NYC - Part 4

Saturday morning we left the hotel at around 11am and caught the train downtown to Battery Park. Battery Park has a number of war memorials, which I found quite interesting, but for Lars the real reason for going was that he wanted a photo of the entrance to the Battery Park tunnel! AKA the entrance to the MIB headquarters ;)


Katie had mentioned there being a 9/11 memorial in Battery Park which I really wanted to see, but unfortunately we couldn't find it - it may have been on the other side of the ridiculously long line for the Ellis/Statue of Liberty Ferry (standing in line for 1-2 hours in the sweltering sun? Not gonna happen! It was 33C in the shade!). Anyway, we did manage to find quite a number of other interesting-looking memorials. The ones shown below are for marines who died in WW2 (only some of them though... Lars thinks the Atlantic, I think the Pacific) and for the Korean War.


Lars and I had long ago decided not to spend the time and money on going to Ellis Island / the Statue of Liberty, so instead we found our way back through Battery Park to the Staten Island ferry (or "Staten Island" - said in Danish - as Lars kept doing ;) ). The ferry to Staten Island took us fairly close to the Statue of Liberty - not as close as I would have liked (the photo below was taken with digital zoom), but what can you expect from a free ferry ;) I did very much enjoy seeing the Manhattan skyline from the sea side though, and both Lars and I went nuts with the camera ;)



There wasn't much on Staten Island itself we wanted to see, but it did have a train line. I'd come prepared and brought a book, so I told Lars, "Let's go nuts and take the train to the end station and back again." He looked at me. "You sure? I have the best wife!" Hehe :)


Once back on Manhattan we decided to make our way back up North via Wall street, as we figured that was a tourist must. We couldn't have been to NYC and NOT walk down Wall Street. And of course we had another movie-moment when we saw Trinity church at the very top of Wall Street ;) (National Treasure).




We were both done sight-seeing for the day, but neither of us felt ready to return to the hotel yet, so we decided to part ways, Lars went off train-spotting, and I went shopping! :) A friend had asked me to buy some Starbucks coffee for her, which for some reason resulted in me getting a drink on the house! I hadn't expected that, but certainly am not complaining ;) I realised I'm not a big fan of unsweetened green ice tea though, so just as well I didn't pay for it ;). I made my way back to the large B&N on 5th/46th and ended up spending 2 hours there!!! By then I'd found about a million books I wanted, limited myself to just 6 I actually bought, and gotten hold of gifts for all my nieces and nephews. A very productive day indeed :) Now I want to go back and get the other 999.994 books though! ;)

We were in the mood for steak for dinner, and I thought I'd found a steak house by Times Square, but ended up at what turned out to be a place that served steak-ala-fast-food! Very bizarre! Not that the food was bad, it just isn't something you'd ever encounter in Denmark. It's been the oddest things that have struck me as unusual cultural differences! (Another point in case - TV news reporters! They seemed almost like entertainers - even the ones in the studios.)

On our way back to the hotel we decided to visit the M&M store to see what that was like. O_O :-O WOW! The amount of M&M merchandise was just UNBELIEVABLE! Lars felt it was too tacky for words and very quickly had had enough, but I promised myself to return another day without him and just browse to my heart's content :)

NYC - Part 3b

Once done with the Met (and I've probably forgotten about a million details, but figured it was long enough as it was ;) ) we went outside and caught a cab to The Strand - a large 2nd hand/bargain book store by Union Square. I have to say, I love having friends who'll go book browsing with me (all three friends I met in NYC were happy to oblige) and who enjoys it as much as I do, so I don't end up feeling rushed.

The Strand was pretty amazing - SO many excellent books, and at great prices too. I could have used a fortune in there, but managed to limit myself to just 3 books. I think it's a very, very good thing that books aren't as cheap in Denmark - I'd have run out of space in my apartment ages ago!!!

From The Strand we took another cab (to spare my legs) up to Times Square for a cocktail hour at the Marriott Hotel. Irina knew of a bar on the 8th floor which sported a gorgeous view of Times Square, so we decided to go there for a glass of champagne to celebrate some really awesome news Irina had gotten earlier that day :) This is the first time I've ever seen designated elevators though! Well, that's not entirely sure, I've seen elevator bays with signs of "For floors A-K take this elevator, for floors L-Z take that elevator", but here you went to a number pad, typed in the floor you were going to, and a small computer screen told you which elevator to go to! Rather fancy, that ;)


For dinner, Irina had recommended the restaurant, Queen of Sheba (10th between 45th and 46th) as having great atmosphere, excellent food and being the perfect ice breaker when dining with "strangers", and she was right on all three accounts! Queen of Sheba is an Ethiopian restaurant where the food is served in a communal (or table-al) basket, and then you use bread to eat it with your fingers. Irina suggested we get a sampler so we could try a lot of different things, (a good idea as it would have been absolutely impossible to choose otherwise!) and recommended their honey-wine to drink. Absolutely delicious and very different from just about anything I've ever tried before. The closest I've ever come was the Syrian Mesa we tried in Cyprus.

One really weird thing about the restaurant though... we entered, and it had AC like every other place I'd been to in NYC... but Irina and I sat down right in front of a heater!!! It was still cooler than outside, but how utterly weird! ...not to mention counter-productive. Gave us something to laugh at though ;)

And just like the rest of the day, we never stopped talking ;) I really didn't want the day to end as I was having such a great time together with Irina - I think it's pretty safe to say we got on like a house on fire :)

On the way back to the hotel Lars told me that he'd spent most of the day in Brooklyn where - among other things - he'd found the Wendys that served as "McDowells" in "Coming to America" (one of Lars' favourite movies). I thought it was rather cool that he'd found it :) Back at the hotel room, Lars turned on the TV to wind down a bit before going to bed... and discovered that "Coming to America" was on!!! Now what are the odds of THAT?!

NYC - Part 3a

Friday the 14th of August was the day I'd been looking the most forward to on the entire trip. Because Friday the 14th would be the day I finally got to meet Irina in person! We've been e-mail friends since 2003 but never met, so when she heard I was coming to NYC (actually before it was even settled for sure), she immediately e-mailed me to come down and spend a day with me. Naturally I JUMPED at the chance :)

And it did NOT disappoint :) Not many photos taken today. I was too wrapped up in talking to remember to take more than a couple.

Anyway, I woke up that morning to discover that the crutch definitely did help - as sore as my feet had been yesterday, they were absolutely fine now. That is NOT par for course on sight-seeing trips. Usually I'd be limping everywhere after a day with so much walking. Instead only my shoulder hurt a bit, but I'd already arranged for a massage when returning to Denmark, so I decided not to worry about that.

At 11:15am I left the hotel and headed off on my own to find the nearest subway station and the train that'd take me up to 86th Street as I was meeting Irina at the Popover Café at 11:45 for brunch. I'd completely overestimated the time it'd take me to get there though, so I was about 20 minutes early! Good thing I've learned never to go anywhere without a book ;)

Irina arrived shortly after 11:45 and we recognised each other straight off :) We went in, found a place to sit and immediately proceeded to talk each others' ears off ;) I'm thrilled to finally have gotten to meet her in person :)

The food at the Popover Cafe was absolutely delicious, but SOOOO rich. We ordered a basket of popovers and strawberry butter, and popover "egg popeye" - eggs with spinach and salmon. So yummy, but I could only eat about half of it. Definitely a spot I'd recommend for others. It's mostly a brunch/lunch place though.

