Learning The Ropes....Part One

Since multilingual doesn't mean being able to carry on several conversations at once, I've started to look into Danish lessons. How will this look on my curriculum vitae? Speaks a smattering of Azeri, Knows how to pronounce the Cyrillic alphabet, Can recognize the many different "o" sounds in Danish. Impressive, no?

Denmark offers free language lessons to foreigners who hold a CPR number. A CPR number is the be all and the end all here. You can't blow your nose without one. It functions the same as our Social Security numbers but there isn't any reticence about flashing your number all over the place. Nobody much cares what your name is but they are damn well interested in that number. I had to give one to the guy at the cell phone store when I bought a SIM card in order to get a special offer that was only available once. They were keeping track of who had taken advantage of it by their CPR numbers.

Maybe that's why the bank is super security conscious with their e-banking and debit cards. We got our dance cards last week. A few days ago the pin codes showed up for them. When I opened the envelope (one of those perforated on 3 sides thingies), I couldn't find the number. It turned out to be hiding under a large sticker that looks like what we stick on our windows for car registration. There were a ton of instructions (all in Danish)...so I Google translated and got a bunch of nonsense about masking the code in the window by filling out numbers from 0 to 9 in rows and columns in the grid of colored squares before I threw the envelope away. I also got something about monsters, too. Not sure where they fit into the PIN code picture but it showed me the limits of Google Translate.

Then on top of the PIN code monsters, there is the issue of menus...not the restaurant kind, the telephone kind. Denmark, being a modern technological country, has embraced the automated menu system that North America has. I don't think I've made one phone call to a business, yet, where I didn't have to fumble through several levels of menus....most often to eventually hit the one that accidentally " ends this call". Yesterday, I called Dong Energy (I love these names) and reported a power outage when I really just had a question about my bill. Those crafty Danes (who love queues so much they make you take a number to blow your nose), have foiled me every time I've tried to bail on the options by hitting zero.

I persevered with getting through to the cable company (to find out how come the "fuld pakken" is only 15 channels...which it isn't....I've got a technician coming...a major break through), the electric company (to find out why my bill is so high), and the Kommune (just because I was on a roll). I also needed to find out where to pay the bills, since we don't have e-banking yet.

I paid the bills at the bank, for the princely sum of 20kr a piece. And decided to that it was time to learn to speak some Danish.

They call them "crash courses" but I think boot camp is a more apt description. These people (or the government who is paying for it) REALLY want you to learn the language when you sign up for one of these things. I checked out the web sites for several schools, looking for the one that wasn't on the government program. I didn't find it.

There are 8 modules. Each module is 6 to 8 weeks long. You attend classes for a minimum of 3 days per week, 3.5 hours a day. If you miss 2 classes you are dumped and have to start over. They group you by your level of education, so college grads study with college grads and so forth. There are state exams you have to pass in order to move on. Some of them have an entry interview. Okay, then...

One of the schools is offering a concentrated summer school class beginning and ending before I go home on holidays. It runs from June 27th to July 17th and you have to go 5 mornings a week. There are tests, exams, homework, and the thing I hated most in the high school....the language lab. My Dreamweaver class is blowing my mind, since my head is just not on school stuff right now, so if I decide to drop it, maybe I'll do this. I think I'm nuts.

Our stuff is finally being delivered this afternoon between twelve and two. John has been so involved in this, he says he might actually come home. Since he's paying through the nose to have someone bring it "in" the house, I think he wants to get his money's worth and make them move furniture and lay out the carpets. That's probably a good idea since I think there is a 200 pound piece of glass on this table and the same for the pillars it sits on. Also, for some reason he's expecting a lot of damage (he's such an optimist), so maybe that's bringing him home....or else he thinks I won't open the door to a group of strange men.

Unpacking and setting up is going to keep my busy for a while. I can't wait to use my good china again....I think blue is a great color for the kitchen, is it not?


