In Pursuit of Management

One of the few things I really struggle with here in Sweden is the general reluctance of people to make a decision and to stick by it. Swedish society has raised it's people to repect the wishes and feelings of others, and not to do anything that can make another person feel less or devalued. It's a great notion, and we culd all learn a thing or two about it, but it is perhaps an example of a concept taken too far and which has now become out of control. The result of this culture, and the general fear that many Swedes have of sticking their head up bove the water line, is that it can be quite hard to get anything done. In my non-work life, I've kind of gotten used to this. I work on taking twice as long to do half as much, and it generally works out about right. It used to really stress me, but becoming more realistic about what is actually achievable has made a big difference there. In my work life, however, it's a completely different story. Here I still expect a professional approach and a pro-active attitude towards achieving a pre-determined result. If only. Every second week I've been travelling to a project meeting hosted by one of the largest industrial companies in Sweden. These people drive much of the nation's economy. Although you'd have to say it's more by dumb luck than anything else. Every meeting we sit there and go through the minutes of the previous meeting. We then raise points about those minutes, which are carefully noted down by the Project Manager for inclusion in the next minutes. And that seems to be all that is happening. The client's PM's sole duty seems to be to write a novel about everything that everyone says during the fortnightly meeting. Nothing actually gets resolved, merely recorded. We're now half way through the project programme and there are still some basic issued to be decided upon which should have been sorted before the team even came together. Any note of conflict during the meeting gets recorded as X from Stockholm will sort it out with Y from Malmö. For F*** Sake! Both X and Y are sitting next to each other at the meeting. Sort it out now and we'll have an answer straight away. They're right here. That's surely the entire purpose of the meeting. It's not some Happy Hour. Socialise on your own time, not on mine. I've got another 3 hour drive ahead of me.

I think that Project Management in Sweden, from what I have seen, is very poor. I've seen our own company's PM training programme, and it's a joke. It's not a PM course, it's a course about how to deal with clients. There is nothing in there about allocating the right resources at the right time, about forward planning, about time management within the project, critical paths, or about how to deal with issues before they become a problem to the project. If I had pulled a stunt like that in a project meeting back in NZ I would have, well, I just wouldn't have dared try. That's not entirely true. Back in my early days I did try the "I'll have a think about it and get back to you" stalling tactic. I was told in no uncertain terms that the entire purpose of the meeting was to resolve these issues,a nd that was why we were all wasting our time there. I never tried it again. I think the fact that I have a proper qualification in Project Management makes this all the more frustrating. I can see that none of this grief needed to have happened and there is nothing in place to stop it from continuing. Yesterday it got the better of me and I wrote a formal email to the client PM, stating the unresolved issues that I had. I highlighted how long various people had been given to come up with a solution, and what the consequences now were for both me and for the project. It was going to start hitting them in the pocket.

It was a pretty tough email, and I was hesitant about sending it. Back in NZ it wouldn't have bothered me in the least about sending or receiving such an email. Ok, I wouldn't be happy about having received an email criticising my performance on the project, but I know that that's all it is. It's not an attack on me as a person. I learnt that over time. Swedes are a little different. They seem to be unable to remove the personality from the role. If you criticise a particular performance or service, then that's taken to be criticising the person. And that's something that Swedes just won't do. They value the feelings of the person above all else. Be it their own or someone else's. So they shy away from the tough decisions and quietly hope that it will work itself out. Early on in my career here, I openly criticised a particular part of a project. Not horribly so, just pointed out that it had some flaws and we could probably tweak a few things to shore up any weaknesses. Pretty normal stuff I thought, and all healthy discussions. The person responsible for the original design never spoke to me again for 18 months. I can imagine that many Swedes would find it tough having to deal with the direct approach which is common in many countries, without first understanding what it means and what it doesn't mean.

So whether or not I've made a career ending mistake, remainds to be seen. Probably not, but I'm pretty sure I'll be getting the silent treatment from a few people. Frankly, while I don't like that, it's not my main concern. I have just one responsibility in this, and that's to deliver on my promise to my client. That's where it starts and ends. I'd like to do that with the cooperation of everyone involved, but if I have to make the choice... Silly really, it doesn't need to be that way. Swedes are smart, they just need to act that way more often.

