English Christmas

It was an early start on Tuesday morning! I was up at 4am to get ready and on the bus at 5am towards the the airport. I was supposed to leave around 7am but the plane was delayed 50 minutes. It was lucky I got to Gatwick with just enough time to get on the train to Reading. From there I talked to Derek and Sue and they asked me to get another train to Leamington Spa as there had been snow and was hold ups on the motorway due to accidents. It was no problem for me and I was soon being met by Derek at the station. We went back to their house and caught up and I was so happy to be back in an English speaking country. They have Sky television with so many channels and newspapers and magazines in english.. bliss. It was not a late night due to being up so early and then the next morning Sue took me into Leamington Spa to go shopping. First stop was Boots and I spent a lot of time in there before going to the mall and walking up the main street. There was one shop I went back to and bought a bit in there. Was nice clothes and good price, Jane Norman. Then it was time to meet back up with Sue and head back to Whitnash. That night we went toWarwick and went to a pub for a drink before going to their favourite Indian restaurant, Warwick Spice. I had been there before with them and they do cook yum Indian!

With Sue and Derek at Warwick Spice.

yum!!

The next day we had visitors and a lot of planning before christmas. We had fish and chips from across the road, it was very good. Then after dinner we went around to Sarah's to drop of the mountain of presents for the kids. Christmas day I was up and getting ready at 9am. Then went to get some breakfast and unwrap presents with Derek, Sue, Ralph, Sadie and Sybil. I was the youngest there and I've never seen so many presents with no kids around! Then all the others started turning up and we had a lovely christmas lunch with 15. After we played games and talked to other family through Skype then the few of us left played till very late so I did not feel so good the next day..

Ralph with his litle mountain of presents growing.

Sadie and Sybil.

Tom & Gemma, Brian & Louise.

Playing games, Andrew and Derek.

Ralph and Sadie thinking hard.

Sue and Derek.

Yum!!

Boxing day I did not surface till around midday. It would have been earlier but Derek did not sleep well and had put a do not disturb sign on their door so I figured I could have some more sleep. When I did Chris, Katie and the girls had turned up and we had another yummy lunch of turkey soup and cold meats etc. Then we played more games until they had to drive back to Frome and Sue and I stayed up to watch Australia on the movie channel.

Playing celebrity heads with Ellie, Lydia and Katie.

And Chris =)

Then Sunday I got to shop again and had more fun in Boots and Jane Norman. We had yummy lamb roast for dinner before Gemma and Tom turned up and we went into Warwick to some pubs. I had a great time getting to know Gemma better and downed a few pints before jumping in a cab back to bed. Monday we had a restful morning plus I had to pack my back with a lot more stuff than I came. We had turkey curry for lunch and then said goodbye to Ralph, Sadie and Sybil before getting into the car and heading on the motorway to the airport. It was lucky we left a bit earlier as there was a lot of traffic but I was there in time and said goodbye to Derek and Sue. I had a little bit of time for shopping before getting on the plane for the short flight home. It was late once I reached Copenhagen so caught a taxi after the Metro and came straight home.

disaster..

Tuesday meeting at school was fine, Barbara said that she didn't have any comments on my writing so that was a good sign. After school I went into town to meet with Louise, Eva and Nadia. It was pretty cold but I had to go at least once to one of the climate convention concerts and this night was Gogo Bordello! We got there a bit early but was worth it for the spot we got close to the stage and as soon as the band started playing and everyone started dancing we got warmer. I went home straight after the concert as Wednesday was another early morning at work.

COP15 in Copenhagen.

Hopenhagen

Radhusplasen with the big tree and the big globe.

The crowd going wild at Goggo Bordello.

Thursday meeting at school was rather a lot worse. It was now getting painfully obvious that we were not going to be able to hand in anything I would be proud of. I don't know what happened with the communication in my group but the website kept changing from the original design which I thought we had discussed and I had wrote about. Still I worked on the php code for the e-mail subscription hoping that we could pull through.

Snow!!

Friday i went to work at lunch time and did a few hours after lunch until it was Friday bar time. It was the last Friday bar of the year and although was a bit quiet there were a few people there wanting to celebrate and after we got kicked out of work we headed to a bar in the city for a few more bevvies. I was not home late again though as I had another meeting at school.. on a Saturday morning!!

