My personal e-space

Were is time going?

2010-11-02T14:20:00.000+01:00

It's so dark in the morning - again - and I feel it was only few months ago it was snowing and freezing. I dislike winter because of the cold and I'm sure I'm meant for warmer areas, but obviously my parents didn't think so.. Today it's just not possible to move. And I actually like that we have 4 seasons in Denmark so different from each other. I like Autumn with all its warm colors, the leafs lieing around, the wind in the trees. I like Christmas when it's white outside, or just dark and cosy, I like spring because Spring feels like starting a new life. Everything get's lighter again and more positive after a long dark winter. And Summer, Summer is just wonderful, warm and life giving.

What I dislike is, that time goes so fast. I hardly have time to enjoy Summer, Spring, Autumn or Winter. Perhaps it is inside me something is wrong - that I'm just too busy with other stuff, that I forget to stop up, relax and enjoy the moment.

And it made me think about my life too. Am I really doing what I love to do? My dream is to be working with games - to be more creative, but I'm stuck where I am (im working semi-creatively now with Indesign and Photoshop - marketing related jobs, designing brochures, pricelists, flyers, posters etc.). We live in a big house and we NEED two income to be able to live here. I recently looked into the posibility of taking a game-developing education. But one module (12 weeks) will cost around 40K PED - and there's 6 modules in total ...

You won't be able to have a full time job next to it, because it's in the week days from 9-15. You can't get anything from the government - as a support to the education because 1) I'm too old and 2) the education is not on the list for special substitutes.

So adding it all up, it will take me 240K PED to take this education (that's for the training alone). It till take me 1 1/2 year to take the full education - and I need 40K a month to be able to pay my bills - which is 720K PED. So tell me, how will that EVER be possible??

I looked online to find e-learning courses which is not costing a farm, and which would be possible to do whenever I have the time in the evenings. But I didn't find anything.

What I'm interested in learning is:

Blender OR
3D Max OR
Mayar (though the two last programes cost a lot of money, which is why Im trying to teach myself Blender from all kind of books I bought online).

Self studies with no support is extremely difficult though, because I need advice in the practical tehcnical things - not the creativity, because I already have that!

I also wish to start drawing again, because I have been a lot. My head is spinning and filled with awesome story lines and they would just be much better if I can support them with some awesome drawings. But that I might be able to find as an everning course (again it costs money). And it's not necessary EU related, but new ideas for new kind of games and histories/stories/gameplay for new and other games.

Meh - I feel stuck.

How do you get into this world? Am I just too late in the age of 41 and should forget to follow my highest dream? Do you know any online e-learning courses in any of the above, which doesn't require you to be from the US (it's fine it's all in English though)?

Any other ideas or suggestions?

Time goes so fast, I feel it's running from me, and sometimes I nearly feel like crying because of it :(

HUGS

(originally postere HERE)

How time is running ...

2010-06-14T14:13:00.002+02:00

... when you're in good company ;)

Anyway, it's been a while - nearing a year since I was here the last time. Fact is, I've been quite busy with a couple of projects.

Biggest must be the new forums, Peter and I managed to set up. One for Entropia and one for Afterworld. We're pretty pleased with them and they seem to be popular enough.

You may find them here:

www.entropiaplanets.com
www.afterworldforum.com

Entropia Planets is the biggest success. We now have very close to 1,000 members and it's growing every day. We also spent a lot of time and have done (still doing) a lot of work to make this happen. I'm working as newsreporter on top of the forum-layouter and Peter is very busy in the tech crew. Atm we both work on a new v/bulletin version of the forum (Peter more than I since he has to make sure all the forum tools will be working when we release the new version) - I've been working with the layout :)

I hope AfterWorldForum will grow too and become just as big of a success, but it takes such a long time because the game is still under development.

Another things, which has taking our time, is an indie project we have *Terrarapio*. We involved other people in it, and I can't say more other than we hope one day (in many years) it will be awesome :)

In my freetime I'm trying to find out how to use Blender - a 3D program to use fx when developing games. I never used it before and I know absolutely nothing about it - but the program is free and I thought it might be exciting to try it out. In the beginning I must admit I was pretty confused. I bought a lot of books online and now small parts seem to come together. At least this weekend I managed to sculpt a monster head :) And atm I'm working on an evil Chicken ...

