The men were all suave and debonair in their white tux tails (Swedes call them “frack” and I’m sure the British have some other name for them as I’m pretty sure none of the men were wearing suspenders).
The women were primped and stylish in ball gowns and evening wear. The event at the Stockholm City Hall (Stadshuset) Sunday evening could easily have been mistaken for the Nobel Prize Banquet except the King and Queen weren’t in attendance. We did, however, have a Nobel Laureate among the guests.
We were attending the 100th jubilee celebration for the mechanical engineering faculty at the Royal Technical Institute (locally better known as KTH or Teknis) and I knew that this is the closest I’m ever going to get to something like the Nobel Banquet.
(Overview of the actual evening’s dinner guests)
This evening’s event was close enough that the staff have used it as a training opportunity for the newbies who will be working the true Nobel Banquet on December 10th. Our dinner had “only” 750 dinner guests. During the “real deal” there are over 1200 waiting for their hot meal. Amazingly they manage to get out the hot meal in a matter of minutes (I can’t remember the exact number but 3-4 minutes sounds right.)
Also magical was finishing up the evening dancing to the same orchestra, On Cue, who will play for this year’s Nobel Banquet, so we got a little preview on that too. They were fabulous and 3 of them (all 3 played the sax funnily enough) are also former alums from the mechanical section and the ME section’s big band orchestra Osquar Mutter.
Here’s a shot from their perspective of the guests toasting the 100th birthday moment at midnight. 
Tags: blue hall, kth 100 år, makin 100, osquar mutter., stadshuset, stockholm, stockholm city hall
Do you always have to self promote yourself on every poorly written blog you impose on this site? Me. Me, look at me.
No-one that has half a brain cares.
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Ha Ha Sandra,
I am glad it’s not just me that is astounded at the lack of anything interesting that Boston woman has to say. It could even be truly funny if the quality of writing were not so bad.
What ever happened to good journalism? or even half good journalism?
Still it is worth reading if not just to remind ourselves how dreadful women like this can really be.
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@ Sandra and Melanie. Thank you both for reading my blog (which is short for “web log”, a form of on-line journal). I would love to direct you to the news section of The Local for articles that you might find more interesting and even better written. But should either of you feel better reading how dreadful I am (what a funny word “dreadful”, so contrived=) please do keep reading. I’ll happily take the 1/4 brained (since the ½-brained obviously don’t care
to keep the commentary section lively.
BB
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Sounds like you had a wonderful time? It is all very impressive how the staff manage to pull off these huge events. We don’t have anything like this here in the States really except maybe a dinner at the White House.
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Er…what was the relevance of what the British would call the tux? (And I say this as a British person, by the way). But saying as you’re asking, nope-we also call them tuxedos.
And what were you talking about “suspenders” for? Really, I agree with the others-this blog entry makes zero sense, and is even less interesting.
The depths really were plumbed when you waffled on about how many minutes it took to get the hot meal out.
Please get a life. And/or learn how to write.
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@Monica. It is extremely impressive to see how they can serve such a large crowd so professionally. They show the Nobel dinner live on SVT (I think you can see it via the internet too). They “count” the time it takes to serve each guest from the moment the King is served. It’s executed like a military exercise. Events like weddings with 100 -200 guests can take 10-20 minutes to get all the food out to the guests. I would imagine these sorts of white tie events take place in larger cities, perhaps just for the heck of it. And it was a wonderful evening, thanks.
@Julie. I’m sure you’re aware of the many different names of clothing that do not harmonize between UK and US English. Beneath tuxedo tails a man is expected to wear suspenders, which you would consider to be a very female garment worn to keep up stockings. You call the “hängslen” braces. People who know both usages would catch the reference since it was deliberately intended to be subtle. The number of minutes it takes to serve 1200+ guests is significant if one is aware of the difficultly and professionalism required in achieving such a feat.
Thank you, but I have a life and I blog about it. I am pleased that so many people take the time to read it and commiserate together. Super indication that I’m building a fan base
I look forward to more of your comments in future (omitted the “the” just for you 
)
BB
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Jesus, even your reply was boring. How on earth do you do that?
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Hi, I hate to be pedantic but this isn’t a tux. It’s not even black tie. It’s white tie and tails or ‘formal evening wear’. We don’t even have a monarchy in Ireland and I know this.
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Well spotted Catherine. However don’t expect the “Boston language strangler” to actually provide any useful or accurate information for the casual reader. Other than self promotion it’s just something to fill in her time of which there must be plenty of.
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If you don’t like the blog why bother posting?
Are you jealous and envious or what?
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If you don’t like it, then don’t read it – simple enough for you to understand, I hope? Personally, I love it. Blogs are online diaries, and it is fascinating to see how other people live. It’s a privileged view of another’s life.
Yes, we Brits would call it white tie and tails, with normal dinner jackets being referred to as ‘djs’ – a trifle confusing at times. ‘Bring your DJ’ could potentially result in the arrival of a small white van containing some very loud musical equipment.
I was sitting in a small country restaurant with my husband in a village nearby, in deepest rural Suffolk, and we were listening to the two elderly couples behind us speaking about all the immigrants (Poles and Latvians and other eastern europeans, in our case) who were coming into the county and ‘taking all the jobs’.
They then went on to relate to each other how their children’s families in Spain and Australia were doing in their new lives! It’s apparently fine to go out and colonise other countries and take their jobs, but woe betide any incomers who come and try to take yours….I felt like going over and asking to think about what they were saying, but I knew I would be wasting my breath.
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