Lund Blog

TO READ DANISH VERSION CLICK HERE

It is the last week in November and time to get in contact with friends around the world to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy new year. 2013 has been the golden Jubilee year for us and several of our best friends but how could we manage to celebrate it together when we live in different countries but we did. The first one was our golden jubilee 10th April, and we started the celebration the weekend before with a nice dinner for the

 

whole family and some friends in a restaurant in Reading, where they served food from lots of different counties so both children and the grownups could get what they liked. Then Pernille & Bjarne arrived from Denmark the 9th, which meant they were here on the day which started with a champagne breakfast. Then we received a lot of beautiful gifts and flowers so a huge thank you to all our friends for making it a memorable day. In the evening Pernille & Bjarne invited us out to dinner in Windsor before we ended the day in Theatre Royal watching the play: “Maurice’s Jubilee” On with the celebrations so we went on a three weeks trip to Denmark & Sweden. As always the first stop was Viborg to visit John’s family and then a short stop to Strandby at Pernille & Bjarne’s house, before sailing to Sweden and the next Golden wedding celebration with Ann Kerstin & Jan in Lysekil. Ann Keratin had prepared a gorgeous champagne dinner and we had a lovely evening together. We stayed a couple of days and managed a trip to “Havets Hus” a new aquarium in Lysekil followed by a trip to “Naeverkaerr” to experience the only beech wood in that part of Sweden and to enjoy all the beautiful spring flowers Next stop was Baastad where the whole Whitsun weekend was a celebration of the opera singer Birgit Nielson’s 95 years birthday. On Saturday after a nice concert and speeches in the town centre and in gorgeous sunshine,

a beautiful blue sculpture of Birgit was revealed on Birgit Nielson’s square. Sunday we went to the opening of her new museum which was a wonderful experience. The celebration ended with a concert in Vaestra Karup’s church after a lovely dinner with Britt & Gunnar in which house we stayed. We continued Monday morning towards Halsingborg for a lunch with Per Holst in celebration of his 75 birthday,

follow by a visit to his & Ann Kerstin’s summer house for coffee, before taking the ferry to Denmark and a visit to the third Golden wedding couple-Ruth & Jorgen in Alleroed We celebrated our common party with a trip to the amusement park “Bakken” with a special dinner followed by a visit to the “Circus revue theatre”

 

 

for this year’s summer revue, so a splendid evening despite the lousy weather. May 23rd was the day of Lone & Soeren’s Golden wedding which they celebrated with a spectacular lunch in a lovely restaurant near “Moelleaaen” overlooking the beech wood and all the spring flowers. We stayed with them a couple of days and managed a day trip to

 

 

 

 

 

“THE BLUE PLANET”, the new big aquarium in Copenhagen and it was incredible. Then on to Kikhavn for a short visit to Inge & Sven in their summer residence. They had arranged a dinner party with some exiting people and one of them was Aase, whom we had not seen for 30 years ,( a nice reunion and it was also a wonderful evening. The next day we drove to Ishoej for a lunch with Hanne & Henning. I know we have too much good food when you are in Denmark. Last stop in DK was Odense where Lolita & her daughter Soes invited us to the best restaurant in town called “Sortebro Kro” and what an evening that was. The food & service were out of this world, and they even presented us with a gift when we left. A huge thank you to Lolita & Soeren for our golden wedding gift. Back home 1st of June to a nice summer and all the family birthdays, mine, Kristien’s 7th, Claus’s, Mikkel’s 5th, Stephanie’s, Helena’s second birthday party and finally John’s in September. We had the children a lot over the summer holiday and had an exciting day trip to National History museum together with Tima , Claus & the boys. Now I needed a holiday so we went to Portugal last week in September to visit John & Lita, and even if the weather was not the best, we had a nice time with lots of good food and lots of Champagne.

We had a visit to Cliff Richard’s wine yard in the rain and then when the rain stopped we went to see the amazing International Sand Sculpture Festival near Guia,

 

where all the sculptures are made of sand, it was absolutely spectacular. The whole family are doing well and all are healthy and happy. Tima thrives in her job teaching very deprived children, a demanding job but she is very good at it. Her house is still full of dogs and she has had three litter of puppies this year, two from her cocker spaniels and they were all sold in no time. The last litter are ten lovely, black Alsatians where our Masai is the father so they must turn out perfect!! They are only few weeks old but the first six are already sold and people are dying to come and see them

She is a very skilled breeder therefore a lot of people are waiting to get a dog from her. Claus is still busy at work while Stephanie stay at home looking after their three children. I am lucky to have little Helena every Monday and they all come to visit every weekend. Kristien is very busy partly with school work, and partly with swimming, Ninja and scouts while Mikkel only attend swimming and school at the moment; he got tired of Ninja but wants to join again when he turns seven. Last term year three- Kristien’s year- learned about Africa, so as his project he invited John & I to come to the school and tell the children about our experiences from Africa.

We arrived with lots of our African things & lots of pictures- about half an hour’s show, and as there are three year 3 classes, we had to do the “show” three times. Then Mikkel wanted us to do it for his class as well, so we had a very busy day with lots of fun. The children were all so interested and had lots of good questions and we really enjoyed the day. We skipped the big holiday trip this year and instead used the money to upgrade the house. I got a new kitchen floor, a big extendable solid oak table with six comfortable leader chairs, and John got an oak desk, new big office chair, some oak book cases & new lamps, so now he just love his office filled with computers, his big piano and all his books.   We have been to the cinema quite a lot this year together with Anita & Jim, and as we go to the senior performances mid day, we have time to meet for drinks and a talk afterwards, which make it is a nice day out. We have seen: “LINCOLN”, PHILOMENA, CAPTAIN PHILLIPS and THE BUTLER, all very good films. Anita & I had our yearly visit to Windsor & Eton Opera where we saw “IL TROVATORE” , which was a marvellous performance. This week the two of us will attend the Christmas function at Fenwick’s, where I used to work in Windsor, and as it is in the evening, we can enjoy the Christmas light in town and the Queens big Christmas tree outside Windsor Castle. The Christmas preparations are in full swing as Tima & I managed to bake a huge portion “Vanillie kranse” ( famous Danish Christmas cookies) last weekend, and now I can do the rest of the baking alone. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New year and please keep in contact as we love to hear news from all our old friends and family. Best wishes from ULLA & JOHN