DKs home

He's been away for 3 days (and nights) with his nursery staying in the woods. It's great to have him back but the head full of lice, we could do without!
MK is out in search of de/lousing shampoo.

Thumb

I landed badly on my thumb at crossfit on Wednesday evening. It hurt a lot and yesterday it was obvious to see that there is some damage in there.
I think I'll skip sailing this weekend and hope its better next week.

America's Cup

As mentioned somewhere else, the 34th America's Cup is currently being fought over in the San Francisco Bay between Emirates Team New Zealand and Oracle Team USA.

The whole boat is being lifted out of the water on the foils 

They are racing 72foot foiling catamarans with wing sails that are able to reach speeds over 45 knots (+50mph) with wind speeds under 20 knots. They are incredibly impressive boats, if a little lacking in grace compared with the traditional mono hulls.

The Louis Vuiton Cup that decided who would compete against Oracle was a total washout with only 3 teams taking part and nobody getting anywhere near New Zealand, but the Cup itself is turning out to be pretty exciting with very close racing.

Weekend at home

I suspect that we have just had our final weekend of the summer. I had a great sail on Saturday morning with plenty of wind and big waves whilst the boys had their first swimming lessons of the season. After a quick lunch, we packed the car and headed for the summer house to catch the last of the sun on the beach, pick some blackberries for pudding and eat another leg off BHP's birthday goat!

We all slept well (at least I did so it seemed that everyone else must have done so too) and enjoyed pancakes for breakfast on Sunday before a short walk to on the beach. J had a bit of a swim whilst the rest of us decided that the season for intentional sea bathing was over for the year and we headed home to prepare ourselves for the week to come.

I have finally taken the photos from the camera:

Sitting on the worlds biggest picnic table at Simon Small's house

DK and J with Ronje the Robbers Daughter

Pippi outside her house

J looking thoughtfully into the distance from Pippi's balcony

Commuting

I have spent a lot of time travelling this week starting with 9 hours from Shustoke on Monday. Tuesday was a terrible 2 hours in and 1½ hours back again, then an average 1½ hours each way on Wednesday and Thursday. Thankfully I can work from home on Friday and try to catch up on the missing hours and a sneaky trip to Crossfit in the afternoon before picking up the kids.
I don't really pull my weight much at the moment with the delivering and fetching the kids, but I hope to make up for that a bit by at least working from home once a week so that I can do both.

Managed it again

The good thing about the 06:00 Crossfit class is that it is not busy. Last week there were 2 of us and this week I was alone so I get personal training. I don't suppose that they will continue to run early morning classes if I am the only person who shows up, but for the time being it's great for me even it it's bit difficult to get going so early in the morning.

Now I just have a load of work to do after my 1½ hour commute.

Shustoke reservoir

We are back from a really nice relaxing weekend in Shustoke to celebrate a birthday. We ate unhealthy food and I think I drank more than I probably should have, but it was great to see everyone.

I can really tell that I was relaxed because I came back to work this morning and I couldn't remember anything that I was doing at the end of last week.

Sorry about the hiatus

Life is pretty crazy at the moment. Having been away for the weekend, I spent Monday evening looking after the kids whilst MK was at a school meeting before going to Crossfit at 20:00. Tuesday was another 3 hour commuting day along with at least 2 hours ironing in the evening and yesterday I was home alone again as MK was out running with her colleagues in Copenhagen, but I had managed a 06:00 Crossfit session in the morning.

The 3 hours per day commuting isn't helping things much either.

I'll endeavor to carry on blogging as much as I can, but at the moment it's hard to find the time.

Commuting

Now that I am working on a project in the centre of Copenhagen again I have been presented with the usual challenge of finding the best method of getting from home to the customers office each day.

The first week was ok as it was still holiday season, but over the last few days the traffic has worsened every day so that I now spend about an hour and a half travelling way either by car or on the train. My conscience tells me the use the train and I enjoy the time on the train a little more than the driving time BUT it costs double to use the train and it is consistently 1,5 hours each way whereas the car is worst case 1,5 hours but is often faster at least in the morning. I guess I'll stick to the car at least for now.

Pippi Langstrompe

We had a fab weekend at Astrid Lindgrensworld in Sweden. It's theist middle class theme park in the world. There are no rides, it is a series of plays and singing and dancing shows in the forest on sets that resemble the sets of 60's Swedish kids tv series.

