Friday, March 30, 2007

Easter-orchid?

You can get lilies ind seasonal varieties. Easter lilies, and passover ones as well.

This easter I think we will be having easter orchids too. This one is budding on my kitchen window sill.

P1020429

Thursday, March 29, 2007

About winning my laughter back...

As I have mentioned earlier, I have been angry for some time. Annoyed, sourly, aggressive.
Wondered what the heck my co-workers were laughing at smiling at, when there in my opinion was nothing funny in sight.

I have worked with myself, and I have had a time-out. It has worked, I can tell.

By nature, I am easygoing and funloving. I survive by spotting the crooked and crazy angles on things, and I have laughed my way through many a crisis - some times with tears in my eyes. When I am my normal self, that is, and I haven't quite been that.

Yesterday I could tell that my laughter was back. Like a spring delayed.

I heard myself laughting at she oddest, silliest things at work. I felt the surplus energy to turn things a quarter around, making them crooked and absurd.

The day is brighter this way. I have gotten my laughter back.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Back to the 80'es...

At the moment an old ELO-cd spins in my car player.

That means, that I time and again is pulled back in time to the times when carrot pants was the high fashion, and hair gel had just been invented.

It also means, that I get to my points of destination quite hoarse because I have been wailing along to "Sweet talkin' woman" and other classics.

Jeff Lynne and I go very well together - in high gear and full register. The music brings back 8th and 9th grade and the first years of high school. Both sweet and bitter.

But the music - the music lasts..at least in my ears. Try for yourself - listen to Telephone Line or Twilight - juicy nuggets for an ageing 80'es chick like me...

Friday, March 23, 2007

Survival guide for childrens birthday parties

This is a title for which I have searched the libraries in vain.

Today 13 boys, all 10-11 years old, invade my premises, from 2.30 to 7.00 pm.
It will be lots of fun, and awfully nice when they leave.

It is Kristians 11th birthday tomorrow. He has been looking very much forward to both today and tomorrow. My mother is coming today for moral support, and it pleases me to no end. It seems like FOR EVER since she was here.

Send me compassionate feelings in above mentioned timespace.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Honey how you've grown...

Youtube - help, what a time robber!!

But also a facility helping me to introduce one of my favourit bands with you. They are called Steely Dan, and they are american. They were really big in the US in the 70'es, but have been producing albums in this century also - and they are as leant-back-super-cool as ever.

Here you can hear the song Cousin Dupree .... from the album Two Against Nature from 1999.
I had the luck of hearing it liv on their Two Against Nature Tour in Copenhagen. It was a big thing, and DARN I lowered the average age that night!

UPDATE: If you got a taste for it - here is a link to a real classic ... Babylon Sister

Photo safari

Yesterday I had an errand in Fredericia, and I chose to take my bike for transport - the weather was so fine.

I stopped on the way home to admire the old train station. It's been many years since the trains came in and out of there - now the building holds offices, but it is still very beautiful. He was an ambitious man, the one that thought out all those details - and I just love the clock!

P1020342

Further on my way I went by the harbour. I've probably been influenced by my husbands fascination of a working industrial harbour. There is so much to watch down there - great ships,
all the containers looking like giant lego blocks, with all their exotic names.

P1020366

The cranes are edged sharply against the sky on this kind of crispy cool spring day. You get a whiff of the great big world being down there - and I was there in a careful manner, because there are not many curious bike photographers like me. Mostly you see trucks, delivering and picking up containers, and those funny container-movers.

P1020350

You also see trucks driving under the big loading machines, where they get filled up with grain or other things loaded of the ships.

P1020359

Yesterday there were also the sun, playing in the puddles and in the water of the harbour basin. It could easily put you in a good mood.

P1020360

So I was - and well at home again, Andreas made tea, so we could enjoy a cup along with the nice chokolate muffins that jumped into my backpack as I passed "The Golden Oven".

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Fredericia and Rio de Janeiro

A business owner in town once made me aware of the fact, that Rio de Janeiro and Fredericia has something very special in common.

We were in his store, and had gotten to talking about the marvels of our town, when he brought to my attention, that Fredericia, besides from Rio, is the only city in the world with a beach right at the end of the main street.

I thought it a fun and surprising point - it is not very common to compare small, provinsial Fredericia to the metropol Rio - but it made me laugh.

