Juicing

MK got a juicer for Christmas from K&L and we have been experimenting with different recipes over the last couple of days. Apples seem to be good and the pineaple was good too, but the rather past it's best melon gave me stomach ache. It seems to be a great and painless way of getting rid of all the awful fruit that is sitting around the house so later I may try it with some vegetables and see how cabbage juice tastes. If it is awful, at least I will have got rid of one of the cabbages from the fridge.

We were supposed to be visiting MKs family in Holte tonight, but we have had to cancel. J was up  lot in the night being sick (after drinking bath water that DK had pooped in) and DK has been coughing non stop for 24 hours to go with the running ear infection, cold and fever thing that he has going on at the moment.

Other than that, we're all fine.

Happy Chrimble

We've had a great, relaxed Christmas and MK was back in action again.

Disaster ahead

MK has the flu. I fear that this is going to take some of the fun out of Christmas at the very least.

Shortest Day

Today is the shortest day of the year which also makes it the worst day of the year in some respects. For the next 6 months, things just get better.

It is also looking rather wintery outside with another 20cm or so of snow falling overnight, we now have about 40cm over everything and it is beginning to get difficult to find places to put the stuff when you are moving it.

Apparently it is also -6C at the moment as well (this was last night)

Can anyone remember where I hid MK's Christmas present? I can't find it...

Bad Santa

We've had a snowy weekend. We went to get the kids hair cut, post cards and collect parcels from the post office on Saturday morning (thanks Auntie P) and then put up the Christmas tree and made pizza in the afternoon.

DK has been wearing his Father Christmas costume all day every day for 4 days now and shows little sign of taking it off. Thankfully he is wearing it over his clothes and is prepared to remove it for meals so it is not too dirty yet. I am, however, concerned that it won't last too many cycles in the washing machine.

Grumpy Nisser

The snow was absent for only a very short period and is now back and about 20cm deep around us. The country doesn't grind to a halt, but travelling is hard work and the roads are not being cleared properly becuase there is no money left at this time of year. Hopefully they have some set aside for the new year.

Just in case this doesn't happen, I have just ordered some studded snow tyres for my bike because I really need to get outside on my bike. I rode in the basement yesterday but it just doesn't cut it really.

Rapha Festive 500

My favourite bike clothing brand is running a challenge over the Christmas period to try and encourage people to keep riding through the bad weather. The challenge is to ride 500km between 23rd and 30th December and the winner will be the one who shows how they did this in the most creative way.

I am not kidding myself that there is a good chance of me completing this, let alone winning it, but I'm going to give it a go and I have created a new blog to chronicle my progress.

You can have a look at it here: http://ridingtheraphafestive500.blogspot.com/

In the meantime, I will try to figure out if this is possible at all as I already know that it is not sensible.

Woolly hats

I appear to have less hair with each passing month at the moment and am considering taking drastic action to deal with it in the new year. I'm not considering hair plugs

or a wig

But the Bjarne Riis thinning solution.

One of the drawbacks of getting thinner on top (unfortunately not in the middle) is that ones head gets rather cold. The obvious solution of a hat is an excellent one, but my preference is for a woolly hat and therin lies my problem, wolly hats make my head itch. A lot.

The solution is merino wool (I suppose cashmere would work too) so I have challenged MK to knit me a merino wool hat and amazingly she has accepted. The yarn has been purchased along with kneedles and a pattern and I am confident that there will be something ready for me to wear before next winter. I can't wait.

Christmas is coming and I am getting fat

I have a grotty cold and a cough which stopped me riding my bike on the icy roads in the freezing cold this weekend. We went and bought a Christmas tree on Saturday morning and then MK and the boys went to a Christmas concert in the afternoon whilst I did the supermarket with most of the rest of the town.

On Sunday MK had arranged for some friends to come and make Christmas decorations at our house so we had a house full of kids and mums. I make some jam tarts and the first mince pies of the year which went down well. It turns out that I make really good pastry when I try, but thankfully I don't do it too often.

