Swiss Balls

Once my back got better last autumn, I started doing Pilates again but quickly found that it was aggravating the disc problem again so I stopped. The physiotherapist told me that I shouldn't be doing any exercises which were based on a sit-up or crunch as it would continue to cause problems. He recommended some Swiss Ball exercises and I have finally started doing them along with some other exercises specifically for cyclists which I have read about along the way.

So far so good, I can feel that there is an improvement in my balance whilst I am doing the exercises and I am hurting a bit less the days after doing them than I did last week. I hope that I can make some difference to my comfort whilst cycling and also help with general core strength and help accelerate my weight loss all at the same time.

Maybe I'm becoming a bit obsessed with this stuff...

Cramp and minerals

More or less as soon as I went on a diet to lose some weight, I started getting pretty bad cramps in the night. It was actually a bit of a problem being woken up 2 or 3 times during the night and hopping around the room trying to get rid of the cramp. I had a suspicion that it was related to my having cut out dairy products so last week I got (MK to get me) some mineral supplement tablets. I was already taking a multi-vitamin with minerals, but now I have started on these as well (9 per day!) and it seems to have solved the problem. Gone are the constantly twitching calf muscles and I am now sleeping much better.

Sometimes it's nice to have a hunch about something and actually be right!

Pumps

Last week I managed to lose my mini pump whilst I was out riding. I have no idea what happened to it, but I took it out with me when I went out on Tuesday evening and I haven't seen it since. It's pretty important to have a working pump with you when you're out riding, especially when you're on your own so I have just dome a bit of research and ordered one of these. Apparently it is good for 140 psi and given that I ride at 100psi, it should be fine. It has also had lots of good reviews. I particularly like that it has a tube to connect the pump to the valve like pumps when I was a kid, that reduces the risk of braking the valve and should stay put on the valve as it screws on. ( I got the black one)

Whilst I was looking at pumps, it occurred to me that we will not have space to take a full sized floor pump with us to France in our bike bags, but it is important to be able to get our tyres inflated correctly before starting so I decided to get one of these as a travel pump. It has a built in gauge and is rated to 160 psi. It is designed to be a floor pump you can take on a ride with you. It seems a bit bit for that to me, but it should be ideal to take in the car or on planes when I have my bike with me.

Hedging my bets

I seem to have run out of enthusiasm for painting the living room ceiling in the last week so it remains half finished. However, I have managed to get the hedge cut this weekend and to mow the lawn so the garden looks quite neat and there are lots of things growing out there as well. We are getting a bumper crop of strawberries and there are jalapeños growing on my chilli plant.

I spent nearly 4 hours cycling with BHP on Saturday, he is in really good shape in time for the Marmotte whilst I was struggling a bit after 2 hard interval sessions last week and a new regime of core and leg strength exercises. I hope they help in the long run because they are killing me at the moment. We went to a house warming party in CPH on Saturday evening without the kids and had a good time with grown up company and to some extent, seeing how the other half lives (a law firm partner and IT director with no kids, houses in Thailand, London and now CPH). Sunday was football and a family swimming trip before a barbecue in the evening.

MK and the boys went to the beach yesterday as it was a public holiday here (the last until Christmas) whilst I worked in the garden.

The plan for the rest of the week is more training and painting the ceiling again on Wednesday before finalising it with stain resistant paint next weekend. Then I can get on with moving the TV to make way for a fireplace.

Dreadful meals

Since being on this diet, I must admit that I have lost a lot of interest in eating. I am glad that I am less interested in food because it means that I am not obsessing about food or being tempted to cheat at all.

I think it all stems from the fact that I I no longer eat food that is enjoyable 6 days each week. It's the same eggs for breakfast, salad stuff for lunch (right now I am eating a can of tune with some chick peas and 4 smallish tomatoes for lunch - blurgh) and then some cobbled together version of a main course in the evenings, minus the starchy carb. bits (bread, rice, pasta, tortilla, potatoes etc). Of course, there is the one day a week when I can eat whatever I want, but oddly enough the only thing I really look forward to is the cereal I am allowed to have for breakfast and then I just end up feeling a bit crap the rest of the day as a result of eating sugary stuff that I am no longer used to.

I think this diet is easily sustainable in the long term and I don't plan to change it at all until I have reached 90kg and then I only intend to relax it a bit. The real sacrifice is that the enjoyment of eating seems to have been more or less totally taken from me. Maybe it's for the best after all.

Todays weight is 96kg meaning 8kg lost and 6kg to go.

Pants

DK has been increasingly intent on wearing his pants rather than a nappy over the last few weeks. We have had a few unsuccessful attempts at leaving the nappy off, but yesterday he decided he wanted to go to nursey without a nappy. Apparently there was one accident in the morning but he managed the rest of the day without incident and carried on when he got home.

It was very warm yesterday so he and J were in the paddling pool in the garden in their birthday suits. It appears that DK got a bit confused about being wet already and having no clothes on so he did pee on the kitchen floor whilst we were getting supper ready, but we are hoping that he will get the hang of using the toiled pretty quickly or at least more quickly than the 2½ years that it took J to be consistently dry...

