October update and Mannheim revisited

It's been a while since my previous update and I haven't really got any decent excuse for that. This being a blog, however, there is really no need to apologise.

Last week I went on my first business trip to Germany. I was meeting our agent there for a meeting with our first German client. I knew, of course, that we were going to the city of Mannheim where I once spent some six months as a trainee at ABB - in 1999. The real surprise was that the office of our client was some 100 meters from my old office at ABB. I felt a bit nostalgic being back in Mannheim again and suddenly all sorts off odd things that I never thought I'd be able to remember began resurfacing. Very strange! I also just had to call my old flatmate Magnus (whom I met again when we were both LKW Walter employees and whose close friend I met in Salamanca!) causing some flashbacks there too.

Back in Stockholm I've been keeping myself busy. Last Monday I stayed longer at work and I therefore decided to drop in at the local Cervantes Institute where they have a Monday night film club. The film "Los Lobos de Washington" wasn't particularly good but the people (mainly from Chile) were nice. Brushing up on my Spanish wasn't wasted either since off to Madrid tomorrow morning.

Any decent blog should, I guess, have regular weather updates. I'm only mentioning it because it's been very pleasant here lately. Yes, it gets dark quite early but during the day it's all sunshine and quite warm. According to the man with the mullet on Swedish tv, this is about to change very soon though.

Then there's my SL (Storstockholms Lokaltrafik) feuilleton. It must be my rural Kufstein years having an effect on me but I can't help noticing stuff when on the metro. Like the other day when the rather dull-looking (I'm being nice here) SL-woman at the Farsta Strand station jumped out of her booth overcome with joy, hugging and kissing a passer-by she (hopefully) knew well but hadn't seen in a very long time. The point is, I never considered that these people could have proper feelings...

I do have a wine page too that I'm not really updating very frecuently. But I'd like to share with all of you the best wine for under 100 SEK (€10) that I've ever tasted. Chateau Camplazens, La Réserve, Coteaux du Languedoc 2001. It's made from Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre and is only a "test wine" at Systembolaget, meaning they'll stock it if people buy it. I'm seriously considering buying the last 18 bottles here in Farsta - it's that good.

The last little anecdote of the day pretty much sums up Sweden for those of you who haven't been here before. It started when the insurance company overcharged me slightly (SEK 283 to be exact) for my car insurance. I therefore received a check of that amount but I had no clue where to cash it since it's a postal check but Posten doesn't actually provide that service anymore. Eventually I was told to go to Svensk Kassaservice, an institution probably set up just because Posten can't be bothered with it anymore. Needless to say, there aren't too many of these around and the office hours aren't exactly customer friendly either (unless you're sjukskriven of course). Anyway, I managed to get there before closing time and proudly presented my check to the idle lady reading "Svensk Damtidning" (and, yes, I still had to pick a number for the non-existing queue). "Sign on the back please and tear off the green part". So I did. "..and your ID please?". I slid my Norwegian driver's licence through the tiny opering below the bullet-proof glass. There was a long "hmmmmmm" before she muttered "sorry, I'm going to need to see a Swedish ID". We embarked on a rather long discussion of the pros and cons of me renouncing my current citizenship (there were mostly cons) before all my asking, begging and crying was turned down by the same reference to "our guidelines". Seconds before telling her where to stick these guidelines (and to get a shag as quickly as possible) I walked out. I could actually get my hands on a Swedish ID card but it costs 250 kronor and I'm gonna need passport photos too, making this too much hassle and costing more than the 283 kronor (minus a 30 kronor service charge of course). But it suddenly appeared to me that maybe someone else could cash the check for me if I write an authorization. Aha! So I went back in but ended up going to a different counter so I reckoned I could give it another try. I presented my Norwegian ID again, the clerk searched for the personnummer but found none. However, she did pick out my date of birth and asked "..and the last four digits?". I told her and walked out with my 253 kronor. Not complaining about the horrendous service charge. I considered using the money on champagne...