My new health drink

King Coconut is my new health habit drink. It's beautifully served directly from the coconut fruit decorated with a with a temple flower. It's packed with antioxidants and vitamins and also helps to cool you down when it's warm.

Amanwella

Amanwella Hotel is part of the Aman Hotel Group, You can recognize the style immediately, it's very minimalist-style, but wonderfully tasteful. Every suite is decorated the same style with windows and wooden shutters floor to ceiling on both long-sides. They're very spacious and all have one balcony terrace towards the see and a courtyard terrace by an own 10 m2 pool at the front hidden by walls and greenery.

I've unwinded faster than I usually do. The green surroundings are so peaceful for soul and mind. The beach is the best in Sri Lanka and adds to the paradise feeling.

In Sri Lanka you get very god service everywhere, the local people are wonderfully happy and polite, so you can imagine the high level of service here as Aman Resorts are famous for just that. Therefor the combination of Sri Lanka and Aman can only result in impeccable service.

Woke up in Paradise

I woke up in paradise today after a long night fast a sleep with the terrace doors open to the slow and calming sound of the ocean waves rolling in underneath my suite. I arrived here at Amanawella yesterday after a 4,5 hours drive from Colombo international airport. The drive is filled with exciting sightings of local village life and beautiful sceneries of the ocean. here and there you can still see the damages after the disastrous Tsunami in 2004. It's not the most comfortable ride with cows standing on the road and tuk-tuks everywhere, but I can live with that in order to reach this fabulous hide away place. My friends car-sleeping habits on the other hand are not as easy to travel with. She's not only snoring, she's also tripping over and falling down with her head resting on my shoulder where she sighs contentedly, well at least that stops the snoring.

As I said, it's all worth it. Amanwella is wonderful, like being on an own paradise island hidden away from everything.

Welcome to Sri Lanka

-- Post From My iPhone

Perfect Service

I've boarded my last flight, where I was taken by a luxury BMW straight from the premium terminal. Anissa is our hostess in the aircraft and she's wonderful.

So, have you already figured out which paradise island I'm going to? Well let me give you a hint, the name starts with an S.


-- Post From My iPhone

Choice of islands

-- Post From My iPhone

Doha Premium Terminal

Qatar Airways are now hosting a premium lounge in their Doha hub, for business class passengers. I'm actually quite surprised by this concept. First of all the flight was direct and only took six hours from Stockholm, once here we had our own bus transportation directly to this totally secluded, large lounge, which is actually more like an own terminal than a lounge. Here I've found three dining areas (great food), one bar (not a great selection, but good enough), one business area (perfect for blogging), family area (very good for families with children  who want to run wild), children's area (excellent for kids who've run wild in the family area and now need have more fun). There are also great facilities to help a transit run easier, for instance showers, wifi and a tax-free shop with no lines. The service has been excellent and the food is very good with a large selection of dishes serving all different tastes. From here there are many connections to all over the world, to paradise islands as the Seychelles and the Maldives as well as to far-away cities like Melbourne and Singapore. 

I know this is not my last time in Doha. This is wonderfully convenient and makes my traveling quite easy. 

Contact us at any Select Office for more information and special offers. 

Oh and PS, there's an even fancier terminal for first class passengers. They even have a spa.

See the lounge guide's information about this

Arnell is one of people from the lovely staff who've made our transit such a great experience.

Doha next

Sitting in the lounge at Arlanda waiting for my Qatar Airlines flight to Doha. Have a long transit there and will then continue to a beautiful island I haven't visited in many many years.

-- Post From My iPhone

Entrepreneur of the year?

A while back I learned that I was nominated to participate in the Ernst & Young entrepreneur of the year award. The whole machinery around the awards is quite large, with three categories hosting different regional- and national finals, ending in a huge international final.

I feel very honored to be nominated amongst approximately 30-40 very talented individuals from Stockholm. I am nominated in the category This Year's Female Star. Exciting to see how it goes.

Wonderful autumn colors

Autumn can be so beautiful. This morning was very dark and rainy, but now the sun is trying to come through and light up our day.

Have a wonderful day filled with beautiful colors.