Loooong weekend

Last Thursday was a public holiday in Denmark and I had Friday off as well as the day care was closed and my company doesn't work that day anyway.

On Thursday we went out for lunch and then we met with DK's English foot specialist in Copenhagen as she was over for a conference. DKs feet are fine and we don't need to do anything other than get ready for another check up in Manchester in 6 months or so.

The boys and I spent Friday going to the supermarket, making ice cream, sewing seeds and preparing food for our guests who were coming to dinner on Friday night. We marinaded Pork in honey, mustard and soy sauce and lamb in port with, thyme ginger and garlic. We also made a rhubarb fool with rhubarb from the garden which was delicious (it was my day off the diet!)

Saturday I decided to pain the living room ceiling white. It took the whole day to do it and I will have to do it again at least once. We had more friends over for a barbecue in the evening as we were all invited to a big party in town. Everyone had shipped their kids off somewhere (ours were with K&L) and we had a nice relaxed evening in the garden before heading off to the party at about 9:30. Unfortunately I began to feel ill whilst we were there and we came home at 10:30 and I was shivering and feeling sick all night. I spent some time throwing up on Sunday morning and then the rest of the day lying on the sofa feeling dreadful.

Today I am feeling better, but still not 100% so I am working from home and wondering when I will get around to finishing the ceiling.

Chillis

Following on from the flowers yesterday I had planned to post some pictures of my chilli pepper plants. I have a jalapeño and a scotch bonnet plant growing very well on the windowsill and I am confident of getting some chillies now that there are flowers on them.

Pictures later

In the meantime, I can complain about the parking ticket we got in the hospital car park yesterday. DK got a clean bill of health, but as the carpark was completely full with no alternatives, we parked on some grass. We've abused the parking rules there many many many times before without punishment, but yesterday was not to be som we now have yet another parking fine to pay. An easy way to get rid of 510kr (£55 or about $100

Flowers

Finally the flowers in the garden are doing something. 

Lupins, Foxgloves and miniature lilacs

Sticky Sticks

In our vegetable box last week we got some Skorzonerrødder which we generally just call sticky sticks. They are muddy roots which you peel and eat like most root vegetables - boiled or roasted. When you peel the dirty brown outside off, they are white-ish inside but secrete some sort of sticky stuff which you can't seem to wash off your hands so you need to wear gloves when you are preparing them.


I think they are supposed to be a poor mans asparagus, but I think that is doing them an injustice as they are really nice on their own, sort of like a parsnip but with a subtle asparagussy flavour.

So far, I can't find an english name for them - does anyone know what they are called?

Last notch

After eating Carpaccio and rocket for supper last night along with a couple of glasses of red whilst MK was out at a meeting, I was gratified to find my weight had fallen a little farther this morning.

The result is that I have had to pull my belt in by another notch meaning that I am on the last ones. Any further narrowing around the waist will leave me with no option other than to make new holes in my belt.

I need to get some training done tonight though to keep up the virtuous cycle I have started and I am also planning on turning the packet of dried chickpeas I put into soak last night into chickpea flower so that I can try making flatbreads. Sounds interesting huh?

Windows and Doors

We've had a quote from the people who replaced some of our windows a couple of years ago to replace the remainder of them and a couple of doors.

That is the 4 basement windows and door and 3 windows upstairs along with the terrace door. At the same time, he suggested we should change the big windows in the living room which seems to make sense, but mostly because we can change the uninsulated panels below the windows at the same time.

Blimey, you could buy a car for that money. Even in Denmark!

Still Dieting

Apparently, the diet that I am following should allow me to lose about 2kg per week until my body fat percentage reaches somewhere between 10 and 12% and then it should level our. I had been following it fairly strictly but not really losing anything like as much as I should so I had to revisit the rules and see where I was going wrong.

There are the rules I should have followed:

Basics

·         NO bread, pasta, rice, potatoes etc

·         NO drinks with calories

·         NO fruit

·         NO Cereal

·         NO Dairy

·         As in NONE. Just don’t do it, even a bit

As much as you want of …….

·         Vegetables

·         Beans/lentils

·         Lean meat

·         Eggs

·         Seeds/nuts

·         Lots of water

·         Coffee

·         Red wine with meals.

       One day a week eat what you want

However, I had decided that I could have milk in my tea in the mornings and the evening and that I could eat some meat products which had some sort of cereal in them such as meatballs and sausages. I have also been eating too many cashew nuts.

This week I have moved over to black coffee (I have also discovered that an Americano is almost as good as a latte if it is good espresso) and ditched the meat products that don't look like pure meat.

As a result the weight loss seems to have picked up a bit again. This morning I was 97.6kg which means that I have dropped 6,5kg since starting the dieting and am now more optimistic about getting below 95kg or even hitting 93kg by the time the Marmotte rolls around at the end of June.

Great weekend

We made the most of the long weekend.

