Tennis Farewell Lunch

Another one of my Tuesday Tennis buddies is heading back to England. Boo. Makes me sad. That's Sue on the far left.

She's great fun to play with and her style is exactly opposite mine. She's dainty and delicate and flits about the court like a little bird. I'm a bit more like a gorilla, hitting the ball aggressively and with as much power as possible as often as possible! But Sue is a great player and she'll sting you with her accuracy, especially when you cheat off the alley!

The only good thing about her leaving is that another of our tennis buddies, Myriam, invited us to lunch at her fabulous home. She happens to be the wife of the Belgian ambassador so her home is quite lovely! And so is she!Sitting on the terrace with Myriam at the start of the lunch.As we gathered, we were offered champagne and snacks on the terrace. The day was perfect and the views were gorgeous.Bright sunshine streaming through the windows, water glistening from the terrace view, good friends gathered around good food. Myriam did a clever thing to seat us. She had placed a card with hearts at each setting. Then on our way into the dining room, we drew a card from her hand which was the same card in spades. Clever way to seat folks.Parting is such sweet sorrow, but the food at Myriam's is delicious. First course: Saffron infused tiger shrimp.Second course: Pork with a morel mushroom sauce that was TO DIE FOR! The plate was beautiful and delicious.

I forgot to take a picture of the dessert but the plum pie with vanilla ice cream was equally as satisfying as the first two courses:

There is something very special about being invited to dine with good friends in a beautiful place. It was so luxurious to leave work in the middle of the day and attend a three course, three hour luncheon complete with a champagne aperitif, white wine with the starter and red with the entree. Good thing I had decided to take the afternoon off!
The Tuesday tennis bunch are a great group of women that I've come to deeply appreciate in my life. We represent 8 countries: The U.S., Belgium, The Netherlands, England, Denmark, Sweden, Australia, and Germany. What fun to chat each week and enjoy the good, fun competition we love with one another.We clean up pretty well too! We always laugh about how different we look when we see one another in the "real world."
Of course, as part of the festivities, speeches were made to thank Myriam for the wonderful lunch and to bid farewell to Sue. I was chosen to do the bidding so in order to inject a bit of silliness to the sad affair of saying good-bye, I wrote a rap. No, I will not publish it here. It is easily the dopiest thing I've ever written or performed but it was fun! Let's just say that I'll be keeping my day job!
Here's the lovely Sue with her gifts displayed: A midsommar wreath and beautiful jewelry by the Swedish company Snö. Wendy the Aussie sports a smile next to her. This lunch is one of the very special things that I get to enjoy while living my Stockholm life. When else will I ever be invited to the residence of an ambassador? And when else will I ever keep company with the whole world? This I treasure. Thank you my friends. Myriam, thanks for a lovely day and Sue...I will miss you dearly.