I've got more of Lars' things to pile on the spare room bed for him to take out of here. I think I'll go and do that right now since he'll be by this afternoon. I found this huge blow torch in the shed the other day, and finally figured out why one would have such a thing. They use them to incinerate the weeds and grass that grow up between the patio stones. I think I'll ask him to torch some greenery and stay out of the pool today. I'm all out of clean towels and the driveway is beginning to look like no one lives here.

In the meantime, we've had one more "visitor". This one was on Monday night around ten o'clock. So maybe this wasn't a daytime while hubby's at work kind of operation after all. I'm thinking a gate at the end of the driveway might be in order. I don't think I need to see them walk all the way up to the house. Might as well turn them around before they get too excited, and in the winter it will give them a shorter walk back to their cars. I'm sure that kindness would be appreciated.

Pool Boy

Even though we hired the landlord (who I'm going to call "Lars" from now on) to do the yard work once a week, he's been dropping by every other day. He comes to look after the pool...which he's trying to revive after going to Thailand last summer, turning off the pumps and the skimmers, and otherwise letting it go. We've sort of been suggesting that maybe he needed to get the "real" pool guy back with some sort of vacuum, since it doesn't seem to be responding to the constant dump of chemicals he's throwing into it anymore. But he says that would cost "many money".

If it weren't for the grit on the bottom and the nice skim of rusty brown along the sides, it would be perfect. The water itself is crystal clear....makes it so much better to see the bottom and the treasures that lurk therein....like money. There are coins down there.....and bits of left over lilac petals....and the rusty brown grit.

Two days ago it was sunny and gorgeous, and Lars showed up to dump some more chemicals into the water. For some reason, the water level had been dropping, hourly, all day. Lars did his chemical thing and mentioned that he would be back tomorrow to scrub the pool. He said the water temperature, at 18C, was warm enough for him to get in it.....sure buddy, it's positively toasty....especially with the air temperature pushing 14C and all....but.... I wasn't going to argue with him because it's taken him about two weeks to come to the conclusion that the damn thing just needed a little elbow grease. I'm going to say it's a language thing why he didn't get that way back when....but hell, he's buying the chemicals.

Anyway, I went back to Google translating the electric bill and my coffee (the new brew maker is lovely). A few minutes later, Lars knocks on the patio door and tells me, since the water level in the pool is down, he thinks it's a good idea to go into the water and scrub the pool right then. He says it won't be as far over his head in the deep end and did I "have something".....long pause as he searches for the word.....which is "towel".

To which I responded, as I mentally, rifled through John's wardrobe to see what I could give him to change into....."Yes, I have one." Literally, I had one clean towel.

"But you're going to be soaked," I told him.

"No," he shrugged, "I'll go in underwear...same as swimming."

I didn't stick around to see if that meant trunks or Speedo. I went back to Google translating the electric bill and my cooling coffee for which I now need a shot of Bailey's (or two).....wondering how my life got so bizarre all of a sudden. My landlord is out in my swimming pool in his underwear. There has to be enough chlorine in that pool to turn whatever it is he's wearing water-shear white....if it doesn't eat holes in it. What if I run out of bills to translate? What if my husband comes home and finds out I now have a bona fide pool boy?

Will somebody, please, pass me a margarita......and the lotion?

Killing Time

Well I’ve got a regular case of keyboard diarrhea. It must be this limbo thing, waiting for stuff to happen. I suppose the key is to go with the flow because when things start happening, I just know the dam is going to break and everything’s going to come at me at once.

My class begins on Monday. Dreamweaver this time and I’m really looking forward to it. I think I'll make this place all fancy when I learn how. I should be brushing up on my hand coding beforehand but no……I’m twiddling away here and uploading pictures to SmugMug. I think I have one or two more concerts from 2007 left to go.

Yesterday, I drove John to work and kept the car. There were actually lots of cars on the little tiny roads during the morning rush hour. A very different perspective than I normally get. It is a beautiful drive over to his office (about 20 minutes from here) and in the morning light, it’s even more so.

