Couch 53 Bringing it All Back Home

Hey CL...congrats. I was thinking you get your POOHBAH badge at 2000, and with the poobah badge comes a special treat (that actually isn't a treat, as some have said). Maybe Hank is right, maybe it's 3000, I'll have to go look. But you can change your title in your profile.

Enjoyed my time at the wildlife clinic yesterday...those fish crows are a riot. They are so prehistoric looking! And huge for baby birds, but the smell is putrid. I have to hold my breath to simply pass the enclosure.

Get this people: Today I need a haircut! Wahoo! My first real haircut since chemo made me bald. It's wild and crazy, and really needs to be cut. Woot. Woot. Woot. I can't wait. I am feeling like ME again. Did I say Woot? ha ha ha. Wahoo too.

Congrats to you on the haircut situation.

Morning Wikid! Congrats on the haircut! Are you getting it colored as well?

Hey MKAC Hows things?

I'm stressed about work. Trying to get a brief done. Worked until about 9 last night and got up about 4:30am to work on it. I should say "work" because I am taking breaks to play, obviously.

Mainly I think I got up because of the nightmares.

I saw you were talking about getting started on a housing / job search a few hours ago. How do you go about that in your area? Housing here is still a matter of grabbing a newspaper, in a lot of smaller areas.

In my area it's a matter of affordability. That's why I'm living in student share house. On my govt payments I can only afford a room which costs me $130 a week. If I get a decent job I might be able to afford a cheap 1 or 2 bedroom flat. Cheap ones start at around $180 a week but generally should be condemned. A decent 2 bedroom flat would set me back $250 + a week.

A 2 bedroom miners cottage here starts at $300/week

I haven't had a nightmare for soo long. I quite like getting a full nights sleep, it's novel.

Wow! I pay about $450 a MONTH for my house. Even the more expensive areas for rentals here are no where near that. A thousand a month gets you something really nice.

Maybe I should move to the US.

Hey BPA... the apartments here start at about $1800 for a 2-bedroom. I do hope you find something livable and quaint. A place where you can be happy. Good luck.

MKAC ... good luck with the brief. That must be frustrating. I am not getting a color today, just a cut. Thinking about color for the future though.

I had a dream last night that my daughter was dating the Chumley guy from the show Pawn Stars. But, he was a hairdresser, and he put an expensive treatment in my hair without telling me it was an expensive treatment, so when the bill came up it was $200 (the same amount as the TV bill my brother has my mother paying) and I refused to pay it. ROFL. A rather benign dream for once, it's actually sort of amusing this morning. I can't wait to tell my daughter that in my dream she was making out with Chumley. Ha ha ha.

There are advantages and disadvantages to every place, I suppose.

I saw a house that I LOVE for only $180K, but it is in a weird neighborhood. One of those places where you have a gorgeous old Victorian right next to a shanty. I love that house SO much though. I wish I could find a house like that in the country with land, but then it would be 300K or more.

Here in Podunk-ville, $1800 a month would get me a VERY nice house. One house I really liked had a payment of $1200 a month if you put 10% down.

I'll just keep on trying. It would be nice to have a place to bring the girls for a weekend and holidays.

Dang. I would hate to tell you how much I pay for this place! But our gas is over $4/gallon too. The prices here are nothing compared to what you'd pay in Boston though. Here a home that goes for $250,000 would be a small 4-5 room ranch with tiny bedrooms on less than a quarter of an acre. My wash/cut/blowdry today will be $50 (not including the tip).

There are a couple of different sets of rivalries, based on our history. Denmark was the Main Enemy of Sweden up until the late 18th century or so. In 1523, Sweden broke out of the union with Denmark and Norway that had lasted for a couple of hundred years with Denmark ruling over the other countries, and that animosity lasted for a long, long time. Norway was ceded to Sweden from Denmark in 1814, and was in a forced union with Sweden until 1905. Finland was a part of Sweden until 1809, when the Russians conquered the territory and created a Grand Duchy. Finland didn't actually become independent until 1917.

So Denmark has ruled over all the rest of the countries, Sweden has ruled over Norway and over Finland, and Sweden and Finland in particular have been very much in the shadow of Russia, historically speaking. (And also the Soviet Union, in more recent history.)

Then in World War 2, Denmark and Norway were occupied by Germany, and Finland fought the Soviet Union in the Winter War. Lots of refugees came to Sweden, including many hundreds of Finnish children, and there was a considerable number of Swedish volunteers fighting for Finland, too. All of which helped make relations a bit more cordial.

These days, the countries get along pretty well on the whole, with some friction: the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland are seeing their rights to their language becoming more and more circumscribed, and there's a lot of political discussion there about whether Swedish is really part of Finland's heritage and that sort of thing. And in Denmark, there have been some rather nasty public verbal attacks by leading cultural people on Swedish feminists, which has led to a bit of anti-Danish sentiment in Sweden.

Of course(?) there are more everyday minor friendly rivalries as well, and stereotypes about the other peoples. Swedes see Norwegians as jolly and down-to-earth, Finns as silent and strong and rather belligerent, and Danes as carefree and irresponsible. Swedes are, I think, seen as arrogant and rather boring. But at heart there is a lot of fellow-feeling for the other Nordic countries peoples, and when something happens, such as shooting tragedies in Norway and Finland in recent years, there is a lot of very genuine support streaming in from regular people in all the other countries.

Just call me "wall-of-text"

The US dollar is slightly lower than the Australian dollar, right?

For $280K, we could have gotten a huge 5 bedroom on 5 acres with a huge outbuilding. The house I LOVE is four bedrooms, two baths on ten acres, with a huge barn and a small outbuilding and it's also a little under 300K. However, part of it is over 100 years old and the kitchen isn't great, so I am frightened of foundation issues and having to try to figure out how to remodel that kitchen

dang. Sorry to rattle on. I am SO ready to move and hoping our financial situation stabilizes enough the change to the new firm to make that happen soon.

I always learn so much from you. Thank you!

I feel really stupid, but I actually don't know if those prices are high or low. I pay about the same as you for an one-hour haircut (including wash), which is cheaper than many places but more expensive than some. We paid... *quick convert* about US$215,000 (in today's currency) for our place twelve years ago, and today I know that comparable houses nearby are sold for about US$360,000. It's a fairly expensive part of Sweden, but nothing at all compared to the areas near Stockholm or Gothenburg.

But it all depends on what people are expected to earn. Oslo is one of the most expensive cities to live in in the world, but Norwegian salaries are considerably higher than Swedish salaries, too.

MKAC - That kind of land is a rarity here, our homes are fairly close together. I had 2 acres at our old house, miss that. What you describe would be no less than $600,000.

MAst...yes, it sounds similar. New England is a pricier part of the country, but our salaries are higher as well. Not everyone's though. Minimum wage is only $8. Crazy. No one could actually live on that here.

I didn't mean to make you feel stupid. I'm sorry.

Housing prices are considered relatively low here, based on national averages, and relatively high where Wikid is. Our median income is less then $50,000 a year in this area, so incomes are also relatively low.

I don't mind feeling a little stupid when it leads to me learning new things Thanks!

(anyway, I really shouldn't use the word "stupid" for "not knowing some specific facts", because that's not stupidity, it's just not yet knowing something. And that should apply even when I'm talking about myself.)

Me either. Just to have my hair trimmed costs around $25-$35 and for a style cut anything from $50 upward depending on how long your hair is. But its expensive living in this area as a lot of miners are in this area and earn BIG money.