On Friday we messed around and relaxed for much of the day and I managed 75km out on my bike before we went to friends for supper in the evening. (To be honest, I can't really remember what we did during the day)

On Saturday we went to the forest and had a barbecue at a spot where you can sleep on a wooden platform. Our disposable barbecue was a dud so I had to do a full on Ray Meyers style camp fire in order to cook the lamb and sausages but it all worked out fantastically well in the end and we had a really nice day.

MK, J and DK went to football in the morning whilst I got another 100km in on my bike and then we did a bit more messing in the garden until the rain arrived later in the afternoon. I roasted a chicken which was entirely wasted on the children, but MK and I enjoyed it anyway and we hit the hay before 10:00 becuase we were all exhausted.

Long weekend

Tomorrow is "Big Prayer Day" in Denmark so most of the country will all be in church giving thanks for our high levels of smugness and contentment. Or not as the case may be. Danes pay an optional church tax (well, I actually chose not to) so they don't actually need to attend church other than for Christmas, weddings, funerals and oddly enough, confirmations which appear to be a big thing here.

Apparently we should also be celebrating with some slightly different bread rolls called hvedeknopperne.  As I recall, they are ever so slightly spicy, sort of like a hot cross bun without the fruit, cross and most of the spices.

Anyway, I will be giving thanks for my two good legs, an expensive bike and the predicted good weather and get out for some fresh air and exercise during the day and then off to some friends for a barbecue in the evening. I think we may even try to get the family out to the forest for a wander around and to smell the pine trees.

Danish

I am really tired of learning Danish at the moment. I think I have now passed the stage of being happy to be understood and am now working in the finer details of grammar and trying to extend my vocabulary.
That is the problem, I don't seem to have a good understanding of how grammar works in English so I struggle to understand when I am given an explanation of how the grammar functions in Danish even though it is more often than not the same as English.
I M tempted to give up again for now, but I suppose I hVe to battle though these last exercise books and have some die of taking the official government certification of competance test when it next happens in th autumn.

Wood Pellet Boilers

The fireplace guy came to see us this morning to size up the job of installing a wood burner. Whilst he was here we got talking about what we would do in the future with the central heating and he raised the idea of a wood pellet burner. I have read about these before and thought they were a good idea but assumed that they must be either illegal or taxed heavily in Denmark. It turns out that they are neither and may actually be a good idea for us as a replacement to using oil and cheaper to connect to and run than the local heating.

The impact of that would be repairing and re-lining the chimney on top of all the work involved in changing the heating system. However, that will be cheaper than connecting to the local heating and apparently the cost of the a KW worth of wood pellets is about half the price of the equivalent amount of oil. Now we need some estimates before we decide which way to go because it affects how we will connect the fireplace to the chimney if we want to go down this route.

Fireplace

Blogger was down when I had time to blog yesterday so here is an extraordinary Saturday edition.

Yesterday evening we went to the Brændovne shop to see what they had to offer. There is someone coming to look at the loft and roof on Tuesday before we get a final price on the installation but they seemed to be in the process of moving to a new location and as this is the low season for selling fireplaces there were some good offers to be had. At the moment it looks like it's going to be this one:

We just have to get the 25% off and a good deal on installation.

Poison

I went out for dinner last night with some colleagues and had a really nice meal at Cofoco (Copenhagen Food Company). 6 interesting courses and a laugh to go with it. Not bad.

The meal wasn't a total diet blow-out as the courses were small and seemed pretty healthy, however, as I am working at home today, I thought I'd try making a vegetable juice drink to go with my lunch. I juiced 3 large carrots, 3 sticks of celery (which I hate) and some fresh ginger. It seems that there was too much ginger, I am not keen on carrot juice and I hate celery so the experience was basically thoroughly unpleasant. I was expecting it to be dreadful anyway so I just downed it in one and went back to work. However, 30 minutes later I feel like I have been poisoned so I hope that I survive the afternoon!

At the race

Here I am pulling a face and trying not to hit a tree if I recall correctly.

Not Fair

Yesterday was a very sad day for cyclists as a guy was killed in a terrible accident in the Tour of Italy. He fell on a fast descent and seems to have died more or less instantly from serious head injuries despite doctors being on the scene within 30 seconds. That's not fair for him or his family.

On a significantly less important level, I am also being unfairly treated by my weight which seems to stubbornly refuse to fall either at all or at a rate which I consider to be reasonable considering how little enjoyment I am getting from my eating these days. I have barely enjoyed a single meal since getting home from England after Easter and yet I don't seem to be losing much or at least enough (in my eyes) weight.

I will be very disappointed if I am not into the 97.somethings by the end of the week.

H12

This time last year I was suffering with back ache after having ridden a 12 hour mountain bike race as part of a team of 3. I can now see that it was the first sign of a more serious problem that hit in June, but I have learned a lot since then and I was happy to be there riding again this year. I was certainly slower than last year and my back ached whilst I was riding, but I stretched as best I could and I have been fine since the ride.

My legs were tired yesterday but I felt generally OK other than being dehydrated so I am ready to get back in the saddle this evening and continue training for the Marmotte with next weekends ride in Jutland with BHP. We are riding the 170km version of a ride we did a few years ago which takes in most of the significant hills in Denmark. I hope I can finish it!

