King of the Pancakes...

When I took S into school this morning, I found out that he had actually been crowned Kattekong (King of the Cats) as the first person to smash the wooden barrel containing the sweets for Fastelavn (why is this not a suprise to me?)! As the King he is now the proud owner of this rather fetching crown, and it's a shame he didn't have it to wear this morning to eat these for his birthday breakfast (we might have helped him!)! Yes, we also had pancakes yesterday for Shrove Tuesday, but in our house tradition dictates that you choose your favourite meals for your birthday, so pancakes it was! His teacher told me this afternoon that they have a saying in Denmark that if it's sunny on your birthday you must have been good, and if it's raining, well then it's the opposite! She did say this with a smile on her face, but nevertheless it was raining at the time! I can't believe it's a whole year since he celebrated being three by cutting up sheeps lungs at The Experimentarium (I would like to go back to visit the Body Worlds exhibit that's currently there, but I think I will be going alone as it may well traumatise me let alone two small children!)! We are going to do something to celebrate together properly over the next day or so, as today he was determined to go into school to have a little party with his friends. Definitely no longer a baby, definitely the funniest child I know, happy fourth birthday to my very own King of the Pancakes! xxx

Sunnyside up...

I started writing this at five o.clock this afternoon, when I suddenly noticed it was still light and sunny - spring is definitely in the air, and there are snowdrops in the garden too!!

We got back from the UK earlier, which is in a far more advanced state of spring, albeit noticeably colder than usual! We started off our trip home at my Mum's house, where after a quick welly boot shop for R, she immediately set out to see the "girls" and collect the eggs - there's nothing like a fresh egg for tea!
Then on to investigate the slightly frozen frogspawn in the village pond. Friday meant a trip to my grandparent's house (complete with a real fish and chip lunch - manna from heaven!), a well-needed haircut in the afternoon (thank you Uncle Chris!), and then time to catch up with my sister. Saturday we went back up to London for an important shopping trip for the Big Wedding in June, then on to my Dad's where we caught up with my other sister and gave my uber cute nephew his early birthday presents. Whilst Denmark celebrated Fastelavn yesterday, we rounded up our trip home with a big English sunday roast - perfect!

Today has been quite a long day. We watched the the sun rise at 6am this morning driving to Gatwick, as R and I began to make our way back to Copenhagen - it was beautiful, and made me smile even though I felt a little sad. I hate goodbyes at the best of times, especially protracted ones, and luckily my Dad's not great at them either. It was a case of stop the car, open the door, cases out, a quick hug and before we knew it waving him off into the distance! My emotions always manage to get the better of me as the plane takes off though, and pathetically I usually shed a little tear! It's a strange mixture of feelings, happiness at the time spent with people (but slight guilt about the fact I wasn't able to spend that much time with them this time), and happiness at the thought of going "home" (and seeing the boys who were left behind on this occasion, you should see the state of the house!), but also sadness at what we no longer have close by (family, friends and those wonderful wonderful supermarkets!), and total guilt about the people I didn't have time to see at all this time - sorry, don't hate me! I don't think R noticed my "watery eyes", (or if she did she wasn't that bothered) but I heard her say "bye bye, I love you" to the fields and buildings as they gradually got smaller and smaller beneath us (which naturally resulted in a couple more secret tears from me!)...

I will leave you with a picture of something else I also class as perfect, another type of egg that I managed to smuggle back in my case intact! It is highly doubtful they will last until Easter!

Simple Pleasures

For me this is a real simple pleasure, as it's something that immediately transports me back - a true taste of home! I can't wait for our upcoming trip, first stop Waitrose and M&S to stock up on plenty more tastes of home to bring back and hoard!

Back Stage...

As the biggest Drama Queen I know, and a ballet fiend at that, I thought R would appreciate a "behind the scenes" tour of the beautiful Royal Theatre in Copenhagen at some point, so we went when she had a day off school a couple of days ago. With theatres also suffering in the current financial climate, this theatre also has the added pressure of helping to stump up the stupendous running costs of its baby sister The Copenhagen Opera House, so it was nice to be supportive in a slightly different way, and gain an insight into life backstage at the same time! First we learned about some of the ancient laws of the stage, many of which are based on bizarre superstitions, but are taken very seriously! One I hadn't heard before is that it's bad luck to whistle in a theatre! Many stage hands were also sailors in days gone by, and they communicated scene and set shifts by whistling to each other, so if an actor whistled on stage as part of an act, this could have spelt disaster! Standing on stage looking out at the hundreds of empty red velvet seats (which would probably be my nightly view if I were performing on it!), it felt bizarre and slightly eerie to be honest and theatres are now up there alongside schools on my list of buildings I find creepy when not in general use! We then paid a visit to the Royal Box, where R got further ideas above her station by reclining in the Queens's chair!... The highlight for me was the costume department though, hundreds of beautiful tutus hung like designer lamps from the ceiling in preparation for the ballet, and we saw the most ornate dresses being sewn (and fur being stuck on the strangest monkey suit I have ever seen!) by people whose jobs I am incredibly jealous of! No pictures allowed where people are working unfortunately, so you will just have to visit yourselves if you are here and have an hour or two to spare... Make sure you ask for the lovely and informative Lars to show you around!

Uninvited Guests

These two have been turning up in our garden for the past week between 5 and 6pm - unexpected, but very welcome! They are beautiful and timid creatures with a penchant for old apples from the fruit bowl(originally meant for the birds) but they seem to like them!... The pictures are not great, but you get the idea! I have no idea what kind of deer they are, but they have very cute white bottoms!

Expressions...

Today's theme at The Gallery is Expressions. As it's almost a year since I flew home to welcome this little chap into the world, I thought I would use this photograph (with my sister's permission of course!). It was such a privilege to be there! As much as I love his expression at his arrival into the world, I will never forget my sister's expression at being given her baby for the very first time (and I am not sure how I managed to take it through my tears!). If there's something I do regret about moving away from home, it's missing out on my nephew! I can't believe he's almost a year old and I can't wait to see him very soon to give him a huge cuddle for his first birthday.


You can read about my mad dash to be at his birth here...

and you can see other entries at today's Gallery here:

Pictures from a Morning's Walk Part II

As an English girl, you will forgive my slight obsession with the weather, and it's hard to believe as I look out of the window at the falling snow that it was a beautiful sunny morning this morning, but it was. I noticed that the sea was frozen at Nordhavn which gives an indication how cold it is again here. I had a morning to spare so ventured into town with some Christmas vouchers burning a hole in my pocket. First stop, one of my favourite shops Illums. If I were soon to be married and ever so slightly greedy, this would be the place where I would probably have an extensive Wedding List.... I love Anne Black ceramics so headed straight for her stand, but it turns out I wasn't in a decisive enough mood in the end to spend said vouchers, so I will just have to come back another time, nevermind!

After this I went straight around the corner to The Royal Cafe for half an hours people watching over a pretty decent latte. I loved the fact my coffee was served to me in the same pot I have a hyacinth planted in at home...!


Then I had time for a quick wander around a few more streets I hadn't yet investigated, and I stumbled upon this shop. Some friends have been telling me about this place for ages now, but I could never find it. It's so popular that they often run out at weekends, and there is a reason why. If you like cake, and good cakes at that, look no further....if you gave them a poke about a bit to make them look less perfect, you could even pass them off as your own if you needed to! Would anyone actually believe me now if I told them I don't actually like cake all that much?