It was not nice to wake up but I made my way to school and the website had changed again. It was nice looking but again not what we had discussed so the decision was made that we would have to split up and finish separately. It is a huge bummer to not graduate in January with everyone but having 2 months more to finish it (and 2 months more of student allowance!!) is not a bad thing. Most of the hard work is done in the analysing and designing process so now I just have to make the website and finish the report. I went home and watched a movie I had downloaded called Thirteen. It was a pretty good movie and very true to how some thirteen year olds can be. I stayed home and had an early night as even though I didn't have to finish the project I still had a lot to do.

So Sunday I cleaned my apartment properly for the first time in ages! Then later that afternoon I went to town and met woth Morten, Maart and Lars and had some dinner before meeting with Karina and the others to watch Avatar in 3D. It was a very cool movie and some of the creatures were pretty scary in 3d! Monday I went to school to sort out deferring till March and then the bar opened and was nice to have a few beers with everyone before saying goodbye and Merry Xmas!

Julefrokosts!!

The week started out pretty quiet, keeping out of the cold and studying. I went on a trip to the mall on Wednesday after work and was very happy to see the fashion has gone back to the 80's! There was black lace, tigers and studs everywhere! Along with a good helping of sequins. I didn't find anything to wear to the work xmas party but did find a great 80's glam rock outfit for a fun occasion.

On Thursday night I headed over to Kathrine's place. She had 2 free tickets to a Swedish band Takida so we jumped on a bus to Lille Vega to check them out. We were pleasantly surprised that the band were rather cute and didn't sound so bad either. After a few yum Jim Beams and after the concert we headed back to the Southern Cross for a nightcap before heading home. Friday I was a little tired and stayed home for the first Friday in ages!

Then Saturday was Christmas party time! I got all glamed up and headed to McGrath's pub to meet with some others before hand. Was pretty disappointed that the football was on but it was soon time to head to dinner. We had dinner at my old office above the Waterfront mall. It was set up really pretty and was nice sipping champagne and watching people turn up looking great. We had a seating plan but luckily I had some friends at my table. The starter of salmon was nice but then we had to sit through long presentations before the main course. This of course led to a lot of wine being drunk. Then when the main turned up I could hardly cut the meat let alone chew it. Then was a few mouthfuls of desert before heading to the party. We had a quick shot for the walk and got to our building where there were cocktails and a band waiting. I grabbed a cocktail, went to dance and the rest of the night is a blur.

Dinner in the Waterfront office.

Party at the Saxo building.

The dancefloor.

So Sunday was a very quiet day and soon it was another week. And yet again another quiet start to the week spend studying and writing. Thursday after school I biked in the rain to meet with Sarah and Pirita to shop for our Julefrokost the next night. Then it was home to get dry and an early night. Friday I went to work, then had a meeting at 1pm at Bellevue, our last meeting before hand in. Then it was home to quickly change and head over to Pirita's. I got there just after 4pm and we started preparing for the Julefrokost. Sarah ended up being quite late and she had the pork but we got it in the oven and Morten turned up to lend a hand. Then everyone was turning up and we had glogg before sitting down for the fish course. Our guests brought us a lovely bottle of snaps that was soon drunk up and we pulled the other from the freezer. It was then another 2 courses before desert of ris ala mande, yum yum! After some dancing it was time to head out to save the neighbours more noise and some of us headed into Nyhavn and to a secret bar. It was cool, looked just like an apartment building but we were ushered downstairs to a stylish bar. It was not a party place though so we left some there and headed to the bar where the others were. This was more of a party place and more dancing was done before heading home very happy around 5am.

Colour coordination! The brights..

And the borings.

Herrings and snaps.

Desert.

Snaps!!

Dancing.

My beautiful co-hosts.

Full Album.