The kids loved at and didn't care at all that they couldn't really understand what the actors were saying and they got to meet some of their imaginary heroes. Pippi, Emil and Ronje.

On top of that, the food was great, locally sourced local dishes - great bacon with potato pancakes and great big salad bars.

Here's our Pippi in front of Villa Vilakula

Solna

I've been in Solna for the last two days. Solna is a suburb of Stockholm and is to a large extent like a new town with new offices and apartment buildings everywhere but also some nice old parks. Stockholm seems like a very middle class place even by Scandinavian standards which may or may not be a good thing, I'm not sure.

I was on an introductory training course for my new job which was pretty good. The downside was the travel time and the immediate backlog from my normal work that built up but that's just life.

Now I have a lot to do before we head off for the weekend.

Swimming Lessons

Saturday's sailing plans were dropped fairly early on as there was no wind and it was raining. I checked with someone who lives closer to the sailing club than I do and we agreed to meet up on Sunday morning instead.
I got there in good time so that I could get my new mast fitted and all the confusing little bits of string in place before we hit the water. The guy I was sailing with had very kindly decided to bring his tape measure and sailing experience with him to help me get the boat set up for the new mast and my weight. I hadn't really been through this process before so it was interesting to learn a bit about what should be adjusted in which direction under certain circumstances.

When we finally went out the sail there wasn't really very much wind and we had a few gentle legs up and down a short course to check that my boat speed and pointing ability was where it should be. Thankfully it seemed that everything was fine.

not me

Then the wind hit us pretty hard and there were fairly quickly reasonable waves and it was hard work to stay upright. Upwind was manageable but on my second downwind leg I capsized, the wind and the waves meant that I had to pull the boat back up and let it capsize again straight away before being able to right it and get back in. That was something of a struggle as the mast got stuck in the bottom again,. but I took my time and thankfully avoided breaking another mast. About 30 seconds later (and much to my colleagues amusement) I did the same thing again. This time I remembered that you have to hold onto the centerboard as the boat re capsizes and pop up on the right side to pull it up again.

and now more clearly not me!

By the end of that, I was pretty tired and headed for the harbour to wash the sand and grit out of the mast and put the whole thing back together yet again. I was pretty tired and glad to be back on dry land again after that, but it was a fun trip and flying back the harbour over the waves was an absolute blast.

The new lunch boxes

That's me on the left, J in the middle and DK on the right. The boys are christening theirs today, but mine will have to wait until Monday as I am at a customer today with a canteen that I can use for free.

I have been struggling with aching legs since the crossfit on Wednesday morning. I'll be back there again on Sunday and see how things progress in the meantime.

Mast and Sail

I'm going to get my new mast and sail this evening so that I can sail again on Saturday morning.

Fancy carbon moulding

Hopefully there won't be any problems driving around Copenhagen with 6,5 metres of carbon fiber on the roof rack but I'll have to be careful not to take out any cyclists at junctions and corners.

I fear the the mast has cost more than the total amount that B and I spent on sailing in our youth including buying boats, clothes and club membership.

Isn't there a saying about the only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys?

Early bird

I did manage to get myself to Crossfit at 06:00 this morning. After a warm up of air squats and skipping, we did a bit of yoga style stretching and then 20 max weight back squats (I used 50kg, but I should have had more on the bar really) then we did "Surfers on Acid" which is 3 rounds of run 400m and 21 burpees. It took me 11½ minutes which was OK for that time of day.
Then home, shower, breakfast and off to work for a loong day.
At least I only spend 1½ hours getting home tonight instead of the 2 hours it took yesterday.

Bloomin' 'eck

I am already extremely busy with my new job and was drowning in emails yesterday despite only having been in the company for 6 work days!

I have been going to bed too late each evening and consequently not getting enough sleep to counteract the stresses and strains of the day. The result? I have been a bit of a grumpy git with a headache and not much fun to be around.

Tonight I'll hit the sac extra early as I have signed up for the 06:00 Crossfit class tomorrow morning. I don't know how that's going to work out, but I'll give it a try.

