Teacher strike

Irrelevant Father Ted pciture

The teachers on strike in Denmark at the moment. Well that seems to be the case but there are some differences between how these things play out over here compared with the UK.

For starters J is still in school as usual. There are temporary supply teachers helping out and there are some teachers who are not allowed to strike who are also working. The normal teachers are in fact locked out of the school and are not allowed to work rather than refusing to work, this is because their unions cannot agree with the state (or counties, I'm not sure) about terms and conditions.

The teachers were at the gates this morning shivering and presumably making the point that they want to work but can't. The strangest thing to me was that they had baked bread rolls for the kids and were giving them all a roll in a paper bag as they went into school.

Apparently the whole thing will be over in a couple of weeks when the unions run out of money, so until then I can enjoy the reduced traffic on the roads and carry on as normal.

MK was glad that her union was not on strike so she doesn't have to stand in the cold singing 70s songs on her own as she is probably the only member of the lawyers union in her school!

Whole 30

Today I am starting a whole 30 month. It isn't a big change from my normal diet, but I will be cutting out dairy and being more strict with my weekend eating which is sometime a little boozy and sugary.

Rules are are usual:
No grains, sugar, vegetable oil, processed foods or potatoes and minimal fruit.

On top of that we have:
No dairy or alcohol.

Sounds boring doesn't it!?

Check out whole9life.com

More snow

During the blogging hiatus, we have had a relaxing couple of days at the beach including quite possibly the coldest paddle of my life and some cold blustery walks on the beach - good for the soul even if it's a little harsh on the skin.

MK and I went to cross fit together as we had the opportunity to use a baby sitter and learned how to do some weight lifting moves properly for our future cross fit shenanigans and then we have really focussed on relaxing and drinking tea.

Today we have been to Copenhagen to get some lunch and supplies at the food market including fantastic cheeses and duck sausages for supper. We also visited the planetarium for a 3D IMAX film about stars and stuff. The conclusion was that we should have chosen the polar bears film instead (DK snored all the way through it).

Finally we checked in at the sailing club to see that my boat was OK. The ice is melting in the harbour, but there is still plenty left.

Home made Kringle

The new lamp

Blue and yellow Mohawk!

The colour is temporary, the Mohawk less so.

EASTER

It's our last work day for a while so there is a good chance that blogging will be thin on the ground for a week or so.

J is having his hair cut later which may be worth a post and I need to fit a new lamp later that should also deserve a snap.

Mid March?

Dairy

I really like dairy stuff and now that we only really have full fat dairy I enjoy it even more. However, I am beginning to notice that the days after I have it, there is an itchy, dry rash on my chest and my hands hurt more than usual.

I think I'll try to cut it out completely for a while and see what happens.

Bugger

Arctic

We were promised a snow storm on Tuesday that never materialised, it has, however it has snowed more or less constantly since then so we have a good covering of snow, it's cold and everything is slippery.

Last night we had a parents meeting at DK's nursery. He is apparently doing quite well, his speech is a bit behind but he communicates well with everyone and is apparently a pretty normal nice little boy there.

It's funny really, because he is quite difficult and often rather naughty at home!

Survived

Last week was a very busy one for me, but we managed to get the work done on time and the customer is happy.

J and I went to crossfit on Saturday morning. It wasn't the most organised session for the kids and the grown ups session overran a little so he ended up being bored by the end but I think he enjoyed it. We'll try again another time either tomorrow or next Saturday depending on how recovered I feel tomorrow.

The training is designed to be short and intense and it certainly was. We lifted weights, push, pulled squatted and turned over tractor tyres as hard as we could for 20 1 minute intervals. I was shattered by the end of it, but it was fun and I'll be back to try it again. The workouts are different each time so you never know what you'll have to do when you get there, just that it will be short and hard work.

Coffee

Having read quite a lot about mycotoxins in coffee and food in general a little while ago, I decided to look for some good coffee for my morning cup. (Along with unsalted butter and cocnut oil if you remember.)
Apparently the cleanest coffee should be:

• Organic
• Single estate
• Washed or wet processed
• Cultivated at high altitude

Finding this information out is not that easy, but I ended up at hasbean.co.uk and bought 4 different types of coffee beans.

