Sherlock the Shitsu
A few hours of Zoe's and my Christmas Day were spent rescuing a Shitsu named Sherlock who had somehow escaped from the care of his owner. We found him crossing the busy main road that runs through Llandaff North, and Zoe, who has a running history of dog-rescue immediately wooed him with a combination of stroking and dog-talk.
We couldn't care for him in our home because of Oscar and his territorial nature, so put him in our garden while we tried to locate the owners, who, it seems, had gone out for the afternoon. Then we called the police and were told that we should go to the police station, get a form, and then drop him off at the local Dog Pound (which, we were assured, was open).
Zoe and I drove to the police station, collected the form and drove down to the shelter only to find it closed. We drove back hopelessly pondering our options (Drop him off at the park/police station/local pub?) By the time we got back and contacted the police it turned out that Sherlock's owners had also contacted them and we were given an address (2 minutes walk from our house) where they could be found...

"What would happen if the Virgin Mary came to Bethlehem today?"

Farmer Seeks Wife
Of all the strange things you find on Swedish television this has to be the funniest concept. It's a classic reality TV formula, with a twist...
Basically a farmer writes in to the producers saying "I'm looking for a lady," they find a few girls who fancy their chances with this flannel-clad batchelor, he dates each of them and decides who he likes best. I've only seen it once, but I enjoyed the fact that, it being in Swedish, I could make up what they were saying to eachother ("so, are you any good with a hand-drawn plough?")

In summary...
Highlights of the past week and a half.

Crowning of the Lucia, Glögg & Pepparkakor
Christmas festivities have well and truly arrived. It seems like everywhere you go people are drinking glögg (like mulled wine only nicer, and commonly served with raisins, almonds and a spoon) and eating pepparkakor (ginger biscuits). Wednesday is Lucia - my favourite (pseudo) Swedish tradition. Last Sunday I had the pleasure of attending the Crowning of the Lucia, which is kind of like a beauty/personality contest, where someone is chosen to be the Lucia for a particular town (in this case Malmö). The Lucia doesn't have to sing, but usually has to wear candles on her head, which has got to be tricky. I say usually because the Malmö Lucia is wearing plexi-glass this year...

Calaisa
Last Sunday evening Christoffer introduced me to this Swedish equivalent of the Corrs or the Dixie Chicks. They have a great story, which goes something like: went to Nashville; played at a party; were asked to play at someone's brothers' party; agreed; turned out that the 'someone's brother' was the head of Universal Records in Nashville; got signed...

They are a great bunch of musicians and clearly very talented. I wouldn't buy their record, but then the same goes for The Corrs or Dixie Chicks. The Nashville Music Industry has certainly left its mark on them, bringing words like 'pre-packaged' to mind. That said it was really nice to hear them live.

Niklas Hegfalk and Band
On Saturday we witnessed Niklas Hegfalk and Band at Vinylbaren (part of KB). Niklas' songs really grew with the full band, at times drifting from straight-up folk to a kind of thrashy post-rock. It was standing room only in this jammed bar with steamy windows. Click here for photos.

Work work work
This has been my first year of running my own business, and it's been a really interesting adventure. Right now it seems like things are beginning to gain momentum. Check out Looks Can Kill for more...

What does it mean?
There have been some great moments recently where I've been with friends and our conversations have become centered around the questions "what does it really mean to follow Jesus?" I think this is one of those questions that is so healthy to keep asking, especially for those of us who have chosen to make it our life's work.

and beyond...

Home for Christmas
Next Monday, the 18th December I fly home for Christmas. This time round I get to celebrate my birthday (which is on the 19th) with my family, which will be really nice. I'm really looking forward to tasting a 'decent' curry. I'll be back in Malmö on the 4th January.

Treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen (an essay on the wonders of cultural difference)
A fortnight (or so) ago we had Luke over for a meal and after the usual superficial chit chat about the ingredients of the non-alcoholic cider we were drinking (fläder/elderflower if you're interested), and how cold it is in Sweden, we began an interesting dialogue (or more a quadologue) on the feminist reading of mine and Luke's "manners". Luke is Southafrican and has grown up holding doors for women, standing when they enter a room, giving up his seat on a bus etc. All things that I've also been used to.

