Julefrokost (x6)

December is the month of the Julefrokost - basically the Christmas party. I blame my lack of blogging all through December on this event! Somehow, I managed to sign myself up for six parties throughout December. The first one started on the 2nd, and I continued to eat and drink my way through the month until the 18th. I was actually looking forward to a week of non-rich food before going home for Christmas on the 23rd - I really wanted to enjoy my Christmas dinner in Dublin, and the one before that in Copenhagen on the 22nd. Perhaps a  difference between the parties in Denmark and those in Ireland is that they start much earlier 5/6pm, and the schnapps bottle is out already by that stage :o) I decided to politely say no to any schnapps before 8pm - well at least before I had eaten some food! I really enjoyed playing the present-swapping game, a popular tradition at these parties, where you role the dice and if you get a six, you are allowed to take a present from under the tree (wrapped up so you don't know what it is). Everyone is rolling the dice at the same time, so if someone else gets a six, they can come over to you and take your present. It's pretty hectic after about 30 mins of rolling the dice and present-swapping stealing. Once it is announced that we have finished, you are allowed to open your present. You can get anything from socks, to chocolates, to Christmas novelty hats, to a battery-operated weird looking Santa riding a horse (yep, someone got that. But they also had the ingenuity to use it as a head massaging device). Roll on next December :o) (a year to recover is just ample)

Winter has arrived!

It was -3 degrees this morning when I was cycling to work - so I guess winter has finally arrived! Although, it would be useful if my body realised this. For some reason I never seem to adjust to the seasons when everyone else does, and I'm still super warm. So while I am happy to cycle around in a t-shirt, everyone else around me is cycling around in huge winter coats, a scarf, gloves, winter boots - some even have semi-balaclavas. Today I wore a coat to work - I'll hold off with the warm coat until December :o)

I cycled through the city centre today and guess what? They were putting up the Christmas decorations and most important, they were putting up the huts where you can buy Glogg (mulled wine) and all things tasty at Christmas time! Christmas celebrations start early here (our Christmas party is on Dec 2), but whose complaining :o)

Masterchef Aarhus

Although he won't admit it, Esben is a really good cook. So I am very happy to leave him alone in the kitchen to get his creative juices flowing and to produce a master piece. He also loves to use every single piece of crockery and cutlery available, but that's a master at work! Recently he came home with fresh figs and had an idea for a dessert. He said he had never cooked figs before, but had a good idea. I've included a video of Esben in action and a photo of the winning Masterchef Aarhus dessert: flambéed figs, served with creme fraîche and mint leaves - it tastes divine!

Om nom!

After celebrating Hallowe'en, we had a few pumpkins around the apartment. We wanted to use the pumpkin for something, so Esben was back in the kitchen being creative. The result: a yummy spicy pumpkin and potato soup - perfect for this time of year. And the rest of the pumpkin (we had quite a few!!) is in the freezer for future recipes.

Spicy pumpkin and potato soup - served with sunflower seeds

The Flanagans visit Aarhus

Seems like ages ago now, but three weeks ago my parents came to visit us in Aarhus. They had two parts to their trip: firstly, they flew into Copenhagen and met up with Esben's parents, Jens and Grethe for a lovely (almost) two days. They had a wonderful time, visited an apple farm, collected mini pumpkins, went to see an example of Danish architecture (8Tallet - apartment complex, but not exactly your ordinary complex), enjoyed dinner together and of course, they heard stories about and saw videos of Esben as a child - awww. (Esben was thinking more - ahhhhh when he found out later).

8Tallet apartment complex

And secondly, they took the train from Copehagen to Aarhus to spend a few days with us. We had pre-booked the tickets and reserved seats, as often the trains can be busy (but as I told my Dad, not like the trains in India or anything). Well, when they arrived they described scenes as if they were from a train in India. It was mid-term, so many Danes were travelling. We had said that the coffee cart usually goes up and down the train and they could buy a coffee from that. The cart never appeared. The ticket inspector was just about able to make it up through the aisles. What passengers found the funniest was when the pre-recorded announcement was played: 'make sure the aisles are clear of any luggage when the train goes through the great belt tunnel' (connecting the islands of Syælland (where Copenhagen is) and Fyn (where Odense is)). They survived!