Something bit me on both ankles whilst we were cutting the hedge. At the time I thought it must have been a mosquito, but given the size of the marks and that they are hurting 2 days later to the extent that it is keeping me awake at night, I suspect that it must have been a scorpion or maybe a venomous snake of some sort!

Hedges and Lunchboxes

I need to get better at taking before and after pictures for this blogging malarkey.

I did a pretty tough Crossfit session on Saturday morning before embarking on the biggest workout of the day that was cutting the hedge. MK and I worked hard all day (with a little help from our little helpers) and managed to get it done and the trailer returned to the garage by the deadline of 16:30. We were completely bushed by the end of it but managed to roast a chicken for dinner which is always a hit with the kids.

One of the absent neighbours mirabelle trees was hanging over our hedge so we chopped the branches back and collected a box of mirabelle plumbs that I made into Jam on Sunday afternoon. I'm looking forward to finding out if it's any good or not.

The other great event of the weekend was ordering new lunch boxes for the me and the kids - I now take lunch as there there is no canteen at my new job when I am not at customers. We get through a lot of cheap lunch boxes that get broken or won't close after going through the dishwasher a few times. We saw some very fancy looking ones in a shop in France whilst on holiday and after a bit of research, decided to buy some online. They are called MonBento and are made of silicone coated plastic with two airtight layers, a lid and fancy colours to chose from.

DK, J spent a very very long time deciding which colours they should have whilst MK and I agonised over the extortionate prices.

Here is my design. J went for a red and blue scheme whilst DK opted for red and white. Product reviews to follow.

New toys

I just got my new computer which is a rather nice little HP model - small, lightweight, aluminium cover and...
Windows 8

My first thoughts are that it's going to take a while to get used to it.

I also have an iphone 5 that is to all intents and purposes the same as the 4S I had before but it is a little taller, lighter and doesn't seem to work with bluetooth which is somewhat irritating.

It looks like I am going to have plenty to do which is exciting.

I also seem to be on the verge of buying a new mast off someone in Denmark who used to be on the national team. He had this one as a spare and has only used it for 5 hours so I can get it for something around half price. I am just pressing him to give me a sail with it as well.

Danish Finn Championships

This last weekend was my first chance to take part in the Danish Finn Championships. The timing wasn't great because I started a new job on Thursday which was the first day of sailing so I already missed 2 races before I turned up on Friday morning. There were 1,5 metre high waves and the wind was pretty strong so it was not entirely without trepidation that I left the harbour into the swell with the other 39 boats that were taking part.

I survived the first race and came somewhere quite near the back - maybe 5th from last and was starting to feel less terrified of the waves, if not entirely comfortable and far from confident. The starting procedure was under way for the second race was about 2 minutes from starting when I capsized (I don't know why, but I think it was a wave that caught me off guard) right at the end of the line by the committee boat. Unfortunately the sail was sticking up in the air so when I up righted the boat, it flipped straight over into me getting me tangled up in the rig and banging my head. This sounds more exciting and dramatic than it really was, but the water was warm (I was already soaked anyway) so it was really more of an annoyance until I got back into the boat and noted everyone gesticulating wildly to me to look up.

The top 30cm or so had broken off my mast when it was stuck in the seabed. I tried to sail back to the harbour, but the boat kept turning back to the wind so in the end I had to have help tipping the boat over again to free the sail and then be towed back to the harbour.

I spent the afternoon out on the rescue boat enjoying the fantastic weather and watching the others have a series of good races.

Happily I borrowed a mast for Saturday and did better than I ever had before with the improved equipment coming somewhere near the middle of the field. However, just as the second race of the day started, the wind shifted through 180 degrees so the race had to be abandoned. We then waited about 1½ hours in the boats for the conditions to settle before we had a final race of the day where I was absolutely rubbish and came in dead flat last.

Now I need to find a replacement mast and oddly 2 new wheels for my trailer as those have been pinched as well.

Holiday Part 4

After a week in Provence we were getting into a rhythm with finding places to see, eat and what we could cook on two camping stoves. We'd figured out how to share a tent pitch with an ant colony (careful food segregation between dry stuff that they don't like and a newly purchased electric cool box) and when was the best time to go to the pool to avoid getting too much sun. J had recovered from a tummy big but MK had really had enough of the leaky Carrefoure nappies that seemed to be leaking every night.
We'd had our week in Carpentras so we headed back to the Alps having briefly considered going home. I'd researched a couple of camp sites near Chamonix so we headed for one of those and it turned out to be fantastic. We had another 4 nights there with some walks in the hills and forest by a big river, a couple of trips to the open air pool and some more milling around and relaxing.
Finally our time was up and we headed back north with a couple of lessons learned. Check out the camp sites before you leave and don't buy own brand nappies being chief amongst them.

