Sweden is expensive

I'm back in Stockholm for xmas. I didn't notice as much that things in London are cheaper until I come back here and just gasp every time I see the price of something.

Indian food: 125 SEK per dish! In London you can get food for 2 people plus a large soda delivered to your door within an hour for that kind of money. And it'll be of the same quality.

Mass transit is still more expensive in London, but it's a lot bigger and Stockholm is trying to catch up it seems.

But at least in Stockholm the phone works on the tube.

Hope you're feeling better

When you tell someone that you're home sick the default reply here seems to be "Hope you're feeling better".

Is it just me or is that weird? Better than what? I just told you two seconds ago and you say you hope I'm feeling better. Better than two seconds ago? No, it's pretty much the same.

It makes sense to me if there's been some time since they learned that I'm not feeling well, since it's actually possible for me to feel better now than then.

First contact with the UK health system: 15min waiting for doctor in the emergency care thing (I'm not yet registered with a GP so I had to go there). The doctor examined me and gave me antibiotics (no trip to pharmacy required).

Didn't have to pay anything, and they didn't even ask for my NI number or proof of address, or ID.

To register with a GP I'd need to have two forms of ID, of which one would be a proof of address. I didn't do that since I didn't have any proof of address on me.

So in short: Why don't people say "hope you feel better soon"? Is it just that it's an automatic (but often incorrect, such as in my case) thing you say to someone who's sick, or is it idiomatic?

2-factor madness

Sweden: Every single bank has 2-factor auth. Paypal does not offer 2-factor for Swedes.

UK: Not a single bank has 2-factor auth. Paypal offers three kinds of 2-factor for people in the UK.

(HSBC as the first UK bank (according to themselves) is rolling out 2-factor in about a month. 1995 called. They were watching Jurassic Park but paused it to congratulate you on copying their basic security measures)

Can I change my PayPal address to another country?

No. Due to banking regulations, you can not change your address to a country that is different from the country you used when you opened your account. If you're moving abroad, you’ll need to close your existing account and open a new account. If you maintain residences in 2 countries, you can have 2 PayPal accounts as long as only one is a Premier or Business account.

-- Paypal

(my emphasis)

Crazy candy

I've seen toffee-covered popcorn but strawberry and white chocolate popcorn? Crazy. Oh, and they are also covered in toffee.

DNS wildcard

Virgins broadband has a DNS that hijacks things in DNS using a wildcard or something.

ಠ_ಠ

But at least it was easy to turn off.

Chocolate and mail

When the package says "Drinking chocolate, mix in with warm milk" they really mean it. It won't dissolve in cold milk.

And mail arrives on Saturday mornings. Imagine that...