A horse is a horse

Summer holidays have finally started. For one of us, at least. On Saturday we took our horse out to his summer grazing. He's been going to the same property for 4 years now, and just loves it there. He's become quite a fixture at the place and has become firm friends with several of the other horses who have also travelled from around the region during the same times. It's always a lot of fun sitting and watching the other horses as they arrive one at a time. Usually there's some recognition of a familiar face or smell and they'll often move off in groups formed from previous summers. Any new arrival gets the rules explained to them before figuring out which group is the smart one to be allied with. We've been very fortunate with the nature of the horse that we brought to Sweden with us from New Zealand. He was born and raised on a country station where there were 70+ horses running. As such, he understands exactly the dynamics of the herd and horse interactions. He's not an openly dominant horse, you won't find him prancing around at the head of the pack. But he's a strong horse, knows what is reasonable behaviour and what isn't, and will not take a step backwards if challenged by some young upstart who ought to know better. Because of that, other horses feel safe around him, so usually ends up being the centre of the main group at summer camp. He's also very good at showing other horses how to behave in a group. This is not a trait that all Swedish born horses have as many are raised on small properties with only one or 2 other horses. Group dynamics are a bit foreign to them and they need some guidance.

The only downside to his summer vacation, is the journey there and back. Horses in New Zealand live quite different lives to those in the north of Sweden. The biggest difference is that they live outside 12 months of the year. They are rarely, if at all, stabled. In the 4 or so years that he lived in NZ, our horse had never once been inside a building. So he's had to learn that. I guess that old habits die hard because, as much I think he rather likes sleeping on nice soft straw at night, he's always the most anxious to go outside in the morning. The other key difference is that horses don't travel by road as much as they do in Sweden. That's possibly because the Swedish equestrian community is highly organised with competitions and specialised facilities to travel to and use. In New Zealand, people mostly rode where they lived. Before he left his home paddock in NZ, our horse had probably been on a horse transporter maybe 4 times, and one of those was in getting to our property. He didn't have a lot of experience being transported anywhere. That being said, we did so once or twice with a friend and her horse. While he was a bit cautious about the whole thing, it didn't take very much convincing to get him loaded on.

The first time we tried to load him onto a horse transporter in Sweden, it was clear that something had changed. He had become quite fearful of transporters. Loading him could take up to a couple of hours and involved a lot of stress from all parties. We figure there are likely a couple of reasons behind this. Firstly, the journey itself to Sweden must have been quite traumatic for him. Starting out with a large truck for 2 days, then a boat, truck again for another 2 days, 3 plane trips, another 2 day truck journey, yet another boat, and then finally a long haul up the length of Sweden. Not all at once, I should point out, the journey was spread over 3 weeks. But it must have been scarey for a young horse not knowing what was going to happen next. I can also imagine that he probably didn't get any extra loving care along the way. The horse transporter people are not horrible people, but they do this for a living and probably don't offer up a lot of emotional support. They have timetables to keep to and a hesitant horse can cost them time and money. I'm guessing. Something obviously happened along the way to scare him.

The other aspect we consider is the nature of the horse himself. As I said earlier, he's a strong horse who backs himself. However, he's also a "one person horse". Always had been from the moment we saw him as a scrawny baby. It was he who selected us. Other people ride him on occasion and he does everything that is asked of him without fuss. But that's all they get from him. He is, and will likely always be, a Mamma's Boy. He loves his Mum and would move the heavens for her. A few years ago my wife had an accident and fell from the horse, knocking herself out severely. Most horses would not appreciate the situation and would simply hang around the general area quietly eating grass. Not so with this boy. Knowing immediately that something was wrong, he raced through several closed neighbouring paddocks to find the nearest person, broken reins flapping in front of his face the whole time. Intentional or not, he likely saved her life. For that alone, he scored enough extra points to keep him with us for a long time to come. You have to do something special in life to get a free trip across the world. Anyway, everytime he ever went anywhere, or did anything, his "Mum" was with him. Except for this time. For 3 weeks, everytime they opened the door, he was somewhere new, and his Mum wasn't there. And I think there's still that fear in the back of his mind that he's going to be sent somewhere strange and that his Mum won't be there when he gets there. I think he's slowly coming to peace with the idea that this time we all travel together. The loading has become a little easier, Saturday was possibly a new record at around 15 minutes. Hopefully it's a sign of things to come and of unwanted memories forgotten.

