Odd... plain odd...

Why is it when a persons' name is mentioned in a completely different context, in fact relating to a completely different person, it somehow gets stuck in your subconscious and comes back in an extremely vivid dream.
Suddenly that person you know with that name is appearing as vivid as ever, even when you haven't met for many years...

I had that again. It's just strange. The dream was with full two-way conversation and everything. Odd, odd, odd... and I really would love an explanation of that kind of occurance.

Wonder what Freud would have to say!! Hahahah!

Stereotypes...

Even at the end here I get pleasantly surprised by people, breaking the mold and yet confirming every positive AND negative stereotype view I have of people from that country. An image carefully built up over many years of meeting many people from there ;)
At the negative part I have to take a really deep breath though... before being able to answer with patience and a straight face... Others are actually surprised that I manage... well, not much longer do I have to keep up with it anyway!! haha!

So, for now I will put on Blur's rendition of 'Stereotypes'... ;)

"Yes... The stereotypes
There must be more to life
All your life you're dreaming
And then you
Stop dreaming
Time to time you know
You're going on another bender
Yes There must be more to life
Than stereotypes..."

Just a thought...

When I think I don't think of you anymore
I still think of you
I will therefore try not to think
that I don't think of you anymore...

for M.

65 Years!

Had my grandfather still beem alive, then my grandparents would have celebrated their 65th anniversary today!
Married merely a few months after the occupation of Denmark in the Second World War, repect. You just gotta do it, huh?

I'll take my hat off and bow!

Ch..ch..ch..changes

Over the next week I will work with a friend on some changes on the design and set-up of the page. Something I wanted to have done a loooong time ago, but ok... ;)

Stay tuned!

Anybody recognises this?

A place, special to some...

Have a look!!

Click around, some nice things to see!

UPDATE: finally found the right link ;)
Emdrup!

You know you have good friends, when...

...when they actually call you from close and very far away just to share their feelings on the fact that I will finally move from this place...

...when people will travel half way around Europe just to be there all together in the last weekend I will live here, whether by pure coincidence or not... The Emdrup pasta is waiting!

...when you get the sweetest and warmest messages & emails from literally all over the world, to let you know they want to share their sadness at the 'end of an era', again thinking of the good times we had...

Yeah, guess that's what it is...

With a smile and a tear... Thanks!

Boooooring, booooring...

The other day, in the train on my way to the airport to pick up my mother, I overheard a young boy of around 15-16 years old discuss the golf courses around Copenhagen with an older man who seemed to be a friend of his father.
It was absolutely incredible to listen to.
Don't know if I'll be able to convey here why, but it was priceless to hear. This kid, bored out of his mind apparently (I can't see any no other reason for a person to play golf, other than maybe developing a grass allergy), was actually talking about how hard some stupid hole at some godforsaken green was.

I know that at times I babble on here about football, but this kid here was just the walking stereotype. I doubt one could catch him having an original thought, as everything he said was a cliché and his whole appearance was manufactured in a way only kids with daddies that have too much money can become (I actually thought preppies were extinct!).
From the whole conversation one could extract everything, and realise how little substance there was, with either person.

Pfff, playing golf, something like playing marbles for boys that are too lazy to bend over... ;)

Now, I have to say I have never thought of golf as a sport anyway, if it is a game at all even, and can see only one reason for the fact that a lot of money is involved in it, and that is that is originally an elite sport. All the networks and access to nice sponsorships are there... perfect circumstances.
And now? The plebs come on, the wanna-be's trying to pretend to be something they are not, hope for the elitist image to rub off on themselves, trying to 'elevate' themselves, without even having any affinity for it. Seems like the nouveau riche have some sort of 'program' to go through, in their quest to try and be socially accepted or something...
Golf: check
Tennis: check
Big fat car: check
Trading in loving and devoted wife for a blonde bimbo with plastic tits: check
Buying the kids absolutely everything in order to keep them quiet: check
big fat car for ex-wife: check
small sports car for new girlfriend: check...
being bored out of my mind because I am unable to think because of my lack of brain cells: check...

