Dag 1076: äpple eller apelsin?

As this is the first post of the new year we'll start with a topical quiz which is open to non Swedish speakers only.

There is just one question and it is: "Which of the Swedish words in the title means apple (äpple or apelsin), and for a bonus what do you think the other word might mean?"

You may be thinking that äpple is the obvious answer as it looks most like apple, however if you heard them both spoken you may think apelsin sounds closest to apple (as the character 'ä' is pronounced 'e' (as in end) and the 'le' at the end is not pronounced as the 'le' at the end of apple. So äpple is pronounce a bit like 'epp lay' and apelsin is pronounce like 'apple sin'.

The correct answer is, in fact, äpple and apelsin is Swedish for orange.

One of the things a like about the Swedish language is that lots of words have origins that describe what the word is (i.e. it says it on the tin). Oranges originally come from South China and apelsin means apple from China.

OK, so how did we get onto the subject of apples?

Well, I am currently on the last day of a 3 day opsware course and am writing this during the breaks. The course is in a hotel near Leeds station so I have been travelling in by train. I have always considered myself to be quite a relaxed easy going sort of guy who doesn't get annoyed that often, but something went wrong this morning. There are a number of different carriage layouts in the ancient trains that are used on the Harogate to Leeds railway line. The best ones are the ones where you have 2 seats on each side of the aisle all facing the same way. The worst ones, which I hate with a vengeance, have seats in groups of 4 that face each other. Some carriages are like this and there is a table between the seats, but on these particularly crap trains there is no table, and the reason for this is that there is no room for a table. In fact the seats that face each other are so close together that it is difficult to sit in one when there is no one in the seat opposite you, but if there is you can forget trying to sit there unless the other person doesn't have any legs.

So, this morning I was waiting on the platform and up rolls the train (late as usual) and I notice it is one of the crap trains - so that sets the day off to a bad start straight away. I got in through the door and noticed there was a section at the end of the coach which had a rack for luggage and next to it was a double seat with its back to the window facing towards the middle of the carriage. To race down the carriage and plonk myself into this seat, was with me the work of a moment, and as the train set off I had my headphones on and was immersed in playing my PSP. Each time the train stopped no one sat down next to me as I think the fact I am playing on a PSP gives me the same status as a leper, so all was well - until we reached Burly Park station. Some bloke got on and sat down next to me. This in itself was not even close to being a problem. I don't mind one bit if someone sits next to me, and I was quite happy right up until I heard a crunch. The bloke had an apple and seemed determined to make as much noise as he could eating it. Even though I had my headphones on every last crunch of that apple seemed to force its way through to my bones in the same way that the noise people make with their finger nails on a blackboard does. And to make things worse this apple seemed to be never ending. Each bite of the apple made no impact on the amount left at all. That apple lasted all the way from Burly Park to Leeds including a long stop waiting for a platform to become free, and by the time we finally got there I was thinking pretty bad thoughts about that guy next to me. As I mentioned earlier, this sort of thing never used to bother me at all, so it must mean that I am officially becoming a grumpy old bloke.

And just to tie up any loose ends with the story I have just spilled my orange juice drink over my prized new Apple MacBook Pro.