Stuff

I seem to have developed a rather unpleasant cold overnight, but I suppose that is just what happens at this time of year. It took me 2½ hours to get home from work last night because the motorway was covered in snow and the traffic was dreadful. To celebrate, I worked from home today and now we are preparing for a quiet-ish weekend in the frozen wastelands.

Here is the front page of Monday's local paper:

Crazy days

Yesterday was rather manic with a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. The result was getting home rather late with the boys to put to bed after they had an afternoon with Mormor ad MK was out at a meeting.

On Saturday morning we were asked to come out into the street to have our picture taken for the local paper along with the other residents of our road because we have, as a street, started a neighbourhood watch thing. To our amazement, on Monday morning our photograph filled the top half of the local paper with the story filling the bottom half of the front page and half of page 2. It was quite funny and as you can imagine, the boys and MK in particular stole the show.

I'll try and scan the picture later

OECD PISA Report

I have just been reading the OECD PISA report about the standards of education measured across all member countries and it was certainly an interesting read. (You can find it here)

It seems that Denmark has not really improved in any areas and there has been a slight slip in some areas although it is still firmly placed in the middle of average. Of course, there are lot os interesting things to say about different socio-economic reasons for this that and the other and the influence of culture on this that and the other, but I was not surprised to see that Denmark scored below average in the performance related to disciplinary climate. My reading of that is that Danish school kids would perform better with more discipline in schools.

I am not really overly concerned about the education system in Denmark. I am pretty sure that our family will overcome the immigrant parent problems and take advantage of the engaged parent benefits to come out of it all with nice, above average kids. After all, isn't that what we all aspire to?

Speech therapist

This morning MK and I took DK to the speech therapist at the cleft lip and palate centre in Hellerup.

The visit didn't start too well as DK tripped and dived headlong into a deepish icy puddle. That was the spare set of clothes used up for the day so MK is hoping that we will avoid any further clothes incidents.

We have a check up there every 6 months or so and the therapist was happy that there is some progress, but there isn't much progress as most of DK's words are reduced to "is" meaning ice cream, eat , pee and maybe more or just some animal noises.

We have noticed that he has come on a lot in the last few weeks and we are hoping that this will continue, but if he hasn't made some substancial progress by the next appointment then he will probably have to have some help progressing.

MK, DK, J and Mormor are now in Copenhagen for the afternoon to look at the Christmas decorations and generally get into mischief

Late nights

We were invited to a Christmas party at some friends in CPH on Saturday night. MK got a new frock and we had a really nice time but with that came a very late night  - 02:30 before we were in bed. As a result, the long, very slippery and snowy journey back to CPH on Sunday for my company family Christmas party was rather an ordeal. The kids made a lot of noise and both MK and I were a little short tempered with them.

The second party was really nice as usual and the kids got some nice presents and enjoyed the entertainment. The bridge too far was when I deceded to built DK's new bed when we got home. It was a nightmare of poorly thought out flat pack furniture. The bed had several different parts as guard rails and thing but there were only instructions for the basic bed and when you came to put the rails on, you had to take a lot of it apart again. The final straw were the finely crafter cheese screws you had to screw in with no space whatsoever whilst getting splinters in your hand.

There was much swearing and sweating, but I did prevail in the end.

snow and more snow

It has continued to snow so we now have at least 30cm in the garden and it is getting a little tiresome.

We are off to friends and my works family Christmas party over the weekend along with collecting DK's new bed and being photographed with the rest of the street for the local paper.

No rest for the wicked

Hospital visit

We had a half yearly check up at Roskilde this morning for DK. He was wieghed and measured and we had a chat about his progress. Other than not speaking, he is doing fine and there is nothing much to do for another 6 months. He then had a hearing test which seemed to show that he can hear properly and there isn't much to worry about there either.

The Doctor who oversees DK is presenting him at a conference in January as a case study because he is an interesting little boy who doesn't really fit nicely into any know syndromes. Despite that, the Doctor is convinced that he has CHARGE syndrome based on his one sticking out ear.

Not being a doctor, it is difficult to argue with one about a diagnosis, but I do know that a syndrome is just a collection of symptoms and there is a requirement to have a certain number of these symptoms in order to be diagnosed with the syndrome. The problem is that DK doesn't really have the symptoms necessary for a diagnosis so I really cannot see why he is so determined to demonstrate that it is what he has. Next step is a DNA test to determine if the "right" genes are messed up for it to be CHARGE.