They were all fantastic. Clean, fresh and fruity tasting and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Whilst working my way through the enormous bag of Lavazza beans I bought in Italy, I have really noticed the difference. So today I have ordered some more from hasbean and look forward to finishing off the other stuff.

The plan is that the coffee made with butter and coconut oil should make a come back as part of a whole30 program I am planning for April to see if I can do something about the pain I am having in my hands at the moment. Apparently it should be possible to improve things by cutting even more bad stuff out of my diet and then adding things back one at a time to see which (if any of them) are exacerbating the problem.

That's another post though

Where's spring gone?

It looks like the planned sailing training at Easter will probably not be happening if the weather forecast is to be believed. There will simply be too much ice in the water to go sailing (not to mention that it will be rather cold as well)

Next week will hardly see any positive readings on the thermometer and the following week is only a little better.

I guess we'll just have to make sure that there is plenty of firewood in the garage and we can carry on with eating the cow. Last nights Thai spaghetti Bolognaise made with cocnut milk and rice noodles was a hit with 3/4 of the family. I suppose that means it will not be repeated.

WTF

It's been snowing non stop since we got out of bed this morning and there are now several inches of wet heavy snow outside. I suspect the journey home will be even longer than the journey to work.

A colleague and I have been caught sitting on the floor waiting for someone to finish a conversation with another colleague. I had promised a snap of my new glasses so here it is.

Spring?!

Painting, chopping and football

Another busy weekend for us and anther without sailing. It has been really cold again with a cutting wind blowing across from the east bringing a Siberian chill to the air.

Having given up on painting the dining room in the evenings on the ground of insufficient light, I was committed to giving the walls a coat on Saturday and Sunday mornings. That did the trick and the room is now as white snow. It has brightened and lightened the room no end and I think it was a good idea. Whilst I was paining, MK and DK went to the farm to pick up our freshly butchered quarter cow. we now have enough minced beef for quite a long time.

We went to the summer house on Saturday afternoon to see the local family and so that I could swing my axe around for a bit. It seems to be good training. I managed to split most of the trunks of two big trees that had been felled before my arms and back were done for the day. We went home after a delicious supper and a well earned glass of wine.

Sunday's coat of paint was slower progress and but was rewarded by roast pork for Sunday lunch and then J and I drove to Copenhagen to watch FCK play at the national stadium. Thankfully we were in Sony's corporate suite as it was -5C and waiting 15 minutes for the others to arrive was nearly enough to kill me. How or why anyone would stand outside in such cold to watch a football match is totally beyond my comprehension.

All I want for Christmas...

2 front teeth gone in 24 hours. The first eased out by his knee at gymnastics and the second eaten with a piece of toast this afternoon.

New Glasses

My new glasses arrived yesterday.

I love them.

They have day glow yellow/green arms which can be swapped for boring grey ones when you need to look a bit more serious.

Today I am "rocking" the boring grey ones to work but I think tomorrow will be a day for the bright ones...

New Bin

False Start

Despite spring having been in the air since Friday and the temperature having reached a balmy 5C yesterday, there is still plenty of wintry evidence about.

I delivered my boat to the sailing club on Saturday morning with my test plates and managed to get it into the dingy park despite the gate being locked. (The launching trolley fitted through and I could lift one wheel of the trailer over the gate post)

It seems that my plan of sailing was over optimistic. There were no other sailors to be seen and there was ice thick enough to walk on in the harbour that I was never going to get through.

I sat in the sun for a while just in case some other people showed up and then headed back to Ringsted for the gymnastics display.

Harbours are funny places. Unlike cars in car parks, boat owners are happy to leave boats decomposing for years on end. There is something oddly optimistic about purchasing expensive boats, but it seems that in the end, most of them just end up rotting.

There is promise of 7C on Wednesday so maybe the ice will be gone by next weekend, I suspect the water will still be on the cold side though.

