Carter’s blog: Svenska dagen 2010-10-26

Blog 10

Dear reader, we’ve made it to double figures for the Blog and we’ve made it there together. Hopefully I will be back to a more regular writing schedule now, at least twice a month I would hope.

The latest news here in Sweden is that the nights are drawing in and the first signs of winter are definitely here. It only bloody snowed last Friday! I’ve included some photos, one from my bedroom window and one from my walk to the train station. Fortunately it wasn’t cold enough for it to last any longer than a day, although there have already been several sub-zero nights in October. The snow gave a foreboding warning of things to come. I arrived in Sweden in mid-March 2010 and it was still dark, snowy and freezing then so the prospect of dark, snowy and freezing weather from now until next March is hardly filling me with joy! So to you back home be careful what you say about the weather to me over the next few months. If I hear you complaining about the English weather I might be tempted to hire a gunman to come round to your house and kneecap you with a shotgun; you have been warned.

In other news the more observant reader will have noticed that there have been a couple of small cosmetic changes to the Blog. If you look to your left (below my 3 followers) you will see a hit counter (hits from July 2010 onwards) and a spinning globe with your location pinging (at least you should if your accessing from a computer). So now not only do I have my own vanity webpage where I tell you all about me and my musings. I now have vanity statistics to go with it, how many hits, where from etc, etc. Now before the more paranoid amongst you get worried I never know who is accessing the web-page or how often. This means that I can never tell how many times any one person has looked at the Blog.

Anyway the point of me telling you this is that I’m going to try and make the Blog more interactive and interesting. I’m going to make one request of you my devoted reader and give you two things in return. First each Blog I’m going to give you a link to something interesting* I found on the internet in the time between Blogs. Second I’m going to give you a fascinating* statistic each Blog; this statistic might be about the Blog itself or something else out in the real world. Along with these two fabulous freebies, I already give you a ‘free’ link to a song you should listen too whilst reading the Blog, the content of the Blog will occasionally take on a more philosophical prose based on whatever might be going on in my mind at the particular time of writing. This is instead of me just giving you 700 word status updates.

Taking these things into consideration then my request from you is that wherever you might go in the world and should you be on a computer with an internet connection have a look at the Blog to give me a yellow pin on the spinning globe to your left. Now it doesn’t matter if you go to Birkenhead, Benidorm or Bali. All hits are created equal. I know that certain readers (of which you may be one) travel regularly and international travel usually involves periods of waiting and boredom, what better way to spend 30 seconds than looking at your favourite Blog, and if you're that way inclined you can also leave a message from wherever you might be, bragging about how good it is.

Statistic: This months statistic is courtesy of blogger statistics. As you can see if you look to your right my Blog apparently has international appeal! Or more likely people have accidentally stumbled upon my Blog page from different countries. The UK unsurprisingly is my main audience thanks no doubt to Sarah's keen interest. Remember though pageviews don't equal page reads. Now how can I enhance my international appeal? Suggestions on a postcard to ...

Web-link: I found this on the Arcade Fire website http://www.arcadefire.com/wutw/  it’s an interactive video of their recent single We Used to Wait, which I quite like. Enter your home address and it uses visuals from Google Earth/Street View to make your home town the star of the video. Have a go, listen and enjoy.

Well I think that pretty much ties things up for this Blog. Hopefully next time you’re here either Liverpool FC will have won some more matches following our win against Blackburn or Roy Hodgson has been shown the door, either scenario would make me happy. Until then, hej då.


* interesting and fascinating to me and hopefully you too