Garmin Forerunner

Mentioning the GPS training watch that I bought a while back, I thought it might be useful to write a bit of a review. I'm not overly technical, so I'll tell it from a simple users perspective. The watch I bought is a Garmin Forerunner. There's a few different models around and I don't recall off the top of my head which model mine is, but the base functions are the same across the range. The biggest problem I had initially was figuring out exactly what it could do, or couldn't do. It comes with a small instruction manual but it seemed to me that the manual only covered about 80% of the functions. I found the rest of the information from internet forums which had been set up to address the issue of the instruction manual only having instructions for about 80% of the functions.

The watch connects to your computer with a USB cable and the packet came with a software programme. The programme downloads your training information from the watch, displays it in various forms, and stores it into the computer. With the computer you can also upload future workouts back onto your watch again.

Obviously the watch works out speed, position, etc, from satellites. So the first thing that happens when you turn it on, is that it starts searching for satellites. That's fine if you're outside at the time, but if you're sitting at the kitchen table with the 80% instruction manual, trying to figure the thing out, it can be a right pain being hit with "unable to locate satellites" messages on the screen. There is a setting in the menus which allows you to switch off the satellite function, which is handy. It resets automatically to outdoor (satellite) mode when you switch the watch back on again, so you don't have to worry about having to scroll through the menus again to do so.

The display has 3 active screens when you're out training, and you can scroll between these by clicking a button on the side. Each screen can by customised to show different areas of information. My first screen shows 3 things: Total time, Total distance, and my current pace in minutes per kilometre. The second screen I have Total Time, Current Pace, and my overall Average Pace for the entire distance so far. The 3rd screen I don't use very often. It shows my Current Pace, Current Heartrate in beats per minute, and my Current Step Rate in steps per minute. That last field is a bit unusual and not many people use it, but I find it to be a good training tool at times. As I said, you can set each screen up to show more information, less information, and from any of the about 20 different types of information. It is all set up using a scroll menu operated by the side buttons. Once you've got the display set up the way that you want, you just click the big START/STOP button on the front and you're away.

The front of the watch has only 2 buttons: "Start/Stop" and "Lap". Start/Stop is pretty self explanatory. Click once when you start and once when you stop. If you take a break along the way for some reason, you can click Stop. Clicking again when you carry on will pick up the time and distance wthout having a gap in the middle when you were having a sit down. So it acts as a Pause button as well. there is an internal option to automatically start/stop if your speed drops below a certain level. Such as if you are stuck waiting for traffic lights to change.

The Lap button serves 3 purposes, only one of which is in the instruction manual. The first purpose (which is in the manual) records a fixed point along the way when you click the button. Let's say that you want to jog or cycle around the block 3 times. Every time that you pass your house, you click the Lap button. When you are finished, you will not only have your total time, distance, speed, etc, but also that same information for each lap you completed. That's quite handy. The other 2 purposes served by the Lap button go together. Once you have finished your exercise, and clicked the Stop button, you need to press and hold down the Lap button. A 3 second countdown timer will appear on the screen. once the timer has reached "0", you can take your finger off the Lap button. Your exercise workout has now been saved into the memory of the watch and the watch information has been reset back to zero again ready for your next workout. This is really important and wasn't shown in the manual. If you turn off the watch once you've clicked Stop, without first pressing and holding the Lap button, you'll lose all the information from your latest workout. Why something so vital is not in the instruction manual is a mystery, but it seems to have annoyed new users around the world.

