Nobel festivities at the Swedish Embassy

last night we all dressed up a little and headed for the Swedish Embassy in Delhi...

it was time for the Nobel buffet reception in the beautiful embassy garden....

 us and more than 1000 other guests...

Volvo was one of the sponsors...

interesting welcoming along the red carpet....

I don't think that people in general know that these are Swedish inventions..

a big Viking ship as an ice sculpture.......and as a bar....

Mr Ambassador Harald Sandberg welcomed us to the party...

then the famous ice sculpture artist Lennart Landh finished of a piece of ice..

and of course he made a viking to go with the ship...

the decor in the garden was so fantastic....pictures from Sweden...

some from the southern parts .....beautiful yellow field...

and a midsummer pole around the tree ! great thinking...

while we where in line to get food we listened to ABBA music... Gunilla Backman from the musical

Mamma Mia entertained  us...

Stenshuvud on the wall....

another sponsor was of course Absolut....

tasted one with chilli ! 

good food, good drinks and good company....

and a goodie bag to go !

(just look at Katrins new shoes, love them)

Voting when in India

yesterday we went to the swedish Embassy in Delhi

and did our duty as Swedes

we voted !

and it was so easy peasy....

passport - check - done

it was only us there !

but we did meet Mr Ambassador Harald on the way in and as always

it was so nice to meet him

so to all and everyone in Sweden and maybe around the world..

tomorrow is the last day here in Delhi..

I sure hope you vote !

The start of SWEA Delhi

This morning I went to the Swedish Embassy in Delhi 

to attend the start of SWEA Delhi.....

Swedish Women's Educational Association

SWEA is a global network with 7500 members of swedish speaking women in 73 sections all over the world....soon 74 !!

so today some of us swedish speaking women got together in the Swedish Embassy's garden....

the huge garden is so beautiful and peaceful....

we did some brainstorming around starting up here...many good ideas and fun things where discussed....

the colours of the flowers are just unbelievable.....

met some new ladies but also some old ones....ooops! sorry, not old old...just old acquaintances...

Mrs Ambassador Else Sandberg surprised us with "svenska semlor"......it tasted so good.....I haven't eaten one in....I think 2 years....

it was so nice to meet all you ladies.....hopefully we'll be even more at the next one....

hope you're enjoying your friday, dear reader....it's that time of the week again when everybody says

"nu e de slut på veckan dags för fredags mys".....it's cozy friday....

enjoy !!!

Lucia celebration at the Swedish Embassy.

Yesterday we where invited to the Swedish Embassy to celebrate Lucia 

the birds where having their christmas bath in the fountain...

since this was the first time arriving at the Residence in daylight I just had to get some pictures….

almost christmas and small oranges !!…

Mr Ambassador Harald Sandberg and his wife Else welcomed us to the residence …

we had glögg, saffron buns - lussekatter, ginger snaps-pepparkakor and grilled hot dogs while waiting for the luciatåg- the lucia procession….yummy...

it was Svenska skolans, the Swedish schools kids that performed for us...

and they did it so well…we got all the traditional lucia songs...

the ginger bread "men" sang their song…and so did the "Staffan"boys

of course we got the "tip tap" song from Santa's small helpers

small kids with small voices ….good that Mr Ambassador helped them along the way…

the fans where enjoying….

Mr Ambassador talked about why we actually celebrate Lucia…so good with a reminder…sometimes I think we forget why we do the things we do at some of the holidays..

I must say that it felt a little surreal… standing out in the beautiful residence park listening to Swedish Christmas carols and all the birds singing, having glögg and lussekatter  and looking at this beautiful Lucia procession….suddenly I get to think that Yes, I'm standing here in Delhi and it's Lucia,13th of december….sooo different but oh, so nice.

After a couple of hours it was time to head back home….the Residence looked so beautiful when we left….lots of christmas lights...

 we left with smiles on our faces because yet again we had a wonderful afternoon with lots of wonderful and interesting people…and the Christmas spirit is sneaking up on us.

Nobel Dinner at the Swedish Embassy

It has been Nobel Memorial Week here in India. This year being 100 years since Indian author Tagore won the Nobel Prize in literature. To tell you the truth I didn't know about him before…..

Activities has been going on the whole week with Mr M invited to such, which was a breakfast seminar on "Swedish Companies views of the Indian market - Challenges and Opportunities" held at the embassy by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce.

credit to Swedish Chamber of Commerce for the picture

The memorial week came to an end last night with the Nobel Dinner at the Swedish Embassy.

IKEA lights guiding us to the entrance or maybe it was the red carpet..beautiful and innovative…

party party

Ambassador Harald Sandberg with wife welcomed each and everyone at the entrance ….us being more than a 1000 people…he then "opened up the evening "  on the big screens….

it was a fun mingle dinner with lots of wonderful swedish food and indian food and lots to drink…..entertainment…for instance Jennie Abrahamsson (?)…met some "old" friends and made some new ones…hopefully !

So many people so many faces so many VIP's

of course swedish companies where represented..not all can have a bar with their own products though

I am already looking forward to next years dinner….