Handsome guy

Erik got his braces off to day. He really looks good. He's got a wire in white gold glued to the inside of his teeth to hold them together. I tried to convince him that he now had a brilliant pick up line. Something like "Can I share my gold with you" or something like that. Erik didn't appreciate it.

Trumpeter

Axel is really into film music. I believe his teacher thinks it's fun so he gives Axel all the musical scores he can find.

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I forgot to add that last weekend we had a transcontinental concert when skyping with Paul and family. Isaac played his guitar - "Smoke on the water" while Axel did the theme from "Jaws". Pretty impressive.

Fomelhaut b

This is just awesome. The first pictures of a planet in another solar system! If you haven't read about it, you can do it here.

Halloween

Yeah, I know it's been a while but we've been busy. This tired witch was captured at school after a spectacular Halloween party which some of the parents in Rita's class had arranged. The kids had blue potatoes and ghost fingers (hot dogs).

Make up

Another picture of Rita and friend - this time Maja. I don't know what happened. Maja and came to play and in a split second the two girls changed the living room in to a beauty parlor. Now, I worry about when Ellen comes back from her weekend school because - seriously- I don't know where they got the make up from :-)

Rap R.I.P.

Last night we witnessed a great tragedy. Rita's pet beettle "RAP" died. RAP was part of a school project where Rita became responsible for 3 mealworms. She immediately named them Rip, Rap and Rup - Danish for Huey, Dewey and Louie. And she took good care of them. Two of them made it to cocoons and one broke out as beetle. In fact, he broke out so much that he wandered out of his box. It caused a bit of panic because we didn't know where the beetle had gone. Could it be in the kitchen? But - alas - Rap ended up drowning in the aquarium.

Old maid

Obviously, it's not Rita I'm referring to. Rita and Axel enjoyed a good game old maid on our vacation. It was a bit unorthodox though because Rita did her best to get the maid and not to get rid of it.

Indoor camp

We have just returned from fall vacation in Sweden. We had five days in the "new" summerhouse. The weather was fantastic. We had the low hanging fall sun illuminating the multicolored leaves in the forrest. It was really spectacular. I don't know how much the kids appreciated the view but they sure enjoyed it when we let them roast marshmallows in the fireplace.

Get me a dentist

Rita and Cecilie made chocolate muffins. We caught then digging too much into the chocolate. They had fun.

Bearlet

We went to the first show at the Royal Theatre with our seasonal tickets. It was a ballet for kids. The "star" of the show was a huge yellow teddybear called "Bamse" - known from national public tv. The story was that Bamse was to learn "bearlet" as he called it. The performers were all children from the royal school of ballet. They were wonderful and so gifted. Erik was too old an audience, so instead we had invited one of Rita's friends, Cecilie. I wasn't able to get a picture of the the two of them in the theatre so here is one from before the performance.

According to the theatre a video should be available on the homepage. I can't find it, but you can see pictures of the performance here.

Doorstep

So this is the doorstep. Axel and I had fun figuring out the right exposure. We had a bit of false light from the living room. So Axel placed himself in the window to shade for the light.

Rita SFO

Rita's after school club had planned a concert this summer. It was cancelled due to the public strike over wages. The teachers at the club felt bad about the cancellation so the concert ended up just being postponed. It took place last week. Rita had looked so much forward to it. She was very happy and proud of the performance.

Just for fun

Just me playing with my new camera.

Skamlingsbanken

We did quite a bit of sightseeing. We went to Rømø where you can take your car and drive around on the beach. To Ribe which is known for it's old cathedral. And finally Skamlingsbanken, the highest point in Southern Jutland and also a landmark in Danish-Preussian war of 1848 and 1864.

Sort sol

At this time of year thousands of starlings gather in the area before migrating to a warmer climate. At evening very large groups of starling search for an area to rest for the night. They swarm around for 10-20 minutes until they find the right place and then they are down. The flock will move almost like the northern light. The phenomenon is called Sort Sol or Black Sun. Ellen and I, like many many other people, went to see it. Unfortunately, it's difficult to predict where the really big groups will go down to rest so we didn't get to experience it right in front of us. But we did see it and we also saw many other groups right around us. It was quite fascinating to hear the rush of the wings and the chirping of the birds.

We weren't able to take a picture which made it justice, but you can find one here.

Interesting enough we had to cross the German border to see it. But that wasn't any hazzle. We just drove through this city. Entered in one country and excited in another. No passport control or whatever. I do realise it is consequence of the Schengen agreement on how to conduct control at EU's external borders. But it puts the current strict immigration laws in perspective.

