Stockholm Baby!

I live in Europe - just a hop, skip and a jump from the rest of Europe in all its fabulous Europeaness. You would think that I would manage to leave my little sheltered town and venture out now and then but somehow it just doesn't seem to happen often. I've been here 3-1/2 years and have rarely ventured beyond the German border (it's 2 hours away!). We did manage to get in a car with some fabulous friends last November and spend our Thanksgiving weekend in a spa in Poland, and of course that was worth every moment, but for the most part, getting beyond the local doggy forest seems to be somewhat of a chore.

But, my family managed to wake me from my slumber and send me on a mission. The original mission was to somehow get the rest of the fabric for the drapery project to my mother, in the US, without having it cost more than a flight to the US.

You know how someone is from a place and you know someone else from that place, and the chances of those 2 people knowing each other or being from the same spot within that place is usually an impossibility but yet you can't help but say... "You're from Texas? Do you know Jim?". Well, my brother sent an email last month and though he knew the chance was slim asked... "You're in Denmark - have any friends in Stockholm?". Yeah, because those two places are small, and right next to each other. I know 3 people in Sweden. Total. And to say I know them is a bit of stretch, really, since I just know them from reading their blogs. 2 of them I'm sure have no idea that I exist, but they're blogs are funny, so I keep reading. The 3rd, however, also happens to be a Facebook friend and so I posed the question... "Any chance you're anywhere near Stockholm?" And get this... she is! And, being one of those generous souls that also happens to be a perfect person to serve as a pseudo-ambassador for her current country, she agreed to let my brother and sister-in-law pepper her with questions about Stockholm. Why the interest?

Because my brother may take an assignment in Sweden and hop on over to this side of the pond. Now, how cool is that!?

What does all this have to do with getting fabric to the US? Well, suddenly one evening on the phone with my mother, I found out that my brother, and his entire family, would be arriving in Stockholm for 4 days beginning on Palm Sunday. Which, at the time, was oh... a week away? Suddenly a flurry of activity took place on the computer next to mine and the next thing I knew, we were heading for Stockholm on Saturday, duffel bag full of fabric in hand, so that we could give said bag to my brother, visit with the family and even meet my Stockholm connection! Granted by the time we booked our flight, paid for the dogs to stay at the kennel, and paid for a hotel, it would've been cheaper just to ship the fabric to the US, but hey, a girl has to get out now and then!

We arrived in Stockholm Saturday afternoon and were greeted at Arlanda by Sir Pe, who took us straight to the home of Lady Fi, Oscar the dog and the infamous anklebiters! Upon arrival she promptly asked us if we had remembered to bring ear plugs - and I don't think she was kidding! The ankle biters are loud, but very sweet, and they proceeded to entertain us with their attempts at the Danish language. If I'm being honest - their danish was probably better than mine!

I gave Oscar a gift of a purple ball and he instantly became my friend for life. This is one very sweet dog!


We enjoyed lots of great conversation and pizza and I am delighted to have had the chance to meet our new Stockholm friends!

After a great evening, Sir Pe offered to drive us to our hotel. Once the men decided, with the help of the iPhone, the best way to get from point A to point B, we said our goodbyes and piled into the car for the ride to the hotel. We were a bit delayed getting out of the driveway as Sir Pe had forgotten to unplug whatever it was he had plugged into the car to keep it warm when we had arrived. Yes, it's that cold in Sweden.

As we drove, we chatted about various things, and then Ole and I learned that if you ask your driver about certain topics, such as their home country and why they don't live their anymore, said driver can get a bit distracted and forget exactly where it is he is supposed to be taking you. You have to be careful, as you may end up back at the airport, which doesn't happen to be anywhere near your hotel. I'm not saying that this is what happened (because I think I said I wouldn't say), I'm just saying... as a general word of caution for future visitors. 'Nuff said. Moving on!

On Sunday, we got together with my brother and family! It had been over a year since I'd seen them, so this was a great treat for all of us. Unfortunately for them, their luggage had been delayed in Amsterdam so they were stuck in what they had worn on the plane. Not to mention that they'd just arrived on an overseas flight, with 3 kids, so everyone was a bit exhausted. Nevertheless, we all went out to a local pub and had some lunch and then had a chance to wander around Stockholm a bit. We visited the royal palace and did a bit of sight-seeing.