Frozen Sea

It has been really really cold here for the last day or so. Yesterday there was only a little ice in the sea accross the street from the office, when I arrrived this morning, it was completly frozen over and now it has a good covering of snow on top too. I am starting to think that this will be my longest coldest winter since arriving in Denmark which is quite a thought given how long and cold the last one was.

Brrrr.

Got it

Just as I was leaving the office last night the guy selling this guitar called me back to say that he was in CPH and had the guitar with him so I arranged to go and meet up. It sounds really good and I think it is nice that it has been gently used. There are no major dings or marks, the neck is straight and the top is flat.

The only real problem is that I can't really play much on it. I can get lots of chords, but I need to work a lot on changing between them accurately and then quickly.

The most amuzing thing was that the guy (a music student) was selling the guitar to get a new flat screen TV for his bedroom in a shared house. When I asked about the 37" one on the wall, he said that he needed a new one. That was too small and anyway it was 4 or 5 years old now. Apparently he is getting a 50" 3D TV despite apparently having no idea about what you can see on it. He seemed to think that all TV became 3D on a 3D TV. I think he is in for a dissapointment...

(I should point out that he will be a very long way from affording the new TV with what I paid for the guitar.)

Cold

At the risk of harping on about the weather, it is pretty darned cold here at the moment. There is ice appearing in the sea over the road from the office and we are told to expect some serious weather on Thursday and Friday with temperatures down to -15C (5F).

I am certainlky hoping that the winter will not be like last year otherwise that lawn won't be seeing the light of day again for another 5 months. If it does appear to be the case that we are in for a long freeze, I think I will have to invest in some studded snow tyres for my bike.

I am fianlly starting to feel as though I want to ride my bike so it is typical that the weather is conspiring against me and whilst I would like to ride outside, I am not yet sufficiently motivated to want to sit on the trainer in the basement.

Guitar practice is progressing nicely but I am struggling with Lars' old guitar. The search for a used one continues...

Snow snow snow

We have 12-15 inches of snow here now. Many of the counties have announced that they are not clearing snow until January because they used their snow budget up last winter. As a result I turned around and came home again this morning before I got to the motorway.

We had a great Christmas party day on Friday. We went to a dirt race track in the snow and ice and spent the day racing around in a colection of old Astras. I've never raced a car on ice before and it was acutally much easier than I expected, I suspect because the surface under the ice was not completely flat.

Anyway I drove in 2 races and won both of them despite the fact that I managed to stall twise trying to get off the line in the first race.

The sun shone all day (well as long as it does here in the winter - not that long) and that made the -7C just about bearable. I was happy to have brought a LOT of clothing with me along with a hat and gloves.

The evening do was the usual marathon of drinking and eating which I tried hard not to get  lost in too deeeply. Thankfully I wasn't too bad on Saturday morning and a brisk, hour long march around the lake in Viborg helped to clear my head and gave me a chance to chat with some people I don't get to see too often.

Sunday was spent putting the winter tyres on the Mazda and making a chicken pie for dinner to go with my invention of the year so far - a bread and butter pudding made with a bag of day old danish pastries I got cheap in the supermarket.

Snow snow snow

It is obviously my fault that it is snowing so much here. There are a few centimetres lying on the floor and it is still falling.

Why is it my fault?

Well I didn't get around to putting the winter tyres on the Mazda at the weekend so MK is sliding around with the summer tyres on in the snow whilst I am waiting to go to the Toyota garage thir morning to get the it's wheels changed. I guess it will be the usual job of either changing them lying in the snow or finding a clear piece of car-park where I can do it myeself.

Feeling coming back

The feeling is coming back to my fingers at least when I type so maybe I'll manage more than 10 minutes on the guitar tonight before my finger tips tell me to stop.

We bought a new bed for DK at the weekend becuase he can't really fit in his cot with his brace on any more. He will be moving into a full sized single bed at the weekend with a rail to stop him going over the edge. He seemed very excited in the shop trying them all out. Let's hope that he like sleeping in it as well as bouncing on it.

