Last week I spent a day in Göteborg on an EU health conference. I was there to look at collaboration opportunities and to see if Ulricehamn should apply for any EU grants. In an international comparison done by the Swedish Healthcare organisation (Föräkringskassan) Swedish people are sick a lot longer then other people with the same decease in other countries. If you get diagnosed with depression in Sweden you will approximately be sick 130 days while the average internationally is 50 days (data from MDA). If you have a migraine you will be sick for approx. 50 days in Sweden but only 10 days abroad! Sounds as if the migraine in Spain is less heavy then the one in Sweden? Are Swedish people wimps and are we really more sick then other nationalities? Or do we have a health care system that is too generous or a working climate that is too tough? I don’t know but it is strange!
Luckily we are all quite healthy despite some minor colds. We had a busy weekend celebrating the baptising of little Ellen. Ellen is the daughter of my sister Hanna and her boyfriend Kristian. She was born on January 7th 2008 and was baptised this weekend at a church service in Lomma (town in the south of Sweden). Just as always we were arranging everything at the last moment! We headed off early on Saturday morning to buy Jochem a new suit, shoes and a very colourful shirt (he bought a checked shirt in purple and pink!). He had forgotten all his suits in the Netherlands. Then we fitted Nils with new clothes as he had outgrown his “sunday” clothes and the girls got some new vests. After this it was time for Ellens gifts and then we had to head south as it is a 3½ hour drive. When we arrived in Lund at my parents place they had prepared a super dinner for us and after that Jochem ran off to buy a new car. Now we have a new, very old Audi 100 4-weel drive station car. Hopefully we wont get stuck in the snow anymore! (but it would help if we hade the winter tires on as it was snowing heavily this morning!). Anyway, it was a very nice baptising service and Ellen showed us all that full attention is not a problem for her. She was happy as sunshine and did not mind being transferred between aunts, cousins and grandparents. It was a fun and relaxed Sunday and the kids didn’t want to leave when it was time to go back home (I carried Nils screaming and shouting to the car!) but next weekend we will meet up again as my cousin Tobias is having his birthday party in Halmstad (a town on the Swedish west coast).
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