After brunch the plan was to walk through Central Park to get to the Met which was directly on the other side of the park. Well... we found the park without any problems, but it turns out that both of us are firmly devoid of any form of homing pigeon instinct, so instead of walking straight and reaching the East side, we instead came out 14 blocks further South - still on the West side. Lars is never going to let me live that down.

Undaunted we set out again, and thanks to the GPS function on Irina's iPhone we managed to make our way through Central Park and find the Met! This is where I got my big surprise of the day. Now, I like art museums as much as the next person (probably a tad more so actually, depending on who 'the next person' is), but this is the most fun I have ever had at an art museum. Irina has a masters degree in art, and thus was able to teach me SO much about the different pieces - not just American art either, but African and European as well. It was incredibly interesting, and I hope she'll forgive me for saying so, but she was extremely cute in her enthusiasm for teaching me.

The Met was a very confusing museum though - layout-wise I mean - and we had some difficulties finding our way through. It's hard to explain, but it was as if the levels didn't "match" and therefore we kept having to go up and down stairs and elevators in order to get around. We couldn't stop laughing about it - especially as we kept ending up at the very same elevator! It must have had a magnetic pull on us.

What I most wanted to see, and Irina most wanted to show me (I think) were the American paintings, as we really don't have many of those here. Unfortunately the American Ward was closed for reconstruction, and many of the pieces loaned out to other museums. Thankfully we discovered that some had been put in storage and could still be viewed (they just weren't "presented" nicely). I'm glad, because this is where I found my favourite pieces in the entire museum! One was "Madame X" - not the least because I was fascinated by the story behind it. The other was "Camp fire" by an American painter who mostly took photographs and therefore ended up using a lot of the same visual 'techniques' (for want of better word) in his paintings. I just LOVED the colours and the way he showed the fire and the sparks.


Since this post is insanely long already, I think I'm going to separate day 3 into two posts, and sign off here. Still to come - book-lovers going crazy at The Strand, celebratory Champagne and an interesting dinner at Queen of Sheba :-)

NYC - Part 2

Despite a rather fitful sleep I still managed to sleep until almost 6am! Considering that my body thought it was 1pm at this time and I very seldom sleep past 9-10'ish, I think I did well :) Lars, being used to swing shifts as he is, slept until 9:30am!

I'd asked Lars to please spend the first day together with me rather than going off trainspotting on his own, as I didn't feel completely comfortable heading out by myself into a large city I didn't know at all, so at around 11am we headed down to 42nd street to see NY Public Library (my choice ;) ) and Grand Central Terminal. Unfortunately the library was completely covered in scaffolding for renovation (I think), so I couldn't get to enjoy the apparently very gorgeous building, and I completely forgot to return at a later time to see it from the inside - go figure.

Lars obviously wanted to see Grand Central for train spotting purposes, but mostly I was just interested in the main concourse because of the movie "Madagascar" ;-) And I must say it was well worth the visit. Definitely both grand and central.


I have to admit to being a bit surprised at how un-busy it was though. According to the statistics in our guide book, GCT has 550 daily trains - Copenhagen central station has 950 daily LOCAL trains alone - and that's not counting all the regional ones. I must say that GCT looks a LOT nicer than Copenhagen Central though. Everything was nice and clean, and I loved the decorations everywhere.


We had brunch at their dining concourse - they had a crepe house serving both sweet and savoury pancakes. Very yummy and the perfect way to start off a vacation.

From GCT we continued our walk down 42nd street and soon reached the UN Building. Neither Lars nor I felt like going in for one of their tours, but we did have fun trying to identify as many flags as possible! (Both the Danish and the New Zealand flag should be visible in these photos, but as there was no wind, it's kinda hard to tell.)


It had started raining at this time, so we figured it was time to find something indoor to do. Lars had read about a Transit Museum located in an old closed station (Court Street Station to be exact) out in Brooklyn, so we found the nearest subway station, bought our Metrocards* and headed out there. I thought it a brilliant idea to use the old subway station as a museum - it definitely lent a different atmosphere to the place. As transit museums go, it was interesting enough (obviously I've been to a few ;) ), and Lars just about went nuts when he discovered it had a LIVE station panel in the control tower (no, it's not a tower, but that's just what it's called - sorry). He was very, very cute in his excitement ♥ And no, he will not approve of me calling him 'cute' ;)


I'd been using my crutch all day, but wasn't yet too sure whether or not it did any good, because at this point my feet HURT, so once we felt 'done' with the museum, I sent Lars off to do some trainspotting on his own, and found my way back to the hotel (via a Starbucks - had to try out some of all the recommendations you guys gave me! ;) ) to relax with a book for awhile. I'd hoped to find a bookstore along the way, but unlike London, they don't seem to be located on just about every second corner, so to my huge disappointment I hadn't seen a single one yet! Probably just as well actually... my feet really could use the rest.

"Our" fire station - located just on the other side of 8th and 48th - turned out to be the most busy of all of Manhattan. I'll believe that! We heard sirens SO many times each day - even more so since they appeared to use the siren both when going out and returning home. Going out goes without saying, but why when coming home again??? Just like any other fire station in NYC, they too had lost people at 9/11, and a small memorial had been constructed on the other side of 48th.


Lars came back to the hotel at around 7pm and we got ready to go out for dinner shortly after. The previous evening we'd seen a TGIFridays on Times Square, and as both of us love the place, we decided to go there... only to discover that TGIFs in London are a LOT better than that particular one... at least on that evening. We got the worst service experienced on the entire trip (the waitress forgot to give us cutlery, never checked up on us for refills, and took forever to give us out check), and the food wasn't nearly as delicious as we've been used to from our visits to the chain in London. Ah well, can't win them all.

I'd asked about bookstores at the hotel and had been told there was a rather large B&N at 5th and 46th, so knowing that stores stay open later in NYC than what we're used to (=closing at 7pm at the latest), we decided it was worth a shot to see if it was still open at 9:30pm. Unfortunately not - they closed at 9pm, so I'd have to save that for another day - but at least we got to see a bit more of the city :)

* Turns out that buying Metrocards is apparently not intended for tourists - not at the machines anyway. We attempted to pay using our visa cards, and were asked to enter our 5-digit zip code!!! Ehh... Danish zip-codes are only 4 digits, and it didn't say what to do if you didn't have one, so we just ended up entering a fictitious one. Rather odd service to expect tourists either to be exclusively from the US or to use the manned booths rather than the machines. *Shrugs*. Instead we just messed up their statistics for the day ;)

NYC - Part 1 of ???

I figured I'd better do this in instalments or it would end up being WAAAAAY too long.

So without further ado, Day 1.

Once again I'm reminded that I by far prefer to travel west than to travel east. My jetlag going to NYC was practically non-existent. Lovely :)

The flight to NYC went pretty smoothly - it lasted from 12:30pm - 15:20pm - both times local, so in reality it took about 9 hours, the last of which was spent circling over NYC as traffic going into Newark was too heavy so we had to wait in line. I can understand this happening in events of bad weather etc., but usually it just seems like really bad planning. Ah well, we had no connections to catch, so it was just a minor frustration, and pretty soon we had landed and were standing in line at customs.

