Friday 28 May 2010

A Morning's Walk...






A morning's walk by the big lake... great light, shame about the camera (and the photographer, who was trying to take pictures whilst also preventing a small boy from going too close to the edge of the lake with his "fishing rod" stick...

Monday 24 May 2010

Dine with the Danes...

We had Parent's evening at R's school last week, where she had to sit and go through her work with me as well. I had been concerned that she would be too young to do this, but it actually worked really well and she was very proud of herself (as I was of her)... It was quite hard to keep a serious face at some of the things she has "written" in her news book though, they are very funny at that age! I have taken some photographic evidence of various pictures of family members that she has drawn, but unfortunately they don't reproduce very well on here...!

On Saturday we spent the day at home and caught up with lots of odd jobs before the onset of the Month of Guests. As my husband has the daunting job of cutting the biggest hedge in the world, I felt sorry for him and offered to cut the grass for the first time. After being given a demonstration of the monster with a mind of it's own, I found it strangely therapeutic in a "being dragged around the garden by a large machine" kind of way. It was a good job the children were in bed as had anyone wanted to speak to me I wouldn't have been able to hear them... I will do it again, but it did take me two hours.

Yesterday we had a lovely meal with Danish friends. As they have a tiny baby, it was supposed to be a simple meal but they surpassed themselves and it was great to try some lovely Danish dishes. It reminded us of our visit to Copenhagen last August before we moved here. Eager to find out more about our new destination and the food and culture here, I came across Dine with the Danes and signed us up straight away. I remember being really nervous on the way there, but we ended up having a great meal with a lovely family and their small dog (this is not the actual dog, but it is the correct breed and I liked the expression on his face!). As my husband is allergic to quite a few creatures great and small, they kindly shut the dog in the dining room whilst we had coffee after the meal. Soon it was time to go, and we bid our hosts goodbye and made our way to the train station. As it was a summers evening, my husband didn't need to put his jumper on until we got there (very luckily), as we soon discovered that thanks to their four legged friend, half of one arm was missing!! We were just grateful that he hadn't put it on whilst saying goodbye, or that would have been mortifying for all of us. We could hardly talk for laughing all the way home... I would definitely look out for a similar organisation for our next destination, it was really interesting, and it was a great way to learn about customs and traditions etc. We actually learned quite a bit about the country we would soon be living in, and not just that Danish dogs eat jumpers either!

Today was the last Bank Holiday of the year in Denmark before Christmas (for the Monday after Whitsun), that's a scary thought!

Wednesday 19 May 2010

Louisiana...

Last Friday, as planned we went to Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. As Thursday was a holiday here, most Danes had the Friday off too, and it soon became apparent that they were all at Louisiana...! I think it was the first real queue I have seen in our 8 months here, but then it is supposed to be the most visited art gallery in Denmark...! It's named after the three wives of the the first person to own the Property, any guesses as to what they were all called? It's situated in Humlebæk, a town 35km North of Copenhagen, which is a pleasant drive along a coast road, except that we got stuck behind the slowest driver in the world for most of the journey (coincidentally also Louisiana bound!). This made it seem like it was miles away, so we were definitely joining that long queue and not turning back home. Some of the exhibits here are incredibly famous, and I will investigate them properly next time, but the main purpose of this visit was to go to the Children's section. This covers three floors, the top floor was (on this occasion) dedicated to paper and wire sculptures, with a quiet reflection/reading room nearby. The middle floor is for drawing, with trays and of paper and pencils and chalks, plus a little room full of lego, and bottom floor is the painting and clay section.

The whole wing was surpringly quiet and peaceful (compared to the rest of the museum), and both children spent a couple of hours working on various creations! I thought it was really nice that staff are on hand to give advice to the budding artists(and clear up any spillages!). We left earlier than R had hoped (rather earlier than I had hoped too but S had obviously exerted himself creatively and was too hungry and tired to continue!), so I then had to navigate two small children back through the hoards, whilst at the same time balancing dripping paintings and two very wet clay models on top of my handbag... Luckily both clay pieces also survived intact on the journey home, and are currently drying out (still, it's almost been a week!). R's is entitled "Jug-Cup", whilst S's is rather descriptively called "Boat" . I think we will be coming here quite a bit, it stays open until 10pm most days, plus there are lots of different events taking place. Next time we visit though we will make sure we pick a quieter time to actually see some art though!...