So those are the basic functions of the watch for normal use. But there are a few special and rather clever things also. Instead of having to press the Lap button to split up your workout information into parts, you can preset it to happen automatically. You can set it to a particular location for example, outside of your house. The watch will remember that location and automatically log the time etc every time you pass by it on your jog around the block, without you having to click anything. You can also set the Lap function to reord the information between set time or distance intervals. Every 10 minutes, for example. Most people, like myself, set it up to record a set distance. In my case, I've set the Lap function to "one kilometer" Every time I run one more kilometer, the watch records all the information about the previous kilometer. As well as continuing with the running total. You can see that information live while you're working out, or later on while sitting at the computer.

My watch has a rather neat function called "Virtual Partner". With VP, you programme in your desired result into any 2 of the following fields: Time, Distance, and Pace. Say you want to run 10km in 60 minutes. Simply key in the desired Distance and Time using the scroll menu, and then select the "Done" option. Return to the main screen, click the Start/Stop button, and you're off. What you are doing now is racing against a theoretical person who is going to complete 10km in 60 minutes. With the VP training option selected, you get to scroll through to an extra screen. This screen has a little graphic showing 2 figures, and the distance between the 2 figures, in metres. Obviously, you are one of the figures and your Virtual Partner is the other figure. If you are ahead of the VP, the distance between you both will be shown on a white screen. If you are behind the VP then the distance to the VP will be shown on a black screen. This is a really good training tool, although it does have a few drawbacks. Firstly, the VP runs at the desired tempo right from the very first second. For most of us, that's not very realistic. Even if we are planning to complete 10km in 60 minutes, we will often start off a bit slower and gradually build up a bit of speed. So, with the VP, you often find yourself suddenly 50m behind the VP at the start. Don't panic about this, you'll slowly drag them in. It's the distance between at the end which counts. The VP is also immune to the effects of going up or down hills so again, don't panic if the VP suddenly zooms away while you're heading up hill. You'll catch them going down the other side.

To have a more realistic virtual training partner, the Forerunner allows you to compete directly against yourself. This is a brilliant function and worth the buy just on its own. Having previously saved one of your workouts, you can recall that workout and run the same course again, competing against yourself exactly as you ran the course last time. If you were a bit slow going up the hill last time, the VP figure on the watch will also slow down to the exact same tempo you were running at the last time you were running up that hill. You can store about 30 of your previous wokouts as training option, and select the one you feel like on the day. I try to give them easy to understand names, so that I know exactly which route I took and how fast I ran, like "Lake 40 minutes" or "Lake 45 minutes".

That main thing to remember if you choose to compete again one of your previous workouts, is that you have to run the exact same route, or your VP display will become meaningless. Using the automatic VP, which I wrote about in the earlier paragraph, you can run wherever you like and the VP will follow you at the set pace. Using one of your pre-recorded workouts as your VP means that you have to start and finish at the same point as before, and you have to follow the same path as the VP. Simple enough, and you can see why both training options have their uses.

So there's the basics of a GPS training watch. It sounds like a lot at the start but once you've handled it a few times, it's pretty idiot-proof. To date I haven't had any real problems with it. Sometimes it can be a bit slow to pick up the satellites when you turn it on. There is a memory buffer which you can clear that supposedly helps. What I do instead is to turn the watch on and then sit it outside on the balcony while I'm getting changed. Once I'm ready I find that the watch has found the satellites it's been looking for and is ready to go when I am. I'm most often out in reasonably dense forests and I've never found the watch to lose it's GPS connection. Likewise under bridges, it's clever enough to know where it was, where it is now, and what most likely happened in between. If you're like me and have lost the ability to know your pace over the years, this watch is a great way to retrain yourself. You do have to be reasonably commited to regular exercise, otherwise you're jsut buying a gimmick. It's not much use if you're not walking, running, cycling, swimming, horseback riding etc. There are good prices to be had as models phase out, so shop around.

