There isn't much to say about the weather this past weekend, other than it was perfect. We're getting a bonus on the weather today, a nice repeat of the last three days. It's so nice in the backyard. I was compelled to go out and water the plants....including the two new frothy purple ones I bought in Hillerod on Saturday.
I've figured out how to find the shopping places here. When the flyers come each week and I program the addresses into the GPS to save them. At first it was a little tough to find stores because they tend to be tucked away in the towns behind trees, 7-11's, and castles. But a lot of them are bunched together on the same streets, so when you find one, it's like hitting the jackpot. A little driving around the surrounding streets will usually produce more places.....except by the time you find them, they are most likely closed. I remember when I was a kid that some stores closed at 1:00 on Saturdays, until the advent of the mall changed all that. It's still that way here. If you want to buy flooring, light fixtures, pool equipment, custom curtains, or something from a smaller shop, get out of the house and on the road early.
We hit a mother-lode in Hillerod. I had saved something called Sylvan which looked sort of Home Depot-like from its flyer. And it was definitely like a Home Depot, in a Canadian Tire or large Ace Home Hardware size. Now, here's an oddity....The purpose of this trip (besides getting flip flops) was to get some paint sample chips to bring home and compare with what was already on the doors and trim. But they don't have those here....not in any of the Home Depot like places that sold paint. Maybe the shops that exclusively sell paint do, but seriously, how can you coordinate paint and your stuff without the benefit of a handful of paint chips. Maybe that explains all the white walls.
To think, I left my Pittsburgh Paints fan book in storage in Houston! Next weekend we'll get up and out of here in time to catch the paint store before it closes. It's probably wise to buy paint from the farver (paint) store. I think with our language issues, someone who knows paint might understand me better.
I'm not sure how many of these stores were bunched together near the Sylvan but I think we visited at least four of them, and I know we skipped one because the wee little Toyota was getting pretty full. We made a pretty good haul from Hillerod on Saturday. We got two more pillows, two frothy purple plants, some groceries, a hose reel, some metal hangers for the rolling wardrobe bag, and this....
John is now completely and utterly at home now that he has his barbecue. It's been quite a charcoal drought since he hasn't had one since 2004. Every meal so far has been cooked on this little gem. Not only was it cheap (about $55), it came with a chimney starter, an apron, an oven mitt, and all the utensils seen here. Hmmmm.....I'm not sure that the length of that apron does anything for him....gosh. He has a pair of really long legs but in this get up he resembles a well hung garden gnome.
Yep! One of the most useful tools on a man is a good pair of barbecue tongs. I wonder why they don't come pre-installed from the factory.
I still have some work to do on the "utterly at home" thing. The shipping delays aren't helping, and yesterday, gentleman caller number 3 showed up as John and I were having breakfast. I'm sure glad all of them so far can read. I saw him coming, past the kitchen window, pausing by the dining room one, I jabbed my cereal spoon at John, and we both watched as customer #3 read the door, and then left.
I then proposed an experiment to John. Since this Friday coming is a holiday, why don't we put the red heart back on the door, remove the sign, and see how many customers actually do turn up during the run of the day. I promised him I wouldn't video tape it for Dateline or anything like that. I don't think he chuckled in the affirmative. I'm also thinking of making a new sign for the door, something a little more colorful and catchy. I'm thinking "No Sex Please, We're British" would be a good one. So what if we're not exactly British.....our ancestors were.
Anyway, all this checking out the stores in Hillerod meant we missed the store with the flip flops by an hour. They closed at 3 o'clock! Which isn't bad I suppose, my broom store had closed at one, so I missed that by twenty minutes. I caved and bought a regular broom and dustpan. The dustpan is now ruined because we used it to prop open a window and rolled the rubber bit so out of shape it doesn't lay flat on the floor now. I told John it wasn't a good idea to let me around household appliances, no matter how simple the operation.
There is still no word on when our things are going to be delivered. Apparently it was the Baku office who shut the delivery down.....essentially because the guy there didn't bother to check the bank to see that his transfer was posted to his account.
Tomorrow I'll drop into the Kommune office to get help with my driver's license conversion. I'm hoping I can plead globe trotting as an indication of no intention to permanently immigrate to Denmark. I also need to find out if I can get my Texas license returned to me for the 7 weeks I'm going to be in Canada this summer. According to the very expensive driving school, I can....but I want to confirm this with the Kommune before I slap down my thousand-plus bucks (be still my heart!) for driving lessons I don't remotely need. If I can't get the license back, then the Danish driving lessons can wait. Now that I'm registered with the "state", the clock has begun to tick on my ability to drive over here. I've talked to some people, here from the US, who have just blown it off as being too onerous an undertaking. I'll do it. But I have to get the logistics figured out first.
Because I want to drive this.
John isn't ever going to read this, so we'll call it the new Sally-Mobile. Sally loves her a stationwagon....sadly no wood on the sides but the I-pod port makes up for that.
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