Julekort 2014

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Viggo Marsvin og jeg vil gerne ønske dig en dejlig Jul.

Vi har haft en travl december, og et travlt efterår i det hele taget (hvilket tydeligt kan ses på blog-frekvensen heromkring).  Der har været fly der skulle flyves på, venner der skulle hjælpes, fester der skulle holdes, mennesker der blev syge og derefter raske igen, venner der skulle krammes på (altid til tjeneste), alle mulige ting der skulle ordnes og en hel del arbejde der kaldte.

Men nu har Julefreden sænket sig i det lille hjem.  Juletræet kom i hus men stod et par dage med kraftige tårn-i-Pisa-tendenser før min far kom til undsætning med en sav. Jeg overvejer nu at tage et gør-det-selv-kursus, så mine katastrofale evner udi værktøjs-betvingelse kan bringes lidt mere i overensstemmelse med mit selvbillede som Selvstændigt Menneske. Nogen der ved hvor den slags afholdes?  (NB - er fuldt ud i stand til at checke olie samt skifte pærer på Lille Blå. Bare lige så I ikke tror jeg er helt ubehjælpsom. Det er udelukkende når det kommer til hammer, sav, boremaskiner, vaterpas, skruer, skævbidere, osv. osv. osv. at den er gal. Men den er så til gengæld også hiel' gal')

Nå. Det var et sidespring. Julefreden har som sagt sænket sig; der er portvin i glasset, Julefilm i non-stop rotation på DVD'en, samtlige gaver er indkøbt (wo-hoo), og jeg har kun fået en lille smule mavepine af at gnaske rå småkagedej.

Med andre ord:

GLÆDELIG JUL 

fra Viggo og Tine

My dear friend,

Christmas greetings from Viggo the Guinea Pig and me!

This has been a somewhat whirlwindy December - well, the entire autumn has been a bit of a whirlwind to be honest.  There were flights to take, new cities to be conquered (or re-visited), friends who needed a hand, people who became ill and then got well again (yay), parties to be held, and attended, friends who needed a hug or a friendly ear (at your service, any time), loads of stuff to do, and lots of work to be done.  (... aaaand lather, rinse, repeat)

But now, finally, Christmas is here. It took longer than usual for me to get the tree decorated - it stood in my room for a few days, leaning at a rather unhealthy angle, before my dad came to the rescue with a saw.  I am now seriously considering signing up for a DIY-course (if I can find one) so my lack of skills with a saw/screwdriver/drill/any tool you can think of will stop interfering with my self-image as an independent young woman...

Anyway. I digress. Christmas is here! I have a great port wine on the go, my TV is showing Christmas movies non-stop, I baked cookies (and only got a teeny tiny tummy ache from eating raw cookie dough), AND I've bought all the presents.

In other words:

MERRY CHRISTMAS

from Viggo and Tine

2. Søndag i Advent - en slags fremskridt...

 "Nååååh, hva' får sådan en sø'ej pige så en Advents-søndag til at gå med?"

- Well, hvis hun er vognmandsdatter, så er det da højst tænkeligt at en del af den går med hovedrengøring i hendes fars lastbil :-)

Jævnfør gårsdagens indlæg om at have haft alt for travlt på det seneste så har jeg sparket det værste rod til side, men ikke støvsuget.  Sat Julepynt i vinduerne, og gjort mit bedste for at ignorere de yderst Halloween-autentiske spindelvæv i hjørnerne.  Aet marsvinet, og besluttet at han nok alligevel er bedst tjent med at jeg ikke laver nisselandskab i et hjørne af buret (ej, det var altså bare for sjaw). Og droppet småkagebagningen fordi det rent faktisk er mere hyggeligt at hænge ud med sin far nede i garagen.

Og lige om lidt er kalenderlyset også ved at være med...  OG, jeg har købt hele 2 Julegaver. 

...

Okay, det med de to Julegaver er faktisk dårligt nyt. De blev nemlig købt i slutningen af November, og faren ved at lave den slags stunts er, at man bliver indlullet i en falsk tryghedsfornemmelse af at være "i god tid".  Og vi ved jo alle, hvordan det så går ...

Nå. Pyt. Der er æbleskiver der skal spises og Julefilm der skal ses.  Vi skrives ved!

@ N ~ my calendar is starting to look less jam-packed now.  The social whirlwind of the past 3 weeks is more or less over (now I just need work to quieten down too), and I am catching my breath.

I spent part of the afternoon with my dad, cleaning out the cab of his truck. Which was quite a monumental task (....) but it was also very nice to spend time together like that, and very nice for me to be able to help him for once. 9.5 times out of 10 it's the other way round.

I've kinda-sort of made progress with the living room - in reality this means shoving the mess to one side, putting out Xmas decorations, and succesfully ignoring the very Halloween-esque cobwebs in the corners. This, along with the two presents I purchased back in November, is helping me get lulled into a false sense of catching up with things :-)

The candle is also catching up on its countdown to Christmas.

Today, however, it's not just a count-down candle, it's also a good-vibes-and-get-well-soon greeting to one of my friends who is in hospital.

Get well soon, "Bear".  You're a very important person - really for real!

Christmas - TOTALLY on track. Ahem.

So. This is how far I am with my "calendar candle" as they're called here in Denmark. Rather symptomatic for how far I am with most things actually. 