Spring is in the air today

Dansk

I had a very long frustrating day writing a 20 page document in Danish yesterday. I spent 11 hours doing something badly that I could have done will in English in 2 hours. On top of that was the humiliation of sending someone a document that you know is full of errors and not very good because you are trying to make it as short as possible.

I went to bed tired, frustrated and in a bad mood expecting to get yet another spanking at work today. It's not a bigu surprise that I then didn't sleep very well.

It turned out that the recipient of the document was more understanding than expected (more than he usually is anyway) and I have so far escaped any harsh criticism.

On top of that I managed to get lots of healthy food for lunch including the improbable combination of liver and seaweed.

Test plates are ordered for Saturday and the weather forecast is still looking iffy for a maiden voyage though. I guess I can at least deliver the boat to the sailing club.

What's in the kit bag?

There is a good chance that I am romanticising my childhood, but when I think about the equipment that was required for various sports 30 years ago, the list of specialist clothing and equipment for most sports seemed to be limited to trainers or football boots.

I don't remember having indoor and outdoor trainers, I don't think I owned any kind of helmet and my sailing gear was limited to a waterproof and a life jacket for most of the year.

These days one can't ride a bike without special shoes, a complete change of clothes and a helmet that costs more than a kids bike.

I fear (as MK has already foreseen) that my predictions of not needing any extra sailing gear on the grounds that I have a wetsuit and a life jacket may well prove to be incorrect.

This is what Gil Marine think you need for all weather sailing:

At least there isn't a sailing helmet yet!

Sale on and Sail on

I am having a bit of a clear out to help off set some of the costs of the new boat. The carbon bike wheels are going along with some skiing stuff that we no longer use (too big or too small) and some other bits and pieces like push chairs.

There are some pretty good apps that you can use for making small ads these days. I gone are the days of post cards in the post office. You can just walk around the house with your phone and take photos of what you want to sell and then post them directly to eBay or the free ad paper in Denmark - Den Blå Avis.

Then this coming weekend I am hoping for my first trip in the new boat, but at the moment it looks like it may be a little too windy (not to mention cold) for my first trip out...

Plumbing the depths...

Of the freezer.

We are considering buying a 1/4 cow in the coming week or two but that will take up a LOT of space in the freezer so we need to make some space.

We have already eaten some odds and ends this week including the liver from the whole lamb we bought and tonight will be a luxurious mixed grill including a 2 T-bone steaks and a rack of lamb. We then need to figure out how and when we will cook the beef rib bones, the smoked big fat and other odds and ends that are kicking around in there.

How much space does 65-75kg of beef take anyway?

Punctuality

I, like most people, have two parents. One of them is painfully punctual and other has generally taken a more relaxed attitude to time keeping.

One might expect that the Danes are obsessive about time keeping, they certainly like to think that themselves, but the reality is somewhat difference.

They are 5-15 minutes late for almost anything and that drives me a bit nuts because I am somewhat OCD about timekeeping.

Cozi Calendar

We have been testing out Cozi as our family organiser since the start of the year (we use something else for family planning!) and I thought I'd do a little review.

The application can be used directly on the internet at cozi.com or via an app on the ipad/iphone and MK's Android phone. The calendar, shopping list and to do list is kept up to date each time any of us make any changes so that we can see if anyone has done the shopping or made plans on our behalf.

It seems to work really well, MK has made friends with her smartphone and we have avoided both doing the shopping on the way home from work more than once.

I particularly like the shopping list that you tick off the items when you get them and then un-tick them when you need to get some more.

We just upgraded to the gold version (which you pay for rather than the free one described above) so that we get a better monthly view on the mobile apps, no adverts and a birthday calendar function as well.

Out of office

I'm off out with some people from work tonight. Steak and driving home.

Skiing

J on his way to ski school with me on a sunny morning

self shot on our morning trip over to ski lessons

Pancake afternoon

J tries to be in every photograph taken

J and Christiano the ski instructor

DK showing off his excellent snow plough technique

Home

We got home from Italy at 01:00 this morning after a long long drive. We left the apartment at about 05:30 and then spent several hours in various queues for car trains and tunnels.

