Happy Christmas

I am sorry that I am not able to call everyone and wish them a happy Christmas as we have somehow come without any telephone numbers. Anyway I hope that you are all having a good time.

We have been skiing and sledging and generally relaxing around Boulder in the snow. Despite the bad press that the place sometimes receives from some residents, we like it a lot here.

As you can see we are having a white Christmas, it has been snowing all morning and so far there is about 10cm.

This morning we had a big present opening session after breakfast and J thoroughly enjoyed himself with all of the gifts.

Thanks to everyone for the presents.

J gets a yanky haircut

Despite appearances, this was not an experience that J enjoyed much. However we can report that the haircut was a success and we are all impressed with the results.

Yesterday we went to Golden (where I bought my tele skis), the home of Coors beer and and biggest brewery in the world. We had lunch in a redneck bar which included 2 unusual experiences, bulls testicles and someone we had never met bought us a beer (along with the other half dozen people in the bar)

Today we have walked into Boulder and generally strolled about enjoying the the free time...

before going to Med for the tapas happy hour which has become a regular feature of our Boulder trips.

Here and tired

The journey seemed much longer with J than it did 3 weeks ago on my own, but we are here, safe and sound.
It was cold for our first sledging trip yesterday, but today has been a bit warmer and we are planning skiing tomorrow after J has his first proper haircut (meaning not done by me!) I'll post some pictures after all of that excitement, but in the meantime we are about to pig out again on pasta with meatballs after my home made bagels this morning which were a big hit.

The idea room

This is where we are working at the moment.

Like an 80s children's television set but built this year!

Dark dark dark

We are entering the time of year when it never seems to get light, it is almost 9:00 am at the moment and almost completely dark still here in Aalborg. I didn't notice when it got dark last night, but I guess it was around 3:00.

It was a crazy day yesterday as we are trying to finish our work before the end of the day today so that we meet our deadline and can relax over the Christmas break. As a result we worked a lot of hours yesterday and will drink a lot of coffee today.

I can't believe how busy my first 2 weeks have been in this job, but I am really enjoying it.

Tomorrow we'll be up early and off to CPH with a baby jogger.

Push chair controversy

I am surprised, but happy that the pushchair conundrum has attracted at least one or two comments. Perhaps I should have explained that we are planning something more like hiking than simple drudges around M&S.

I think we are more or less decided on the baby jogger (for now).
For those of you who read blog written by non-family members (ajen?) I am pretty chuffed that it seems the author of this well known blog turned book has commented here... twice!
Wow, I suddenly feel like giving up work to become a writer...

Aalborg again

Not much changes here in Aalborg, it is dark and damp but the furniture is rather funky.

Yesterday was a quiet day at work and then an evening of packing to come to Aalborg again and packing for out big trip on Friday.

We are having a lot of discussions about which pushchair to take and so far it looks like the baby jogger has the edge as it is good on rough ground and snow, sort of folds up and isn't too heavy. (Ours is dark green which makes no difference at all.)

The bugaboo looses out on size and needing to break into 2 pieces to fold up

and the Maclaren looses out by being rubbish on anything remotely bumpy...

As there has been a lot of snow and MK is determined that we should get some exercise whilst we are in Boulder, I think the jogger is probably the only option.

Christmas part 1

It has started! I had a hangover before I got home at 2 on Saturday morning that persisted until after lunch when we were already prepared for the 1st family Christmas event of the season. MK's parents and grand parents came for dinner with K&L. They were armed with gifts as usually and by the end of it J was really getting the hang of distributing and opening presents!

Thank you everyone for all of the kind gifts.

Today we are back to work for a short week before heading off to the Rocky Mountain State for Christmas proper with W&M and a lot of snow apparently. We are looking forward to sledging and skiing for a couple of weeks...

Danish Christmas Party

Tomorrow is Christmas party day for both MK and I at our new jobs. I am not sure where hers is (other than it is in Copenhagen) but mine will be in Viborg.

The standard format for these things is:

• Early start
  
• Plenty to drink



• Plenty to eat


• Loss of coherence before it is dark (approx 3:45pm)

We are beginning with a beer tasting session before we eat and then I guess moving on to a beer and schnapps consuming session with less emphasis on the tasting.

My worry is that I have to take a train home at 9:30 that arrives in Ringsted at about 2am, I hope I don't sleep until Copenhagen...

Here is J at the zoo in September just because I haven't seen him much recently.

Busy Bees

Both MK and I have been very busy so far this week albeit in different parts of the country. I have been thrown in at the deep end in my new job and it is turning out to be good fun even if it was and still is somewhat daunting to be given a project about which you know almost nothing and told to get one with it when there are 4 of your own colleagues and 4 customers booked to spend 3 days in workshops with you.

The weather in Aalborg is awful today so we have eaten at the hotel buffet; frankly the canteen at work was better!

More of the same tomorrow although we have the Christmas party on Friday to look forward to...

Aalborg

I am in Aalborg at the moment working in this rather nice building overlooking the harbor. I am staying in the quality hotel with a South African guy from London and a Swede from Gothenburg which is actually OK.

Aalborg seems like an OK place and we were amazed that the first restaurant we went to was full which is pretty amazing for a Tuesday night.

It is really hard being away from home at the moment and I feel really bad that MK is stuck with J during month end whilst I am away for the whole week. At least we are going to have a couple of weeks together over Christmas...

Back in the saddle

Unfortunately that is just a metaphor for being back in an office chair.
J has a really bad cough which kept us all up quite a lot last night and then I had to get up at 4:40 to get the train accross Denmark to Viborg to start my new job. I got here at about 10:00 swearing that I will fly next time.

