A Dim Sum Do and other Danish Birthdays...

I went into town yesterday afternoon to celebrate a friend's birthday. This particular friend is a lovely person, who is also a font of all knowledge when it comes to food and Copenhagen (not necessarily in that order)! We celebrated over good dim sum at the very authentic Pak Ka , and then it was onto Mikkeller for some serious beer sampling! Cherry Inyourendo anyone?
It was so nice to share an afternoon relaxing with like-minded people from all over the world, and to meet some great new people too! Some of these women have been and will be here in DK for a bit longer than us "work" expats, and I really admire how they have selflessly adapted to settle here long-term with their Danish partners - much respect to you girls!

Danish birthdays don't differ that much from birthdays in the UK, apart from a couple of things:- if it's your special day in the UK, your friends usually treat you and buy you drinks or pay for your dinner etc., but it seems it's the opposite here, if you invite people, you treat them! Apparently if it's a big birthday, people sometimes advertise an open house party in the local paper so that friends from your past and present (and hopefully not just random strangers!) can turn up to help you celebrate! Birthdays of course involve the Dannebrog, it's adorned literally everywhere for birthdays, and small flags are bought out to restaurant tables should they learn it's your birthday.
Talking of birthdays, I am not sure I will ever forget the Danish Birthday party for a seven year old that we were invited to, which took place some months ago now. We duly turned up gift in hand, and everyone sat around the table to enjoy the traditional hot chocolate and sweet bread rolls. Feeling slightly awkward as the only non-Danish speaker there, I was secretly willing my two to be on their best behaviour (as the Danes seem to think that all English children are incredibly polite and well behaved). Imagine then my horror when the cake was bought out (huge child shaped Danish Pastry - fantastic, no cake baking for me this year!) and everyone fell silent as they were about to sing the special birthday song, and my daughter chose that precise moment to (unintentionally) let rip with the loudest "expulsion of gas" I think I have ever heard (either that or my mortification amplified it for me). Thankfully, ever polite as these people are, everyone carried on as normal after what seemed like an eternity, and it was quickly forgotten. I however, have filed it away in my memory bank of things to embarrass your children with when they get older and think they are really cool....