“So Clara, what has your Monday been like?”

“You know, just another day in New York” I would say with a blink of an eye.

Today has actually been quite a great day. Not only have I had a massive amount of gossiping with P5 ( I think that Alanis Morrisette look-a-like who found Johan Saturdaynight should take a look at the wonderful work of Lilly Mcleroy…) and not only did my working day begin by the very pleasant surprise of a me answering the phone not to find a grumphy UN emplyee or stressed out diplomat, but my lovely friend Jon at the other end. No today was the day of Patricia’s five minutes of fame. That is the statement she drafted was to be held at the Philantropy event next to speeches of Ban Ki-moon and Bill Clinton. So at 5.30 we headed down to the Trusteship Council at the UN skyscraper to listen to Mr Clinton speak on the importance of private donations to battle issues of global health (yes the blogpost will be updated with photos very soon). The reason for the Swedish statement was an enormous donation made by IKEA to a project in India. Then there was of course another reception of chardonnay, finger food and mingling ( I almost wish I hadn’t watched the last episode of the Swedish realityshow called the Diplomats because now I can hardly go through these events without looking at it from the outside with a certain sense of absurdity. That is a show that would definitely deserve an entire blogpost, but I will begin by saying that it certainly don’t do the Foreign Ministry and the diplomatic profession a favour in terms of PR) The reception passed with a lengthy conversation with a guy from UNDP who worked at the Obama campaign and some other guy pulling the Scarlet Johanson-line ( people of Scandinavian descent must all look the same to outsiders). So quite early I headed out for drinks with my old roomie Jo. Jo is the most energetic woman ever and I so loved spending the evening talking about saving the world and all other important things with her. She does the most amazing work, that actually fitted quite well with the philanthropy theme of the day, of involving private comapanies in development work around the world.