Wadden Sea

Ellen and I just returned from a weekend in Southern Jutland. Friday I was invited to the annual meeting of the association of public prosecutors so we combined it with a weekend for two. The first day we went to Tønder which is two miles from the German border. The area is known for the Wadden Sea -marsh land and tidal pools. There are lots and lots of birds. One of the most fascinating views was a group of birds which flew over our heads. They looked brown. Then they turned to the left. And now they were white! The color depended on the angle you looked up at the wings.

Twister

Well, what can I say. They all had fun.

Out of boxes

We have always been so fortunate to inherit clothes from friends and family. Ellen keep it in big boxes in the closet. Twice a year before spring and in preperation for winter the boxes come out. It's time to the big try out to see what fits and must be taken out of the drawers. It was one of those times yesterday. Ellen and Rita spent all of the afternoon going through all of the clothes. Rita loved it and loved all the clothes. She didn't want to part with any of it. So now we have some seriously packed drawers.

MGP 2008

The annual song contest for kids took place last night. Rita was so full of excitement like the boys have been before her. She had it all planned out. They should have matresses on the floor, lots of candy and hygge. Erik made some serious attempts to stay aloof. But he was the one who had printed the scorecard so we all could put marks by our favorites.

The winner of the show came as a surprise to most of us. Ellen and I had a favorite which was a quite a bit rocky. There was plenty of guitar. The boys performing were older than Erik. So we knew it was an outsider. But we were certain we had spotted the favorite. Erik agreed. But what did we know. The winner a band which none of us had voted as number 1. Axel had it as no. 2. Rita as usual voted for all the girl bands.

I guess it was a lesson in how you as a parent can involve yourself in the doings and likings of your children but there is an age difference so it's not all you can appreciate with an adults eyes. Good to be aware of and important to respect.. (So much for the daily dosis of pocket philosophy:-)

Brand new home

Before

After

Well it may be an overstatement but we finally got so tired of our front yard. It seemed like no matter what we did we had grass growing all over the place. But now...look at it. This was the view we had when we came home from work to day. All that we are missing are some steps in front of the door. We will get that before the end of the week. I can't wait.

Amazing toy

While in KL I bought these small helicopters as a gift for the kids. They were amazingly cheap. What a toy.

In transit

This is somewhere over the Caucasion mountains. We had a 17 hour flight back to Denmark with a 4 hour lay over in Bangkok.

It has been a very imformative trip which has given lots to think about in regards to how to design a system of higher education. Coming from a public school system it has been very eye opening to see how higher education also can be handled as a commodity. I find it gives challenges in particular for the students seeking education and the governments if they want to maintain a high standard of education.

Low yat plaza

I have to lasting impressions of Kuala Lumpur: The evening rush hour traffic when everybody was in a hurry to get home to fix supper to sunset because of the ramadan and then Low yat plaza a 4 store shopping mall all with electronics. Both impressions involve a lot of people, congestion, noise and business unlike anything we are used to in Europe. The plaza was fun because you could find all kinds of electronic equipment. Prices were "liquid" so what ever you paid depended on your own bargaining power.

This picture doen't do it justice because each store had it's own music which blared out from small mp3 speakers.

Petronas towers

I guess it's a requirement to have a picture of the towers in a photo blog from Kuala Lumpur - especially since the towers neighboured my hotel. In fact the towers have a fascinating story since they were inspired by the Twin Towers in New York and are designed by the same architect.

The towers are covered with pewter which is abundant in Malaysia. It looks very good.

Putrajaya

I bought myself a new camera. I've played a bit with it and this is my first selfportrait (well almost - I had to figure out the right settings).

In the background is the auspices of the Kuala Lumpur prime minister in Putrajaya. Putrajaya is the administrative center of Malyasia. The city was founded in the best planned economy style i 1990 when the government bought 6000 hectars of forrest and began to develop the city. The area is rich in architecture and massive government buildings. There is a huge man made lake with 18 bridges across not one like another. Very impressive. The Malaysians like me are apparently crazy about bridges.

Malaysia has like Singapore the ambition to become an educational hub in Asia. It was my impression that the country has a greater challenge than their neighbor. The New Economic Policy and the English language proficiencies makes the country less adept to the necessary changes.

Dragon meal

I had the most amazing Chinese meal to day. It was served very elegantly with this dragon. On this plate was the most delicious deep fried shrimp rolls. At the conclusion of the meal we had ginger soup with a rice dumpling. The dumpling was filled with a black sesame paste. The dish was hot to taste, sweet and just vibrant from the sesame - a symphony in the mouth.

Malacca

Now I'm in Malaysia. It is very different from Singapore. It seems even warmer and more humid. The traffic is very heavy with lots and lots of motorcycles filling the streets. Almost all the motorcyclists wear a shirt on the front like this guy. It's no surprise that country and culture is different but it is immensely different. Our hotel is for example downtown like in Singapore - but in Singepore we had the overlook of wide avenues and high rises. Here our neighbor is a shanty town with rusty steel roofs and the quality of the hotels are the same.