I took the car into Horsholm, went to the bank to transfer the money for the carpet, then I got some groceries, and a coffee maker.


Looks just like the ones back home doesn't it? We can haz coffee now…..well when I buy some that is. I wasn’t buying all that many 220V appliances since we can’t use them back home, but after a year and a half without coffee at home I broke down, and got one.

The carpet guy is here, getting ready to lay out the broadloom on top of those hardwood floors. Kind of a sacrilege in my opinion but it’s too late now to stop it. The reason for my bank trip yesterday was to transfer the money to the carpet store. Since our Danske Korts haven’t come in the mail yet, we are limited to cash only transactions…..or bank transfers….which are pretty common here. The bank account info for the carpet store was right there on the invoice. I wish the carpet guy hadn’t disconnected my internet.

The Danske Kort or Dance Card, as I tend to refer to it, is a debit card. And since foreign credit cards are not widely accepted at most places that Danes shop for everyday Danish stuff, you really need to have one. You have to have it, with a PIN to do anything, including internet banking. I’m told internet banking isn’t the same as at home where you access it through the bank’s website. Here, you have to download something to your computer and it only works on that computer. You can save it on a flash drive and put it on others within a certain period of time. After that you have to start all over again.

I managed to wiggle the camera out of my purse when I was driving too and from the office yesterday. It’s such a pretty drive I wanted to shoot it, so I can remember just how it looked. I still need the GPS to get there and back, though…..so many little twisty country roads along the way. I missed some big things like the horses, the army on a march in camouflage, and a herd of cyclist in red and green spandex right ahead of me for about a quarter of a mile.

Keep in mind I was driving when I took these (and they think I need to be tested! HA!)....so they aren't the greatest but here is the drive to work.


It starts off a little flat, passing farms, cows and windmills.




And then it turns into curvy roads with tree tunnels.




Most of the houses have thatched roofs.




This is the major intersection along the way.


And there are these cute little signs that remind us that we are not in Britain and to drive on the right side of the road. Kind of like.."Hey! This side, stupid!"


Those blue arrows are everywhere.

Tomorrow is a half day holiday, so should John come home at a decent time maybe we can get out and do some more wandering. In the meantime, I'll just sit here and type away...or work on some more concert photos. I found another set I haven't worked on yet.

I don't think I'll go knocking on any neighbors doors anytime soon. The Danes aren't known to be all that outgoing to begin with but.... I think I'll let word of our arrival filter through the neighborhood first. When I backed out of the driveway, yesterday, on my way to the office, I noticed there was a neighbor-lady with a cute little Westie on the grassy median across from the house. She certainly wasn't shy about staring, and she screwed up her face like she was trying to place me in the grand scheme of what is probably the most well known house on the cul de sac. She didn't seem to like what she saw because she glared at me as if I had come within inches of her cute little dog....which I didn't. I gave the best smile I could muster in the shadow of her frosty gaze and drove away. She continue to stare at me until I turned the corner of the street. She was giving me such an evil eyeball that I almost lowered the window to ask her if she needed something.

Then I remembered that the landlords's car was parked next to our hedge. It's been here a lot lately with us getting him to come take out his things, but we also hired him to come once a week to look after the pool, do the yard work, and clean the inside of the house. (I know, I know.....but the pool he knows how to do, and John has no time for mowing, and well.....he threw in the housework....how was I going to refuse? We really do think he needs the money. Something must have gone terribly rotten in his little corner of Denmark. I also think he misses his castle and the garden since he takes photos of it almost every time he is here.

Chit Chat

The folks at the Kommune office recommended that I wait until I've got a three or four month stretch of time, here in Denmark, before I embark on the driver's license conversion. They said there is no way with the difficulty of getting appointments and all that there is to learn, that I could do it in less time. I told them that I wasn't going to be here for that long, in one piece, until late January, and that was okay with them. Good! I don't have to think about that until long after we're settled.