En Svensk Klassiker

As most people know, Swedes are a pretty active mob. You run the constant threat of being run down by a cyclist or a jogger every time you step outside. It's proably even stronger up here where, if you don't like being outdoors, you probably shouldn't move to. I've always been someone who enjoyed the outdoors, so this suits me just fine. I was often away tramping and hiking when I was younger. Not so much these days, truth be known. I'm not quite the finely tuned athlete that my mind who like to have me believe. I've always enjoyed running, and Boden is a great place to run. There are oodles of forest trails and back roads where you can just get away from it all. About a year ago I bought a GPS training watch so that I could monitor distance, speed, time, etc while I was running. While it's good to have as an aid, I find that it can have a negative effect as I am often conscious of running slower than my previous outing. Which results in a constant state of compeition and ultimately a drop off in the level of enjoyment. So I've taught myself not to check the watch while I'm running, but to use it as a recording device for use later on with our computer. Doesn't always work that way, mind. The other option, the obvious one, is not to take the watch out with me. I did that last night when I went out for a long run up a couple of hills in the forest. I already know how long that route is, I've run it so often that I know it's exactly 11,86 km. So I don't need the watch for that. I also know how fast I can run it in. Last night I just wanted to run for the hell of it. I knew that I was a little tired after a pretty full day at work, so I wasn't going to be breaking any records. Having the timing watch with me would have just made me stressed and probably disappointed at the end. Some times you need to take a step back and remember why you are doing something. Last night I jsut wanted to feel good about life. And it worked.

Ok, all that aside, I do want to have a goal somewhere along the line. I'm not especially interested in competing. I grew up competing in athletics as a kid, and did quite well at it. So I don't really need to find out what that feels like. I also already know how fast I can run. I don't need to be a in race in order to prove that. Without having that absolute need, I can be selective about taking part in a competition that appeals to me on a personal level. And I think I may have found the one.

Fitness freak Sweden has a series of events where, if one can complete them all, earns one the title of "A Swedish Classic". I guess it's kind of a Swedish Ironman for the masses. You don't have to complete the events within a set period (it used to be one year), or in a set order but, if you manage to eventually complete all 4 events you get the title and a flash medal. If you manage them all within 12 months, you also get a fancy certificate and your name on the Wall of Fame somewhere. So focused, I am not.

The events in question start with a 3km open water swim. I'm not a bad swimmer, but 3km is quite a long way without having the side of a pool to grab on to. That being said, more than 12,000 people complete Vansbrosimningen, so it can't be impossible. That's going on the "maybe" pile. Then there's a 300km cycle ride around the shores of Lake Vättern. Now, time to be realistic. I'm no cyclist, never have been, never likely to be. I don't think I have the butt for it. Whatever the problem, cycling just doesn't work for me. 20,000 others, but not me. So, unless I suddenly develop a cycling arse, being "En Svensk Klassiker" is not going to happen for me. But, as I said, my focus today is on doing what I enjoy. That's the reward.

The thrid event is Vasaloppet. Now, this event fascinates the hell out of me, I have to say. A 90km cross country ski race with 16,000 other skiers through some of the most spectacular forest trails I've ever seen. This event went on my Bucket List the moment I first saw it on TV. And I'm going to do it. Some time. The only thing holding me back at present, and admitedly it's only a minor obstacle, is that I've never skied in my life. That's probably something I need to address first. How hard can it be ? I did read that there's a "recommended" level of ski experience for Vasaloppt, and that might take me a little while to get to. But I'm not going anywhere in a hurry and I am going to ski Vasaloppet.

That leaves just Lidingöloppet, and that's achieveable for me. Lidingöloppet is a 30km open country foot race. A bit of open country, a few forest trails, a bit of up, and a bit of down. Exactly what I enjoy. They have around 15,000 to the start line, which I imagine can be a bit of a challenge for the first while. But there's a few hours for everyone to sort themselves out along the way. The race is held in September and I feel it might be a little tight for time for me to get myself to the level where I know I would be happy with my performance. For myself. I've done a few 20+km runs, but those extra final kms might all end in tears. So I've set my date for the 2013 event.

With any luck I'll be a Quarter Swedish Classic by the end of next year. I wonder if I can ask for one quarter of the medal. Just in case that's all that there is.

A rudderless ship

Back in the real world again after another project meeting in Kiruna. I know that I'll moaned about this before, but it pisses me off that 12 people have to travel every week from Luleå to Kiruna (which takes about 3 1/2 hours each way by road or rail) in order to sit in a meeting room with 2 people who live in Kiruna. Seems crazy. I know that LKAB (the client) is filthy rich and doesn't give a toss about the costs being incurred, but being wasteful just for the sake of it is wrong in any language.