And he does have a point!

Here is the view from the end of Prinsensgade, that is if not the main street, then one of the bigger streets passing through the center of Fredericia.

The view on your right:

P1020333

And if you look to your left:

P1020334

...but PLEASE don't tell!! I want to get my hands on a city house in the center of town, before it gets to be common knowledge that Fredericia is MUCH nicer than Kolding, Vejle and Middelfart...

The sun awaits...

We have now booked our vacation - 10 days at this camping site in Cevennes in the south of France.

We look forwards to sun and lavender and lazy days in our tent wagon....

tur2

Monday, March 19, 2007

Elves in my kitchen

Last thursday there was a beautiful elvish girl in my kitchen - pointed ears and all!!

My breath nearly caught - until I recognized my daughter, dressed to kill, or rather - dressed to an evening of role playing...

She is rather more sophisticated than her brother. He just paints his face black and puts on a black robe in order to be a black elf.

P1020318

Saturday plans

Next saturday is Kristians 11th birthday. We are going to have a celebration complete with family, cake and birthday song. I am sure he will have plenty of presents, too.

The saturday after Bruno and I are going to see The Pink Floyd Project at the theatre, along with out friend Carsten and his girlfriend, and I believe Alex is coming too.

Good stuff to look forwards to. Nothing like the company of family and friends.

Check it out!

...my new spring hairdo at my danish blog...

Thursday, March 15, 2007

I love messenger...

...and even more so after I added Roberta to my contact list.

It is lovely to be back in touch...

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Feel like a woman?

At Simon's blog I recently read a post about feeling like a real man.

Normally I would consider Simon one, but he misses it a bit in that post, I think - feeling that he looses his masculinity, because women take part in decisions on picking out things, that he would consider man-stuff - flat screen tv's, pc's and that kind of stuff. Så he seeks sanctuary for his male identity by owning the REAL Gillette-shaver ... and when he uses it, he feels like a real man.

Yeah, right ... I know it's all for fun. :-)
But I couldn't help teasing Simon just a bit - by telling him that instead of hunting for the feeling of manliness just should be content in BEING a man. My comment went like this:

It is a little odd, that need to feel like a real man. For instance, I
never go around thinking "Oh golly, I feal like a real woman right now."
A woman - that is something I am. Not something I feel.
Sometimes I am happy, other times sad or angry, but I can't think of a
situation, where I feel "womanly".
So maybe you boys should just give up "feeling like real men" - and just BE
men?


Honestly, I didn't quite understand where he was at! Neither when he asked me, if I didn't feel more womanly when I go shopping with girlfriends, or go at some wellness thing?
Ever since then I have been pondering - are there times, when I feel like a real woman? I have thought and thought and thought - and no - I don't think so.

I don't mean to claim, that I am not feminin, and that i don't do girly stuff. I do care about my looks, I shave my legs, and I happily put on uncomfortable shoes to look good. It's just that it does not give me a distinct feeling of "womanliness".

I may feel gorgeous, because I made an effort to look good. I may feel really bored, because I have to spend 15 minutes shaving my legs really well - it is not exciting (even with my Gillette shaver - one of those pink Venus thingies with a leg-friendly handle).

I have gone to extremes to try to find a situation, where I get this womanly feeling.
For instance... when my beloved folds me into his wide chest, kissing me passionately (and, yes, he STILL does that quite frequently after 6½ years). That ought to make me feel ultra-feminine? Nah. Not really. If I make an emotion-status in the situation, I might feel:
  1. Great love for him
  2. Happiness coz he is WONDERFUL and MINE
  3. My heart beating faster
  4. A feeling of being safe
  5. And yes - if he is thourough enough, I might feel a bit h*rny....

But do I get more feminine by being kissed? Why should I feel more like a real woman? I am a woman in both situations: being kissed by my darling, and lying with my ass sticking up, messing with something behind my PC.

Do you remember that old R&B song: "You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman"? I never got the point of that. The woman singing, that she didn't get to feel like a real woman until she met this guy. Honestly, to me that sounds really strange. And is that the same feeling I should have shopping with my girlfriends?