We had a great week, I'll post some pictures and some more details in the week...

It's done

Before:

After:

I can see where DK gets his wonky head from when I look at these pictures!

When life goes up

The blogging tends to go down.

I have been really busy at work recently and home life has been filled with the usual cooking, washing, putting kids to bed stuff with little more than painting to fill the spare minutes. It's fun to be busy, but it does tend to lead to rather dull blog posts describing painting and driving too and from work.

Yesterday I spent 5 hours driving to the middle of Sweden and back to present to a potential customer. You always do your best at these things, but on the way home through the dark, snow and busy traffic, I couldn't help but wonder if I really wanted to make that trip every week for 18 months to run a project there.

In the end, the decision will not be mine, but none the less, it was a long dull journey.

Tomorrow, I am working from home for the first time in months and will take advantage of the opportunity to get all of my hair cut off.

I promise to post before and after pictures.

Brush in hand

It's been another 10 or 12 hours painting this weekend and now the living room walls are sparkling white which contrasts nicely with the discoloured formerly white ceiling. I suppose that can be another project for another weekend.

A result of the time spent getting up and down from the step is that I was unable to do any exercises this morning. I could feel straight away that my back wasn't up to anything strenuous so I hung the washing to dry, did some stretching and then put the living room straight again. That involved removing the tape from the switches, putting the blind back up and returning the furniture to the edges of the room.

Next up is the dining room and the grand finale will be the hall hopefully all before the end of the month.

Prison Haircut time again?

The summer before last I cut all of my hair off. I decided that it was getting too thin so it was easier to just chop it all off.

The home hair cut is also quick, cheap (free actually) and open all hours. I personally couldn't see any downside to it at all.

However, it turns out that I am not the only one with an opinion on my haircut. MK also seems to have something to say about it and my mother seems to have trouble keeping her feelings to herself at times as well.

So I let it grow back to some extent and return to the hairdressers along with the inconvenience of booking appointments at least a week in advance and paying too much. Now that the boys seem to want their hair cut by a hair dresser, it is beginning to cost us a fortune.

Now the hair is even thinner and it seems like a good time to chop it all off again. I am sure that at least the two mentioned above will not be all that pleased, but it's getting embarrassing having so little hair on your head that you either look bald or trying to hide behind a comb-over regardless of what you do with it.

I think I'm inclined to head in the direction of the Statham crop

Not much to report

We are all fit and well and working hard so there isn't much to blog about.

I got out of bed early this morning to do my sprint interval training for the first time this year. I have been lifting weights a few times,  but the fear of coughing my guts up has prevented me from doing the aerobic stuff until now.

This was me at about 03:00 on Sunday morning

Bread

It's not that much fun when the work canteen decides that it's sandwich day, but you don't eat bread.

Consequently, I had 2 pieces of cold roast pork with red cabbage and pickled cucumber for lunch and threw away 2 bread rolls.

What a waste.

I am also starving again.

Wow

That was quite a weekend.

We visited friends on Friday and got home at about 01:00 and hit the sack. I got up again at 05:00 after a cramp interrupted nights sleep and left the house with an odd bag of coffee, figs, cash and passport.

I drove to Rotterdam at 14:30 having only had 3 brief stops for fuel and bladder emptying en route. The boat was fine, the mast not so good,  but after a bit of haggling, we hitched it up to the trailer and I set off home again at 16:30.

The drive home was pretty unpleasant. I was very very bored, getting increasingly uncomfortable and it snowed or rained all the way. I stopped for a salad in Germany and a bit of a nap just before the Danish boarder and a few more coffee/pee breaks along the way so I didn't get home until 04:00 in the morning.

That was a total of about 18 hours of driving time out of 23 hours away from the house!

I slept until 11:00 and then got up and painted the bathroom and installed a new shower. I am truly some sort of superman and really rather tired.

Coooold

We are eating with friends tonight in CPH so it was decided that I should take the train to work and then be picked up later by MK and the kids. That's fine and would normally be no problem at all.

