New House #2

I moved again, to another company rented house and I really like the new place...it's a 10year old house (but recently re-furnished) with spacious garden. My favourite spot is the patio. Sitting outside with chirping of the birds surrounding me; seeing & hearing the trees move when wind blows is so calming, so relaxing, so so nice. Oh....I wish I can be in this 'setting' forever (literally).

I'm not good in describing, enough said, let the pictures speak.

Pic: My favourite spot 'in' the house, I can spend hours sitting there (even when strong wind blows). In fact, writing this blog at the patio :)

Other than the patio, my second favourite spot is the two-seater table set in the garden. Unfortunately it needs some 'clean-up' before I can sit there, will try for sure. There's a mini green house & even a small goal in the garden. My housemate said since the goal is a relatively small one, I can be the short goal keeper .\/.

I found some small wild berries growing in the garden. I'm sure they're edible because I ate 3 of those little ones yesterday & no sign of sickness today, wahaha... but it doesn't taste very nice, that's why I stop 'consuming' them. The landlord actually plants a lot of roses around the house, so when i sit in the patio, I can smell some hint of roses ~~

Hmm....my future house must have patio & rose garden (guess I have to work harder to achieve that) !

Malmø_2

I probably should share about my new place (after the move) but I must complete what is not first. So, continue on Malmø...

Those who know me understand how much I love food, and they'll probably be surprise to know I've been surviving on frozen food, instant noodles & bread for all these while until I went to Malmø. Finally, a Chinese buffet lunch at a Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant (quite an European setting for a Chinese restaurant though~~). The food wasn't fantastic but it's enough to sooth my home sickness.

When the weather is beautiful in summer & there's seaside, it's impossible to keep people here indoor. At the beach, topless ladies are easily spotted. Sea water is clear & shallow, feel free to jump in if you're not afraid of swimming in icy cold water (I assume Europeans' temperature sustainability is higher since they still 'jump' in one after another regardless of the cold water).

What better than an icy cold ice-cream after a long day walk? Rum n raisin & chocolate hazelnut ice-cream, yum yum....Swedish Kroner 39 for that :)

Specially dedicate the ice-cream to Finland Finest ;)

House Moving

It's been a tiring weekend. Initial plan is to visit Hamlet Castle & Viking museum in the weekend but have to move out from the place I stay by 28-Jun 11.30am to a new house. So, plan cancel!

Even though I've only been here 3 weeks & I've already try not to unpack so much in the previous house knowing that I'll move end of this month, but it still took me the whole night yesterday to pack & the day till afternoon today to unpack, tired tired tired. The best part is: I forget that I'll move in this weekend & bought a lot of weekend food supply which also needs to be moved :(

New house is in the middle of nowhere with huge living room, luckily it has a very nice outdoor environment. I'm to tired to do anything now, will take some pictures & put on blog to share soon.

Need to 'rest in peace' now...

Malmø_1

Malmø is the nearest town to Copenhagen in Sweden, so near that one is hard to tell the slight different between these 2 cities. The two city is connected by unique Oresund Bridge where part of the bridge is underground (or shall I say 'under-sea'). When I first saw it in the plane, I thought it's a bridge under construction :$ and this picture is actually 'stolen' from the Internet. I didn't manage to snap picture in time (will try next time I fly)

Aside from the magnificant 'under-sea' part, if I show Oresund Bridge's side view picture to Penangite, they might just think it's another Penang bridge shot :p

Malmø to me is like a smaller scale Copenhagen city, I really can't tell the difference between these 2 cities (perhaps because I'm not local?). Both has canals, happening city square (Copenhagen is needless to say, more vibrant), lots of statues etc...

The most special building in Malmø that Copenhagen doesn't have is the Turning Torso - the tallest skycraper in Sweden. The down side of the building despite its beauty is - it's a residential building, can snap picture, can touch the wall but can't go in :(

More about Malmø harbour next blog.

