Christmas 29.12.2009
Posted by TabitaW in people.Tags: christmas, denmark, family, friends, Martin, see me, sherlock holmes, snow, theatre
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Since the last post, we’ve been busy with all kinds of things. We visited friends on the 20th, made biscuits the 21st, went to the theatre with my parents to see Les Misrables on the 22nd and visited Louise and Mikael on the 23rd. Actually we were baking for days as we made about six different kinds of biscuits plus a lot of other Christmas sweets. The kitchen is still full of biscuit tins.
Christmas Eve we were just me, Martin and my family. Oh, and the guinea pig of course. Went to church, put the presents under the tree while watching the usual Christmas Disney Show on tv, had roast pork for dinner and walked round the Christmas tree singing before opening the presents. Plenty of biscuits on the table, of course. Lovely Danish Christmas.
On Christmas Day Martin and I went to the Anglican church in town so he could have at least something that was a bit more like home (actually we had Christmas crackers at dinner, with hats and jokes and everything). After that we decided to go see Sherlock Holmes at the cinema. Not very traditional for Christmas, but a great film.
We went to Jutland on Boxing Day to see my mum’s side of the family. Big dinner at my gran’s house, then lots of games, sweets and playing in the snow. At night my parents drove Martin and I to the train so we could sleep over at my aunt and uncle’s place. The rest of my family stayed at my gran’s house.
The next day we spent playing Bob and eating biscuits indoors even though we’d actually planned to go for a walk down to the frozen fjord. It was raining too much though, so we didn’t go outside till we had to catch our train back to Copenhagen.
Martin had to go home on Monday so we got his stuff packed and him driven to the airport. Still not a huge fan of airport goodbyes but it’s getting better.
Oh, by the way, I didn’t win the See Me photography competition. Not that I’d expected to but it would have been cool. Thanks to those of you who voted for me anyway.
Also, I don’t usually encourage reading my Danish blog on Google Translate as it makes much more sense translated by me but seriously, this one has some hilarious nonsense in it.
Snow 19.12.2009
Posted by MartinH in in general, people, uni.Tags: centrestage, christmas, denmark, guest author, Martin, snow, sweden
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While Tabi wraps Christmas presents of varying sizes, I’ll update you on what has been going on since her last post on our weekend in Cardiff.
After many hours of work, Tabi finally completed all of her various University assignments, managed to get them printed, attached ‘pink slips’ and handed them in all in. This left her a few hours to pack her suitcases before we had to drive to Glasgow to see the musical “Beauty and the Beast” live on stage at the Clyde Auditorium. The trip was organized by my theatre group, Centrestage, as we are mounting our own production of it in March. We came away having enjoyed the performance but confident that we can do even better ourselves.
The very next morning (Thursday) we were up early and back to Glasgow to catch our plane to Denmark. When we arrived at Kastrup Airport we found the ground was thick with snow. The runway where our plane would normally have landed was one of those reserved for bringing world leaders to the Climate Change Summit (COP15). This meant that we had to land at the other end of the airport and taxi, then finally take a bus, to the terminal building. It was lovely to see Tabi’s family again and I know that she enjoyed having a proper Danish lunch: rye bread and warm liver paté.
On Friday, we ventured into Copenhagen to visit the Climate Change Exhibition which showed the various ways people are trying to save energy and preserve the planet for future generations. I contributed by pedaling a bicycle for a few minutes to help power the Christmas tree lights. Tabi, in tourist mode, took a photograph of me doing it.
Today, we went with Bodil and Rob (Tabi’s parents) on the train to snowy Sweden to visit the Julmarknad (Christmas Market) in Malmö. We took a ride on the Wheel of Malmö which gave us lovely views of the city from high above it. It snowed all day and it was very cold but it was good fun to walk around the Christmas Market and town looking at the various festive things on sale while drinking our hot chocolate. Our favourite tourist attraction would have to be the bike stand which an exercise bike was chained to!
