The bartender for at least half the evening.
November 2004 Archives
Christian, beware!
We don't really know who came up with this brilliant idea.
It looks like Hanna and Pär to the left, and maybe Kaija and Ervin... Wait, did I just say Kaija? Then I understand!
Are they trying to imitate each other?
Don't they look alike, too? Is this some kind of competition?
Mattias and Minna. Not trying to imitate anyone.
Tobbe, Gessie and Tania are having fun.
Hmm. Something seems to be lacking in this picture, don't you think?
Aja, then the picture is complete!
Thomas never forget to raise his camera. Thousands of pictures came from his camera, but not this one.
Two of them are sisters, the third is a cousin. Guess which one?
Kirre, Marja-Leena and Eeva.
Can you do something for me? Maria is just watching, amused.
Antti and Figge chatting on the dance floor.
Christian and Urban go way back.
Hanna, My and Mayte - the three pinkest ladies this evening!
Practice on Hugo, soon it's your turn! Frida and Christian talking to Hugo.
Cecilia and Mayte behind Ann Charlotte.
Hugo probably had the roundest cheeks at the party.
Hanna and Marlboro seem to have gotten something extra in their drinks?
Marlboro usually looks like this... Wiebke too, by the way.
There were always people in these sofas.
Fanny is, thanks heavens, not matching the wallpaper.
A lot of people in what in the family is known as "The smoking room - rökrummet" for some reason.
Seeing this, I think I will rename it "The pink room".
I hope the photographer didn't fall further...
These three are all (rock) climbers. Pär, Luring and Ille.
Christer using his hands to explain to Francis what he means.
Janke and Jocke, takes a break. Well earned.
Pär and Kaija
lens just got stuck. Hanna and Minna looking at another camera?
Hiding behind the pink scarf, next to Mayte... Who could it be?
Hiihiiiiih, it was Myyyyy. You could never have guessed!
Yummy snacks you've got here! Petter and Frida in the sofa.
Christian and his mother Charlotte are talking to Mattias and Minna in the other popular sofa.
Some people are resting between songs.
From left - Wiebke, who looks like she's sold the butter and lost the money, Kaija, Kicki, Anders and Mathias who are having more fun; Maria and Minna talking about trivial matters and then My, trying to catch the camera.
Kalle and Anette are probably watching Inger sing...
Eskil and Ulf takes a smoke break outside.
Hanna and Thomas
Christian and Frida are checking the presents.
Åsa, Annouschka, Urban and Christian hanging out.
Ingrid, coyly hiding behind her fan, and Per.
Kicki and Fanny are talking intensively, Anders is watching.
Ervin managed to get Kaija into the sofa for some hugging.
Two of all the beautiful girls - Hanna and Malin.
The bride gets some fresh air and mingles with Anna and Petter.
Tommy and Magnus are watching the dance from a safe corner.
The king of the dance floor is taking a short break to get some liquid.
Minna is trying out all the different candies. This one was obviously not to her liking.
Gustaf, Anders and Per in the other sofa.
Anders, Christian's brother, and Urban talking to Annouschka.
Malin and Thomas in front of the lens for a change.
In the front, My talking to Thorsten.
In the back, Cecilia and Ulf chatting.
in the oh so popular sofa.
Ingrid and Per stayed in the sofa almost all night.
We'll take a little of this...
This is going to be a good drink.
And Mr. Hyde!
How did this happen. Why is the mirror showing Niklas and not my father?
Did anyone see this guy for brunch, or did he go back into the mirror?
Petter is entertaining Figge while Petter's wife Anna is watching him.
Gessie, Tanja and Tomas having fun!
Well, at a first glance, this place doesn't look bad at all! And we will stay here for five days. I will not move! Do they have nice cocktails with small paper umbrellas?
One of the resort's two pools.
This is where we are having dinner tonight!
Fruit, champagne and a wedding cake!
Very nice and comfortable!
Christian is happy with his food.
Relaxed. Good company. Good food. Good wine. This will be a nice honeymoon.
This is for my cousins: They have Vape and Vapemat in Malaysia as well. We made good use of it. It didn't scare bats, though.
Our bat came and said hi every night, took the moskitoes that survived Vape and vanished. Very funny.
Yep, we approve of the balcony view.
Quite nice settings for breakfast.
We decided to go on a tour with the hotel, a trip to the rainforest.
This is a rubber wood, where people collect rubber from the rubber trees.
Termites bite hard. I know.
Rattan has ugly thorns. Be careful if you want to make a chair!