I'm starting to really dread these meetings as I now know how it's all going to pan out. Swedes are very nice and considerate people, can't fault them for that. We could all learn a thing or two there. However, their over-riding concern for making sure that everyone feels equal often means that it's nearly impossible to get anyone to make a decision about anything. We sit there going around in circles and the only decision that seems to get made is one that says we'll all have a think about the problem and discuss it again at the next meeting. I'm used to a much more direct approach where the very purpose of a project meeting was to make decisions there and then. So I'm finding this to be very tiresome. Case in point: A couple of meetings ago, the client announced that they would like to break the project up into several portions to aid them with construction. That's a bit of a hassle for us as our system is designed to function as one complete unit. Not impossible, but not the approach I would personally have chosen. I explained that we could achieve what they wanted (after all, they are the client) , but that there would be some short term limitations before everything was connected up together. I turn up at the next meeting and the client starts talking about whether or not it's possible for me to break my work up into sections. Hello ? Didn't we already decide about that ? Apparently not. Lesson learnt, I clarified the situation by saying that, as they were the client, we would be following their request and would be delivering our assigned work in the portions they wanted. I repeated my comment from earlier that they should remember that there would be some restrictions on use until all parts had been delivered. This last statement was possibly a mistake on my part. I get to the meeting yesterday and the topic comes up as to whether (you guessed it) I could break my work up into the desired portions. I had a gutsfull of this subject by now, so I gave a one-word answer "YES". I then went one step further and insisted that the client write my answer into the meeting minutes while I watched. Case closed ? We'll see next meeting.

As a by-product of all this dithering, these meetings seem to be getting longer and longer. With not a great deal more to show for it. They are "supposed" to start at 1pm and finish at 4pm, but lately they have been extending out well past 6pm. Which is crazy. One time we had a 9am start because there was going to be a presentation by a specialist contractor. We all arrived at 9am, to find out that the specialst had cancelled their booking. So we commenced with our usual 1pm start meeting at 9am instead. Despite having FOUR extra hours at the start, the meeting that day finished not at 4pm, but at 7pm.

What is it that they say about the amount of working expanding to fit the time available ?

Because of all this, I get quite stressed thinking about the logistics of getting to and from the meeting. Ideally I'd take the train. It gets into Kiruna a couple of hours before the meeting starts, so that would be perfect. Time to have lunch and get myself properly organised. The problem is at the other end where I can't guarantee that we'll be finished before the train  leaves again. I hate just leaving things to chance, so another reason why I hire a car every time. Costs the client more than the price of a train ticket, and makes me more tired the next day, but I'm stuck for choices.

Sweden has a lot of people calling themselves Project Managers. Typically that just means they are just someone who knows a lot about their technical area, but have never been taught about how to really drive a project. This situation would never have happened back in NZ, and that intentional level of planning, focus and commitment is probably about the only thing I miss. That and steak & cheese pies.

Left is best

I'm pretty sure that I've talked about this before, but it fascinates me so much that it's worth mentioning again. Since living in Sweden I've been amazed about how many left handed people I've met. Last week, for example, I was in a meeting where I noted that 12 out of the 15 people at the meeting were left handed. I was one of the 3 "odd" people present. It's not just a "one off" group of people. Since I spotted it the first time, I've been making note when with other groups, and the trend is the same. There appears to be an aweful lot of left handed Swedes.

Now, why is that ? I've got a couple of theories. Firstly, the simplest answer, is that it is genetic. Like the high numbers of people with blond hair in Sweden, maybe there's simply more with a dominant left hand gene. Maybe it's that simple. I then thought about particular professions. Growing up in New Zealand, the only people I remember seeing who were left handed were doctors. Not all doctors were left handed, but all the left handed people I knew were doctors. Certain brain types and certain personality types are drawn to particular professions, that is quite obvious. So I wondered if there was a link between those types and left handedness. Possibly. But, if that was the case, then why did I not have any left handed co-workers in NZ ? I'm still working in the same industry, just in a different country.

