Thomas is a retired IT professional, who lives alone with his golden retriever Ziggy Stardust in a small townhouse in a small town in the southern half of Sweden. He has two grown-up kids and at least five grandkids – "as far as I know". Thomas enjoys daily long walks with Ziggy in the forests around town, he loves cooking for his guests, and he likes to make things with his hands. He says he loves good food, good wine, people who smile and make him smile. Having spent most of his life developing things, methods and organizations, he's passionately interested in all kinds of technology, natural science, politics,... anything that raises a problem, whether it can be solved or not. Consequently, he is consistently short of time. While he was professionally active, he lived in San Francisco a few years, working as software engineer down in Silicon Valley. He claims that he did leave his heart in San Francisco, and is constantly planning to go back and pick it up. Quoting Hoagy Carmichael's Hong Kong Blues, he says "... every time I try to leave, sweet opium won't let me fly away... ...i.e. my opium is Sweden, my kids, my dog, my friends, my forest,... you know, I'm Swedish."
The election to the Swedish parliament is just one week away (Sept 9). The outcome is unpredictable if you look at recent polls. Negotiations will most likely be long and hard before the newly elected parliament can agree and ask the leader of one party to be Prime Minister and form his own government. Generally […]
Hell on earth, falukorv and little red cottages Ever travelled through the Swedish countryside? Or at least seen it on TV? Did you notice that the majority of all buildings – homes, barns, boathouses, every shed – are red? Red cottages with white corners and other white trimmings are as iconic for Sweden as Dalecarlian […]
2013 Ice Hockey World Championship This year’s Ice Hockey World Championships were held in Stockholm and Helsinki (arranged in cooperation by Sweden and Finland). Those of you who are interested in ice hockey have of course followed the reports from the games, many of you with despair and raised eyebrows. For you who didn’t keep […]
The hambo is a traditional dance with origin in the 19th century. It is a couple dance in ¾ time; the music has a strong accent on the first beat and a tempo that varies from moderate to fast (100 to 120 beats per minute). The hambo is a dance with a fixed pattern and […]
SwedishFreak’s condensed Swedish history continues today with the sixth and final episode. The internationally most noticed incidents during the last 40 years in Sweden is undoubtedly the murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme, and the murder of Anna Lindh, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Officially, both incidents are explained as impulsive, random killings by misfit persons. […]
Within the next two or three weeks, thousands and thousands of spectators will attend an age-old event which just recently started to become a public spectacle: the spring release of the cattle. Many of today’s children in the cities have never seen a cow and believe that milk in square cartons is produced in a […]
Between the Powers of East and West By the middle of April, spring has usually arrived in the southern half of Sweden, garnishing roadsides with yellow sun-like flowers of tussilago (coltsfoot, Tussilago Farfara), filling meadows and clearings with vitsippor (wood anemones, Anemone Nemorosa), and spotlike occurences of the increasingly rare blåsippor (blue anemones, Anemone Hepatica). […]
Entering The 20th Century SwedishFreak’s condensed Swedish history continues today with the fifth episode; all and all there will be six episodes. The 20th century started with two World Wars; Sweden managed to stay out of both, and has therefore been critized for cowardry. But in retrospect, with all facts on hand, maintaining Swedish neutrality […]
Thank God for the food! This pious exclamation comes from reverend Nils Lidskog of St. Clara parish in Stockholm’s downtown. He has just been told that the church is about to receive 5 tons of lasagne. Remember the European horse meat scandal a few weeks ago? The content of beef in frozen and canned food […]