Tarzan, try this one!
He had been at the hotel since 1989, impressive. He knew a lot about the rainforest and Langkawi, since he was born here.
Our guide helped us over the water.
Here we got our leeches, although we were not even in the water for 20 seconds!
They must be lurking around, just waiting.
A toad was hiding in the grass.
Ouch, that hurt! A leech bit me. It took about 12 hours for the tiny little wound to heal. We were both bitten.
We took a stroll to the night market, just ten minutes from the resort.
It wasn't much, compared to the Taiwanese ones.
On our way home from the night market.
We're on our way to Island of the pregnant maiden. Look closely and you'll see her.
This was the first stop on our trip, the fresh water lake. Noone had told us that the island was full of monkeys! Fun, Christian's first wild monkey.
At the fresh water lake, people were feeding the fish and putting their feet into the frenzy. Looked very strange.
It felt just like home! Diving into a fresh water lake, it was a long time since I did that.
Lang means eagle in Malay, and Kawi is the name of a cliff. On this tour, we got to feed the eagles. Fantastic, around 50 huge eagles came really close to the boat while they were catching chicken skin that we threw out. Amazing.
Fantastic - feeding the eagles.
But we weren't that cold. Actually.
Notice that it's sunglasses, not waterglasses.
Feet in warm, white sand. Nice in end of October!
At least a paradise beach.
Our hotel, seen from the water.
We took a fishing trip one day, trolling barracudas.
We were not alone in the boat, one Dutchman and one Brit.
Didn't catch any fish, though.
If my freckles are growing at all.
The Malaysian fisher men are smarter than us. They take refuge from the sun.
Inger can also fish. She is very good at getting the hook stuck in the bottom of the sea.
In town we found these very beautiful trees.
The lobby was enormous.
The ceiling fans in the lobby reminded me of long lost colonization in India, from my childhood books.
Relaxing in the lobby, waiting for the bus to take us to the airport.
Christian hadn't seen water buffalos for real before our trip.
I think he has a name now...
Also married by now. Too bad we couldn't join.
Friends from the Net. Great place to meet great people.
Friends from before, Ingrid and Per, Kaija and Ervin
Fanny, Kicki and Anders all either come from there or are living there.
Behold, the three musketeers!
Kalle came up to me and said "Inger, is it possible to borrow some swords...?"
Gustaf said "of course" and then they called Christian. He was scared stiff. "What have you guys done...?"
So you can notice it is only him who is smiling.
From the left:
Niklas, currently living in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Christian, currently living in Taipei, Taiwan
Kalle, currently living in Sweden, but is getting married to a Brazilian girl on December 17
Cecilia, My and Mayte
All from Christian's childhood.
Christian's brother and his fiancée
Mattias and Minna, Eeva and Figge.
From the left, Laszlo, Carin, Kalle, Annuschka and Anders.
In the back from the left is Christian's aunt Carin and father Kalle, then my parents, Eeva and Figge.
The owners of this magnificant place. Thanks a lot for letting us having the party at your place!
Grandma (mine and Gustaf's) on the wall.
Come on now, give us a show!
Circus!
All of us getting married this summer!
Both friends from Taipei.
And Christian and me...
Marlboro had just moved to Sweden and was very excited.
Minna is hugging Frida and Christian and Frida's belly. Frida and Christian got a daughter just a few days after the wedding.
She's turning her good side to the camera!
Taking a snapshot of themselves.
Must have gotten something in his eye. Friend from Taipei.
My sister's boyfriend, Mattias is looking into the camera.
My father in action. Don't know what he's doing.
Christian's father Kalle in the middle, my mother Eeva to the left and Margareta to the right.
Christer, now father of twins
My sister Minna is listening attentively. My aunt Marja-Leena is looking down.
My godfather, Anders, and godmother, Inger. Two important people in my life.
Me and my beautiful Godmother, Inger. I am named after her and she is on the day 50 years older than me.
Mr. Ulf Gabrielson himself!
Hanna and Malin, two of all the beautiful girls.
Thomas took these pictures while Malin was doing black and white. They are wonderful!
These are our Taiwanese wedding photos, all Taiwanese do these. It's a booming business and you get to rent her dresses and his clothes.
We found a great photographer "Brother fat" who did these for us. He had previously done Christian's wedding photos with a Taiwanese girl - when Christian starred in a Taiwanese soap opera - so we got a discount.
Trying out dresses was a nightmare! I hated them all - they are made for petite Taiwanese girls with no chest and they are all without sleaves. I wanted sleaves and I wanted green. Taiwanese mothers don't approve of green, so I got red and blue.