The weather was quite cold during their visit, but really sunny, so it was the perfect weather to go for walks around the city. My parents are our first non-Danish visitors, so that was exciting too to show them where we live, where I work, to talk about Danish culture (similarities and differences), as well as to show them places of interest. While my parents were here they celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary! Here are a few pictures from the visit:

Photographed through the rainbow glass at Aros museum, with Aarhus city in the background

My dad doing what the locals do

The beach area where I usually swim

At an exhibition in Aros museum

We stopped at Lynfabriken for 'Kaffe og Kage' - you can see Aros in the background

Aros museum photographed from Lynfabriken. The day before we walked around the rainbow!

Denmark's slowest cyclist?

It has been suggested that I could actually be Denmark's slowest cyclist. I'm not convinced by this argument, so we need to look at the facts. I cycle everyday: to work, city centre, swimming, Danish classes, so I'm out and about a lot on my bike. During this time some people have overtaken me: teenagers (while texting on their mobiles), girls and guys my own age, joggers (on the hill by ARos) and many people older than me (40+), but not 70+ I might add. A man in a wheelchair also passed me out in the cycle lane (please note: an electric wheelchair). And most of the overtaking takes place on the hills - yes, all the hills in Denmark are in Jutland (the western region of Denmark), where Aarhus is located. I seem to keep up with everyone fine, and then we get to a hill and they pull away and I'm left stranded, wondering why my legs won't move faster. Slow-moving leg motion clearly does not help my plight.

But on the other hand, we should also consider the facts that do not support this somewhat *outrageous* claim. I pass out many cyclists on a daily basis: cyclists who are 70+, children, and even some people cycling up hills. When this happens, I am really shocked, and assume the cyclist must be injured, texting on their mobiles, or cycling slowly because they are waiting on a friend. I proudly mentioned to Esben the other day that I overtook a cyclist on the hill leading up to the university. He asked was she wheeling her bike up the hill :o) Of course not - this simply proves that I am not the slowest cyclist, but I am in the group of the slower cyclists - hence the title of my blog. One couldn't happen without the other.

A post for Susi

Two hamsters embark on a wild chase across the globe in this very cute CG animation directed by Jacob Frey & Harry Fast during their time at the Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg via @broadsheet_ie
Watch until the very end to get the punchline ;o)

Bamse og Kylling

A little while ago Esben and I were talking about TV programmes from when we were younger. I mentioned Bosco and checked on youtube for a few episodes to show him what I was trying to explain! There were episodes with Bosco, Marian (Richardson), Philip Tyler and Frank Twomey. They sang songs and went through the magic door to visit Dublin zoo. I remember that I didn't like the part when they arrived at the zoo because it was real and it didn't look like the studio where Bosco was (I was three/four years old at this stage!). So then Esben recalled his favourite programme from childhood - Bamse og Kylling (Bear and Chicken) and we looked up a few episodes on youtube. Supposedly Bear was always giving Chicken a hard time and bossing him about. They lived in a house together, and during each episode the chimney would fall off the house and they would have to put it back up. So we were looking at this episode where Bamse and Kylling are out walking and they are very tired. Anyhow they keep walking and after a while they come across a tent (on a campsite). There's no one there and there's a table set up with lagkage (a very popular type of cake in Denmark) and apple juice. They are very excited with their find and just then it sounds like of them farts (but you're not sure). Anyhow they sit down at the table and help themselves to juice and cake. During this time they both start to fart, and can't seem to stop. They ignore this and keep eating the cake. I thought this was hilarious - not something I can imagine would ever have been on Irish children's television. They realise the family are coming back to the tent and have to leave quickly, and as they run off they keep farting. I'm not sure what other people will think, but I have included a video from Bamse og Kylling to show you the equivalent of Bosco or Wanderly Wagon in Ireland, or perhaps Zig and Zag. Enjoy!!



