I spotted this guy on Sunday on one of the squares in Stockholm.
He was totally at one with the hula hoop.
I couldn’t resist capturing it for posterity.

This post mainly relates to a UK citizen marrying a Swedish citizen, though could be useful to people from other EU countries…

Sofia and I are getting married in just under two months. The wedding will be in Småland, Sweden and we’re really excited about our friends and family who are coming! As we’ve been preparing I’ve been able to learn a bit more about the legal side of marriage over here. I’m a UK citizen (and resident) and Sofia is a Swedish citizen (and resident). Here’s the process we have gone through so far…

1. Certificate of No Impediment: I visited a registry office in the UK and notified them of my intention to marry Sofia.  I had to show them various forms of identification and provide them with her details, as well as the details of where we will be getting married.  These are placed on a notice board for 6 weeks to give members of the general public an opportunity to notify them if I have been married before.  Once the 6 weeks are up, the Certificate of No Impediment is issued.  According to Swedish law, the certificate is valid for 3 months from the date of issue.
2. Marriage Licence: Next we visited Skatteverket (the Swedish Tax Office), filled in forms and provided them with our IDs (Passport for me, ID card for Sofia) and the Certificate of No Impediment.  They took photocopies of our IDs and the Certificate and will mail us the Licence within 2 weeks. This license will be valid for 4 months, so it was important that we visited Skatteverket at the right time: too early and we would have a license that expired before our wedding, too late and our Certificate of No Impediment would expire.
3. The Wedding: This can be officiated either by a state official (at a District Court, or City Hall), or a Vicar (in this case it’s the person, not the venue, that counts).

Here are a few resources you might find useful if you’re going through this process:

• Embassy of Sweden, London: Getting Married in Sweden
• About.com: Swedish Marriage License Information

(photo: Sharaff)

I’d like to introduce a site I just finished. It’s a magazine website that used to be called South of Sweden, but has just been renamed The Scandinavian Insider. It’s a Business and Lifestyle magazine focussed on Southern Scandinavia.

One of the biggest challenges was working with Expression Engine, a CMS that I’ve never used before. I’ve been very impressed with its ability to handle data, but there have been a few minor issues that took forever to solve.

I ended up getting interviewed briefly by a Swedish Newspaper yesterday lunchtime. This morning, when Christopher’s paper came through the door, there I was.

Here’s a sketchy translation for you non-swedish speakers:

How much would you pay to download a song off the internet?
About 3 kronor (just over 30p)

Do you download music?
Yes, I recently downloaded the new Radiohead album for £2

For those of you who think I’m a skinflint for paying so little, I assure you that they received more from me this way than they would if they were signed to a big record label.

Check out downhillbattle.org for more on this.
Click here for the original article.

Early this evening I begin my journey back to Sweden. When I get there tomorrow morning I’m moving in with Dave and Christopher.

Assuming climate change hasn’t taken it’s toll yet, this will be my 3rd cold Autumn/Winter season in Sweden. Sucker for punishment?