These pictures are all taken by Malin. Some are edited to be in sepia.
We are very grateful for these - they are simply wonderful. Thank you!
Tired but happy after the wedding night in our own little cottage.
Christian said when we started driving. Something was sounding very strange. We suspect Aja.
It's a can of Fanta.
Thanks to my parents, we got one night at Grythyttan as a honeymoon. We enjoyed it a lot!
Quite some room we got.
But what impressed most on Christian was when the receptionist said "Oh, yes, and you have the seven course meal tonight."
His eyes shone!
Champagne, strawberries and chocolate cake - what more can you wish for?
Quite a nice setting for a short honeymoon!
in the bath, maybe?
to our room
in the sleepy little town of Grythyttan
Oh yeah, that's me!
- the whole table is full
We got heaps of gifts!
A lot of paper.
Now open.
Christian takes a paperbath.
There is light in the party rooms on the top floor, the kitchen on the ground floor and I think the flowergirl forgot to turn off the lights in the cellar.
Outside it's dark, but the party is still going.
Someone's watching us from the garden
Swedish summer nights are not that warm, so Malin has to put on a jacket to stand outside and chat.
Since long. The tent is emptied.
Malin is walking around in the dark house.
Gone, with the ghosts?
To Petter and Anna.
And so is the rest of the booze.
Can I go to bed now, as a good girl?
Taking a last beer
Mattias is concentrating hard on whatever he's doing.
Boys, there are rules to this game! Now listen to the judge!
Whatever they did, they're friends again. But wait... Aren't there way too many hands?
Notice that the groom is still drinking.
We are singing "Syster...." the song Minna recorded for this event.
She actually went to a recording studio, bringing her own text and recorded the song in one go.
I knew I had a bright sister!
Ille's girlfriend Åsa came to get him home in the middle of the night.
Brjann, Christian and Mattias are relaxing in the couch.
In the end, it got very blurry.
We had early on decided that we wanted to see our guests again the day after the wedding. Almost all guests met up for the brunch at Eskilstuna Statt and it was a great morning.
Nice to see everyone again, to chat a bit more with someone you didn't catch all evening last night. I recommend it!
Still deliriously happy, despite almost no sleep.
Theoretically, Petter at the end of the table should know Inger and Ulf at this end. But since Petter moved when he was four, I don't know if he remembers...
Christian's school friends are chatting with Francis. Except for Tania who seems to be a bit tired.
Kaija, my son's mother, is chatting with Per and further down the table are Christian's childhood friends Kristofer and Åsa, and also Magnus and Madeleine.
Eeva was happy to catch up with friends and relatives that she hadn't seen for a very long time.
My and Mayte are having fun with Ulla and Kicki. I guess the empty seat belongs to Cecilia, since she was not far from My and Mayte these two days.
Christian's brother and his fiancée, his father and in the background Aja and Anette and Mats.
Aja is saying goodbye, full of happiness over her little secret...
Oh, all Malin did for me these days! Hope I can give some back.
Our toastmaster, Petter, who did a great job during the dinner.
Father of the bride holds his speech.
Some good advice to the son in law on how to handle this woman.
My wonderful godfather! He was the nastiest one in his speech. Surely I wasn't that bad when I was a child?
We actually had two Petter at the party!
This Petter is my childhood friend. I think everyone remembers his line "You might not know this, but me and Inger actually were in love once. We were planning to get married. But then I, at the mature age of four, moved away to the other side of town, and our relationship didn't last."
Thomas and Malin did a very nice thing - the Time Machine! The guests are asked to write something about the couple and then these notes are put, together with a nice bottle of wine, into a container that is not to be open until three years later! We were very happy for that!
Ulf did a very nice speech - he had just gotten back from Taiwan where he had a lot of fun with us for a week.
Petter, our wonderful toastmaster, read out some telegrams from different parts of Sweden.
The chef of the evening, Mr. Thomas Arbhage, gave us a speech and lent us the beautiful cake knife.
My did a very nice speach, half singing, half talking.
She started by putting me back in school again - what was the first Chinese word we learned in high-school?
She sang her way all through our youth.
And, the first word was "xin" heart. I remembered!
Francis, a very good friend from Taiwan, was supposed to sit beside his childhood sweethart, my cousin Christina at the wedding.
She had, unfortunately, not been able to come, so he found another very nice lady to chat with.
Francis did a little recap of all the speaches in English, much appreciated by our foreign guests.