And since there aren't many things worse than December stress (at least, not on the petty level) I have decided that some things probably just won't happen this year. Gingerbread house for example (*sniffles*). Home made glögg (mulled wine). Lots of my other optional extras. 

There WILL be an awesome tree, of course. And I've actually written some Christmas cards and while there is a fair bit of ground to cover between the writing and the actual posting of them - talking from experience here - they're sitting in my bag which means I probably *will* get around to sending them - on the 19th or thereabouts...

But the other stuff I usually enjoy making and doing will happen strictly on an only-if-I-really-do-have-the-time basis. Instead I will make a decent effort to consume a lovely bottle of port I have sitting here ('sgonna be a tough job), bake a batch of my favourite Xmas cookies without eating all the dough raw ('sgonna be even tougher) and just sit back and enjoy this most wonderful time of the year. Yup. 

PS. Yeah. Been busy lately. As you probably guessed. 

PPS Viggo says hi. There is always time for piggie cuddles :-)

Posted from iPhone 

We believe in love

Best section ever in the free newspaper - I think we should have something like this :-)

I'll go first, shall I?

"To Nicholas (?) at the AVIS call center in Barcelona who called me "early contender for caller of the week" - I always hope to get you when I call. Please tell me you're not a 22-year-old with an all-consuming interest in body building and tequila slammers?"

Signed Travel Goddess from the cold north

Feel free to add yours in the comments section and I'll make sure to share them with the rather exclusive group of people who read this blog ;-)    (Not quite "viral", but the best bunch o' readers you ever did see)

Iphone billeder fra verdens bedste sektion i den engelske udgave af Metro Express. Det skal vi da have herhjemme!

Jeg starter lige en her på bloggen:

"Til Nicholas (?) på AVIS Call centeret i Barcelona, som udnævnte mig til "tidlig kandidat til Ugens Opkald" - jeg håber altid det er dig, der tager telefonen når jeg ringer. Please sig at du ikke er en 22-årig bodybuilder-fanatiker med overdreven hang til tequila slammers"

Underskrevet Rejsegudinden fra det kolde nord

- hvis du har et tilsvarende budskab på hjerte kan du jo skrive det i kommentarfeltet. Så skal jeg sørge for at det bliver delt med den eksklusive skare som udgør denne blogs læsere. Ikke verdens største flok, men så afgjort den bedste :-)

25 Jahre...

I disse dage fejrer Berlin og resten af Tyskland og resten af verden, at det er 25 år siden Berliner-Muren faldt.

Femogtyve.

Det er længe siden.

I '89 var jeg lige fyldt 13. Dengang som nu var jeg ikke verdens mest politisk bevidste dyr. Jerntæppet som gik ned gennem Europa var simpelthen bare noget som var der, sådan som det havde været hele mit liv.  Vi havde lidt om det i historie eller samfundsfag, men ærlig talt så gik jeg nok en del mere op i om Thomas J syntes om min nye permanent eller ej  (hint: det kan han umuligt have gjort). Det nærmeste jeg kom Østblokken var, at min venindes forældre havde en Trabant - jeg har kørt ganske mange kilometer i dette legendariske køretøj.

Men jeg kan huske, at mine forældre så meget fjernsyn i den periode.  Og sommeren efter, da vi skulle på bilferie i Italien, myldrede de vesttyske motorveje med Trabanter - ikke bare den sennepsgule version jeg kendte så godt, men alskens farver og totalt proppede med passagerer og bagage. Nu skulle østtyskerne ud og køre Autobahn.

Og jeg kan tydelig huske da vi kørte hjemad og min far tog en noget østligere rute end han tidligere havde haft mulighed for.  Det var første gang i mit liv, jeg oplevede en så kæmpe forskel på to (tidligere) nabolande når man krydsede en grænse.  Sådan som jeg husker det, var der meget gråt. Og vejene var temmelig hullede. Og i øvrigt lige så proppede med Audi'er og Mercedes'er, som de vesttyske motorveje var fulde af Trabi'er.

Nu er jeg så blevet en hel del ældre og en smule klogere, og jeg sidder og bliver sådan lidt rørt over TV udsendelserne, og scenerne med jublende tyskere med særdeles dårligt 80'er hår.  Kæft hvor ser Europa anderledes ud end da jeg var lille. Kæft hvor er jeg da blevet en gammel stjærv. Og kæft hvor har jeg da forsømt min lille blog her i efteråret.

Men om 3 uger er det første søndag i Advent, og så starter Julen!!

(må man i den forbindelse kraftigt anbefale en tur til netop Tyskland, hvis man skal på en lille romantisk December-weekend med kæresten? Og da i særdeleshed Lübeck, som jeg aflagde visit for 2 år siden. De er ræddi gode til det med Jul; jeg siger det bare :-)

@ N ~ I'm feeling a bit nostalgic this weekend (and easing my way back into blogging by subjecting you to it, of course)

This weekend marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Now, when the Wall fell, I was 13 years old.  I knew about the Iron Curtain and the divide between Western and Eastern Europe, but I didn't really give it any thought.  For me, it was just the way things were - a fact of life really.

And to be honest, I spent a lot more time thinking about whether or not Thomas J from my class liked my new perm (spoiler: the answer to that has to be no. Oh my god, ze poodle.)  

