Winter Is Coming

At the risk of sounding like a Game of Thrones character, winter is coming to Skåne.  My suspicions were confirmed when the Helsingborg Stads Facebook page posted an article on how to empty your swimming pool correctly for the approaching change in season!

For me it started a couple of weeks or so ago. I was up at 6.30am to let the dogs out; the sun's heat was a little bit weaker as it peeped over the neighbourhood houses, the breeze picked up and I shivered just a little bit.  It made me think of late September days in Devon, where it might be a little chilly in the morning, but you know the day is going to end being gloriously warm.  Indeed, it got much warmer, and we ended our day with a pre dinner dip in the sea.

However the water temperature has got noticeably cooler now; long gone are the heady days of 19 degrees, the water is about 11 degrees, although the thermometer is showing 32c - I have a feeling it might be broken......., and I no longer take part in the family evening dips, it's far too cold, but Jim and Maisie are still, bravely, going as often as possible whilst Ned and I watch from the side cackling with laughter and little sympathy! Dry Robes for Christmas I think.

I was once nicknamed 'Single Vein' by one of Jim's uni mates due to my tendency to feel the cold, and perpetual cold hands, I am often wrapped up in layers, hat, scarf and gloves.  So it has come as a bit of a surprise that I am still hatless (mostly), gloveless and still have my jeans rolled up!

Tanned ankles!

We're still trying to work out the seasons here.  It sort of feels like the UK, but not quite.  Spring and summer are a bit later and shorter, so I'm guessing that autumn and winter will be earlier and longer! We're not quite in sync with it all yet either. It still feels warm enough to not wear a coat, but during the school run one morning, in jeans (still rolled up!) and a jumper, I noticed that, whilst my kids are not wearing coats, a lot of the other kids seem to be wearing their autumnal wardrobes - thicker coats, hats and one girl was wearing earmuffs..... indeed Ned is still wearing shorts!

The evenings have got darker a lot earlier too, and so we're embracing the concept the Scandinavian concept of 'hygge' and cosying up under blankets, candles everywhere and the occasional open fire.  By 7.30pm the lamps are on, and once the kids are in bed, we sit and watch the skies change and are  stilling treated to some amazing sunsets.

Sunset over Denmark

And although I was hopeful to extend my summer wardrobe a bit longer, my single vein has noticed the dip in temperature and I have now taken to wearing my hat a little bit, mostly for evening strolls (plus the occasional bad hair moment!), but I am resolutely still Not Wearing my Gloves.

Maisie and me

Am hoping to make it to October before that happens!

....and so it gets real(er)

Swedish officialdom is tricky to negotiate when one does not speak the language.  We're lucky.  When we first arrived, we had the relocation agency who helped us register for our personnummers, doctors, etc and we live in an area where there are a huge number of multi-national businesses whose working language is English, therefore lots of people speak English. And if all that fails, there's always good old google translate.

The government offers immigrants 300 hours of free Swedish lessons in immigrants. SFI, Swedish For Immigrants, lessons are provided via your local kommun, you have to register (when you have your personnummer), decide on a school, hours etc.
Whilst Ned wasn't at school, he provided me with the perfect excuse not to register for classes - I can't take him with me, and I can't do classes in the evening when Jim is away as I have no one to look after the kids, and although Sweden is a fairly laid back nation, I think leaving your children unattended for 4 hours in the early evening might be frowned upon, and I could find myself in a spot of bother 😳.

With school starting, my alibi has disintegrated, so I took the plunge and registered. (We did try to register earlier in the summer, but the waiting list was only 3 weeks and given that we were just about to embark on 9 weeks of school holidays, the lady advised us to come back.)

Whilst our arbortive attempt had been quite easy, this time it appeared my luck had run off. The old office was really central, easy to find and convenient.  However SFI moved locations over the summer.

Jim was flying to London, so he came with me to help find the new office before getting the train.  We drove around and found the right street, but couldn't see anything that looked likely, so I went to park whilst Jim headed off to the station.

I walked along the street looking for the place, couldn't find it, although I did see lots of people walking with purpose towards one building, but I couldn't see where they went and I wasn't going to turn around and look lost! Dear god, I nearly cried with frustration trying to find the bloody place.  It's all well and good having an address that states the street number, in this case 10, but when there is 10D, 10C, 10B and 10A HOW DO YOU KNOW WHICH ONE YOU NEED?!! 

So in a sulk I walked back to the car, found a wifi spot and started looking again.

Second time I had more luck and even though I wandered into a building site first off, I eventually found the right door.  Went in and had one of those quite awful conversations, where my Swedish isn't good enough, and the receptionists English wasn't that great, but we got it sorted in the end and I was given a number and shown where to sit.

The building is being renovated, and it was in complete chaos.  No-one seemed to know where to go, or what to do, so thankfully I wasn't the only one who looked slightly shell shocked (including the staff!).  Anyway I got called into an office, and was asked if I wanted to speak in Swedish or English..... Ummmm let me think about that, I'm here to register for Swedish language lessons.......?  We had a chat about me and what level of education I have & if I can speak any other languages and if I knew what school I wanted to study at. There are a lot of schools in Helsingborg that offer SFI, but only 2 meet my criteria (9am start and distance learning), and the advisor couldn't advise me which one might be better - they are both good and that was it!  Still I am now registered. Google translate can be retired (well maybe in about 5 years) and I can now start to fully integrate....... Just let me finish my cup of tea and marmite on toast first.....