Thanksgiving and More

The more part of this blog is that the sun came out one day and it was my day off - of which i am thankful for both. Jens asked me if i want to go to Amagerfælled (an old military area). I said yes and that i would make some coffee and take it along in a thermos and we could stop and pick up some danish on the way. There is a large pond in the fields with a few picnic benches and here we stopped to enjoy the sun, the view, the cake and coffee. Bounty enjoys a bite too.


After cake and coffee we continued on with our walk. We went up the hill to find out what the heck Lady Liberty was doing here at Amagerfælled. I thought it was pretty neat. I figured it must have something to do with the climate meetings that are soon going to be taking place at the convention center that is near by and also in the military fields. Then we got close enough to see that in fact, inscribed on the tablet was: 'Freedom to Pollute'. Uhhh......okayyyyy?
Here is what i could find from the net. I guess it's pretty extensive but it seems to be a bit of a yawn. Of course i have only glanced at it so what do i know. But give it a click if you want to find out more. There will probably be more photos on the site once the meetings actually take place. There already seems to be some pix now on a second site. Or if you want you can go directly to the pix of Lady Liberty. You will probably be able to find a lot on the net yourself.


So my good ol' American friend, Dan, who moved just around the block from me, invited me to Thanksgiving dinner. He was having 17 guest in all. 5 of us are American and the other 12 are Danes and Swedes. But for some reason 2 of the US folks didn't show up. Jens came alone which i was really glad but just shortly after we got there he ended up going back home. I was so excited about this dinner party being so close to home that it would enable Jens to join in and if it got to be too much, he could just simply walk home. I had to work that day and when i came home i could see that Jens was not at his peak. But he gave it a really good try and that made me very happy.
Dan was the only one with the camera that evening and he took only 3 shots. Here are 2 of them. I was the last one to the table so Dan stuck the fork and knife into my hands and gave me the job of playing butcher.

I made the salads - 2 different kinds. Dan somehow squeezed 2 big turkeys in his tiny Danish oven and made a to-die-for stuffing and Grandma's Jell-o which every body was raving about. Considering it was just Jell-o, it really was good. Corn, bread, wine,way-delicious pears (the most delicious i have ever tasted and they were from Steffen's back yard in Sweden), mashed potatoes with garhhhhhhhlic and more. The other American, Brent, was supposed to make fresh cranberries but forgot and ended up making apple pie and sweet potato's instead. Dan had a can of Ocean Spray cranberries and we split it 15 ways - and there was still a spoonful or two left over.
Dan also made two pumpkin pies. Brent and i were dying to try it. The Danes and Swedes had no idea what it was. Brent kept telling everyone that it has been over 6 years since he has last had pumpkin pie. I can't remember when i last had it, but it's been a while and just writing about it now really makes me want to be there with you at your table for another slice. One of the guest asked if it really comes from pumpkins. I said, - "surrrrrre it does".



see for yourself.

Jens's 60th Birthday

On Friday, November 6th, we got into our new little hot potato on wheels and drove across the country to a very cute countryside inn. We checked-in and dropped off our bags and then continued on, following the sun. We stopped off at a small church in the country side. Here we placed a wreath on the grave site of Jens's father.

Then we drove back to the inn and did a quick change of clothes and got ready for a very nice birthday dinner for Jens. While Jens was getting ready, I drove to his mother's house to pick her up as well as Jens's aunt.

We arrive to the inn and we sit down for a nice dinner in the larger of the several restaurants.


So now we have ordered our food and we started with a shrimp cocktail. Jens's aunt ordered soup of the day. And so did I and then i asked what the soup was. I love soup but when i found out what the soup was, i quickly changed my order to shrimp cocktail.

For the main course everybody ordered meat, but I ordered fish. Hummmm - What kind of wine goes with both meat and fish? Amazingly the waitress had the perfect Chilean red wine that went as well with fish as it does with meat. It must have said "gullible" on our foreheads and happily we agreed that this must be the miracle wine.



This was the most wonderful fish! It's North Sea Plaice. It's a flat fish that swims at the bottom of the sea. Don't like fish? Give this a try and you'll be a fish lover. It's light and white and the bones stay together. As big as this fish dish was, i could easily have eaten another.

This is the waitress serving up the weinerschnitzel. That's veal from the inner side of the thigh. It taste's good but i don't order it as it is heavy duty battered and fried. One single serving was so huge, it really was enough food to feed 3 or an entire Ethiaopian family of 17 for a month. Take a look at the metal bowl - it's browned butter - about 4 sticks worth and it was just for me to pour all over my fish. I just used about half a spoonful. What a waste. I felt so bad for that hungry village in Somalia who have nothing but a bullet to bite.

Now comes the birthday boy's dish. 2 huge chunks of beef tenderloin wrapped in bacon served with a swimming pool of Bearnaise sauce.