Simon told us about all the stupid things all his classmates did when they were studying.
He said that Christian was a very nice boy, always staying home cooking and didn't do anything bad at all.
I am not entirely sure he told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, though...
You can hear her saying it... "Being a little sister, like me..." Oh, my. I laughed til I cried during her song.
Christian's older brother. In his speach, he reminded us of one of the persons who were not able to come to the wedding,
but who were with us in our heart, their mother.
He also spoke about being an older brother - and now he's also a brother in law.
The cake was made by Gourmandise.
We knew very early on that this was the cake-maker we wanted, and luckily we got them.
Their cakes are the best in the world. There was no other choice for us.
The Chinese characters for "double happiness" a very common character at weddings, is on the top.
We wanted it to be as Swedish as possible, Swedish berries and light as a Swedish summer.
It was an elderberry mousse together with a raspberry mousse, white chocolate around and then summer berries on top. Wonderful!
What is happening? Why is everybody standing up?
Or someone with very long arms took this picture.
We got to borrow the knife from the chef of the evening, Thomas Arbhage. It was a beautiful knife, which could also have done some champagne opening.
Everybody wanted to remember this...
We had wanted the ceremony outside, but this beautiful setting made it full worth being inside.
The old tile stove, the flowers and the candles. Perfect!
Malin and Christer and Kamilla are catching up. Long time no see.
From left: Hanna in beautiful pink trousers from Vietnam, with Pär behind her. Then Kirre and Kössi, relatives from Finland. Then we see half of Thorsten, hidden behind Wiebke, both friends from Taiwan that were coming for our wedding although they had their own only a week later. "Dress rehearsal" it is called. They are talking to Francis who they know from Taiwan. In the back, in blue, you see Fanny from Kanton.
Although it was the second time, it was the first time with friends and family. Would they be angry that it was the second time? We didn't know.
This was a big surprise for Petter, who had no idea that his father was going to be the Master of Ceremonies this day. Although he had his doubts to why his father was not seen at the hotel...
"Eeva and Figge must know that if you want help putting up a tent, my father is not the first one to call!"
But since he also knew that Eskil didn't have the licence to wed, he did not guess our secret.
My is reading about marriage from Khalil Gibran's book "The Prophet".
The ceremony wouldn't have been this beautiful without these three - Eskil as Master of Ceremony, My reading a poem and Kalle singing.
Kalle sang and Laszlo played. We had spent significant time trying to decide what song he should sing. Me and Kalle wanted "Båtlåt" but Christian vetoed strongly. Just a few days before the wedding I remembered this song that Christian sent to me via e-mail when we had almost just met. It fitted perfectly!
We wish...
Urban throwing while Petter in the background seem to be ready to throw some more.
I'm glad she didn't get closer... Anette is throwing happily.
Marlboro aimed well and threw probably three deciliters of rice down my dress...
My and Mayte are taking advantage of the Kodak Moment
People seem to enjoy themselves.
We're lucky to have an experienced flowergirl in the family!
This is actually the old kitchen in the house. All food was cooked here, but for today, it's the green house.
Done!
The cake needed flowers, of course!
Minna actually made two bouquets, this one was just for testing. It turned out very nicely, don't you think?
Maybe not the correct dress for these flowers?
It's beautiful, isn't it?
Everything is set to be taken out to the tent.
Some have to go!
Flowergirl has come out of her cellar and is checking if the flowers look nice on the table.
The Chinese characters are on the table, thanks to Kamilla.
Aja's beautiful seating arrangement was set up in the stairs. It took me one soccer game to sort out the arrangements.
Christian was looking at the tv, his father at me.
Aja's welcome sheet.
Still having fun!
One of the queens in Swedish history. I tried asking my sister who it is, but she didn't know.
Thomas is trying to get Malin and Mattias to pose as guests. To know where to take the photos.
Notice the non existing glasses in their hands.
Malin and Mattias still don't enjoy posing as guests.
Let's see now. The wedding starts at four. It's now... P to T?
One of them. If you want to guess his name, Carl is a good hint. Or Fredrik or Gustaf. These are the most common names in our family. And in Sweden.
Thomas is amusing himself outside for a while.
Or grandma's tv-room as we always called it. The hideous wall papers are actually original and the colors are said to have faded a lot.
The table is coming on nicely.
everywhere
I do as I am told, today as well.
You match my dreams completely.
I'll just eat some in the meantime, ok?
The groom also got some food.
and all of it had to be sprayed. Hard.
Beautiful. Eventually.
I do not want to be beautiful in your camera!
