Last day

Thank goodness for that!

Christmas Parties

Next Friday is our company Christmas Lunch (which takes place in the evening) in Viborg which is 3 hours drive west from our house. I'm getting a lift with some colleagues and staying overnight in a hotel.

I have also been invited to the Finnjolle (Finn Dinghy) sailors Christmas lunch in Dragør near Copenhagen on Saturday lunchtime.

As far as I can see, I don't really have time to go home between the events, other than to perhaps drop off my bags and collect whatever I need to take with me.

I have a feeling that I will need a quiet Sunday after all of that!

The worst moustache

There is a general concensus amongst my colleagues that out of all the guys at work who have grown a moustache in November, I suit mine the least.

These photographs are just the guys on my project at the moment so I am being judged from at least 10 people and I think it's quite an achievement to look so stupid. I didn't even go for a ridiculous shape!

It's going on Saturday and I can't wait to be rid of the itchy little blighter. I may be persuaded to wait until we have seen B&E and family if they really want to laugh at me though!

Winter weekends

On Friday afternoon, Richard decided that the weather forecast for Sunday was too bad and that we should sail on Saturday morning instead. So instead of a Saturday afternoon at the summerhouse and a walk on the beach (whilst fetching my sailing gear) I had to get up early and spend 2 hours driving over to fetch my gear before driving back to the other side of Sjælland to sail.  

There wasn't much wind which was OK for me to be honest. I was worried about making a total idiot of myself in front of the 3 other guys (it was bad enough having to meet them with a moustache!). We headed out into the Øresund and sailed for a couple of hours doing upwind and downwind legs. I was just as fast as the other guys downwind but struggled a bit upwind as the boat seems to want to naturally point a bit too much into the wind.

I made progress to and as my tacking got better, I wasn't totally left behind. I was complimented on my boat speed, but it was noted that I had a just needed to learn to sail in the right direction! I really enjoyed being DEN18 for the day and am looking forward to more sailing in the future. MK is far from wild about the idea of me getting a boat (I think or at least hope that is because of the cost) but I'm afraid, I think I'm going to do it anyway. As the guy in the bike shop said - "buy her a bunch of flowers and she'll soon forget about what it cost".

What little of Saturday that was left when I got home, was spent cooking some delicious lamb neck fillets and relaxing.

Sunday was a relaxing day inside as it was cold, wet and windy outside. We cooked a very big pork roast in the afternoon for cousins Tim and Rich plus SOs Rachel and Emma. It was nice to see them and get cracking on our second case of GSM.

Nuts?

Yes she is washing the ceiling!

Gettin' my a$$ kicked

I have accepted that I have failed to become the cyclist that I wanted to be. I had an idea that I could be good enough to fight for race wins in my class, but I was wrong.

The D class field that I am up against now has changed a lot since the first race that I rode 5 years ago. At that point there were maybe 25 people in each race and the average speed was around 36kph. If I was reasonably fit, I could keep up and I hoped that in time I'd be good enough to fight it out for a win every now and then.

These days the average speed is often over 40kph and the field has to be split into 2 groups because there are too many accidents with fields of up to 70 people. Whilst it is great that cycling has become more popular, I suspect that the change is related to the naming convention used for the classes. 5 Years ago we were called "Beginners", now we are the "D klass" so there is far less stigma involved in staying down in the lower ranks and the larger fields make it harder to earn enough points to be moved up the the C class.

Not me

So what now?

We I will carry on cycling for exercise and I think I'll do some mountain bike races again at some point but I want to turn my competitive spirit towards something else - sailing.

This weekend, someone has kindly offered to let me borrow a fairly new Finn at a sailing club near Copenhagen so I can experience what it is like sailing a boat less than 10 years old instead of my 30 year old one. I am also hoping that I can start the process of learning how to prepare and race a Finn because that is what I want to be doing next summer.

not me either!

(Mid life crisis?)

Bananas!

Washing machine settings

Our fancy new washing machine has all sorts of different stain removing programs. I think there are about 10 ranging from blood to sweat (no tears), grease and mud.

However, what we really need in our house is one that removes the smells and stains from poo and pee.  Why isn't there an excrement setting Bosch?

Getting Bushy!

Urgh

Down Time

This weekend has been double down time.

Down time #1 - The down jacket

After J played football from 8-9 on Saturday morning, we went out to the forest with his classmates and parents for a social event. There was a small orienteering exercise and then a camp fire in the camp hut thing where we could bake (obviously poisonous) bread and cook sausages.

It was real winter cold and damp weather and we were all happy to be wearing plenty of clothes. I was also happy that I had spent the first part of the morning making food for us - bacon cased quiches and some coconut pancakes.