Jens loves to give his meat swimming lessons.

This was the most interesting gadget on the table. It was on my fish dish. It's a lemon wedge press. You simply stick in the wedge of lemon in the press and gently squeeze while easily pouring the lemon juice over the fish. No icky sticky fingers to lick at the table.

I snapped one of the several lounge/eating areas in the inn.

After dinner we moved to the lobby/lounge. Here we had cake and coffee. Well..... I had. The others had too much meat to have desert so i ordered cake. We all had coffee and they served it with dark chocolate. Have you notice all the beautiful Royal Porcelain? It's not the fanciest of the fancy but it cost more than what you can afford. The cake was served with pomegranate seeds. I managed to lick the plate clean. No dessert for Robert Mugabe - he can lick my butter bowl.

Jens gets a b-day hug from his Mom.

What a wild party! I have my lampshade on.

The inn has a typical thatched roof. It's old now so it has moss growing all over it.

Beautiful autumn colors abound in the countryside this time of year.

Of course no birthday would be complete without Poochie and Mr. Potato.

The entrance is very welcoming.

This pix if from the Inn website. It was here where they serve breakfast. The early morning sunshine was doing it's best to break through the fog and mist and shine in through all the glass windows and doors. It was a very nice way to wake up with a hot pot of java. It's not a large website and i think only the menu card is in English but take a look here for more.


The next day, Jens and I and Smootchi drove back to Copenhagen. We are exhausted from the ride so we took a nap when we got home. Then i had to do a quick number in the yard because the following day i have to work and we have an open house at 3pm.

Then we get ready to go out and celebrate the official b-day today. Jens is now 60 and we are both in shock. How could something so horrible happen to such a nice guy?!
Tonight Andy wants to join us and we head out to our favorite Italian restaurant.

After dinner we watch a movie at home and then i have to get into bed as i have to be to work early in the morning.

Only one couple came by today to look at the house. They didn't like the way the house was decorated - was the message on the post card that the realtor left behind. We thought that was an odd message. Then we got an e-mail from the realtor saying that they didn't like the way the rooms were laid out and that some of the walls would have to be knocked down. Again - another strange message. So I said to Jens, "As far as i am concerned, if the buyers come up with the cash, they can knock down all the walls and redecorate to their heart's content.

Now it's the 9th and Jens checked into the hospital this morning. He is having lots of checks, tests and adjustments over the next few days. Tonight at 8pm he had to turn off his pace maker. I was there when he turned it off. Shortly thereafter, he got up out of bed and we went down for a smoke. 10 minutes later after the last puff, i walked him back to the elevator, kissed him good-bye and sent him up to the 7th floor.

We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Hey MTV - Pimp My Ride

Hey MTV – Pimp My Ride!

This is my ride.

Old and tired – yes both the bike and me.

Our company moved to the other side of the airport (as you well know from other blogs) and that has now meant that I have to ride my bike even further to get to work. It’s only 10 minutes longer but it’s a very hard 10 minutes because of the wind. The airport landing strip is right at the edge of the coastline and it’s extremely windy there. So 10 minutes in a head wind can become 15 to 20 minutes on top of the normal 20 minute ride. I’m exhausted and sweaty even before clocking in. I’m getting freaked out because it’s not even winter yet and already I’m struggling against the wind in 1^st gear. My bike is a clunker so I invested 2,000 kroner to get my bike into shape. It turned out that I had to bring my bike back to the shop to get even more work done as the gear cable broke. I paid 2,200 kroner altogether and on the way home from the bike shop, a bus with a huge ad on the side of it passed me. The ad read, “sale on bikes – only 3;000 kroner. For less than a third of the price more, I could have had a brand new bike. But at least now I was ready for the winter.

Last week while riding my bike to work I had hat, tee-shirt and sweat shirt with hood on. Insulated liner, jacket and gloves. One hand on the handle bar and one hand actually covering my face cuz the damn wind was blowing so hard, it was causing me to breath in more air than I cared too.

I’m ready to cry cuz it’s not even winter yet. I start out my ride freezing and just after half way, my fingers are like Popsicle but my back is sweaty and clammy. I’m holding on for dear life praying that the wind doesn’t blow me out into the street. And I am worried because if this is how it is in early autumn, what’s going to happen to me in winter and then in a winter storm?

One day as a jumbo jet was screaming in my ears as it was landing and I was riding my bike under it – able to cover only one ear while hanging on with the other hand, I shouted out, “MTV – PIMP MY RIDE!!!”

The gods must have heard me because the following day, out of the blue, Jens said, “Let’s go buy a car.”

Unfortunately I had to take these pix with my cell phone but isn't it amazing what the MTV guys did to my bike!!?

