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.