To D or not to D

One of my favorite news papers, The Financial Times has a great weekend magazine. Today I read a interesting article about Vitamin D and the discoveries of Dr Vieth.

To D or not to D

In recent years vitamin D has been going to some exciting places. Reports of new and promising studies seem to emerge almost weekly. A 2007 analysis of vitamin D studies found that individuals with higher vitamin level are significantly as much as 50 per cent - less likely to develop colorectal cancer. And the excitement is not only about cancer prevention. Low vitamin D levels have been linked to an increased risk of osteoporosis, heart disease. Multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, depression and rheumatoid arthritis, among other diseases.

So why is Dr Vieth so frustrated? Him and other vitamin D researchers around the world can prove vitamin D could help millions live longer and be healthier and yet they have not been able to convince their own governments.

When I was young growing up in Finland, my mother made me take one spoon-full of cod liver oil everyday. Today I love my sardines for breakfast even if I thought at that time that I'd never eat it voluntarily.

Vitamin D can be found in milk, eggs, tofu, cod liver oil, oyster, dried shiitake mushrooms, mackerel and tinned sardines.

So listen to mummy and take your vitamin Ds

Meet Jim

I want to introduce my mentor to you. Everybody, please meet Jim Grundström. Jim, happy to introduce you to everybody.

Jim and I met 18 years ago and he still manages to teach me new things every-time we meet. He has this special energy that really triggers me. Originally he and his life partner Alexander (yes, they are the ones who form the famous designer duo "Jim & Alexander") took upon them to design and decorate all my offices, an ongoing job that never ends. Because design and esthetically beautiful surroundings are so important to me the work relationship very quickly became much deeper and turned into a long-lasting friendship. Jim has become my very dear mentor in the process, he's also very important for my son who finds his advice very valuable.

Yesterday I had a long talk with Jim about integrity and respect and about my blog. It's not always easy to decide where to draw the line on how personal thoughts can be shared with all of you dear blog-readers. Jim is a very wise man and has given me many advices and tips in this matter. I hope that you all enjoy the balance that I feel I've found here.

And now I'm going to share something personal about Jim with all of you. He's very good at history, but among all else he's probably number one in the world on naming and recognising Swedish Kings. I witnessed this summer when my friend Sonja tested him with an iPhone quizz application about the history of Swedish kings and queens. Jim got full points and his knowledge was so impressive that I can truly say I've never seen anything alike before!

Zermatt in Djursholm

Last night I hosted an evening at Villa Pauli in Djursholm. We had invited Seiler Hotels and Swiss to present Zermatt for our valued customers as well as to some of Villa Paulis private members. Lindt served us excellent chocolate together with Auchentoshan Three Wood whiskey. The evening was a success and a lot of fun and I really miss my favorite European skiing resort Zermatt, I will book a trip there for this winter.

I know that Select has a very good deal on Seiler Hotels, especially Mont Cervin which is my favorite.. Please call any of our 5 offices for more information www.selecttravel.info

Below are pictures from the event.



Anna Ramel, Swiss, in front of Georg Paulis
wall fresco in the great hall at Villa Pauli.
The wintry landscape was a good back drop.


Joakim Genetay in front of another scene from
Georg Paulis fresco, here you can also see his fathers
grandmother Ebba Pauli (born 1899) in the painting.
She's the dark girl in a pink dress.


Peter Nilson and Marianne Axelsson


Wilhelm and Ewa Hedenstierna


Margaretha and Jocke Eklund, gallerist and executive headhunter
together with Patrik Faeh and Marie Tiger from Lindt


Karin Kunz, Manager of Seiler Hotels together with
the happy winner Pia Kjörrefjord – 7 nights at Mont
Cervin Zermatt!


Fredrik and Veronika Kant



Mats Larsson, Annika de la Motte and Fredrik Ottosson
Director of Products and Marketing Select Travel


Hanna Hjälmerhag Select Travel together with Margita
Stepanovitch and Julia Guldbrandsen


Oscar von Stapelmoohr, artist and designer

I'm a lotus!

As I love both beautiful books and flowers I just couldn't resist buying a wonderful book about flowers in New York. It's called "The Floral Birthday Book" and I am apparently a Lotus flower.