Btw: this morning I was cycling to work and saw an advertising poster of Bamse wearing a tutu - he's back to perform in a ballet production during October, and of course Kylling will make an appearance too. Another bit of info - there is a cafe/bar in Aarhus called Forlæns og Baglæns and it means 'forwards and backwards'. This is in reference to another character in Bamse og Kylling who had two heads, so the creature was always going forwards and backwards (see picture).

All things new

The Danish general election was held on 15 September this year, and after ten years of being governed by (mainly) the same party - the Liberal Party (Venstre), this year the Social Democrats secured the majority of the votes. For the first time in Danish history, they have a female prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who incidentally is married to Neil Kinnock's son, Stephen (a little bit of trivia is always interesting :o) ). I haven't followed Danish politics before, and am only learning about the different parties and their policies. I have always been interested in politics, but for obvious reasons this interest has been focused mostly on Irish politics. It wasn't until there was all this talk about the general election in Denmark, and then the presidential election back home in Ireland that I realised I do not have a vote in any general election unless I do the following: return to live and work in Ireland, or become a Danish citizen. I don't know if either of these things will happen (more likely the former rather than the latter), but it feels strange to think about your vote being taken away from you. I will of course have a vote in local elections in Denmark (so I could influence what happens in Aarhus municipality), but it still feels strange to be suddenly excluded, when we supposedly live in a democracy, where the rights of everyone are taken into account. I look forward to learning more about Danish politics and how they implement policies etc, as it will be good to compare it with what I'm used to in Ireland. Here's a sample of who stood in this year's elections (I'll include three photos of candidates in our area - to be uploaded later today) firstly, we have Harry Potter; secondly, Borat; and thirdly, a guy who's head was too big for the election poster. Not sure if any of them were successful  (will check this out: news in, Borat didn't make it.).

About two weeks ago the weather took a turn for the worst, and autumn had arrived in full swing - torrential rain (especially when I was cycling to Danish classes for some reason), grey, overcast days, and even getting a little cooler in the evenings (for me anyhow - for the Danes the summer never arrived). Anyhow, last week the sun came back and it has been around 22 degrees on average. I love to look out the window of the apartment to see the autumn-coloured leaves illuminated by the sunshine, with the blue sky in the background. There is also a certain smell in the air when autumn arrives - it's the same smell I remember from childhood when we went back to school, or the smell when I first started university. I really like this smell, and perhaps it influences why I love this time of year in particular. The Danes have been talking about an 'Indian summer' and it makes me smile, as I always remember in Ireland people saying 'this year we'll have an Indian summer', but they said that every year. The weather is always nice in September in Ireland - it was when you had to go back to school, so of course the sun came out! Anyhow, since October is officially here (I think we went from Sept 3 - Sept 30 in a blink of an eye), it's nice to still have some lovely weather, because everyone has warned me about the winter since August. And I thought the Irish were the only ones who could talk about the weather for an entire evening :o) We share a lot of similarities with the Danes, but I was informed last night that it is highly unusual for a Dane to invite you to their house for dinner (something about they don't want you to feel that you have to invite them back...) so the next aim on my list is to be invited to an all-Danish household, and then tell non-Danes of my experience :o)

View from the apartment

I have started Danish classes - they began three weeks ago - and it is such good fun learning a new language again. There are people from all over the world in my class - mostly because they've come here to do a PhD or postdoc. When everyone asks me (i.e. Danish people) why I'm here, I just have to say: I have a Danish boyfriend, and the same look of 'aaahh' appears on their faces. Why else would I come to this country, they think (out loudly!).

I began teaching at the start of September, and all is going well so far. Getting on top of the reading before the students do is probably the biggest challenge, but I'm exploring an area I haven't taught before, so I'm also learning too.

