Back to the grindstone

After a relaxing few days in England with the folks it was something of a reality check to get out of bed this morning. Thankfully nothing much has happened at work in my absense so i have time to do this :-)
It is amazing how much money we manage to save by buying things in England, especially baby clothes which are VAT free rather than expensive +25% in Denmark.
Adrian gave me some pitcure from our "family" trip to Nrofolk at Easter so I will post some here.
The only other news is that i have gotten really fat in the last 2-3 weeks so i am now on a diet. There you are it's official!

Back in Blighty

It's nice to be back in England:

• Fish and chips
• Bangers
• Marstons Pedigree
• Curry
• Radio 4

Hmmm
(Somtimes I write things like this a I feel very old and sad)

Flying over Copenhagen

Last night we had a farewell dinner for a colleague in Tivoli. Dinner was on a funny old ship thing in the lake and then we went on this swing thing that whirls you around 80m above the ground. It was actually good fun and not really that scary, the view was great.

We're off to England this afternoon for a well earned "rest" for a few days...

Carry on regardless

Well I have decided to carry on with the blog in the same spirit so here we go
I was in Warsaw yesterday for a meeting, i have a few initial observations regarding the place: Poland seems like less of a dveloping country on first glance than either Italy or Spain (certainly in the south)
The Pole as really friendly and helpful, they also seems to do a pretty good job of arranging meetings - good lunch and a beer garden at the back of the office, constructed just for us. (I guess Carlsberg should be able to do these things!)
The weather was lovely compared with Copenhagen.
It's not too bad traveling for a day, i don't miss regular business travel at all.

Where to take this blog?

Since creating the blog a couple of weeks ago, inspired by an old friend, I have read more and more other people blogs. They generally seem more interesting than mine, which is probably because they are more than just a list of what I have done today, punctuated with pictures of my son! So the question is, where should I be going with this?
As I see it there are a few options

1. Continue the random rambling about my life in general
2. Focus on family and domestic things going on in my life (being a dad, husband etc)
3. Concentrate on my budding career as a cyclist (I am convinced that I will win a race at some point and will not be happy until I prove myself right), commenting on racing and training or whatever
4. Focus on my career plans, especially my current quest to get a fully funded management research PhD off the ground
5. Focus on how weird it is being an English guy living and working in Denmark (certainly the least interesting now I have written it down)

I clearly have very few (actually probably no) readers, so it probably is not of any interest to anyone, but I enjoy writing this thing and can see that it needs some direction...

Perhaps I'll come to some conclusion over the weekend.

PASSED

I have passed the awful Danish oral exam so no more classes for a while. I have been told not to do any more as they make me grumpy! I can't imagine that!

Welcome any Slowtwitchers!

What are you looking at?
As i have just put the URL for this place on ST it only seemed polite to say hello to any intrepid visitors.
I am not tri-ing at the moment as a result of the little one pictures below so i am getting my fat ass kicked on a regular basis by trying a little road racing. For the record, it's a blast, but you'd better get used to getting dropped, we're used to steady efforts at our own pace, this on the other hand goes from slow to frantic to slow repeatedly and once you're dropped it's over - no hiding.
Feel free to come back and look how life is developing...
William

We're off to the US of A

We've booked our trip to Boulder for the last 2 weeks of August which we are very excited about, we can't wait as we haven't been on holiday too much in the last couple of years.
The other exciting (ot not) news is that I passed the written portion of my Danish exam so i am just left with the oral part on wednesday, I don't really expect to pass, but you never know. I think it would be nice to complete this course and then at least i don't have to do more classes, even if i can't speak Danish very well!

Almost finished Danish for now, so more time to train...

Here are Jeremy and I training a few weeks ago in the basement, as you see further down, thankfully i don't have to carry him in the races...
This is my last week of Danish courses for now, i hope that i passed the written exam last week, then i have an oral exam this wednesday. Afterward i am skipping a session and will start again in the autumn. There is simply not enough time at the moment.
Spring has sprung, it looks like the Colorado trip is on for August and hopefully things are crystalising for me at CBS...

All cleared for take off...

Lots of things are suddenly happening, I now have an office at the Copenhagen Business School so that i can work on my Phd proposal. I am in the middle of my latest Danish exam, the first half of which seems to have been OK and work is busy.
I therefore need to prioritise:
1 Family things
2 Phd proposal
3 Trying to be good enough to keep up with the bike races
4 Work (but don't tell them!)
5 Danish course (taking a break until September unless I fail in which case I may stop)

I don't normally have so many things to ballance so it is interesting to have to think about it!

Pollen, pollen everywhere

As you can see, I'm enjoying work at the moment!
Apparently the pollen levels are higher than aver recorded in Denmark at the moment, everything around the house is covered in a layer of green birch pollen from the trees in the garden. Thankfully we seem to all be surviving as there is not much grass pollen yet.
I have also decided it is time to try and sell some stuff on ebay now that i have become such an expert at buying. There are too many expensive bike bits in the basement that will never get used to i plan to send them off to ebay land.

Bike race II...

I think I am getting better although it is not easy to tell when the full results are not posted. However I managed to stay with the front group for about 35km out of 60km and was certainly not the first to be dropped. Apparently i came in about 5 minutes down on the leaders.
The weather was fantastic and it was really nice to be out there especially as MK and J came to support. I am looking forward to getting some training in and eventually being able to complete a race with the pack (winning may take a little loonger!!)

If Danish isn't enough...

After a nigt without enough sleep and then a very delayed train this morning, I am now in a meeting with Danes and a Norwegian, that is a challenge to understand...
The sun is shining and i am looking forward to getting home and trying to take advantage of it.

Easter 2007 should be...

In Wales, i've just dfecided that i need to go back there after reading a thread on singletrackworld.com. North Wales (if the sun shines) has to be the place for next years week of family tension...

Import tax rip-off of course

I have just had a call from a very nice helpful man at Danish customs. I bought a watch from a cheap website in Singapore. The watch (a citizen ecodrive chronograph since you ask) was about 550DKK importing it, including admin fees will cost 300DKK. The lesson, get them shipped to the UK or buy in the EU. Never mind, it was still cheap....ish

The academic world awaits...

It seems that the first and admittedly smallest hurdle to my re-entry to the academic world may have been overcome. The head of the CVL (Part of Copenhagen Business School) is "very positive" about my idea for a PhD thesis so I am to be given access to an office and a computer at the school so that I can work on my proposal. I have a lot of reading to do and what little spare time I had is evaporating further.
I don't want to get too excited, but I hope I can get this off the ground.
Next stop CBS next week...

Aching neck and no time at all

After my quarterly trip to the Chiropractor yesterday my neck is aching and feels swollen, i guess it will get better and i should ice it tonight.
I got home at about 10 ast night after Danish, i have no spare time and MK is getting a bit sheesed off with me never being home i think....
Finally and most interestingly i have just spent 15 minutes playing with the Nikeid website designing my own free running shoes, that was fun, i think i might even buy some.....

Here is my favourite picture of Jeremy for the time being

Popped my cherry

I dragged myself out of bed early on Sunday morning to have a go at something new (ish). I entered my first propper bike race, it was the KCK race, i was in the beginners class and must admit it was only a partial success. I kept up with the group for about 40km and then got dropped. I couldn't face a last 30km lap on my own so i went home. Actually it was fun, but the pace varied rediculously making it tough to sit with the group for an unfit person like me who is more used to a steady pace.
Anyway, i'll be back, maybe even next weekend... for a shorter race.
I fell pretty bad about going home actually, but by then it was all over.