seeking brain printer

Today I have dreamed about plugging in a printer to my brain and then hit enter so that all the information I have in there get down on paper without me having to SIT DOWN AND WRITE IT...Ah! Really, I have ADMIN overload, and my fingers are not fast enough!

But now I am eating lovely cake, so everything is good:)

Yalla Dance 1

Currently listening to Yalla Dance "Arabia's hottest dance floor tunes". I got it in Doha airport on my way home from Thailand. Can´t really stand still while listening to it. I really must say I am quite fond of arab music and dance. I love the way they move and I love to imitate the movements, though it probably looks very silly. I On my way to Thailand I got Yalla Dance 3, but Kat loved it so much I had to leave it with her, that is a very good cd too, better than the one I have here. Fortunantly Kat is now back from Thailand WITH the cd, yeh!

Counting the small joys of every day life:) Today the small joys count, the cd, the after work Belgian West Malle I had earlier at my favorite pub, singing Taize with the ladies.

Nature

I have during this last month been privileged to spend some time close to nature. First in a vacation house on the island where I work. Just this past weekend in Sweden in a house in the forest. I must admit, I love it, the peace, the oh so quietness. Here is a few pictures.

Getting a car....

...is no easy business. I promise to go back to Thailand stories next blog post, but right now my whole life revolves around buying a CAR!!! It has been one stressful job. I decided this week that I definently want a car, the decision came along with swithcing to full-time with a colleage and the bus route stopping per august 1st.

So my criterias where enviroment friendly, low maintainess, enconomic...

Well, to make a long story short, I have surfed endlessly on the net and driven miles and miles on my bike to see and testdrive some cars...I did not see it coming but I fell hard and good for Italy. A Fiat Punto swept me off my feet and unless I have terrible nightmares tonight and unless my boss tells me not to, that´s what I will end up with.

Oh dear, it´s just not a good business to get a car, it´s just expences expences...

impressions of thailand, so far.

oh my, at an internet cafe on the other side of the river from katrine's room at the UCE place in BKK, by the on nut skytrain station.

first time online since i got here, i must say it's wonderful not to be online. outside the rain started pouring down ten minutes ago, a good moonsoon rain, loveit.

oh my, thailand got to me, i did not think it would. i guess i didn't even have expectations, just came to see my friend, excited to go to a country i haven't been to.

thai people are so terrible friendly and honest (at least the people i have met so far). katrine got under the skin of many of these people and it's amazing to see how they just love her; at work neighbourhood friends and family friends.

i am having the best sort of vacation where i just jump into katrine's dailylife and participate in it for the time i am here.

i have so many impressions and stories to tell of adventures and people, but for now i leave you with this, pictures will come later.

packing

who would have thought it would be so hard to pack for a trip to thailand? anyways, it´s taken me all day now...probably it´s because i am hardly bringing anything and i can´t believe it.

this week at work i have been running around as if i did not have a head, being a rollercoaster of OH MY GOD I WILL NEVER BE DONE FOR VACATION, to ok, i will never be done, final... so calm down and get the most important things done. and then after leaving work i have remembered things i forgot to do, so today i have been e-mailing reminders to different people in my office, asking them for favors.

oh dear, who would have thought that taking vacation time would be such a hard thing to do.

now, work is out of my head and packing will be done in lets say ten minutes from posting this:)

Amsterdam and back again

Oh Amsterdam! That city stole my heart many years ago and I keep coming back instead of exploring and visiting new places never seen before.

It´s home, the feeling, though it´s been years since it really was home, is still inside of me.

The occation for a visit this year was a wedding.

I had on a fabulous dress, wore red lip stick and smoked my favorite cigarrettes that can only be found in Holland.

This bride was stunningly beautiful, the groom hot, he had on some really cool blue shoes.

The flowers the bride carried turned out really well. I did have a smaller panic attack in the morning but with a little help of the bride´s islandic friend we pulled off a pretty darn good boquet for a first timer at that sort of creativity:)

The party was excellent. I enjoyed many dances on the dance floor with the groom´s aunt, it was a BLAST.

The 50+ guests at the party really got the dancing going it was most wonderful to see them dance to this music they would NEVER ever normally listen to let alone dance to, they had a great time and I just jumped right in with them and let go.

Many more things can be told of this weekend trip, like queen´s day, rainy sunday, hugs from people of the past. conversations with good looking guys and the cultural differences in european and indian culture on the train. But this will be it for now.

an education

I went to the movies tonight and watched "An Education". It finally made it to the Danish movie theaters, odd that it took so long since the instructor and producer is a dane.

Anyhow, I liked it, not so much for "the message", but for the music the good looking people, the lovely dresses and the red lipstick. AH, I just want to wear high heels, smoke cigarettes and be good looking all the time.

Fortunantly I am going to a wedding this weekend and I have a 60ies dress to wear and some red lip stick, it will be fabulous, I am even doing some of the music for the wedding so I will just make sure it works with my theme:)

Thailand

I just bought a flight to Thailand, it´s scary how fast it is done. I am going there to visit a friend who lives there at the moment, exciting!

new sandals!!! approved not approved?