Finally warming up

Tomorrow we are taking J to his school for a first meeting with the other kids and parents and then I am off to a mountainbike race in the afternoon with some other guys.

I hope the sun stays out

Great website

Have a look at this blog http://www.foundshit.com/

The first page isn't the best but if you scroll back through a couple of pages there are some really interesting and funny things.

Brændovn

We are now considering getting a fireplace installed during the summer to add a bit of hugge and help out on the heating bills. The fact that it is freezing at the moment also adds to the desire to add some extra heating to the house without cranking up the heating again.

Problem is that we don't know where in the living room to put it...

Planning

Following on from our decision to renovate our house rather than moving, we have immediately run into some stumbling blocks. The first is to agree what has to be done, when and by whom. It appears that both the quality of my workmanship and the humour in which the work is done are being drawn into question by some of the other residents of the house and there was an assumption that more or less all of the work would be done by tradesmen.

I, on the other hand, thought that there were some jobs that I could certainly manage on my own without killing anyone or making a total hash of it so I think we will have to negotiate somewhat to see who will do what.

In the meantime, we have to figure out what has to be done in which order, what we can do ourselves and what has to be left to professionals and finally figure out what it will all cost and where the money will come from. As it stands, I don't think there'll be much done before next summer with the exception of fixing the roof and adding insulation to the loft.

Freezing

I spent 6 hours in the car yesterday so I decided to work from home today. The only problem is that it is freezing cold and I can hardly feel my fingers.

Meanwhile, there isn't much happening other than us making some plans for the coming weekends which don't seem to leave us much spare time until July.

Re-prioritising Life

Last week, as I mentioned, we heard that the house we wanted to buy had been sold to someone else. Having been told that we would sell our house in a matter of weeks at the price we decided to sell, this has not happened and we are now quite tired of the whole enterprise.

So what next?

We, we have considered what we need, what we have and what we want to do in the next 10 years or so and come to the same conclusion that we did before which is that we don't need to move house. However, we have now decided that we don't need to more and therefore we won't move, but we will finalise the renovations that our house needs to fulfil our needs.

We want to finish the basement so that we can use it as part of the living space for the house with some office and living space down there and a better space for handling washing and things. We also need to replace the garage with something we can use as a workshop/bike storage which will be secure and practical. We also need a double width drive to avoid swapping the cars around all the time. We quite quickly came up with this list (tenders are invited!)

• Repair roof and chimney
• Add insulation to roof
• Replace hall floor
• Repaint all whitewashed ceilings along with living room ceiling
• Build new (brick built) garage/workshop
• Widen drive and repave it
• Tile basement floor
• Change heating system and radiators
• Replace basement door and windows and old doors and windows in house
• Improve lighting and wiring in the basement for living requirements
• Decorate basement and everywhere else in due course
• Fit a new bathroom

It's a lot of work but we don't need to do it all at once and we can spend the next 5 years working on it but I think we are agreed that we can fit into the house we have and will get some satisfaction from telling the estate agent to get lost.

Hmmmm

We found out yesterday that the house we were hoping, or even expecting to buy if or when we manage to sell our has now been sold to someone else.

To some extent that was a relief because it take the pressure off us to buy a rather expensive house and we can now look around again to find something, but deep down it is rather disappointing no to be getting the one that we wanted in the first place. We are in the fortunate position of not not having to move, but just wanting to move so there is no rush or pressure on us and in reality, the longer it takes to sell our current house, the better off we will be financially.

Anyway it's back to the drawing board now so that we can look for something suitable or decide to stay here for another 5 years or until we do actually need more space rather than just wanting it...

Geeeetaaaar

I signed up for guitar lessons at the soon to be completed Ringsted musik school last night. The lessons don't start until late in the summer, but in true Danish style, I had to sign up by 2nd May. I don't know if I'll be in the group lessons or have individual lessons, but I am looking forward to learning more about how to get a tune out of my guitar - above and beyond the house of the rising sun which seems to be my one success so far.

This is how the inside should look when they finish converting one of the old military buildings into the new school building

I suspect there'll be more to come on this subject...

Suddenly Summer

Paris was very clearly into the Spring when I was there a couple of weeks ago but Danmark was still completely brown and dull when I got home. Then we had another Spring week in England last week with Summer weather to accompany it.

Fast forward to our return to Denmark and it seems that the country is starting to catch up with the rest of Europe further south. We now have some leaves on some of the trees and a smattering of blossom on the cherry tree in the drive.

It was lovely to be out on my bike at the weekend, taking in the sight and smells as everything wakes up from a very long and cold winter. The great thing is that the weather seems to be ahead of itself now and the sun is shining and it has warmed up no end. Bring on the summer!

Minehead

We had a fantastic time in Minehead last week with the family. Thanks again for arranging everything and hasving everything so well planned as ever with the food and entertainment.

The Danish branch of the family flew to Gatwick on Saturday, picked up a hire car and drove the 3½ hours to Minehead. It was a long journey - about 10 hours in total, but the kids were great and it went smoothly.

