Borders mean bugger all

Dont think because you are in Africa and that I am in a first world developed country that things are always better.
Just a few things of the weeks thats been
There's been an outbreak of bacteria in the water in Östersund, thousands (read 20) of people have had been stricken with stomach ailments this last week. There is a plea to boil all our water, even for brushing teeth. Ja ok thanks.

The train service has been given a dunce award this week, after refusing to assist a disabled man off at his stop, so he had to travel to the last stop in the train line. This comes one week after I had a lovely 12 hour ride with the train service, which actually was a bus ride, not a train.

Temperatures have not risen about -7. This means that everything is frozen outside. It also means that bikes dont work to well. My bike for one disintegrated, it fell apart. Other peoples bikes have snapped chains, brakes fail due to being iced up. And most people have at least one story of falling off on ice.

On the other hand, things still work, Christmas comes early, its the first advent so there are lights, candles and decorations everywhere. The smell of glögg and spices fills most peoples places you visit and everywhere people are getting more cheery and actually respond to a friendly hello.

So just signing off from another average week...

To keep you relatively informed of the happenings

News in Östersund (In swedish)
News ÖP

Weather in Östersund
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Web Camera's in Östersund
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Day light savings and two decades back in fashion

Time for an update on a few things that have been going on in Östersund.

Firstly, the most notable thing that changes daily is the weather. On average, since August, the sun has been setting about 20 minutes a week earler. Some days it loses up to 6 minutes in time that it shines. Its the most bizarre sensation. the sun starts setting at 15h30 and by 16h30, its dark, and I mean DONKER! Makes you want to start cooking supper.
It also explains another aspect of fika. The midafternoon slump, and to fool yourself that you dont need to make supper at 4 PM, you have a fika, it works wonders.
But not so much for the waisteline!
To combat this lose of daylight, most European countries (and Namibia, strangely enough) introduces Daylight Savings Time. As from the 31st of October, all watches move back one hour. No its not a halloween prank, its serious.
So come Sunday morning, i set my alarm clock...wake up, get ready for church, and realise I am one hour ahead...DOH! I can almost assure you that I was not the only one who was an hour early.
When summer comes and I have to move it foreward an hour its going to be fun explaining that.
So, Sweden, who was GMT +2, is now GMT +1. Takes a bit of getting used to:)

And to coincide with the first Day Light Savings time, I have started a movement here, a fashion movement that is a few decades back in time, not one hour.
"Mo"-vember. Growing a Moustache for the Month of November, hence: MOVEMBER. Its actually an australian concept (trust them to come up with it), but its actually for a good cause. Check out www.za.movember.co.za for the laugh.
So a clean shaven look persists for this week and a moustache will follow suit, I will post a picture for sure.

So, a preview for the next post: LONDON BABY!!