Here a kind officer noticed my crutch and directed us towards the booth for diplomats and invalids, so we wouldn't have to stand in line for so long... and were immediately directed back again by the officer in that booth because "it was only for people in wheelchairs"! The first officer was just as puzzled by this as we were, because as he said "You need to get through faster than a person in a wheelchair does! They're sitting down already!" Yeah, I didn't get it either. No harm done though, I would have been fine waiting, but he still insisted on sending Lars and me ahead to the very next booth that opened. Very nice :)

We had our pictures and finger prints taken, got our suitcases and found the train station without problems. And Lars immediately proceeded to take the first photos of the trip ;)


The train took us to Penn Station which is on 8th and 34th. As the weather was nice, and we lived on 8th and 48th, we decided just to walk the 14 blocks, as it would give us a good introduction to NYC. It definitely did that, but not entirely the introduction I was expecting.

Okay, I'll be honest, I had vastly underestimated the size of NYC. I've been to European capitals so many times, and had somehow fooled myself into thinking that NYC wouldn't be all that far different from London. My first impression of NYC - experienced as it was on 8th Avenue during afternoon rush hour - cleared me of that misconception. A lot more people on much narrower sidewalks with a lot more traffic... and most of all, the buildings were HUGE, making me feel more "fenced in" in the streets than I ever have in Europe (sky scrapers are not all that common here. The average building will have around 8-10 floors). So there you have my first culture shock ;)

My second came when we went into a supermarket to buy microwave popcorn (our hotel room had a microwave - yay :) ) and discovered that it is absolutely impossible to get just plain popcorn. What's up with that? They all either had butter added or were artificially flavoured with splenda. We just wanted plain ones with salt and nothing else! During our 10 days we didn't see them anywhere... so that was pretty much the first thing I had when I came back to Denmark - hey, don't blame me - I'd had an unsatisfied craving for ten days!!! ;-)

Anyway, we found the hotel with no problems whatsoever, checked in and were taken to our rooms - on the 17th floor! (well, 16th actually, seeing as there was no 13th. I forgot to check if there were no rooms 13 either, but probably not). Lars was NOT happy about that, and even less so when he discovered the bed was just next to the window. We solved that by keeping that curtain closed all the time so he could "pretend" the curtain was just a fancy tapestry, but didn't sleep well at all the first night. Poor him :( (For those who don't know - he has a really bad case of vertigo. He knows it's not rational, but can't help it).

After we'd unpacked it was around 7pm NYC-time, meaning 1am DK-time, so we were absolutely knackered and just wanted to get something to eat and then go to bed. Fortunately on our walk to the hotel I'd noticed a Mexican restaurant just three houses down. As we both LOVE Mexican, we figured this was as good a place as any ;) Excuse the "deer-in-headlights" eyes - at this time I was desperately trying just to keep them open for long enough to get through the meal!

The food was delicious though, and I made the first acquaintance with my new addiction - home made (or what tasted like it anyway) lemonade. YUMMY!!! In Denmark, if you order lemonade, you get a soda - either 7up, Sprite or something similar, depending on what they have. Here, I got real lemonade :-D After my initial surprise I discovered I LOVED it, and ordered it for every meal after that.

The food gave us our 'second wind', so we decided to go for a walk up to Times Square for a "sneak peak". I'm really glad we did. Fewer people were out, and I LOVED the atmosphere of Times Square. I think that actually remained my favourite part of NYC - as tacky as that sounds ;) This left me with a much better impression of NYC and I couldn't wait to go out and get properly acquainted with the city the next day.


... 10pm still saw us both in bed and fast asleep though ;)

Exploits of a Mom - Computer Geek Post

Jeg behøver vist bare at læse xkcd for at få BEVIST at jeg er en nørd.

Case in point... this one made me laugh MUCH longer than it ought to:


Og den her overvejede jeg faktisk at prøve at regne ud:


Suk.... guess I'm a lost case...

Bøger læst i juni

Beagle, Peter S.: The Last Unicorn, 3/5
Birkegaard, Mikkel: The Library of Shadows 4/5

Diamant, Anita: Pitching My Tent, 3/5

Haldeman, Joe: The Accidental Time Machine, 3.5/5
Holst, Hanne-Vibeke: Dronningeofret, 5/5

Jackson, Neta: The Yada Yada Prayer Group, 5/5
Jackson, Neta: The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Caught, 4.5/5
Jackson, Neta: The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Down, 5/5
Jackson, Neta: The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Real, 5/5
Jackson, Neta: The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Tough, 5/5

Kenyon, Kay: Bright of the Sky 3/5
Kipling, Rudyard: The Jungle Book, 1.5/5

Means, Florence Crannell: Knock on the Door, Emmy, 3.5/5

Patillo, Beth: The Sweetgum Ladies Knit for Love, 5/5

Rosen, Fred: Deadly Angel, 1.5/5

Seville, Jane: Zero At the Bone, 4.5/5

Uhlman, Fred: Reunion, 2/5

Bøger læst i maj

Ahern, Cecelia: If You Could See Me Now, 3/5

*Cast, P.C. & Kristin: Betrayed (House of Night, book 2), 4/5

*Hooper, Kay: Blood Sins (Blood Trilogy, book 2), 3/5

Jackson, Neta: Where Do I Go? (Yada Yada House of Hope 1), 4/5
Jordan, Sherryl: Rocco, 4/5
*Jürgensen, Dennis: Dødens mange facetter, 4.5/5

Koomson, Dorothy: Goodnight, Beautiful, 3/5

Lowry, Lois: The Giver, 5/5

*Marchetta, Melina: Finnikin of the Rock, 3.5/5
Martin, George R.R.: A Game of Thrones, 2.5/5

Nesbit, Edith: The Treasure Seekers, 4/5

*Palermo, Celeste: The Coffee Mom's Devotional, 4/5
Pierce, Tamora: Bloodhound (Beka Cooper #2), 4/5

Schrøder-Hansen, Ingrid: Bibelen - Fortalt for store og små, 5/5

*Whitcomb, Laura: The Fetch, 3/5

Young, William Paul: The Shack, 4/5

Månedens bog: The Giver

A Visit to the Doctor

About a month ago my bad leg caused me quite a bit of pain. I felt it was worse than usual, and feared how on earth I'd manage a 10-day sightseeing/shopping trip to NYC. My last check-up (for my leg, not in general!) was in 1993, so I figured medical science might have come quite a way since then, and that perhaps there was something that could be done.

I got a time to see my doctor and two days later this happened. I was utterly bewildered and thrown by the "coincidence" and the very interesting timing, but had no idea what to make of it.

Well, my doctor's appointment was yesterday. Lise-Lotte wasn't my doctor back then, so I started out by giving her the bare bones (no pun intended) about what had happened - infection, surgery, limited movement in my ankle etc. etc. (and I have to say it was lots of fun to be able to explain it using the proper medical terms! ;) ). She sounded very interested and was all fired up when I asked if she thought anything could be done. I had expected her to tell me of canes or supportive socks, but she almost told me off when I mentioned that - I wasn't thinking big enough! Instead she wrote an application on my behalf to the orthopedist ward of the hospital I was admitted to "back then" in the hopes that they'd be able to think "big and creative" - possibly by doing a new analysis of my leg to see if anything might be able to be done through surgery or treatments, and if not, then by introducing me to new aids that had been developed/invented since 1993.

She was almost more enthusiastic than I was! She kept saying, "Maria, this is so exciting! Be sure to keep me updated. I want to know when you get an appointment, and I REALLY want to know what happens afterwards. Oh, and don't let them procrastinate on getting back to you - if you haven't heard anything within 2-3 weeks, give me a call and I'll get on it for you. This is so exciting! I'm glad you decided to do something about it finally!" ... I think I may just have turned into a case? ;-)

Anyway, she promised me that if nothing had been done by the time I was leaving for NYC, she'd make sure to find some crutches I could borrow - she seemed very determined that my bad leg shouldn't hinder my shopping and sight-seeing ;) I'm very grateful to her, and curious as to what on earth might happen next.