My final new thing happened two weekends ago - I took part in the H.C. Andersen half marathon in Odense (where Áine and Troels live and the birthplace of HC Andersen - but no relation to Troels or Esben) and I finished in a time of 1:51:43. It's my best time so far for a half marathon. This was probably helped by the relatively flat course, but not helped by the constant, heavy rain from the starting gun to the finishing line. What helped my recovery were a leg massage and a pint of beer, courtesy of the organisers. There were three firsts associated with this run: beer for participants, a rose for participants (given with the medal) and the fact it is the only women's half marathon in Europe.

After finishing the HC Andersen half marathon in Odense

13.09 KM

Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn.") and is said to have called it his best work.
My current story is: Red face. Tired legs. Many hills! (in training for half-marathon on 18 Sept in Odense).
What's yours?

Geneva

On Friday (26/08) Esben and I flew to Geneva to visit Colm and Mick (two friends from DCU). They are up in the top  5 for the world's best hosts! We had such a good weekend: great food, great company and lovely weather (although apparently not as hot as usual - TG). They live very near Lake Geneva, which is the perfect spot for swimming, any water sports you can think of, running, walking or simply to people-watch. It is also the first city where we paid nearly 10 Euro each for Paulaner (draught) - you live and learn!! And because we were enjoying ourselves so much, Mick made me go for a run on Monday morning. Well I did enjoy it and as always, it's much easier to go running with someone else :o) Guys, thanks for a great weekend, until next time :o)

Silkeborg Ildfestregatta

After I arrived back from Dublin, Esben and I went to the Silkeborg Regatta (which takes place every three years - so we were in luck this year). The regatta spans over four days and each day different bands play and there is entertainment provided for the whole family. We saw the Copenhagen Drummers and Nabiha perform. I've included a song from Nabiha below - she's great! The Copenhagen Drummers were very entertaining, although I'm not sure if Esben is their biggest fan! There are also a lot of beer tents for the adults. We came across one with a Danish band playing traditional Irish music - I felt like I was at a ceilí in Donegal :o) The highlight of each evening is the fireworks display - for the first three nights a company sponsors the display and they compete against each other, so as you can imagine there is no expense spared to have the best display. We filmed some of the display on the Thurs evening - it was fantastic to see - thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

Relaxing in Dublin

I went back to Dublin for 6 days on 10th August. I had planned to go back later in the month, but I would be meeting my colleagues at the end of the month. It worked out well as we could celebrate my dad's birthday while I was home. I stayed for the first part of the week with my sister, her husband and their two children - it was a real eye-opener on how to multitask! I thought I was good, but actually I think my sister might be better :o) It's funny how when you like doing something, you never need that much sleep. During the entire week I caught up with numerous friends and family members. Still didn't catch up with everyone, but then you can only pack so much into 6 days without being utterly exhausted afterwards. I was out late most nights and up quite early - not because I had set my alarm clock, but to the sound of my niece calling 'mammy, mammy', and hearing my sister going into her room to say that it was too early and she should go back to sleep for a bit longer. 30 mins later - 'mammy, mammy'. Ok, you can get up now. I know where my niece gets this from - my sister was always up at the crack of dawn and I would join her to watch cartoons at around 9am! It was great spending time with them doing normal, everyday things, as this is something which I won't be a part of while living abroad. The other great thing is Skype - I think I would miss a lot more if I wasn't able to see family and friends as often as I do. As I met up with different groups of people, it was so nice to catch up on what everyone is up to. I was also lucky to have met up with many who were just in Dublin for a short period of time, and would also be flying off somewhere else.

We had a Flanagan get-together on the Sunday - worked out really well and we spent the whole day outside in the garden. It was lovely catching up with everyone. Pity Dublin lost the match though :o(

I had a meeting in DCU on Monday afternoon and I didn't think anyone would be on campus during August. But I was pleasantly surprised when I met friends and colleagues, who were also having a meeting. The DCU Intergenerational Learning Project is really taking off this year, and will be working in collaboration with other universities. They are also getting their own space on campus - this is such a great achievement and I am very happy to hear of all the great developments - the hard work has really paid off!