D, E and A chords

K delivered L's old guitar on Sunday morning and after taking the kiddies to the swimming pool (I mean going swimming, not taking a dump), I spent a bit of time starting to learn some chords.

I got through the first lesson and can now make some reasonably competent D, E and A chords. I really enjoyed it and am already looking forward to moving onto some minor chords this evening. The only real problem is that I have completely numb finger tips on my left hand as a result of pushing the strings down. I guess my fingers will get accustomed to the strings much as my backside became accustomed to sitting on a bicycle seat but in the meantime, I guess I'll just have to man up.

Next up I am told that I need some new strings for this guitar and I could do with a plectrum or two.

Just in time

My new boots arrived in the post yesterday which was perfect timing because it has been snowing here all morning and despite the fact that the temperature is a little above freezing, the snow has settled and we have an inch or so covering the garden. The kids are very excited about it, but I can just see that I am going to have the usual fun of putting the winter tyres on the car after it has started snowing for the second year running. Will I ever learn?

The Timberland Earthkeeper boots are apparently environmentally friendly and contain 1½ plastic bottles in the soles. Not being able to get my size in any of the shops in the UK meant that I had to buy them on eBay. Despite the shipping costs from the UK, they were £30 cheaper than in the shops in the UK.

Now that K&L have told me that there is an unused guitar in their basement, I can have a go at trying to play without shelling out for an instument. I guess that will avoid me finding myself in the same situation as the guy I was trying to buy a sused one from. He claims to have owned it for 1 week and played it for only 2 hours.

Guitar

Before we went to England, I had become somewhat interested in the ukelele having heard someone playing one on a podcast that I enjoy. I didn't think much more about it, but I did think to ask Ben about his guitar(s) and how he got on with them. I was rather impressed with his playing - his teacher "couldn't teach him any more" - and gradually began to think about playing myself.

I have investigated lessons and found what appears to be a good resource for learning online with lessons for free that some nice guy has put onto youtube as an entire course (justinguitar.com), failing that, our next door neighbour is a music teacher and I have seen him with a guitar case on his back before now when heading out on his bike.

However, there is a problem, I don't have a guitar. I have looked around the web and the general advice is that you have to try before you buy so blind mail order seems to be out and the used ones I have found are very expensive (mostly several hundred pounds) or just junk so I think I may end up going to the guitar shop in CPH and getting some advice on a new one. I suspect I may end up with one the same as Ben has.

Anyway, it seems like a perfect thing to do this winter and I hope that all the hours I spent learning to play the piano may come in handy when I get around to picking up a plectrum.

Back to the Denglish

I had my first Danish lesson in 4 years yesterday and it was both pleasant and depressing at the same time. Karina, my teacher, also taught me 4 years ago and she was happy that I have progressed quite a lot since I last spoke to her. I have had some other lessons in the meantime, but not many and I appear to have forgotten most of the grammar that I ever learned.
She was amazed that I am able to speak so well, given that I more or less never practice and when pushed to do some grammatical exercises, it seems that I don't know the past tenses of many of the most basic verbs. There is a lot of work to do.
I am having a couple of lessons a week for a couple of months with the deal being that when my boss comes back from his extended vacation in February, that we will only speak Danish. In the meantime, I've got some homework to be getting on with.

Back at it

We had a great week in England visiting family and friends, thanks to everyone who put up with us and put us up. DK had a check up on his feet and they are fine. His right foot appeared a little tight, but in general they were great. He has to keep waering the brace in bed for as long as we can make him but it will be at least until he is 4.

J's english was really good and he had a lot of fun playing with his cousins. DK had fun too and seems to understand a lot even if he doesn't say much yet, other than asking for ice cream which he does a lot.

I also ate far too much English junk whilst at home - biscuits, cakes fish and chips and more cake and more biscuits. I knew that I would and I enjoyed it, but now I am dieting properly to make sure that I can still get into my clothes at Christmas. The aim is to keep going through to next summer for the Marmotte so that I can finally get my gold award.

