Today I will tell....

I went skiing and rode snow mobile over the weekend. The company sponsored our accomodation, transportion (chartered a 14-carriage train for this trip), food and drinks. We decide what activities to take part in and pay for it ourselves. It was a 3-hour journey by train on Friday from Stockholm to a town called Ånge, up north. Followed by a 1-hour bus ride to the ski resort in Vemdalen. The whole journey takes around 5 hours, incuding transit and waiting time. I was sick, sorry, ill for the past one week and so had prepared myself mentally to miss this trip. My wife couldn't join me since it is a company trip. But she did encouraged and pushed me to go and see what is it like. So I changed my mind the night before the trip and went ahead after feeling much better. Poor lady has to stay home all alone while I go enjoy myself. Turned out to be a very enjoyable trip. To think I almost missed it because of my illness, I wanted to kick myself. The management tried to squeeze in some...

First time falling ill in Sweden. First time making use of their "social benefit". Well, to really enjoy it I got to be really really sick or get sick very often. The state (people here refers to the government as "the state") impose a limit on how much each person spends on medical treatment each year. In this case, it's 900 SEK. The moment you exceed that, the state will pick up the bill. They didn't want to pay from the first SEK to avoid people abusing the benefit. It cost me 140SEK for my medical treatment this time round. I got to be sick for another 5 more times this year to enjoy the medical benefit. I'm impressed with their patient information system. Back home, I would've to fill up forms if I'm new to this particular clinic or hospital. And if I don't like my doctor and want to go to another clinic, I would've to give my personal particulars again to this new clinic. Over here, I have to make an appointment before I can go ...