Sankt Hans Day

23-Jun-2008, Sankt Hans Day (Midsummer Day) in Denmark where the coast line will come to 'live' with hundreds of bonfires lit between 8 - 10pm. It is one of the most fundamental Danish tradition. Traditionally speaking, midsummer songs will be sang during the event but what I experienced was a little more 'modern' - songs are played through radio instead, lol... Upper Pic: Piles & piles of wood/grass stacks
Lower Pic: Fire!
Such celebration is believed to ward off evil spirits and witches and protect land or animals from bad curse. Some bonfires have a witch doll (made of straw and cloth) in remembrance of the church's witch burnings. A mean friend warned me about the witch burning tradition & asked me to stay home (I'm not a witch, I'll go out! & I did)

Upper Pic: kerosene is used to aid the fire burning & fire extinguisher to put out the fire, haha
Lower Pic: what's left...

My Danish colleagues highly recommended me to experience this enjoyable event but after walking 2 hours along the coast line, wrapped myself like an onion (a long sleeve shirt, a sweater & a wind breaker) to protect myself against the strong wind and watched piles after piles of similar bonfires, my only thought is: I prefer the Tuborg beer after 2hrs walk on the beach ;)

A lot of fun? er...maybe not this time.

Pacifier Tree

Saw a pacifier tree in Fredericksberg Garden. Initially I thought it was for some events/celebration but was told by my friend that it's more like a 'ritual'. He believes it originates from Sweden.

Parents bring toddlers to throw away their pacifiers by hanging it around the tree (some even carefully wrapped in plastic bags with wishing cards). Doing that, toddlers leave behind babyhood and ready to move forward into their childhood. Picture parents bringing their children back to the tree & tell them stories. Wouldn't it be nice to go back to see your own 'toddler-hood' one day even when you're grown?

Who knows, one day we may see a 'cigarette tree' to quit smoking or 'broken-heart tree' to leave behind sour memories...

Gefion fountain

Grefion fountain - I love it at first sight, without knowing any story / history behind. It's located near the harbour front (the harbour that sits Little Mermaid). Being there and felt the water running in such volume, one word - beautiful. The fountain featured the Nordic Goddess Gerjun plowing 4 oxen.


The fountain depicts the Nordic myth of the creation of the island of Zealand. Legend says that Swedish king promised Gefjun the territory she could plow in a night until dawn. She turned her four sons into oxen, and the territory they plowed out of the earth then become Zealand, which Copenhagen is located.

The fountain is also a wishing 'well'. Guess what wish I made? *wink

Local Titbits

Local tit bit stalls can be found in city center or near some tourist attractions and seems interesting. They're not as common compare as hot dog / ice cream stalls which can be easily found in city center or even shopping complexes. Chocolates, sweets, candies, soft drinks & some local tit bits (that I have yet to try) are sold.


This one's specialized in sweet deep fried almond. DKK25 per small pack. Personally, I think it's too sweet. Almond coated with sugar & deep fried, smells very nice. Not that bad but I think once in a life time experience is enough ;)

(Part 2 of) Copenhagen City

As promised, part2 of Copenhagen city.

Introducing the most photographed lady in Denmark...the Little Mermaid (personally, I think it's a rather sad fairy tale, again, Wikipedia can tell better: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid)

See the red circle mark on the top picture? That's the Little Mermaid from far (well, not that far actually). As pretty as she might looks up-close, she's tinier than one's perception. I was a little disappointed when I realize that's THE famous little mermaid; still the slight disappointment doesn't stop me from taking lots of her pictures :)

The Royal Palace (Amalienborg palace) is the residence of Queen Margrethe, consist of 4 different palaces surrounding the knight statue of King Frederik V. A friend told me that if a knight statue has both legs on the ground, it means the knight die of natural diseases; one leg in the air indicates he die from wound during battle; both legs in the air means he die in a battle. Not sure how true this is, just to share. :)

Missed the guard changing at the court yard which will take place by noon but saw them marching on the pedestrian street, kind of cool.

Time for the embarrassing story: while I was walking in front of the palace square, a tourist's map flew away towards my direction. Seeing him clumsily chasing after the map, I decided to be nice & bend down to pick up the map for him. Can you believe he couldn't stop in time & 'bang' into me? I fell on my back & there were so many people laughing, I felt so embarrassed. I think back what happen, it is kind of funny...'accident' of the day, too bad he's not young & handsome, lol

(Part 1 of) Copenhagen City

Well, it's time to show the colours of Copenhagen...