However, this morning it was -15C when I walked to the station and I just had to walk 40 minutes to the bank and back to get my Euros for the Holland boat trip tomorrow. Nice exercise and fresh air, but time I don't really have spare in my busy day.

Tomorrow will be a long day. 8 hours to Rotterdam and probably 10 hours back again.

Negotiating or haggling

I am getting to enjoy the process of haggling for things. It looks like I'll be fetching a boat from Holland a the weekend but only looking at one of them as the other guy is no longer available.

That suits me fine as it is the cheaper one that I can see, it has a trailer that I am pretty sure I can get registered in Denmark. I also got the opportunity to push the price down based on the fact that he needs the money for his new boat quickly.

Looks like I could soon be the owner of:

Up and at 'em

I managed to haul myself out of bed at 05:30 and do some exercise this morning for the first time in 2013. Having gone to bed at a reasonable time helped a lot and I plan on getting back into the habit as I was before Christmas.

I took it fairly easy as I am still somewhat under the weather from last week, but it's good to be back at it.

Done

We're back in our own bedroom and it's fantastic to be back in a dark room to sleep.

It is also good to be back in good health after a few days of bad stomach and then a cold.

Work is really  busy at the moment so I suspect that there will not be too much to report here this week. However, I am planning on going to Holland next weekend to collect a boat so there should be something to show for that.

I have been blogging photo graphs during the week without checking that they were posting. Apparently they weren't.

Work

I spend too much time sitting in meetings with grey people with grey faces, grey clothes and grey hair.

I need more colour than this!

Weekends, this and next

This weekend ended up being something of a damp squib.

I spent the customary half day in a sports hall waiting for football matches to be played. J and his class managed a silver medal in the school football. That would probably seem pretty good for a tiny school if they hadn't won the last two tournaments.

J spent Saturday afternoon lying on the sofa feeling ill and a bit sad -  he had a nasty cough and a fever. I spent the afternoon painting the bedroom

Sunday was another odd day. MK and DK went to a christening whilst J languished some more and I painted a bit more and then we all went to the reception after the Christening of Anton and Jonas. J was still quite unwell with a fever so he and I left early, him to occupy the sofa, me to paint some more.

Thankfully both the kids were well enough to (very reluctantly) go to school and nursery this morning through the overnight snow. I'll collect them early and hope to get the painting more or less finished this evening.

Next weekend I am planning something much more interesting.

There is a boat in Rotterdam and one in Amsterdam. I am hoping to take a trip down there next weekend and come back with one of them...

NED 844

The boat search continues.

As you start to communicate with people selling boats around northern Europe, funny things start to happen. The first guy has sold his boat, but he forwards you mail to another guy who decides that he may be interested in selling his.

I have also been put in touch with an indecisive guy in Dortmund who decided not to sell his boat after all

My latest contact is offering to sell me NED 844 which looks like rather a tempting offer. The only significant obstacles to getting this boat are

1. It's in Rotterdam which is an 8 hour drive each way
2. It doesn't have a trailer (I have been offered one to borrow, but it will slow the trip)
3. MK won't let me spend the money (I am working on this...)

I really need to get some of these bikes and bits up for sale this weekend...

Android and filling

Yesterday was far from exciting.

I managed to fill all the holes I made in the ceiling with filler which was a much bigger task than expected. I had to more or less recreate the ceiling surface so that I can spend this evening sanding i and hopefully, finally getting some paint up. I would also like to get a coat of paint on the walls as well, but so far I have underestimated every part of this job so perhaps I should set my sights a little lower.

I also found out whey a Sony Xperia Tipo costs 1/5 as much as an iphone as I tried to get MK's new phone working with contacts etc.

The phone was fairly co-operative in that I synced her contacts from yahoo to the phone without problems. What I hadn't counted on her not having, wanting or valuing any kind of single address book with phone numbers and addresses in the same place. I therefore spent my breakfast time writing down all the numbers from the old phone and now have to update them all in the address book. I know I am going to regret this phone business.

Worst is over

Last night I finished scraping the old chalk paint off the ceiling and painted it with a primer that sticks all the dust together and stops the new paint falling down.