Etc etc... just fill in the rest yourself ;)

I actually remember some people from my hometown, had become fairly rich on renting out huge cranes, but some of the most foulmouthed, uncivilised, uneducated and scruffy people you'd ever meet... BUT they played golf and tennis, so that makes up for everything, right? They tried to transcend social class, which is admirable enough in itself, but failing miserably in the process, not because of the social structure of the local society, but because of their own pathetic inaptitude. But ok, they lived in their own little world, so guess they are 'happy', although it is hard to remember any smile on their faces at any point.

Back to golf... So-called 'wise older people' have been telling me for ages that it is not such a stupid thing, and that I will grow to like it.... Uhuhh, suuuuuuure...
Just like wearing a tie, huh??? Choking yourself for appearance (by playing golf or wearing a tie) is not my idea of fun...
'Grow to like it'... suuuuure... I bet if you consequently ram your head down the toilet every morning you'll get used to it as well, but that is still not a reason to do it... ;)

What is my point? I don't know... just wanted to vent my opinion, as usual and as futile as it is, on something boring, ridiculous and absolutely a waste of time and effort, like golf.
Yes, yes, I know... I'll get enough reactions here, lovely btw... "You don't have to say that, it's really a cool sport" "Tiger Woods, blah blah blah..." "You know how hard it actually is, blah blah blah..." "Money, blah blah blah" "Social standing,blah blah blah..." "Relaxing time, blah blah blah..." "Network, blah blah blah..."

Suuuuuuure, so if that is the most exciting thing you can do with your wife on a Sunday morning... ooooffff.... shall I continue???

And then... the boy and his golf story sprung back to mind when I read this, this morning:

"Although golf was originally restricted to wealthy, overweight Protestants, today it's open to anybody who owns hideous clothing." (Dave Barry)

That one sums up everything, huh? ;)
Enjoy your day! I am off to hospital for the next check-up in my grass allergy new medicine testing period. Hmmm, a 2 year program and I get a free cure, I like that!

(update: typos edited)

"To cheese or not to cheese..."

Being a cheesehead (well, half) I liked this one:

G. K. Chesterton

"Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."

Wonder if that says more about cheese or about poets...

Sun is shining...

..and the weather is sweet...

But today was another farewell and so long...

Pfff, getting so tired of it, and still I love to meet new faces again.

Hasta luego, hasta Triana, hasta Anselma! And this time not in December ;)

The man's got a point...

'America is a nation of B and C Students. But let's keep it fucking real, OK? A black C student can't run no fucking company. A black C student can't even be the manager of Burger King. Meanwhile, a white C student just happens to be the president of the United States of America!'


Chris Rock

Ok. so that is working...

For a while I haven't been able to upload pictures. Unfortunately, as many posts coukd have used some illustration.
But ok, it's working, it seems!

So let me present you myself! When I was 6-7 years old. Apparently I learned how to cook and love preparing food at an early age!


Little boy baking coconut cookies

Well done?

So, there we are, one year later! 1 year of blogging, inspired by the 'sign of the times', friends, and a conference after which I felt like writing, a lot, about anything.
Have always loved writing, and I think - by looking at your comments I've had - that you like to read it. That makes me quite happy!

It has become a sort of online diary, a place where I can try to put some thoughts and memories in place, and I've got to say, blogging tiredness comes once in a while, but still, I'll keep going for a while longer :)

Well, a day of remembrance and changes then.

I am happy to announce that I have found new housing as of the 1st of August. It's high time to move on anyway...

It will be all the way in the other end of the city, in the (in)famous Istedgade, 1 minute walking from Vega... I'll be living on the top floor of an old building with an old friend, Maria, that I have known for 4 years now. Whe she asked me if I knew anybody who needed a room from summer on, I happily jumped at the occasion! It's always easier to live with someone you know, isn't it...?

So, my last period in Emdrup is finally coming! It's due time, it's been good.
I could have moved the 1st of July, but first of all I paid my rent here already and moer importantly, I feel I need a period of 'detoxifying' and time to put everything here properly behind me; this place: my blessing and my curse.
The last year has been plain crap mostly, with too much negative energy being lost on all kinds of trivial and non-trivial things, like the bloody construction that in going on here (as I write my whole room is shaking).
But then again: my last weekend here will be one to remember for sure, going with Sara, Guillaume, Michael and Alvaro to the U2 concert in CPH.
Yeah, a perfect ending, what better way could I find, as their music has been such in integral part of life here... With especially 'With Or Without You' made immortal in many pictures, found all over the world. I sure hope they play it!!