Saturday I slept for a loong time then slept some more. It didn't seem possible to go out again but I got dressed in my 80's glam rock and jumped on a bus to meet with Karina. We then headed into town and bumped into Borgar outside Huset. Once inside and with beers we hung out with the gang and tried to talk with a very loud metal band playing. Next it was time for Omnihil and they played another amazing concert. We went for some beers backstage afterwards and laughed that there was no JDs and strippers and then headed across the road to a very crowded, very small, very Danish bar. I only lasted here a little while until I was very tired. I walked down the road to catch a night bus and was surprised when Sina turned up from the salsa bar as it was around 4am, totally random and I hadn't seen her for ages. Pity I was too tired to talk much and to even wait for the bus so I jumped in a taxi and was very happy to crawl into bed.

Phi with his metal face.

The Omnihil, Phong, Dag and Rasmus.

Backstage.

With Kaspar.

So then Sunday was recovery day and write, write, write! I managed to write a bit of report and send off to Barbara for our meeting Tuesday. I have lots of pics but right now have to write so will try upload tomorrow.. laters.

vampires, thanksgiving and last school friday bar.. ever =(

Monday after work and study I headed over to Louise’s place and we watched Twilight again in preparation for the big night on Tuesday!! It was lovely to catch up with her, Eva and Nadia and I could never tire of watching that movie.

Tuesday was a busy day at school organising for the special Friday bar this week and preparing for our meeting with Bellevue on Thursday. Then it was off the meet with the girls for a quick dinner at Chilli Milli’s before stocking up on popcorn and watching NEW MOON!! We saw it at the Imperial which is a grand cinema. We had great seats at the back and they are very comfortable with a reclining back. The movie did not disappoint and I could tell by the wolf whistles and clapping from the theatre whenever the boys took off their shirts that all the girls were enjoying it. It had a lot more action than the first movie and Edward was not too greatly missed as he was replaced by a very good looking wolfpack. I now look forward to reading the book and wait for the 3rd movie next year.





Thursday was a very busy day at school trying to sort out sound systems for Dennis to play on Friday and get the posters up at school. Sune was busy finishing the design proposals to show Julie at Bellevue and he came up with 3 good design ideas that we could show her. I think the meeting went well although she said something about liking blueprint style graphics, which was a bit out of what we had been working on and late in the project to consider changing the design. We now only have 3 weeks in which to build the website and write the 45+ page report. Then Thursday night I needed to have an early night in preparation for a huge Friday!

I was up and off for work at 8am Friday morning and then after lunch I raced home, got changed, skulled a redbull and headed to school. Steve and Dennis were getting set up, and I got some advise from the friday bar staff how to run things then soon it was 2pm and time to start serving the students. I had some great help behind the bar, especially with Borgar and Anca changing the kegs that were needing to be done quite often in the beginning. Dennis' music was great and the party really got started. Steve was a great dj and we were having a lot of fun dancing behind the bar. Malene was looking lovely and Pip was a great help until I think he drank too much of the merchandise and disappeared =) Borgar and Sune had to leave but Georgi and Karina turned up and helped me out to till the end along with Michael. Anca was with me the whole time. All in all it was a fantastic last friday bar but it is going to be sorely missed. After we got kicked out of the school around 11pm a bunch of us were looking for a party but ended up in a random bodega playing dice games. Good times!

Dee

Okay no one told me about the grey thing.. Malene, Pip, Sune and Borgar

Michael with DJ Steve Williams

It's fun on this side of the bar!

Saturday then was a slow start to the day before heading to the main train station to catch a train to Malmo in Sweden. It only takes around 35 minutes to get there and then I had to try to find Albert's apartment from the very confusing maps I had. I found the Coop anyways and Michael came down to get me. We had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, cornbread, pumkin pie and other traditional American food. I washed this down with a few bourbans but all too soon it was time to leave and catch the train home. Sunday I relaxed a lot which meant a lot of report writing to be done on Monday!

Smoking inside the painted lines only?? With Hulya at Mamlo Central Station.

too much italian wine..

Tuesday we had movie night at school and I must say I am enjoying my new hours at work with afternoons off. We saw a movie called Objectified which is directed by the same guy as Helvetica. It is a very interesting movie and as it is to do with good design it could never end really, the scope of the subject is so huge. The rest of the week was very quiet so I was very much looking forward to Friday.

We got giant toblerone at work.

