Itinerary, sort of.

We are just about ready for our big trip to the outside world (hey, we are going to Africa, technically). We leave tomorrow, Sunday night, on a night train to Paris. We've done this before, we know the drill. Laptop with kiddie friendly films (you know, Brideshead), check. Favorite toys, check. Markers and paper for coloring, check. Alcohol (not sure if it's for us or them), check.

In Paris, we're visiting some friends from here, for the 8 hours before our train to Madrid. They'll provide cheese and sherry, we'll provide the entertainment I guess. Then in Madrid, we'll have one night at the Hotel Ingles, apparently a favorite of Virginia Woolfe if I'm not mistaken? Then onwards, Algeciras, Gibraltar, Tangiers. In three days, we'll be on the African continent. Not bad if you ask me! We know we want to stay in Tangiers for two days, just to settle down, soak in the country, and not have two kids on a train for a fourth day straight. Then Marrakech, also two days. When we started planning this trip we automatically figured we'd want to be in Marrakech for quite a bit. Then, I freaked out. July, hot, two kids. (Have previously had Dante in a sweltering San Antonio, 40 degree heat - not fun). Luckily, while watching my favorite channel, Discovery Travel and Living, this British cook who has a program called Feast Bazaar was in Morocco. A town called Essaouira. The camera panned down the main drag, and I was stunned to find I recognized it. I'd dreamt about that very street just weeks before, without ever having had been there, or even heard of it. I googled it, saw that it was a coastal town, windy, and ten degrees cooler on average than Marrakech. We found an apartment there for ten days. After that, who knows. Fez? Chetchouan? Casablanca?

Some other friends are in France around that time, helping a relative out with a new b&b. Close to Biarritz, we may head that way on the way back. It's pretty much open. Deciding factors are time, money and children. Mikael will be filming the whole thing. Hopefully, we'll end up with a great film about a family vacation while trying to save the world at the same time. Excellent.

Two things you can do for me.

1) Pray. (thanks!)
2) Talk to everybody you know, about this crazy lady who'd taking her kids to Africa by train because she doesn't want to fly, and spew more carbon than necessary. The idea might catch on.

Low carbon fun to be had by all! I'll keep you posted along the way, provided there's wireless to be mooched. It'll be fun to have some tagalongs! ;-)

***Note to thieves: don't even try. We have out place letted out while we're gone. Besides, I'd cut off your balls and eat them rancheros if you do.

Speechless

Normally I am not one to be speechless, but I am right now. But more on that later in this post.

Today we had a smokin' trip to the beach. First, I headed off to my Nia class to blow off some steam accumulated in this heat. On top of that, we have class in a room where we're not allowed to open the windows, simply because we make too much noise, and apparently this does not amuse the neighbors on Kapelvej. After getting good and sweaty, I bike to the beach to be with the boys and friends and take a nice dip in the cool Øresund. The boys were in the water so much their lips turned blue, but took a break on land, playing in the bike. Exhibit A.



We came home and found the apartment to be hot as hell, despite having all out of reach windows open. So I headed out to rent some videos to divert out attention away from the opressive heat. Along the way, I noticed a port that I've biked by thousands of times, though this time it was open, revealing a most agreeable fountain. What a gem in the city! Exhibit B.



One of the movies we saw was quite good. A bit unexpected, but I went for it when I saw Parker Posey was starring, and who hasn't been secretly in love with her at some point? It's not an outright comedy, or drama, but it has some really lovely points to it. Broken English, it's called. Exhibit C.



After watching it, I checked my mail (as I often obsessively do), and got a mail from my teacher this past term telling me I got a 10 on my term paper. 10 doesn't sound like much, but it's the next best grade you can get. I hadn't expected to get this much on my first paper on my master's program. I knew the subject was good, but also knew that my "academic" writing wasn't quite up to snuff. I am quite pleased, and am looking forward to writing more on this subject in the coming years. It's just starting to sink in that I may just yet become something.

