Religious taxes and a weekend in Stockholm

Well we're pretty much settled in now. The house is almost how we want it, I say almost because to be honest I doubt I'd get away without a few more trips to Ikea, and we're getting used to the local supermarkets, although we haven't tackled the BIG store near Vasteras yet. Laura is getting out and about with and without Isabelle and we've even managed to get in the garden and start to weed and plant to try and make it nice for the summer.
We had a great weekend in Stockholm. We visited the Vasa museum which was excellent and well worth a visit if anyone is thinking of visiting Sweden's capital. The only issue we had was Isabelle getting fed up after 45 minutes and wanting to play outside. I can't blame her really the weather was beautiful and we managed a couple of beers by the harbor watching the locals and tourists milling around and preparing their boats for the summer season. The rest of the time we wandered around the old town and visited the royal palace (although I'm told the King of Sweden doesn't actually live there) and Isabelle had her first childrens meal in a restaurant! When I say restaurant I mean Pizza Hut (apparently it's just easier with children). We all really enjoyed Stockholm and hope to visit more throughout the summer, it's only a 1 hour 45 minute drive from Fagersta and not incredibly expensive considering it's the capital (I'm talking about beer prices here).

I finally got my first paycheck from my new job this week and I was surprised to find out that here you pay tax (1.2% no less) to the church. Yes religion is still allowed to take money from the poor citizens of Sweden which I find absurd. In a country where 70% of the population are members of the Church of Sweden but less than 4% of those actually attend church (thanks Wikipedia) you'd think that the tax would be an opt in system instead of the current opt out. Needless to say I think we'll be holding onto our 1.2%... As soon as I can convince myself that I'm not going to burst into flames as soon as I cross the church entrance.

Also this weekend we got out into the back garden and started to tidy it up. Laura visited the local garden centre with Sara (one of our friends here) and managed to spend every krona she was sent out with (she can't convert it into pounds but she has no trouble spending it!) While I had to cut the foot long grass - it gets longer every time I tell this story... this is my 5th time -  using a 1950's man powered lawnmower. No electric mower here, sheer brute force and a lot of cursing finally clipped the grass to a reasonable level. Now I have to do it every weekend otherwise I'll have to go through the ordeal all over again (it is a good workout though). 

Finally Isabelle is now taking a couple of steps, she's saying a few more words - flufers instead of flowers is her current favorite - and she knows when she has an audience... little madame! She'll stand up by herself, wait for us to say good girl or clap her efforts to try to get her to move forward, then she'll give herself a round of applause and sit back down beaming to all like shes just conned you out of praise and you're the butt of the joke. If she wasn't so cute there'd be trouble... but how can you stay mad at a face like this...

 

OK that's it for now. We're back in the UK for a holiday next week so we'll look forward to seeing you all then. Oh and I hope you all enjoyed your bank holiday today. Here we get a half day Wednesday, day off Thursday, day off Friday and a day off next Monday... Are we glad to be here?... Damn straight we are!

Lots of love

Ben, Laura and Izzy x x x