Friday I worked the afternoon shift as at 4:30pm there was to be a special Italian bar at work with Italian wine tasting. They were a little late with the tasting and rushed through the 7 different bottles so I am blaming this on getting a bit too drunk too quickly. But I was not the only one and after the bar Lars, Maart and some other Saxo guys came with me to the school party. It was a lot of fun catching up with friends at the party and making new friends but it was all too soon that I was home and feeling very hung over the next day.

Italian wine tasting.

Jonas and Lars from Saxo Bank.

Mmmm antipasto.

So then it was a very quiet rest of the weekend. I watched Wall-E, a cute Pixar movie and The Countess, which was very gothic, dark and creepy and also fascinating since it is based on a real Hungarian countess from the 16th century.

Tuesday I stayed at school till 6pm trying to figure out the PHP and MySQL database I had been working on for a little while. I finally managed to get it to work (don’t ask me how!) so felt pretty good about that. Then I took the metro over to Amager and met with Anders for dinner and a movie. We ended up watching this really nice Clint Eastwood movie Gran Torino, I would totally recommend.

Thursday It was quiz night again and I biked over and picked up Karina and we headed to the Cross. It looked as though no one else was turning up but then Bjørn, Chris and Glenn turned up at the last minute. We were a big team but as Karina and I aren’t very good at the questions we did not have an advantage. But we helped out a lot in the last round by solving all five of the anagram questions. We ended up drawing for 2nd place with 2 other teams and lost out on the snap question. Then I was sensible and left with Karina, not so sensible though as we stopped past McDonalds and Burger King on the way home.

Was just a little tired on Friday and raced home from work to scull back a redbull and head to school. It was the first time I think I’ve not been to school on a Friday and I was nervous no one would be there but I happy to see Malene and Sune there and Ana and Morten soon joined us. We had a few more redbulls and then it was time for me and Morten to head into town for his birthday dinner. It was at a very traditional Danish restaurant and we had a lovely 3 course meal of salmon to start, duck with red cabbage and brown potatoes and then Ris a la mande for desert. Then we all headed up to Louise’s Friday bar stopping at a lingerie shop opening on the way for some free champagne and discussions on which underwear looked the best. Louise’s Friday bar was loud and busy. It was nice to see Gitte and Nicolai but I was soon tired after a long day and was lucky to get the night bus straight outside.

Blurry picture of me drinking snaps at Morten's birthday (it's kinda how I felt afterwards to..)

Saturday I was going to have a quiet night but after waking up feeling a little bad thanks to the shenanigans of the night before when mark suggested I come watch the rugby it was not a bad idea. So I biked down to Zulu bar and soon had a nice cold pint of beer in front of me and was the only person cheering for NZ at the bar. Even Chris was on England’s side that day as the All Blacks have been winning all their matches which is not good for Aussie. It was a pretty boring game but nice that we won. Phong soon turned up and we moved down to the Cross where a lot of Bundaberg was consumed while singing along very loudly to 80’s rock songs.

So Sunday then consisted of getting over 2 day hangover, doing laundry and not getting really anything else done that I should have. Where does the time go..?

back to work..

Well this blog is going to be a lot less colourfull than the last few. I arrived home Wednesday 28th Oct and it felt good to wash all my clothes and sleep in my own bed. Thursday it was back to school and work. I was halfway in the middle of a workshop on Usability and it was hard to fit in (it seemed hard even for the people who had been there all week). Friday I was looking forward to the Friday bar and after a few drinks I raced home to drop off my school stuff, gulp down some dinner and into town to meet with the guys at Studenterhuset for Lars' band Roof on Fire's album launch party. Some others turned up so we headed across to town to meet up with all the others out. We picked up a few more peeps at Cafe Blaisen but when we reached the bar the others were at there was a big queue. So we headed to the Globe which suited me fine as I soon had a nice big pint of guinness =) After that we didn't want to queue for the bar so I headed home.

Saturday night was Juan's leaving drinks at The Office and Pirita kindly invited me over to dinner at hers first. She had taken Italian cooking classes with her work and made a yum dinner of salmon starters, rissotto and tirimasu for desert! Then we biked up the road and had some delish cocktails with some of the guys from work. I had got a little cold so I was sensible and didn't stay out too late. Anyway the next week was soo busy.

