How to be more Danish

Imagine yourself 6 billions of ants walking around in a small space. They are walking in groups in a hurry to be in time at a spot at a certain time. Some of them are carrying special leaves from certain trees and are valued higher as a member in their community because of this. This sounds silly for us looking at them from above. They spend time in groups and in each group the patterns are important. Everyone must follow the stream, otherwise you´ll not be accepted. When you go down into one small group of one little percent of this huge amount of ants they have their own language and their own traditions even if they are a small part of the big scenario of billions of insects. If one of the ants communicate a little differently from the rest of the group they are valued a lesser member of the group than the rest. They have to work harder and better to achieve the same status as the rest. When you look at the whole picture and have all those billions of ants walking around in groups you don´t understand why this little group can take it so dead seriously following the pattern in different ways. If you convert this picture into humans and their ways of living there is one thing for us Swedes to consider. We are rated high in the world as diplomats and employees. We are always very dedicated to our work and reliable. But there are some things I think we should consider in all of this. I am not saying that all Swedes follow this stream but we have a way of value members higher if they are alike and are doing like the rest.

When you dive into this community of time tables, status, values, languages and look around you, you can see that everyone is chasing that leaf or that language or whatever. I think for us Swedes it would be good to see everything from above once in a while. Perhaps we could loosen up a little bit and don´t take everything so seriously. Swedes have lots of good talents but we also have some we should get rid off. One of them is planing so much in details and be so deternminded in following our plan. We ought to reconsider our plan everyday and be more flexible. The world is moving faster and there is not time for timetables. I thing we ought to do more like the Danish. They are more relaxed at least from my experiences. They must be doing something right cause you are seeing danish companies everywhere and they are managing to go from one success to another. I have heard many Swedes being annoyed of the Danish when they are changing their plans and look at the time table as something flexible. Perhaps this is a good thing. At least for us Swedes to learn. Some people seem to want to follow a time table, a budget, a prognosis or whatever when the most important task should be to get higher profit or be happier. Don´t you think?

Have a nice weekend
Anna

I wonder where is Madonna now when she needs her and not the other way around!

Here you see my favorite car and it is made by Neo. It is an embroidery. Neos Christmas gift for dad!

Everyone knows that teenager are revolting against their parents. That is nature when you are 16 and feel big as ever. I remember when I was 16-18 years old. I don´t think I ever felt as adult after as I did then. You are supposed to test your abilities without your parents. I did as well with lots of make up and strange clothes that I liked. This is common sense. Most of us tend to ask for advice from our parents or help, if we got into truble. This is reasonable because hopefully the adult lead the child the right way. Imagine yourself a child having so much money that you can buy anything in the world. Being one of the most famous in the world. Everybody is reaching out for you and you get everyone’s attention. Everybody is looking at you. Madonna is wearing your name on her shirt at a concert. It is natural that you end up with people who cares only about money around you. You are an easy target.
These are not good parameters for a young person and there is a big risk that this person get stuck with people trying to feed on you and your fame. I don´t think anyone of us parents would like our child to be in that situation.

I am of course talking about Britney Spears. What could her mother do?! I don´t know much about the history of this girl but something tells me that her mother and people who care for her haven’t had the ability to reach her. Britney’s life has become very tragic and it is not strange that it has come to this when she has been exploited at such a young age.

I am not much for her music and I have never identified with the characters in any of her videos. I guess there are a lot of men drooling while seeing her dancing. She has been a product of men in black suits and she has given them a lot of money. Where are they now?

Lately I have really come to feel sorry for her. Being a mom you suffer when you see someone get hurt like she has been, and loosing the most important she got in this wheel of commerce: her children. From what I understand she hasn´t been the best mum but she is the mum and she is in a very delicate situation with everyone’s eyes on her. I can´t imagine myself being in her situation. I wish more people around her thought more of her best than how much money they can earn on her.
The worst thing I have seen is this site where you can bet on when she will die. That is awful. What kind of people do that? I wrote about a line you shouldn´t cross morally while buying things. This is surely such a line. I read a quote yesterday where a guy said; “Please keep her alive, otherwise they will play her songs for weeks”. It is not a nice society we live in.

I wonder where is Madonna now when she needs her and not the other way around?! I wish I was Madonna just to be able to help this poor girl. Cause I don´t think she will listen to many people today.

Turn this wheel around and make a nice thing for someone you don´t have to today.