Moving house is stressful. I was very lucky to be able to move my things into my parents house. But then I have to clear their house - I always underestimate how much time is required to do this task. I felt much better as I boarded the plane on Tuesday that their breakfast room is totally cleared, and the side entrance is once again in use. I put a lot of things in the attic - over Christmas I plan to go through the boxes of books - I plan to donate to friends or charity - and I plan to buy a Kindle - decision made :o)

Riversiderock, Silkeborg, Denmark

Esben and I headed along to the Riversiderock festival last night, taking place in a really intimate amphitheatre venue, in the middle of the forest, around the corner from where Esben works! The line-up included The Rumour  Said Fire (probably one of my new favourite bands!), Tina Dickow and Kashmir (yay!). A lot of rain was predicted for yesterday evening, but amazingly it held off until we were safely in our tent at around 2.30am. You should check out these bands on youtube - they are brilliant! Here are some videos we recorded last night (and youtube links), and some photos :o)

Kashmir

Kashmir

Tina Dickow

Open Water Swimming - Silkeborg

Yesterday (midday) I took part in my first Danish open water swim. The season is slightly different to the one in the Leinster region. There are not that many swims during the summer (about 9 in total compared with about 22 in and around Dublin). Also most swims are of a longer distance, or at least there is a choice of how long you want to swim. So I decided to go for the 2.5km swim. It was in a lake in Silkeborg, so the conditions are like a swimming pool, which is a lot different to the usual conditions of the Irish sea!! Anyhow, since I haven't been training, I needed to challenge myself a bit. We were told that if the water temperature was below 16 degrees that everyone should wear a wetsuit. I don't currently own a wetsuit so I contacted the organisers and explained this and that I usually swim in the Irish sea without a wetsuit. They said it was fine, that I could swim either way. We were very lucky with the weather yesterday, and I'm glad to say that I brought along the high-factor suncream. The water was a delightful 19 degrees, yet the wetsuits were out in droves (except for me!). Well there was one other guy with a tri-suit on, so I wasn't the only one. Although I did stand out for the wrong reasons :o) I actually couldn't believe how warm the water was when I got in. It's been a while since I didn't have that, oh my God feeling when you get in. If these swimmers had to do the Liffey swim, I'm not sure they would survive that initial shock when you jump in off the pontoon! Swim went well, was pleased that I finished it, but have a lot of training to catch up on. All swimmers were given a medal for their efforts and given the nice weather, the only option was to go for some ice-cream afterwards! Esben was an excellent supporter and took some action photos ;o)

(I think he could be on for some swims next year....)

Before the race..

Getting directions from the Americans

Action photo :o)

The home straight

Can relax now!

The medal

Lovely setting for the swim

Gill and Dan's wedding, Dublin, Ireland

And so the big day finally arrived, Saturday 23rd July.

Gill (a school friend) and Dan (a playschool friend) got married! The weather was unbelievable and we had the most wonderful day in Dun Laoghaire. I have rarely had the opportunity to sit outside during an Irish summer wedding - everything was great about the day, it was lovely to catch up with everyone so soon after moving to Denmark and it was lovely to see some faces that I haven't seen in a while. Pity the day had to end! But before we left the hotel at 3am, Esben played a few songs on the hotel piano in the lobby as we waited on a taxi home. My friends were very impressed by Esben's playing and the hotel guy came by and said 'continue playing' (he had gotten the nod from the night manager), which is not something they say to everyone who says they can play the piano!

To Gill and Dan x

 

Grøn Concert

We went to the Grøn Concert in Aarhus, which is a one-day music festival with mostly Danish bands (this year all Danish bands including Dúné, Tim Christensen, Medina and one of my favourites, Kashmir). It's an annual event and all proceeds from the festival go to a Danish support organisation for muscular dystrophy sufferers. Over the last few years I've gotten to know a few Danish bands, so I was really looking forward to seeing Kashmir and Tim Christensen playing live at the festival. But to be honest, all the acts were brilliant and the sun was shining for most of the day (rain during the last hour). The music festival travels around to different cities in Denmark during July with the same bands performing on each occasion. Esben also got to wear his favourite new purple hat (more like a hat to protect from the sun, but girls were coming up to him asking if he would swap his hat for theirs....he wasn't to be convinced!)

