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.