Maybe that is where I get it wrong. I simply don't remember shopping with girlfriends since I left puberty behind. I don't shop. I go out to buy stuff I need. Sometimes I need jeans. Then I buy jeans. And yes - I do sometimes impulse-buy clothes, but I NEVER go out shopping - you know, in the cafe-latte-way.

On the whole, I see myself as a person first and foremost. And as a woman second. I feel a whole range of things. Joy, frustration, sorrow, triumph, love, pleasure, irritation ... the whole spectre. But at my core, I am human. Perhaps that is why I can't relate to that "Golly, I feel womanly today!".

I have a rather direct angle on many things, and some would characterize it as masculine. I communicate directly. I have nerdy preferences in books and movies (I love Sci-fi), and then I have my 4 shelf-metres of Stephen King books (in english). I love gocarting, and on of the most fun things I ever tried was rapelling. I love crazy roller coaster rides. But I also like to bake and knit and watch chick flicks.

Perhaps I am missing a patch in my system software. But the fact is: No - I never feel really womanly.

I just am a woman - and that is good enough for me.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Therapeutic pedaling

Today I've visited the best therapist I know.

Namely the high sky over the fields and the small winding roads. Lured out by the amazing weather I saddled my trusty iron horse and took it out into the Funen spring.

Lillebælt bridge looked like a promise. The sky and the water and the land was so beautiful, lying there squinty-eyed in the clear spring sun.

P1020310

It was not the kind of exercise trip as when I ride my roadbike. I steered down small gravel roads and alluring paths, and winded my way along the coast south of Middelfart.

Past Feriebyen, the new condominiums by the water and past the rowing club. Everywhere my eye met gorgeous motives that made me stop and enjoy.

P1020314

A bit after the golf course I chose to cross back into the country again. Took the road out to Svenstrup Beach. From there there is only the same way back, so I backtracked.

Crossed the main road, rode under the freeway and finally crossed Bogensevejen.

Out in the middle of a green field I felt free like spring itself. Riding parallel to the main road, far enough away that the cars were noiseless shiny corgi-toys. The sky was unreasonably blue, and a bird hung suspended over the field singing - singing - singing. The sun warmed my face, and if you met a biker in blue, with a blond ponytail and a big huge grin on her face, it was just me.

P1020315

From Kauslunde I crept on, going this way and that, until I found a sign pointing me in the direction of Strib. The wind was against me at this point, but I felt like one of those happy ponies I passed - out on grass after a long winter.

I met a couple of people from my biking club, out by Vejlby fed. They were not headed in my direction, but we greeted each other merrily.

My way went through Strib, and I followed it along Lillebælt again, now headed for Middelfart. The sun made Lillebælt sparkle and I was dazzled by sunstreaks from the water in spite of my sunglasses.

Crossing back over Lillebælt bridge I met a man of the road, pushing the obligatory baby pram. We greeted each other kindly, and I felt a little related with him - one with the road and momentaneously free.

Nearly across the bridge I stopped and waved goodbye to Funen.

P1020311

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Unhoarded anger

I recently placed a post on my danish blog, where I describe a dispute I am having on behalf of Andreas, with the union that organizes the soft drink factory, he works at.

Just a while ago I was re-reading that post.
I don't regret a line I wrote, and I believe my dealings with the union is righteous.

But at the same time I remember the anger, I felt while dealing with them, bubbling and boiling in me. That stomach feeling. How I spoke and thought faster, got high on my anger.

That same anger has bubbled in me frequently in the past month. Mostly in situations, where I should have just surveyed the situation and made sure that wrong things were righted. Which is typically how I handled those situations. But I handled them with that same glowing hot anger bubbling in my midsection - anger directed at somebody who has made a mistake, not to hurt or bother anyone - maybe out of lazyness or ignorance, but certainly not as a personal vendetta against me.

The anger I have felt in those situations have certainly not been righteous. It should have amounted to irritation at the most. But I have been taking things in, letting them get personal.

Gotten angry.

It is not much like me, and is probably a good measure for how thin my skin is at the moment. Where does all that anger come from?

I need to get in touch with my ability to breathe deep into my stomach and take it easy.

Anger does not become me well.

