It all started out at 19:00. Four of our closest mourners were to turn up and bring something along that everybody could nibble, so we all got something and made a terrific feast. The dinner table was a free-for-all, very tapas-ish plus there being lots of alcohol present. Good alcohol. Frederic turned up right after Patrik and Staffan did, so we all unpacked.

Frederic brought a slew of cheeses, carefully tagging them by ripping the labels from the packages and placing them next to the cheeses, respectively. I had brought a whole bunch of different meats, ranging from parma ham and Jamà³n de Serrano to salami and chorizo. Very nice. Patrik and Staffan had grilled meat and paprika on spits, sauce with that...and oh. Loads of food. And fruits! I love dates and sharon. Mmm.

Björg hadn't shown up at the time, but we had her stamp of approval to go ahead and have welcoming drinks, so we made a quasi Stoli-Boli which was nice - albeit non-bubbly - and then moved on to a magnum-bottle of wine that recently had appeared at systembolaget, which is the only type of store (owned and managed by the state, of course) in Sweden that is allowed to sell alcohol, except for restaurants, pubs and so on. That magnum bottle was a Rocca Guicciarda 2001, very full and "bloody", yet easily drunk. We then opened a Tattinger champagne, I think, and so moved on through the list of drinks for the night, oh brother. It was all very well, and we all drank and ate, drank and ate. I think I returned to the dinner table about six or eight times during the night. I love the idea of having tapas and eating it with friends, probably really since Mikaela and I were lucky enough to attend the trip to Madrid in April.

Björg turned up, and it was very nice to see her again. She's through a hard time, separating from Johnnie. They've been together for a long time and share two kids and a house, so the break-up is a tough one. I felt the atmosphere at the party was very open and warm; we could all talk about whatever, and I'd hate to see a friend sit silently and "play a role" rather than to speak what's on his or her mind. If you don't, you'll just be boring anyway.

I was happy that I didn't forget to break out the camera this time, mainly because there was a better photographer in the house; Staffan managed to snap quite a few successful pictures, being the former professional (photographer) with taste. He got quite a few good pictures in there, including some of Patrik that I cannot publish here.

Micke, Mikaela's oldest brother, called and asked if he could come over for a while, as he was partying with some friends about 200 meters away from our apartment. Sho nuff! They came over a bit later, around 2 o'clock, which was nice, and left about an hour later.

We played all sorts of music all the while, a lot it off Pitchfork's top 50 singles of the year. Patrik wanted to hear Madonna's "Hung Up" twice (...) but I managed to scare most people by playing Clawfinger's "Breakout" at a really loud volume. Imagine you're listening to LCD Soundsystem and the next second you have heavily distorted guitars in your ear at twice the volume. Maybe that's why so many left?

Come to think of it, Alex, Mikaela's youngest brother, was about to come over but I forgot all about my MSN Messenger and computer that evening, so his cries went unheard. As you see, Frederic opened his very old Crissy so we got into that rotten stuff - which was sweet, actually sweeter still, if you're into hip-hop myths (like myself) - and we then all...ate more food and had coffee plus a 2 kilo pandoro that Frederic had dragged along. It was splendid, actually infused with limoncello. Very, very appropriate! Mmm, good.

At 4 in the morning most people started heading home. The subway was still intact (I think) so I think that sorted Patrik & Staffan. Björk lives at walking-distance from our flat, but Frederic had a very hard time getting hold of a cab - little wonder. Mikaela actually rummaged through our cellar stash for a spare bed and the lot when he finally reached a cab service and got home fairly quick.

I woke up this morning a little heavy-headed, but no aches, just slow. Now, I haven't left our apartment for almost two days. I'm having a week off starting now, which will be sweet. New Year's Eve was great.