Normal service will resume in a few days

I'll probably be taking a break from blogging for the next week, but hope to return with plenty of interesting stuff on 15th November.

Have fun out there!

Physiotherapy

I went to the physio yesterday afternoon to find out if my Pilates has been helping or hindering the recovery of my back. He seemed fairly impressed that I could do all these fancy Pilates moves, but in the end it seems that the repetitive folding myself in half isn't really the right thing to do with my specific problem. Then what? We set about creating a new routine for me to do a few times a week to get more of a workout for my core than just the static and stretching exercises that I have been doing until now.

So I am now supposed to spend 5 minutes each day crawling around on the floor and then do some rather difficult exercises on a Swiss Ball. I had never really used one before and I was a little apprehensive about simply rolling off it onto the floor, but it was fine. I think it will be fun doing these exercises and maybe getting a few new ones to do as time goes by.

Less fun where the squats and lifts that he wants me to do. I need to learn to bend and crouch better so I have to do these exercises. I was a bit wobbly walking by the time I left the place yesterday and my legs are aching this morning. I think there is a lot of work to be done on that, but it is good to know that I can move on with some new challenges.

That's 2 hours I won't get back

I have decided that I should complete my Danish language education if I am going to be here for a few more years and develop my career so after a chat with my boss last week I set off to my old language school for a test yesterday.

Of course, when you can't book a time at the office, you have to turn up and hope to get a test and yesterday I couldn't. Today I waited a couple of hours for the test to be completed, only to be told that they don't really have anything suitable for me. I know I can understand most of what is said and apparently I can speak OK, but I can't write Danish any more. The advice from the miserable middle aged woman was to try another language school.
The next step is to speak to one of my former private teachers and see what she suggests as a way of making progress. I suspect that answer is that I simply need to start speaking more Danish to practice, but I want to have a few lessons to get into the swing of it because at the moment, I don't feel like I can express myself at all.

Drying out

We had margaritas on Friday night and rather enjoyed them. Unfortunately we ran out of lime and tequila by the end of the evening so I tried a sidecar on Saturday evening and that was rather good too (Brandy, grand marnier and lemon juice in a sugar frosted glass).

That sat quite nicely on top of the beer  that we had with lunch and the wine that we have been drinking nearly every evening for the last few weeks. As you may be able to imagine, if we drink a bottle of wine in an evening, then MK has 1 or 1½ glasses and I drink the rest.

The result is that I have been drinking rather too much and I suspect that I am beginning to look forward to my evening tipple more than is healthy.

When I add this to the fact that I am quite sure I have gained a few pounds over the last couple of weeks from eating too much in general and cake in particular, I am left with a rather tough choice. Carry on and get fatter, more out of shape and gradually pickled or do something about it.

I have chosen the second option. So I haven't drunk anything since Saturday evening and I won't until at least Christmas (I may have a  drink at the Christmas party). I am strangely conscious of not drinking anything in a way that I was not at all conscious that I had been drinking a lot. The next step is to get working on the training to be in good shape on my bike next year, but that is another post.

Birthday Weekend

Saturday was the family birthday with T,B,H,K,L and A attending, we had a house viewing in the morning so it was a quick round of pancakes, then tidy up at get out by 10 to pick up some bread and things to go with lunch. We ate too much, had a short walk and then had more cake and coffee. J wasn't too well durting the day and seems to have some sort of flu, but he was OK again on Sunday morning for the kids party. We had the usual stuff, J and I made sausage rolls (with bread instead of pastry as is normal here) and fairy cakes whilst MK took DK to gymnastics then  seven 4 to 5 year olds arrived for a 4 hour marathon which included lunch:

Pass the parcel which was completely new to (and wasted on) Danish kids

A treasure hunt which was supposed to take them at least 30 minutes but MK couldn't help telling then where the clues were hidden.

Finally there was cake. This being Denmark, we had to have the 24 fairy cakes that J and I had made in the morning and this cake man which was the same size as Daniel. It is basically the biggest (and tastiest) Danish pastry you have ever had so I had to try and give away as much as I could to the parents when they came to fetch their little darlings.

That was a hard weekend, I really feel like I need a rest now.