This got me to the final point of pondering. Maybe there are the same number of left handed people around the world as there are right handed people. Maybe the difference is the approach towards young people in different countries and how youngsters who are left handed are treated during those impressionable years. When I went through school, I didn't know one person who was left handed. Not a one. I guess that meant I didn't have any future doctors in my class. No real surprise there. Had a couple of colour blind people though, if that helped any.  And some pretty mean surfers. Gives you some idea of the calibre of my classmates and I guess, by default, me. So I'm wondering if it was a difference in attitude between the educational systems of the good old Empire, and Sweden. There must have been naturally left handed kids at school with me. I can't have gone 13 years and not met a single one. I'm left assuming that those kids had the "left handedness" trained (a nice word for beaten) out of them right back at the start. Growing up in an English system it was (and largely still is) all about conformity and uniformity. Sweden, from what I have seen, is very strong in protecting the rights of the individual to be who they are. Right from the start. Ok, they might have gone a bit too far down that road as I do believe that people need to learn how to work together in a better fashion than the average young Swede can today. I can imagine that a child raised in a Swedish system would really struggle in a confined and regimented English system, while an English raised child probably couldn't believe their luck when placed into a Swedish educational system.

I don't know if that last point is the main reason for the phenomenum or not, maybe it's a combination of all the theories. But it is kind of weird. Equally weird is the number of Swedes I've met who have allergies towards animals. I knew even less of those types of people in NZ than I knew left handed people. I'm pretty sure that has to be genetic, so maybe the whole lefty thing is as well. Who knows.

Small signs of change

I decided this week to take the train to Kiruna for my regular project meeting. As I've written before I prefer to drive the 3 1/2 hours to Kiruna and then the same home again. Primarily because I'm basically an unsociable prick. I think I appreciate that part the most about Swedish society. Swedes speak when they have something to say, otherwise they usually don't go pestering you with so called friendly chit chat which is somewhat less than genuine. In that respect, I suspect I am a Swede trapped  in a foreigner's body.

Back to the train. I booked the train this time because one of my co-workers was going to be in the area on the same day and was driving back. So we could share a drive home. Not my ideal, but I made the sacrifice in the name of corporate relations. Anyway, he was so disorganised that he left it too late to hire a car. By that stage it was also too late for me, so I had to book a return train trip home. I have little patience for people who can't plan their time (which unfortunately includes me at times), so I was a bit miffed. The trip up was ok and I managed to do some long overdue reading. The only real annoyance was some stupid person further up the train who decided that singing for half an hour would lift everyone's spirits. It almost got her lifted off the train.

When I got off the train I found that 3 other of the meeting participants were also on the same train. Two were from the same region as me, while the 3rd was from the south of Sweden. As we had a bit of time to kill, we decided to walk the couple of kilometres from the train station to the LKAB project office.

A lot of Swedish company names end in the initials "AB", which is an abbreviation of the Swedish word "Aktiebolag". It's the Swedish version of the English "Ltd" only, unlike the English version, it's often attached the abbreviated name of a company instead of following after as  a separate word. The Swedish language joins a lot of words together, to form longer single words, so I guess it's no surprise that they do the same with this abbreviation. Bit of trivia there.

As I said, the walk to the project office wasn't too far and took us maybe 15 minutes. It's still a bit nippy in Kituna, around 2 or 3 degrees with a bit of wind coming in from Norway. I had a pair of gloves with me, so I was fine. One of my Norrbotten colleagues had his hat with him, while the other announced that he was yet to remove his thermal underwear for the summer. The guy from the south, well, I don't think I've ever seen a colder person in my life. I was actually a bit worried that he wasn't going to make it the whole way there. Then he spent the whole meeting fretting about having to walk back to the train station with us again. Which, of course, we did. Thoughtful bunch that we are. I had a bit of a smile to myself. A couple of years back, that would have been me. Totally unprepared and not even stopping to think that the conditions somewhere else might be different. The thing was that I didn't think about it either this time. It was just automatic to me to throw a pair of gloves into my work bag. I guess that somewhere along the way I've become Norbottenised. I was actually rather chuffed with myself.