I am actually on my way out the door....this saturday, by pure impulse I went into the shoestore...and i found a pair of sandals MY SIZE that i sort of liked....so I tried them and liked them....BUT where is my personal shopper??? OUT OF TOWN....really no way, yes really....so I asked the little old lady assistent, can I come back with these if I regret and she said YES....so I bought them and TONIGHT, I am taking them to my dear friend who is also my counsellor when it comes to buying ANYTHING really, mostly shoes and clothes though....she will judge whether they suit me or not:) yeh for personal shoopers.

Austria and back, no thank you!

Alright, so today was my last day before the weekend. Friday is my day off. Today was also the last last before my boss goes on holidays for a week.
Today was a busy busy day, it´s the first time I have been so focussed that I missed lunch. I left for a meeting just after lunch hour, I had to borrow a car, because the two cars we can book were already in use, so I borrowed my boss´ little car.
So I had my papers and my wallet with my driver´s license, I put my wallet in the glovecomparment so I didn´t have to take it around with me (had a few stops on my way south on the island) as I put it in the glovedepartment I thought to myself, better remember it or it goes to Austria.
I busy on, get back to my desk and before I knew it I was on the bus on my way home from work. The busdrive home on Thursdays I often use fantasising about dinner, so I had planned to go past the store on my way home to pick up some grocceries when it FINALLY dawned on me...oh yes the glovedepartment, my dear wallet with everything in it...So I get off the bus at my usual stop, call my boss. Fortunantly they don´t leave before tomorrow afternoon, so I can get my wallet instead of sending it on a trip to Austria. Thus my quiet morning tomorrow all gone:(

memories of a forgotten past

Lately I have found myself looking back at a certain time in life, that pops out now and again like a my supprise, a forgotten past.
For some reason the almost springweather gives me the urge to listen to Kirk Franklin´s version of "Lovely day".
"Lovely day" is such a "happy dabby" song. It instantly brings me back to Amsterdam DTS days, Saturday mornings, with the sun shinning outside and everybody in a lazy mood AND then sometimes "lovely day" blasting out of my little cd player.
THIS though was not the time I specificly was thinking about....the "forgotten past" comes when my trail of thoughts continue and "lovely day" is over and I think of what other songs by Kirk I would like to listen to...oh yes, then I youtube "stomp" and THAT´s what brings the supprise...
In my younger days, my teens I guess, the church I attended had a very active youth group...within this youth group this band "New Power Generation Band" was formed, a band that would play Kirk Franklin-ish songs, and actual Kirk songs like "stomp". The purpose of the band as I recall was to bring out "the good news" in a modern "fresh" way, to show the world, we christians are NOT boring and WE HAVE FUN...
So you may ask what was my part in all this (well I guess it could have been anything since I am multitalented, but I only discovered that side of me ten years ago and this was before that time:)). WELL WELL I was a part of the dancing crew... When we topped we were 4 dancers, but mostly it was me and two others, we would make up coreographies to the songs and be a part of the stage show, we even did shaddow dancing.
When I remember myself in that time I remember enjoying it a lot, it was fun and a lot of the musicians and singers, were the "cool people" that I normally didn´t hang out with. And one of the dancers was a friend from Copenhagen that would come over and dance with us.
When I think back though I just have to say OH MY GOSH!!! and really it´s a time of my life I just don´t have on my usually "memory lane thought trail" and then it pops up like a SUPPRISE at certain times and I AM supprised and a little bit embarrased everytime I am reminded:)
They video-taped some of our shows, sometimes I think it would be fun to see some of that again, but mostly I hope they have been destroyed:)

I will survieve

It´s Sunday and I made it thru this week! YEEEEH (cheering and clapping).
To be honest, when I thought of this week last Sunday I had my doubts about making it thru...
Why was that you might ask?
Well, it has been my busiest week EVER since I started working, I mean out of breath without running busy at work...Keeping the head cold and the heart steaming hot for all the dear poor families I work with...I was struck (?) to tears a few times and I was angry enough to beat somebody up, I was relieved beyond belief and even happy... oh yes and I was very effective, so all in all, I hope things will calm down some, but if not I know I can handle it...
The experience of this week, makes next week much more easy to face...without the experience, I would have felt samesame as last Sunday!!!
AH AND I am bringing my magic recorder to work tomorrow (was gonna bring my magic wand, but think I left it in vancouver? I can´t find here anyways) thinking it might work wonders, getting that out in a difficult meeting or phonecall and solve everything without further interferance...yesyes, you might laugh, but one never knows what a little magic melody will do:)

a good evening to you:)

SUNSHINE SUNDAY

it´s sunday, the radio church service is buzzing in the background and I am looking out the window at blue sky, sun and snow.