The carpets are torn up in the bedrooms and I'm waiting for the installers to show up. They are about an hour late right now, but my carpet store guy tells me they are definitely coming. I hope so.....our bed is in pieces.

John was the brave one and pulled up the master bedroom carpet with his bare hands. I went in to help but I put on a pair of blue vinyl gloves first. If I wouldn't let my feet touch it, there was no way my hands were going anywhere close. When we got the carpet up, I found the source of the perfume-like smell that's been lingering since I got here. The floor was covered with powder. The smell wasn't exactly baby powder but....there it was.....perfumed talc. Lots of it ground right into the floor, which happened to be wood!

Both bedrooms have hardwood floors! And here I paid for wall to wall carpet when a little sanding and refinishing we'd have all hardwood floors. I suppose I should have asked the landlord what was under there. I had assumed it was just cement. Duh!

I think I mentioned in my previous blog that the flip-flop store was closed when we got there on Saturday. I glossed over the image of me, palms pressed to the glass....like Benjamin in The Graduate....silently screaming. So close and yet so far. I'll try again this coming Saturday. Or better yet, maybe, since I have the car.....venture out on my own later this afternoon. If the carpet installers ever show up, that is.

I'd made a hair appointment for this afternoon because I'm afraid some social/work invite is going to come up soon and I'll be caught with the skunk's stripe along the top of my head. Fabulous first impression, eh? I could sort of use a haircut too, but the color is almost in crisis mode.

I would rather visit the dentist than go to a new hair salon. The one I chose (out of the phone book) wasn't actually located where the phone book said it was. John and I did a drive by the other night and it was in some sketchy looking "centre"....as in mall behind a sketchy looking apartment building with no exterior decoration or windows.

Yesterday, I was talking to friend, here, and mentioned my hair appointment. She asked me what the prices were, and when I said "350 kr for a cut and 450 kr for the color", she said that was cheap....re-qualified to very reasonable. Now, I'm not one who thinks almost $200 is cheap or very reasonable for a cut and color, but I learned from my friend that $300+ is more like it, so I figured that a pre-appointment sneak peek was in order.

I did that yesterday and I'll be buying myself a box of dark blond hair color, I'll google translate the directions, and make John apply this weekend. He is a lot more anal about things than I am, so he'll do a much better job. Last time I did my own hair, I missed a temple. Okay....to be honest, the whole left side of my head.

If I'm lucky it will grow out into a style. It can't be in awkward stage forever can it?

The End of A Beautiful Long Weekend

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.

Who's The Bigger Whiner....Me or Hamlet?

So here I sit. John is across the table doing....wait for it...email and shouting at someone on the phone. And I think he is doing some bill paying for the Baku office, too. Whatever it is, it takes 2 laptops and 2 cellphones. He's kind of distracting me, and what's so odd is that he has taken to talking to himself when he doesn't have someone on the other end of the phone line. I wonder when he started doing that.

I picked John up at the airport this morning. I thought he was an hour late, but he wasn't. I was an hour early since he told me his flight arrived at 10:30, which wasn't exactly accurate. Oh well....I had a nice hour leaning against a post watching an long river of humanity pass through the sliding glass doors. Lots of hugging and kissing and flag waving. Danes apparently like to take paper Danish flags on sticks when they go to the airport to collect people. I saw a lot of single thorny roses and one adorable Himalayan kitten....pretty enough for a package of toilet paper.

The movers were supposed to deliver our things this afternoon, but sadly there's been a complication.

I think I'll take the high road, look out my window at my hard won beautiful back yard, and think about how this lovely afternoon is undisturbed by a bunch of guys tramping over my nice clean floors with their dirty boots.

But, then again, looking for someone to blame can be a pleasant pass time, too. It seems that there was a mix up about who was supposed to get paid how much and when. John's understanding was that as long as the Baku office got their payment in hand, the shipment would be released. But apparently that wasn't quite the case. He says he got this information from both the Baku branch and the Danish branch. The Danish agent even called me yesterday to confirm the time for 2 PM.