Pic: City centre / city square
Few streets adjacent to the knight statue (well, statues are very common actually) house lots of shops along the streets, making the city centre a shopping heaven (for local, it's too expensive for me :p). A few interesting places / people along the shopping streets (will share them on part 2 of Copenhagen City).
I was passing by the city some time ago in the morning & snapped a picture of 'tranquility'; when I went back to the same spot a week later in the afternoon, it looks so different. It's like the whole city has come to life. Almost everyone 'flock' into the city centre, guess it's the magic of summer (or maybe magic of sales xD).


Thought about waiting untill the next post to share the beauty of Nyhavn but I guess I'd better not let anyone who's been reading have the wrong impression that Copenhagen is boring. Nyhavn turned from a notorious city full of drunk sailors & easy ladies into a cosy vibrant tourist attraction. It's in so many contrasting colours but yet so beautiful that one of my friend said it looks like fake wallpaper on the picture, lol...

This time, I featured myself in the picture, just so my friends & families can witness the process of me growing fat (it's all the nice breads & cheese's fault!!! I can't resist the temptation)

Canal tour is available so tourists can hop on & off at several major tourist attractions, an experience worth trying but remember to put on sun block/wear 'protective gears' if you're worried abuot tan skin. Might want to bring umbrella/poncho with you if you're worried about rain because it might rain. Then again, I'd prefer to be more care-free, let it rain, let it shine...it's different kind of (bad? good?) experience.


I'll share the most photographed lady in the world & an 'extraordinary' encounter in next post... till then, please bear with this one, haha :D

drive õ drive

Being a driver spoilt with automatic gear small car which is easy to maneuver on streets of Malaysia, I find the driving experience in manual gear Peugeot 407 on the other side of the road (left hand driving in Denmark) very um....exhilarating!

On the right side of the road, there's always a cyclist path for all bicycle/small engine motorcycle riders. In cyclist friendly country like Denmark, they have the top priority so whenever a right turn is to be made, make sure to watch out for cyclist/bikers on the right.

Knowing this fact very well & understanding my own driving skill, I set for a 'test drive' at 6.30am on Saturday morning where the traffic is not heavy (cars/cyclists/pedestrians).

Total distance 35km, I have to restart car engine 5times along the way (my clutch & fuel balancing failed, sob sob). There was even a time where I drove 1/4 of the right rear wheel up the cyclists' path. I think if I were to continue my journey any further, I'll post serious threat to all pedestrians & cyclists, lol...

Anyway, driving in Peugeot was a good experience. It feels good to be behind the wheel (power steering, haha) again, kind of miss driving. The car wipers have sensor to detect the density of moisture/rain & will automatically turn on wiper/adjust wiper speed accordingly. Cool huh?

Oh...and remember to turn on the car light even during day time when driving in Denmark. It's a must ;)

I actually have a picture of mini traffic lights for cyclist & a snap shot of the wiper sensor...but I can't upload it, somehow. Maybe next time...

Calendar

If you laugh at the first sight of this picture, then we're 'members'.

Received this big calendar the first day I started work but never have proper 'tool' to put it on the wall. One of my colleague (Anders) saw my misery, after 2 weeks, he got a taping gun with the brown tape & helped me to put the calendar up.

Honestly this is way far from artistic but I'm still grateful for his help. At least this hideous calendar provided me a good few minutes laugh & it's no longer occupying my table.

Anders agreed that it's not nice but said it's a good engineering solution (the calendar sticks to the wall, problem solved), lol...

