I don't know about the rest of you but I personally loathe traditional baby showers. Come to think of it, I hate anything like that - kitchen teas, bridal showers, freaking Tupperware type parties etc and I firmly refused to ever be part of it and threatened my friends with instant death if they dared do something like that for me. Fortunately I must be very fierce because no-one was quite game enough to test if I would carry out my threat and that suited me fine. The idea of spending an afternoon/evening with a group of people either discussing plastic storage containers or playing juvenile games like forming words with letters in baby names or baby bingo fills me with dread.

Thus I was really surprised when about a month ago, one of my "Aussie Posse" friends proposed having a surprise baby shower for another of our Aussie friends who is expecting her first baby. My immediate thought was "Kill me now!" followed by "Beth will murder us if we do this". But I needn't have worried as Kim declared that this was to be an Anti-Baby Shower.

The idea was that one of us (poor Jodi from australienresor was press ganged into service) would invite herself over for the day and ask Beth to collect her from the train station. Meanwhile, the rest of us would sneak in and set up a surprise lunch. There were to be no games or garbage like that - just a group of Beth's closest friends here in Sweden having a casual lunch, with each of us contributing to a gift voucher at the trendy Södermalm kids' clothing shop Matador Kids.

The result was fantastic and we all had a marvellous time - after poor Beth got over the shock. It was another scorching hot summer's day and I was again grateful for the comfort of air conditioning as we made our way to Beth's home in Södertälje. There was a close-shave moment as we passed her street to see her trying to turn on her way to the station, so I made Lars-Göran drive on, hoping she hadn't seen us. Even though there was a white, fluffy poodle hanging out of the car window! While Jodi was giving Beth the run-around (she was waiting at Södertälje station, while she had sent Beth to Östertälje station), the other seven of us descended on her home and with the help of her lovely guy who was in on the plot as well, we set the outside table up on the deck and arranged the lunch we had brought with us. There was even some time for catching up and chatting while we waited.




That is me with my baby, chatting to Kylie (with her little one) and Manuela. Everyone had to bring something and we were kept busy setting it all out and keeping an eye on the clock wondering just how much time we had and feeling a twinge of guilt that poor Beth was out in this heat while in her last month of pregnancy. Still, it was in a good cause. So, did she suspect that something was up? Nope.




As she rounded the corner with Jodi in tow, we shouted out "Surprise!" and she stopped in her tracks and cracked up laughing, crying out "I can't believe this!" and asking her guy "Did you know about this?" The fact that we had all known about it for a month and had continued to email, phone and meet with her without breathing a word was something she couldn't quite believe. We are usually such a bunch of blabbermouths that we can't keep secrets for more than a millisecond. But this had been a real shock for her.




But she recovered soon enough for hugs all around - and yes she had seen us pass in the car as Lambi was a bit obvious, though even then she hadn't a clue that we were coming to her house. She just wondered what we were doing here in Södertälje. As you can see in the next photo, she is VERY pregnant, though looking in glowing health despite being uncomfortable in the hot weather.




At this point, the men made a tactical retreat to the pub, while the ladies got down to the serious business of eating and the all important gas bagging. It is always so relaxed and a lot of laughs when we get together and everyone was full of news and talk about our summer plans, chatting easily in a mixture of Swedish and English while enjoying our lunch.




Beth lives in a beautiful typical old Swedish wooden villa on three levels with a Dutch or Flemish style gable. What really makes the home is the leafy, sprawling garden which was green and lush and almost tropical in the early summer. It was an outstanding setting for a relaxed lunch out on the deck, under a huge umbrella. As we are Aussies, we also had our sunscreen on :)




We later had a nosey around the new nursery and retired to the cool of the living room for dessert and coffee and even more talking. After a time the men returned and we all posed for a group shot - from left to right: Little Kim, Beth, Kylie (and baby Mason), Jodi, me (and Lambi), Manuela, with Big Kim and Åsa seated in front of me. Ann wasn't there when the picture was taken.




All in all, it was a most enjoyable afternoon and Beth did seem to genuinely appreciate it. After all, she is thousands of miles away from her family and friends "back home", so this little group make up her family group here in Sweden. We know that at this time, she is missing the support of her immediate family, so we try and provide some kind of network. Even in your homeland, if you don’t have a group like this around you, be it school, work, family and friends it can make life very hard. I think when you live in another country other than your homeland, you have to work extra-hard to get those networks going. But it is really worth it as these contacts help you to feel much more "at home" and not so far away and lost.

I know I can call on any of these women in good times and bad and that they will be there for me. We laugh and cry together and consider each other as very special people. They are available for listening, supporting each other, cheering each other up, and basically, just being there. Where would we be in this world if we didn't have a friend?