Who says God's miracles can only happen through supernatural means? He gave us our brains for a reason. Why shouldn't He decide to work in me through the abilities of doctors and the advancement of medical science? I'm cautiously optimistic. I figure that if I have no expectations, I won't get disappointed :-)

I'm glad I didn't just resign myself to the pain though. No matter what, I can say that I tried :)

A Message From God?

I had a very strange experience at church today.

Lars has an evening shift, so I'd decided to go to the afternoon service at the Pentecostal church I've visited a few times, so that I could spend the morning with him (my church only has one service, which is at 10am). I hadn't been to that church for awhile, and enjoyed being back (even if we didn't sing any songs I knew ;-) ) and felt challenged by the sermon which focused on making Jesus the centre of our lives.

I had not expected what was to come next though. After the sermon there is a time for worship during which it's possible to go up front to have somebody pray for you. I'd been contemplating going up to ask for prayer over my leg, which has been bothering me more and more lately (enough that I've booked an appointment with my doctor - we'll see what - if anything - comes of that), but didn't really feel comfortable doing it, as I didn't know how to phrase the prayer request without telling the entire history of my illness. So I stayed seated.

As the worship session was quieting down, the Pastor stood up to give the closing prayer and said, "I have a message for some of you. I want to pray with you a prayer of healing" (cue my jaw dropping). "I know some of you are troubled by pains different places in your body, and I believe that the Holy Spirit will begin His work in you today, and that He will heal you. So those of you who are experiencing pains, put your hand on the part of your body that hurts, and pray this prayer together with me."

I sat down, I couldn't stand up any longer, I was bawling (why does one cry when moved? Doesn't seem to make sense. But I digress). I couldn't believe that within 5 minutes of me wishing I was brave enough to go up and ask for healing, the Pastor stood up, and made it unnecessary. Seriously, I was a mess. I'm not used to God talking to me like that. That was... that was something else!

So what now? I don't actually know, to tell you the truth. Well, I know that I haven't been healed here and now. I still can't move my foot any more than I could this morning. But the message was that the Holy Spirit would start His work today. Of course I believe that God can heal me just like that (imagine me snapping my fingers), but for whatever reason, that wasn't the impression I got of what the Pastor thought would happen today. Secondly, the prayer was for removal of pain specifically. Even if my foot never gets any better than it is now, if I'm rid of the getting on crippling pains I experience after having been standing or walking for too long (and 'too long' is becoming shorter and shorter time) - that's a miracle in and of itself.

And if nothing happens? Well... I guess then the message wasn't for me. I'd be disappointed, but I'll live. Even Paul didn't have all his prayers answered ;-)

Bøger læst i april

Bøger markeret med * er læst for enten Tellerup eller Armchair Interviews

Amory, Jay: Pirates of the Relentless Desert*, 4/5

Barrie, J.M.: Peter Pan, 4.5/5

Corrigan, Maureen: Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading, 2/5

Ellis, Anne Dee: Everything is Fine*, 2/5

Fielding, Joy: Grand Avenue, 3/5

Hall, Barbara: The Music Teacher*, 3/5
Harrison, Michelle: The Thirteen Treasures*, 4/5

Jordan, Tori: Addition, 2.5/5

King, Stephen: Insomnia, 4/5
Kingsley, Kaza: Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye*, 4/5

Lamott, Anne: Traveling Mercies, 3/5
Lewis, C.S.: The Horse and His Boy (Narnia #3), 3/5
Lewis, C.S.: The Last Battle (Narnia #7), 4/5
Lewis, C.S.: The Silver Chair (Narnia #6), 4/5
Lewis, C.S.: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Narnia #5), 4.5/5

Miller, Karen: The Innocent Mage*, 4/5

Ott, Estrid: Tonni på tourné, 4/5
Owen, Sharon: The Tea House on Mulberry Street, 4/5

Sedgwick, Marcus: My Swordhand is Singing*, 3.5/5
Shaffer, Mary Ann: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, 5/5
Shreve, Anita: Testimony, 3/5
Sisco, Andrea: A Deadly Habit*, 3/5
Sleator, William: House of Stairs, 3.5/5
Summers, Lorna: Third, 5/5

Månedens bog: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Je-fa-fa Dunham

Seeing Jeff Dunham live was AMAZING!!! Sure, there were a lot of repeat jokes from his earlier shows, but he had enough new material and Denmark-specific jokes to make it more than worth it :-D Unfortunately if/when the shows comes on DVD (I'm leaning towards 'when'), the Danish-specific jokes will probably have been left out... unless they make the decision to make it a "tour dvd" and have the country-specific sections as extra material! That'd be cool! :) But I don't think that'll happen. Never mind, youtube will probably have it ;)

Brian Hanes/Guitar Guy (from the Christmas show + youtube) was the opening act, and he was a LOT funnier than I had expected. A very pleasant surprise and a good laugh. He'd looked through the newspaper to find some material for Denmark, and had come up with the following lyrics:
It's springtime in Denmark, the sun's coming out
The flowers are blooming, leaves are starting to sprout
But I'm so sad, I wish I felt finer
Because our little mermaid is going to China

I'll try to be strong, I'll try to be brave
As Hans Christian Andersen rolls in his grave
When she goes away my heart will be bleeding
But I'd rather have her in China than over in Sweden

As part of his intro Jeff Dunham commented on the "Carlsberg - probably the best beer in town" commercial. "You guys are too nice! Probably the best beer in town, but if you don't like it, try something else." Hehehe :D

Walter was unfortunately mostly old jokes, as was José Jalapeños, but Achmed and Peanut had a lot of new material, and were HILARIOUS. I occasionally got so winded from laughing that I had to sit and gasp for air, and Lars practically had tears rolling down his cheeks the entire time. It was beyond words excellent :)

The very best bit was actually the encore. He hadn't originally planned on bringing Bubba J (at least, that's what he said...), but had discovered on Facebook and Youtube that he was actually really popular here. Most of Bubba J's bit was direct quotes from his act in "Arguing With Myself", BUT! the audience started shouting Bubba J's lines along with him! Causing Jeff Dunham to not be able to finish his own lines for laughing, "You guys are gonna make me cry!" I know he's had the same happen to him in the US (at least according to Wikipedia), but perhaps he hadn't realized that his fan base in Denmark is every bit as obsessed (in the good way ;) ) ... either that, or even his spontaneous burst of laughter was planned, so I prefer to think otherwise.

Apparently we were his largest show outside the US (~10.000 tickets sold. The place was PACKED). I find it really, really cool that teeny-tiny Denmark could beat LONDON in number of tickets sold! Our venue was twice as large as their, and sold out! Bodes well for our chances of him returning some day. And when he does - I'm so there! :-D We're actually looking into where he's touring in August when we're in the US anyway, and he IS on the right side of the country (in CT to be exact), but that might just be a 'tad' too much money to spend. But if we suddenly win Lotto.... ;-)

Absolutely brilliant. And worth every penny!

On the way out Mixi noticed we were walking right next to Thomas Hartmann - my favourite Danish comedian!!! :-) I was so tempted to go say something to him, but didn't want to interrupt on a private night out. Something I half regret now, but really - what could I have said, that wouldn't just be comparing him to Jeff Dunham? So probably for the best.