Esben's Tuborg for the day ;o)

 

Jesper and Esben

J Mascis, VoxHall

My friend Cynthia strongly recommended that we should go see J Mascis (of Dinosaur Jr fame and Cynthia is probably their biggest fan!) who was playing tonight in VoxHall. It was a real spur of the moment thing, as I didn't see her email about the gig until today at 1pm. So Esben and I decided to go, he bought the tickets online (very reasonable price too!) and we cycled into town after dinner. Neither of us really knew what the gig would be like - we had both had checked out the music on YouTube and thought it sounded good. The gig was excellent! The venue was intimate, they sold Murphy's on tap (Esben's favourite) and the music was brilliant. I don't think I've seen a guy play guitar as well as J Mascis did. And to share our experience with you, here's a video from the gig.  Cyn, enjoy! (Dinosaur Jr. has two new fans :o) )

J Mascis, VoxHall, Aarhus July 11 2011

Denmark is Forever?

Today I called to the Citizen Service Centre in Aarhus to apply for my CPR number (kind of a PPS equivalent). I took a ticket, joined the queue and within two minutes I was called - great, as you usually end up waiting for ages in this type of queuing system (and from hearing stories about applying for the PPS number). I had already applied for my Certificate of Registration and I handed this along with my passport to the lady at the desk. She gave me a form I had to fill out while she went off to photocopy my documents. The form was written in English and Danish, and she said if you have any questions about the form, just ask. So I began filling in my name, address etc and then I stopped at a question. Hmmm...well, I'm not sure about this one. And then she asked, 'oh do you need help?', and I said, 'well, it asks 'what is the estimated duration of your stay in Denmark', and I said, 'well, I have moved here to live and work....so....' and she answered...'forever. You can just write 'forever''. So as I filled in forever in capital letters, it made me think that there is no answer to this question. I guess many people write down 'one year' if they are here to study or take a gap year from home, but for others who move to Denmark, we never know how long we will stay (or maybe you can't actually leave...I should investigate that).

A True Story by Bee for Battens

We have cold water!

Since Esben moved into the apartment at the beginning of May there has been no cold water coming into the kitchen or ensuite shower. But there has been cold water coming into the sink where the toilet is (toilet and shower are separate). In Denmark all cold water that comes into a building is from the mains - they don't have the system like in Ireland where, for example in a house, the cold water comes in from the mains and is then stored in the tank in the attic and this water is used in bathrooms. So we've been getting the cold water from the sink by the toilet (nice, I hear you say!). Usually if you can't get hot water it's quite a nuisance, and showers take 5 seconds :o) but I didn't realise until now how much I miss cold water when you don't have it. So after a little investigating by two handymen/plumbers, we have fixed the problem - it was the shower tap all along! Hurray, ice cold water from the kitchen sink once again. You certainly need lots of it when putting together Ikea furniture in 26 degree heat :o) The fun we get up to in the evenings ;o)

Ikea delivery makes me :o(

Yesterday I waited in all afternoon for the Ikea delivery - finally a proper bed to sleep on! When it arrived and the items were being taken out of the back of the truck by one delivery guy, I figured it would be the two of us carrying the items up the one flight of stairs to the apartment. But as he was piling the stuff up outside against the shop window, I thought I should double check. I was duly informed that it wasn't part of his job. So as he continued to pile up the furniture on the path, all the small items that I could bring up myself were tightly packed in behind the items that I had no chance in hell of lifting anywhere, let alone up a flight of stairs. As I thought there might be a linguistic misunderstanding here (my fault, as I don't speak the lingo yet), I figured that I would ring Esben and he could chat to the guy to explain. But before I could get through, I had signed the delivery slip and he had driven off in the van. The delivery could have arrived at any time between 3 and 9pm. Luckily it arrived just an hour before Esben came home from work. So there was nothing else I could do other than get my Irish Times Simplex crossword booklet and sit outside on the steps with our new furniture until my helper came home. There were a few choice words from both of us when Esben and I got all the stuff inside. But all stories have a happy ending, right?  -  we did all this before the rain came :o)