It´s a lovely morning, I started it off by eating an apple and drinking a lot of water while reading the Sunday news paper in bed, yah. My throat was aching and I got scared of getting sick, so I thought, apple, water, good idea:) My throat is fine now so it helped or something:)



To make you jealous I gotta tell you after the apple and half the news paper I made pancakes, perfect pancakes. Not perfect pancakes as in the amazing receipe I have from Tami and Scott...But perfect as in they just turned out that way without a receipe. Ah! I used plain yogurt and that was a good idea, they were soft and yummy a real "danish" pancake as my long lost grandmother would make them. DELICIOUS.



Friday I put together some moving boxes but didn´t put anything in them, this morning I filled one of them with the clothes and books I have for the thift store. That´s it, I don´t feel like packing or sorting at all. I might hit a problem soon, cause I might say yes to an appartment tomorrow and if I do so, I really seriuosly need to start packing. Oh well:) I wount let that thought ruin this Sunday morning.



I am going to visit my good friend and her sweet family for afternoon coffee, so the day will just get better and better.



I hope you will have a lovely Sunday aswell.

decisions decisions and cold busses

aw yes let be entertain you with another bus complaint...

i have not yet told you out of europe readers, but denmark is having an icewinter, it´s been 23 years since we had one long like this. it does seem never ending, today it snowed again and well snow doesn´t really excite me anymore. another thing that comes with icewinter is all the clothes i have to put on every day to keep warm. i got used to it and don´t mind as long as i don´t get cold.

one place where i get cold in on the bus....it´s jepardy, some mornings the bus is a sauna and i have to strip down, off with coat off with sweater and scarf...some mornings it´s cold inside the bus, i realize that usually after 20 min on the bus and i have sometimes been asking the busdriver if it is possible for him to turn on some more heat....i have gotten different answers but they melt down to the same thing, sorry can´t get warmer. so i freeze...it´s sucks and it has happend enough times that i am actually going to write a complaint to the company that runs the busses. it´s sucks freezing for an hour in the morning before 8am....a time where i wish i was still under my warm and comfy comforter.

so i have finally reached a point in time at work where i am going to take some kids from their parents and place them in a fosterhome...actually in an institution this first time...there are so many things i have to decide, so many things to remember and on top of that it is really emotional...these little lives, suddenly i am the one who is going to decide where they are best off living...it is terrifying and yet i know i am going to feel such a relief and joy once they are in place...it might be a few more months before the feeling will come, oh but they will get excellent care the place they are going, hopefully they will be able to receive it. every little child deserves and needs someone who loves them in an appropiate and healthy way.

some people...

...sing really well at weddings, clean toilets really well, drive really well in snow and icy weather...i read out loud really well in the cathedral here in odense.

every first friday night of the month i sing at the night church at the cathedral. It´s a Taizé devotion, with meditative songs, prayers and scriptures read out loud and silence. well i read the prayers and i do it well....in a huge room like the cathedral you gotta be careful not to read to fast or the words are "swallowed" by the room. it´s fun to have your voice fill a huge room like that and my fellow singers always compliment me on my reading, it´s wonderful with some affirmation:)

...this week is O-V-E-R, i gotta sleep and be ready for the weekend.

ways of cooping with work, oh and i cooked again

....we have a very sarcastic and extreme sort of humor at work when the lives we deal with overwhelms us. One time at lunch when claiming to wanna burn the whole island to get rid of the issues, we found out one of our secretaries does not really get the humor OR does not think it´s very funny....she lives on the island so i guess she didn´t want her house to be burnt down...

few weeks ago, me and a collegee decided we needed some more ministers in the parlament ( i might be using the words and the meaning of them wrong here...don´t forget, english IS my second language;))...first of all we badly need a minister of prevention and also we need an additional minister of economy. few weeks ago we were overwhelmed with pregnant teenagers with huge social problems...there need to be a law to prevent this from happening....our plan is to sneak into the houses of all teens and young women from age 15-25 and shoot a "p-staff" into their arm.
we need to save a lot of money in our department millions of danish kroner...but we need the money to help the kids best way possible, therefore the plan is that the goverment with this new minister of economy will open their eyes to our little island´s great need and send them forth all those moneys, YAH!!

the newest idea on the board on solving the problems quickly is building a huge wall to prevent anybody to get to the island and then we empthy the island completely....no people, no problem:)

aYah, we have fun in our own odd and ruff way.

i cooked dinner again tonight, i am so proud...it was my long day today, so strange why it´s always on my long day at work i end up cooking a good meal....i cooked a very traditional vegetable soup and ha it with garlic bread, delicious:)

Celebrating 1 year

I have a crazy job. It´s a job filled with misery and broken lives. A job where the welfare and developement of little children is suddenly my responsibility because I represent the welfare system Denmark offers. It´s a job where I will never feel sufficient because of the work load. It´s something I have to accept, because I will never get to the end of it and there will always be more and it can always be done better.

In one week I have been working as a social worker in the children and youth department of a smaller municipality for 1 year.

I feel that I have just started to learn the profession...this first year has almost been like a year of internship.

I love my job, I love to learn, I love the feeling of getting better. I wanna become a really good social worker.

Oh well I was going write all these other things, but I guess I will do that next time...then maybe I will blog a little sooner:)