On Sunday we drove West to Frederikksund, and then on to to Kulhuse, which is on a peninsuala right at the mouth of Roskilde Fjord. It was so peaceful and quiet it was almost unnerving as there are very few places nowadways when you can literally hear nothing else, plus the beach was deserted, time for another picnic in the cold! I think all that fresh air wore somebody out though... (this is waiting to pick his big sister up from school the following day!).

Thursday 13 May 2010

National Museet

S and I went to the National Museet on Monday. It's not a huge museum, but it is worth a visit. It has a great Children's Museum with a Viking section, a small castle, a 1920's classroom, a sweet replica Pakistani market stall, and a strange horse. As with most things for children in Denmark, it's a really hands-on place to encourage learning through play and S really enjoyed it for an hour or so. Here's my little Viking on his ship . I found out afterwards rather morbidly it's a copy of a funereal ship called the Gokstad from 10th century Norway. It was one of four small ships that an important Viking chieftain took with him on his journey to the kingdom of the dead, along with carriages, horses and other goods and chattels. Maybe that's what the strange horse is there for... After we had finished in this section, we had a quick look around the rest of the museum (I must remember to take some change with me for a locker next time, you aren't allowed to take bags into a lot of museums here so I spent most of the time expecting to be told off!). I had wondered how much a three year old would actually enjoy the real exhibits, but he seemed to really like it. He especially loved the Viking part and the skeletal frame of a real Viking Boat. He also thought their "treasure" was great, and was fascinated by the Egtved Girl. These kind of displays have always made me feel quite sad in a way, I am sure they are informative and very educational, but I am not sure I would want to be on display for thousands of people to gawp at everyday, no-matter how well-preserved I might end up, it just seems slightly disrespectful to me... On our way back to the train station the skies looked rather foreboding, hopefully we hadn't incurred somebody's wrath (this is the back view of the Radhusplasen)! The "monsoon" rains held off until yesterday, they finally finished yesterday evening when a thick mist arose making it seem very eerie out there.

It's another holiday here today, we didn't do a lot, just caught up with a few jobs around the house. Tomorrow I am hoping to take the children to Louisiana Museum of Modern art...will let you know how we get on!

Sunday 9 May 2010

Veruca Salt & Furniture Shopping...

Another weekend draws to a close. We went to Bakken today. We hadn't actually planned to, but felt like we should as we were nearby and the last time we attempted to go, all the rides were closed. Bakken is slightly less salubrious compared to Tivoli, but I don't actually think you can really compare the two. It's not as manicured, but it's more relaxed in a lot of ways, and certainly less busy (could have been due to the weather though). It's in a beautiful location, and the history of the place is very impressive, the very fact that it's the oldest (intact) theme park in the world impressed me, you can imagine what it was once like...The huge, incredibly old-looking wooden roller coaster isn't getting me anywhere near it though(should we go again)! There is a good choice of restaurants here,and the traditional beer hall looked fun! We had flaeskesteg rolls for lunch, (roast pork with crackling) piled high with gherkins and red cabbage, they were good, and very typical Danish fast food! The children had a great afternoon and went on quite a few rides - very brave when it was quite cold and threatening to rain (funny how they still wanted ice-creams though, doesn't matter what the weather's like for that, and yes, that is a child size ice-cream!!)... ! I am not sure what has happened to spring actually, the weather has decided to rewind itself somewhat recently, we have even had the fire lit again for the past couple of nights.