Tonight we are going to tackle the assembly part.....might be a few more choice words uttered before Friday ;o)

4:18:4 Aarhus 2011

I entered the 4:18:4 triathlon in Aarhus this evening. Unfortunately (due to the constant rain yesterday) the swim part had to be cancelled, so it ended up being 18:4 duathlon. The sea looked so calm and really inviting, but as Esben pointed out, it wasn't the sea level or conditions that were the problem, rather the sea water quality - ah, I get you!

Cycling is always my weakest part of a triathlon. Even though I enjoy cycling as a means of transport, I don't practise it as a sport. So usually everyone, and I mean everyone, passes me out. So I was very happy with my cycling today. And I'd also like to share some information with everyone - Denmark is NOT flat. There are a lot of hills, and I will gladly show you many of them that I was cycling up and down today!

When I got off my bike, I couldn't actually feel my feet and legs properly, but I knew something was moving and I was able to drop off my bike and start the run part. I felt very tired during the run, but in the last 100m, I got that sudden burst of energy when I saw the finish line, and sprinted home. I was very happy with my performance, as I haven't been training recently. The event was also a lovely, fun evening by the sea and everyone was very friendly. Thanks to Esben there is some evidence of how red my face was! Hopefully I'll do another triathlon (all 3 sections) soon.

Listening to Wimbledon

Every year I love to watch Wimbledon. Not only the important matches - all the matches, and if I can't watch them live I watch the replay programme in the evening. This year I am listening to the games on the Wimbledon radio. I am really enjoying the games and the commentary is excellent, but it is definitely different when you can't see the action on the TV or online. Thank you Radio Wimbledon!

Sculptures by the Sea

Today we went to visit the Sculptures by the Sea exhibition, taking place in Aarhus from 2 June - 3 July 2011 (free entry). The exhibition is a display of (some unusual) sculptures of many different things including a house with water falling from the ceiling (it was constantly raining inside - see video below!), a huge pair of sunglasses, a huge deckchair, boats on sticks in the sea and legs hanging from a beam (see some photos below). One highlight was Esben's Afro-hair style and we also found the perfect seat for Esben (he has his hand on the arm of the chair in the photo)! The weather was lovely today and we both got in to the sea for a swim (some of us stayed in longer than others :o) ) - the perfect evening in Aarhus!

Riverboat Jazz Festival, Silkeborg

Esben and I went to the Riverboat Jazz Festival in Silkeborg (where Esben works) on Friday evening and Saturday morning. On Friday evening we went to see Nulle & Verdensorkestret and following them Hugo Rasmussen All Starz. Both bands were excellent. Esben's former keyboard teacher is the jazz pianist with Nulle & Verdensorkestret so it was nice to catch up with him after the show. I could have listened to these bands play all day - their talent is amazing. 


On Saturday morning we took a boat trip on the river, with a jazz band playing on board. It was the perfect way to spend a sunny Saturday morning.

Hjejlen, the world's oldest steam engine

Hugo Rasmussen All Starz

Moving up the river listening to jazz

 

Moving to Denmark

6am, 22 June 2011 - Packing bag for flight at 11am - it wouldn't be me if I wasn't packing the last few things at the last minute.

Every time I travel anywhere, I feel better once I remember the one thing I have forgotten to pack. I always make sure that I have my tickets, passport and money. Other than that I know I can buy the item at my destination. This morning when I arrive at the airport I realise the thing I have forgotten is my shoes! I have a pair of boots on (raining in Dublin, 14 degrees). I am moving to Denmark where the summer is a little bit warmer! What a bizarre thing to forget (also given that I'm a shoe fanatic). Oh well, shoe shopping will have to be done when I arrive.

I arrive in Viby J at 7pm where I will be living. Tired, but really excited about a new chapter in my life!