Lars and I are quoting Jeff Dunham to each other non-stop. Good thing we BOTH went to see it, or we'd be driving each other CRAZY ;-)

Colouring Outside the Lines

Synesthesia has always fascinated me. Granted, I didn't know there actually was a word for it until a year or two ago, but the concept is something I've been familiar with ever since I first started learning numbers and letters. The interest has been rekindled lately by discovering a YA novel on the topic ("A Mango-Shaped Space" by Wendy Mass). Apparently it's genetic and more typical in women (check) and left-handed people (check).

Synesthesia is the scientific term for "mixing up" senses - sounds and feelings have colour, letters and numbers have personality, colours have texture. To those who don't experience it themselves, it sounds absolutely crazy, but to those who do, it's as real as any other colour, sound or feeling.

Most of these are foreign to me, but when I first learned my numbers I was convinced that they had personalities. In general even numbers were bad and odd numbers were nice. I never could figure out 4 though, because it was even but behaved odd.

I don't actually see colours when reading numbers, but definitely associate numbers with colours on a subconscious level. All odd numbers are black, 0 is blue, 2 is yellow, 4 is a very vivid green, 6 is red and 8 is orange. All numbers larger than 9 are then combinations of these.

I see spatial calendars. I think this is very much influenced by the way calendars are actually portrayed everywhere, so I don't know if this is part of the synesthesia or just habit. When thinking of the days in a year I see a big calendar with a column for each month and a row for each day. The columns stretch out to infinity with January of the following year being to the right of December of the current year. The further away from "now" they are, the smaller they get, until they're too tiny to be seen. The weekends are different visually from the days of the week, but whether they're a different colour or just smaller, I can't quite describe. When thinking of the days in a week I see a typical time-table with a column for each day and a row for each hour. Again the columns stretch to infinity with one week following the other, and again the weekends are different visually.

I can write with both hands at the same time. Only the same words, but I can mirror one at will. The most natural for writing with both hands is to write 'correctly' with my right hand and mirrored with my left.

Some letters have personalities ('M' is friendly, obviously, 'B' is a bully etc.), but not all, and none of them have colours. I definitely don't see colours and shapes in the air when hearing sounds, nor do I taste colours or see word-pictures like some other synesthetes do. So if what I have is synesthesia, it's obviously a very mild 'case' of it. I can only imagine how it must be for 'real' synesthetes - it must be fascinating... and probably also slightly distracting at times.

Bøger læst i marts

Armstrong, Kelley: Stolen (Woman of the Underworld, Book 2), 8/10

Canavan, Trudi: Priestess of the White (Age of the Five 1), 7/10
Card, Orson Scott: Enchantment, 10/10
Cast, P.C. & Kristin: Marked, 8/10
Cloud, Henry & Townsend, John: Boundaries, 7/10
Cristofano, David: The Girl She Used to Be, 7/10

Follett, Ken: The Pillars of the Earth, 9/10

Hale, Shannon: The Book of a Thousand Days, 8/10

McIntosh, Fiona: Odalisque, 8/10
Montgomery, Lucy Maud: The Blue Castle, 10/10

Pierce, Tamora: Melting Stones (Circle Reforged 1), 7/10

Schlink, Bernhard: Højtlæseren (The Reader), 8/10

Book of the month: Enchantment

Rold

Lars picked me up from work at 2pm and we had a very uneventful drive up to Rold. It's a drive of 4-4.5 hours depending on traffic, so we arrived just after 6:30pm. We got ourselves checked in, and went up to our rooms to change for dinner (I don't know whether it really is a fancy enough place to get changed for dinner, or if it's just so much of a tradition that we never stopped to question it. Hmm... guess I just did! I'm not about to change it though - it's all part of the experience! :-) ) To our great delight the very first waiter we saw was Agent Waiter!!!! I have no idea if he remembered us, but it was great fun seeing him again :-)

Dinner was delicious as always, even if a tad too slow for the temperaments of the youngest, so they were sent to bed immediately after dinner, while the rest of us disappeared into the pool room for a couple of games and general catching up. It's always fun to see the "BIL-club" (that's what Peter, Christian and Lars call themselves) get together. We're fortunate that they always have a great time together. My two cousins fit in well too, and I quickly felt superfluous as the only girl still awake. They very obviously had no need at all for me ;-) Which is all good, even if it did take a bit of getting used to, not being my oldest cousin's preferred "play mate" any longer ;-)

Saturday and Sunday was spent going on walks in the area - Rold Storkro is situated in the middle of Rold forest and right next to Rebild bakker, so there's always opportunities for long walks... or not so long, when you have kids with short legs along ;) - playing billiard, going for swims in the pool, practicing ax-throwing and eating FAR too much FAR too good food :-D I think I got to read all of 100 pages while away, because I was up and about all day, and at night I was so tired that I could barely keep my eyes open past 10pm! That's what fresh air and young kids'll do to you ;-)

Sunday Nina and Christian had to go back home to their church, as Christian was playing worship. I'd gotten "Miriam-duty" and had to put her down for her nap almost immediately after they left which was a LOT easier said than done. Miriam knew exactly what was happened, and felt completely abandoned. I felt terrible! She was crying, calling for her mum, and kept jumping out of bed to run over and try to open the (now locked) door that she'd seen her mum disappear out of. It was heartbreaking. I know enough not to take it personally, but still felt like an awful abuser. In the end I grabbed a handful of books, and sat down on her bed holding her tight while reading out loud. After the first she'd stopped crying, after the second I was allowed to lie down with her, and after the third she was half-asleep. Phew!

... But of course we had "round two" after she woke up :-/ Thankfully this was a lot easier solved. I've always known that the way to Miriam's heart is through her stomach and this was no exception. She woke up while the lunch buffet was still on the table, so I took her for a walk around that, "Look Miriam, here's an apple... and an orange... here are some shrimps..." "Shimp!!!" "You want some shrimps?" "Yes! Many!" And voila - all was well again :-) I wish you could have seen her eyes when she said "Shimp!" though - they lit up like candle sticks!

Unfortunately I had to stay home from all walks Sunday. My legs were absolutely killing me, and my bad ankle had swollen up :-( Mum theorized that since I can't move the ankle as much as a 'normal' person, I can't "pump the blood around" so to speak, and that's what makes it swell. Could be... I've considered asking my doctor for a check-up on it. After all it's been almost 20 years since I had it checked last - a lot of things could've happened since.

Agent Waiter was as much fun as ever :) Isabella and Jordan asked for straws for their sodas Sunday evening, and he returned with a handful of black straws, and asked them which colour they wanted, "Here's a red one for you, and a blue one for you..." - cue giggling ;)
Nina had asked for her dessert to be delayed so she could tuck in the kids without worrying that her ice cream melted and had it brought out to her when she came back down. She was in the middle of telling cousin Peter something, and due to PERFECT timing ended up raising her hand just as Agent Waiter came through the doors. "I'm coming, I'm coming! Never get between a lady and her dessert!"
Heehee!

Since Christian hadn't been able to get off work Monday, he had to go home Sunday evening, so I spent the last night in their room to help Nina with the kids... to Jordan's delight and huge surprise when he woke up the following morning sleeping next to "Auntie 'Ria"! His facial expression was worth gold - it was very obvious that he hadn't equaled "Maria is sleeping in our room" to "Maria will be there when I wake up!" Cute!