Music, also important in this blog... I'm having some ideas on how to fill the last month here, looking back one more time by the music we shared. Well, we'll see...

The sun is shining, and I'll get ready for today!

My nostalgia: get it all down

My morning ritual... and then... While browsing the various websites/blogs/anything I have added to my Bloglines subscription (a brilliant way to have a good overview of the new updates of all the sites you visit regularly), I came across the last post on this weblog that I have come to read regularly.
And I was 'tagged'!

So, here we go!

The Rules:
"Remove the #1 item from the following list, bump everyone up one place and add your blog’s name in the #5 spot. You need to actually link to each of the blogs for the link-whorage aspect of this fiendish meme to kick in. (Doesn't this seem shamelessly like a chain letter to you?) Then, replace my memories with your own."

Lollygaggin
Junebugg
Johnnie Walker
Get It All Down
Like A Treasure Hunt

My memories:
1) Sitting on the back of my dad's bike, desperately clinging on to him in my total exhaustion after coming back from a gruelling school trip when I was 7. (I had surgery 2 days before, but I just HAD to make it to that school trip to some stupid amusement park...)

2) When 12 years old... Going further and further into the waves outside Benalmadena and Torremolinos at the Costa Del Sol, jumping into the big ones with a big smile...of course getting disgusting sea water in my mouth. By pure coincidence walking the same spots there 15 years later when visiting some of my best friends in Spain.

3) Standing in awe in front of Michelangelo's David in Florence, at 9 am, with a huuuge hangover, tears streaming down my face, in absolute reverence to so much beauty.

4) Hearing Ocean Colour Scene play 'Robin Hood', probably one of the most beautiful b-sides ever, at the Pinkpop festival in 1998... Shivers...

5) With Magda and José Antonio in a bar in Calle Betis in Sevilla. Triana. Walking in on a flamenco performance, 3 gypsy women singing and clapping, one guy on guitar and one guy on the 'cajón'. Mesmerizing, totally spellbound by the music, the intensity, the passion, the singing, the complexity of feelings it all evoked.
My first 'duende' moment. Unbelievable. Magda told me later of the expression on my face...

And then...
Now 'tag' four more people. I tag:

1) Dani ...in Sevilla, Spain
2) ShazzaB ...in Rotterdam, Holland
3) Miguel ...in Copenhagen, Denmark
4) Estrella Marinera ...in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
5) and last but not least: Christine ...in Copenhagen, Denmark

Enjoy!

One had to win...

The game just ended... long, tense and exciting... extra time and all! Congrats to Betis, well done! One had to win anyway...
I've been reading the commentary etc along the way, and loved it...
Minute 89 "Nervios, tensión, ilusión... minutos de 'infarto' para unos y otros en el Calderón."
Beautiful... this is why we love that game...

And then, in extra time:
"Varela inicia la jugada en el centro, Oliveira conduce el balón y le da el pase definitivo a Dani que no falla y marca el 2-1 para los verdiblancos."
"La afición bética enloquece en el Calderón. cada segndo que pasa ven más cerca la Copa."

I can hear Roberto swearing all the way here, and heard 1000s of Betis fans screaming when Dani called after the first goal. I was at the time on Skype with Guillaume, Sara and Jochem, and they heard it as well. Just relaying ;)

Still in my Osasuna shirt, but can't help smiling nonetheless. For a little while many miles are being crossed, being very close.

I am going to sleep...it's enough for today! Woke up with the sun shining, had my mood later completely ruined by some hysterical woman, and had a quiet but smiling evening...
Good...

How could I ever choose?

And once again... about football... perhaps... But, for certain about friends: the center of this weblog.

Tonight, perhaps a trivial thing to many, two Spanish teams play each other in the Spanish Cup Final. The game is played in Madrid, in the Vicente Calderon stadium, and will be between Betis Sevilla and Osasuna.
If you know me and/or have been reading my weblog regularly, you will know that the cities that these teams originate from, Sevilla and Pamplona, are very important to me, as I have some very good friends in these cities, and have visited them on various occasions. So for me this game means something...