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Updates: just for the record, the calendar fell after a week

BBQ Picnic

I'm totally amazed with how well-equipped a normal family is on BBQ equipments/settings for a BBQ picnic. Here's a simple comparison based on my personal opinion/experience:-

1. We never use table cloth in M'sia during picnic, most of the time we used old newspaper/mahjong paper

2. Paper plates/cups & plastic utensils are used but Danes use ceramic plates, glass & steel utensils (reason being the wind is stronger here, will blow away the paper plates, hmm...reasonable)

3. Typical M'sian BBQ is done over charcoal grilling, 'advanced' Danish family use gas to grill, so much faster (with the strong cold wind, the grill can cool down pretty fast as well, perhaps that's what we can't have in M'sia)


Different country has different context. Anyway, I had a wonderful BBQ dinner at about 8pm. The picture taken is still with blue sky & bright sun because the sun sets at 10pm this time in Denmark. Pictures for sharing...

The setting:-

The cook:-


What's at the pit (before & after):-

Finally, the food:-

Møns Klint

Went on a trip to visit Møns Klint during Constitution Day (half day off work) with a colleague, my new boss & his family. The cliff is formed by remains of shells / sea creatures million years ago. Wikipedia explains better: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B8ns_Klint

A landslide in 2007 created a long peninsula of chalk (causing the 2 colored sea) and fallen trees stretching out into the sea. Perfect weather made the sea's two-tonned clearly visible & view breath-takingly beautiful.

My boss's cute daugther (Melanie) picked up the chalk stone on the shore as soon as we reach the bottom of the cliff & start 'making up'. It's so funny to see her 'painting' her face & arms with chalk, so cute...There is a good chance of finding fossils such as spine from the octopus and sea urchins on the beach. My boss told me sometimes if we're really lucky, amber can be found as well. Here's what I found: some spine from octupus (which is rather common) & a 'special' stone (I insist that the stone has some embedded fossils in it even though the rest disagree), lol...

Away from City

Away from the city, in relatively flat Denmark, fields after fields of beautiful green lands with farm houses in the middle of the fields, cows, sheeps, horses & pig farms are very common. A lot of lands are used for grain / wheat planting while some are used to plant grass which can be later sold as 'artificial turf'.

Some will purchased it & 'trans-plant' in their garden to have a green garden in 2 weeks time. It'll take months (if you start planting in spring) before the grass grow to a small height & strong but it might be too late as summer will be way over by then.

Too bad I was driven in car through the country side, didn't manage to take any good pictures. Here's the only one that's still acceptable (the rest of the pictures seems to be taken by a very shaky hand, better save myself from embarrassment):-





There're farmers who provide home-stay at their farm house (perhaps I should try when I have chance & $$). Usually they'll make it easily recognizable for travellers, such as this one below where they have the rolled up hays decorated as a guy & a girl with welcoming message & smiley face. Very inviting, isn't it? :)


Fishing in Denmark requires license. On top of that, if you choose to fish in a private place, like a small lake in a small town, you have to be a member to do so. That'll cost you about DKK200 yearly (per person) to enjoy fishing on a tranquil peaceful lake. If I can swim, not afraid of water & have lots of patience, I might be fishing as well (so many conditions :$). Here's one of those lake that permits fishing activities:-

Strawberries

I'm lucky to arrive in Denmark during summer where the strawberry season just started. Danes have constant strawberry supplies from other countries when the weather in their own country 'doesn't permit anything to be grown'. However, when the harvest season is approaching, they'll rather wait & pay more just to buy Danish grown strawberries (which is called 'jordbær' in Danish).

I'm rather amazed with this 'patriotism' (perhaps just like Malaysian's love towards local durian) & I have to agree that Danish strawberries are nice. I was told the price will drop as the strawberries 'output volume' increase (make sense), hope so. I have a colleague who had 1.5kg of strawberries for dinner with his wife. Didn't believe it in the beginning, he showed me pictures & proved it. The love of Danes towards local strawberries got me speechless. =.=


Pic: Danish strawberries (on the left) has very attractive maroon red while Polish strawberries are red (on the right)

Tasted cherries here, not as nice as I remember those in UK. Kind of miss the time where I can pay £10 for a big box of cherries. I think my capability in 'consuming' cherries is at least compatible to my colleague's 'strawberry consumption'. Will continue my quest to search for nice cherries in Denmark, lol...