All in all it was a really, really great trip. I had such a good time, and the nostalgia did not disappoint :) It brought back great memories, we had an excellent time together and revived a wonderful family tradition. Isabella and Jordan asked their parents to build a house near Rold so they could stay up there all the time ;-) Safe to say the younger generation had fun too! Hopefully we won't have to wait another 6 years before going next :-)

Swush-swush-swush

Jeg er rigtig god til at opdatere her kan jeg se :-P Men nu er der endelig noget at skrive om der ikke bare handler om bøger.

Den årlige NC skitur! Jeg var egentlig ikke helt vildt opsat på at tage afsted, for de to sidste år havde kun været so-so, men heldigvis lod jeg ikke det stoppe mig, for turen i år var den bedste overhovedet!

Torsdag
Turen derned gik smertefrit - jeg fik metaldetektoren til at bippe da jeg gik igennem i Kastrup, og kvinden der tjekkede mig jokede at det var på grund af mit hår - man måtte ikke have så langt hår som jeg, så hun blev nødt til at klippe 15cm af! Godt så ;-)

Desværre regnede det det meste af de 2.5 timers bustur til hotellet (Alpenland i Maria Alm, Østrig), men det glemte vi alt om da vi kom frem og så hotellet, for WOW! Vi blev mødt af dette:

Fri bar - inklusiv levende musik! Vi var stort set de eneste gæster på hotellet, og de gik virkelig "all out" for os :-)

Five minutes later...

;-)

Til vores store begejstring viste det sig at hotellet havde et Pizzaria i kælderen! Klokken var nu 20 og vi havde intet andet end en sølle sandwich fået siden frokost, så vi var hundesultne, og forsvandt straks derned. Selvom drikkevarerne stadig var gratis (det var de på hele opholdet) tror jeg alligevel de tjente en pæn sum på os.

(Min mentor - Gustaf, min værelseskammerat - Salina, min ene projektvejleder - Lars, min anden projektvejleder - Jesper)

Lige ved siden af Pizzariaet var der en keglebane! :-D (på engelsk - Skittle alley. Det blev besluttet at det var et godt tjek for om man var blevet for fuld, hvis man ikke længere kunne udtale det ;-)


Salina og jeg gik op på værelset ved 11-tiden. Vi havde taget en drink med op, og sad og snakkede en times tid eller to i de badekåber der var stillet til rådighed. Rigtig hyggeligt!

Fredag
Det regnede desværre stadig fredag - ikke nok til at vi blev hjemme, men nok til at vi blev fuldstændig gennemblødte! Skitøj er ikke regntæt, skulle jeg hilse og sige! Jeg havde meldt mig til pistevisning for "Intermediate skiers", men fandt hurtigt ud af at der havde jeg overvurderet mine evner, for de andre kørte fra mig konstant! Til sidst blev jeg træt af det, og gad ikke presse mig selv så hårdt, så jeg fandt skiskolen for "light experienced" i stedet og fulgtes med dem resten af dagen. Det er jeg RIGTIG glad for. Dels fik min selvtillid et tiltrængt skub op da jeg pludselig var en af de hurtigste/bedste, og dels fik jeg faktisk lært en del :-)

Klokken 15 havde vi fået nok og tog tilbage til hotellet for at tage en tur i poolen og et hurtigt bad inden apres-ski.

Apres-ski/Afterski ligner vist hinanden uanset hvor man er - øl, "flüger" (rød vodka og red bull - sødt og GODT), østrigske/tyske slagere som kun holder når man er på skiferie og selvfølgelig et meget fyldt lokale.

Og naturligvis blev "Hol das Lasso raus" spillet gentagende gange:


Aftensmaden blev serveret kl. 19:30 (GOD mad! ikke den sædvanlige kedelige østrigske cuisine) og efter den tog de fleste videre til et diskotek i nærheden. Jeg var dog MEGET opsat på ikke at gentage de 2 sidste års fiasko - jeg VILLE ud og stå på ski igen om lørdagen, så jeg forsvandt lige så stille og listede op på værelset i stedet.

Lørdag
Lørdag morgen fik vi heldigvis en dejlig overraskelse - skyerne var forsvundet og solen skinnede. Det perfekte vejr til at stå på ski i. Jeg havde aftalt at følges med en fra skiskolen i går, og vi hyggede os med at køre sammen.

Det var pragtfuldt - skønt vejr, gode pister, skæg og ballade og perfekt sne :-D

(Er det ikke en dejlig hat? ;-) )


Klokken 14 kunne vores ben ikke mere, så vi tog tilbage til hotellet og gik lidt rundt i byen inden apres-ski.


Det er utroligt hvad folk kan finde på når de har fået lidt at drikke... der var et par stykker som besluttede sig for at spille Klodsmajor med små Jägermeister flasker!

(Taget på min telefon, så desværre ikke fantastisk kvalitet).

Aftensmaden var nok noget af det sjoveste jeg længe har oplevet. Nå ja, ikke maden, men selvskabet. Jeg sad sammen med Salina, og to fyre (Mikael og Jesper) som enten er "for meget" eller hysterisk morsomme. Heldigvis var det her det sidste, og jeg fik til sidste ondt i maven af grin. Af en eller anden grund besluttede de sig for at "undersætte" sange - dansk til engelsk og omvendt! Og det skulle selvfølgelig gøres "on the fly". Det har jeg - sjovt nok - en del erfaring med (at oversætte "on the fly" mener jeg) og da de også blev ved med at vælge sange jeg kender fik jeg efterhånden ry for at have tyvstartet og have en mappe med "undersatte" sange derhjemme ;-) Hehe!


Mikael er her smidt over skulderen på Andreas... det er nogle gange den bedste måde at holde styr på ham på ;-)

Denne aften var der ingen grund til at gå tidligt i seng, så jeg tog med de andre på diskotek og fik da også danset noget indtil det blev for varmt og trængt. Endte med at få 4 timers søvn... men det var stadig mere end de andre år hvor bussen kørte fra hotellet allerede kl.4. Denne gang ventede den helt til kl. 8!

Turen hjem var endnu kedeligere end turen ud, men det var godt at komme hjem og se Lars igen :-)

Bøger læst i februar

Amory, Jay: The Fledging of Az Gabrielson, 8/10 ARC

Butcher, Jim: Storm Front (Dresden Files 1), 7/10 ARC

Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee: The Conch Bearer, 7/10 ARC

Jaye, Lola: By the Time You Read This, 7/10

King, Stephen: Pet Semetary, 6/10
Kulczyk, Rhonda: Freedom to Love, 8/10 ARC

Levin, Ira: The Stepford Wives, 6/10
Lewis, C.S.: The Screwtape Letters, 8/10

Montgomery, Lucy Maud: Chronicles of Avonlea, 8/10
Montgomery, Lucy Maud: Further Chronicles of Avonlea, 8/10

Nouwen, Henri: The Way of the Heart, 6/10

Pearson, Mary E.: The Adoration of Jenna Fox, 9/10
Pierce, Tamora: First Test (Protector of the Small 1), 9/10

Rothfuss, Patrick: The Name of the Wind, 9/10 ARC
Rowling, J.K.: The Tales of Beedle the Bard, 8/10
Rubio, Mary Henley: Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings, 8/10

Månedens bog Stiefvater, Maggie: Shiver, 9/10 ARC

Vaughn, Patrick: The Allure of the Curse, 8/10 ARC
Verne, Jules: In Search of the Castaways / The Children of Captain Grant, 7/10

Bøger læst i Januar

Årets 12 første bøger!

