Friday - the Swedish way

In the early 90’s in Sweden, a new tradition started to spread. In 2006, it had become a part of the Swedish phraseology and was added to the Swedish Academy’s Dictionary as a correct Swedish word, a noun to be specific. The phenomenon goes by the name ”Fredagsmys” and translated into English it would be something like ”Friday Comfort” or ”Cozy Friday”. The Fredagsmys is some kind of activity on Friday night together with family or friends to celebrate the end of the working week, to unwind and relax. People eat something special, perhaps drink alcohol and watch TV or a film. Last time we lived in Sweden, in the late 90’s, the typical Swedish family would order pizza and eat in front of the TV, with Coca Cola for the kids and red wine for the parents. For couples, the height of sophistication on Fridays was lightly cooked prawns, baguette and mayonnaise, accompanied by chilled white wine. The food trend has varied over the years and now since few years back, the typical Friday food in a Swedish household are tacos. Not the Mexican ones, the Tex-Mex ones with some Swedish adjustments.

 Now when we have settled in to our life in a Western society, we are making an effort to do something special to celebrate the start of the weekend. Since moving to Australia, my husband is less tired when the weekend comes as he is actually free when he leaves the office, meaning no phone calls or e-mails that need his immediate attention. I – on the other hand – am exhausted on Friday night from all the household work that I now need to do by myself in addition to all the driving of our Daughters to their schools and all their activities. On Fridays, we enjoy our Fredagsmys.

 On Friday our Oldest Daughter had other plans, she was going to the mall with her friends for shopping and dinner. Our Youngest took pity in her parents and stayed home with us. I made salmon toast and some other small dishes. My husband is a cinephile. With three girls in the house – all three of us have him wrapped around our fingers – he always puts on films that we like; tweenie movies for the girls like ”She’s the Man”, ”School of Rock”, ”Mean Girls” and ”Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen”. For me he chooses films like ”Notting Hill”, ”Pride and Prejudice”, ”Titanic” and ”How to loose a guy in 10 days”. I can very well understand if he suffers. But he does it out of love for his girls. This Friday I wanted to make my film-loving husband happy and I suggested we watch one of his kind of films that I haven’t seen, perhaps a classic? What is it with men and ”The Godfather” movies? Men always refer to them and quote them. My husband did not pick ”The Godfather” – thankfully. He picked ”Lord of the Rings”, the first one, ”The Fellowship of the Rings” I think it’s called. This is the third time my husband enthusiastically tells me about the books, about Tolkien himself and about the films. It warms my heart to listen to my husband who is so passionate about films. This Friday I broke my record; I managed to stay awake for one whole hour before I fell asleep on the sofa. A couple of more times and I will perhaps manage to stay awake and actually see the entire film. After all, all three ”Lord of the Rings” are considered to be epic movies. But then again, so is ”Titanic”...