Five things you never get used to in Sweden
The Local’s northern Sweden reporter Paul Connolly truly loves his adopted home. But after three years of living in Scandinavia, he’s convinced there are at least five Swedish habits and traditions he will never come to terms with.
Read more here.
Hm. Maybe I’m secretly English? Or Irish (I’m thinking about the hair.)
About Conformity – sometimes you can have a hard time fitting in, because you’re less outgoing than the average Swede, not more. Being shy and not social seems to be a deadly sin in some circles.
My personal list (for a Swede living in Sweden):
1. The barbecues. Oh, the stench that fills the air everywhere people live.
2. The bicyclists riding their ridiculously expensive conversation pieces on the sidewalk/pavement ringing their annoying bells. Really? Don’t they know that when there’s no actual bicycle lane they’re supposed to go in the street, with the motor traffic. The sidewalk/pavement is actually for people walking.
3. Neighbors – watching, spying, judging. Need I say more?
4. The contrasts between the extremely well educated and/or the rich and on the other hand the uneducated and uncultured.
5. The enormous difference in service available between Stockholm and the rest of the country. You basically can’t get anything – culture, food, clothes etc of any quality outside the capital unless you can order online.
Vera (2011)
I’ve recently watched (most of) two seasons of the UK cop series Vera (2011). It was a pleasant surprise. Most cop series deal with the same old type of case – young women murdered by men. In Vera, you usually have a female killer and as often as not, she kills other women (or children). Depressing as it sounds, it seems to make sense. Women have conflicts with each other, just like men do.
Also, I must say I’ve had more than enough of all those old men who are made out to be irresistible to women thirty or forty years younger. DCI Vera Stanhope, as an older woman is, at least to me, quite new.
Vera is a bit brusque and can seem rude. She’s not that great at social niceties and has spent most of her life alone, but despite her apparent absent-mindedness, she’s very sharp and hardly misses anything, even what is completely baffling to others. She also has her trusted sergeant Joe Ashworth, who seems to regard Vera almost like a mother, rather than a boss. He has a busy personal life, but always manages to find the time to back Vera up.
This, like many other favorite tv series lately, will never inspire any fan fiction. It’s just a very good series to relax with, that can help you forget your own life for a while.
Poldark (2015)
Poldark (2015) is based on a series of novels by Winston Graham. There was also another tv series made in 1975.
The first episode starts out with a man – Ross Poldark (Aidan Turner) – coming back to his home in Cornwall from the American Revolutionary War. Defeated and wounded, he expects a different welcome than the one he gets. He finds his father dead, his home in the hands of lazy, neglectful servants and – worst of all – his beloved fiancee about to be married to his cousin. No one except his other cousin Verity, an old maid at 25, who is being used as an unpaid housekeeper by her family, is happy to see him. Believing him dead, his uncle and cousin had expected not only to have the fiancee but also Ross’ father’s mine and land. After repeated efforts by the uncle to buy him out Ross decides to stay on, mostly to support his tenant farmers, who are struggling to make ends meet. He tries to start up the mine again, in a time when the competition from the Welsh mines are keenly felt. To do that he needs capital, which means he needs to convince others to invest in his venture. Cornwall is going through a difficult time. Fishing is failing as well as the mines and people are risking starvation. Even the ‘wealthy’ classes aren’t doing as well as in the past.
To me, Ross Poldark is very much the star of the show. He’s dark, handsome and brooding and exactly the sort of man I like to see in a tv series. None of the other characters come across as real or as developed as he is. Out of the others, his cousin Verity is the only one you really seem to get to know, at least to begin with. After a while, Ross finds and rescues a young girl (dressed as a boy) and takes her in. For several episodes, Ross is still obsessed with his former fiancee and doesn’t have much time for his new young housekeeper, but eventually they begin to get to know each other and Demelza (Cornish name?) learns new skills and turns out to be very intelligent and prepared to take on new responsibilities.
At times it seems Ross’ own family are his worst enemies, but the Warleggans (moneylenders who have done well for themselves and managed to join the gentry) work against him for reasons not quite clear. I get a vague feeling there’s been some enmity between Ross and the younger Warleggan in the past, but you don’t find out much about that in the series, at least not so far.
I have just finished watching the first season and I’m glad to see that there will be a second one. If I will ever write fan fiction again, this is one of the series that has definitely inspired me to several different (mainly angsty, but also slashy) ideas. Naturally, that’s because of Aidan Turner. He’s one of the few actors these days that can totally captivate, beguile and bewitch me and for that I’m grateful.
The Librarians (2014)
The series can be described as a combination of Indiana Jones (or rather The Young Indiana Jones), MacGyver and Doctor Who/Torchwood. It’s fun and filled with action. The underlying idea is fascinating – a magical library that is more or less infiitely big, that you can reach from more than one place (The Annex), but also a portal that opens just about anywhere so the Librarian can get where the magical action is.
The first episode starts with a woman, Eve Baird, working for an antiterrorist unit who runs into a mysterious excentrically dressed man who is expert in disarming traps (but not the usual kind of bomb trap). She is puzzled but impressed. Soon she receives a mysterious invitation to begin work at the Metropolitan library and finds out about the huge underground library. However, the Librarian (at that time there’s only one) isn’t at all happy to see her. He claims to be able to get by very well without a Guardian (that is the Librarian’s body guard). Circumstances move fast though and Eve (the Guardian) and Flynn (the Librarian) are pulled into a complicated case, fighting a group of ninja warriors. It seems someone is killing off Librarian candidates. Although traditionally there’s only ever been one Librarian and one Guiardian it seems now there’s need for more.
From the second episode there are three Librarians-in-training, protected by the Guardian and a mysterious older man, Jenkins, who seems to be living in the Annex (a sort of add-on to the Library), doing research and keeping an eye on the team of amateurish future Librarians. There’s young amoral thief Exekiel Jones, Cassandra Cillian who is a genius rather like Sherlock, but unfortunately she owes her genius to a tumor in her brain and finally a sort of cowboy who is a genius too – and extremely well educated in archaeology, history and languages.
Like I said, this is a fun, action filled series, with all kinds of supernatural and magical enemies, but I can’t help wishing there was more depth. If they’d only taken the time to write more ‘serious’ and deep episodes I would have been happier. It feels a little llike a YA series with rather hurried plots. Some episodes are downright annoying like the one about Santa, who insists on referring ot himself in the third person. Others, are far more interesting, like one about a town where fairy tales come to life, with dangerous consequences.
So far I’ve seen one season, but apparently there will be another, so at least that’s good. I don’t think I’ll be writing any fan fiction based on this series, but it’s definitely good enough to distract you from your life for a while.
OOC: How to Keep Your Characters “In Character”
Diminish, Decline, and Dwindle
Article on the correct usage of the words diminish, decline, and dwindle. All three of these verbs may be used with countable or uncountable nouns when the intended meaning is “to lessen” or “to become smaller.” Deciding which to choose depends upon context and the connotation wanted.
Read more here.
Was Sardinia home to the mythical civilisation of Atlantis?
A comet plunging into the sea could have triggered a tidal wave that devastated bronze age settlements on the island, say scientists.
Read more here.
Why do books still exist, asks a teenager
When you think about it’s kind of weird that we still have books in our technologically advanced society. But they’re here to stay, argues teen site member Orli.
Read more here.
How India changed the English language
For hundreds of years, words have flowed along the routes of trade and empire. Rahul Verma follows some of their remarkable journeys.
Read more here.
