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Apr 7, 2013

Good morning, sunshine

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Since Baby E decided to wake for the party at 5.50am (excuse me, mister, it’s Sunday…), I got up with him just after 6am and had breakfast with him. I was at a bit of a loose end after that, so I decided to give the new kettlebell a whirl when Husband got up and could keep an eye on the boys. Just a little session, as I am training again tomorrow afternoon.

3 rounds of:

  • two-arm kettlebell swings – 12kg
  • backward kettlebell lunges – 12kg

It felt good to have done a little exercise but it really showed (yet again) that I need to work on my cardio. My heart rate shot up and I was beginning to be out of breath. Urgh.

And all that lovely sunshine that I saw when I woke? Gone, and it’s only bloody snowing…

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Mar 31, 2013

Silent Sunday

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An English Mamma in Stockholm: Dalarna trees Sweden

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Silent Sunday

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Mar 16, 2013

Celebrity spotter no more

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An English Mamma in Stockholm: sven goran eriksson iphone photo

Can you see who it is?

Last night, Husband and I went out for a rare dinner together, just to a restaurant down the road, but a lovely evening out. And I committed a faux pas here in Sweden. I got all excited about a minor celebrity* who was standing in the doorway, deciding whether to come into the restaurant. Yes, I nudged Husband and tried surreptitiously to indicate to him who was there. But I’m afraid that all of that will have to change soon, because I have applied for Swedish citizenship. And acknowledging celebrities is just not the done thing in Sweden.

As of December last year, I’ve been living here in Sweden for five years, and so I decided to start the process to apply for citizenship as it gives me the right to vote in general elections here (rather than just local and EU elections) and also means I will have the same dual nationality as the boys. And then the talk in the UK of a potential referendum on Europe spurred me on actually to do something about it.

So I checked out the citizenship pages of Migrationsverket, the Swedish immigration authority. According to the website, to apply for citizenship as a citizen of an EU country you need to have been registered (folkbokföring) and have resided in Sweden for five years, have no criminal record, are over the age of 18 and be able to prove your identity (with a passport etc). As I qualify on all counts, my next step was to apply for permanent uppehållsrätt (permanent right to reside) in Sweden. The form for this was pretty straightforward and then I just had to send off some paperwork with it (a copy of my passport identification page, proof from Skatteverket, the tax authority, that I have lived and been registered here for five years, a confirmation from my employer (arbetsgivaresintyg), as my right to reside here is employment-based, and five years of tax confirmations from Skatteverket). Once you have been granted the permanent right to reside (or PUR), then you can apply for citizenship online. (I love this about Sweden!) After that, all you then need to do is send them your passport for a short while and that’s it: citizenship.

I duly did this and naively expected to hear a confirmation from them within a couple of weeks – after all, I am an EU citizen so it should all just be a formality, shouldn’t it? After a month, I gave them a call and discovered that the process can take as long as six months (and on the website it says that it is currently taking as long as 11 months).

What I also discovered was that there are two routes to citizenship: the way I have done it, applying for PUR first and sending in all the paperwork and then applying online; or applying online for citizenship and applying for PUR at the same time. The second method means that once you’ve applied online, you then need to send in all the paperwork. According to the woman I spoke to at Migrationsverket, the process is two sides of a square and takes pretty much the same time, whichever route you take.

So there you go: by 2014, I should have Swedish citizenship and will no longer be allowed to get all excited by the sight of celebrities mingling among us or to take bad iPhone photos of Sven Göran Eriksson.

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* It was Anders Bagge, one of the Idol judges, in case you’re interested… ;)

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Mar 2, 2013

Sephora excitement

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sephora biblioteksgatan shopping and fashion news sverige stockholm

Image from shoppingandfashion.se

In the last few weeks of my maternity leave I had a reminder on my phone, telling me to take the Roslagsbanan train to Täby. Why, you ask, what was there? Sephora is the answer.

Of course, as is the way with reminders (or is the way with me and reminders anyway), I never got around to going.

And then, just before I returned to work, I was wandering down Biblioteksgatan in the city and I saw that Sephora is opening a new branch in Stockholm, just metres away from my office. It opens at the end of March. I think my bank manager might be having words with me quite soon after…

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Feb 25, 2013

10% off for H&M club members

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An English Mamma in Stockholm: H&M robot pyjamas toddler Hennes Mauritz

Image from hm.com

If you’re an H&M Club member here in Sweden, you can get 10% off purchases today, tomorrow and Wednesday.

Maybe you’ll find a great preppy outfit for a toddler or something cute for a baby.

I picked up these great robot PJs for Little O. He loves them already and wanted to put them on straight away.

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Jan 2, 2013

Going a little nutty

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An English Mamma in Stockholm: Nutzer Mealbetween snack boxIt is going to seem as if I have a bit of thing for subscription boxes at the moment, but really it did happen by accident. I saw a Groupon offer for those nut boxes – something like three boxes for 49kr – and thought it sounded like a good deal. And then I forgot all about it for a month or so. I was going back through my inbox a couple of weeks ago and spotted the Groupon voucher, so I decided to do something about it.