It is horrid stuff, it has the viscosity of water so it goes all over you and the room and is no doubt full of nasty chemicals that you get coated in and inhale.

Next step is filling the holes, washing down the walls and then get on with the painting. I suspect that it will take three coats, but there is still a little optimism hidden within me hoping that 2 will be enough.

Dust

"There's no time like the present."

At least that was how it felt on Saturday when I started scraping the old chalky white wash paint ff the ceiling in our bedroom. Having spent Saturday and Sunday afternoons on that task without finishing it, I now realise that I forget what a dreadful job it is dealing with our ceilings when the task is done otherwise I would never have started this again.

We have slept badly in the living room for 2 nights and MK had to fight a dusty duvet cover off the wardrobe to find some clothes this morning.

I am determined that it should be finished before her birthday on Thursday...

Family Planninfg

No not that sort...

We normally use a paper calendar in the kitchen to keep track of the family to-ing and fro-ing and MK has been determined to remain in a bygone era by having a paper diary until now.

We are experimenting with Cozi.com as a shared calendar and to do/shopping list. We can all see the diary and lists from our computers and the ipad and I have an app on my iphone that gives me access too.

The only problem now is that MK doesn't have a smartphone so she doesn't have access to it from her phone.

I think this may be the year that she has to embrace the smartphone...

I think I've fallen in love

I am still looking for a boat for the coming racing season and stumbled across this one at Devoti's homepage.

It's a shame that it's 10 000 Euro.

I suppose the search must continue for something a little cheaper in Germany or France.

Happy New Year

I've been off line for most of the Christmas period and it's been good for me. I spend far too much of my life in front of a computer screen and it doesn't do anyone any good.

My December resolution to work standing up whenever possible has been going well and the scales told me this morning that I must have been eating reasonably well over Christmas as I haven't gained any weight despite eating rather more marzipan than I ought to have done along with a pig out on Christmas puddings and a few other treats.

We had a fantastically relaxing New Years Eve at the beach with good food, a bottle of champagne and some fireworks. DK was frightened of the fireworks and seemed intent on trying to set fire to the rest of use with his sparklers but otherwise it was nice couple of days in front of the fire and coping with the freezing cold winds coming off the sea.

We are now busy looking forward to painting the inside of the house, skiing, planning a summer holiday and maybe a bit of sailing thrown in too.

Happy Christmas

We've had a really nice relaxed couple of days eating and drinking things that we generally wouldn't.

Next on the agenda is a walk in the forest and then we have to attack the half turkey that is lurking in the fridge.

Epic trip

To the supermarket to pick up vital supplies. Cream mostly.

Not quite there yet

6 hours driving
9 hours work
Still working

It's going to be finished before I go to bed though...

THEN it's Christmas :-)

Humbug

I am simply too busy for Christmas this year. I don't really have time to be writing this blog post, but if I don't write it, my dear readers will think that I have fallen off the face of the planet.

Today MK should be picking up the turkey from the butchers on the way home (don't worry, it's frozen) and then we can think about starting to decorate the tree that has been naked in the living room since the weekend.

Christmas trees and humbug

We got a Christmas tree on Saturday and by the time we had carried it home, I decided that we aren't having one next year. That was confirmed when the stand broke as we put it up in the living room.

On the plus side, I made a really nice Paleo Christmas cake on Sunday afternoon from ground almonds, loads of dried fruit, a couple of eggs, an orange, a glug of whisky and some spices.

Now the countdown is on and we are trying to figure out what we need to have done before the weekend. That includes getting food but as of about 5 minutes ago, we no longer need to worry about presents for the kids.

Don't worry, I haven't killed them, I bought a Scalextric instead.

Sitting Down

I spend a lot of time sitting down these days because I am almost always at our customers offices and as consultants, we are not given fancy standing up desks.

Apparently sitting down all day increases your risk of heart disease and a number of other nasty things by 100%. So why do we (almost) all do it? Apparently exercising doesn't do anything to mitigate these risks either!