The house was ready for us and we basically spent the week pottering back and forth to the beach in Minehead, taking the train to the beach at Blue Anchor and the open top bus through Porlock to Lynton and Lynmouth. These places don't seem to change much over the years, but it was nice to see the kids enjoying them for the first time.

I always like the water powered fenicular cliff railway between Lyton and Lynmouth. DK liked the steam train and J was taken with kitkats and ham sandwiches on the beach.

The cream teas were also fantastic, but had an unfortunate (and predictable) affect on the diet. I am half way back to where I started a month ago, but after a couple of good days and bike riding over the weekend, I am confident of getting back on track soon enough.

Paris

Having fun in Paris at a conference and doing a bit of site seeing in the evenings and a bit of eating whilst trying to stay on the diet. It's not easy when there are croissants everywhere.

Weekend away

I have been in Legoland for the weekend with the rest of my company for a conference/get together/knees up which meant that I was away from home from 5:30 on Friday morning until Sunday afternoon and was rather tired when I got home. We had great weather and a good time but I can feel that I missed a weekend at home and could do with a rest. However, I am off to Paris tomorrow morning to an SAP conference and will not be home again until late on Friday so there will probably be a break in the usual blogging service whilst I am gone.

In the meantime, I really need to crack on with my Danish home work and try to get myself good enough to get through this damned exam at the end of May.

Holy Visitors

I am working from home today because J is performing in the nursery performance of the Tin Soldier this afternoon so there was no point driving to CPH.

There was a knock at the door a few minutes ago and rather than seeing the usual delivery man, there were 2 middle aged ladies holding a leaflet about Jesus. Uh oh I thought but then I pulled the ace out of my sleeve and spoke to them in English explaining that I couldn't understand any Danish.

It worked, they left straight away and didn't even give me one of their leaflets to throw away. Success.

If you have similar visitors in the US or UK, may I suggest suggest speaking to them in Danish to see if it has the same result.

Dieting

I have been sticking to my diet as described to me but there seems to be a problem. I am allowed to eat whatever I want on Saturdays and this week I decided that we should make pizzas. That was a great idea, the pizzas were delicious and I ate plenty of them.

The result is that I starved myself all week last week and didn't really enjoy any of the meals I ate except for the one in the Italian restaurant in Århus and have not lost any weight.
Saturday 25th March I was 102kg, Saturday 2nd April I was 101.2kg but thiyesterday morning I was 102.2kg again. Bummer.

I'll be taking more care this week and making sure that I don't binge whilst away with work for our kick off weekend in sunny, glamorous Billund with the aim of being 100kg by next Monday.

Drains and guttering

DK had new drains in his ears this morning. That's his fourth set and it seems to me to be overkill but it is important that he can hear properly at the moment so that he can get on with learning to speak. He learns new words all the time, but most of them sound very much like the ones he already said and it is really only MK who can actually communicate with him so far.

I also cleared out the guttering yesterday after watcing a very exciting tour of flanders and getting very wet and muddy on a bike ride.

Tour of Flanders

This weekend is the first of the BIG Belgian bike races of the year - the Tour of Flanders. I rode it a few years ago the day before the pros did and it is a damned hard ride of 270km (168 miles) with a 18 short, very steep and mostly cobbled climbs.

I have been saving the ironing for a week so that I have an excuse to be parked in front of the TV on Sunday afternoon whilst the race is happening.

I am also expecting to get some good riding in myself this weekend with warm temperatures promised for Saturday, even though it also seems that there is a good chance of some rain at some point.

Happy Birthday George wherever you may be!

Drat

Wiggle didn't have the stem I wanted so now I have had to cancel the order for the matching handlebars because I can't find the stem anywhere. Back to the drawing board now (well back to trawling the internet for 130mm 6 degree rise stems with matching 44cm shallow drop bars).

Other peoples arrangements

This morning I took the Aygo to get the summer wheels put back on which took about 45 minutes last time. I planned to spend 45 minutes looking at the new cars, reading The Economist and having a cup of coffee.

This time she spiced things up a bit by asking them to repair a (very very small) stone chip in the windscreen at the same time. The result was that I spent 2½ hours sitting around a Toyota dealership. Not all that interesting although I think I may have decided that when the Mazda 6 is to be replaced we may have to get one of these instead. It has 2 seats that fold out in the boot, uses less petrol than the Mazda and costs half as much in road tax (£200 per year less!!)

Århus

I am away from home for the first time in a while tonight. I am staying in Århus having spent the day testing our solution for a customer at their office.

Someone had been playing with my alarm clock so the volume was turned to zero when the radio came on at 5:30 this morning. That meant that after a moderately poor nights sleep, I woke up an hour later than planned and had to get out of the house in 10 minutes. I was only 15 minutes late getting to the office and most of that was related to not being able to find a parking space and then not be able to find my way out of the shopping centre car park!

I have also ordered my new bars and stem and signed up for a racing license again. I am fairly proud of myself for not falling into the trap of buying uber expensive carbon fiber parts despite the enormous temptation...

Antibiotics

MK and I have both had pretty sore throats for the last couple of days and after another bad night we went to the doctors together this morning. After a quick swab and some tests, he said that we had a strep infection and he has put the entire family on antibiotics for a week.