My only tangible point of contact with communism and the Eastern Bloc was the Trabant that my friend's parents owned. This is one of the very rare cases where I brag about being a sort of vicarious first-mover  -  I rode in Trabi's waaaay before they became cult here :-)

I know exactly how the gear shift in this one sounds :-)

The following summer we drove to Italy and the German Autobahns were full of Trabi's and other exotic cars, all jam-packed with baggage and passengers. On the way home my Dad grabbed the opportunity of taking a rather more easternly route than in previous years and the thing I remember the most was how incredibly different everything looked once we crossed the previous border. It wasn't just a different country; it was a different time.  In my memory, buildings were very grey - and the roads were full of holes (they were also full of Audi and Mercedes cars)

So now I'm a quarter of a century older and hopefully a tad wiser, and I did feel a lump in my throat as I was watching old TV footage of exhilarated Germans with their very bad 80's haircuts and their overwhelming joy of no longer being physically separated from friends, family, and basically the Western half of Europe if not the World.

OMG, Europe looks very different from when I was a kid. OMG, I am such an old fart (fartress?). OMG, it's been ages since my last blog post.

But in just 3 weeks, it will be the first Sunday of Advent and thus the official start of Christmas!! Wheeee :-)

We take the craziness to new levels

FaceTime with guinea pigs is the new black. I swearz!! :-)

Posted from iPhone

Yndlingslektyre

Så længe jeg kan huske har min familie fået FDM's medlemsmagasin "Motor" - og så længe jeg kan huske (også længe inden jeg selv blev bilejer) har min absolutte favoritlæsning været Brevkassen. Tæt efterfulgt af Ventilen, hvor harmdirrende bilister opfordrer De Andre til at bruge langlyset korrekt, holde til højre på motorvejen, osv.

Talrige glade stunder har jeg tilbragt med at læse om synsfri sammenkobling, motorvejstilladelser i Albanien, og vigtigheden af korrekt dæktryk. Det er ikke alt der hænger lige godt ved - faktisk alt for lidt - men det mindsker ikke fryden.

Og man kan få svar på ALT - således også hvorfor det ikke er tilladt at montere et "melodiøst fanfarehorn" selv om et sådant ellers ville klæde ens vogn utroligt godt.

Til ære for dem, der skulle føle sig fristet, kan jeg jvf nedenstående oplyse at bødetaksten er tusind kroner.  Men om det vil være så velegnet til at fange ungpigers opmærksomhed, at man vurderer, at det ville være dét værd - det vil jeg lade være op til den enkelte ...

@ N ~ as you know, I like to read. All kinds of things.  Including the small print on the bottles of cleaning liquids people often keep stashed next to the loo, if I need to be there for some time.

One of my favourites is the Q&A section in the magazine published by the Danish equivalent of the AAA organisation. Even before I had my own car I would happily read all the questions and answers about tow hooks, correct tyre pressure, and road licenses in Albania. The information you can glean is priceless - sadly, not much of it sticks in my head but that does not dampen my enthusiasm.

This one was a bit cute. The question goes: "it would really suit my car with a melodious horn for festive occasions. What is the fine for this, and why is it not allowed?"

Incidentally and only slightly off-topic, this reminds me of this sign from a Japanese car rental company that I once saw in a book about us foreigners grappling with the English language: "If a passenger of foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet melodiously at first but if he still obstacles your passage then tootle with vigour"

Evidently, the person who sent in this question would like to be able to trumpet melodiously - alas, the fine for this is DKK1,000 (around $170). The legal person answering the question ventures a guess that it is illegal because the purpose of a car horn is to warn other drivers of imminent danger - not attracting the attention of young ladies.

Thus, we must content ourselves with "tootling with vigour", it would seem.  As to whether or not a "melodious trumpeting" would attract sufficient female attention to justify the fine, I really cannot say...

Last but not least, here is a picture of the blogging process. If you think that my blog posts have become rather irregular - well, let me say in my defense that the writing process does have certain obstacles of its own.... :-)

Who can work with this cuteness being in the way??

Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy

For nogle uger siden skrev en af mine facebook-venner en status update der gik noget i retning af "ingen toiletpapir - farvel sokker". Det var da noget vildmandsagtigt tænkte jeg, og skrev en eller anden haha-kommentar.

Så kom der en hilsen i min indbakke. Det var åbenbart en af de der facebook-lege som kører et par runder hvert år - man skal skrive en eller anden kryptisk status update og på forunderlig vis vil det øge opmærksomheden omkring en eller anden form for kræft. Nu var det så meningen, at jeg skulle vælge mellem en håndfuld status updates - heriblandt "det er bekræftet, jeg skal være mor" og køre legen videre.

Som vi alle ved er jeg den sure dame, som også har brudt stort set samtlige brevkæder jeg i mit liv er blevet indlemmet i (det tør jeg godt, efter at jeg som 8-årig -ikke uden en vis bæven ved eksperimentet- erfor, at man faktisk ikke rammes af 5 dages sort uheld eller det der er værre), så den stoppede ligesom dér.

Fast forward til et par dage senere, hvor en veninde fortæller mig, at en anden veninde er GRAVID. Med ovenstående in mente vrissede jeg bare ad hende, at det tvivlede jeg da stærkt på, og jeg var i øvrigt også selv hoppet på den leg for et par dage siden. Hun så godt nok lidt desorienteret ud, men eftersom jeg lige havde lidt travlt på det tidspunkt tænkte jeg ikke nærmere over det.