Sleep well
Anna

A slogan sounds cool but no one understands it

I read an article about Richard Branson in Time Magazine today and he seems like an inspiring person with a fresh mind who goes his own way successfully and also without following the stream.
He has aeroplanes flying all over the world and instead of flying less he proclaims to fly more and pledge that 100% of the profits goes to developing clean new fuels. He plans to fly one 747 using clean fuel next year to prove that this can be done. This guy also has dyslexia and actually thinks that this has helped him in his work. In his company they use normal language instead of using phrases that nobody understand, like “financial service industry”.

Without mentioning any companies here in Sweden I think this would be something that really would help advertsing give more results. Use language and words we understand and don´t make it so complicated. We don´t have the time for that. Sometimes it seems as if a slogan sounds cool but no one understands it, it’s better than the other way around?! Is it? You tell me? What also is cool with Branson is that he hardly ever says “no”. He is known as “Mr. Yes” because whenever someone comes up with an idea he encourages that person to try it out within reasonable limits.

Mother called me last week and told me; “Anna you have to stay up to see the stars on the Castle tonight?!” I was a bit surprised cause the TV-show was due at 23.40 and I go to bed at the latest at ten. Sometimes I don´t know what she is thinking. The TV-show was about old stars. If you are a Swede you know them and if you are from abroad you might know some of them: Britt Ekland, Peter Stormare, Arja Saijonmaa, Jan Malmsjö and Magnus Härenstam participated in this show. Mother’s urge almost made me laugh. I never have the time to see TV-shows and suddenly there is a demand from my mother that I have to see these grand old ladies and men. I told her I wouldn´t, but for some reason I sat by the TV at 23.00 waiting for the show to start that evening. Everyone except me were sleeping in our house. Or should I say I was half asleep as well. Afterwards I must say that it was interesting for me as a Swede to see these people talking about everything they have been through and done, even though It seemed a bit like bragging, but you know us Swedes; we don´t like when someone is giving themselves compliments. They should come from someone else. At this matured age like these people are in, 50-70 is my guess, they don´t care what media or someone else think so I must say that this was the most interesting reality show in a long time. Britt Ekland suddenly gave Arja Saijonmaa the evil eye and told her that she shouldn´t be so rude to a gentleman like Magnus and ask him such a personal quesiton. I couldn´t help watching the show after this and saw Arja Saijonmaa who fixed herself a beautiful cool tango dress while she told Britt to take some cheap shit on her, and made her dance while Arja was the instructor. Britt did it reluctantly. It didn´t looked good but she agreed and that was fun. The person who interests me the most in this group is Peter Stormare. He has a really nice personality and attitude. He is a cool Swede. I will check out what he has planned for the others in the next show.

Yesterday we had our first day in snow here in the Western of Sweden. The photo is from that beautiful day!

All the best from me,
Anna

How does your company get the best staff...

It is a new year today! When it is a new year I always think about how the year will look when I write the figures. Like when you see a painting with the name and the year under. I think 2008 will look great when I write it on some of my paintings. If I get the time to do any.

When I find articles about the company Google I tend to read them. I think that is an interesting company. I think they understand what many companies don´t today. At least here in sweden. I think quality and good staff comes from above. If the owner takes care of the employees, the employees will see their working hours as more than an job. I read that Google serves all kinds of food for free. They have a daycare within the company so that parents can go and get their kids and eat together. It is easy staying a while after working hours since the daycare keeps open whenever you need to leave the kids. Apart from all the benefits and fun these people have working at this company they also have a different approach to business. I read this in the latest article “TALK” I got when I was flying with Malmo Aviation a few months ago. When they decide if they want to release a new product they don´t ask how much money it will bring. They ask themselves how many users it can get. This is pretty unusual and the reason is that the company is run by technicians and not by s sales department like most other companies. Like they said: “If there is enough users, there will be money coming in the future”. Another fun thing I read is that the employees can use 20 % of their working week to develop a project of their own liking. They can work with an idea they have been thinking about and it can be anything as long as it’s a possible future product of Google. When you feel ready, a board will take a decision if you will get promoted with money and staff to realize your baby. It is not strange that this company comes up with so many great ideas.

I have a friend who applied for a job at this company. I think it would be fun just to hear about all these great things they are doing. I hope she gets to the interview and also that they realize that she is a great girl.