In Sweden, or so Ellen would have us believe, women see this as utterly patronising. It is a cultural statement that means the same as "I don't believe you should be allowed to vote, or earn as much as I do." Before I go on, I have to say that I strongly and agressively disagree with the idea that women should be paid less or be denied voting rights. At the same time I don't wholeheartedly buy into equality - i.e. everyone is the same and that besides the obvious physical differences there is no difference between the way that a man and a woman looks at the world (of course people are more complex than just the gender distinction).

Anyway, a few days later I was at a party in Rosengård, and revisited this conversation in an even more multicultural setting. I explained my reason for being more comfortable walking on the road-side of the pavement (because, in the event of there being puddles in the road, you would protect the person you are walking with from getting splashed). This time Heber, who is from Venezuela, chimes in "it's the same in my country, except that if the woman walks on the road-side then it means that she is for sale!"

In truth chivalry is a dying art, even in the UK ("the home of the gentleman"). I learned its value because I listened to old people (in their 80s upwards) when I was younger, and because of a fascination I once had with musicals from the 1950s. I think that there is a huge amount of value in caring for members of the opposite sex, in treating them well (as 'ladies'). It is wonderfully romantic and side-steps our cultural obsession with objectification.

I do not believe the being a feminist means you have to give up on romance.

Faithful reader, apologies that these next two posts have been in the pipeline for a little while...I seem to have a bit of a backlog in my Draft Posts...

The Mark, founder of iBlog (the first South African Blogging site), and Fotix (a photoblogging service) has just launched Riter, "the first fairly-traded, ethical blog hosting website. In the world."

Basically,
1. you set up a blog for free.
2. Ads on your blog generate profit.
3. 50% of those profits go straight to charitable organisations.

Click here for a great, and easy way of helping the poor.
Oh, and spread the world...

I've been a bit quiet here because I've been working long days preparing to launch www.htlorg.com. When I've been off-duty the last thing I've wanted to do is look at a screen. After looking at code for so long it's hard to string a sentence together, so I thought I'd spare you...

In my lunch breaks I've been taking walks in Malmö harbour, which overlooks the Oresund Bridge (that takes you from Malmö to Copenhagen). There is something really special about being close to the sea, especially when you are not native to the place where you live. It feels like home is that much closer. For the past two days the bridge has vanished behind a thick cloud of mist, but on Tuesday night, when I was out running, the sky was dappled with all the blues and reds of a proper late-autumn evening. Those evenings it feels like God has truly gone to work preparing a masterpiece for the eyes.

A Manifesto from Seth Godin (click here to read the manifesto in full)
On first reading a lot of things stood out, but here are a few of my favourites...
1. The greatest innovations appear to come from those that are self-reliant. Individuals who go right to the edge and do something worth talking about. Not solo, of course, but as instigators of a team. In two words: don’t settle.
7. Everyone is a marketer, even people and organizations that don’t market...
10. Mass taste is rarely good taste. [sorry U2 fans...]

Thanks and Thanks...

I had heard about the worldwide reputation of Rosengård, one of the most interesting and vibrant parts of Malmö, but was shocked to find this video on youtube (English-only speakers ignore the Swedish introduction)


(thanks to Christoffer)

Watching the video I barely recognise the area that is potrayed as a warzone by the Fox News team. I've spent a fair amount of time in Rosengård during the past year and, while I'm no expert on the area, I find it to be far safer than many parts of the UK. This kind of media misrepresentation does no service to race relations and is apparently designed to build a culture of fear rather than one of truth.

So long as we openly justify the oppression of the alien we can rest in comfortable apathy towards their pain.

Emma and I are hoping to hear this on Sunday night, but at the moment it's looking increasingly unlikely as it seems that everywhere has sold out. So if any of you have tickets to see The Kooks at Kulturbolaget and don't plan to use them please let us know!