We then took DK to get some new shoes and finally for a check up at the hospital to see how his tummy is doing. She was very happy with him and says there is no need to worry about his nocturnal crapping and to take our time with the potty training.

The sun is shining, I have plenty of pain killers and I am still 3 kg lighter than I was 10 days ago so the world looks fine until I have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow to drive to Århus.

Belated Happy Birthday

I lost track fo time yesterday so I didn't get around to calling Ben to wish him a happy birthday. I hope he had a good day. The same goes for Rose although I hadn't planned to call her, maybe in a couple of years...

The diet is going well, I have now dropped an amazing 3kg since last weekend and I am looking forward to my day off tomorrow although I don't plan on going mad. I have actually been eating more or less an Atkins diet because I can't get myself together to cook any beans or lentils but I don't seem to be too hungry and now I am getting used to it, it is OK.

Tonight I will make some lentils and try to make sure there are some left over for tomorrow. We can also eat the remains of the monster ratatouille that I made yesterday.

Stuff

The diet is going well and I have got passed the sugar addiction problem now so that I am not craving sugary things all the time or more especially after meals. I seem to have dropped 2,5 kg or 5lb since I started last saturday and I am looking forward to something resembling a day off this saturday as I am apparently supposed to do.
Breakfast of eggs and bacon or eggs and smoked salmon is actually quite nice with a cup of tea, not the only real problem is finding something I want to eat in the evening.

Before the bike fit the only thing I could find in the supermarket that I could eat and fancied was carpaccio which I ate with my fingers in the car (including the parmasan and olive oil!)

DK is back in nursery today. The drain has fallen out of one of his ears and we are hoping that he will not have to have it replaced when we go to the ear doctor for a check next week. Yesterday he decided to be potty trained with little input from us. It's odd that he can manage the peeing part, but seems to pooh in the bath every time he has one for quite some time now.

Bike Fit

I spent 3 hours sitting on my bike on a trainer (roller, not a person) last night to get my bike fit done. The guy did some basic checks on me first to check that my legs are mroe or less the same length and that I am flexible enough.

Not me

Still not me

The next step was to attached velco pads to my feet, ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows and wrists to which he then attached some light things for a special 3D camera to trace. Then I did several sessions of riding whilst the camera and a computer watched me. He said my initial fit was not bad, my saddle hieght wa correct but it needed moving forward by 5mm and my handle bars were a little low and close so now I have another 5mm or so of spacers under my stem and I need to get a stem that is 10mm longer. He has also suggested getting a shallower drop bar but I am not sure whether to do that or not at the moment as it will move everything that he has just put in place and they are (of course) expensive!
I'll put up the pictures when he mails them to me.

Bike Fit Day

Tonight I am off to get my bike fit done. I'm looking forward to going through the process and interested to see if he makes any significant changes to my set up. I already have wedges in my shoes to change the angles of my feet and I hope that my saddle and bars are in more or less the right place. I'll have to wait and see.

The estate agent has suggested that we have an open house on Sunday afternoon so we can spend the weekend tidying and cleaning in the off chance that someone wants to come and see it. The worst that can happen is that we have a clean tidy house so there isn't much to lose.

Dieting

The hardest part of this so far has been getting over my sugar addiction, but I think that is starting to pass now. I had fallen in the habit of eating sweet things after dinner most evenings and I still get serious cravings after meals for something sweet.

I have stuck to the rules over the weekend which included a birthday party without cake and a 3 hour bike ride on only the scrambled eggs I'd eaten for breakfast. I have since found out that I could have eaten some carbohydrates while I was cycling, but I survived and oddly enough I was 1,6 kg lighter this morning than yesterday morning although I am well aware that I have not dropped 3lbs in 24 hours.

I am working from home today which is a good thing because I had a call from nursery at lunchtime to say that DK had a fever so could I pick him up. He is now snoring away on the sofa and will hopefully feeling better when he wakes up.

Breakfasts

I have eaten cereal with milk for breakfast more or less every day of my life since I started eating solids and the prospect of having to find something else is daunting.

Apparently eggs are the answer, but how much fun is a boiled egg without soldiers or a poached egg without toast? Not much in my opinion, but I'll give it a go. I have been recommended to try poached eggs with salmon, scrambled eggs with vegetables or mackerel or omelet with spinach and ham or chorizo.
I guess this will be OK at the weekends, but it will take some effort during the week.

The Famous iDave diet

So it is now only 15 weeks until the Marmotte (bike race up and down mountains in France) and I have started training again with some sort of enthusiasm. I am having a bike fit done on Tuesday next week to sort out why my knees are hurting when I ride and I suppose things are falling into place.

Except for the one big issue that I have been avoiding. My weight. I have gained a few kg since my back problems last year and I need to get rid of them (plus a few more ideally) so I need to get cracking on the diet front.

I am going to have a go at this one and see how it goes.