Stone Soup

These days, we are having a veritable heatwave! Fun fact: the sun's activity is cyclical, spanning over about 12 years. At the end of the cycle, the activity weakens, before spiking at the beginning of a new cycle. We are actually at the end of the cycle now, so these next few years are supposedly gonna be scorchers! So, anyways, it's hot.

Upon retrieving the young 'uns from the daycare, we usually bound into the courtyard of our co-op, where there are lots of children and adults to mingle with on hot days. I hop up to the fourth floor and make smoothies as tradition dictates, and we partake under the leaves of the numerous trees here. One of the neighbors says he always knows when I'm in the yard by the smoothie 'stache on my kids. What can I say. It's nice to leave my mark somehow. Today's smoothie was a lovely cocktail of bananas, apricots and frozen blueberries, topped off with apple juice and flax seed oil.









At about 5:15pm I realized that I had absolutely no idea what to make for dinner so I ran up and quickly assessed the pantry situation. I had pretty much nothing. I took the few things I could scrounge up out of the fridge, and ended up with a a pretty good thing. I made a pizza dough, and let it do its thing, rising and all that. Then I pre-baked it for about 20 minutes with one can of crushed tomatoes on it, sprinkled with salt and cumin. Then I put finely chopped spring onion, black olives, pickles (in lieu of spicy jalapenos), zucchini, canned corn and shredded cheddar cheese. Not bad, not bad at all. A culinary crime perhaps, but definitely one that bears repeating! This was my stone soup today.




After dinner, the kiddos had their nudie time together, and spent it as per usual, rolling around on each other, hugging and laughing. Blessed are these moments, because they magically erase the hours I spend every night trying to keep these dudes in their friggin' beds! At the time of writing, I can happily inform those who care that Dante is sound asleep, but Halfdan is blissfully ignoring my chiding, and is gleefully playing with cars a whole two feet away from his bed. Little booger.

Pastoral

Here are some pictures from today's outing to Frilands Museet. I'd never been there, although most children brought up in and around Copenhagen are used to coming here with their daycares, schools, etc. Truly, it was an awesome place. The land surrounding the place is just lovely. Really lush, rolling hills, loads of trees, I almost thought I was in a Merchant Ivory film, or maybe just an episode of Taggart. They've got houses from the past 300 years dotted around the place, all still intact with original furniture and whatnot. Lots of animals too. And quaint. Lots of quaint.





A mill. Picturesque.



The rooster seemed to think Halfdan smelled great or something, and was quite keen to go clucking around him.



Dante's future as a plumber is sealed.



Okay, this house is pretty cool. The roof is made out of seaweed. It's piled on like that on purpose, which looks pretty bitchin' if you ask me. It's was also nice and cool in that house, which was nice because outside the house, you could've fooled me into thinking I was in Texas.



If you live in this area, I would totally recommend this. It's part of the Danish National Museum, which means it's free, so it'll only cost you the train ride up to Sorgenfri. We only saw half of the place today, but will definitely be back to see the rest. It was scorching out there today, so we finished up with an ice cream and when we got home the kids were so exhausted they just kind of curled up on the bed or sofa and fell asleep right after dinner. Sweet. Usually, because it's light here until 11pm, they take that as a carte blanche to just ignore me when I tell them to go to bed, opting for their toys instead.

And now for something completely different. I finally got around to drilling my new spice thingies into the wall. I only bought them at Ikea 6 months ago. No joke. They look real purty, but I'm already short for about six spices. And as I can see, I'm running low on turmeric and garlic powder.



Also, thanks for the comments on my tattoo speculations! I'll let you guys know either way! So, here's another one I really can't decide on - should we have another baby? I love leaving big decisions for others. So, what's the verdict?

