"I think they're on to you!" was Lars-Göran's reaction when he read the news that a mad cow had been found in Sweden. However it didn't turn out to be me they were worried about this time, but instead it was an outbreak (Sweden's first) of BSE or Mad Cow Disease.




First it was a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak last year. Then bird flu. Now BSE. My guess is the being a vegetarian here will be the new black, which will worry the suppliers of meat and poultry as they scramble to reassure the consumer that all is well. No doubt the consumer will also bear the cost of the new testing they will need to implement. Fortunately we rarely eat meat, with the high price being enough to scare you - even more so than the threat of contamination. We do eat it if we are invited out for dinner, partly because someone else gets to pay for it, but also because people here panic a bit if you announce that you don't eat meat. And as we spend several months of the year on our boat, it is far easier to eat a non-meat based diet. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how this news affects the country, already bracing itself for noise of coughing or sneezing chickens.

As far as I know, there haven't been any mad cows in Australia (well, apart from my mother and Pauline Hanson), so the only prior experience I have was when there was a huge outbreak in the EU region not long after I came to Sweden. When we get these scares I think there are certain advantages to Australia being an island, an isolated one at that and one with strict quarantine rules.

In other news, it has been snowing like crazy for the last couple of days. No really:




This is my sixth winter in Sweden and I have never seen the volume of snow that fell here yesterday. It was incredible - big, fat, fluffy flakes raining down gently, but relentlessly all day, producing a landscape of soft, white, muffled mounds. Our friend Ulf measured the snow and tells us that 40 cm fell yesterday. Everything that stood still for even a short time risked becoming buried.




Needless to say, Lambi needed no encouragement to stay on the couch all day. We did entice her out for a morning walk, but as the snow was up to our top of our ankle boots, it meant that she had to plough her way through shoulder deep snow. She gave that up after five steps and voted with her paws to rush inside. I'm sure she's a cat in disguise.

A quick trip to the pier showed that the boat needed shovelling off - again! You can see that Fiona is firmly sitting in ice again, so there will be no talk of sailing until something more spring like happens.




I am tired and grouchy today because our next door neighbour came home with friends at 3.30am and thought it would be a good idea to play loud music and sit around screaming and laughing like a banshee for a couple of hours. It wasn't, but the madcow did it anyway. Hmmm...maybe we better get her tested her as well. I tell you, I would have volunteered to slaughter her for free.

Added to that, I really had to grocery shop today or else I'd have to feed Lars-Göran bird seed or dog biscuits for dinner as there was absolutely nothing else in the house to eat. The trip up to the shop was fine, but pulling home a heavy granny trolley through the unploughed snow filled footpath was murder. What was I thinking? Was I thinking? And how come it was uphill both ways?

But in good news, I see that The Poodles made it through last night to the finals of the Swedish heats of Eurovision.




Remember, I predicted it here last week and like magic, it happened. Go Poodles! I didn't watch it as it spells instant divorce in this house to mention the competition and anyway, I wanted to see Parky interview the creators of the comedy show Little Britain on another channel. I see they are a metal band which means that I doubt they'll be chosen in the finals as Swedes tend to go more for schlock than rock in their Eurovision entries. But still, they are in with a chance and Lambi will be cheering them on.

I read somewhere that Spain's entry this year is called Las Ketchup. How can anyone take this competition seriously?