On Friday afternoon we had an open house at R's school. This time they were to show us some of the gymnastic skills they had been working on over the term. I was "delighted" to note that R was less than enthusiastic about this display, so when some other mothers told me that they would be taking leotards for their daughters to change into, I thought it might cheer mine up if I did the same! I arrived a few minutes before the display with her ballet kit in hand as a surprise. She is so like me in many respects (the sport hating gene is definitely one of my mine), but amazingly (and very unlike me) she is actually very graceful (yes, even if I do say so myself!!) and her ballet skills are good, but as I have yet to find an English speaking ballet class here, she hasn't actually worn her outfit for several months...She certainly loved the surprise and quickly got changed into her leotard like her class mates! All was going swimmingly, until she found her ballet shoes at the bottom of the bag. Why on earth I hadn't remembered them and taken them out is just beyond me, of course they weren't going to fit her after all these months. Thus followed what could have been a scene from Cinderella, they just weren't going to fit, no-matter how hard she tried to squeeze her feet into them. Then without warning, my tiny, excited and almost enthusiastic daughter, transformed into a furious Veruca Salt banshee type creature... It took quite a while to placate her, but afterwards she explained to me that although she loved the surprise, it was actually a horrible surprise that her shoes didn't fit anymore, and she was quite sure that they would have made all the difference to her scissor jump! As I am sure I have said before, we do indeed live and learn as parents! However, she performed as planned! The display was very sweet, and all the children did very well. Meanwhile, S had a great time jumping like a mad thing on a huge crashmat at the back of the room, while the show was taking place.

Inspired by the poor weather, on Saturday we decided that the search for a new sofa really did need to start. We outgrew our two seater sofa almost five years after we bought it (ten years ago from that awful UK chain DFS). We weren't married then and lived in a typical London (very old and very badly sound-proofed) conversion flat a couple of stories up. I remember that we ordered the sofa, the delivery men arrived to install it and then it just wouldn't go up the stairs! A quick trip back to the shop confirmed that once you had ordered and paid for the sofa, they didn't care how you got it into your property,or whether you used it as garden furniture - it was no longer their problem! Not one to give up, my engineer husband found a way for it to be hoisted up through the sash window using a large rope, where it came back down the same way a couple of years later when we moved out! Anyway, as we currently have two more family members, who have helped trash it, it's more than time to buy a new one... It was refreshing to note that IKEA in Scandinavia is as hellish as it is in the UK on a Saturday! We bid a hasty retreat to the less hectic world of ILVA where we both fell in love... with different pieces of furniture. I am yet to convince him that my sofa is the best, as he is to convince me that his is the best. I bet I give in first just to get a new one...

I made Delia's twice baked Goat's cheese souffle's last night (did I mention the weather was bad) . They turned out very nicely (note they are supposed to sink back down, the second time you bake them they puff up beautifully) and I would have really enjoyed them had I not really burned myself taking them out of the oven. An excellent fool-proof recipe though, I highly recommend making them!

A short week ahead, we have another holiday on Thursday which means no school on Friday either...

Speak soon.

Emma

Tuesday 4 May 2010

Duck Diner & More Somber Reflections...

Our feathered friends returned yesterday and were here again this afternoon. The children wait for them to give them bread. R thinks they are on holiday and that they think we are a restaurant...

We had visitors from London for the weekend, my good friend Charlotte and her little girl Isabella. R & Isabella are the same age and have known each other all their lives, so it was very touching to see how happy they were to see each other again! Charlotte and I had a great night out on Saturday in Copenhagen, ate far too much sushi at Sticks and Sushi on Nansengade, and had fun at a couple of nice quirky little bars, Bankerat and Kaffe Kasalet all of which I would recommend. Sunday we all spent the day together at Tivoli (our first visit of 2010), where much fun was had by all until Isabella tripped over a missing cobblestone and fell headfirst into a fountain!! Luckily only her pride was hurt and it was a sunny day. I dread to think how it would have panned out had we been visiting on one of the sub-zero days of winter...

I had wondered what the flags on the buses were for this morning, but as I have since found out, today is Liberation Day in Denmark. Each year on May 4th, candles are lit and placed in windows once darkness falls to commemorate the liberation of Denmark at the end of WWII. During the occupation curfews were enforced after dark, and black-out blinds were used so that no light could be seen from the outside. As part of the celebrations on being liberated, the Danes lit huge bonfires and put candles in their windows to symbolize their return of freedom. This tradition continues today, and as one website points out, perhaps this particular custom allows us to reflect and take stock of what is important.
 
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