Continuing Swedish

Yesterday was my last lesson in the "Swedish for Beginners" course that I enrolled in at Folkuniversitetet. Nanda, the teacher, was excellent. We used the course book sometimes, but a lot of the stuff was done by talking, writing in groups and copying things down from the wipeboard. She preferred to teach us at the pace that we were comfortable with, rather than stick to the book's set course; and for that reason we actually learnt more than we could have.

So impressed was I that, when she said we could go straight into "Nivå två" (level 2), I signed up straight away. This means that we actually carry on and the first lesson is next Tuesday - same times, same days. Nanda mentioned that most students take two or three courses before they feel confortable enough to go out with their knowledge and carry on learning on their own, and judging by how I'm going, I agree with that. I'm still not quite comfortable enough talking in public, but I do try to talk to Linda in Swedish sometimes and, with a few errors, I'm able to make myself understood. I'm sure another 12 lessons will see my confidence grow even more, and I'll be able to talk to "Svensson" (that's Swedish for "Bloggs") without feeling doubtful of my language.

Here comes Baker Boz

I've always been interested in cooking my own food, but when you live on your own, you rarely get the enthusiasm to spend time on making any food - cooking for one seems like too much effort.

Recently, however -- thanks to changes in my life -- there is plenty of opportunity to cook now. I could cook-up a big batch of food, eat on the evening of preparation and take the remainder in as a work-lunch for the next one or two days.

Or, in the case of this weekend, we can make it a "couples activity". I had mentioned to Linda that it's my turn to provide the food for the Thursday Fika, a "tradition" held in the support room at my work. (Although I'm not in support any more, they have made me a lifetime honorary member.) So, Linda decided it's time for me to bake something -- or, more to the point, somethings.

The "somethings" in this case were kanelbullar (cinnamon buns), a very popular food to take with one's fika in Sweden. Basically it's a risen pastry (super-puffed with yeast) with oodles of cinnamon (and sugar, obv); glazed with egg and topped with pearl sugar. If you got one from a konditori (patisserie), they're really yummy. I wasn't quite so confident that mine would stand the test, but I was willing to give it a go.

Suffice to say that I surprised myself! We managed to make a batch of 40 of them... of which 34 are left (Linda and I had to have three each and felt bloated afterwards!). So proud was I that Linda egged me on to make a quick batch of raspberry jam-filled cookies too.

So, I think the support guys will be impressed - if not a little surprised - with my contribution to the Thursday Fika.

I would have shown you a photo of the finished product, but alas I forgot to transfer the picture from my camera. I shall edit this entry when I've done that.

UPDATE: Here's the pic!

I'm how old now?

Another birthday has come and gone... it wasn't an "important" number -- nothing special to celebrate especially -- but it was good. My birthday landed on a Saturday, so in the evening -- quelle surprise -- we went to Kville Biljard; "we" being Linda, Kenneth, Robert, Jocke and Hayley; Jeff (a work colleague and one of the guys I'm going to Swedish lessons with) turned up later too. Small but good fun, doing what I like to do!

Linda bought me "Bioshock" for my XBox 360... Oh. My. God. What a fantastic game. I've gotten bored with FPSs, but this is SO much more. Lots of thinking as well as blasting, and the DNA "upgrades" you can inject into yourself are great (my fave being Telekenesis!). On top of that, the graphics are beautiful - retro (from the 40s and 50s). Yum. Go buy it now!