Happy Birthday tomorrow J

Have a good day.

I'll post some pictures over the weekend if I have a chance.

We also have a house viewing in the morning so it is going to be hectic.

BMX Pictures

It was getting dark when I remembered that I could take some pictures of the future BMX star with my phone so they are not that good, but here are a couple nonetheless.

Film reviews

We have had 2 DVDs sitting in the house for a couple of weeks waiting for us to watch them. We finally got around to it this week and it made a pleasant change from watching our recorded episodes of House MD.

First was Benjamin Button which was really just a soppy old love story which happened to be the life story of someone who was born very old and got gradually youger until he died as a baby at the end. MK cried a lot aven though it wasn't really sad. Perhaps that is too much of a male perspective, but if you tell an entire life story then the character has to be born and die. During his life other people die as well, but there is no real tragedy involved. The fact that he aged backwards really seemed meaningless and overall I think the film was just a very standard sort of love story with a few interesting special aging effects.

Second was Australia (as Mark Kermode says: "Yes, all of it!"). The film as sort of fun as an old fashioned epic tale but it was very long and somewhat predicable. On the plus side, it was nicely shot and an interesting bit of historical drama and Nicole Kidman is as easy on the eye to me as Huge Action probably is to the other half.

Overall they were both too long and both average to be perfectly honest.

Missed a day

I worked from home yesterday before collecting the kids and taking them to J's gymnastics. It always takes longer than I expect to collect 2 kids, provide them with a snack and then walk/ride to the gymnastics venue and we are always 5 minutes late. Maybe one day I will learn.

MK called during the journey to tell me that there are 2 viewings arranged for our house, one on Tuesday afternoon and on on Saturday morning. As a result we spent last night tidying and cleaning and will doubtless do the same on Friday evening. On top of all the cleaning, I had to get up at 5:00 this morning to drive to accross the country for a meeting. Hopefully some good will come of the second meeting this afternoon.

This evening MK is taking J to the BMX club to have a try on the track. I don't know if it will be his thing although he is a good bike rider and loves nothing more than racing anyone at anything he can so I suspect that it will be right up his street. News tomorrow I guess.

New shoes and Pizza

Today has been a day off work. MK had an appointment to get her eyes checked after the lazer surgery and we needed to go to the special shoe shop in Copenhagen to get DK some winter shoes.

Everything went really well. We got some boots for DK (unbelievably expensive) and then went to Mother, a new pizza place, for lunch: The pizza was really really good, I supect because the place is run by Italians and Brits! I had a pizza with smoked cheese and anchovy which was excellent and it was quite reasonably priced too.

The final detail of the day is that MK's eyes are fine although she should go back in 6 months to have them checked again and see if they can be corrected a  little more.

Grumpy kids

It is holiday week in Denmark this week so there have not been many kids at the nursery with J or DK. J has been up early every day to go to nursery because they have been doing different things than they normally do and he has really enjoyed making knights swords and shields and they were going to make helmets today. Unfortunately for J, MK is off work for the rest of the week so he is home today and not making a helmet. He was not at all impressed - so much for spending time with the kids.

DK is going through the typical terrible 2s thing and being quite difficult to deal with at the moment. If he doesn't get his own way then he collapses onto the floor having a fit and I am not allowed to go near him at all. He generally points to the door and shouts "ud!" (meaning "out!") at me. I guess he'll grow out of it at some point but for now I seems to have more or less lost one son.

Woops I did it again...

So J and I went up to the north coast last night to fetch a BMX. It is not a standard 20" wheel BMX, it has 24" wheels so it is really a cruiser and generally used for racing rather than tricks which is a good thing.

It feels quite big compared with how I remember BMXs feeling but I think it will be fun to play around on with J up and down the road, at the skate park and if he is interested in racing then we can try that too. The guy selling it had rather a lot of toys and had a rack of different helmets for different sports. He was interested if I was planning on racing the bike. I said I wasn't sure but I may give it a try, so he asked if I had a helmet. I don't so he gave me his for nothing which was rather nice of him and will leave me with no excuses if the opportunity arises to have a shot on the track...