Før senere samme dag, da jeg så havde en aftale med den omtalte fælles veninde. Og hun liiiige havde noget, hun gerne ville fortælle.

3 forsøg senere slog hun opgivende ud med armene. "Tine, du er simpelthen den kedeligste i hele verden at fortælle gode nyheder. Det er IKKE en internet joke!!!"

Øhm. Hvad? Hvad???

Nåmen - tillykke da. (Det krævede lige en drink - til mig, ikke den vordende moder - at komme så meget i balance at jeg kunne samle mig om at være rigtig glad på hendes vegne)


PS - jeg giver Internettet skylden. For alting.

@N ~ a couple of weeks ago one of my friends posted a status update which went a little something like this: "no toilet paper - goodbye, socks". Which I thought was kind of funny so I wrote a little ha-ha comment.

Turns out that it was one of those facebook games that do the rounds a couple of years here in Denmark - don't know if you guys have them as well, but you post some sort of cryptic status update and in ways I have yet to fathom, if enough people do it, it raises awareness of breast cancer or something like that.

And since I fell for it, hook line and sinker, I was now supposed to post a similarly cryptic status update. I could choose from a handful of pre-defined ones, including-but-not-limited-to "yes, I am pregnant" or something like that.

Needless to say, the grumpy lady who deletes every chain letter she ever receives (since warily testing it out at age 8 and finding that no, breaking the chain did not result in five days of bad luck) refused to play along, and so it ended there.

I thought.

A couple of days later, a friend happily told me that one of our mutual friends was pregnant. With my recent experience fresh in mind, I sulkily said to her that I very much doubted that and oh-by-the-way-I-fell-for-that-one-too.  She did look a bit confused, but as I was rather busy at the time she wisely did not press the subject and I forgot all about it.  Until later that very same day when I was meeting the aforementioned mutual friend, and she had some news she wanted to share.

Three attempts later, she said exasperatedly "Tine, you are the most boring person in the world to tell good news to. For the last time, it is NOT an internet joke!!!"

Ummmmm, begpardon?

One stiff drink later (for me, not the mother-to-be) I had regained my equilibrium sufficiently to actually believe it was true and wholeheartedly congratulate her.


I blame the Internet.
used to be only on April 1st I had to watch out grrrrrr



PS - does anyone else have good news to share?

PPS - I had to google the English version of what the angel says to the shepherds when it comes to proclaim the birth of Jesus. As a result, biblestudytools.com is now in my browser history. And if I type in "how to" in the google search field, it suggests "how to tie a tie", "how to make french toast" and "how to get rid of fruit flies". My browser has a more interesting life than I do, methinks.

PPPS - not related to this post at all: isn't Viggo the cutest guinea pig you ever saw?

#fridayreads

Forlaget Gyldendal har et ualmindeligt charmerende social media team, som hver eneste fredag tweeter noget i retning af "tid til #fredagsbog  -  hvad læser du i dag, og hvorfor er det så godt, så godt?"  - og så byder temmelig mange mennesker ind med hvad de læser i øjeblikket, så man kan blive lidt inspireret.

For mig er ikke alene #fredagsbog men i det hele taget #togbog en meget vigtig ting, eftersom jeg jo tilbringer lidt under en time på diverse perroner og i tog 2 gange om dagen, 5 dage om ugen. Så jeg slæber en del litteratur op og ned ad den østjyske længdebane i løbet af en arbejdsuge.

Jeg er ikke den eneste.  Således var jeg i fredags i selskab med

- Sådan bliver du rig på aktiemarkedet (mon der er et afsnit om Karma?)
- en kæmpe bog om bakterievækster, komplet med virkelig uappetitlige billeder (det var desværre min sidemand der læste den - visse ting har det med at ætse sig fast på den indre nethinde)
- samt Jumbobog 380 (hold op, er der virkelig kommet så mange??)

Billedet nederst er taget tidligere i år. Jeg blev mere end en lille smule forelsket i dette par, som læste Vinden i Piletræerne op for hinanden. Desværre skulle jeg af på næste station :-(

@ N ~ one of the Danish publishing houses, Gyldendal, has a weekly hashtag on Twitter called #fredagsbog - in the English speaking world known as #fridayreads. What's not to love :-)

For me, not just #fridayreads but #trainreads is a major thing. If I don't have a book with me on the train I am not a happy commuter (instead I manically stalk all my friends on facebook, annoyed at how few updates there are at 630AM...)

On the train, most people either sleep, work on their laptops, or are glued to their smartphones. But there are quite a few readers as well.

Last Friday I found myself in good company. In my little group of four seats, I was in the distinguished company of:

- "How to get rich on the stock market" (I hope it has a chapter on Karma)
- a huge book about, judging by the unsavoury illustrations, the growth of bacteria (unfortunately it was the guy sitting right next to me who was reading that one. Some things just can't be un-seen....)
- and "Jumbobog" number 380 ("Jumbo books" are pocket books with Donald Duck and other Disney cartoons. They're not published in England or America as far as I know. I think I stopped reading around the time number 100 was published (had most of them for a while - the first ones are probably collectors' items if they're in good condition, but needless to say, mine aren't))

The picture below was taken on the sly earlier this year. I fell a little bit in love with this couple who was reading "The Wind in the Willows" aloud to each other - sadly, I had to get off at the next station :-(

Work in progress

They've put scaffolding up, they've removed half the (remaining) roof, they're fixing the structural damage. Soon as they're done, my Executive Office will be behind that window. Pic taken this eve from my bedroom window. Yay!