In Dante's Hell

I am not very afraid after taking this test - I guess you gotta believe in heaven and hell to be that. At most, I am a bit proud of scoring "very high" on "lustful"... *GGG*

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
LevelScore
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)Low
Level 2 (Lustful)Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)Moderate
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)Very High
Level 7 (Violent)Very High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)High

Take the Dante's" Divine Comedy Inferno Test

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Friday fantastic

This week Andreas has been working nights - from 2 pm to 10.30 pm. Most mornings he has come downstairs to eat breakfast with the rest of the family. We enjoy it - while he was working at sorting mail we never saw him at breakfast, as he didn't get off work until 12.30 am.

One morning he was up early enough to get the job off raising Kristian. Need I say that Kristian was VERY motivated for waking up??

P1020297

Yesterday we had guests coming for dinner - Alex and Marie. Alex is a co-worker of mine, and formerly we were union representatives together. They have been my friends for many years, and for the past 6 years they have been Brunos friends too.
We always have a great time, so we were looking very much forward to having them.

I had some cooking to do, but I wasn't too busy to set up a proper friday afternoon cozytime with hot cocoa and fresh rolls - Yum!

P1020300

We enjoyed it at the dinner table, with the beautiful tulips my mother sent me, in full view. They are being enjoyed fully, and carefully transferred to the cool guest room at night...

P1020301

Kristian and Bodil were in a great friday mood and could be seen in loving sibling-closeness...

P1020299

I managed to get everything ready before our guests arrived. Simmering stews minding themselves in the oven, are a great invention. The appetizer, coconut soup with lime, was prepared by chopping up EVERYTHING in advance and storing it in the fridge in containers. This made it quick and easy to prepare.

We had a great evening. We drank lovely red wine from Ellul-Ferrieres, brought by our guests, and later on we took a virtual tour of the island of Islay .. we do have a weakness for whisky from that area, so our bottles of Lagavulin, Laphroig, Ardbeg and Bowmore were set on the table. Yum! It is good stuff ... I love the smoky, powerful Islay-whiskies, but I also really enjoy the Dalwhinney that we also have in our closet. Actually I like them so well, that I woke up at 3 this morning with a thudding head. Not good. But aspirins were good, at the time :-)

In spite of the headache I have to say, that time spent with good friends - truely give you zest of life...

Thursday, March 8, 2007

International Womens Day

Do I feel connected to the concept of International Womens Day? No.

Do I think, that equal rights is an antique issue? No.

Because we DON'T have equal rights. Admitted - we have come a piece of the way, but even in Denmark, we don't have equal pay for equal jobs, and we have mind barriers in both sexes, that limit us.

I nearly vomited when I read Mads Christensens statement, that he believed that danish women should lighten up and think about how women in the 3rd world were MUCH worse off on equal rights than us in Denmark.
Subliminal message: discussing equal rights in Denmark is obsolete.

I'd like to stuff his cigar up somewhere on him!

It is good for our children, that maternity leave has been prolonged.
But it's not good for our girl children, that it is mostly their mothers that go on maternity leave due to their lower pay - thus extorting equality and the possibilities and market value of young, childbearing women professionally in comparison to the men.

I am not an old fashioned womens lib'er, and I haven't been bottle fed with bombastic opinions of the seventies movement. My mother was a family mother from the province - and I hardly think wicca and loving your monthlies were an issue in her neighbourhood.

I have a prenounced distaste for any kind of movement that resemble religion. For that reason I have a slightly distanced relationship with things like International Womens Day.

So instead of the raised fist, I'll gently raise my arm and wave a friendly V-sign in your general direction and say: "HELLO SISTER ... where ever you are..."

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Motor control wanted...

...or perhaps a replacement brain would be in place?

Everything has gone wrong for me today. I started out by coming in to work - and when I stood by the door with my entrance card and tried accessing the database for the entry code ... I just got NOTFOUND back. It took me about ½ minutes time to convince the search engine behind my eyebrows, that it DID contain my entry code - and need I mention, it's the same code that I have been using for the last 6-8 years??

This evening my braindeath climaxed. First I filled up the salt grinder with fine ground salt, thus adorning the poor pork chops we were having for dinner with A LOT of salt.
Annoyed, I poured that stupid salt in the kitchen sink, and grabbed the coarse salt in the cabinet. Tipping the box of salt, I lost control of the tipping motion and SCHWUUUSH (very useful sound) about twice as much salt as the grinder could contain had spilled out of the box...