Hiking new Chamonix

Mer de Glace camp site near Chamonix

Kids in the stocks in Beaux de Provence

Camp site #1 - Les Domes de Miage

Cafe in Carpentras with a good game to play

Holiday Part 3

Provence is a big place and it was HOT so we didn't want to spend yet another day just sitting in the car driving round inspecting toilet blocks (MK's white gloves were getting dirty anyway). The first stop was Orange to check out the amphitheatre and get some lunch whilst trying to get inside information about camp sites.
Lunch was fine, the amphitheatre was cool but the camp site info was thin on the ground. We bought a map and a guide book and headed in the direction of Carpentras. I think MK did a toilet check in 3 or 4 campsites before we found the municipal camp site in Carpentras. They had one place left and the bogs were clean and there was a big swimming pool next door that we could use included in the price.
We spent the week visiting loads of little villages and bigger towns. There was a stage of the Tour de France up to Mont Ventoux that we went to watch and of course we swam.

Holiday Part 2

Many years ago, I was lucky enough to canoe through the Ardeche through the spectacular gorge. I remember the trip fondly and we agreed that the Ardeche seemed like a good destination as it wasn't too far away and there would be plenty of campsites. We found a site online and headed there through hot sunshine and then torrential rain. The site ended up being full so we drove on down the only road through the gorge looking in horror at the huge crappy looking sites beginning to think that it may be hard to find a site we liked. The they stopped. We had entered the national park and there was nothing at all other then spectacular views and 13 mountain goats.

Not really our sort of campsite

By this stage is was getting late and we were giving up on the camping for the evening and decided that Provence was going to be a better destination, but first we had to find somewhere to sleep as it was getting late.

Ardeche Gorge

Coming out of the national park there were a few places beginning to appear along the road and we spotted a castle perched on the cliffs across the river. After declaring that one should always "head for the castle when looking for somewhere to stay", we ended up in an idyllic little village with a room for the night and a pretty good meal.

Aigueze

Holiday part 1

Before we had driven 15 minutes J had thrown up and it was becoming apparent that the new GPS wasn't going to work. Thankfully my technologically sceptical wife had a map book with her so we continued our dash to the ferry and headed south in search of sunshine.

There had been talk of stopping overnight, but without having book anything, that entails stopping at about 7 to look for food and accommodation. I didn't think we had made much progress so we stopped for a very German dinner and then I drove down the Mont Blanc valley where we slept for an hour or so in the car before places started to open that served coffee and croissants.

We stocked up at the supermarket and the big camping shop on some essentials such as food, sleeping bags and coats and then went to the camp site to put up the tent. All went ridiculously easily as we drove straight there and pitched in a "shaded" spot, happy to be out of the now rather hot sun.

Then came the clouds as a prelude to the rain and thunderstorms of the evening. The tent was fine and only really damp inside from condensation, but we woke up cold and the shade over our pitch meant that we barely warmed up and dried out before the next afternoons clouds and rain came in.

The second evening we had to cook inside the tent which was somewhat hazardous and smelly so I suggested that we should remain true to our plan and head south until it got warm. So after 2 nights in the lovely Domes de Miage campsite we packed out bags and headed South.

(Photographs later when I have the camera back)

Chef DK

Thanks for the presents B,E, T & K.

DK's new apron

Thanks to Bicester for this and the book

Happy Birthday DK

J and Mormor have worked hard on pirate hats and themed stuff for his birthday party so he decided that a pirate cake would be more apt than a football cake.

After a little google research, I make a treasure chest cake and I am rather proud of it.

Now we are waiting for chaos to descend in the form of 9 4 and 5 year old boys who will spend the  afternoon having sword fights and searching for treasure.

barefoot shoes

Quick review

I love my new Vivobarefoot shoes. They are really light and fit perfectly so that it is almost as though you're not wearing shoes at all. Exactly as they're supposed to be.

