'Nationality Day'

That was yesterday, June 17th, and in the honour of the Icelandic Republic we hosted a reception to which around 200 people were invited.
After having spent most of the day in the kitchen rolling, frying, roasting, baking and god knows what else, I made my face seen at the party itself and it's just amazing how many people show up having no apparent connection to that rock in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. By that I'm not talking about the obvious Iceland connections like Icelandic people living, working or studying in Russia, but rather people that have like been to Iceland once when they were 4 and since attend both our June 17th and December 1st parties every year. Weird.
Then there's the [old] ladies that worked in or around the embassy when we lived here from 1984-1987, and thus remember me only when I was at the age of four and absolutely insist on pinching my (ever so diminishing) fat cheeks and smother them with (bright) red lípstikk.
But luckily I did get to talk to and get to know some nice people which saved my evening as I later went out with a couple of guys that live in St Petersburg and had a lovely evening.

Some people do the weirdest things to acquire mementos of where they've been. My example of course comes from one guest that decided it would be fun to pinch an (old) wooden duck that was sitting in the windowsill by the 'coatcheck'. But then comes Gudrun, this weeks Superwoman, to the rescue (albeit later that evening when sitting in the same car as the guy), spots ducky and rescues it from its captor, while telling the (by now) very drunk Dimitri (I think he was called) badly off for stealing from the Ambassador's Residence. Who does stuff like that nowadays anyway?

Oh well. In for a very quiet weekend as my parents went to England this morning and will be staying 'till Tuesday, and my lil' brother and sister went to Iceland yesterday.
So plenty of time to drive around, find new routes to here and there, and of course visit MegaMall, IKEA and stock up on DVDs (not at IKEA though, the only thing there to stock up on are Swedish cinnamon rolls and flatbread... yummy!).
Oh, and if anybody's interested in coming to Moscow this weekend, there's plenty (as in 3) empty bedrooms!

Just to explain the coining of the phrase 'Nationality Day'... this is what Lyuba, our domestic engineer insists on calling the 17th of June, as incorrect as it sounds, bless her.