BMX

All this talk of getting J to the local BMX club has me hankering for one. I have my eyes on this one at the moment, but the guy selling it doesn't seem to want to answer my emails. I suspect that MK will be quite happy about that...

I am really harking back to something like this

Although mine had blue anodised bits and was therefore much much cooler than this one.

Autumn

We had a couple of frosts last week and the thermometer told us that it was -2C on Saturday morning so there can be no doubt that the Winter is just around the corner.

We had no real plans for the weekend so we concentrated on recovering from last week. DK was much better by Saturday and back to his usual petulant self. MK decided to take the boys to the library whilst I went for my first bike ride since June. I rode 45km without any problems at all, not even a niggle from my back so I was very happy about that. I was significantly less happy about how much less fit I am than I was in June, but that is to be expected and I can work on that over the winter. I spent a couple of hours watching the last bike race of the season on television whilst I did some ironing. The Giro di Lombardia always appeals to me as  race to go and watch, I don't know why, maybe it is because it is not in northern France/Belgium like most of the other "Classic" races. Maybe one day I'll get down there to watch it with MK and our bikes. This year it was brutal, the weather was very cold and wet meaning that only 34 finished the race of the 195 who started. Well done to Philipe Gilbert.

Sunday was another uneventful day, we went for a walk in the forest and collected lots of leaves and sticks and things. I think MK has a plan to use them for some art project with the kids when they are all home together at the end of the week. 

Busy quiet week

In some ways it has been a busy week. House viewings, hand ball and MK out a couple of nights.
DK has flu and has had to be home the last 2 days. Yesterday MK stayed home to look after him, but this morning we were stuck so MKs dad did the honors whilst I went to a meeting then I took over whist he went to work. DK still has a high fever (39.2C) but he is drinking and eating a little so it seems to just be flu which T had last week. Now I am sitting on the sofa with J & DK waiting for MK to come home to start the weekend in style.
I have been back on some sort of calorie control this week. I have avoided sugar for the most part and tried to control what I eat in general. I am not going to lose weight fast doing this, but if I can keep it up, then maybe I will be at my racing target weight in time for the 2011 cycling season and I can get the promised race wheels if we can afford them and a new house.

I am rally looking forward to a bike ride this weekend, the weather is crisp and autumnal and we don't have plans to stop me from getting out. Hopefully a proper bike ride will give me some motivation to ride the awful trainer in the basement next week.

Frederiks Bastion

The house viewing was fine but apparently the viewers are not really sure what they are looking for yet. They liked the house but want to see more in the area before committing to anything.

Today I am at a workshop at Frederiks Bastion in Copenhagen. This is an old amunition store with 2 meter thick walls. It is interesting inside, but it is rather damp and there are no windows.

The dynamic duo are back in action together today. DK is ill so MK is stuck at home looking after him. I hope they are having a good day and that he will be fighting fit again tomorrow.

1st viewing

I have been running around like an idiot for the last 24 hours getting the house ready for a viewing this afternoon. Let's hope they like it...

Bad moods and trainers

This morning was dreadfull, J got out of the wrong side of the bed and so, apparently, did I. That meant that there was a lot of screaming and shouting before MK finally threw me out of the house to go to work and leave them to finish getting ready.

Based on the initial catalyst for this morning's debacle, I think watching the TV in the mornings is going to be banned for the forseable future as there is always some stroppiness associated with turning it off. We don't need to add any more stroppiness to the house when there are 3 non-morning people living in it.

I am really enjoying my air max trainers that I bought a couple of months ago to ease my feet and legs into working standing up all day. I used to wear trainers all the time and I had forgotten how comfortable they are. I also think they look OK too. There is something of a cult following for Nike air max shoes and some of the ones I had in the past are still available as re-issued collectors items.

The silver 97s were probably my favourites

Followed by my blue 95s.

I had some others that apparently weren't interesting enough to be re-issued, but today I am wearing my rather fine 2009s

And at some point in the future I am hoping to get my hands on a pair of 2011s if, as or when I can find the colour and size that I want. At the moment I think I prefer the grey and orange, but the black and neon ones are rather spiffy too...