Canteen - Breakfast

The first day I step into the company cafeteria, I was first impressed by the clean white bright indoor & absolutely amazing outdoor dining place. Fruit juices, soft drinks & coffee are right beside the bread bar while milks (full cream, low fat & sour milks) are available in a small fridge underneath the carbonated drink 'dispenser'.



Sorry that the bread selection looks limited on the picture. What happen was: after I took picture, lots of new bread were delivered to the rack. I was too embarrased to take second picture then because a lady approached me & told me that the cook was so nervous, thinking I'm representative from health / food control, trying to catch his potential mistake. That is so so so so so embarrasing....I nearly dug a hole & burried myself on the spot.

A Danish colleague find it weird that I'm eating bread with salami & cheese. He likes cheese with fruit jams instead, hmm.... Both tasted good anyway, so, who cares? lol...Btw, they have a cute cheese cutter to slice our own cheese. Not a usual tool that we can see in Asia but then again, I'm too embarrased to take picture in canteen. Maybe i'll try it with cell phone one day, maybe. :)

Considering it was a sunny bright day, I took my breakfast at the outdoor cafeteria. Weather is nice but the wind is strong (& the sun seems a little too bright too)... So it's probably the first & also the only time I have breakfast outdoor, I guess. Here's how the outdoor cafeteria outdoor looks (I dare not take picture indoor, still embarrased).

Day1 @ Work

As a 'newbie' to my new department, I get a bouquet of flower & some gifts the first day I started work. Flowers & gifts are presented over specially arranged breakfast with extra Danish pastry which all look very tasty. I wish I can try all, but I only get so much capacity :D

My colleagues are pleased to see that finally someone from the department appreciates flower (everybody gets one when they start work but you can imagine the guy's reaction when they receied flowers, lol). The gift is a handy one, it's Copenhagen map in a book (one of my colleague commented that probably the department can't afford a GPS, typical Danish joke, got everybody laughing)

I also get a new laptop with Danish keyboard, so I have these symbols: æ å ø Å Æ Ø 'on board'. Some of the keypad location for certain symbols changed and I'm still trying to adapt to new keyboard even after a week.

No chinese character input/viewing capability & no Windows installer CD given with the laptop. I have lots of chinese songs which cannot be displayed & I cannot view any of the website/email with chinese character :( Then again, upon calling, a good friend came to the rescue virtually & now problem is solved. PY, 谢谢你!

As the only female in the department (tentatively), I have a 'personal toilet' all by myself (well, you don't expect the guys to use female toilet don't you?), wahaha... regretably, this condition will only last until end of the month.

Every light (whether in office or toilet) is motion sensor controlled, which I think is a very good way for energy saving & prevent unnecessary waste. Intelligently control security, I'd say, for every lift access needs a badge scan. Even if you take staircase, if no badge scanning is performed, alarm will sound when you walk up the stairs. Only ground floor is accessible for visitors; the rest are restricted area.

Now, more about my cube... welcome to my new 'bangalow' lot with train station view. Not the best view you can get but at least that's a window seat, cannot be too greedy can I? The building has a light density detection sun shade on the outside. If the sun gets too brights, the sun shade will automatically drop down & shield the window (system centralize controlled).




The first time I saw a double decked train is from this window ;)

Temporary House

The minimum requirement I have when traveling abroad is to have a proper (clean, comfortable) stay. The temporary house that my company provided fits my requirement (despite the fact that I have to stay with another 3 total 'stranger' colleagues - 2 Russian & a Polish).

The 'international' house has 4 bedrooms, each of us occupies a room. Single bed, cleaning guy changes bed sheet & clean the house weekly. One of the bathroom has jacuzzi (was very excited initially then to realize it doesn't function, well, it can still serve as bath tub); a kitchen with advanced cooking gadgets (infra-red stove) + utensils; garden with simple BBQ pit & washing + drying machine in house.

Despite our diverse nationality, getting along with my nice housemates communicating in English didn't turn out that bad. However, as nice as they are (or at least try to be), there're still barriers (perhaps on both language & culture) & I miss home... It's only been few days & I miss home so much already. Well, home sick aside, prove of my house mate's kindness & friendliness, here's my first dinner in Denmark, prepared by my Russian housemate - Margarita.