As I wrote about in an earlier post it will be quite hard to support either team fully, but I have got to say that my first 'love' and naturally inclination (for the underdog) lies with Osasuna (which means 'health' in Basque, in case you are interested).
The first time I visited Roberto (and Germán) in Pamplona in 2000, which was the 1st season the team was going to be back in the Primera Division. The captain of the team actually did the opening shot of the San Fermin festivities that year at the 'Chupinazo' (long story...).
That year I apparently also met several players of the team, in several bars, but I can't really remember to be honest... Roberto of course will remind me of that forever probably!
The year after I actually managed to get hold of a shirt of the team for my own, a bright red shirt with the great logo embroidered. Roberto had it mailed to me in Denmark, with my name and favorite number (5) printed on the back...
Right, now, writing this, I am actually wearing that shirt.

We also went to see the Osasuna stadium, and I took a picture there too, as a momento. The reason I somehow always had the name and team in my head goes back to november 1991. My absolute favorite team Ajax was developing a new team, after having reached to European finals in the late 80s and being kicked out the European competitions for a year. They were doing decently under their new coach, the former youth coach Louis van Gaal, and were on to a next round in the UEFA Cup. There they weer meeting a Spanish team, Osasuna, that had been doing pretty good, and was known as a gritty and strong side.
Ajax won both the away game and the home game, both with 1-0. And later, as they went on the win the Cup, in a final against Torino, they reflected, and I think it was Dennis Bergkamp who remarked that the away game against Osasuna was for them the turning point, the hardest game, where the team found its balance, and where the realisation hit them that they could get far and wide with this side they had.
So, Pamplona, old friends, fantastic memories of a great city and great gifts related to that will always make me look for the results of Osasuna. I hardly know who plays there now, but I always look first to what they did, and when I get a chance to see, I watch the game.

Then, Betis... Again a good friend, and again the connection with Ajax...
First of all... it's been only 6 months since I left Sevilla, after a great after-Xmas and brilliant New Years, and still miss it every day (actually just as I haven't seen Pamplona for 4 years, and still can walk the streets with my eyes closed). The other day I came across some pictures I took on the 31st of December, with Alvaro, Magda and Jose Antonio, sitting at the Guadalquivir, enjoying the company and the sun. Great pictures. Some could be used for a calendar even!
After having met Dani, and have endlessly discussed football, as you can notice in the previous post, I started looking once again to the results of Betis, as I did a little bit after my favorite Ajax player of the nineties, the Nigerian Finidi George, moved to Betis. Since then I have been reading about 'el quinto de Joaquin', about the coming up of new young players with some Brazilian samba added. Few know it still, but Betis still has one of the most expensive football players in its ranks, Denilson, and is tonight only on the bench.
Dani wrote in his weblog that he would go to see the final... tickets ready, train ticket ready! Extra AVE's (the fast train between Sevilla and Madrid) have been driving on and off all day to bring the 1000s of fans.
All newspapers today write about the fantastic atmosphere in the city, singing, playing music, and all together getting ready. Whether in bright red or in green-and-white!

So, tonight, the final of the Copa Del Rey 2005!
Roberto is in the stadium now (with some friends I know as well, and quite drunk at 2 pm already) and as said before Dani is also there. I can only imagine the stadium now...

Enjoy the game and have a look at the various viewpoints... it is heartening to read...
The Sevilla side
From Pamplona
And don't forget the frontpages... lots of lovely pictures. Many colours and many smiling faces!

May the best win tonight, unfortunately I won't be able to see the game, but will follow it nonetheless!
Hasta pronto, amigos, enjoy your evening!
And, as I finish this post, the game is about to start...

Or as Marca puts it: La Copa Del Rey 2005 Ya Está En Juego!! "LLENAZO EN EL CALDERÓN PARA UNA CITA HISTÓRICA"

Where is the muse?

Musings... the muse that inspires...noooooo idea where it is at the moment...

I don't want to bore with my posts, simply writing because for the sake of blogging. Read some funny articles on that, blogging addiction and things like that.
Well, guess this post doesn't make it any better.