Basics

• NO bread, pasta, rice, potatoes etc
• NO drinks with calories
• NO fruit
• NO Cereal
• NO Dairy
• As in NONE. Just don’t do it, even a bit

As much as you want of …….
• Vegetables
• Beans/lentils
• Lean meat
• Eggs
• Seeds/nuts
• Lots of water
• Coffee
• Red wine with meals.
One day a week eat what you want

It is based on controlling insulin development and the guy who told me about it has coached many successful athletes from Tour de France stage winners to world champions so hopefully it will work. The main problem is that it is a big departure from my current eating habbits. I have eaten cereal for breakfast for my entire life and I don't think that will be an easy habit to break, but I'll give it a try and just MTFU.

Bike Fit

Having finally managed to start riding my bike again I am really happy to report that my back is absolutely fine. No back pain at all. However, my knees are significantly less happy than they used to be.

I rode for 2½ hours on Saturday and then for another hour on Sunday and I am in terribly bad shape. I can't imagine every being fit enough to race again, but I suppose it will come back if I work at it and start to improvc my diet again.

One of the problems of increasing training though will be that my knees are also out of practice when it comes to cycling and given my problems in the past, I have decided to get a proper bike fit done using the Retül system (which originates in Boulder, CO) in an effort to minmise my risk of injury.

Spring may be coming

There is a certain springy quality in the air at the moment, it isn't so cold, there are snow drops and some yellow flowers scattered around the garden and I managed with only a long base layer, long sleeve jersey and a jacket for my bike rides this weekend. Maybe I'll be able to ditch the hat and change the jacket for just a thick jersey in a week or two.

We had a lovely relaxed weekend with pancakes, home made pizza and cousin A's birthday party yesterday. Now we just need to get the clocks moved fowards and we'll be well on the way to getting past the worst season of the year.

Nocturnal habits and floaters

DK and J are still sleeping in the same bedroom as we haven't had a chance to move the furniture back yet. J seems to be able to sleep through almost anything so it hasn't been a problem that DK has not slept well for the last couple of nights.

Strangely (and hopefully not as a sign of problems for the future related to his bowels) DK seems to rarely fill his nappy during normal waking hours. There wasn't much action at the beginning of the week in that department and then he has filled 2 or 3 or even 4 nappies during the night for the last 2 nights. On each occasion it needs to be dealt with immediately and there is total hysteria if MK is changing him and he wants me (rare) or vice versa.

On top of that he felt the need to lay some cable in the bath that he was sharing with J last night. At least J has learned not to drink the bath water now...

Grammar

I am getting to the point with my Danish that I am being hindered by my total lack of knowledge of English grammar. I have trouble identifying the subject of a sentence and please don't ask me about main and sub sentences!

I suppose that I just have to battle through it, but life is going to be quite bland if I avoid the issue by never using adverbs or possesive pronouns...

Now to move the furniture back

It has been great to have M&J visiting for the last week and the timing was prefect to help look after DK whilst he had chicken pox.

I delivered them to the airport this morning accompanied by DK and we have now returned home for me to do some work and him to continue not being at nursery. We are expecting him to be back tomorrow though so that we can get back to the office. I also have to do a lot of Danish homework before my next lesson tomorrow...

Back again

I haven't blogged for a few days because we've been busy, DK has chicken pox and J&G are visiting.

DK had to miss his gymnastics display on Saturday morning becuase he is covered in pustules. J did his, but I was home baby sitting and then MK did hers in the afternoon and it was great!

The Pox is back

This time it is DK who has been struck with chicken pox so he is home today with T. Cousin A also caught chicken pox from J whilst we were skiing so she is at our house for the day as well. They both seem to be in good spirits without too many belmishes so hopefully it will be over and done with fairly quickly.

At the weekend we were at a Fastelavn party. I am not really sure what all this pagan stuff is about but it involves the kids dressing up and then hitting a barrel (a cardboard box these days) with a cat in it (sweets used now unfortunately) until the barrel breaks and the cat falls out.

Freeeeezing

It hasn't been above freezing here since we got back from holiday. The wind is coming from the East bringing all the Siberian cold with it along with some rather nice sunshine. There is still ice in the sea and the wind is betterly cold.

On the plus side, it seems that I have won the war with the supermarket over my parking ticket and they will refund me the 590kr (£60 or $100) fine I got before the holiday when I forgot to set my parking timer. On top of that I have the satisfaction of knowing that I have inconvenienced several people at the shop. the shopping centre and the car park company in the process as well as copying my initial letter to the local paper.

Will this change anything? I doubt it, but it feels good!

Shustoke's new coffee machine

Note the new shelf and anti gravity function.

Healthy house

We are in an unusual period of good health in the house. J's chicken pox is gone, DK is eating considerably more than usual (so he will probably grow 5cm this month) and the grown ups are just a bit tired from the usual running around, but otherwise in good health.

I was supposed to be away tonight in Århus, but the workshop was cancelled by the customer so I had an unexpected working from home day today. It seems, for the time being at least, that everything is fine and dandy over here except for nobody wanting to buy our house...