The other day a very dear and special friend gave me a wonderful book about flowers and in this one it describes a floating heart, that have similarities to the Lotus.

Name - Nymphoides Indica is derived from nymphaea, the genus of the water
lily, which it resembles. Indica probably refers to its appearance in India. It is often called
"Floating Heart" because of its heart-shaped leaves.

CNBC Business Magazine - Hotel Special

I read the last CNBC Magazine special edition about hotels and the future of hotels. Ok, this was very much focus on business travel, but it's still a very good article including interesting figures and facts. For instance Four Seasons CEO Isadore Sharp has said that they're going to double the number of hotels within ten years. They have 83 today. Starwood including brands as St. Regis, Le Meridien and Sheraton are insistent that they'll increase their global portfolio by 40% over the next five years. Marriott, which manages the Ritz Carlton and Rennaissance brands plans to open 130 new hotels in China, India and United Arab Emirates in the next four years. The figures go on including french Accor, Indian Taj Hotels and Resorts and Leela Palaces, Hong Kong based Langham Palace Group and Singapore based Shangri-La Hotels are all expanding rapidly.

So what is the conclusion of the article? Well it all boils down to the fact that people travel more and demand better and better quality and service all the time. It also concludes which four issues are important for business travelers;
1. "rates of interest" i.e. offers of free nights, cutting costs for travelers.

2. "homes from homes" i.e. offers of more of the amenities than we have at home, giving the traveller freedom

3. "connecting with customers" i.e. offering us free wifi at all times. Wifi is our holy grail when traveling, we can iChat with the loved ones at home, answer work e-mail and like me, update my blog

4. "online and on-message" i.e. how we use social-media networking in business sense today. Hotels are hooking up with customers via Twitter and Facebook and can from there use it as very clever marketing.

You can follow me on Bloggy (Twitters swedish cousin) through this address: http://leijagraf.bloggy.se/

See you in cyberspace, please keep me posted about what you want from us when traveling and we will make sure to send a tweet to the hotel.

Missing summer

Oh, how I miss summer and seafood at one of my favorite outdoors restaurants Pontus by the Sea. In this picture I'm enjoying a great long lunch with my dear friend Charles Bland, Sales Director at Dorchester Collection, and his great husband Colin Schabort.

Coffee friend

Having coffee with Kim Nyberg my very good friend from Helsinki. Kim told me already a year a
go to start a blog. I'm happy I started this communication channel that feels like going back to basics. A great way to keep my friends and valued customers à jour with my life. The good thing is that this works as a two way channel, Ive got so many wonderful mails and phone calls and contacs from old friends and customers after I've started the blog.


-- Post From My iPhone

Cold weather - warm thoughts

Autumn and cold weather has reached Stockholm. I'm overseeing the redecoration of my appartment and it suddenly hit me that an open fireplace would've been quite lovely.


-- Post From My iPhone

My favorite vegetable

-- Post From My iPhone

Get Yourself a Great Weekend

I told my Assistant Hanna "have a great weekend". She laughed and told me that her boyfriend and herself always tell eachother to "Get a Great Weekend" She's so correct. Life is not about sitting back and just expecting things to fall into your lap, you gotta get your own happiness and luck.

I hope You all get Yourself a wonderful weekend filled with many happy moments.

Beautiful flowers

Lucky me!

-- Post From My iPhone

A Kiss and an iPhone

I would love to be able to redesign my iPhone everyday acording to my mood. Today a Kiss would be great! The artist is Gustav Klimt, again, I just got a replica card of his last week. See blog post here.

Interdependent - what a lovely word

Dalai Lama talked about business when he give the speech at Thunderbird School of Global Management. He explained that our mind still think in terms of “we” and “they”, but in reality there is no such thing. The World is one body and we must recognize that "the others” are also part of the humanity and that my future depends on your future. “We may find comfort in the notion of independence, but in reality we are all interdependent”.

I read this in the Financial Times Magazine when I came home from New York and I just can't forget it. Consider the philosophy of "interdependence," where whole, centered individuals form a bond based on choice as opposed to need.

Interdependent, try the word, it even tastes well.