It turned out that I have bought three boxes from a nut and fruit subscription service called Mealbetween/Nutzer. To use the voucher, you actually have to sign up and then you can cancel without cost after receiving the three from the Groupon offer. My first box arrived just after Christmas.

With all the hubbub of Christmas and family here, I did not open it up until just before New Year. In the box were four bags with different snack combinations:

- Date a Plum: walnuts, chopped dates and plums and pumpkin seeds

- Nuts Forever: walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds

- Cranberry Obsession: pecans, dried cranberries and almonds

- Baby Figs Blend: chopped figs, dried cranberries, dried apple

I was feeling a bit peckish, so I ate the Cranberry Obsession snack sachet. It was delicious. I think Baby Fig Blend would go well on some yoghurt at breakfast and I was looking forward to the other two as little snacks. Little O had other ideas, however, and has just insisted that we open a packet. So, we’ve just had Nuts Forever. I always thought that I preferred nuts when combined with dried fruit, to sweeten them up a little, but the combination of walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds was very tasty.

As I am heading back to work in mid-February (only seven weeks away – eek!), I think these little packages could be really good for me. I tend to find that I snack when I am sitting and being sedentary for long periods and that is just how my job is. I often only leave my desk for lunch or to make tea or coffee and to buy a chocolate bar from the machine, which is a habit that I don’t want to get back into. So, we’ll see if I want to carry on my subscription after the next couple of boxes.

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Dec 30, 2012

December’s Glossybox

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So, I was eagerly anticipating December’s Glossybox after receiving an email saying that it had been dispatched. It was a bit of a mixed one this month. I really liked a few of things that I received but, on the other hand, it did not feel as exciting as November’s box. Maybe it was just that November was my first box?

An English Mamma in Stockholm: December Glossybox

This month was the first anniversary of Glossybox in Sweden, so it was a special box. I received Showering Inferno body wash from Anatomicals (full size, rather than sample), Bronzing Face Cream from ACO (also full size), Zoya nail polish (again, full size), So Susan eyeshadow set, which is just lovely and should encourage me to start using eyeshadow again, and La Sultane de Saba ginger & green tea body lotion, which I am sure is just lovely, but try as I might I cannot get into the package.

When I look at the other things that I could have received, I am quite pleased with the products that I got. I don’t know why I am not so excited by this month’s box. Maybe it could be that the ribbon had not been tied on, just thrown into the box, and the tissue paper was torn. I know that sounds like a small thing, but for me, the packaging is a big part of the experience: untying the ribbon, opening up the tissue paper and looking at what is inside.

Perhaps it was also just that it came so near to Christmas, when so many other things were going on.

Anyway, I really am looking forward to the January box to see what is in there.

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Dec 12, 2012

Glossybox of delights

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After seeing a post on Facebook this morning that the December Glossybox is to be sent out at the beginning of next week, I realised that I owed you a post about what I received in my November box.

The moment that I received notification that my Glossybox was waiting for me, I dragged the boys down to the local postal collection point to get it. Now, this is actually not the most sensible thing really as our collection point is in a supermarket and you cannot enter a supermarket without Little O grabbing a wheely basket and rushing off to grab what he desires from the shelves. So before we’d even got two steps into the store, the battle started. In the end, I let him run around the store, filling up the basket as I quietly removed items again and we made it to the till with only a couple of things in there to buy. Incredible.

After that little detour, we collected the box and headed home.

I don’t know who was more excited to open the package: Little O or I… I had to take these photos really quickly as little fingers were making a grab for the contents of my Glossybox.

An English Mamma in Stockholm: November 2012 Glossybox

So, I would say that I did pretty well  for my first month. I received Vichy Idealia day cream, Modelco lip duo lipstick and gloss, Kerastase Elixir Ultime hair oil, Aquolina Pink Sugar body mousse and Glossybox pink blusher. I am especially pleased with the blusher, as it is a colour that I wear and the size means I can have it in my handbag, and the Kerastase hair oil, as I already have the original version and Glossybox sent me the green one. Also, the Vichy cream is lovely and has made me skin feel so soft – a pretty mean feat in this cold winter weather. The lipstick is a bit of a pale colour for me but given that they send out over 20,000 of these boxes each month*, they cannot get it spot on for each of us!

All in all, I am really happy with my Glossybox subscription so far. A service like this suits me well, as I love getting packages through the post (well, apart from the trauma of collecting them with a toddler along for the ride…), I love the surprise of seeing what is in the box and I am a sucker for anything in nice packaging.

And now I only have to wait a few more days before receiving the next box. Fantastic!

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* As I read in an article in Dagens Industri this morning. I was going to link to the article as it was interesting, but I cannot find it on their website and the search function on the site brought no hits when searching on Glossybox, the name of the CEO or on the journalist who wrote the article. Come on, DI! Just because you’re the only financial daily paper in Sweden doesn’t mean you should not make an effort!

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