Skördefest 2014 at Tjolöholmslott: A Celebration of Heritage and Harvest

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Cheryl Marie Cordeiro, Maria Förssell Six

For the seventh year in a row, Tjolöholm Castle, a country house built towards the end of the 1800s in Halland, Sweden, hosts its skördefest (harvest festival). Cheryl Marie Cordeiro, with Maria Förssell Six, the person behind Tjolöholm Castle Harvest Festival 2014.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro, Sweden 2014

This year marked the seventh consecutive open harvest festival held at Tjolöholm Castle, along the coast just south of Gothenburg.

Tjolöholm was the last private mansion to be built in Sweden large enough to be denominated a castle. The area around the main house that has been tilled and farmed from medieval times, continues to remain prosperous as farmland today. Continue reading “Skördefest 2014 at Tjolöholmslott: A Celebration of Heritage and Harvest” →

Winter apples

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Winter apples
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro, Sweden 2014

In Sweden nature offers an unexpected luxury – winter apples. These are apples that are not ripe enough to be picked before the the cold winter season has come and night temperatures are down to just above freezing.

Since this is a natural produce where we can’t do anything to hurry up the process of growing or ripenig, what’s to do is to just wait and see.

In this case, ripe enough for picking is not the same as ripe enough to eat. On the contrary, these apples need to be treated carefully like eggs, and to be cold stored and individually wrapped in paper. Treated in this way they can keep the entire winter and at some point in time ripen to an unrivaled sweetness and flavour. Continue reading “Winter apples” →

Sustainable luxury in Singapore 2014

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View from the Marina Boulevard paseo, Singapore.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore 2014

If there was a favourite place to withdraw when in Singapore, it would for the moment be the expansive Marina Bay area overlooking the waters, marked by an urban space that lacks a crowd during office hours. The slowly undulating movements of the river water taxis navigating the bay lends a different rhythm to the adrenaline rush of the skyscrapers. This difference in bio-rhythms is a contrast in symbiotic urban city living that I find interesting.

In asking for directions to get from Raffles Place (steps away from Collyer Quay) to Marina Bay Sands (MBS), I was advised by more than one person encountered, to take a taxi. I smiled and nodded and proceeded to find my way on foot, to the Marina Boulevard paseo.
Continue reading “Sustainable luxury in Singapore 2014” →

06:59 hrs in-between Tim Flannery’s pages Here on Earth

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18 Raffles Quay at 06:59 hrs weekday, Singapore.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014

Stepping out of the car where I was dropped off, a few steps in through the surrounding pavement and I found myself in old Telok Ayer Market. It being early in the morning, I found it rather like an empty school canteen just after the morning school bell had rung and all students had filed neatly into their classrooms. Not one table filled with anyone at all, except me. Continue reading “06:59 hrs in-between Tim Flannery’s pages Here on Earth“ →

PS Café at Ann Siang Hill,
knowledge intensive service industry
with a cherry on top

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Cheryl Marie Cordeiro, Patrik Ström, Claes G. Alvstam, Singapore

A CIBS “selfie of the day” at Amoy Street, Singapore.
Text & Photo © P Ström, JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014

I recently found myself navigating a number of historical streets in and around the central business district of Singapore. If this somehow is an epigenetic memory or not, I don’t know, but I do find myself very much at home around here, it being the very place in Singapore as to where I want to bring my friends.

In Singapore together for this study visit were colleagues from the Centre for International Business Studies (CIBS) of the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Continue reading “PS Café at Ann Siang Hill,
knowledge intensive service industry
with a cherry on top” →

Across the outdoor patio seating of Ristorante Da Valentino in Singapore, 2014

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Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Visiting Valentino’s in Singapore have by and by become a meeting with the Valtulina family. It is pleasant beyond description to be welcomed by familiar faces and even better having your own guests treated as if you were just a big family having waited much too long to finally see each other again.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014

Across the outdoor patio seating of Ristorante Da Valentino in Singapore is a small spice garden. The restaurant is the venture of the Valtulina family. A place I have over time come to regard as a little home away from home, and a place I am always happy to revisit as occasions occur.

Regarding the little garden. We had actually talked ourselves into this little gem mainly in the care of Gianpiero Valtulina, or Papa Gianni, by showing a genuine interest. And while excusing himself for “its many shortcomings”, he showed us around, showed us what were to be and complained – as all true farmers at heart – about the soil, the weather, the sun, the rain and the climate in general, with a smile. Continue reading “Across the outdoor patio seating of Ristorante Da Valentino in Singapore, 2014” →

Apple cake, Swedish west coast autumn harvest 2014

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Apple cake served with vanilla cream sauce.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014

Thanks to generous neighbours, we once again had an abundance of apples to enjoy. Of the many recipes to choose from, cinnamon flavoured apple sauce to last throughout the winter, is a given.

Then thinking about the meal just enjoyed during my recent visit to Singapore, in the hands of the Valtulina family of Ristorante Da Valentino, where Perla Valtulina of Perla’s Pastry Boutique served up a most delicious apple tart as dolci, I decided to try my own hands at making an apple cake. Not that I can ever dream of matching hers, but lacking the possibility of having her gorgeous desserts in Singapore, this will have to do when back in Sweden. Continue reading “Apple cake, Swedish west coast autumn harvest 2014” →

Gödel or Godot? Differing world perspectives in a shared language and culture

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Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Mr. P, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014

In SINGAPORE. It was the result of a serendipitous meeting along the street. My first reaction was to believe it to be due to path dependency, although I was pretty sure that was too literal a translation of that theory, that led me to after forty-five minutes, the poignant realization that we were seated at a levelled table speaking across levels. Continue reading “Gödel or Godot? Differing world perspectives in a shared language and culture” →

Singapore narratives, from white Mercedes-Benzes

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ArtScience Museum, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2014

Taxi drivers. They make some of the most understated ambassadors to a country, in particular, if that country is Singapore, if only because most taxi drivers are quite loquacious individuals who love spending time in transit to get to know their passengers. Continue reading “Singapore narratives, from white Mercedes-Benzes” →