1117

This is the view from the hotel I'm staying at. Singapore has been a surprising experience. I had expected a big densly build city like Hong Kong or New York but the city is lush green and open. we have visited 3 universities with very different corporate strategies. It is eye opening to see what kind of business education also can be. The NUS campus was gorgeous. Makes me long for the old days at college...may be we should find an appropriate study abroad programme? :-)

Bangkok

Early morning i Bangkok airport. It was a long flight but the airport was just amazing. Very open and welcoming. It was amazing to experience the tropic sunrise. It seemed like the sun was turned on like a in door lamp. It went so fast.

Complete make over

We have looked at hundreds of frames and eventually Ellen found the one. I can only be too pleased it's not more than every 5th year we have to go through this. With a brand new hair cut it is a complete change of style. Don't you think she looks dazzling?

What with the rain

This weekend we had planned a "Dad-weekend". The kids and I had arranged to go to the summerhouse in Sweden. Our project was to tear down the roof over the terrace. Unfortunately, we hadn't incorporated the weather in our plans. We had more than 2 inches of rain yesterday, so instead we had fun indoors watching movies, playing ludo and eating lots of cake.

Partial lunar eclipse

When we left Legoland, Rita remarked how pink and round the moon was. Well as we drove across Funen and Zealand it changed. Gradually the disc got smaller and smaller. It was clear night. It was kind of neat to have something keep you alert while driving after a long fun day.

Axel won

Axel had won 4 tickets for Legoland which we made use of yesterday. It was a perfect day. It was sunny but not too warm. We got there almost on the planned time even though the driver made a slight detour.

There were quite a bit of people but we managed to get on all the rides we wanted to. Our favorite ride was the pirate ships. The ship sails around a little lake. On the ship and on land are hand powered water cannons. The faster you spin a little wheel the faster and more powerful comes out the water. It was fun. And wet. We all got drenched.

Legoland also had a new attraction called Atlantis. You "dive" into the deep sea to visit Atlantis and a great aquarium with lots of seahorses etc. We all enjoyed it.

I could go on. We had such a great day.

Garden decor

This is Rita's project. I don't know what is the purpose of putting all gardening tools in the tree but you can step on the shovel and get into the tree fast.

Down and up!

Saturday my parents celebrated this 135th birthday (65+70). They had really wanted a garden party but things didn't quite go as planned. Thursday we put up this enourmous tent in the garden. But the weather wasn't with them. Strong winds blew the tent apart so a new plan had to be concocted.

Friday all plans were cancelled and the whole family went to work clearing out the garage. The weather wasn't at all cooperative. It was raining cats and dogs. But after a day of tough manual labor we had it all clear. Saturday morning was spent baking, cleaning up the last things etc. so when the guests arrive at 2 PM everything was in order. And the roasted suckling pig was ready to be consumed as planned in the evening :-)

New teacher

All the kids started school yesterday. Rita has a new teacher this year - a man! He seems like a real nice and competent guy and Rita seemed very taken with him. And his name is Lars. That's going to give some confusion I'm sure.

Piece de resistance

Erik is not the only food artist in the family. Rita and I were home alone and decided to bake a cake. It was to be "a chocolate cake with icing ". Well, as the artist got inspired it ended up being "a round chocolate cake with red icing, blue houses and nuts!" The cake was excellent.

Checking the anchor

When anchoring you have to check the boat during the night to make sure the boat isn''t drifting. One evening we were on deck talking while watching the sun setting. It was a spectacular view. Axel and I had the pleasure doubled when we at 4.30 AM took care of the our anchor checking duty and saw the sun rise. Sunset and sunrise on the "same" day. It really was something to behold.

Expert navigators

Thursday, these two guys led us out of the harbor. Wouldn't you feel safe in their hands?



Axel was our look out. He loved to sit in the front of the boat and check out the sea. He is certain he saw a small dolphin one of the days.

Via con me

Last week was spent on the good ship "Via con me" a 39 feet long sailboat.

The entire crew consisted of David, Nadya, Marik and the entire Qvistgaard family.



David and the boys and I picked up the boat in Germany and sailed it to Funen where we were met by the rest of the crew.

Although experiencing som engine problems we had a great week. The weather was sunny and warm and perfect.

We did a bit of sailing with sails and a bit with engine.

All the boys had designated roles. David was Captain as he is the only experienced sailor. Erik handled sails. Axel did fenders and I was responsible for anchor and cooking!

Sailing is hard work and makes you ready to slumber almost anywhere - like the art museum in Faaborg.

The kids managed so well and enjoyed it all. I believe one of the hightlights was when we anchored up in Svendborg Sound and jumped in the water from the boat.