swedish meatballs (lack thereof)

Okay, i have been totally delinquent in blogging. I'll bet i'm the first one ever.

I tend to get busy on things, and when i focus on something, other things fade away completely and utterly. That's why you, dear reader, will have to endure long absences. I did jot down some notes along the way for future blog entries though. Maybe i'll write them up at some point.

I've still been working 10 and 12 hour days. I'm making progress, but i'm not very organized yet. You could say that i'm getting things done but not Getting Things Done, if you were clever with words, and knew the backstory.

This morning we have to go to the bank. Yawn, no big deal, you're thinking. Wrong. In this country, getting a bank account is a Very Big Deal. It's been five weeks since we applied for one, and it still isn't operational. That's why we're going to try another bank. Wish us luck.

We were also without broadband internet service for a month. Poor Xan called that useless company a dozen times, trying to get some resolution to the problem. We would have punted them if they weren't the only game in town (unfortunately, they know that, and abuse it).

These aren't the only examples of things not working. Far from it. I was warned about the poor service here, but wow. After living in a country like Canada, nothing prepares you for this kind of neglect.

While trying to understand the reason for our annoying split taps, Xan stumbled on a blog entry from a Swedish couple living in Ireland (Sweden parallels Canada in many ways, apparently). It has so many insightful observations on the differences in cultures that i'd like to recycle it for today's blog entry. Kindly read their article, replacing "mincemeat" with "fruit-bottomed fromage cottage". Thanks, Sven and Kari!

Impressions of Ireland (http://www.rosvall.ie/Intryck_eng.html)