My only complaint is that they are not as smart as I would like them to be, but I'll get over that.

I then got a promotional email from them this morning that there is 30% off everything on their site today so I have ordered some more and a pair for MK who wanted a pair of flat shoes anyway.

Birthday Preparation

DK is 5 tomorrow. That is 24 hours away or as he would like to point out, it is 18 hours. He has been asking how long it is until his birthday more or less non stop for about 2 weeks now and it is getting really rather boring.

We are having the boys from his group at nursery home for the afternoon along with the Danish grandparents (who are also allowed to stay for dinner and help clear up the mess)

There are some pretty standard requirements for a birthday party - namely a cake, in this case a football pitch with players because that is what J had, birthday bread rolls which are really iced buns without icing and a treasure hunt.

We are going with a pirate theme so J and Mormor have been making pirate hats and eye patches for the last couple of days.

We've bought him a garage for his matchbox cars and the rest will be a surprise, but there is talk of fishing rods.

New term - new uniform

There is something of a school holiday feel to our vacation this year. MK and J actually follow school holidays and I will be working on a project in a rather different environment when I get back to work. Normally that doesn't mean too much in the grand scheme of things, other than the type of work that one does. However from a sartorial standpoint there are a few places in Denmark where the usual shirt and chinos doesn't quite cut it and this is one of them.

I haven't worn a suit and tie more than a couple of times for work in the last 5 years or so and I have only one suit that fits and isn't over 10 years old - the same goes for smart shirts and ties!

So I need to stock up on some smart clothes. After a bit of consideration, I think it will be a blazer, a pair of trousers (or maybe 2) and some shirts with or without ties. Under normal circumstances, it's fun to buy some bits and pieces of clothing, but to be honest, it's rather tedious to have to buy several outfits worth and there are many other things that I'd rather spend the money on.

Crash

I was a little late home from work last night so I missed the excitement of watching J ride his bike into the back of a parked car.  He's been told hundreds of times to look where he is going, but apparently the only way to learn that particular lesson is by riding into things repeatedly.

He'll either figure it out or Darwinism will take over the decision for him.

Yesterday it was a rather large Citroen C5 estate parked about 50m from our house that he went straight into the back of. There is a noticeable scratch and a small dent so we are expecting either an insurance claim or to pay for the repair at some point.

Most annoyingly of all, I bet he would do it again today under the same circumstances.

The Chimp Paradox

I am in the process of (adio) reading The Chimp Paradox by Dr Steve Peters. Dr Peters is the psychologist for the British Cycling Team and has apparently been instrumental in Team Sky wining so many bike races including the Tour de France last year.

The book breaks the functioning of the brain down into 3 parts: the human, the computer and the chimp who seems to be responsible for many undesirable characteristics and behaviours. Basically, if we want to be happy and successful, then we need to  learn to manage our inner chimps and not let them wreak havoc whenever they feel threatened or scared.

It's a great book (adiobook in my case) and I heartily recommend it for anyone who occasionally finds themselves behaving in a way that they later come to regret or who wonders why they do things that, even at the time, they know are stupid and irrational.

Feet

Shortly after I stopped running regularly I started to have problems with my feet. The doctor usefully looked at my feet and reassured me that I was going to have problems with them in the future.

I apparently have hammer toe - as a result of wearing shoes that are too small. I take full responsibility for this, it's not my mums fault! I also appear to not walk on the ball of my foot behind my big toes.

I ditched all of my shoes that were a little on the small side and made a concerted effort togo barefoot at home and wear birkenstocks when out in the summer.

The feet problems have gone away, but I always have a few problems getting back into my "normal" shoes at the end of the summer holidays and my feet feel cramped until they get used to the shoes again.

The next step has been to search for some shoes that would keep my feet happy whilst being acceptable at work. I found a pair of Teva shoes at the outlets a year or two ago that have been OK, but are not really smart. Then after some research, I have finally ordered a pair of vivobarefoot shoes that should be OK at work and look after my feet too. I'll review them when I get them.

Time and tide

It's been a pretty hectic week so I haven't blogged much. I can also now see that I don't have much to say because the stuff that has kept me so occupied isn't really all that interesting or bloggable.

