For The Swederlish!

[Boomerwang]

Thought I'd start this thread in case someone like myself is looking for such a place. Seems to be tucked far into a corner though, so I'd be surprised if many checked in.

I'm a 33 year old English woman living with her Swedish boyfriend near Avesta. I discovered him online whilst playing a mmorpg in November 2010 and we have an 8 month old daughter.

I don't really like Sweden, if I'm honest. I miss the friendliness of Brits, the cheaper prices and much wider variety of products plus the more frequent and flexible availability of things such as transport and I really resent having to pay for my healthcare when it's for something I have little control over.

I was dreading the weather when I moved here, but it's not so bad. Sure, you get a lot of snow and it can slow things down, but it's a lot drier here so doesn't feel as cold as it is.

I miss my family very much, and I hate that they aren't getting to see my baby grow up, but I do like my boyfriends family a lot and I'm glad that we are living close to them, so that's something at least.

So why are you here? :)

[Boomerwang]

Hi folks its been a while. No pc or broadband, that's why. Using mobile now until its set up so excuse bad spelling and grammar.
Moved into new house. Whole story of problems but I cba to bore you with that.
We're next to all the schools, have a convenience store, 5 min bus ride away from shopping mall and 30 min walk from grandparents. I'm much happier about that.
I suppose its time to apply for a Swedish driving licence, close my UK bank accounts and change the address on my passport. Bf reckons we're here for the next 5 years :(
People generally seem nicer in Avesta than they do in uppsala. Maybe its because its a much smaller town?

[MrsMerryMeeple]

Ok, need a second (or third fourth and fifth) opinion here. Is it just me, and are my childhood memories tinged with sugar hyp, or does swedish icing taste bleugh! Made cupcakes for Lucia yesterday, iced them with "florsocker" mixed with water, and I thought it smelt and tasted nasty!

Wondering if it's a beet-sugar vs cane-sugar thing?

Anyone else noticed this?

[surroundedbyblondes]

Agree. Had some cupcakes at DD1's iceskating the other day where the icing was vile :-( Not sure if it was the sugar or what it was. Florsocker seems to be okay for buttercream though. Or try ordering from the English shop online?

[surroundedbyblondes]

Boomerwang, I feel much happier in our small town than I did in a city. People know each other but want to get to know others even so. yhey seem to have time for eachother here.
Hope it works out for you

[Boomerwang]

Another update! Finally have my pc up and running. Had a great Christmas and I hope you all did too. The dinner was odd and I couldn't eat half of it. It was some kind of buffet. I did ok with meatballs, 'prince korv' and a spare rib but there was stuff like caviar on eggs, something which looked like cat food sliced up, four jars of 'abba' fish in smelly liquid and a huge jar of pickled herring. Not to my taste. I did miss my mum's amazing Christmas cooking. I tried to make fudge, biscotti and stollen cake. The fudge was too sweet and didn't set properly, the biscotti was overbaked so rock hard and the stollen cake tasted revolting. I'm not much of a cook

Since living here though I have developed a taste for salt gherkin, beetroot salad and crispbread, though!

[tribpot]

Your description of Christmas dinner has made me laugh, Boomerwang. I'm imagining you trying to think of a polite way to say 'what's the stuff that looks like sliced cat food?'

My oldest brother is over from Shanghai so his family have been going mad for stuff you can't get in China (pickled eggs, allegedly - I do not believe this). So it seems wherever you are you hanker for the stuff you can't get :)

[MrsMerryMeeple]

Hi all. Hope you enjoyed your "100 ways to eat dead pig", otherwise known as Christmas in Sweden. We did the full turkey dinner with pudding on the 26th, so I'm now happy. Nom nomnom.

I'm selling a bunch of english novels on Tradera, since my LO is about to learn how to climb out of his cot and we need to turn our study into a kid's room, and that means less bookshelves. Gaaargh.

PM me if you want the link.

[Boomerwang]

Ooh I'm always interested in English stuff available in Sweden as the postage is usually cheaper but sadly I don't have time to read. My kindle was fully charged last time I used it but I'll bet it's wound down to nothing now. Shame, I really loved reading the steamy stuff I downloaded ;)

Actually, the postage thing here is annoying from online stores. Sometimes they'll send to a store nearby instead of directly to you, and they charge up to an astronomical £10 extra for the service. I've not found cheaper than £6 yet. Why on earth do they do this? It's put me off online shopping as the products aren't usually much cheaper in the store unlike in the UK.

Also I noticed they were stingy in the 'mellandagsrea'. For example, El Giganten barely knocked off 20% of their stuff. Jysk on the other hand went the whole half price on some things, that was a blessing as I need a new vitrinsk'aw'p (cba to dig out char map)

[surroundedbyblondes]

Just back home again after a week in the UK, eating turkey and filling up on bacon and proper sausages. Disappointed that we were given so many presents that my large box of Yorkshire Tea didn't fit in my suitcase

[Boomerwang]

haha my mother sends me tetley tea now and then. I have too much actually. I also get moist toilet tissue sent over as it doesn't seem to exist here. Also malt vinegar, gravy, cadbury's chocolate and jelly!

