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IPA SWEDEN 60th ANNIVERSARY Yvonne Mcgregor , VP Throughout the World, IPA Sections are continually celebrating Special Anniversaries. This year, Section Sweden celebrated their Diamond Anniversary in Malmo, Sweden. Our President, Mick Luke, was unable to attend and after some debate with other Members of the NEC, I was fortunate to be the one celebrating with them. O ur first full day dawned with beautiful blue skies and we headed into the city to explore it a bit further. Most of On Friday morning we went on a conducted tour of the city. Our guide was excellent, giving us the history of the city and he was both interesting and humorous. In the afternoon I joined other members on a back stage tour of Malmo Opera House, which has one of the largest stages in Europe and has three smaller theatres inside.

the centre is pedestrianised, but this does not exclude bicycles, of which there are many, and they were a bit of a hazard. A beautiful city with several parks and a canal. Unfortunately all the shops were closed as it was a Public Holiday in Sweden. After registering with the organisers I attended the IPA National Executive Meeting, accompanied by Connor O’Higgins, the newly appointed President of Section Ireland. I was delighted their president, May-Britt Rinaldo announced they were to conduct their meeting in English for the benefit of some overseas visitors. It is a non-election year so proceedings were quite short. David, along with two Swedish friends, had gone out for a beer in the glorious sunshine. Without knowing where they may be I wandered around the centre and miraculously found them in the Lilla Torg area, a square full of pubs and al fresco dining areas. They got quite a shock when I sat down beside them. I think they are still trying to fathom out how I found them! Over dinner that evening there was a chance to make new friends and reacquaint with old friends. We met up with Owe Nordin who has supported my Branch friendship ceilidh weekend since we started it four years ago.

Friday evening was on the programme as “Courtship/Mingle” so we just had to attend. There was a Prosecco reception and with 20 Section representatives in attendance, we all duly presented Section Sweden with gifts. On behalf of Section UK I handed over a Pennant and also an engraved Quaich, a Scottish friendship cup, and in true Scottish tradition I filled it with whisky which I shared with the President. Saturday was to be a canal boat tour but, unfortunately, the Captain didn’t turn up so we had another walking tour along by the canal. This was through the former big ship building area which now has new housing and shops. A coffee stop in an indoor market saw a crowd of people round the handmade chocolate stall. It was delicious. We had a leisurely afternoon and prepared for the Gala Dinner. David had been requested to wear his IPA Tartan kilt, which he duly did. The official Toast Master, Ivan, looked very smart in his Formal Dress uniform and everyone was very impressed when he used his ceremonial sword to remove the cork from a bottle of champagne. During dinner each Section was gifted a commemorative tray from IPA Sweden. Obviously a lot of thought had been put into the gift as it was light and easily packed for flying home. After dinner I didn’t see much of David as he was in demand to have his photograph taken, particularly by the women. I didn’t hear him complain at all. Sunday we had a late flight back to Edinburgh so we set off for another walking tour of Malmo. This time we walked through the parks, following the canal and headed for a well-known Malmo landmark, the Turning Torso, the tallest building in Scandinavia and the first twisted skyscraper in the world. It is a residential building on 53 floors.

A walk along the promenade in the 25 degree sunshine was so relaxing. After 4 hours of walking we returned to the Hotel and prepared for our departure back across the Oresund Bridge to Denmark for our flight home to Edinburgh. Many thanks to IPA Sweden for the invitation and for organising a memorable visit to Malmo.

POLICE WORLD Vol 63 No. 3, 2018

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