Ups

"Ja, jeg kom lige til at køre igennem Hedensted. Det beklager jeg. Vi kører tilbage til perronen om et øjeblik"

-lokomotivfører i højttalerne efter at han lige missede et stop. Jamen det gik jo lige så godt derudaf!! :-)

Forurettet på det groveste

I troede nok jeg var blevet helt væk? Det er jeg vist også lidt. Men jeg har haft hovedet fuldt af alle mulige ting, som ikke er vanvittig interessante at blogge om (primært arbejde), og så har jeg simpelthen ikke giiiiiiidet at taste mere, når jeg kom hjem fra arbejde. Så jeg håber på tilgivelse og forståelse.

Herudover er jeg blevet snydt.

For det første - august. Som slutter i dag. Hallo, hvor blev de skønne sensommeraftener af? Ikke et eneste glas kølig vin har jeg følt trang til at indtage. Tværtimod har jeg fundet hyggesokkerne frem; en helt uhørt ting når der stadig står sommer i kalenderen. At jeg netop i dag har læst, at sommervejret vender retur i næste uge, er en fattig trøst. Næste uge begynder efteråret jo. Og weekender som denne, hvor den ene byge afløser den anden (nu er jeg jo ikke lige i København, hvor ordet "byge" vist ikke helt dækkede i går - hejhej, 100mm regn), passer mig virkelig godt fordi jeg æææælsker at gå indenfor og hygge mig i mit lille hus. Det skal bare helst være om efteråret.  Nu bliver der helt byttet om på det og jeg er oprørt. Well, så oprørt som man kan være når man sidder i en blød sofa med et marsvin på maven...

For det andet - min kalender. Den har lavet et voksen-stunt og på mystisk vis fyldt sig selv op flere uger frem. Med dejlige ting og dejlige mennesker, javist, men det passer umådelig dårligt til mit selvbillede som impulsivt boheme-agtigt menneske at jeg konstant er nødt til "lige at kigge i min kalender og vende tilbage med hvornår vi kan ses". Faktisk har jeg hele 2 mennesker jeg "lige skal vende tilbage med" og det har jeg ikke gjort endnu, fordi jeg blev så barnligt mopset over tingenes tilstand.

Der var helt sikkert mere, der gjorde mig vranten, men nu har jeg glemt hvad det er. Af GODE ting, som slet ikke gør mig vranten, kan nævnes at jeg naturligvis var på Blomsterfestival i Odense (som annonceret i sidste indlæg) og årsagen til at I ikke er blevet foto-spammet endnu er, at jeg kom til at glemme mit kamera derovre. Men det er blevet leveret, og nu skal jeg så bare lige gennemgå de sædvanlige 150+ billeder så I kan komme med på rundtur.  Og så har jeg fået en KISTE. Altså, ikke en jeg skal begraves i (omend jeg faktisk godt kan være nede i den, så få endelig ingen gode idéer), men sådan en gammel en som min mor arvede fra en gammel tante i Norge. Den skal I også nok få at se.  Sidst men ikke mindst tør jeg nu løfte sløret for, at jeg fra engang i løbet af september måned får hjemmearbejdsplads. Dét bliver stort. Ganske vist kommer jeg til at savne DSB (det er faktisk ikke løgn), men glæden ved ikke at behøve at stå op klokken fem-halv seks om morgenen opvejer det nok.

I anledning af denne kommende glædelige begivenhed får I lige æren af et par før-og-efter billeder. Der var nemlig lige en enkelt julekasse eller to, der stod i vejen for indretning af kontor ...

BEFORE:

A nice and handy room for putting all

the stuff you don't quite know where

else to put. Do note the Christmas tree

holder sitting on the chair - this picture

was taken in July ....

My rather impressive pile of Christmas

boxes ....  You can never really

have too much Christmas stuff, can you?

AFTER:

(I magicked all the X-mas boxes away...)

this is where the desk will go - and

immediately to the right of this picture

is where Viggo lives.  He will be taking

most of my calls, I expect

@ N ~ thought I'd given up blogging, did you?  Not quite; just didn't have much interesting stuff to write about OR was so tired after work that more typing and communicating was the last thing I felt like doing.  But I'm still alive and well.  And annoyed.

Why annoyed, you ask?

Well, firstly, August.  I'm sure I ordered long warm evenings, cool sunny mornings, sun-drenched afternoons, the works. What I got was chilly gusts of wind and buckets and buckets of rain.  Not once have I felt like indulging in a cold glass of wine on the patio - au contraire, I've dug my cozy socks out of storage.  In August! Unheard of!  Of course, the weather man now says "summer will be back next week" to which I scathingly reply "but next week it will be autumn".  Because weekends like this one - which has actually been warm-ish, but with rain showers aplenty - are actually quite pleasant because I enjoy pottering around indoors in my cozy little house.  But that should be in autumn.  Now they're sending summer back; completely the wrong month, so I am in uproar. Well, as much as that is possible when I'm sitting in my comfy sofa with Viggo the guinea pig on my tummy ....