Sorry, I Couldn't Help Myself

Found at Laughing Squid

Food for Thought

Yet another subject, that I've been wanting to blog about for ages. Food! I was sorely reminded of an aspect of the food debate that's been rubbing me the wrong way, when we had elections for the European Parliament a few weeks ago. There were free postcards, and posters in busses, cafés etc. with the picture you see above. If your French is a bit rusty, the apple on the left says "organic", the one in the middle "conventional", and the one to the right "genetically modified". This is indeed how we classify food in our parts of the world nowadays, the status quo of food labelling if you will. Can anyone else see the problem with it? I didn't give it much thought until I had kids, and really thought about what exactly it is that we put into our bodies.

My mother-in-law said something once, that made total sense to me. She (she's 60-something) said: "When I was a kid, everything was organic". Meaning, the "conventional" label used to be what we now call organic, grown without artificial pesticides, fertilizer et.al. What happened? How did we let ourselves get duped into believing that it was okay to put poison on/in our fruit and veg., in the name of streamlining, and beefing up the production and profit of our food sources. The economy, stupid. I suppose, for the sake of a better living standard (although it seems to be biting us in the ass, in all manner of ways), this was fair enough. The economy grows, and conventional wisdom says that is "good". But as we learn now, we still know not the exact, long term effects of f*cking with our food. And as I learn, mostly by reading Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food should seriously be mandatory for anyone who is literate), the "organic", "conventional" and "G.M." monikers have so many levels of understanding, you practically have to have an edumacation just to go grocery shopping.

The baseline is this: I propose we re-label our foods. G.M. is what it is. But the "organic" label needs to go. Organic IS conventional (and was for thousands of years), and should be treated as such. So what to do about the other stuff? Would it be okay to label what we now call "conventional" as "Grown with the use of artifical pesticides and fertilizers"? Pretty long name. Maybe "GWUAPAF"? "GAPF"? Or how about just having a little picture of a devil on it? Ok, that's going overboard. I know a lot of people do not buy organic out of the principle, that it is unfair to the third world. Haven't quite gotten my head around that one yet, seeing as I don't see the connection between eating pesticides and helping the third world, but I suspect it is not without some validity.

I'll leave you with something I just read by Pollan. He tells of early pioneers in the field of fertilizing, breaking down the active components of nutrient rich soil to just three things, and basing all artificial fertilizers on a concentrated form of them. He also tells of the coca plant, which humans have been ingesting without ill effects, and how the three active ingredients in it are the same three active ingredients concentrated in cocaine and crack, which as we know is not good for the human body. Things that make you go, "hmm".

Special

So, the other night, Mikael comes home with a packet of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. For me. Bought in 7-Eleven. And while this is no big thing, usually, I must add that Reese's products have never been widely available here before. Only at the American Shop, or the American aisle at Super Best Hellerup. And even though I adore the damn fattening things, I am used to only tasting them once or twice a year, when my mother brings me some. But now, I can go down to 7-Eleven whenever and buy them? I'm not quite sure I like that they're so readily available. I don't like it when things we regard as special suddenly go off and become everyday. Because then they seem to lose their appeal.

Mikael was in California for the first time some years ago, where he tasted his first Sierra Nevada Indian Pale Ale. It instantly became his favorite beer. Obviously, back then there was only Tuborg and Carlsberg to be had in Denmark, and he so wished he could find it here. Then one day he did. A small specialty beer boutique opened on Vesterbro, and there it was, with its unmistakable green paper. S.N. Indian Pale Ale. And all of a sudden, it wasn't so special anymore. Still tasted great of course, but all of a sudden not something he had to have.

You know, this may seem hypocritical, because I am seriously thankful that I can buy Ben & Jerry's here. Danish ice cream (flødeis) tastes like cold fat in a bowl, and I do not like. But somethings I would prefer to keep "special", aka not readily available. Especially Reese's. Because even though it tastes good, it is not exactly what I would classify as a high quality product, so why exactly should we be importing it?

What do y'all think? Do you have a "special" product? Do you think it would become less special if you could just buy it whenever you wanted?