I have my new Dell laptop which is nice and shiney and even seems different as it has Windows Vista! Everyone has been very friendly and I think it will be fun working here.

It is a shame that I have to be away for the whole week, especially as MK has month end to deal with as well as a sick J. I hope he gets better quickly and that their week goes relatively smoothly.

Tonight I am staying in Aalborg, I haven't been there before so you can get my impression tomorrow...

Home again and the weather is s#%t

The journey home was just as smooth as the outbound one with both planes landing half an hourearly. MK and J were waiting for me (a long time for the bags) which was a wonderful surprise. I have spent the afternoon having a nap and putting up the finishing touches in the kitchen such as the notice board, clock and hooks.

The week in Boulder was really nice and relaxing although my legs are still aching from thetelemarking. Thanks a lot to Dad and M for putting me up and lending me the cars.

I have 9 days of work to do before we head back there which will be fun with MK and J in tow. Unfortunatley my first week in my new job will involve 4 nights away from home and the second will have 2 so I will not have spent much time with the family before we head back across the Atlantic.

Skiing again

I had another great day skiing today on my new/used telemark skis. I bought them from Craig's list in Golden (classified ads on the Internet) for $80 (approx 400kr or 40 quid) including a set of poles but had a bit of trouble getting the bindings sorted out.

Today the sun was shining again and the snow was nice even though there were only 2 runs open again.

I did the first hour and a half with my boots in walk mode which made me fall over a lot, but after coffee I realised my mistake and things looked up a lot.

Maybe Vail tomorrow...

Alpine skiing!

Well, I was a little frustrated to get to Eldora and find that I could not yet rent telemark skis so I had to rent a alpine skis and boots. I had a blast in the sunshine though and really enjoyed flying down the only 2 runs that were open. I had forgotten that I am a pretty reasonable skier on groomed pistes and it is a lot less work than telemarking.

In Boulder in the snow

Here is the final picture of the kitchen before I left with the splashback.

Here is the view from the bedroom window this morning. My journey was very smooth with both planes landing early and extra leg room on both as well.

It is -7C here so plenty cold and hopefully there'll be some skiing to be had in the next few days...

Almost Done

Before:


Last night I almost finished the kitchen, the only remaining tasks are to collect and install the splashback and put up the clock, hooks and calendar.
Unfortunately when I turned the water off last night I have broken the tap so that we have very low water pressure and I can't do anything about it so we are waiting for the plumber to come and fix it.
I also need to fix the units to the wall at some point.
The last problem is that when you touch the sink and the dishwasher at the same time you get a rather nice electric shock so the dishwasher has to be fixed or replaced. Bummer!

After:

Update

I have put vinyl floor down in the bathroom using the offcut from the hall and frankly I am pretty pleased with it. It isn't that hard.
Today I put up the extractor hood and finally cut the hoels in the stainless for the tap. Wow that stuff is hard, but the hole saw finally got through.


I am not very happy with the cover for the pipe though...

Tomorrow the electrician is coming to finishe off and then we should be done on Thursday...

Clear Progresss at last

Today we managed to start the re-assembly process in the ktichen having completed the decorations. I still have to finish making the windowsill and put in the sink and plumbing and the electrician has to come back and make the sockets work, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The more observant omongst you will also notice that J has had his hair cut.

Assume the position

I got that familiar feeling today when I took the car for service and tried to explain the problem with the brakes. The rear brakes are apparently not ballanced as the one side is worn to the metal and the other has not worn at all, as a consequence one disc is coroded and the other worn so they needed to be replaced. Apparently yhtis is normal wear and tear and we have to pay.
Can this be right on a 2 tyear old car with 41 000km on it?


So the cost of a 2 year service and correct the brakes that should not have needed to be fixed...
Over 5000kr or $1000 to those of you the other side of the pond.
I feel like I have been taken advantage of in the most unpleasant of ways!
Why is my spell checker only working in Danish when all of the settings are English?

Windowsill

One of the many remaining tasks in the kitchen is to construct a windowsill that must be level with and ultimately join up to the sink unit. The problem here is that all of the kitchen units are on adjustable legs so the height is not set... yet.
I guess I have to decide what the height will be and then make the windowsill to fit that height, I have no idea how to attached the piece of oak that I have bought to the concrete ledge, so any advice would be handy. My current plan is to use another piece of wood under it which I will screw to the concrete and then attach the oak to that, but I am not sure how as I don't want to make holes through it.


I also have a rather clever new mobile phone that connects to our wireless internet access and has all of my email on it. To be honest I don't think that will be such a good thing when I am actaully w0rking and it is rather large thus creating an unsightly bulge when it is in my pocket. (The phone that is!)

Goodbye

We sadly had to say goodbye to G&J today and I was supposed to collect the splashback on the way home. G did a great job opf painting the inside of these cupboards for us.

Unfortunately the guy had forgotten to make it so that will have to wait another week or so.


In the meantimne we are havin new floors laid tomorow and I have painted the woodwork with the one coat gloss. I will do the second coat in a day or so as it has failed to cover the light grey in one go.
I have bought the paint for the walls and think it will be nice, it is called Java soft and you will be able to see the finished result in a couple of days...

Update

We have been very busy for the last few days with a trip to Sweden and several meals with T&B.




The floor should have been laid this morning but was not as the guy was sick so now I have a few extra days to catch up with decorating before he is supposed to come again on Thursday.
The sanding and filling are now done and the painting has started with the ceiling and the inside of the cupboards.