Zermatt

As I mentioned yesterday, we had a great time in Zermatt. I also wanted to let you all know that we had some great skiing too. Once we had figured out that the piste maps were unclear and the signage unreliable, we just used common sense, memory and gravity to dictate where we went.
The first couple of days MK had some serious problems with squashed toes. We have no idea why her boots were suddenly too small, but some skilled guys in the boot fitting shop heated and stretched the outer shells and made them fit her again. A good result especially as they didn't charge for doing it.
My new skis were excellent, I can now telemark reasonably gracefully down red pistes without undue fear of death and was even able to link together several turns without having to stop and catch my breath.

MK and I decided that we liked the place and are considering it as a summer holiday destination for some time in the future.

Home Again

We have had a fantastic week in Zermatt with MK's family skiing and relaxing. We drove down after work on the Friday arriving just before lunch on Saturday and spent the whole week skiing, relaxing, eating and enjoying some good weather.

Zermatt sits right under the Matterhorn and we agreed that we had never skied anywhere with such magnificent views. MK and I got to work on our telemarking and J made really good progress learning to ski. Next time we will put him in a ski school so that he get to ski on some real slopes with some real lessons, but we were all proud and impressed with his progress.
Unfortunately I forgot the charger for the video camera and after filming this little clip or J skiing when it was -6C, it didn't have enough juice for anything else.
On Friday MK and I skied over to Italy in the morning and had a wonderful lunch at a small restaurant at the foot of the Matterhorn where they raised their own sheep - cured lamb, lamb chops, lamb sausages and lamb free tarts for pudding.
We drove home again on Saturday arriving at 3:30 on Sunday morning ready for bed and a relaxed day unpacking and getting ready for work and nursery.

We have to say a huge thank you to T&B for inviting us on holiday, it was truly one of the best skiing holidays I have ever had.

School trip

We took J to see his new school this morning. He will start there in August and he seemed to enjoy looking around although his new found habit or whistling all the time is getting somewhat tiring.

After all the criticism I received for saying that I wanted a Paul Smith bag with a mini on it, I decided to refine my searching a little.

I can get this one that matches my wallet with 25% off

But what I really want is this one which is not reduced at all:

There will be an interuption to normal blogging next week whilst I try out my new skis.

Paul Smith

I love my Paul Smith wallet that MK bought me for Christmas.

I am now longing for a matching bag...

Biker

A couple of weeks ago J declared that he wanted a leather wastecoat. Apparently he has seen someone who was a rock star wearing one on Bølle Bob (I don't know either!) and this makes them the epitomy of cool. This disturbed me more than a little because it immediately cunjoured up an image rather like this:

But not wanting to ignore his request I did a bit of online searching and found one for sale on eBay that looked OK. It's a Harley Davidson Kids waistcoat which was brand new and I guess probably cost someone a lot of money at some point, but I got it shipped to Denmark for £11 so I was happy. The greatest relief is that he absolutely loves it, it fits and doesn't look that bad.

Copenhagen 6 day race

For those of you who don't know, during the winter there is a series of 6 day races held around Europe's velodromes. Originally the races were 6 days long and the person who went the furthest won but over time it has changed to 6 evenings of different types of racing in pairs with a winning pair decided over the 6 evenings.

I was invited to go to the Copenhagen race on Friday evening and had a good time watching the different races from Derny races paced behind funny motorbikes to time trials, sprints and madisons (named after the Madison Square Gardens venue where the race was invented)

Film Reviews

Fantastic Mr Fox

This is an animated (stop motion rather than cartoon) version of the Roald Dahl childrens book made by Wes Anderson with George Clooney as the voice of Mr Fox. Whilst I think it was marketed as a childrens film, I don't really think it was a childrens film as the script was somewhat grown up with jokes about existenctialism amongst other things. I absoluetly loved it, it was fast paced and witty with great animation which was somehow reminiscent of Wallace and Gromit whilst having a really unique style. If you have the chance then I would really recommend seeing it.

Our other film of the week was The Karate Kid with Jackie Chan and Will Smith's son Jaden. My expectations were not high, but both MK and I enjoyed it and I don't regret having watched it unlike some of our more recent films from lovefilm. Last week we had I Love You Man with Jim Carey and we gave up after about half an hour.

Woops

Well the strict austerity measures didn't last all that long.

I got an offer mail from Telemark Pyrenees this morning telling me that there was at least 30% off Atomic skis so I thought I'd take a look and sure enough they had something just right for me!

So after a couple of phone calls to find out about bindings, shipping angetting permission, I pulled the trigger and ordered some Atomic Snoop Daddys.

Ken Follet

Shortly after Christmas I stayed up rather late for 4 consecutive nights to watch the Pillars of the Earth on TV. I quite enjoyed it and have subsequently considered reading Ken Follett' follow on book "World without end". I haven't made much progress on that as I don't have a copy and I have been finishing Saturday by Ian McEwan in the meantime.

At the supermarket on Saturday there was a book sale and I picked up another Ken Follett called Nulkoden. As you can maybe guess from the title, it is in Danish and I can see that progress will be slow. However, I have made a start and I am now a whopping 4 pages into it. My aim for our skiing holiday is to finish it. (Also to ski and drink irish coffee in that order)