[surroundedbyblondes]

Ended up paying 89kr for a packet of tea today at the English shop. Not happy about that. Bloody Ryan Air baggage limits

[PandaOnAPushBike]

You can get PG Tips in CoOp these days. Tends to lurk around the foreign foods section as opposed to the rest of the tea

We had proper Christmas on 25th. Turkey and all the trimmings followed by Christmas pud and cream (I'm pregnant so if I can't have brandy butter, nobody's having brandy butter). We did go out to a very posh hotel the week before though for a traditional julbord. It was very nice, but then I love fish, but it isn't Christmas for me.

We went to midnight mass too. The priest is polish I think. He dipped the wafers in some sort of liqueur which nearly blew my head off. Polish Christmas tradition perhaps?

[Boomerwang]

Am I the only one who calls Coop 'The Co-Op' like in the UK? Trying hard to break the habit!

[surroundedbyblondes]

Sorry. I now say coop (as in chicken coop)

Will go there tomorrow to see if I can find tea. Luckily my DB is coming over in a couple of weeks so can bring me some more supplies.

Read something shocking on here the other day about them changing the taste/shape of cadbury's dairy milk. Should I get him to bring some over, or am I risking disappointment??

[PandaOnAPushBike]

If they don't have it, try the Indian supermarket here. They do quite a few British products for a lot cheaper than the English shop.

Oh and I say Co-Op too Boomerwang. I refuse to be assimilated. :o

[PandaOnAPushBike]

That link didn't work. Try this one.

[surroundedbyblondes]

Have just ordered from a website called buyyorkshiretea.co.uk No idea if they're any good, but a fiver for 160 bags has to beat 89kr for 80 bags here, even when you add postage costs....

I did find PG Tips in Coop, and local ICA has twinings, but it's not the same (small tantrum)

[honeytea]

Hello :) just a little update from me, I gave birth to my ds on the 18th of December, the Swedish hospital was bloody amazing, like a posh hotel. We went to bb Stockholm which is a private maternity ward at Danderyd sjukhus but it is free (like the free private schools.)

Ds is doing great, I'm finding I speak "swinglish" to him lots, I must stop that!

Ds is 4 weeks old now and my dp went back to work today, does anyone know of any baby massage/baby singing type things on Stockholm?

Happy new year to you all :)

[Boomerwang]

Congratulations on the new baby :D sorry I don't know anything about Stockholm so I can't help.

[surroundedbyblondes]

Grattis honeytea! Glad you had a good experience and all going well. Not in Stockholm either, but try öppenforskola. Most communes have them and they tend to have groups/sångstund for under 12months separately. Ask at bvc also. Does yours have a mother & baby group? It can be a good way to get started.

[MrsMeeple]

Congratulations Honeytea! You're lucky to have been to BB Stockholm they were my first choice but were full for DS, so we ended up in (the normal part of) Danderyd. Which was sitll luxury compared to the experiences in other countries that I've read about on here! :) Fingers crossed there's space in May when the next one is due!

We did a baby music class with DS. I think it was run through the local council (kommun). But check the "kommun" websites and the local churches. They quite often run sessions.

there are a couple of playgroups for english speakers if you want to get out and meet other parents. The one I went to have kids of a wider age range than the swedish drop in playgroups, as there are more expat SAHMs. Most of the Swedish kids are in daycare by the age of 2.

A quick google of "babyrytmik Stockholm" gives quite a few hits.

[surroundedbyblondes]

Yes, the kids are in daycare, but often not full-time. As soon as a sibling is born and there is a parent off on parental leave the non-school age kids drop down to 15hrs daycare a week.

We went to a lovely playgroup run by the church, though we neither of us believe and have opted out of the church. They were super-welcoming AND they had the best fikabord The christian stuff was minimal (one tiny, inoffensive song of a repertoire of about 20).

[honeytea]

Thank you for the advice :)

I am due to join the mammagroup but not for a few weeks yet, I am going to an international parent meetup tomorrow if I can manage to get me and DS washed, dressed, fed and on the bus in time. Today my acheivments were showering, getting dressed (into clean pyjamas) and putting 1 wash load on so I think I might be being a little optimistic about my trip into the city!

Mrsmeeple I hope you do get to go to bb stockholm, it was so lovely although my friends who have been to dandyryd have said it was lovely there too :) I went to a private (but free) midwife whilst I was pregnant, they are in gamlastan and östermalm the midwife I went to is the same company as bb stockholm so they give priority places to the people who have been to their midwives. The day DS was born was a record breaking day 19 babies were born!!

I had a funny time in a baby shop last week, my friend gave me a swaddle me blanket and it works amazingly, DS settles much better when swaddled. The problem is that his newborn nappy explosions mean that we were washing the blanket every morning and then paniking about it being dry for bedtime. We went in and asked the person in the shop if they had a swaddling blanket and tried to describe it to them they said "no we don't sell anything like that! It sounds cruel!" My friend brought us another one from the netherlands so the situation was solved, I think the shop assitant was considering calling social services on us for restraining our baby.

[Boomerwang]

A website for English Mums in Sweden if you are interested:

www.mumsinsweden.com/

[MrsMeeple]

I was also with a midwife connected to Bb Stockholm. But if they're full, they're full!

I know what you mean about swaddling. In Australia, it's recommended to help stop tinies from waking themselves with their startle reflex. In Sweden most seem to think it's torture. What happened to "lagom"? We wrapped DS up tight for the first few weeks.