Andersen, Leif: Jamen, bad jeg da for lidt?, 9/10
Anderson, R.J.: Knife, 9/10

Carey, Jacqueline: Kushiel's Dart, 8/10

Edwards, Nicholas: Dog Whisperer: The Rescue 7/10, ARC

Gregory, Philippa: The Other Boleyn Girl 10/10

Hayden, Torey: Ghost Girl, 7/10

Mass, Wendy: A Mango-Shaped Space, 9/10
McEwan, Ian: Atonement, 7/10

Patterson, James & Ledwidge, Michael: Run for Your Life, 8/10, ARC

Stork, Fransisco X.: Marcelo in the Real World, 9/10, ARC

Turpin, Angela Lam: Legs, 7/10, ARC

Walton, Jo: Farthing, 7/10

Månedens bog: A Mango-Shaped Space. Fascinerende bog om synesthisia.... no clue hvad det hedder på dansk. Synesti måske?

New Kids On The Block concert

Okay, the concert.

Wow!

Despite us arriving in plenty of time before the doors even opened, the tube was still full, and a steady mass of people walked towards the O2. Immediately after we left the station we were met by HUGE signs with "NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK!!!" Mixi took photos, but I haven't had time to get a copy of them yet.

The O2 is impressive! Absolutely HUGE. I'd thought it was "just" a concert hall, but it also has a cinema, tons of restaurants and other shops, so having to waste a couple of hours there was no problem at all. We sat in Starbucks for quite awhile (we'd brought books ;) ) and got chatting to some of the others going to the concert. The woman sitting next to us had bought a programme, and offered that I could look through it, when I asked her how much it was (15 quid for just a bunch of photos? I don't think so!). She was my age or perhaps even a bit older, and was also going for the nostalgia.

The doors opened at 6:30 and we went to find our seats at around 7:30 when the opening act went on. Some American singer, but I have NO clue who she was, because there were no signs anywhere, and if she said, I didn't hear. Not that I really cared - that's not why I came. But it must be such a thankless job to be an opening act. Nobody really cares, they're just waiting for the main attraction to come onstage ;) We had ROTTEN seats. 5th row from the back, waaaay up high, but fortunately a bit out to one side, so we still had a pretty good view over the stage. The atmosphere was terrific though. The opening act ended by taking us through the chorus of "The Right Stuff" and everybody went WILD!



Shortly after 8:30pm New Kids FINALLY came on. Oh. Wow! Sure, I can see all the cheap party tricks for what they were, but the atmosphere was absolutely electric, and I just couldn't get this huge smile off my face and wanted to squeal with excitement. Finally! Naturally they played their comeback for all it was worth, starting by having a voice-over say "15 years ago they walked away. Now they're back. Are you ready to PARTY?!?!?!?!?" Cue thousands of women SCREAMING their heads off. Damn if it wasn't infectious. And I was excited enough as it was ;)

It was interesting to see that the songs from the Step By Step album were clearly the most popular (even if they had changed the rap bit of Games so I couldn't sing along to that any longer. Unfair! ;) ) and definitely the songs where the audience was most "on". ESPECIALLY Step By Step which was the first encore. At one point it goes "Step One - we can have lots of fun. Step Two - there's so much we can do. Step Three - it's just you and me. Step Four - I can give you more. Step Five - don't you know that the time has arrived." NKOTB just sang the "Step 1/2/3/4/5" bit and left it to the audience to shout the reply. Fun! And what a rush it must actually be for them to have people still remember their almost 20-year-old hit! :-D Or perhaps I'm just naive and they're used to it. I'd like to think not though ;)


It. Was. Amazing. I was absolutely high on adrenalin afterwards, and made sure to call Lars as soon as I could make myself be heard, so he could still hear it in my voice. I'm not sure I'd travel abroad to go to a concert with them again (if I do, I'd HAVE to have better seats, that's for sure!), but should they ever make it to Denmark despite my expectations? I'm definitely going.

A 17-year long dream fulfilled... and it was SO worth it.

As for the rest of the weekend? Wicked was good (but not great), seeing Lauren again WAS great, I had lots of fun hanging out with Mixi and as always spent far too much money... (especially as Zavvi had a clearout sale meaning everything was 25% off. I'm actually quite proud of myself that I ended up buying only 6 DVDs! ;-) ). Yup, I had a blast!

Jeff Dunhaaaaam dot com

I'll type up my BRILLIANT weekend shortly, but first something a bit more important.

Check out this link!!!!!

JEFF DUNHAM IS COMING TO DENMARK.

Yes, that had to be shouted.

AND WE HAVE TICKETS!!!!!

That deserved an even louder shout.

9 tickets, row 7, seats 4-12. We don't know yet exactly who's going other than Henni, Mixi and I (Lars may have a shift but is working like mad to get rid of it), but we have no doubt that we'll be able to get people for the rest of them as well... even at the insanely high prices asked.

I don't care.

I'LL GET TO SEE JEFF DUNHAM LIVE!!!!!

*dances around madly*

Okay, *phew* I'm ready to quiet down a bit now. Mixi was SO cute when I called her.
Me: "Are you doing anything on April 11th?"
Her: "No...?"
Me: "Are you online?"
Her: "Yes...?"
Me: "Go on MSN - I'm sending you a link."
*background noises alerting me that the message went through. Short pause*
Her: "Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!!!!!!!!"
Her: "Even if I HAD been doing something, I'm certainly not now."
Her: "Squeeeeeeeeee!!!!! I can't believe it!!!!"
... and the rest was at a level only dogs could her.

She's adorable :-D

Our 2009 Adventure

(Taget fra e-mail)
Like my subject line says, 2009 started with quite an adventure... although I'm not sure 'adventure' is the right word, as that indicates something pleasant, and that's not exactly what I'd call this!

Lars and I took the train home from Henni's place yesterday. We left at around 2am, so this was probably 20'ish minutes later. We had gotten off one train at a transit station and was waiting for the one that'd take us home. The train before ours was 10 minutes late, and when it arrived, we discovered why - some guy found it great fun to pull the emergency break at every station, and wouldn't let the doors close when it was time for the train to leave the station. Some of the other passengers had had enough of this, and attempted to throw him off the train at this station. He'd have none of it though, and dragged one of the others off with him, trying to start a fight. Stoned Guy (SG) was about my size, and Good Guy (GG) even bigger than Lars, so I don't really know what SG was thinking of, but he was OBVIOUSLY on something and therefore fearless. GG handled it so well, put up his hands to show he didn't want to fight, tried to calm down SG instead of using force on him, and generally impressed me by his actions. SG wouldn't leave him alone though, so finally he (GG) asked for somebody to call the police. Lars' and my train had arrived by now, but Lars didn't feel comfortable leaving, so we let it go. At this point another hot-head decided to join the fray and thought the way to subdue SG was to knock him out, so Lars rushed over to help GG keep the two apart. HotHead fortunately quickly decided he had better things to do and Lars and GG managed to get SG cornered (literally) and held him against the corner while Lars called one of his colleagues who was at work. At work they have a direct line to the police, so he knew they'd respond quicker that way, and true enough - two minutes later 7 policemen came running and took care of the situation.

SG claimed the police should arrest Lars and GG instead for "unlawful detention" and "picking fights" (hmmm... two very calm guys of around 6'7" and +200lb vs. one aggressive 5'7"/120lb, drugged up guy who was yelling insults at the police... wonder who they are going to believe).