I had late nights every night trying to write my travel blogs and study after being at work and school. Wednesday we had a system issue at work and we all worked overtime meaning I worked 10 hours and then came home to make our midterm evaluation presentation which we gave on Thursday morning. The other teacher present liked our project which is great so now we just have to work hard to finish it. Thursday night I raced out after work to The Cross for quiz night. We were supposed to meeting some guys from England that Karina knows but they went to the Australian Bar by mistake then didn't want to leave. Lucky Glenn, Chris and Bjorn turned up so we could make a good team. It looked like we were doing well in the beginning but we finished a respectable fourth. We had a few drinks and everyone left but Glenn so I said I'd have one more drink with him which turned out to be more like four and I was home quite late.

We had been having a workshop in Javascript and Ajax last week and it was already waay over my head so when I turned up late and hungover on Friday it didn't make much difference. Soon enough it was Friday bar time again and I enjoyed a few beers before heading home exhausted for an early night. I had a really great sleep and was looking forward to dinner at Corrine and Mat's place. It was a nice little dinner party and Corrine had cooked some really amazing Indian food. Next thing it was about 2:30am and I biked home and called home as I knew I would not get up in time in the morning.

Matthew and Corrine in the kitchen cooking up some YUM!

Dina and hubby.

Isrin with his cute family.

Lena with Isrin's little girl Sofea.

Scotland & Ireland pics..

You can find my whole album here:

scotland & ireland 09

Ireland

I'm listening to this station while writing this.. http://my.liveireland.com/page/radio-1

Now I'm in an Irish mood! I arrived at Dublin airport around 10pm and found the airport coach only to discover it wasn't the one that would drop me right by the hostel. It dropped me in a very central location though and I walked past the Millennium Spire and it was not too much further. There was only one other girl in the room and I jumped straight into be but I had a top bunk and it was noisy with people walking around above me. The next morning I was up early, showered and eating yuck hostel breakfast and then waiting for the tour. There were a lot of people in the lounge and I was curious as to how many tours were leaving that day. It turned out that we had a big bus and were 43 people on the tour! This was very disappointing after the lovely experience of the small Scotland tour but we were soon on the road and Tom the guide was introducing us to the Paddywagon Tour. First stop was a big park in Dublin full of deer. We stopped to look at a giant cross that was the place where the pope had held a service. Then it was back on the bus and to the site of an old monastery Clonmacnoise. It was beautiful place with ruins of churches and old crosses. We saw an interesting short film on the history of the place before it was time to leave again. Then we arrived in our stop for the night, the lovely seaside city of Galway. We had some time before meeting for dinner so after dropping our stuff of at the hostel I went with a few girls for a walk around the main streets. It is a busy little city with lots of students. It was also Bank Holiday weekend so a lot of people around. Then after going back to the hotle to freshen up we met with the others for dinner and then headed out on the town. First going to a large bar where Tom had recommended. It was a good place if you were a big group out to party but we were after something more traditional and found a lovely little cram packed pub where there was a folk band playing. I had a few yummy guinness and Irish coffees before going to head back to the hostel. On the way I bumped into Adam from the Scotland tour but he was off to a nightclub. Then I bumped into 2 Aussie guys on our tour and went back to the pub for one more guinness.

Clonmacnoise

Shop Street, Galway

mmm fish n chips =)

double MMMM, guinness and Irish coffee!

Folk band

The next morning I felt surprisingly good considering the amount of guinness and whiskey I had drunk the night before. The breakfast at the hostel was fabulous as they made pancakes to raise money for breast cancer and did all the dishes! The first stop off the bus was at a pretty castle on edge of the water. The it was onwards and heard the horrific story of the potato famine and other incredibly sad things from Ireland's past. We had a quick stop when one of the American guys spewed on the bus and it got cleaned up then the next stop was The Burren, a beautiful area of limestone and cliffs on the seafront. Then it was on to the Cliffs of Moher! It was very windy but nice weather and had a nice walk around the site. Afterwards I looked around in the shop and was astounded that when I came out it was raining and you couldn't see anything! Great timing! We then drove on to our next stopover in Killarney. We went to a pub for dinner and then followed Tom to a bar for some drinks. It seemed like a nice little town but we had had enough partying the night before in Galway and didn't stay out to late. Also we had to be up early for a jaunting car ride the next morning.