I hope to get out sailing tomorrow morning and then I have got the kids for the afternoon and evening as MK is off to TWO parties in one day!

I'll have to try to think of something interesting to do with them so any suggestions are welcome.

Hurry Up Summer

The sun is shining and I am stuck inside an office again today. Yesterday I worked from home and managed a few minutes in the sunshine during the day whilst I ate some lunch and hung the washing out to dry. I even managed some of my crossfit session outside. That's probably it for the rest of the week though which seems like a terrible shame.

I also have evening meetings and other stuff to deal with during the rest of the week so spare time is going to be something of a rarity.

Now it's a matter of counting the days until we can pack up the car and hit the road.

Wet Weekend

Another weekend has passed and now J only has 2 more weeks at school before his summer holidays start.
I went sailing on Saturday morning. I wasn't very early out of the house and by the time I reached the sailing club the only other Finn going out was already on the water. I had to re-assemble the boat a bit after the regatta last weekend so it was 10:45 before I was afloat. There was a pretty strong wind blowing (around 10m/s, force 6 or 25 knots) and waves that were at least a metre high. Sailing upwind was hard work and good fun. I was happy that I didn't really have any problems making progress or managing the boat. The downwind was something more akin to a roller-coaster ride with the boat rather unstable side to side and surfing or nose diving over and through the waves. I was amazed that I got home without having an unplanned swim, I was pretty wet from the spray, but no swimming. I only managed 1½ hours on the water, but in the end I was getting tired and decided to quite whilst ahead. I didn't even manage to say hello to the other Finn sailor as our paths didn't manage to converge before he went back to the harbour. I really enjoyed being out in the wind and the sunshine and was very glad I took the chance to go out.

It may have looked a bit like this (at least in my minds eye)

I made another big batch of sausages on Saturday afternoon. Last time I chopped the fat by hand, this time I used the food processor, neither is really right so I think I'll have to get a mincer. The batch that we sampled in the evening were really good though.

Sunday was all about J and rain. There was the annual outdoor inter-school football competition that his class won last year. Despite having only 7 boys in the class, they won again this year which is pretty impressive. Yet again it was won on penalties, but there was no injustice in them winning at all. The only real downside was that it rained quite a lot so I had to go home in the middle to get dry clothes for me and more clothes for everyone else.

Straight after the football, we had to drive to Sorø for the outdoor gymnastics display that is traditionally held on the wettest weekend of the year. We sat in a bit more rain (and a few moments of sunshine) whilst J did some somersaults and a various variety of gymnastic things. The group that he will be in next year looked impressive so he'll have to stay in training.

More New-Age Mumbo Jumbo

The squatty potty!

I spend my otherwise wasted commuting hours listening to podcasts from many different places and on many different topics. I love the BBC and am a new convert to RadioLab from NPR in the US. However, over the last few months I have been listening to a lot of health and fitness shows, one of which was about having the perfect poo.

I am quite a convert to the idea of functional health and fitness and also the ideas of evolutionary medicine. The basic idea of which is that our bodies evolved in a certain way, but modern society is pushing us to use them in another way. There are many examples of this -  we don't get enough sunlight, we sit down too much, we don't move correctly and we don't sleep enough.

One of the things that many of us (me included) are not able to do as adults is squat correctly because we have poor mobility and flexibility. Apparently the structures that stop your poop from coming out when you don't want it to are only really properly allowed to open up when you are squatting. When you are sitting as you do on a normal toilet, things aren't quite aligned as they are supposed to be

We haven't bought a squatty potty, but we have a range of different sized plastics steps around the house for the shorter members of the household to reach things (that's everyone else in the house). After a bit of experimentation, I can conform that the 20cm high Ikea step works fine and you really do notice a difference when you use it.

I heartily recommend giving it a try with some sort of step or box so you can make your own minds up. I am also going to get DK to try a step to see if we can save 20 minutes of our evening that we normally spend waiting for him on the loo.

Starting to look like a holiday destination.

Mentioned

There are a few online reviews from the Helly Hansen Cup last weekend, but I get a mention here as one of the several rookies taking part here

Sleep

Going to bed early has never been one of my strengths. In fact, until fairly recently, I have always gone to bed late and (unless enticed) always thought that there was something more interesting to do than be in bad.