Down time #2 - Relaxing

The remainder of the afternoon was spent warming in front of the fire and cooking even more. This time it was a beef goulash that wasn't really very popular with the kids, but I liked it.

I was expecting to go for a bike ride on Sunday whilst J played football again and the others were swimming. That fell through when there were only 3 kids at football and the coach decided to cut the session from 1½ hours to 45 minutes. I did some washing instead and then fetched him. The day ended up being nice and relaxing with some clearing up in the house, planting bulbs in the garden and a trip to the supermarket.

The 'tache is coming along nicely. MK hates it, but I can't really do anything about it until the end of the month.

Weak moustache

Receding hair and a shiny forehead.

D134

This is my boat as she was nearly new. The nice chap that we met yesterday had this in his archives and he will look for the other paperwork relating to the boat at some point.

Skyfall, wind and cold

Skyfall was pretty good. MK loved it because it was more like an old fashioned Bond film. I thought it was a bit too much of a departure from the last 2 but still enjoyed it a lot.

We went to the sailing club on Saturday morning and spent some time talking to a nice guy who couldn't sail because he was injured.

Apparently it will be impossible to race with the other Finns without getting a new (used) mast and sail which would cost about 1/3 of the price of buying a second hand boat. That was, however his advice unless I want to dive in and get a boat.

MK and I talked about it for a while and I think the conclusion is that I will look into getting a newer used boat that is more sea worthy than the one I have at the moment which I fear will fall apart or sink when the going gets tough.

Now the tough part: finding a boat and finding some money.

Skyfall

MK and I have the night off from the kids tonight so that we can go and see Skyfall (the new James Bond film for those of you living under a rock).

We're also going to eat at the Paleo place again so there'll be duck gizzard strew and meat based pizza on the menu as well.

Tomorrow morning there is a final Finn sailing meeting at Vallensbæk sailing club so I am going to watch. At the moment, I'd really like to race next year, but I don't know if the boat I have is race-able when considering:

• Legality
• I have no buoyancy certificate, measurement or weight certificate 

• Safety
• Will it just sink if/when I capsize?
• Is it just going to fall apart in heavy weather?
• Competitiveness
• It's (she's?) 30 years old
• Modern boats have carbon masks and kevlar sails - I don't
• If there are other old boats out on the water, then that's fine.

I'm looking forward to meeting the guys sailing Finns in Denmark and getting some advice about how to get back onto the water.

Dairy

Last year I lost weight pretty much all year by following a slow carbohydrate diet. As I learned more about nutrition and got a bit bored of eating beans all the time, I have gradually shifted to a paleo diet so that I don't really eat beans any more, but I have started to eat a bit of dairy and I gave up the gluttonous cheat days. The result has been a slow gain in weight again. Bummer.

I have decided to give up dairy for a month and see if it helps me to manage my waistline. I have been eating as much fermented stuff as possible as it should be easier to digest and over the last week, DK and I have been drinking unpasteurised milk as well. - DK loves it!

However, I guess I need to drop it and see if it helps with my weight management and then if that isn't doing the trick, I think I'll try being more strict on the daily diet and go back to having a pig out day each weekend.

Nutrition is really interesting stuff when you get into it and I am enjoying seeing how what I eat effects how I feel, I just wish there was a gradual improvement in my body composition instead of a gradual decline.

Movember

I can't quite believe what I am doing today.

Having been challenged by a colleague last week, I agreed to take part in Movember. I didn't shave from Thursday last week until this morning and when I shaved this morning, I didn't include my top lip.

I started feeling quite self conscious about it, but as the day has gone by, I am getting used to the odd glances that my top lip is getting and beginning to understand how it me be to have massive boobs.

Partly because of the fleeting eye contact and partly because I feel like a tit.

Photos to follow - so far there really isn't much to see.

Delivery for the long dark evenings

60 bottles of red :-)

Where has the week gone?

I haven't blogged much this week, I've just been running around doing other stuff instead which is probably a good thing.

This afternoon MK is at home with J and all the boys from his class (plus DK who J wanted to be invited as well) having a birthday party. I made a cake last night and MK has planned a treasure hunt for them this afternoon so all of the important bases are covered. Then this evening we'll all be eating chicken wings and legs and some weird Danish red sausages.

The final birthday celebration is planned for Sunday with the rest of the family and then it should be over.

Otherwise, there really isn't all that much to report. There will be football and swimming over the weekend and a bit of furniture moving to be done. We are planning redecorating our bedroom in the coming weeks before Christmas, the paint is falling off the ceiling and the walls are very grubby.

So far it looks like we'll go with boring white walls, but get some coloured bits and pieces to go in there like new bedside cabinets.