Have you heard about someone who ordered a bottle of wine and sent it out after tasting it? We used to joke about people doing that cause I’ve never thought one bottle of red wine were that different from another, and we never ordered anything but the wine of the house. After finding this Amarone Alpha Zeta wine, I have been talking myself warm about this experience of finding a special Amarone wine that I think is the greatest I’ve ever tasted. I don´t know if I am the reason but the this wine was impossible to find in any liquor store in our town a few days before Christmas. Perhaps a few others than me have discovered this excellent wine. When we visited our favourite restaurant last week Fred ended the order with; “Bring one bottle of Amarone in as well”. When they came to the table the bottle was another Amarone than the one they used to have. We got a bit dissapointed. Fred tasted, I tasted and we really looked disappointed. It was nothing wrong with this wine but the taste was very different from the one we had tasted a couple of weeks ago. The waitress told us that they were out of the old one and this was the replacement. It was a bit embarassing but we had to send the bottle out. The waitress recommended another one, but there is nothing like this. It has such a nice raisin taste.

Let´s hope 2008 will be the best year ever!
Anna

It doesn´t feel like Christmas this year

Written 22´nd of December.
This Christmas has been pretty smooth. Not many Christmas gifts to buy and we are not celebrating in our home. We are not travelling far to our family. Yet I can´t find time to do the usual things. My Christmas cards are still laying in the kitchen. I knew this was coming so I am aiming for a new year card this year.

It doesn´t feel like Christmas this year. It is pretty warm outside and not a single snow flake is around. This morning we had our Chrismas brunch with our dear neighbours and friends. It is nice to start the Christmas weekend by sitting at a table full of food and just take it cool and chat. The children were playing and opening presents and had their fun for the day. We compared the gift we got from the companies where we work and F told us he got an Olympus digital camera with 7megapixels resolution. All and every one of those from his employer. Not bad. I wouldn´t mind getting an extra camera. This thing with buying gifts to the employees must be difficult for the one responsible. They can never find something that everyone like. I couldn´t imagine what that might be. Money? Free time? I don´t know what I would buy. Something extra special I think. Glass or hand made stuff. I wouldn´t like my employees to asscociate my company with cheap shit. Maybe thats why I am having this webshop. I like quality and hand made stuff with nice design.

The funniest things with Christmas has nothing to do with yourself. It is to see Christmas through childrens’ eyes. They believe Santa is really coming and they behave cause I would tell Santa otherwise. Today Neo who is fully into learning the Swedish language got confused about Polkagris (candy) and gris (pig). I don´t think about that these words are almost the same but very different. Anyway my mother suggested he make a pig (gris) in marzipan and Neo made a polkagris stick in marzipan. That was the first I have ever seen. He doesn´t like marzipan and let me have the whole creation. I didn´t mind eating it. It was very delicious.

Today the postman delivered the post on a Saturday. That only happens the Saturday before Christmas day. We got some cards today. I have been eager to send cards past few years but this year I am just enjoying others. It is fun to see all crativity among everyone.

Santas with cotton candles in their hair

Today I am looking forward to seeing my cute little son and daughter dressed as small Santas with cotton candles in their hair. Today it is Lucia’s Day. It is the day when all cities in Sweden have choosen their own Lucia and she sings Christmas carols with candles burning in her hair. The children form a line with Lucia first and usually there are some starboys and small Santas aswell. My kids couldn´t decide what to be so they are a combination of Santa and Lucia. Usually it is girls who get to be the Lucia but I encourage my children to be whatever they feel like without thinking about gender.

We have been up early to listen to this fantastic song and eat Lusse buns.

All the best from me to you
Anna

Stories from real life are the most amazing ones

When I choose books to read I tend to always read books from real life. I think fiction has to be realistic and the real stories don´t have to. That is why the stories from real life is the most amazing ones. I often think about different personalities I meet during the days. They most often make me laugh. I have one of them at work. Tall guy with proffessor hair, a bit like the Einstein haircut. Look as if he hasen´t left the computer during his whole life. He has to have everything his way. The world has to change if he wants that. He is that stubborn. He almost never ask anything and when he does he whisperers. He loves cookies but he never brings any himself. He is brilliant at working with computers, almost nobody can compete with him there. He can have all his habits as long as he does what he is good at. Talking zeros and ones.

The Nobel Prize party is taking place tonight. A lot of Swedes are sitting by the TV looking att the ceremony taking place. Usually I watch some of it and it is always fun to see our king and queen and there are a lot of discussion of what she is wearing. I would love to be invited to this some time. Like I said this morning. I have to wait until my daughter or son is receivning the Nobel price... and I will probably do it from above then.

The Nobel price winners often describe how fantastic and also scary it is to be awakened by a white dressed girl with candles in her hair. The Swedish Lucia is always singing for the winners at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm. They enter the rooms when the guests are in their beds early, early.

I have no clue of what to do as a christmas card this year. I have no time and no idears... yet. I post one from 05 on the top to inspire myself a little bit.
Have you made all yours?

All the best from me
Anna