Ole and I finally headed back to our hotel. Did I mention that Ole booked a hotel that sat on top of a shopping mall? Could it get any more perfect?! We wandered through the Swedish grocery store and I found some prized possessions - cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup and ziploc bags. I decided to let Sweden keep the caviar in a toothpaste tube. That's just too weird for me.

Final word of caution for those who may be thinking of visiting Stockholm. There is a train. It runs from Arlanda airport to central Stockholm. It takes 20 minutes. It costs approximately $40 USD, per person. And, at the time we were on it, the bathroom on board was out of order. Grumble. Highway robbery!

Oh, and the fabric? It has arrived back in the US! :)

Telling Time

I learned how to tell time long, long ago. I have no memory of the process, it's just one of those things you learn early and never forget. But, I learned to tell time in a part of the world that uses AM and PM to differentiate between the time before lunch, and the time after. Then I moved to Denmark, and ... my ability to tell time has been blown to bits.

Why? Well, you see, over here they use a 24 hr clock. Where I come from, we call that 'military time' but here, they just call it time. Whether there are armies of soldiers involved or not, it confuses the hell outta me. Oh sure, on paper, it's all rather simple - there are 24 hours in a day and if you just use all 24 when telling time, rather than only 12, it simplifies things and gets rid of that pesky little 'am' and 'pm'. I fully understand the concept and I do agree that it does make a bit of sense, but my brain cannot compute the times on short notice. It's not that I don't know that 17 means 5pm, it's just that when the world is moving quickly, and I'm not paying attention, 17 is meaningless. And this... this gets me into trouble now and then.

Exhibit A: A couple of weeks ago, we had the dogs at the swimming hall on a Saturday. There's an appointment book there where you choose your next swimming time and write in your name to reserve the time. We were on our way out and decided to book a time for Wednesday evening. I ran to the book, scrolled quickly through the available times, and jotted our names down for 6:30 pm. As we were loading the dogs into the car, something in my brain was triggering me that some bit of something, somewhere, wasn't quite right. So, because of that little nagging voice, I ran back inside to double-check the time I'd chosen. Yep, okay, 6:30 it is. All set. Or so I thought.

When we arrived Wednesday evening, right on time, the owner started to tell Ole that we had missed our time, but that we were lucky, as no one was scheduled so we would still be able to swim. I'm thinking.. huh? How did we miss our time? Let's go to the videotape (or in this case, the appointment book). What time had I chosen? 16:30... um, oops. Yep, I had chosen 4:30 pm, not 6:30 pm, and despite my brain's best attempt to warn me of my error, another part of my brain just couldn't see that pesky little "1" standing in front of the 6:30.

Exhibit B: And just the other day, while on the phone, we were discussing an upcoming event and whether or not we'd be attending. I had received an email with the details of the event and I had read said email earlier in the day. When Ole mentioned that it may start too early for us, I quickly replied that I thought we'd be fine as it didn't start until 7 or 7:30.

I went back later to sign us up only to discover that we will be late in arriving. I'm guessing by now, you can probably figure out why.

STUPID CLOCK!

Hockey Hockey Hockey

For the first time in over 15 years, I watched a hockey game from beginning to end. Not only that, but I watched a 2nd hockey game, in the same weekend, from beginning to nearly the end, and a 3rd game for about the last 20 minutes. Last weekend was all about hockey, hockey, hockey.

The last time before last weekend was the 1994 Stanley Cup finals where I watched the NY Rangers win the cup and end a 54-year drought in winning their first cup since 1940. It was a HUGE game if you lived anywhere in or around NYC and was something not to be missed.

On Friday evening, we headed out to a hockey game that wasn't quite so newsworthy! It was an event planned for a new international society. There was a fantastic turn-out with about 100 people, including both internationals living in Denmark, as well as Danes. It was really exciting and a great kick-off to what I hope becomes a regular part of our lives! We had a sandwich, a beer and a hockey game all for just 50 kr. per person, which is about $10 and let me tell you, entertainment does not come this cheap in DK! Incredible.