Secondly, my calendar.  It's gone all adult on me and somehow filled itself up with appointments several weeks ahead.  All nice appointments with nice people, so I'm not complaining as such (yes I am; I'm in a whiny mood); it's just that having to tell people that I "need to check my calendar and will get back to them re. when we can meet" really clashes with my self image as a spontaneous, bohemian person.   There are actually two people that I currently need to "get back to" and I keep putting it off because I was so childishly disgruntled by the fact that I might need to tell them "late October maybe".

But really, I'm not all Moaning Myrtle.  Good stuff happens too. I was at the Flower Festival of course, and the only reason why you haven't been bombarded with pics yet is that I left my camera at my friends' house.  But it's home now, so all I need to do is sort through the 150+ pictures I took and decide which ones to fire at you :-)    I also got a new piece of furniture: an old wooden storage trunk (is that what you call them?) that my mother inherited from an aunt in Norway. Pics to come!   Last but not least, I can now tell you that sometime in September I start working from home. It's been in the works for a while but I didn't dare say anything for fear of jinxing it.  But now it will definitely happen, and the only reason I haven't actually started yet is that I'm getting a new roof over that particular part of the house (which is technically the garage) because the old one flew off in a storm last winter.  And I don't particularly want to sit and work with a team of carpenters crawling around overhead. But once they're gone, I'll bring my desk, computer, etc. home from the office.   No doubt I will miss my daily train rides - but not having to get up at 5-530AM kinda makes up for that :-)   The pics above are from a "feng shui session" I had earlier this summer ..... a few boxes of Christmas decorations needed to be relocated in preparation for my New Office!

Right. Off I go now.  I carelessly invited some friends over this evening (old friends from school - there's a reunion in the works; wheeeee) so should probably move the piles of laundry away from the dining table, hoover up the guinea pig food I spilled all over the floor this morning - stuff like that...

Danmarks Smukkeste Have - skal du med?

Gæt hvad jeg skal i weekenden!  Nemlig - jeg skal på visit hos Familien Hittemis og sammen skal vi indtage Odense Blomsterfestival!

Det er efterhånden ved at være fast tradition at jeg ager til Fyn fredag aften hvor jeg beværtes godt med glimrende mad, rigelig vin og fantastisk selskab. Lørdag tager vi ind og nyder blomsterudstillingerne  -  og søndag tager Hittemissens mor og jeg så ind og forkøber os lidt i De Unge Gartneres udsalg, når hele molevitten er pillet nede og kan købes af havegaleglade mennesker.

Temaet i år er Danmarks Smukkeste Have - og er en hyldest til Danmarks Have, som Fyn også kaldes. Ifølge hjemmesiden kan man glæde sig til lidt af hvert, "fra mistbænken til slotshaven".  Jeg glæder mig i hvert fald, for det er skønt at se alle de kreative ting, som de forskellige gartnerier har fundet på.

Som en lille lokkemad får du en mini-kavalkade over de foregående 4 års temaer. Og nu ved du så måske, hvad du også skal her i weekenden :-)

2013

"Ud i Verden"

2012

"Nordiske Børneeventyr"

2011

"Nordisk Mytologi"

2010

"Kina"

Hvor er din lillebror?

Sad over for to fra Pinsekirken i toget. Deres navneskilte bekendtgør at det er hhv Ældste Hansen og Ældste Jensen jeg er i selskab med. Navnene til trods talte de engelsk sammen, og det endda med en ret overbevisende amerikansk accent. Særlig gamle var de heller ikke - tværtimod. 

Jeg nåede aldrig at samle tilstrækkeligt med mod til at stille det spørgsmål der pressede sig på hele vejen fra Århus - hvor er Yngste???

Det er nok meget godt at min naturlige barnlighed holdes i ave af min generthed.  

Darth is not my friend

Kom forbi ham her i Bilka forleden. Vældig fint udført. Desværre også med lyd-effekter, så man kunne høre den karakteristiske Darth Vader vejrtrækning. 

Nu er det bare sådan at lyden af den vejrtrækning tager pippet fra mig i en grad så jeg faktisk ikke engang kan se undervandsfilm med fine fisk og koralrev, hvis man kan høre lyden fra dykkernes iltudstyr. Så jeg foretog en skarp venstredrejning ind i børnetøjsafdelingen, kolliderede frontalt med en stresset far på indkøbstur, og var ved at vælte et tøjstativ. 

Nå, men til de mindre let-kyste kan jeg da fortælle, at der er tilbud på lego i Bilka. God fornøjelse; jeg skal ikke derind. 

@N ~ this guy stood in the centre of the aisle in a local store. All made out of Lego, very nicely done - except they had put in sound effects as well and few things freak me out more than the wheezing sound of Darth Vader breathing - in fact I don't even watch underwater movies, despite all the pretty fishies, if I can hear the divers' breathing. 

So I veered left rather abruptly, colliding head on with a stressed-out dad doing the weekly grocery shop, and nearly toppled over a rack of children's clothes. 

But Danish readers who like Lego and are less easily spooked than me are hereby informed that there's a 35% off sale this week. I won't be going anywhere near the store until Darth is gone. 

Hope you have an awesome weekend. I was out with a friend yesterday, eating mac and cheese and ribs, and drinking Pink Lemonade. Not in that order. 

