, and he also says that much of what is depicted no longer exists. :( Swedish lyrics first, followed by an English translation.

6 June is the national day ( Nationaldagen ) of Sweden. It didn't use to be a holiday, but a few years ago, after I moved to Britain, they decided to scrap Whitmonday as a red letter day and have the national day off instead. When I was in primary school, we'd perhaps gather around the flagpole in the school grounds and sing the national anthem and that was pretty much it. On the other hand, roundabout now, Swedish schools finish for the summer, so most kids and teenagers will be kind of preoccupied with other things ...

Happy Diamond Jubilee, Ma'am! Yeah, I've totally seen the Queen in real life! And all the best to the Duke of Edinburgh - hope you're feeling better soon, sir!

Let the celebrations commence ... even though the song is a bit meh and the legend that is Engelbert Humperdinck came second from last, only just beaten by the rest of Scandinavialand ... save for Norway, who came last with their Eric Saade (last year's Swedish entry) wannabe. I should make a Swedish Ways post about Eurovision, really. Eurovision is kind of a big thing back home. Still, congrats, Loreen! And being Swedish, I can't help but feel slightly triumphant, despite not caring much for the song, Euphoria .

Today, Norway celebrate their release from the union with Sweden. They celebrate it passionately, so happy are they to be rid of us. Ahh well. Hope you guys all have a great Syttene Mai, neighbourinos! This year, Norway's national day co-incides with Kristi himmelfärdsdag , which is Ascension Day in English. This is the day when, according to the New Testament, flight Jesus Christ took off from planet Earth, or the Son of God ascended into heaven after having died on a cross and resurrected three days later around Easter, if you will.

How a Swede spent last night sort of dictates how Nyårsdagen (New Year's Day) is spent. If you were full up on drink and didn't get to bed until the early hours of the morning, you probably spend most of the day in bed, then take it very easy due to the inevitable hangover you're likely to have. Not so much if you took it easy. There is of course time to start working on those new year's resolutions ... Did you make any? I normally don't, because I don't see the point. Losing weight? Yeah, well, I need to do that regardless of if it's a new year or not. Quit smoking? Never smoked. Exercise more? See the bit about losing weight ... In Britain, if a red letter day falls on a weekend, the holiday is pushed to the next available Monday, so you get it back, meaning tomorrow is a Bank Holiday here. In Sweden, if a red letter day falls on a weekend, tough luck, you don't get it back, meaning today is a Sunday, tomorrow is a normal Monday. I much pref...

This is the first post of this year's theme, which is oh so imaginatively called: Swedish Ways . This is a theme focusing on the year in a Swedish calendar, with all those things we celebrate, when and why, or rather, how . There are a lot more things than eight days of note here, so let's get crackin' with the first one: Nyårsafton , or simply good ol' New Year's Eve in English. Figured it'd be easier to start off with that, rather than writing about New Year's Day tomorrow and having to either wait a year to explain what happened the night before, or having to explain it now and then again in a year's time, so I'm starting a day early, technically. When it comes to Swedes, in all likelihood, New Year's Eve will be spent in one of two ways: Binge drinking at a party or Quiet night at home in front of the telly

Hollywood, PLEASE will you STOP FIXING WHAT ISN'T BROKEN?! Latest in line with the ever-present threat of being re-made, Entertainment Weekly report that Kenny Ortega has signed on to direct a re-make of Dirty Dancing . In a statement, Ortega - who was the choreographer of the original film - said: The opportunity to direct Dirty Dancing is like returning home for me…. Patrick Swayze set the bar for men dancing in the movies as Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire did before him. I believe everywhere you look there is evidence that the talent is out there and I can’t wait to begin the process of discovering the next breakout triple-threats.

Today is the longest day of the year, the Summer Solstice - or Litha, as it's known in the Neo-Pagan community. The celebration of the longest day of the year has fallen out of fasion since Christianity was introduced ... except for in Scandinavia, where we're still stubbornly heathen in our ways and insist on celebrating Midsommar ("Midsummer", go fig) the first Friday after the solstice. Meaning back home, on Friday, there will be much merriment (read: drinking), and the traditional eating of new potatoes and matjessill (a particular spicing of pickled herring). If you've got children, it's likely there will also be dancing around the traditional midsommarstång - midsummer pole. If you needed convincing that the old solstice celebrations were a fertility ritual, look no further:

This morning was a special event: the first full lunar eclipse on the Winter Solstice for about 400 years. In Nottingham, there was a solid cloud cover, so not much to see, unfortunately. Also, I woke up with my right foot hurting like the blazes, so I couldn't try to see if I could spot it anyway. This is what a lunar eclipse looks like, if you haven't seen one before: First time I heard of one was maybe ten years ago or so, when I decided to set the clock in the middle of the night to watch it. I thought it would be a quick thing, like a solar eclipse (never seen one - there was a partial one in Sweden once, but again, cloud cover ... with rain), but it took such a long time that I went back to bed. When I got up around 6 or 7, the moon was still red! It goes on for hours ! If you have the time and patience to wait all through it, or even just a few minutes, it's an amazing astronomical display. :) I thought that I wouldn't join in with the Christmas wishes this ...

What happens when Britain has a sprinkling of snow It's been cold and snowy in Britain recently (although today and during the weekend, we're going to have about +5°C, so nice and relatively warm), of course, being from Sweden, I've had a lot of "but of course, you're used to much worse!" comments. Which is true. -17°C certainly won't break any cold records even in the part where I'm from (which is around Gothenburg on the west coast, so definitely not "oop North"). However, Sweden has a neighbour in the east, where it does get very cold in winter. Because if you think even -20°C is cold, think again. The Finns are decidedly unfazed, because they're well hard, innit. No really, they are. Which made me think of a funny list I read ages ago, which I managed to track down and then translated: 15°C - It does not get hotter than this in Finland, so we begin here; the Spaniards put on caps, winter jackets and gloves. The Finns sunbat...

Found a couple of very long lists, " 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die " and " 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up ". After going through both, I think it's safe to say I'm better read when it comes to childrens books than adult ones. Although, some I might have read and don't remember - or that I am not familiar with the title in English, even if I would have recognised it in Swedish. Not to mention all the ones I've seen as movies without reading the books. Some I didn't even know were books! Anyway, here are my not-so-impressive results. How many have you read? :) 28 Books I Have Read Already 134 Trainspotting – Irvine Welsh 209 The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul – Douglas Adams 210 Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency – Douglas Adams 272 The Color Purple – Alice Walker 301 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams 411 Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys 494 The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkie...

(I did start writing this on the eve of the actual final... not that I got around to finishing it then... *cough*) The annual spectacle that is the Eurovision Song Contest has concluded. This year, Norway was the host, and they seemed to do a good job. We didn't watch the whole show, as we decided to pop to Blockbusters just before it started, but we heard a little of the broadcast on the radio in the car. It sounded like Terry Wogan had got back to his old job, but then we decided it wasn't, and opted for Radio 2 presenter Ken Bruce - who sounds 98% like Terry Wogan! The songs were their usual Eurovisiony selves, the hosts spoke their normal English with heavy accents... Then there was the voting, and in those 15 minutes between the end of the singing and the end of the voting, aside from the normal medley of songs to remember which numbers to call, were a couple of guys and some attempt at a flashmob around Europe. Surprised to see Gothenburg there - would've thought...