After that, I tried my hand at the broccoli, which was to be cut up, rinsed and boiled. The cutting and rinsing miraculously went well, and the broccoli was placed in an appropriate pot, which I then placed on the heater, salted and turned on.

Only when the sizzling noice had gone on for a bit, and the strange smell was spreading in the kitchen did I realize, that I should probably had added water....

Has anyone seen my brain? I believe I have misplaced it...

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

X-tetten tears down the house

We completely won over our audience at Nr. Aaby care center yesterday! :-)

It was an extremely nice arrangement. Many of the elderly people had sung or played music themselves for a number of years, and they were a positive and responsive audience.

In the break between our two sets we had coffee and cake with the people there, and many of us also got a chance to chat with our audience ... very cozy.

The good atmosphere there made us comfortable enough to perform our very best - so we were laid back, and had lots of surplus energy to make contact with our audience.

...all in all a great place, a lovely crowd - what else can you wish for?

But two sets of ½ hour - that is a lot for us, when we usually only do one set! So we were quite tired at the end of it...

Monday, March 5, 2007

And the forecast for next week is..

I am looking into a really busy week.

There are evening-activities nearly every day, culminating on friday with a long-planned visit from friends, where we will cook up a storm and have a thoroughly nice time.

Tonight we have a singing job - I just have time to pick up my kids at badminton, and then I have to race off to Middelfart, where we will be singing a mix of danish and jazz/rhytmic to entertain a hopefully pleased bunch of senior citizens.

Suddenly it will be friday!

And if it's a bit quiet here on my blog, know that I am not having a crisis or taking a break from my blog. I'm just being busy!

Have a good week, out there!

Sunday, March 4, 2007

Sunday flashback

Sccchhhwusssh....

That was the end of that weekend. Has it really been two whole days since I was thinking: "aaaahhh - it's friday and the working day is over!" and puttering on home to my house and my sprouts?? Well, appearantly!

Friday was spent on that many times planned and cancelled trip to Ikea. I promised Kristian a new bed LONG ago, and now was the time! He got to choose which ever one he wanted - and he chose a nice white and beechwood bed, just like Bodils, with 3 drawers underneath. You get a lot of bed for 2000 kr. in Ikea.

When we were halfways through the store, there was a message in the loudspeakers, that the national cash-card system was down. Meaning that throughout the country it was impossible to access the system that is used for paying with any kind of cash- or credit-card. They said it might cause longer waits, but it wasn't really bad.

They had the manual system at every cashier, where you put our card in a slip with carbon paper - so it went quite smoothly.

P1020294

We got the bed assembled today, and Kristian is very happy with it. We re-arranged the setting of his room at the same time, and it looks really nice now!

Saturday we had company. Our friends (and my colleagues) Eva and Klaus, and their 3 wonderfully zesty kids invaded our home around coffee-time - and hung around cozily until near midnight.

P1020285

My dear husband flexed his kiddy-entertainment-muscle, and proved that he was completely on level with Ludvig, who will be 2 this summer. Bruno was utterly charmed - and no wonder, because you don't find a smily, docile and easygoing kid like Ludvig every day!

P1020286

The two older kids - Ellen (4 I think..) and William (definately 6) - we didn't see much of. They watched dvd-movies and drew pictures with Bodil and Kristian, and a mutual bond of adoration formed between Ellen and Bodil.
Bodil was keen to adopt Ellen as her little sister, and Ellen found Bodil AMAZING! Even more so, when Bodil gave her a makeover - wow!

P1020287

But isn't it awfully hard to avoid getting lipstick on your sleeve??

As usual we agreed that we have to get together more often, and this time we seriously mean it! :-)

P1020290

It was a really lovely day and evening - and with a bit of sunday mood I sign of for the week...

P1020295

Forgotten Birthday

Yesterday I realized that a few days ago, my danish blog had it first birthday!

When it was 6 months old, I was looking forward to celebrating my first year of blogging - planning elaborate word celebrations. My first aniversary was to be celebrated thoroughly!

But when that day arrived, this tuesday, I had completely forgotten. But then I was really tired that day!

So the 1 year birthday was forgotten.
The blog of course survived.

Thursday, March 1, 2007

The plan for thursday

Todays plan:

2 hours spinning from 5.30 - 7.30.

After that: Start working that laundry pile - and relax on the couch...

Aaaaaahhh!