Lars and GG was asked to give their statement and asked if they wanted to press charges. Naturally they didn't - they hadn't been harmed, but just wanted SG away from 'the public'. The police got their phone numbers, but didn't expect anything else to come of it, and walked away with SG - hopefully to let him get whatever drug he'd taken out of his system in the detention.

We'd missed 2 trains because of all this, so ended up coming home 40 minutes later than expected (making it 3:40am by this time - Lars had been up since 5:30am! I felt so sorry for him!), but I have to say, I was SO proud of Lars for jumping in to help like that. It's something I've always hoped I'd be ready to do if the situation called for it, but I know very well that I'm neither big enough nor strong enough, so might actually do more harm than good (which is frustrating when I want to help... especially when nobody else seems about to do anything), whereas Lars has the strength and 'leverage' needed.

There was never any danger, but I was still fairly shaken afterwards, and was glad we had the ride home to talk the experience through and get it sorted out before heading off to bed.

So there you have it - my first "exciting" experience of 2009... happening just 2.5 hours into the new year.

Nytårsaften

(Taget fra e-mail)
As usual I had a wonderful New Year's Eve at Henni's place. We ended up being 8 people in total, though one of the others had to leave around 10'ish, and as usual had a brilliant time. Mixi joined us this year which was excellent, and despite being around 10 years younger than the others, she didn't seem to have any problems fitting in and looked like she was having lots of fun. I'm glad! It was great spending the evening with her.

So lots of good food, happy people, yummy drinks and good fun - how could it not be great? :) Like last year we ended up playing a couple of games of Bezzerwisser after dinner, and like last year I rocked! :D It's funny, really. I generally absolutely suck at knowledge games (hate Trivial Persuit) and Lars has no problems at all beating me, but on NYE I shine ;)

Somehow we'd got talking about old LP albums, and as an aside I mentioned to Mixi, "Oh, by the way, thanks to Dad I've managed to get hold of Le Papa Pengouin as an mp3 if you're interested?"
Frode: "Le Papa Pengouin?"
Lars to Frode: "Don't ask her about the song! She'll just start singing it!"
Me: Sheesh! It's just an old song my sisters and I used to listen to all the time. I think it was Luxembourg's contribution to the Eurovision Grand Prix in 1982.
Frode: "Ah, you mean starts singing *Le Papa Pengoin, le Papa Pengouin, le Papa, le Papa le Papa Pengoin*?"
Me and Mixi: Clapping, ROARING with laughter. YES! You are so cool!!!!
Frode: Pshaw! Who doesn't know that song?!

Frode won the award for the coolest dude ever that day :-D

Bøger læst i december

Det er alt for lang tid siden jeg har opdateret her sidst, og nu har jeg pludselig en masse at skrive, så for ikke at gøre dette 'entry' alt for langt, splitter jeg det op i flere korte.

Først my favourite - den månedlige opsummering :) Jeg kan hermed sige jeg har læst 244 bøger og 61540 sider i 2008!

Colfer, Eoin: Artemis Fowl 6 - The Time Paradox, Dec 2008, 7/10
Collins, Wilkie: The Woman in White, Dec 2008, 9/10

Flagg, Fannie: A Redbird Christmas, Dec 2008, 6/10

Gabaldon, Diana: A Breath of Snow and Ashes, Dec 2008, 9/10
Garry, Patrick M.: Saving Faith, Dec 2008, 5/10
Golding, Julia: Dragonfly, Dec 2008, 10/10

Hayden, Torey: Beautiful Child, Dec 2008, 8/10

Lassiter, Rhiannon: Bad Blood, Dec 2008, 6/10
Livingston, Lesley: Wondrous Strange, Dec 2008, 8/10

Meyer, Stephenie: Eclipse, Nov 2008, 10/10

Nafisi, Azar: Reading Lolita in Tehran, Dec 2008, 6/10

Rosenthal, Amy Krouse: Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, Dec 2008, 7/10

Scruggs, Cheryl & Jeff: I Do Again, Dec 2008, 10/10
Setterfield, Diane: The Thirteenth Tale, Dec 2008, 9/10

Weber, Lenora Mattingly: Meet the Malones, Dec 2008, 8/10

Månedens bog: Enten The Woman in White eller The Thirteenth Tale - begge var helt fantastiske.

Ah crap!

Jeg er lige blevet ringet op af Nordea, som undrede sig over nogle bevægelser på min konto, og ville høre om jeg havde autoriseret at der blev trukket US$1400 sent i går aftes. Eh, nej! Ganske vidst brugte jeg mit kort i går, men ikke online og BESTEMT ikke for et så højt beløb - det ville jeg have kunnet huske! (Ganske vist køber jeg meget online, men ikke for så store beløb... selv en tiendedel ville være usædvanligt).

Men hvor er det heldigt at de holder øje med sådanne ting - transaktionen var ikke engang kommet på min netbank endnu. Jeg gad dog vide hvad det er der får dem til at tage kontakt til kunden... det kan næsten kun være beløbet, for jeg køber jo tit ting online, men i følge hende jeg snakkede med var det den eneste "mystiske" transaktion. Jeg har heldigvis holdt øje med min konto de sidste par dage, så jeg kunne hurtigt sige at alt op til og med i går var rigtigt nok.

Jeg spurgte hvor pengene var trukket til, men det måtte hun tilsyneladende ikke sige. Det giver vel egentlig mening, men hvis mit kort er blevet "compromised" fordi jeg har brugt det på en forkert internet side (og jeg kan ikke helt se, hvad ellers det skulle være), ville jeg gerne prøve at se om jeg kunne udlede noget og finde ud af hvilken.

Nu skal jeg bare finde ud af hvordan jeg lige får købt ind i dag, for de har spærret mit kort (selvfølgelig!), jeg har ikke ret mange kontanter på mig, og jeg får muligvis først fri efter bankerne er lukket (det er heldigvis torsdag, så der er en chance for at det går). Ah well, jeg har stadig mit Master Card på mig, så hvis alt andet fejler kan jeg da bruge det.

Men som sagt, jeg er meget taknemmelig over at de opdagede det så hurtigt og straks ringede til mig!

Og så den mindre vigtige ting: bah, nu skal jeg til at lære et nyt kortnummer udenad! (Ja, jeg kan mit Visa/Dankortnummer udenad... eller kunne i hvert fald - det gør det så meget lettere når jeg køber ting online). Det gamle var så let fordi der var en masse gentagelser. Ah well, jeg plejer at være god til tal, så mon ikke det går ;)

Bøger læst i november

Alcott, Louisa May: An Old-Fashioned Girl, 10/10
Anderson, Jodi Lynn: Peaches, 8/10 (Tellerup)

Canavan, Trudi: The High Lord (The Black Magician Trilogy 3), 10/10
Canavan, Trudi: The Novice (The Black Magician Trilogy 2), 9/10
Chidley, Elise: Your Roots Are Showing, 8/10

Fitzpatrick, Becca Ajoy: Hush, Hush, 6/10 (Tellerup)

Gordon, Noah: The Death Committee, 6/10

Hendrix, Lisa: Immortal Warrior, 9/10

Keyes, Marian: Last Chance Saloon, 9/10

Lenahan, John: Shadowmagic, 7/10 (Tellerup)

Pickens, Andrea: The Spy Wore Silk, 9/10

Ronald, Margaret: Spiral Hunt, 8/10 (Tellerup)

Seth, Vikram: A Suitable Boy, 7/10

Webster, Jean: Dear Enemy, 9/10