Sweden is a dangerous place to live. No there haven’t been any terrorist attacks. No the mob doesn’t run an alcohol protection racquet over here; they leave that to the government. No its much worse I am afraid. They have Mothers Day at a different time than back in England.

Now if I were to go walking down any high street in England I would have to be pretty stupid not to notice one of the deadest dates in the year to forget was fast approaching. Every other shop window would be screaming at me to buy something for my dear mum. Mind you taking up everything’s-a-pound on their offer of 3 dishcloths for a pound might be more dangerous than to forget all about it.

Mind you this year I have had even bigger reminder than any high street could offer. A bitter mother. You see, with the absence of any gentle reminders last year mothers day slipped my mind. I know shocking as it may sound I am forgetful. So this year each phone call, each email has ended with “you do know what day it is this Sunday don’t you?” Well of course I do mum, its when the clocks change, the anniversary of the time the lift decided to get stuck with me in it and oh of course, a very happy mothers day.

Things may be looking up on the job front. Apparently there is a post as an English teacher helping Swedes with their business English in particular tax. Many positions require good English skills but seeing as the majority of young Swedes have good language skills anyway this doesn’t offer me much advantage. However this particular announcement specified a requirement for native English speakers that cut the field down somewhat.

I have spent this morning preparing my application for today’s post. I did get despondent at first when I tried to email them my application as the email bounced straight back to me. Seeing as the announcement didn’t want any phone calls regarding the position and an apparently non functioning email address I was beginning to question if they were a serious company at all. It seems I really must need some more sleep as the problem was due to some bad coding that attached the next word of the sentence onto the end of the email address.

So fingers crossed I might for once actually get an interview. If not I will just bear in mind my favourite bottle bank. People keep on dumping old rubbish on him but somehow he still manages to keep on smiling.

I think we have set a new world record. We have already fallen out with our new neighbours. It didn’t take a couple of weeks or a few days, no we managed to put their backs out before we had even moved in. The old couple above us are sulking as we choose to purchase the apartment on the ground floor instead of theirs on the first floor. They themselves had their eye on our new apartment as they would prefer not to have to walk up the flight of stairs. So now we are the evil couple who have moved in downstairs.

They wanted to know why we didn’t want theirs. We decided not to tell them because it was in a terrible state with ermm interesting decor, and just said it was as too much to do considering the price they were asking. I dread to think what they were saying when they heard all the noise when we laid the new floor over the weekend but really I don’t care. We would really have had to pull out so much more if we had gone for their place.

From people we know in the area they haven’t been looking that much before we came along. There are no other ground floor for sale at the moment in the housing association, but there have been fairly recently and they haven’t moved. It’s so much easier to blame us than look a bit closer to home.

It seems to be quite a gossip rampant area so have the associate probably thinks we are mean newcomers now. Nothing quite like making a good first impression.

Welcome to the relaunch of my blog. To those of you who are new to my site let me introduce myself. I’m James a 25 year old British expat living in Sweden. I have started this blog to describe a running challenge I have set myself. In September of this year I will be running the Stockholm half marathon. This will be followed with the London Marathon in April 2004 and the full Stockholm Marathon in the summer of 2004. I will be running this challenge on behalf of the charity Concern and their credit & savings programme in Cambodia helping people many of who have been affected by landmines.

What difference can a blog make? Can one man and his blog have any positive effect at all in combating the effects of landmines? Maybe a scratch on the surface, nothing you could really notice that however doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying. To the people affected on a personal level it will make all the difference in the world.

Of course I will be trying to rope in as many other bloggers as possible. The more people in involved the greater the effect will be. Donations can be made over a secure server at Justgiving.com and of course are more than welcome. Links to this site would also be gratefully received. Any help provide will be acknowledged on the Roll of Honour

I will also be commenting on other events in my life as I continue the process of becoming a British/Swedish hybrid.