Queues

After all these years in Sweden, I still get sometimes frustrated by the way Swedes behave, especially regarding following rules. Not that I mean that this is a bad habit, but I guess the individualistic barbarian I am can't help getting irritated by it.

The first situation arises around the "Julbord", the "Christmas table". During the Christmas period, a traditional custom to which many companies conform is eating cold meat and fish to which you have to help yourself. I won't express my thoughts on Swedish traditional food here, let me just mention the words "Chokladsill", which mean "Chocolate" and "herring", that should summarize it pretty well. Amazingly, Swedes are just crazy about what is exposed on the table. Raw fish is really popular, apparently. I think I can see the logic in it. Cold raw herring is an acquired taste (surprise!). Once you have acquired it, I guess there is no limit on what your taste bud can learn to appreciate.
Where was I? Right, the queue. A truly nightmarish situation arises: All Swedes spontaneously manage to organize themselves as a circular queue around the table. Training Frenchmen to achieve that from the first attempt would be easier than training a bunch of wildcats to sit, but not much. So "why is that situation nightmarish?" you may ask. Well, entering the queue is just as hard as finding where a circle starts. My attempts to enter the queue by filling holes near the unpopular items (which happen to be the only things I would consider pleasurably eatable) failed, Swedes who were feeling I was bypassing them would hurry to fill the hole. They would achieve that without ever crossing eyes with me, that would be to much social interaction... Anyway, I eventually managed to jump in, the entry point was located near the raw herring (that appears to be the first thing you take).

The second situation arises at the swimming pool, where by the way it is forbidden to take pictures; I can understand why someone would want to do that and why others may want to prevent that, but I can't understand how you would take the camera with you. Especially how one would dare to take the pictures. One's tolerance for shame and embarrassment must be unlimited. I'm digressing again, after the swim I was looking for a Banana (with a uppercase B, at that time the Banana deserved it). I found one for sale (not very expensive, luckily). I was preparing myself to become the happy owner of the Banana, even if for a short time only. It turned out I would have to wait. You see when I arrived, there was only one person in the queue. I went to pick the Banana (before It ran away, you can't be too quick) which was located at the right of the one-person queue. Apparently, there is a rule here that states that unless otherwise specified, queues move from left to right. Which means I had to go back to the end of the queue, after two persons who arrived after and me, and who were ordering way to many things of all kinds of stuff you really shouldn't be ordering. What kind of person would want a cold sandwich with a large glass of sugar-free Fanta? When bad taste meets bad conscience...

Nobel dinner

Today is the day where all Nobel prize winners and 16 of their friends get to eat dinner with the king of Sweden, his family and the government.
The funny thing is that the entire event is covered and displayed on national TV. There are commentators who, well, comment on what's happening, and there isn't much of it at all. I managed to watch for a couple minutes. I hoped the king would do something interesting, like topple his glass or wine, but no, he managed to avoid that, at least for the few minutes I watched him.
The commentator mentioned that much effort was spent this year to get the food to the guests while it's still warm. Apparently that's a first, up to now everyone was eating cold meat, yet the menu never included anything close to cold turkey sandwich. I doubt they'll have succeeded better this year, so I'll give a tip to the king and his guests: Don't wait for everyone to be served before you eat. I know that's considered rude, but my french guts can't help screaming that leaving warm meat cool down on your plate is even worse. It's an insult to the cook who put so much effort into composing the menu, an insult to the staff who rushed to serve warm meat, and last but not least, an insult to the many cows who died. Never mind that's it also an insult to your guests, because they obviously can't start eating right away either, and are thus condemned to eating cold tasteless food.

The right wins in Sweden

The alliance between right-wing parties won the elections in Sweden. Göran Persson will leave his post as "statsminister".
The result of the vote is somewhat strange, in the sense that the country does well economically speaking. So why change a winning team?

I wonder if this is the curse of left wing parties: When the economy goes well, the middle class gets better, and sees no need for heavy, costly state wellfare. The middle class is usually the deciding segment of the population. If the left wants to remain in power, it must prevent the economical situation from improving too much, which of course is unacceptable.

I was told the Swedish approach to economy and wellfare was to have high taxes when the economy does well, to have enough funding for difficult times, during which taxes are lowered to favour a rebound of the economy.

Is the new idea short-sightedness, "party when it's time, we'll call in the socialists for help when things get tough"?