Someone's coming up the avenue.
I am just a little bit tired of your camera now, ok?
Me practicing the evil look. Got it down pretty well, I think.
I was expecting to see grandma in the mirror all the time. I think she enjoyed us being there, in her bedroom, making us beautiful.
Except for the cute dress, that is.
Can you tell?
at him, the man.
Wanted Malin, our stylist, to do their hair. She was quite happy with Eevas hair, she said it was easier to work with than mine.
Bride trying to find out where Frasse put the cake.
The mystical flower girl is also good on fruits.
Aja made the beautiful seating arrangements.
I'm afraid this will be a very stiff party.
The bow of flowers, over the happy couple.
Father and master of ceremonies discuss the table setting.
The groom, the master of ceremonies and the toastmaster in deep discussions...
Yes, this is how I will do!
Both girls now ready for the party! Thanks to one of them...
Everything is done now!
The tent is here!
Tomorrow is the wedding and everything needs to be ready then!
These guys know what they are doing. We are happy for that.
If the stuff inside your fridge makes you happy, then the fridge is happy. This is one happy fridge!
Here is more, if we should need it.
Wedding is about details. This detail happened to be a potato.
The floor is coming on nicely now. Although the ground is not entirely flat.
The one we were never allowed to touch. Getting married is special, then you can do these things.
The glasses, the plates, the whisky...
The groom watches carefully.
The Flowergirl started to put flowers every here and there in the house.
Almost there. Only a little bit missing now.
Since the weather was not on our side, we put up one tent over the stairs. So the serving personnell didn't have to worry about slipping on wet stairs.
Yes, it looks ok. I think.
The birds ignore us pretty much. We only have to chase them out of the tent a few times. They like to be inside things.
The tent is up! It looks... good, but strange. We'll get used to it.
Starting to fill up the tent...
We decided to take a break from the preparations a the mansion and retired to our little cottage to have dinner and relax. Christian immediately started the fire so we could do some bbq.
Mattias found a comfy chair by the fire. Why get up, actually?
Christian does what he loves most at summer. Building the fire.
... Are you sure I have to put all of this in my face? Don't I look good the way it is?
Gustaf and Maria has arrived. Atott and Petter live much closer, so they are always the last to show up.
All my make up was bought at one store. Except for the powder.
Malin: Oh, how did you manage to buy one of the old powder cases?
Me: Eeeeh. By not buying a new one since last time I put on make up...?
One of the chefs, Mattias, is preparing for the grill, while Thomas, the photographer, is watching closely.
Hmmm. Well, I think it looks ok. But what do I know?
Obedient bride to be.
It feels good to relax a bit in the Swedish summer weather.
The groom also has to inspect, so that the make up is put on correctly
Brother-in-laws to be are relaxing a bit in the kitchen.
Testing your make up the day before the big day is very important, also for Flowergirls.
When Malin's back got tired, she took this rather unusual position. Thomas was, as always, very fast with the camera.
Did you tell me I was going to wear these...
I will be beautiful. Tomorrow.
How many huge rolls can you put on Inger's head, actually?
The test make up is finally ready!
At last we have dinner! We have all waited patiently for this for a long time.
Thomas deliberately took this picture to show Christian how my family looks when they are all chewing.
My cousins were getting tired, all of them. Soon time to go to bed.
The four of us continued and sat up late and drank red wine and some very strange cocktails.
This we bought in a little shop close to the embassy. It will be my bridal bouquet, very soon.
This is the person who is going to wed us. His name is Mikael Lindström and he's the Swedish Ambassador to Tokyo.
But very soon we'll be man and wife.
We are very attentive.
Exchanging rings. Exciting. Since we didn't have any engagement rings, this feels very good.
I probably look the same...
The ambassador is happy as well.
Jenny servs us the mandatory drink after the ceremony. Sherry it was.
Signatures are important. This is the third one he's writing today. There will be a couple more before everything is correct.
Ingegerd, the other Swedish witness, is also happy for us.
When Jenny visited us in Taipei, she was frightened by the price of wine in this town. So she and my bridesmaid, Reiko, gave us a bottle to take home.
Well done, all of us!
Our lovely Swedish witnesses, Jenny and Ingegerd, who did so much to make this day special.
And ouf course Reiko, the sweetest bridesmaid any bride can have. Thanks for everything, including the mascara!
We had also got a bottle of champagne to drink before dinner. To soothe the nerves, I guess.
I wouldn't be me if I didn't record things in words afterwards.
Very concentrated while Christian is playing with the camera.