Sure, a couple of things happened: Saturday is was two years ago we went to the Maná concert in Hamburg, and also on Saturday we celebrated Guillaume's 25th birthday (with Sara's fantastic food...) (which I'll write about later and more), and of course (I mention it because apparently Mark needs an outlet to vent his musings/frustrations/thoughts on this matter) Holland achieved another two victories on their way to the WorldCup in 2006. Supposedly they are not playing that well, but I don't really care, better play bad and win the World Cup by then, then play amazing now, and bore everybody to death then (I can feel Mark's anguish ready to be unleashed here...).

Oh well...

Some fun things are coming up: some birthday parties that I'll write more, on the backgrounds... I need to think first what I can say at all on that ;)
And summer is slowly on it's way... wow, we have 18 degrees already!! It's unbelievable... (take no heed of my sarcasm..)

Ok, sorry, nothing interesting to tell right now, have some thoughts, but they need to cristallise first, and want to combine them as a reaction to some of Dani's recent posts...

I'll be back... Mark, are you ready?

Thanks...

Hmmm, just spoke with my parents who had some sad news...

We have to go back in time for this...
When I was a little boy of around 10 years old, my parents employed at times an friendly and nice old painter (meneer van Oosten) who would repaint parts of the house, outside and inside.
He was an elderly man already, but still enjoyed doing the work he did very much and even when my grandparents from Denmark came to visit they got along fine, even though they hardly understood each other.
It was great to see that, just to see them sharing a shot of 'Gammel Dansk' (some old disgusting Danish bitter) and communicating somehow...
He was very fond of me as well, and told me all kinds of stories, sad and exciting, from the Second World War too, as he had been quite active in it. Both as a worker that was deported to a German factory and (if my memory serves me well) as a resistance fighter.
I vaguely remember a story of how he survived as an English Spitfire strafed the truck he was driving, thinking it was a German truck. Other half stories pop up slowly in my memory, but it was a long time ago I heard them...

Later, even after he stopped working, as he got too old, he would once in a while pop in and say hello and for a coffee, but in his later years he stopped even that. Well, people grow old...

Then, after he and his wife celebrated their 60th anniversary last year, he died last week, at the very respectable age of 87.

Rest in peace, thanks for the nice childhood memories!

'New' and improved!

I got sent this great link, and didn't want to keep it from you...

http://eurota.blogspot.com/

There are some brilliant insights and lovely quotes from the involved on what keeps us busy these days, in the founding countries of the EU ;)

And no, I am not scared of the EU, as all of you know l love the fact that we have met at some point in time across of borders, languages and cultures (which probably wouldn't have happened without european cooporation), but I am just pissed off with the way how everything is shoved down our throats by some megalomaniacs desperately scrambling to cling on to their power going back to post-Napoleonic times in trying to create a power block equal to Gringolandia, with scaring us into something no one knows anything about (have you tried to read bloody 500 pages of such blahblah?) and has so many footnotes, that the original articles are not even valid anymore (sounds like Denmark in the 80s)...

I'll stop here :) And let the 'experts' speak:

" Europe's leaders will hold a summit on June 16-17 to try to contain the turmoil. The summit is likely to extend the November 2006 deadline for ratification in the hope that French and Dutch voters change their minds. (FT.Com)"
A reaction to this: "Until the European elites understand that this (above) type of thought is what wins one the Robert G. Mugabe Award for Democractic Excellence (slightly over the top), there will be little hope of pursuing the liberal economic reforms so badly needed in Europe's largest economies."

Beautiful, isn't it? Enjoy reading... I am just shaking my head at the arrogance of the various governments...

And if you are actually interested in knowing more... check this review of the thing
http://www.sargasso.nl/index.php?author=12 (in Dutch) and http://blogger.xs4all.nl/steeph/category/7076.aspx (in English)'

Go straight to the conclusions... it will save you time and lots of trouble;)

Visit Denmark - for real and through proxy...

Visit Denmark

By pure coincidence I came across this site, and what a pleasant find it was!!
Here, you can find all kinds of free pictures of Denmark (publishes by the Tourism Board), high quality and in high resolutions, of all sorts of moving, strange, funny, peculiar, gorgeous, luscious, sweet, lovely and great persons, situations and things. All the beauties of Denmark are captured here ;)

And above all, sooooo very Danish...

If you have been here earlier, or if you, as I, live here, or have lived here in this quiet little modern outpost, you will love these pictures.

Take your time and browse through them, and enjoy!! My smile will stay for a while longer today!