Posts written by jennie

Will you work until you are 75?

Posted by jennie 5 Comments
Feb 9 2012

Sweden’s Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has sparked a huge debate the last couple of days due to his new suggestion that Swedes should keep on working until they are 75- instead of 65 as the standard retirement age is today.

“The pension’s scheme isn’t based on magic. It is a welfare ambition based on large-scale re-distribution and citizens’ own work. If people think that we can live longer and shorten our work life, then pensions will get lower,” Reinfeldt said to Dagens Nyheter (Today’s News).

With the risk of being completely and utterly dull here – here’s a quick guide to the Swedish pension system and how it works – for anyone who might be interested:
The Swedish pension system consists of three main components – national retirement pension, occupational pension and voluntary pension. The national retirement pension is made up of three elements, income pension, premium pension and guarantee pension. The income pension and the premium pension are completely independent from the national budget. The income pension is financed by employer contributions representing 16% of an employee’s gross annual income. Premium pension is financed through an additional contribution from the employer equal to approximately 2.5% of the employee’s gross annual income. Occupational pension is the pension coverage provided to employees via their employer, as a component of salary, which is also known as collective agreement pension. Voluntary pension consists of private pension insurance based on voluntary savings.

The retirement age is normally 65, but it’s flexible and some people start to work less when they are 61 while some keep on working until they are 67. Of Swedes over 65 years old, 7.8 percent were employed in 2010, according to Statistics Sweden.

So, what about this new suggestion then? Well, apart from us living longer and the higher standard of living in general, the Prime Minister believes that employers would be more willing to hire people over 55 if they knew they would stay for another 20 years instead of 10. And that we might have to consider more than one career during our working life – a quite challenging view for most of us.

As mentioned before, this has not been greeted with open arms and cheers. Debates has been raging in the media and on the social networks, people have been rather… well let’s put it this way, unkind to the Swedish Prime Minister and his new suggestion.

What’s the retirement age in your country? And could you imagine yourself working until you are 75?

New Swedish words for 2012

Posted by jennie 4 Comments
Jan 4 2012

God forsättning, dear blog readers!

As a Swede living in England, I have recently discovered how useful the Swedish phrase “God fortsättning” is. It means something along the lines of “happy continuation” and this is the phrase we use when “God jul” (Merry Christmas) or “Gott nytt år” (Happy New Year) feels dated. Like on the 27th of December, when Christmas is gone but it’s too early to wish someone a happy new year… Clever, huh? The English language definitely lacks that kind of phrase, but what about other languages? Anyone aware of anything similar?

Anyhow, let’s continue along the vocabulary lines and look at some new words that have entered the Swedish language during the past year. Every New Year, Språkrådet (The language council) puts togehter and publishes a list of the new words that either are completely new or words that we have started to use more frequently. It’s always a quite interesting read and it normally mirrors the society rather well. Here are some of my favourites:

Ac-förkylning = Air condition cold, a cold you get from the air condition.
Appa = To “app”, to use and fiddle with your phone applications. (Verb)
Attitydinkontinens = Attitude incontinence, to not be able to keep your opinions to yourself.
Knarkometer = Drug-o-meter, a device which can detect any kind of illegal substances.
Lunchdisco = Exactly what it says, a disco happening during the lunch hour, a phenomena that’s getting bigger.
Matkasse = Food bag, a pre-packed food bag that is delivered to your home.
Padda = Toad, a nickname for ipads and other portable reading device.
Skräpbot = Rubbish fine, since last year you risk a penalty if you throw your rubbish elsewhere than in the bin.
Surdegshotell = Sourdough hotel, a place where you can leave your sourdough if you are going away on holiday etc. They exist, I promise!

You can find the full list here!

The Swedish Christmas tree

Posted by jennie 2 Comments
Dec 23 2011

It’s the day before the dipping day, only one episode is left of the thrilling tv-advent calender “Tjuvarnas jul” and the countdown is down to hours, not days. Julafton awaits around the corner and today is the day when many families will bring in the mother of all Christmas decorations, the all important and wonderful Christmas tree.

The tradition with bringing in and decorating a Christmas tree can be traced back to the 18th century. Back then, the were mostly decorated with edible things, like sweets and fruits. And real candles, of course! The most imidiate fire hazard was prevented by hanging apples on the tip of the branches, this to make the branches heavier and the candles further apart. When the Christmas tree tradition spread beyond the upper class, home made decorations  from straw and paper became popular. Lots of tiny Swedish flags was also fashionable back in the days.