The game was the Herning hockey team against the Esbjerg team, in Herning. Now, as this new group is for those living in and around Herning, the general idea was that those who attended would be routing for the home team. Slight problem with that in this household. The 'home' team for my dane would be Esbjerg! But, given that our tickets were smack in the middle of the Herning fans, and the fact that despite all of our cheering and hopes for a good game there were no goals scored while we were there, in the end, it didn't matter that a traitor was in our midst! About that lack of goals thing... after 3 periods with no score, the game went into overtime. After the first overtime period, still with no score, we decided that beating the traffic out was more important than seeing the game to the end, and, after standing for over an hour (hey, 50 kr. remember - no seats!), it was time. Some pictures...

(Photo courtesy of Kelli!)
Ole, Monica and me

Kelli and Monica

Upon arriving home from the game, I discovered that the USA was in the middle of kicking some serious hockey butt at the Olympics against Finland. I was able to find a live stream of the game and watched the last 15 minutes or so of that one. Suddenly, I was totally sucked into the hockey madness!

And Sunday night, I joined the masses in watching the Gold medal game against Canada. It was a nail-biter and emotional roller-coaster from start to finish and while the end was a crushing blow, I'm glad I was able to watch it even from the other side of the world.

Maybe I won't wait another 15 years to see my next game!

Fancy Schmancy Pictures

Since I started taking Tamoxifen, my left knee has been bothering me with a nice nagging pain. I explained this to my Oncologist in January but he felt that since it was just one knee, and not all my joints, that the Tamoxifen wasn't to blame. He advised me to go to my regular doctor.

After a visit to my regular doctor, she wanted an X-ray of my knee, so I had to go to the Herning hospital for the X-ray. But, nothing was apparent from that little black and white picture and she decided to send me off to an Orthopedist.

So, earlier this week, I trotted off to Viborg Hospital to meet the Orthopedist. I had a 9:15 am appointment so I brought along my Kindle, and the paperwork they had sent me by mail, figuring I'd have to sit awhile. When I got there at about 9 am, the receptionist surprised me by greeting me in English - she must have read my file because I hadn't yet said a word! She told me to sit in section 4 and I prepared myself for a wait. Before I could even get a pen from my bag to fill out papers, they called me in - yeehaw! After a 15 minute consultation with the Orthopedist, he decided that I needed an MRI of my knee. He then explained that I would have to go to the private hospital in Viborg for the MRI and that it would be about a 2-week wait. That was on Tuesday.

Yesterday morning (Wednesday) I received a call from a private hospital in Herning asking me to come in for my MRI today! She explained that the wait time in Viborg would be too long and that my file had been sent over to them instead. I have to tell you it's quite handy to live smack in the middle of these two cities!

I have never had an MRI before and I wasn't quite sure of what to expect. I arrived at the hospital this morning and I have to say, the place was much smaller than I had anticipated. The MRI machine was actually a portable unit that was in a trailer in the parking lot. Once inside, it was just me and the technician. I had to lie down on the machine and then she put all kinds of braces and straps around my knee. She gave me some headphones to wear so I could listen to music to counteract the noise of the machine. She was telling me everything in Danish, which was okay as I was understanding the majority of what she was saying. There was, however, one thing I definitely misunderstood. When she explained it all, she said I had to be perfectly still and I was sure she had said it would take about 2 minutes. I'm thinking.. no problem!

Problem. 2 minutes and 20 minutes, in Danish, sound a bit similar. So, as the machine is cranking away, loudly, and I was listening to the 3rd song on the headset, it soon hit me that she didn't say 2, she said 20, and I was going to be stuck here for a bit. Oh well, there wasn't anything uncomfortable about any of it so I didn't care.

Next thing I knew, she was waking me up. Yes, despite the songs in my head and the very loud machine, I managed to doze off. I'm sure I'm not the first to have done that!

Any publicity is...

Let me begin by saying that I attempted to find the perfect image for this post... I failed. My image search yielded results that just weren't fitting. Sigh.

The local newspapers often have articles describing a new business that has opened in the area. It's a great thing for the local proprietor as it gives them a bit of free publicity. And, you know the saying, any publicity is good publicity. Or is it?

This week's paper features an article regarding a woman who has opened a new sexology and partner's therapy clinic. The article includes a photo. Some may choose to visit the new clinic based solely on the proprietor's looks, which would make sense, as she's an attractive woman.

But, if you go on to read the text that goes with the photo, well... I'll let you decide. Here is a bit of what was written (translated from danish):

[Owner's Name], 33, who is divorced, is the mother of 6 children.

This is definitely the person I'd turn to for relationship advice! Umm, not.