Oh look.. another castle =)

Spew stop, everyone off the bus.

Beautiful cliffs at The Burren.

Limestone as far as the eye can see.

Lovely view at the Cliffs of Moher.

The Cliffs of Moher.

We awoke and had a horrible breakfast, I was not impressed with the hostel at all! Then when we waited outside we saw a line of horses with jaunting cars turn up. I got to ride up the front and it was a little ride through town until we reached Killarney National Park. Just inside here was Ross Castle and we jumped off the cars to look around at the beautiful scenery. Then it was back to the hostel and waiting for Tom with the bus. First stop for the day was Blarney Castle. The gardens surrounding it are very beautiful and I was amazed at how many rooms of the castle you could walk into. It was a short queue at the top to kiss the Blarney Stone and just a little bit scary when you have to lean so far back. Lucky there was a charming man holding onto me and then I was just trying not to think how many other people had kissed it :P Then it was just one more stop at a lovely little town with a castle built on a big rock face for lunch before being dropped back in Dublin. Lucky it was not far to my hostel for the next 2 nights and I easily found Barnacles right in Temple Bar. I went to my room and was greeted very friendly by my room mates some American guys and girls. I checked out what was recommended to eat and found a Chinese place nearby. Then I explored a bit but was so tired from my back to back tours that I read my book and had an early night, pleasantly falling asleep to the live Irish music playing at the Temple Bar next door.

Jaunting car ride.

Ross Castle in Killarney National Park.

View from Blarney Castle.

Kissing the Blarney Stone.

A view from the top of the castle.

The Castle on the Rock.

Temple Bar.

The next morning I woke up to no alarm for once! Had a leisurely breakfast and then headed out towards the Guinness Storehouse. It was an interesting walk past beautiful big churches and the Viking area. And soon it became obvious that I was in the Guinness area. The big brick buildings were very impressive and historical. Then I was inside and looking at the fascinating exhibitions and learning all about Guinness. I spent a good few hours going through the building and then reached the top and waited rather impatiently for my guinness. I bumped into a guy from the Ireland tour Chris and he was having a great time as he'd met a bunch of ladies who gave him all their drink tickets and was on his fifth! The view from up the top was awesome but it was soon time to leave as I had spent most of the day there. So as I didn't have too much daylight left I thought I would head back and look around Trinity College and Temple Bar during the day. I stopped off at Queen of Tarts a lovely little cafe Lyn on the Scotland tour recommended to me. Then I ventured over the Liffey River and up O'Connel Street a little before turning down a shopping street and going a bit crazy on sausages and cheese at Marks and Spencers. I headed back to the hostel with some cans of guinness (yes I was really getting a taste for it at this stage) and chilled out a bit before heading out to meet with Joanne and Lara from the tour. We went to a hotel where they had live Irish music and then Irish dancers and on the way back to the hostel Joanne and I went to see the statue of Molly Malone which was close to Trinity College, therefore close to Temple Bar, therefore Dublin is a nice small and easy city to get around. Joanne left and I thought I better have one drink at the Temple Bar next door to the hostel and ordered a Jamesons and listened to some more Irish music.

Dublin Castle.

Christchurch Cathedral.

View from the top of the Guinness Storehouse.

O'Connel Street.

Millennium Spire.

Ha'penny Bridge over the Liffey River.

Irish Music.

The statue of Molly Malone.

The next morning I didn't have to get up too early so was a nice stressfree breakfast and pack up and head to the busstop to get to the airport. Then I was on my way back to cold, rainy Copenhagen. Ireland amazed me not only by it's beauty, haunting history and fun atmosphere but by the lovely, friendly Irish people. But I could not shake the memory of Scotland even after 5 days in Ireland. Yes the Scotland tour was better, with less people, but it was also the amazing nature of Scotland that I will not soon forget.