Posted from iPhone 

That moment

...where a fellow train passenger of the hipster persuasion tries to put on his flimsy little hat with a nifty manoeuvre but evidently has same hand/eye coordination as a certain blogger, and ends up crawling around in the aisle trying to retrieve the hat from under a seat... I did my best not to snigger. That was made a lot easier by his extremely low-cut trousers, the sight of which actually made me want to cry more than anything else...

Honeys, I'm home

Ahh - sommerferie. Findes der noget bedre end tre hele uger stort set uden planer, hvor man kan lave lige præcis det man har lyst til?  Jeg har spist is, besøgt venner, drukket vin, været i byen, været hjemme, badet, været flittig-Tine, været doven-Tine, og i det hele taget nydt livet.

Nu er jeg tilbage på pinden, og det er heldigvis også dejligt. Der er stadig ferie-stille på kontoret, men det er ikke aldeles dødt, så jeg nyder det og har endog fået ryddet op i min inbox osv.

Nå ja. Og så bor jeg ikke alene mere.  Sidst i juni fik jeg nemlig følgende sms fra min søster - jeg nåede ikke engang at læse, endsige besvare, den første, før den næste tikkede ind:

...og de to marsvin, som nu bor hos min søster, havde en bror - som nu bor hos mig.

Verden - mød Viggo!

@ N ~ 

Dearly beloved.

I am back from vacation.  Well, I say "back". I didn't actually go anywhere. I just turned off my head so didn't feel like writing.

But what did I do then?  Exactly what I felt like, that's what :-)   visited friends, drank wine, ate ice cream for breakfast, got up early some days and snoozed until noon on other days, cleaned out the garage, read books cover-to-cover in one sitting, went sunset swimming, and most things in between.   A three week time-out with zero plans is a gift and I think I made the most of it (but will go travelling later in the year; the wander lust is not dead).

Oh, and I no longer live on my own.  About a month ago, my sister texted me:

"do you want a guinea pig?"

-and before I had time to read it, let alone answer, the next one ticked in:

"I just bought two guinea pigs"

Yes, she is like that :-)

And as it turned out, her two guinea pigs had a brother. And he just moved in with me.

World - meet Viggo the guinea pig:

He's a liiiitle bit of a fussy eater...

- He does yoga...

- And his favourite thing is CUDDLES :-)

A girl's best friend ... might be of the sort that runs on batteries

Jeg læste forleden i et dameblad, at uafsatte damer som jeg selv skal huske selvforkælelse.  Dybest set går det ud på, at eftersom vi ikke har nogen kavaler, som kommer med blomster og gaver, må vi selv sørge for dén side af sagen (og samtidig yde vort til at skubbe forbrugsfesten lidt i gang igen).

Alle ved jo, at står det i et dameblad er det sandt, og jeg har derfor investeret i et batteridrevet uhyre, som jeg allerede er så glad for, at jeg vil vove at påstå, at den vil vække lykke hos enhver kvinde. Specielt dem med have ...

@ N ~ I recently read in a woman's magazine that it is very important for single women like us to spoil ourselves from time to time. Seeing as we do not have a "beau" to shower us with flowers and presents, we must take matters into our own hands (and do our bit for the economy into the bargain I suppose).

Of course, I take the advice of such magazines as gospel so yesterday I invested a decent sum of money in a battery-driven device.  I am very happy with my purchase and recommend it to all da single ladies - especially da single ladies with a garden...

Behold: my new grass trimmer (/destroyer of weeds/noisy piece of machinery)

Philosophy #fail

Vi har alle filosofiske facebook-venner, ikke?

Lige pt er der en del af mine, som lommefilosofisk skriver updates à la The secret to life/success/whatever: "fall seven times, stand up eight".

Det er lidt tabt på mig. Altså, jeg forstår godt essensen i det, men det eneste jeg tænker er, at det er ikke fysisk muligt at rejse sig flere gange end man er væltet. Med mindre man tæller den gang med, hvor man var kommet op at stå, før man tiltede 7 gange...

@ N ~ I have couple of semi-philosophical facebook friends (don't we all?) who at the moment seem to have a fondness for a Japanese (?) proverb that goes a little something like the key to life/success/[insert appropriate term here] is "fall seven times, stand up eight".

While I do get the deeper meaning of it ("never evah give up", unless I'm very much mistaken), the only thing I can think of is that it isn't physically possible. Unless of course you count that very first time you stood up, before you toppled over seven times ...

Surely, the secret must be more along the lines of "fall seven times. Stand up seven times. Don't kick yourself too much in the process. We all falter."

?

Indre Lecia folder sig ud.

Nå. Men så var jeg jo inviteret til fødselsdagsfest i lørdags. Timingen var mellemgod da jeg skulle på en længe udsat barselsvisit søndag. Og dén visit kunne ikke udsættes mere, for ellers ville barnet nå at lære at gå før jeg kom afsted. 

Så jeg drog til fest lørdag med alle intentioner om at skulle tidligt hjem, hvad jeg også havde lovet mine forældre der var hyret som chauffører.

Well...

Linda skrev for del år siden et par notes-to-self, som bl.a. omfattede følgende:

* Skal have investeret i diktafon. Alt, hvad jeg føler akut behov for at sige, indtales på denne. Hvis det stadig er en god idé dagen efter, er der grønt lys.

* Skal have investeret i lommeudgave af elektronisk væg-øre. Tjekkes en gang i timen, og når det lyser rødt, så fletter jeg næbbet eller går hjem.