I have now finally discovered the wonderful benefits of sleeping well and sleeping for a long time. We aim to hit the sack at 10:00 each night although it is usually 10:30 by lights out so that we can try to get about 8 hours per night. We have also put up blackout blinds to get the room as dark as possible.

I have noticed that I am a lot better in the mornings now, I feel much less irritable and I don't crash after lunch feeling sleepy through the afternoon as I did for many years. Part of that is certainly related to my diet, but I am also sure that getting enough sleep helps to ward off tiredness. I would certainly never want to be the sort of person who falls asleep at the dinner table (for many reasons)

A great deal of statistical information appears to link insufficient sleep with all sorts of health problems from high cholesterol to weight gain and type 2 diabetes. How much of that is true is hard for me to say, but the average amount of sleep that people get has gradually been declining as average body weights have been increasing.

Helly Hansen Cup

I'm tired but I am, as you can see, available for sailing equipment catalogue shots in the dinghy park. 

I have spent the last two of days taking part in a sailing regatta in Rungsted. There were a number of firsts over the weekend. First regatta away from my home club so the boat had to be dismantled, transported and re-assembled before I could sail. My first time sailing with a reasonable amount of wind and my first 2 day regatta.

Saturday was the most interesting day. I had to assemble the boat that someone kindly transported to the club for me on his double trailer. There was plenty of wind and I did fairly well considering my abilities and lack of experience. The starts went well and I enjoyed it a lot despite getting battered and bruised a bit and maybe breaking my little toe.

Sunday was a bit of an anticlimax as the wind let us down during the second race by shifting and too much to run proper races so racing was abandoned after just two races.

Results

I wasn't last, but I was last out of the people who took part in all of the races. My best was 14th place in one race but I was also last in a couple. There is work to be done...

I'm NED724

Not in last place

Still not in last place

Probably in last place

4 Boys

Our friends twins are in hospital so we have inherited a 4 year old and a 7 year old to go with our since yesterday afternoon.

As MK is a totally amazing person, I was still able to have a short sail yesterday evening and pack my boat up for the regatta over the weekend whilst she fed the mob. It seems that we will eb hosting them again this evening so I'll have to make sure that I am pulling my weight.

Års Charmetrold - Charmer of the year

J was voted the Charmer of the year for the school last week by the year 9 students on their last day - earning him a big bag of sweets. In typical J style, he also asked if it would be in the newspaper. It's odd that J is convinced that he is shy but the reality of it is, that as soon as he is familiar with his surroundings, he is very outgoing and gets on with everyone.

He is also a cheeky and charming little boy. Now he just has to sort out his table manners...

Constitution Day

It's Grundlovsdag in Denmark today so we get a half day's holiday. I've come to work with the Mrs as there is nobody else in her office or mine and we are going out for lunch before collecting the kids from the summer house where they have been entertained overnight by T&B.

I am hoping that we can drag D134 (my "other" boat) down the beach and have a bit of a sail this afternoon before proper training tomorrow and the regatta at the weekend.

The sun is shining and life is good.

Sausages

We ate lots of sausages in England last summer and unanimously decided that English sausages are the best (that's how I remember it anyway). When we got home I decided that it would be fun to try and make some sausages, but it took until this year to get around to doing anything about it. I ordered a sausage stuffer like the one above from Germany (over engineered and rather expensive) and it was delivered last week. We have half a pigs worth of minced pork in the freezer (16 x 750g bags) and they sell pigs guts for making sausages in the supermarket so we were set.
I did 3 different types

• Fresh sage from the garden
• Fresh oregano and fennel seeds
• Paprika and smoked paprika

They are all really nice and I made enough for 4 meals from 3 bags (2.25kg) of mince. However the lessons to learn are - 

1. make sure there is plenty of fat mixed in with the meat. I chopped my speck by hand and it wasn't really integrated in the meat enough. 
2. Don't skimp on the seasoning, it seems to disappear in the cooking.
3. It's a bit messy and fiddly so it should really be a bulk process.

We think the first effort has been a success and except for the price of the stuffer, we can make our own sausages with organic meat and no dodgy chemicals for less then the cost of the factory ones we would normally buy from the supermarket.

Cooked

Home made sausages

Possibly the least photogenic food shot ever. I'll try another when we have cooked some.