Lund Blog

Friends we were together with during 2010. From right: Family Gustavson & Ulla, prof. Lindegard with wife & Ulla, Family Jorgensen, Ulla Schubert & John

Dear friends.

It is the first Sunday in Advent to morrow and time to start the Christmas preparations, and what better way to do that then writing Christmas letters, putting up some lights and most important getting the advents calendar ready for our grandchildren for their Sunday breakfast.

What have happened in our family in 2010? In March John went to Denmark for a week mostly to attend Jorgen’s 70^th birthday party- a gentlemen’s lunch- but also to visit his family in Viborg. Then it was time for the Windsor Spring Festival with a “Book Swap” evening in the Art’s centre followed the next day by an interesting literary lunch in Wrens House hotel. I then spend a lot of time in my own garden and found time to get Tima’s garden into shape for the summer as well. We spend a fun spring evening at Ascot Race Course by invitation as they want to teach us how to bid on horses and a fashion show about the proper dress code at the races. It was interesting but I am not a gambler so we have not been their since despite all their invitations.

May 28 we packed the car for a one month’s trip to Scandinavia sailing from Harwich to Esbjerg. First stop was Frederiksia to visit Jytte & Henning (old friends from our time in Borneo) to see their fantastic new house and garden. We continued to Viborg for the sad occasion of attending Bjarne’s funeral as he died few days before we left UK We were able to say a last farewell to Bjarne and not least be together with Hanne and the family during this difficult times. We continued north to Strandby to see Pernille & Bjarne for two days, and as always we had a great time together. Thank you Bjarne for your “Warm smoked Salmon”, we enjoyed all the smoke.

Finished with Denmark for the time being we took the ferry from Hirtshals to Larvik to visit Hans (old friend from our Indonesian days) in his beautiful house in Oklungen. It was nice to see his children & grandchildren again and thank you for the lovely food and good company during some nice summer days. Next stop was Lysekil in Sweden for a visit to Ann-Kerstin & Jan, where we were the first guests to stay in the newly renovated guesthouse, and what a treat. We had two more stops in Sweden, first in Baastad to see Britt & Gunnar (old colleague of John) and despite the rains we managed to have a lovely time together. We drove to Helsingborg for a good lunch together with Ann Kerstin and Per to see their new flat and summer house before taking the ferry to Bornholm 10^th June the day before my 74^th birthday.

We stayed with Ulla & Anker for four days to celebrate my birthday and what a day I had. Anker had laid a beautiful table with white Tulip heads round my plate for a champagne breakfast. My birthday gift from John was a two hour’s course in glass blowing and I have a few things as proof of my skill.

We finished the day with a gourmet dinner at restaurant Romantik in Allinge so it was a lovely birthday. With Ulla as the perfect guide we visited several art galleries & museums followed by a fantastic concert in “Svanneke Garden “and I finally managed a visit to the Butterfly Park such a beautiful experience and a must see when you come to Bornholm

Next stop Zealand where we stayed in Ruth & Jorgen’s house in Alleroed. We visited Fredensborg Castle together with their children, son & daughters in law and several grandchildren ; we had a nice walk round the park again in beautiful summer weather. Ruth has got tickets for the four of us to visit Frederick 8’s palace in Amalienborg castle, the new home for the Danish crown prince family, but then I had my purse stolen with all our credit cards, driving licence plus all our cash money, it was a terrible experience. We spend a long time at the police station and in the meantime the thieves managed to get 18,000.00 N.Kr out of our account in 15 minutes without being stopped, but it took me several months’ battle with banks and insurance companies before I got most of our money back. A very bad experience on an otherwise perfect holiday.  On a more positive note we then spend a very good day together with Lone & Soeren visiting Louisiana museum to see the new exhibition about: “Warhol after Munch” and vi ended the day with a lovely dinner in a restaurant in Vedbaek harbour (where I lived when I was young), and then Soeren drove me round to find my childhood home, (Buskehoejvej 2) so it was a nostalgic trip for me.

We spend Mid Summer evening together with Inge, Sven & their friends in Hundested. A perfect summer evening with grill food in the garden & St. Hans Fire on the beach later. I managed a visit to Knud Rasmussen’s house (the Danish Polar scientist) while I was in Hundested.

Last stop was Odense on Fyn where we were invited to Lolita & Soeren’s silver wedding and what a marvellous party that was. Good company, excellent food & wine plus dance to a fantastic jazz orchestra until 2 in the morning. Thank you for inviting us. Just before leaving Denmark we visited Greta Lau (old friend from Thule Air Base) to see all her animals and not least her beautiful garden. Then after a trip to the Supermarket for some Danish specialities we had a good nights sleep onboard the ferry back to Harwich.

Back home to an overgrown garden but then I had something to do and my hard work paid off, as I got the council “Garden Award of 2010” this summer.

Time to bake birthday cakes for a combined birthday party for Kristien, Claus & I and it was so nice to see the boys again. In August we celebrated Mikkel’s second birthday with a grill party and of course birthday cake with candles and elephants on top for him also. A week later Pernille & Bjarne visited us for the first time for five days. We went to Tate Modern, had lunch in Covent Garden and finished the day wit a trip to the theatre to see the musical:”Chicago”. What a perfect day.

During the summer I had the boys one day each. Every Tuesday Kristien & I went to Windsor Castle-his favourite place- to watch Changing of the Guard- and he knows all the commands by now so we march all the time when we are back home. Thursday is Mikkel’s day but he just wanted to go to the playground & help Bedstemor in the garden so it is easy. Kristien started school September 6^th which was a great day for a four year old boy and for us as well. He loves the school and not least Mrs. Butchison-his teacher- the one I now have to compete with;;; he invited all his grandparents and his godfather to the school’s Firework evening in November. Too noise for my liking but the boys enjoyed it very much.

Our good friends Anita & Jim returned back from one year in USA and they now live on Temple Island, Marlow in a gorgeous house near the waterfront to the Thames. It is nice to have them back. The four of us went to the Scandinavian Exhibition in Olympia for a whole day where we enjoyed lots of good food, drinks and a chat with other Scandinavians. Anita & I enjoyed a Literary Dinner in Windsor where we meet 14 young authors and I sat next to Patrick Woodrow- the best looking and most charming man in the hall ,so it was a good evening for me and as always I returned with lots of new books.

Tima has got a lot of dogs as always but this time she has started a new breed- Cockers Spaniels- and has just had her first litter of puppies, lovely dogs and she has sold them all after 8 weeks hard work. If you want to look at her dogs then visit her web side: http://folkvang.co.uk/

We wish you all a very Happy Christmas and all the best for a prosperous New Year and hope to see as many of you as possible in 2011.

Lots of love from ULLA & JOHN.