Presentation

 

Presentation

A gift handed to a recipient in a paper bag is still an acceptable gift, but how much pleasanter it is to receive it nicely packaged.

Eyes feast on expectation. The tin above is an example of attractive presentation. I came across it while looking for ginger biscuits. It appealed to me instantly. Sometimes the contents of striking containers do not live up to the expectation, but these biscuits did. Heart-shaped and pleasantly gingery, they were a delight.

In the 15^th century, German monks imported ginger biscuits to Sweden. Ginger biscuits had been known in England and Germany for many years before this.

In 1929, sisters Anna and Emma Karlsson established a bakery in Östermalm, Stockholm, to produce thin ginger biscuits. The legend is that a wish will come true if a biscuit held in the palm of one’s hand breaks into three when gently tapped. Don’t tap too hard or there will be a handful of crumbs!

Nyåkers Pepparkakor are also attractively packaged. They were introduced in the 1940s by two brothers, Bengt and John Åström, in the village of Nyåker. This area became known as the ‘Promised Land of ginger biscuits.’

I could make my own biscuits, of course, but I’m pretty sure they would not stand comparison with either of the above products, neither of which are always readily available. 

A mile is a mile, right?

 

A mile is a mile, right?

Speedometer showing kph and mph, and odometer showing current journey mileage and lifetime mileage 
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

 A Scandinavian mile or mil, excluding Denmark, is equivalent to ten kilometres or six point two miles.

The mile, formerly known as the English mile, is now called ‘the international mile,’ and is not seen on signposts in Scandinavia, the kilometre being the standard for published distances. This is to avoid any confusion, because in informal speech, ‘mil’ is still used. Five kilometres is referred to as ‘half a mil.’

‘Mil’ is also used when business travel is calculated for tax reasons, and for publishing odometer readings when second-hand cars are being advertised for sale, even though car odometers show kilometres.

If, while walking in the mountains, you should come across a signpost in Norway or Sweden, showing a distance in ‘mil,’ be prepared for a much longer trek than you might have anticipated. Five mil will equate to fifty kilometres or thirty-one (international) miles.

Helpful crows

 

Helpful crows

Not picking up cigarette butts or litter, but dog biscuits!

Six years ago, an unusual initiative began in the city of Södertälje in Sweden. It was designed to cut down on litter and the expense of cleaning the streets. Christian Günther-Hanssen, the founder of Corvid Cleaning, believed that trained crows would reduce the litter of cigarette butts by about 75% in the city.

Cigarette butts take an incredible ten years to decay, releasing lead, nicotine and arsenic into the soil and water.

The crows quickly learnt that if they picked up cigarette butts and put them in a special machine, they would get a food treat in exchange. In a theme park, Puy du Fou, in France, the falcons in a falconry display, demonstrated how they had been trained to pick up items and take them to specific locations. Inspired by this, crows were trained to pick up cigarette butts and other litter in exchange for food treats.

If only we could train humans to stop dropping litter everywhere they went!