I would love to be standing up as I type this, but I don't have the option. When I had my back problems I managed to work standing up all the time, but now I don't make the effort to make the effort.

That's going to change next week. It's my 17th December resolution!

Advent

As far as I can see, we are now half way through advent and we are a very very long way from being ready for Christmas.

• No Christmas tree
• Almost no cards written
• Many gifts not yet bought (or even decided what to get)

On the positive side, we know what we are eating and when (duck on 24th and turkey on 25th) and plans are starting to be pieced together to keep us busy between Christmas and New Year.

I am optimistic that I will be able to get the cards written this evening and sort out at least some of the shopping, but that means that the ironing will have to wait until another evening. 

I expect that MK and I will also make time to watch the last episode of Forbrydelsen 3. (I think it's The Killing in English but I have to watch it in Danish without subtitles!)

Heavy Stuff

There have been lots of heavy elements to the last few days.

Friday was an early start and a long drive across Denmark to Viborg for a quarterly company meeting and our company Christmas party. My idea of only drinking spirits actually turned out OK, I stuck to schnapps until about midnight and then moved onto mojitos without sugar. They were better than I expected and kept me going until 2:00 when I hit the sack.

5 hours later I got out of bed, had a little breakfast and got a ride to Ålborg airport to fly back to Copenhagen. Having 3 hours to kill before the next party started, I decided to walk the few miles to Dragør despite the snow and sub zero temperatures. The walk cleared my head and I was ready to get back into the schnapps with the Danish Finn Sailing club for another 7½ hours of drinking and eating.

The party was really good. I was the youngest person there and I would say that the average age was somewhere around 55, but they were very warm and welcoming and we had a good meal (sous vide cooked duck was the best I have ever eaten and rather a gourmet surprise). We drank and shot the breeze for a good while until I got a lift into town and took the train home. I also me the guy who built and owned my boat. He was glad to hear that it is still alive and they all seemed happy to have a new member or two. The other "new" guy last sailed a Finn in the first Danish championships 49 years ago and is planning a comeback next year!

Not surprisingly I took the opportunity to have a quiet day on Sunday whilst MK and the kids were out at football and making Christmas decorations with friends. I did shop for and cook a pretty good roast meal for supper so the day wasn't fully wasted.

It has snowed heavily for the last 48 hours so we are getting increasingly snowed in. Thankfully the world seems to continue turning here when it snows so we are just getting on with life.

The final heavy point was that when I weighed myself this morning, I was heavier than I have been in about 18 months. It's an odd time of the year to decide to try and lose weight, but that's what I'm doing.

Snow

I suppose that the 20 or so cm of snow lying around outside and still falling isn't going away anytime soon. At least I got some proper winter boots last week for the first time in my life!

Winter anyone?

We have about 15cm of snow already...

Looong but good day

It may have been apparent from my absence from the blog that we have been away for a few days. We flew to Manchester on Friday evening to spend the weekend with family and for DK to have a check-up on his feet in Manchester.

We arrived on Friday evening without incident in a rather boring and slightly tatty Ford Focus (glad we didn't buy one of those). Saturday was spent observing the world of consumerism in Bicester Village and then a relaxed evening with B, E, T & KP including a crafty pint and fish and chips for supper.

(At the risk of reading like a "Gill's Elevensies" stream of consciousness, I shall continue)

On Sunday we saw P, A, J & T for lunch. Monday we shopped in Tamworth. Tuesday we did the Think Tank in Birmingham and Wednesday we returned to Manchester for the check up.

The doctor said that DK's feet look better than they ever have. He runs well and the stiffness that we were worried about didn't concern her. We left his brace behind to be recycled for some other poor little mite in another country and headed to the airport, happy to be told that we don't need to go back for a whole year rather than the 6 months it has been until now.

The joi de vivre did ebb away somewhat as the evening wore on and we were delayed by 2 hours. The result was that we were not in bed until 2:00 this morning and getting out of bed for work was something of a struggle.

Nice BSA gold flash

Birmingham Think Tank

Formerly the science museum, still with the spitfire and steam engine.

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?)