So, here we are at 3:30 and no stuff. Apparently, the Danish agent was supposed to be paid prior to delivery, too. I'm not sure why neither he, nor the guy in Baku, bothered to tell us before this morning. I mean come on people! Here we are minding our own business, dutifully waiting in line for some hot dogs, and in comes a text message. Where is our money?

Well, shut my mouth and call me stupid.

"You told me you were going to bring the invoice with you when you came to the house this afternoon."

"But, no, we are going to mail the invoice to you next week."

"The invoice that had to be paid before today in order to get delivery?"

"Yes, that invoice."

I'm in the mood to be kind because I can see the backyard and it's pretty, and I'm lucky because not everyone has such a nice backyard to look at, and I do have a chair to sit on, and a TV to watch if I want to, and no one is going to die today if I don't get my stuff.....unlike in Hamlet where lots of people died 12 miles up the road at Elsinore (Helsinger).

I'm just going to put that one down to the technical superiority of the Danes who seem to have mastered time travel before anyone else. They probably managed that in their spare time since Monday and Friday next week are holidays. I'm told we could get it on Tuesday or Wednesday if they get paid first. John figures we'll give them cash because it's only about $500 they're waiting on.....but I can't believe I'll be sitting in limbo for another long weekend over a lousy 500 bucks. By the time I get this house together, it will be time to go back to Canada. God! I'm in full Martha mode and it's going to waste!

**The flowers are very pretty....and the birds sing sweetly....and in another month we can use the pool.**

And tomorrow I will have my precious straw broom and Columbia flip flops.

John confessed that some of the problems might be language issues. Ya think??

**Flip flops flip flops flip flops flip flops.**

We did get some other moving related news in the process, however. Something much more interesting than time and date of delivery. Apparently, this company....isn't exactly a moving company. They are shippers. So, all that was going to happen here this afternoon was the delivery of wooden crates on wooden pallets to the driveway....sign here, thank you very much, have a nice day. Getting it into the house was going to be up to us. Dayum! I sure hope they set it down close to the living quarters.

Some Nice Normal Stuff For A Change

Like llamas at the garden center.


And a froggy on the pool flusher-thingy.


My driving a stick is back to normal. John left the car for me out at the airport, which is south of Copenhagen, when he left for Baku the other day. I couldn't take him, and keep the car, because I had to go into the city with a relocation assistant, to get my resident permit stamped into my passport at the same time he had to leave.

I managed to get out of the parking garage with no stalling, but the GPS didn't pick up a signal until I was out of the garage and on my way. Of course, my way was the wrong way and the voice in the box thought it expedient to take me through downtown Copenhagen before putting me on the motorway. And here I was with a rare and fresh Starbucks coffee and no free hands. The true meaning of irony.

But....I made it. I wasn't even nervous. I suppose not having access to my caffeine helped with that. Maybe, just maybe, we should have taken a manual transmission auto after all.

Wait, there is that coffee thing to consider....I suppose....considering we dumped the Audi for a shortage of cup holders.

Another normal thing...this is John sending an email in bed...this is not some UFO.


I try to get us out of the house, when he isn't at the office, to do something. ANYTHING! I'm content to have him drive while I shoot photos from the passenger window of the car. John is getting a lot better at not pulling up adjacent to lampposts since we've been doing this, as a couple for a long time. He definitely gets it now, and when he hears that familiar heavy sigh, he just asks, "Which way?"

Sometimes I drive since it gives me better control and I don't drive so fast that I miss something good. The only trouble is that if John's hands are free he's thumbing out a message to someone....and wouldn't you know it.... his new phone has a QWERTY keyboard. Since his Blackberry's global plan was too expensive to keep up, he keeps that on the side of the tub, so he can practice typing on those teeny tiny keys while he is otherwise indisposed.