Tabi and I recorded the trip on a mini digital video camera my parents gave us for Christmas so some of you may be fortunate enough to see the edited highlights of our trip, if we ever find the time to select the highlights and edit them into some sort of coherent narrative with high production values, naturally.
Martin
Christmaschristmaschristmas 07.12.2009
Posted by TabitaW in in general, uni.Tags: cardiff, christmas, doctor who, drawings, Martin, panto, visual creativity
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Watching old Danish Christmas tv series (yay for dvd!), wrapping presents and wearing Christmas socks. Oh oh, and eating chocolate!
Spent the weekend at Martin’s and for once he wasn’t busy with all sorts of things so we went for walks (no snow, just cold, tsk tsk), made biscuits (Dalek shaped!) and watched films. Lovely, especially with Christmassy things all over the place.
Most of this afternoon I was in the Art Room at uni, painting a huge picture for Visual Creativity. Lots of stuff to be handed in before the holidays (or in January, but I’d rather have it done before I go to Denmark) so I’m trying to as much as I can sorted.
Martin and I are going to Cardiff on Saturday! Planning to go to the Doctor Who exhibition Saturday afternoon and at night we’re seeing the panto with John Barrowman as Robin Hood. Sunday Martin wants to see the Welsh Assembly and we’d also quite like to see the bay where some of Torchwood was filmed. Oh yes, it’s going to be quite a busy weekend but also rather cool.
In other news I’m also working on a last minute commission so things are actually just busy in general. Most of it are things I don’t mind though, so it’ll probably be fine.
December! 01.12.2009
Posted by TabitaW in in general, people.Tags: advent calendar, centrestage, christmas, cold, family, Martin, winter
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It’s now winter, something that’s quite easily discovered unless you’re particularly good at not noticing extreme cold. My radiator doesn’t seem to be working or maybe the heating is just off in general. This is when it’s quite obvious that the building is rather old, no double glazing or anything. I’ve digged up my long johns and been sleeping under several layers of duvets, pillows, blankets and stuffed animals to keep warm. I’ve also started wearing at least two pair of socks per default. However, apart from the cold it wasn’t really so bad over the weekend. Instead of the endless rain we’ve had frosty nights so the muddy grass outside isn’t as wet as it was last Friday when Martin and I went for a walk at Belisle.
Saturday night I went with Martin’s family to see him in some Drama Corner thing (you had to be there, I think) and Sunday he was all busy with Centrestage again as they were switching on the Christmas lights in Kilmarnock. It was an insanely cold day and I was practically frozen to my core under my three layers of clothing, winter coat, gloves, scarf and boots so how on earth they made it through the performance in t-shirts I’ve absolutely no idea.
Yesterday I went to town to get a couple of Christmas presents and decided to go by bike for once. It was so cold I could hardly breathe but I got there alright and even found a bike parking place, go me! It got dark pretty quickly as I’d been a bit slow to get away but the streets were all pretty with Christmas lights so that was nice (too cold though).
Today is the first of December which you might have noticed and gone “Yay!” about. I got a big parcel from home with advent presents and got a lovely Toms chocolate advent calender, how lovely. Also, Martin is giving me a present every day till Christmas this year (aww!) so I’m just getting presents and presents. Just now I’ve added all my Christmas songs to my iTunes so it can all be a bit more Christmassy.
(By the way, that last paragraph is absolutely hilarious when put through Google Translate)
Four weeks 23.11.2009
Posted by TabitaW in in general, people.Tags: christmas, denmark, Martin
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Spent the weekend at Martin’s, mostly cuddling up on the sofa watching tv or drinking hot chocolate and playing Pictionary. The world outside has been miserably grey and wet for so long I can’t remember when it started, so there wasn’t really much else to do that stay inside keeping warm. Friday we went to Martin’s cousin’s 4th birthday party which had cake and party games and was quite fun in general.
The other day I was told that I’ll actually be in Denmark in four weeks. Really it’s more about three and a half weeks, and it’s feeling rather weird. To me it doesn’t seem like I’ve been gone for all that long, even if it’s the longest I’ve ever been away from home. Will be most interesting to see what’s been going on in Denmark.
