The Party

As mentioned in my previous post, this Saturday I had a friend's 70th birthday party to go to. The Birthday Girl had sent the invitations out six months (!) in advance... For my own part I find it impossible to make promises that far ahead - but, having been given a heads-up that early, it would on the other hand have felt rather rude not to do my very best to keep that day free from other engagements... (And luckily it did turn out possible to do so.)

BG had done a good job with her party planning, though. Somehow she had even managed to book a Perfect Weather Day. 😉While Friday had been too hot, the outdoors temperature on Saturday was pleasantly cooler, in spite of the sun shining from a perfect blue sky.

The venue for the party - starting at noon - was a parish hall next to a district church in our town. Not "all that" far from where I live, but uphill; and as I did not want to arrive all sweaty and tired from start, I just walked to a bus stop some 10 minutes from where I live, and took a bus from there. As I got aboard the bus, someone called my name - it was an old friend (C), also on her way to the same party. The two of us also ended up sitting at the same table at the party, together with a mutual male friend from the past (H) and three others. (H's wife was there too, but she was helping out a bit, and sat at another table.)

None of the people attending the party know me as a "blogger", and Birthday Girl herself probably hardly even knows what a blog is; so I'll just share a few rather anonymous photos here - to show you what the venue looked like. 

Above is the church, and below the parish hall very close by.

 

This is the room where we sat, 4-6 people around each table. Birthday Girl is turning her back at us here - she's the one in a white blouse with a flowery pattern; with a good view of the whole room. When I was not strolling around taking photos, I was sitting at the table behind that one. (BG had actually asked me to take photos, though - as she knows well enough that I'd be doing it anyway!)  

The lunch served was "smörgåstårta" = "sandwich cake". I suspect that this is probably a typically Swedish party dish. It's a giant sandwich with layers of this, that and who-knows-what; and you cut pieces of it and eat it with knife and fork. (It tasted very good, but I would not be able to identify every ingredient!)

After lunch we were sent out on a short "tipspromenad" = "quiz walk", to answer some  questions about the Birthday Girl put up along the way. The questions (with three alternative answers to each) had been put together by a friend. BG herself had not been shown the questions in advance, but had to tell us the right answers when we got back in again. (I got 8/10 correct - having known her for nearly 40 years, but not having seen her all that often over the last decade or so. We were neighbours for 22 years, but now it's been 17 years since I moved from there to where I live now.)

Outdoors "tipspromenader"  (pl) are very common in Sweden, in all kinds of contexts. As I can't find an official translation in English, I'm not sure if the tradition extends further... But here, I think they're a lot more common that pub quizzes! 

Above is Birthday Girl + her two nieces doing the "quiz walk" themselves. 

Back indoors, there was coffee and tea, and various kinds of dessert cakes (tårta; pl. tårtor). Below is a photo of a strawberry cake, plus another one (probably chocolate). (My own choice was another strawberry one, not included in this picture.)

Birthday Girl herself looked happy throughout the afternoon; and I do think everyone else had a good time too. For my own part I did enjoy "catching up" with C and H; and after the initial awkwardness of not recognising a lot of people and not knowing whether I was supposed to know them or not*, at least the conversation at our table of six flowed quite well - perhaps primarily thanks to H, who seemed to know all of us. *(There were several people there whom I had not seen in 30+ years, and never knew well back then either - and some I had never met at all...)

The party broke up around 4 pm, and then I decided to walk all the way home. I thought I knew a shortcut, but as it took me a whole 45 minutes to walk home, I suspect it may have been a detour instead... Never mind, as at least part of the way was a pleasant walk along streets and paths that I hadn't walked in a long time.