Translating the Olympic Games

Literal translations are always a bit scary and they tend to be less than accurate, but they're still fun to do if for no other reason than a good giggle. I've been surfing the Olympic television listings for Denmark attempting to figure out which events I will be able to see - everything is generally broadcast live and with Vancouver 9 hours behind us, that makes viewing some events a bit tricky.

For example, the opening ceremonies were broadcast here - they started at 3 AM this morning.

Today begins the first day of competition in the Vancouver games. I love the Olympics. I miss the US coverage, as I've previously explained, but hopefully, as most of the exciting live events will happen here in the middle of the night, they'll do some recapping during normal waking hours.

If you're checking TV listings in DK, today's scheduled event is/was styrtløb. For those of you who don't possess a danish to english dictionary in your head, the literal translation of that is...

Crash Run

Yep, that's what the 'downhill' is called in Danish. That sounds a wee bit more frightening than the word downhill!

As of now, I hear the event has been postponed due to rain... which is a bit odd, considering every other place on the planet seems to have freakish snow at the moment.

I'll just go back to checking the listings and see what other strange names I can find for the events!

Let's catch up, shall we?

Forgive me readers for I have failed... It has been one month since my last post. Each day that goes by I feel like I should get in here and write something, but then I think... where do I begin? What do I write about? What is worth mentioning and what isn't? So, rather than write, I procrastinate, which only compounds the problem. Anyway, you know the drill! So here I am.

This may end up to be a bit of a long post - or not - depending on how much I feel like typing. So there's your warning. If you'd prefer to just skip to the end, I'll understand, though I can't promise that the end of the post will be any better than this part right here as I haven't written it yet. It might suck. And then you'll be disappointed and upset that you missed all these tasty little tidbits here in the middle. Your choice!

Let's start with the elephant in the room... breast cancer/ brystkraft. For those who may be wondering; I am feeling good! My nails are coming back (slowly), my hair is coming back (grey) and Denmark has gotten over the hump of winter's darkest days, meaning that the light is coming back! I had my first post treatment check-up in early January and the doctor says "everything is as it should be". And... I have an appointment at the end of this month with the plastic surgeon to see about getting me a new fangled boobie to replace the one that tried to kill me.

It all seems a bit surreal at this point. I knew I wasn't one that was ever going to drape myself in pink and run around screaming "I'm a Survivor" but I did feel like, at some point, there might be some kind of epiphany or something about all of this. But nope, I just did what they told me to do, took the treatments they told me to take, and here I am on the other side. Weird, huh? So enough about that - let's get on to the fun stuff!

As previously noted, my parents were here for the holidays. My mother happens to have a great talent for sewing so we decided to make full use of that talent! She brought some fabric with her that I had purchased long, long ago and magically turned that fabric into duvet covers for our bed... in 1 day! Amazing. Then we put her to work on some drapes for my newly painted living room - okay, it's been a few months, but that's still 'new' relatively speaking. Anyway, after some extensive browsing, I found fabric I liked and she started on one 'test' drape. I decided immediately that i really liked the direction things were headed so we went back to the store to get enough fabric to do all the drapes, only to find out this particular fabric can't be re-ordered and they only have what they have. They checked the inventory of a few other stores and there was just enough in the country of Denmark for us to finish our project. Unfortunately, we didn't get it all while my parents were still here so we now have a big bolt of fabric that will be shipped to the states. (There's that procrastination thing again!) My mother will then work her magic and in August, when the family comes back, I may just be able to hang some drapes! How exciting is that?!

Speaking of August, everyone is coming. Yep, the whole clan. This means my parents, my oldest brother, his wife and my nephew, and my other brother, his wife, my other nephew and my two nieces. Holy travelers, that's a lot of Americans in Karup! What's the big deal? Well, this June my parents will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary and they have chosen to celebrate the happy event by having the entire family travel to Europe to visit us. My parents will come by plane but will travel back to the US by cruise ship. What a great cruise that will be for them!

Still here? Still reading? Whew, haven't lost you yet! Here's the good news for you... you've reached the end. My enthusiasm for this current post has waned so it's probably better to stop now then to babble on endlessly about things that aren't important or interesting. I'll try to come back more often; I've got a few ideas rattling around in my brain so I'll see what I can do to make that brain-to-finger connection.

Don't take this next part personally... it just means "the end" in Danish...

SLUT!