h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In Swedish state monopoly licquor(sp?) stores company Systembolaget you need to be at least 20 years old to buy anything containing alcohol, but they always ask for ID if you look younger than 25 - and young people are so used to it that most of them just haul their ID out and show it to the cashier before paying for their purchases.

Oh, and you need to be 18 years old to buy tobacco products - but you can buy those in any supermarket or tobacconist's - but raids are regularly made to check that the cashiers really ask for ID.

I think every Swede is just so very used to being asked to show an ID (with photo, one ear visible, no light reflexes allowed in the pupils) in all kinds of situations that no one really reflects over it - which makes the UK debates about IDs with photographs seem a bit of a... well... storm in a waterglass? At least to Swedes...

I seem to remember a discussion in the past about who ends up paying the bill if someone steals your debit/credit card - well, in Sweden, it's the establishments where purchases have been made after the card has been reported as stolen that pay the bill, not getting paid for the purchases.

Which is why most Swedish establishment require either a PIN code or an ID card of you want to use your debit/credit card. Having shopped in London, I was quite surprised I didn't need either.

Am I blathering? Probably - Matina, I think I need another G&T, I'm not by far relaxed enough after spending my whole first w*rking day just going through my mail...

Oh yes, now I remember - even though I did forget to cook the backlog before digesting it - home.

My first apartment in my home town when moving out from my parents' place felt like home - but despite living in the same apartment in one of the Stockholm suburbs for 14 years now, it still feels pretty much as if I've just moved in - I just can't get that homey feeling. Maybe because this place just feels a bit... uh... restless at times - and I'm not talking about humans. Not living, at least.

But, as I've mentioned in at least one of my journals, the south of Switzerland, near the Italian border, does make me feel like home, even if I was neither born nor raised there.

Just that feeling of getting off the train, stepping out of the railway station, taking a deep breath, having a look at the alps surrounding you and just exlaim, with a happy sigh, that 'it feels good to be home again' (which I've actually done).

I think my soul and my physical body disagree on which place to call home, come to think of it...

We need to use a PIN when purchasing on credit/debit cards here
The only time one wouldn't use a PIN is if buying online.

Maybe British PINs are different from Swedish ones?

Here, it's a four digit code that one enters onto a keypad and the fact that one knows it is supposed to guarantee that one is the rightful owner of the credit/debit card.
This works fine just as long as you don't tell anyone else your PIN and the machine hasn't been 'got-at', as has sometimes happened in petrol stations or hole-in-the-wall cash machines.

I've just seen the ultimate deterrent to over-eating; a documentary about some unfortunate Texan girl who was over 850 lbs.
All of a sudden, I feel sylph-like.

You'll find that you need a PIN number in shops over here now, Titania. Or at least you do if you have a Chip and PIN card, which you do if you've an account in the UK, been given a new card in the last couple of years and haven't deliberately opted out.

As for ID cards, the worries are more that the government is going to demand lots more information on us and charge us something like £100 for the privilege, and there are worries about being forced to carry it at all times (though I think the government deny they'll do that). Most people already have photo driving licences and/or passports. I have both and photocards for train and bus travel, but I'm still not keen on compulsory ID cards.

Well, there's a shoe outlet (Iv'e forgotten the brand) at Elephant & Castle where they did'nt have a keypad (some Swedish shops are that way too) and what you do then is hand your card to the cashier who swipes it on the... uh... cashier machine?

And the girl didn't ask for an ID.

I think that happened in a London supermarket as well, if I remember correctly.

And several hotels I've stayed in haven't had a keypad for punching in your PIN, and they didn't ask for my ID card either.

Or maybe it's just my look of complete innocence? *flutters eyelashes*

Sometimes I get the feeling that there is less criminality regarding UK cards than Swedish cards - over here, we have gangs from both South America and Eastern Europe installing skimming devices onto - uh - cash dispensers? I used to know another name for them, but can't rememember it right now.

Teuch - and as long as no-one's watching you type. If I wanted I could see just about every customer's PIN. Annoyingly the one thing I can't see on the card reader without craning my neck is the slot the card goes in, so people can leave their cards and walk off and I won't find out until another customer points it out to me.

They won't ask for ID, Titania. It's not expected so if we did we'd get masses of complaints. And we have had frauds on ATMs (is that the term you were after? They're also called "hole-in-the-walls" or simply "cash machines") and by shop staff.

Actually, it's been a while since I last visited London, so it's quite possible cashiers have become more careful about demanding either PIN code or photo ID...

Yep, ATMs it is Bagpuss, thanks!

A bunch of Bulgarians were recently arrested caught installling skimming devices on ATMs in central Stockholm - one gadget to read the strip on your card, and either a fake keyboard on top of the real on or a minicamera above it to film your button pushings.

Actually, the Swedish banks have become pretty alert these days - if a card holder makes a purchase in Stockholm and then, just a few minutes later, in Thailand, they usually contact the card holder asap.

Forgot to mention - even if the card isn't reported stolen but you can still prove it's in your possession and you're nowhere near the place where a withdraw or purchase was made (because of skimming) the bank will pay you back your money.

Which is, of course, the reason they've become more alert - because of the risk of losing money. You didn't think it was out of concern of its customers, did you?

Indeed, I know a couple of people who've had phonecalls following "unusual activity" on their cards. In both cases it was just them making larger purchases than usual, but it's good to know that the banks are on the look out.

There was a skimming case over here in the past couple of months, though I think it was less high-tech. Guys in a shop taking carbon copies of the cards and watching the PIN as it was typed. Mind you, while it's still so easy to use nicked or copied cards on the internet (all the info you need is written on the card) I'm not sure that tightening controls in shops will do much good.

Yeah, we've also had the 'criminal-minded guy in a shop' syndrome which is why I only pay by card in big and well known shops - because then I know they'll pay me back my money because of fear of bad PR if it turns out one of their employees was dishonest.

In small, unknown places, I only use cash.

See, I might look innocent but that doesn't mean I'm gullible

I know, it's odd for me to swear off food. But you haven't been to the parties I've been to. Enough food to feed a horde, and ten people to eat it all. And all quite delicious - so the impulse is to try a little bit of everything, and then go back for more, and then I explode.

> Lentilla - The police take people's blood?

Not usually... it was meant to be a deterrent not to go outt drinking on New Year's eve. Your average cop isn't certified to poke people and draw blood, so I expect we'll see some legal action on the issue in a couple of months.

[mr]

Over the 25 years (gosh, that does make me sound old, doesn't it?) that I've worked in Swedish hotel business, I've come across so many criminals among guests as well, unfortunately, among colleagues, that I only truyst my gut feeling these days...

*tries to sneak in a missing 'as'*

*removes faulty 'y' as well*

*sighs at clumpsy finger syndrome*

OK, OK, so I'm babbling, but I need to add my share of backlog, right?

Speaking of gut feeling just reminded me of this Albanian guy in Kosovo who got very upset when I and my Inter-Railing friend trusted him with our bags while joining in with the dancing going on at a double Gipsy wedding - but then, little did he know that we were wearing passports, money, traveller cheques and cameras inside our clothes.

He actually accused of us being too gullible - but we were right in trusting him, right? *shakes head*