Here is the host of the MTV show and his team. The guys did an amazing job pimping my ride - wouldn't you say? Unfortunately my camera has died so I am not yet able to show you the haute interior. It has door to door shag carpet and Danish designer Arne Jacobson created the seats.  The windshield and side windows were specially made at Holmegaard glass factory and there is even a real wood burning fireplace just behind the drivers seat. Push one button and logs for the fire place appear. Press the button again and the logs spin out of sight and in place appears a wet bar and a small fridge with snacks that are served on Royal Porcelain.

It’s birthday time. My birthday is October 14 and Jens’s birthday is November 7. My big Five-O was last year and Jens’s big Six-O is in just a few days from now. For over a year I’ve been pushing Jens to pick a holiday destination where we could celebrate his special day. We were this close to going on an International Policeman Association group tour to the Virgin Island. Old Danish territory – you know. But this big birthday bang for Jens will be taking place at the hospital. Lots of testing is going to be taking place and some sort of adjustment too. All went pretty well in the Canary Island but shortly after we came back it started to go down hill. At the moment, it’s going a bit rough for him.

Though my birthday included many exotic destinations, I only got as far as pushing packages to and from the planes. My feet never left the ground as I waved good-bye to all the passengers going to warm, windless places. I do, however, have the following 4 days off.

So instead of traveling to the Caribbean , Jens bought himself a different kind of travel for his birthday – A car! For my birthday he bought me a chauffeur uniform.

Just as a friendly reminder…..It’s never too late or too early to send birthday greetings in monetary form to either me and/or Jens to help pay for our new wheels or at least a tank of petrol. All major credit cards accepted as well as non-major credit cards, personal checks, third party checks, pension checks, tax return checks, food stamps, blue-chip stamps, your grandmother's jewelery and of course my all time favorite – wads of hard cold cash. Send to:

Pimp My Ride Foundation,

Gladiolusvej 4,

2300 Copenhagen – S,

Denmark

Attention: bicycle looser.

Bicycle Fun Fact: Jens counted the amount of work days in a year, multiplied it by the number of years that I work at the airport and my earlier post office job near the airport. He excluded the 4 winter months I took the bus when living on Vesterbrogade. Over the last 14 years, the amount of miles I rode add up to the length of the equator PLUS the distance from Copenhagen to Brussels. It’s no wonder I have sore knees and butt.

OK…. also this week is Halloween festival in Tivoli. I snapped a few pictures that I was able to squeeze out of my broken camera. And now I have to absolutely buy a new one.

The first 4 pix are all taken from the main entrance to Tivoli.
















































Just beyond the entrance is a small music stage that has been turned into a little shop. The 1950's circle design has been cleverly turned into a spider web.









Next is the make shift pumpkin patch and then just beyond that on the lawn in front of restaurant Nimb are the results from a pumpkin contest.



































Here are the 7 biggies.








And the winner is this huge pumpkin, weighing in at 275 kilos which is equal to 607 pounds.













This year Tivoli put on a big Halloween show on the main stage.


















Here in Tivoli they set up a lot of booths selling everything from Halloween spooky spiders to lunch and cocktails, hats and sweaters. The booths are all decorated very special and individually.















I think this one was my favorite.










A haunted windmill.






Bats and pumpkin-men in the beautiful golden autumn trees.








































I don't know where they keep it during the rest of the year but this ride is brought out only for Halloween and Christmas. It is standing where there is normally a beautiful water fountain.





















Here are a few shots from the stage show. It was really cute and sweet. Geared for children but fun for everyone.















Here is a video clip of the stage performance. The witches are for the Halloween event. Columbine and Harlequin are main stays of Tivoli who perform a special technique type of pantomime dance.







Tivoli has a real magical feel to it. The next pix has nothing to do with Halloween. I just had to add in this shot of the lakeside lamp.



Keep an eye on the lamp.
It's the small things that makes Tivoli special.



One of the sweet and charming restaurants framed in by the autumn leafs and the town hall tower. And another swirling lamp in the foreground.







Here again is a swirling lamp and the new wild Vertigo ride that opened this season.

God bless sweet Andy. He was hiding in the kitchen, whipping up a triple layer chocolate cream cake with crushed walnuts. Jens told Andy the story about a guy at work telling another guy at work that I was turning 54 years old and the guy believed him. That bummed me out so Andy decided to give me back a few years. I took these pix with my cell phone so they are not so clear but look what Andy did with the Five and the One.






Rich and creamy and I couldn't say no to a 3rd serving.








Friday after picking up the car we were supposed to go out to have my birthday dinner but I ended up feeling rather sick and put it off until the following day. Jens and Bounty have now already been on several park trips but our first big outing in our new "Pimp-mobile" was to this countryside inn on the banks of the Roskilde Fjorde. It's the building with the blue awnings. The site is in Danish but you can click onto the menu - it's in English too. I had number 17 and 2o and it was fannnnnntastic.