I’m very sad about this weather. After 8.5 years in Sweden, you’d think I would have grown used to this sort of disappointment, but to be honest, the weather here has such a hold over people’s lives and moods, it’s hard to get away from it, and after last weekend, with its sunshine and warmth and buzzing bees, it’s doubly hard to deal with WINTER WEATHER IN JUNE. Again.
A 3-day weekend is looming, since Monday is a holiday here. Sweden’s National Day, which they finally gave themselves OFF after nearly a hundred years. June 6th has been Sweden’s flag day since 1916, when it was decided that because in 1523 on June 6th King Gustav Vasa was elected helping to lay the foundation for Sweden as a separate state, and because in 1809 on the same day, Sweden adopted a new constitution which included the establishment of civil rights and liberties. But it wasn’t a day off work until this year. It didn’t officially become the National Day until 1983, and when it was voted last year to make it an official HOLIDAY, the Swedish government felt it was only fair to take away another traditional day off to keep things even.
Much grumbling ensued, because the holiday they took away, Whitmonday, always guaranteed a day off work, since it, as you can probably tell by the name, always falls on a Monday, and June 6th, like the 4th of July, has a tendency to move around and fall on weekends occasionally, thereby gypping the working schmoes out of a day off. I think, however, that it’s really much more appropriate to have one’s country’s national holiday off, instead of the day AFTER a minor holiday of religious origins in a country of extremely non-religious people.
Anywho. Did I mention it’s raining? It’s rained drizzled all day. I’m currently sporting a very stylish tight-curled poodle-do. I like the word drizzle because it’s so perfectly descriptive, although I hate what it does to my hair. And the fact that everything, EVERYTHING I say, feels damp.
Grump, grumble, grizzle.
Cracking Me Up: He Went Bob Bob Bobbin’ Along