I Am A Swede

Ugh, did you have to remind me?! I was so disappointed when Ivanisevic beat Rafter at Wimbledon. All he had was his big serve. Pat Rafter on the other hand had such a superb serve-and-volley style of play that we never see nowadays. I so wish he could have had a Wimbledon triumph added to his record. He was my favourite player, and I lost quite a bit of interest in tennis when he retired.

While the results in the elections here in Europe are frightening and should serve as a wake-up call to us all, it's perhaps worth remembering that the numbers are slightly misleading. Voter turnout is on a really low level. The average for the 28 countries that voted is only 43%. Worst was Slovakia with 13%, followed by the Czech Republic with 19,5%. France had 43,5%, UK 34%, Germany 48%, Hungary 29%, Netherlands 37% to name just a few. Here in Sweden only 49% voted, and if you compare that to the 84,6% who voted in our latest domestic election in 2010 you can see the huge difference in interest from people.

The election results here in Europe are shocking. Parties that are virtually neo-nazis are gaining ground rapidly in countries like Greece, Hungary and, perhaps most shockingly, Germany! Our own far-right party here in Sweden got close to 10% of the votes! I can't understand how this can happen. Are we really that incapable of learning from history?

Right-wing parties are gaining ground all over Europe. It's a frightening development. You'd think that after the horrors of WWII it couldn't happen again, but we humans seem unable to learn from the past.

A short clip from Emmerdale Farm 1978, with a rare glimpse of Katharine Barker, the original Dolly Skilbeck. Most clips I've seen on Youtube have been with Jean Rogers as Dolly, so it's a treat to see the first one. This is the Dolly I remember from when I was watching the show as a child.

The current #1 in the Swedish charts, and this year's runner-up in the Eurovision Song Contest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPc8nV6jRL8

Happy Birthday Ms Streisand! Amazing that this song is now 50 years old!

In short, she played Carly Fixx, paternal half-sister to Dan Fixx (Brett Cullen), who at that time was involved with Melissa. They later found out that they weren't really related and developed feelings for each other. She also bonded in a way with Angela. She mainly interacted (from what I can remember) with Brett Cullen, Jane Wyman and Ana Alicia.

In memory of the 96 who lost their lives as a result of the Hillsborough disaster 25 years ago....

Very interesting article. I take it that "Falcon Crest" wasn't as popular and successful in the U.S. as "Dallas" or "Dynasty"? Here in Sweden it was very popular, much more so than "Dynasty" and I would even say that it almost matched "Dallas". "Dynasty" was canceled after just a few seasons here, and was only aired in its entirety years later during daytime. "Knots Landing" has, as far as I know, never aired in its entirety here. "Falcon Crest" on the other hand has been re-run several times on different channels.

I think he wanted to leave, just like Amanda did later. Personally I never thought that either of them would stay long. They were both fairly well-known actors and those never tend to stick around on soaps. They come in for a short stint, bring publicity to the show and then leave.

Who knew that Hyacinth Bucket could sing so beautifully! I think even Emmett would approve.

Adelina Sotnikova just became historic as the first Russian woman ever to win the olympic gold medal. Personally I think Yuna Kim's program was more beautiful, but the Russian apparently had a higher technical score.

I've been taking a stroll down memory lane, listening to music from my childhood, especially music from movies and tv-series based on the books by Astrid Lindgren. Listening to these songs as an adult I've realized just how beautiful and sweet many of them really are. Especially those from the stories about Emil. And this song is probably the most famous of them all. It's sung every year in primary/elementary schools all over Sweden when they close for the summer holiday. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Bkahcz3E1g

Former US Open-champion and two-times Wimbledon finalist Patrick Rafter will play in the men's doubles tournament with Lleyton Hewitt! http://tennis.si.com/2014/01/12/patrick-rafter-lleyton-hewitt-doubles-australian-open/ Great to see him back on a tennis court again, although it probably won't be for long. He's my all-time favourite player. A great player, and by all accounts an equally great person off the court.

So they couldn't be bothered to bring Donna (or Scott or Kelly) back when they killed of Viv and Terry, but she's coming back now?!

It wouldn't really make sense for Donna to return. Her relationship with Marlon was dead by the time she left, and her entire family, except her two small half-siblings, is gone from the show. (I'm still bitter about them killing of Viv by the way). Of course that won't stop them from bringing her back if they want to. The one person I would have liked to see back, if I was still watching, would be Robert. That he wasn't there to support Victoria when Jack died was unbelievable. Another blast from the past they could bring back could be Sam Skilbeck, son of Matt and Dolly. He left the show with his mother when he was only 8-9 years old, so he would be a blank canvas, yet at the same time a link to the old Emmerdale. He would be in his early thirties now and could have a family of his own. With him back they could also have Matt and Dolly make the occasional appearance, but only if Frederick Pyne and Jean Rogers played them. No re-casting thank you very much. Ok, Katharine Barker would be ok as well for Dolly since she originated the role before Jean took over. But this will naturally never happen. I doubt they even remember the Skilbecks now.

A bit predictable perhaps, but here it goes.....