Regional School Chess Championship

The last of March was a day filled with things to do, planning for May 5th. However, we were also able to go to "The Blue Hall" inside the Stockholm City Hall - where the Nobel banquet is being held every year - to cheer for Tara's students in the Regional Chess Finals for 4th graders. The English School had two teams in the finals - and they ended up receiving the gold and silver medals! So now both their teams are off to the Swedish Chess Nationals in Västerås, next month.

Another grand view of the Blue Hall, packed with young chess enthusiasts.

Tara and Joakim also toured the City Hall to view the other ball rooms. The pictures below (click to enlarge) are from The Golden Room, where the walls are decorated with 18 million golden mosaic pieces.

Swedish wedding registry

A registry (bröllopslista) can be found at the Swedish Cervera stores.

For guests from Sweden: The easiest way to find out more about the registry is to just walk into a Cervera store near you and give them our names and wedding date.

For international guests: If you would like to take part in the Swedish registry we advise you to get in touch with the toastmaster.

Any further questions - including login-key and password to our personal page at the Cervera online website - will be answered by the toastmaster Martin Nilsson. He can be reached at: idaochmartin[at]telia.com.

Happy 30th Birthday!!!

Tara turned 30 today! We have been forced to take it a little bit easy though, since Tara has caught something from school and has been staying at home. The pink Champagne that Joakim gave her will probably be used sometime in the near future...

Update March 24th:

Joakim's parents treated everybody to a wonderful dinner at Fem Små Hus in the Old Town of Stockholm to celebrate Tara turning 30 on March 22 (which, interestingly enough, was the same day Joakim's dad turned 59). The table is decorated with the Star Spangled Banner and the Swedish flag in honor of a cosmopolitan girl getting older.

Most of us around the table had very tender caribou filet with a black currant sauce. We finished off the meal with a cloudberry icecream dessert.

And more pink Champagne ... (this bottle was a gift from Martin and Ida) Tara is seen wearing a Swedish birthday wreath.

Some pictures from the restaurant cellar:

Chess for kids

Tara went to cheer for her kids at the "Schackfyran" Chess tournament for fourth graders. It was held in the Stockholm Globen arena (picture below) - just a few metro stops from our place on Söder. There is something quite appealing in the sight of a conference hall, packed with 10-year-olds eager to take on intellectual challenge over a board. Everything went well during the tournament and now it's on to the next round!


Update: Some more photos from the event. (Click to enlarge.)