Surrender
I'm giving You my heart and all that is within
I lay it all down for the sake of You my King
I'm giving you my dreams, laying down my rights
I'm giving up my pride for the promise of new life

And I surrender
All to You, all to You

I'm singing You this song, waiting at the cross
And all the world holds dear, I count it all as loss
For the sake of knowing Your for the glory of Your name
To know the lasting joy, even sharing in Your pain

The time between the 30th of September and today have got me thinking a lot about my Grandpa. Today would have been his 86th Birthday, and while the immediate emotions of his loss have faded, there's a deeper sense of loss as I get used to a world without him. When I was with him I always had this feeling of being with a kindred spirit, someone who felt so close in heart that the distance of age seemed to melt. There is something very precious about being around someone who, in spite of years of pastoral work, still burns with a tangible sense of passion for his Lord.

Happy Birthday Dad!
Today Neil C Morgan Esq. has reached his 52nd birthday. I can't wait to see what the future has in store for this self-confessed "late starter." Whenever I think of my parents I thank God for all the great things they modelled to us as we grew up - most notably a vibrant, earthy faith that spans the whole gamut of life and is not confined to a set of neatly-timed weekly rituals.

The snow never did stick, and Malmö remains gloriously and unpredictably autumnal.

One of the best parts of the past week has been having regular and continued conversations with people about dreams. The kind that you have while you're awake. The kind that make your heart beat faster and your body feel like pure life is flowing through it. I'm talking dreams that cut to the core of who you are as a person - the thing, or things you were made to be or do.

It's so rare the people ever find a place where they dare to speak out their dreams for others to hear.

Peter and Ellen returned from Scotland on Thursday and have figured out how to speak with a Scottish accent. Peter explained, "you basically replace all the vowel sounds with an E..." Looking at their photos reminded me of home. There's a myth that the weather has to be sunny to enjoy a holiday, but the more mountainous parts of the UK are beautiful when clothed in an ethereal haze of mist.

This weekend has been pretty fun, from Thursday night meeting a rather tired South African named Luke and welcoming him to colder climbs, to Sunday night in Rosengård. Saturday night I went to a birthday party at which I met people from Honduras, Iran, Venezuela, and even some from Sweden. Rosengård is so vibrant in its multiculturalism. A party with people from these nationalities is much less reserved than your average Swedish gathering!

At about 1am on Sunday morning Emma remembered that it was Alla Helgons Dag - the national day of rememberence, although until we got to the graveyard I only knew that "tonight people put candles on graves," and not that the graves are those of deceased loved ones.

First taste of winter
falls so white
feels so cold
fails to stick.

"According to a recent report, more than two-thirds of recent immigrants to the USA send money home regularly. The worst-paid, poorest people in the country manage to save enough to send some back to the old country. The US Ambassador from El Salvador says that the two million Salvadorians in the U.S. sent enough money home to account for 13 percent of the GDP of his country." - via Seth Godin

Since I changed timezones a week and a half ago it's been like my life has gone up a gear or two. It's a good thing overall, but, as with all change, has taken a while to get used to and make sense of.

I've just moved in with Peter and Ellen, who have just got married (see flickr for evidence). Their wedding was lovely, helped largely by their decision to rent a large house where their family and friends could stay the night before, and night after the event.

The ceremony itself was held in a beautiful 18th century Lutheran chapel, in the middle of the Skåne countryside. It began with an amazing composition on saxophone by Andreas, which set the tone for the musical expressions that followed. I missed most of the formalities because I was taking photos and therefore didn't have translation.

Afterwards we headed to Tomtelund (santa wood) for a wonderful meal interspersed with speeches and my new favourite Swedish tradition - whenever people tap their cutlery against their wine glasses the couple had to kiss! There was also song that the band played, everyone accompanying, as the bride and groom lit their candles, then lit the candles of their neighbours, until everyone was holding a glowing candle which they then passed back to the couple (photos to follow). Later we had dancing (live band and dancing with partners).

All in all a lovely day.

Word of the Day: Skumpa (a slang word for Champaigne)

Another great podcast...
Christian Sexuality in a Sex-crazed World by Steve Nicholson at Evanston Vineyard