Det siger sig selv at ingen af delene rigtig blev efterlevet, men jeg magtede dog lige akkurat at undlade at sende fulde-sms'er.

Først drak jeg en flaske vin + lidt til, senere var der en i selskabet der begav sig ud i at lave mojitos (aftenens citat: "jeg kan godt have en til. Ja, allerede"). Så blev jeg grebet af en overbevisning om, at jeg både var underholdende og uimodståelig. Vil heller ikke udelukke at jeg på et tidspunkt også troede at jeg så godt ud og kunne synge; gu'sketakoglov var det ikke rigtig et selskab der sådan lagde op til fællessang.

Til min store fryd bestod selskabet nemlig af en 15-17 mænd (primært gamle skolekammerater), en underholdende pige, og så mig.  Det var ikke ringe endda.  Jeg kunne med fødderne på sikker grund glippe forførende med de i dagens anledning mascara-inficerede øjenvipper uden at risikere at nogen tog mig på ordet (eller hvad værre er - på låret). Det passer mig så glimrende; jeg vil jo gerne kaste varme blikke henover bordet men er faktisk ikke leveringsdygtig interesseret i mere end dét.

Således havde jeg følgende uhyre åndrige ordveksling med en af de få festdeltagere, jeg ikke kendte fra før:

"Sig mig, du lægger jo an på mig?!!"

"Ja!" (han får 10 point for ligefremhed)

...

"Nå. Men det kommer altså ikke til at virke"

Mindes vagt, at da han tog hjem, gav jeg ham et smækkys og sagde "men godt forsøgt ellers".

Er nogen søde at slå mig med en skovl??

Anyways. På et tidspunkt begyndte solen at belave sig på at stå op, og på vej hjem i bilen (min mors ord da jeg satte mig ind: "hold kæft hvor du stinker") gik jeg i panik de første tyve gange over hvor utrolig få timer der var til jeg skulle op og ud og være præsentabel.  Verdens største omgang tømmermænd lå utvivlsomt i vente ved søndagens barselsvisit, og man vil jo nødig skade det yndige barn ved at dunste alkoholtåger ned i hovedet på det.

...

Og så vågnede jeg 4 minutter i 9. Helt af mig selv. Helt vågen. Helt u-svimmel. Helt sikkert ude af stand til at køre bil, men det skulle jeg heldigvis heller ikke.

Om jeg begriber det - mig, den største svagdrikker af alle.  Barselsvisit blev gennemført i fin stil, efterfulgt af en times togrejse i vågen tilstand, efterfulgt af besøg hos veninde hvor jeg også holdt mig vågen uden de store problemer, helt til jeg blev lagt i seng klokken 22.

10 mod 1 på at næste gang jeg overmodigt drikker ét glas vin, går jeg i dørken med et brag.

PS - bør jeg sige undskyld til ham fyren? Eller tror I han har fortrængt det?

blurry selfie

@ N ~ I was at a party this weekend. A birthday party. A really good party. I got hammered.  Boy oh boy oh boy.

It was supposed to be a fun but early night - I had a commitment mid-morning Sunday to go and visit a friend who had a baby a few months ago. It had been postponed a couple of times already so cancelling was not an option. Ergo, I told my mum and dad - who had kindly offered to come and pick me up after the party - to expect a call around maybe 1.30AM.

Yeah, right.

First, I downed a bottle of wine at dinner. Then someone started making mojitos and, I mean, those things are basically SO healthy for you - there's mint and lime and all sorts of good things in them - so I was the lady who kept saying "I could do with one more. Yes, already", and inevitably I very soon became convinced that not only was I irresistible; I was also incredibly funny and entertaining.

Yeah, right.

It is also possible that at one point, I actually thought I could sing. Fortunately, it wasn't a sing-along sort of party: It was me, one other girl, and 15-17 men (most of whom I went to university with). Not much singing at that kind of party. Thank goodness for small blessings.  

So mostly I just talked and talked and talkedandtalked (- apologies to my surroundings), tried to dictate the play list (apologies again), and batted my eyelashes at whoever happened to be sitting across the table from me because trust me, these guys are fairly safe to bat eyelashes at.

There was only a couple of people that I didn't already know. One of them did seem to want to get to know me a little better, so we had the following exchange (apologies, again...):

Me: "You're hitting on me, aren't you?!!"
Him: "Yes!"  (I have to give him points for the straight answer)
Me: ".... Well. It's not going to work."

What a subtle way of getting the "sorry, not interested" message across. 

When he left the party, I gave him a quick smack of a kiss and said, "but nice try".

Someone hit me with a shovel, please?

...at one point it was getting dangerously close to sunrise, so I reluctantly went home (my mom's words as I got into the car: "gosh, you reek"). Almost had a panic attack when I realised that in less than 5 hours I had to get up, go out, and be presentable. Went to bed convinced that the mother of all hangovers awaited me.

-And woke up, by myself, at 4 minutes to 9. Completely nausea-free, able to walk in a straight line, and not even particularly tired. What gives???  So I went and admired the baby, then went to another friend's house and didn't even have any particular problems staying awake until bed time.  I think maybe all the cells in my body may have re-generated in just a couple of hours. It's the only logical explanation I can think of.

And I'm sure that the next time I take so much as a sip of wine, it will hit me like a ton of bricks.

PS - do you think I should apologise to the guy, or can we safely assume he has blocked me from memory forgotten all about it?