“Kronors? Are they German?”, the bloke behind the counter of the shop asked me tonight.

As I took my cash out of my wallet, he’d obviously taken a peak inside and noticed the 50 kronor note (about $9) which I’ve kept in my wallet from my trip to Sweden earlier this year.

Speaking of Sweden, I woke early this morning, and knowing my friend’s Sam and Patrick were in Sweden, and were at Skansen, the open air museum in Stockholm, I went to the SVT website to watch “Allsång på Skansen” which I knew they were attending.

For my money, “Allsång” is a great concept for a television variety program, and even though it’s “very Swedish” (there’s a Norwegian version too). I think it has great potential as a television program in Australia too.

Each week, only during summer, they have an outdoor sing-a-long program, where the public comes to the park and watches a range of Swedish favourites sing either a) their latest hit or b) a well-known Swedish song which the audience can sing-a-long with, as they all have copies of the latest book with the words. And if you can’t make it to the park, the words appear on the screen, so you can sing-a-long at home too.

It’s classic “family television”. In an Australian context, it’s “Carols by Candlelight” meets “Countdown” meets “Young Talent Time”. It’s secular hymn-singing, in some ways. There’s a degree of public humiliation thrown in too. It fills the market “Hey Hey” seeks to.

An example follows…

I can just see the program filmed around Australia over summer. Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Kings Park in Perth. Southbank in Brissie. Barnesy. Farnesy. Vanessa Amorosi. Money raised through SMS goes to charity. Hosted by David Campbell. I can just see it, though clearly I’ve spent too much time thinking through the format and discussing it with friends.

But anyway, I didn’t see Pam or Sam on the show. But I did see the Australian group, Ten Tenors perform, and was mightily impressed with the Swedish language skills of one of the blokes in the band,

So it was an early start to the day which, later, at work, was both interesting and productive.

As it was Wednesday, I headed off to the pub where The Best Judge entertained us with further tales of moving house.

He’s off to Sweden soon, as is my friend Grant. And two colleagues from work. And another colleague’s mother-in-law.

As they rebuild Slussen, the main transport interchange in Stockholm, perhaps they should consider a tunnel direct to Sydney as well? I’ll happily contribute 50 kronor to the fund to get it started.