Designer Wedding - Designer Honey Moon

This weekend Select Collection, exhibited at The Designer Wedding Show at Battersea Park in London. From our UK office in Mayfair Colette and George had been looking forward and preparing for this for months. They were also joined by Fredrik and Paola from marketing in Stockholm.

Affluent brides to be came with their loved ones to be inspired. Our beautiful stand was full of antiques and delicate objet d'art.

On our stand we had Anna from Sani Resorts Greece, Louise from Half Moon Jamaica, Caroline from Capri Palace, Sophia from Thanos Hotels and we also highlighted Sir Richard Branson’s safari lodge in South Africa – Ulusaba.

The show helped Select Collection position its tailor made luxury travel concept among the visitors.

See below the pictures Fredrik gave me. And just a question: what is my son and his girlfriend doing at a wedding fair?




Fredrik, Louise, Paola and Anna


Caroline


Anna and George



The stand


My son Jonatan, his girlfriend Edith and Paola from Select Travel

Warming up the Swedish people

Last night we posted huge banners all over the head quarter building in Stockholm. We're inviting all frozen Sweds to come into the warmth and book a paradise vacation.

Please feel free to come in, you too, we also have offices in Helsinki, Copenhagen, Oslo and London.

More on Spanish food!

There are many more great restaurants close to Barcelona. Below are some that we recommend. Alva Park Hotel or Select Collection can help you do the bookings and give you more info.

COSTA BRAVA REGIONAL GASTRONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS BY SELECT COLLECTION

Raco Can Fabes, Sant Celoni, ***Michelin, (http://www.canfabes.com/)
Chef Santi Santamaría - One of the first Spanish Michelin 3-star Chefs
Town: Sant Celoni, 35 km from Alva Park Resort & Spa
Cuisine: Classic Traditional Catalan

Restaurante Sant Pau, St. Pol de Mar *** Michelin (http://www.ruscalleda.com/)
Chef: Mrs Carmen Ruscalleda – First lady chef in Spain with 3* Michelin Restaurant
Town: Sant Pol de Mar, 25km from Alva Park Resort & Spa
Cuisine: Local natural product with some japanes influences

El Celler de Can Roca, Girona ** Michelin (cellercanroca.com)
Chef: Josep Roca - Voted 5th best restaurant worldwide in 2009
Town: Outside of Girona, 30 km from Alva Park Resort & Spa
Cuisisne: Traditional Catalan

Sant Pere del Bosc, Lloret de Mar (http://www.santperedelbosc.com/)
17th Century monastery reconverted into a finerestaurant
Town: Outskirts of Lloret de mar with beautiful view sover the Costa Brava
Cuisine: Mediterranean

El Bulli

Yesterday I had a heaven on earth dinner, a once in a life time food experience. Actually a once in thirty-two time food experience.

Christian invited Lena and me for dinner at El Bulli. This is regarded and also rated as the worlds finest restaurant. It's about 150km North of Barcelona (2 hours drive) and the queue to get a table is one year. (Of course Select Collection can arrange it for you!) The food is very innovative and the whole experience was special. My favorite dish out of the thirty-two we had, was the rose leaf dish. Can you imagine my surprise when I today heard that the roses are from my dear friends Mia Ljungberg-Nevado and her husband John Nevado's rose estate?! 100% organic roses.

Christian who invited us for this wonderful dinner

Lena and me

The rose dish

Select Collection's Director of Marketing and Products is now not only wise but also older

Congratulations dear Fredrik on your birthday, it only gets better and more fun for every year!

Love, Leija


-- Post From My iPhone

Wonderful Gaudí

I just love Barcelona and the Gaudí architecture. We've had a great day strolling around enjoying the city and laughing and having fun, even if the weather could be better.

Tonight we're having dinner at el Bulli, invited by Christian . This is something we've waited for for ages. It is actually rated the world's best restaurant. Will tell you all about it tomorrow.

Alva Park

We're staying at the very exclusive Costa Brava hotel Alva Park in suite 163. This hotel has everything, and when I say everything, I really mean everything even my ecological hazelnut milk for my morning coffee.

Pictures below from our suite. The price range is usually appr 13000 € a night, but we have a great deal for our valued customers for appr 3000 € a night.