This is more fun in the spring than in the fall

We live in an apartment and even though we have two storage rooms, we have chosen to keep our car tires at a tire workshop outside Stockholm. The weather has been mild all autumn, which made us drag our feet for the tire change this time.

Only last week I got around to making the appointment and had a reservation this morning. On the way out to the tire workshop it started to snow in Stockholm so our timing was involuntarily perfect.

I'm incredibly grateful that my husband and I don't change the tires ourselves. Just the thought of standing out in the cold and changing tires is horrible, especially this time when my body is already aching because we are emptying the storage we rent for our business.

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It's too late to turn back now

The premises where we have our business is a condominium, which means that we own it and that the condominium association cannot raise our fee without raising everyone else's fee by exactly the same amount per per sqft (sqm). In addition, we rent a storage room from the condominium association where the rent is twice as high per square meter (sqm) compared to our premises.

Our premise is located on a street corner at one of the better addresses in Stockholm and have double entrances, double toilets and double kitchens. The storage is located in the basement with 1 entrance and lacks a toilet, kitchen, window and ventilation.

We have rented this storage room for more than 17 years and even when a water pipe broke in a neighboring storage room a couple of years ago and flooded our storage room, we did not contact the association and demand compensation. Instead, we took care of the damage ourselves.

This may have been a mistake on our part and led the condominium association to believe that we want to rent the storage room at any price because they chose to terminate our lease this spring. Attached to the termination, we also received a new lease with doubled rent. The double rent increase made us turn down the new lease and now we have to vacate it.

Me and the world's most perfect husband have been packing and carrying products for almost 2 weeks, yet we are not half way there and only have 10 days left to complete the job. The pain in arms, knees and hands is indescribable.

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I am completely clueless

As the world's most perfect teenager is studying the first year of the IB Diploma Programme, so am I. On Friday morning, Junior has his first of a total of six end-of-term exams, first up is mathematics.

On several occasions during the evening's study, I nodded and confirmed that I was completely on board and understood everything he was talking about. All I could hope for was that I was nodding in the right places because I didn't have the faintest idea what he was talking about, he lost me on eigenvalues ​​and eigenvectors.

I am an easy learner and had very good school grades, in fact the highest grades in my class despite skipping school many days during high school, but the math Junior is studying now is way beyond my level of knowledge.

Tomorrow he (and I) will study chemistry because the end-of-term exam in chemistry is on Friday afternoon right after the math exam.

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Bad in more ways than one

Just over a week has passed since the world's most perfect teenager came home and with a big smile on his face declared that he intends to study at a university in Canada after he finishes his high school education.

The immediate realization that Junior could live 6 time zones away from us within 22 months shocked me. Knowing how quickly the last 17 years have gone by made me realize that 22 months is as short as a visit to the restroom. As the worst of the initial shock wore off, I came to a new realization.

It is only 2 weeks since we paid the invoice for the upcoming spring term and after this payment there would only be 2 invoices left for the offspring's schooling as he planned to study at the Swedish university KTH, the Royal University of Technology, which is paid for by the Swedish tax payers.

Although I don't think Junior will qualify for university in Canada, the current situation means completely new conditions for us, there are not 2 invoices left but 10…

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Reality bites

On November 12, 2024, Dagens PS Media AB, a Swedish business-oriented online newspaper, reported that Volkswagen's investment manager, Sven Fuhrman, is leaving Northvolt's board. Northvolt confirms the defection but says it is in dialogue with Volkswagen about a replacement.

Volkswagen is Northvolt's largest owner with 22% of the shares. In addition, Volkswagen is the majority shareholder in the truck manufacturer Scania, one of Northvolt's most important customers.

Northvolt's CEO, Peter Carlsson, has said on previous occasions that he is concerned about the company's future and that the company needs to lock an additional $837,000,000 to secure the company's future. On September 17, 2024, a Swedish newspaper, Dagens Nyheter (DN), reported that the current Swedish government has no intention of giving more tax money to Northvolt. Personally, I think this has contributed to Volkswagen leaving Northvolt.

The same procedure took place when Vattenfall, a European energy company, decided to temporarily pause the development of the Svenska Kriegers Flak offshore wind project earlier this fall, because investment terms AKA tax money were not available.

Could a waning interest in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) among investors be a sign that investors are beginning to understand that ESG does not put food on the table and a roof over their heads?

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