Here are a few samples from our latest tours of the neighboring countryside. In our travels we've learned some very important things, not the least of which is that there are a few grocery stores, tucked away here and there, that are open on Sundays and holidays. They aren't big grocery stores but the have enough to ensure we have a decent salad for supper and microwave popcorn. Up in Helsingor, I found the number one item on my list of "must haves". Too bad they weren't open.


Skumgummi is probably Danish for Walmart. I cropped that photo of the broom-that-dreams-are-made-of to see if I could afford it.


YES!!! 58 kroner (roughly 10 bucks) but I don't think I should tell anyone that I'm driving 20 kilometers to buy a broom.

The government mandated closing hours in Denmark are a bit of a hardship on us North Americans who are used to all night Walmarts and Krogers. Most stores, including the grocery, are closed by 6 PM on weekedays (8 PM on Fridays) and 5 PM on Saturday. Forget Sunday....only small places are allowed to open.

After we left Helsingor, we took some small back roads to Hillerod which turned out to be a much bigger town than I thought it was. It isn't BIG big, but it's definitely got way more to offer than a village! We parked the car under yonder tree, on the right, and got our first parking ticket.


Actually, WE weren't driving, so I guess WE didn't get the ticket...technically. Not sure why he/we got the ticket. All of the Danish cars were conspicuously absent, couldn't see a "No Parking" sign anywhere....but I have to assume we broke some sort of convention like parking on a pedestrian mall on a holiday. Holidays are serious business here. Come to think of it holidays were serious business in Azerbaijan, too. You know, I think that North Americans are definitely not getting enough....more holidays....might fix that.

Not sure it is a pedestrian mall. Don't see any pedestrians. Everything around here looks like a pedestrian mall on holidays with everything shuttered and dim. And we did see a few cars driving along the empty street, earlier....we think. We are perplexed and we can't seem to find a due date on the ticket. Parking tickets seem to be serious business here as well, since our little foray into law breaking is going to cost 500 kroner!

John made us drive around for a bit in hopes of finding the person who gave us the ticket, but there was no sign of anyone, on this, or on any of the neighboring streets. My theory is that parking enforcement buddy sits in the window at the local Ale-hus waiting for hapless customers, then he pounces.


I hope this view was worth it. Of course, it was one of those rare times when I actually got out of the car to take a picture. What is a zoom lens for anyhow?


That castle's pretty impressive and all but I think I like the Extreme Home Chocolate Make-Over version myself.


We ate dinner at the Chinese restaurant (it has the red awnings in the crime scene photo above). It wasn't busy (probably because there is no freaking place to park) and the food took a little while to come. I managed to keep busy taking pictures from my seat.




There were these 3 really cool looking painted Buddhas on the bar that I really wanted to take a picture of, but by the time we were finished our meal there was a family sitting in the way, so I let them eat in peace.

I didn't stay disappointed for too long because the best thing that's happened to me a long time was looming right around the corner! On the way back to the car (which we had moved to a mutually agreeable location between John and the municipality), I spied in the window of Outdoor Living my Columbia flip-flops....my beloved no longer available in the US or Canada Columbia flip-flops! I have been looking for these for almost 2 years. I haven't even been able to find them online, and here they were all along....hanging out in Hillerod waiting for me to walk by. Too bad they were closed.

I don't think he was trying to burst my bubble, but John (still clutching his 500 kroner parking ticket) suggested they might be a quite expensive, here, in a little specialty shop window. Like I care about price where my feet and the best flip-flops in the world are concerned? Like the man who wouldn't give me a foot rub, if his life depended on it, should care either? This is Thursday, in 2 more days I will have my Columbia flip-flops!

All in all it was a pretty good day, despite the parking ticket. We discovered a pretty good Chinese food restaurant, discovered after we ordered that they had a Mongolian Buffet at the back, John only had one 45 minute conference call on the side of the road near Allerod, and I programmed my flip-flops into the GPS.

Later that night, when I caught John sending emails in bed again, flashed him.

I used the camera since this was for posterity, not old times sake.