As we all know you can put pretty much anything you like in your Christmas tree. But in general, you will probably find the following in a Swedish Christmas tree:

Christmas tree (Julgran)
* A star to put in the top to symbolise the star of Bethlehem (Stjärna)
* Electric candles (Ljusslinga)
* Tinsel (Glitter)
* Glass baubles in any colour (Julgranskulor)

Quite often you can also find the following:
* Decorations made of straw, for exanple goats, hearts and stars
* Lollipops (Polkagrisar)
* Christmas crackers (Smällkarameller)

So what do you do then once your tree is there in its pride and glory? Well in Sweden, we dance around it. Hand in hand, like a big circle with the tree in the middle. There are certain dedicated dance-around-the-Christmas-tree-songs that you are supposed to sing while you are swinging away. To be fair, I’m not sure how many families who acctually do this on Christmas eve, but it’s certainly a tradition in nurseries and schools.

And finally, what do you do once you have gotten tired of your Christmas tree? Well, you throw it out with a big party of course. It’s tradition to throw it out on Twentieth Day Knut, that falls on January 13 and on this day you should have a party and dance around the Christmas tree for the last time before “plundering” it.

What have you got in your Christmas tree?

Musikhjälpen – bringing Sweden together for a good cause

Posted by jennie 1 Comment
Dec 15 2011

It’s every child’s right to go to school. This  is stated in the UN’s Children’s convention, but unfortunately as we all know, this is not the case. All over the world, over 100 000 000 children are denied the right to education, the majority of these childen are girls.

Right this minute, thousands of Swedes are taking part in a huge charity event with the aim to collect as much money as possible for every girl’s right to go to school. it. It’s called Musikhjälpen (The music help) and it’s a collaboration between Swedish public radio and Swedish public TV and this is the fourth year it’s taking place – every year with new hosts and a new good cause to support. The set up is simple. Three hosts  – famous Swedes – are locked in in a glass cage, this time it’s placed right in the centre of Gothenburg. The cage will be their home for six days, their food supplies are limited and they will broadcast radio and TV live 24/7. Things are happening in the cage all day and night and you can donate money by making song requests or by joining any of the thousands different activities going on, in the cage and all over the county. Small children donate their Christmas present money, big companies donate big cheques and I can tell you, the whole event is a real tear jerker. It’s amazing to see such a big part of Sweden – celebrities, politicians, teenagers, children, old people, rich, poor – come together for a great cause. Throughout the week, you can bid on loads of donated celebrity memorabilia or dinner dates with various famous people. Or, just simply request a song. This costs 50 SEK – enough money to send a girl in Africa to school for a whole month.

The collected sum is at the moment close to 4 000 000 SEK, but the aim is to double that and then some.

Musikhjälpen started in Holland seven years ago and has spread to Switzerland, Belgium and Kenya, amongst others. Please take a look at Musikhjälpenshomepage – where you can look, listen and read more! Or, just simply take a look at the faboulous winter weather Gothenburg is having at the moment…not.  And while you are there, why not request some great Swedish classics?

Julskinkan – the centerpiece of the Swedish julbord

Posted by jennie No Comments
Dec 8 2011

Warning: If you don’t like the look of meat being prepared, you should probably stop reading now!

I assume all you fellow Sweden lovers are familiar with our buffet style habit of eating. Our beloved smörgåsbord comes out at Easter, at Midsummer’s eve and most importantly – at Christmas. This time of the year, our julbord (Christmas table) is packed with köttbullar (meatballs), inlnagd sill (pickled herring), rökt och gravad lax (smoked and gravadlax), rödbetssallad (beetroot sallad), korv (sausages)… and most importantly, the ham. Julskinka. I think it’s safe to say that most of the non vegetarian julbord will have a piece of ham in the middle of the table and for most people (me!) this is definitely the most important part of the Christmas eating. It’s an ancient tradition to cook and eat ham in Sweden around Christmas and almost 7 000 tonnes are being sold every year. It’s best served with mustard, on a piece of knäckebröd (crisp bread) with a dollop of beetroot salad on the side – and this is exactly what I will stuff my face with tonight. My very own Christmas ham is calling me from the kitchen and this is how I did it:

1. A cured oncooked ham joint is left to soak in water over night to remove some of the salt from the curing. Is it just me or does this joint look like a pig’s face? Which I can assure you, it’s not…

2. Put it in a pot with carrots, a stick of celery, an onion, a few cloves and juniper berries. Cover it with water and then leave it to simmer until the internal temperature reaches 75 degrees C  (170 F). This takes about 20 minutes per 450 grams (1 lb).

3. Allow it to cool in the broth, take it out and put it in a rosting tin. Peel off the skin, leaving the fat underneath which can be scored into diamonds.  Spread the scored fat with a mix of egg and mustard and then sprinkle breadcrumbs on top of it. Put it in the oven for 20-30 minutes until the crumbs have got a nice colour.

4. Let it cool and then – eat!

PS: This is obviously just my personal take on it and in no way the “correct” way of doing it. Have you got another way – please share!

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