We were forced to put up the house for sale, which is heartbreaking. Peter lost his job 3 months ago and we just couldn't see how we would be able to pay the huge bills we have on the house. But luckily now he got a new job - we're not that eager to sell anymore, but for the right price we still might ...

Garden looks lovely now the summer is heading towards us - but here in DK it's such a horrible weather with so much rain, thunder and rough wind.

My plans for the near future is to work more on my drawings and some whisky art :) Making whisky pictures WITH actual whisky ... yes, Peter is crying :D but I find the idea awesome!

See you soon!

Holy shit!

2009-08-26T14:19:00.002+02:00

Always beleived in Lock Ness - and here's proofs!!!

Lock Ness monster captured by Google Earth

Oh, and it's my b-day today. 40 is no age, really, though my body tried telling me something else this morning *sighs*

Had a very cosy breakfast with Amanda and Peter. Saturday we went to the center and in a music store I listening to some nice Sinatra oldies - and told Amanda (she's just 7), THIS would make mommy happy for her b-day.

She told me to go outside and wait while she and Peter would find me a gift and came running out the store with a bag in her hand saying *aren't you gonna be surpriced ...*.. And yes, I WAS this morning when I got the Sinatra cd - and she said *you had NO idea, did you?* ... no nono .. of course not *smile*

At work I was met with flags and balloons all over my office. One of the girls bought me roses from herself personaly - the company gave me a nice gift card for clothes and a very nice big bucket of flowers with soft pink roses! Another colleague of mine also gave me a personal gift - a bottle of wine and some wild flowers from 'her island'. But best of all, I got such a cute personal card I was nearly crying.

Tonight Peter and I will celebrate with some lobsters and some tiny apple pies I made when I baked a huge apple pie for my work. Everything of that was eaten btw - very popular. The apples are from our tree in the garden and they are perfect for pies and food. Peter pealed them, probably because he's b-day is next week, and if he wants a cake like this with him for work, he needs to do some of the job too :D JK - he didn't complain about it at all ;)

An inspiring morning thought ...

2009-08-24T13:00:00.005+02:00

Waking up in the morning with a wonderful guy on your side, who you can even call your husband. And the first thing your daughter makes you is a drawing with a heart saying I LOVE YOU. Walking down the street with the sun in your eyes after a rouch week with illness and stress, you just walk there, you see all the other stressed people and smile by yourself happy it's not you, you can smell the new baked bread from the baker and the coffee from the little coffee-bikes offering freshmade mokka around on corners.

Did you ever have it like this, where you push away the stress, the financial problems, the thoughts about what you need to do but mostly, what you didnt do but should have done - and then you find out it's the little things that really matters?

With a morning like this, where the home made coffee your husband made for you for the ride in the car and with a nice easy chat, you find out this is worth more than the million you were supposed to win last saturday - if you could choose, if ANY day you had to choose - THIS would have been a perfect day to die.

And it is not to sound morbid - and I'm far from longing after death - but if it ever matters, this would have been the morning that you would wish was a last memory because it cuddled you in and made you feel happy, save and rich - in contrary being stuck to a bed in a hospital waiting for the last moment.

If I could choose, this would definitely have been one of those days ...

---------------

UPDATE
Rofl .. to make a perfect day even more perfect! I went home, walking down to the station of Nørreport in the middle of Copenhagen - as usually. When I reached the station and the crowded Strøget, suddenly a lady in her late 50's ... alright normal looking ... stopped me and said with a big friendly smile *I really like your clothes ...* and then she walk again without a bye or anything as if nothing had happened ... I looked down and was thinking first *she wants something* or * my clothes must sit wrong* .. but then I thought by myself - maybe she could just feel it was my good day today and wanted to make it a little bit better. Big thanks from me :)

CryEngine ... really makes us cry ..

2009-08-19T09:32:00.005+02:00

We have been waiting for so long for this update in Entropia ... more precisely 2 years.

Finaly it came. All weekend both Peter and I was so excited about it - waiting for the updates, to implement the new game on pc etc. It was like the day before x-mass even - and we where like 7 years again ...

Yesterday we managed to get into game... It took me half an hour and a crash ... but then I was in ... It took me another half an hour to figure out that all the neat mouse movements possibility was gone - that game was so laggy, that I froze so much inbetween where I could just wait untill it start moving ... that the possiblity of dragging mobs healthbars so you can click point of that to aim, run to the mob automaticly and shoot is gone ...

Tried crafting - just to discover, that you can press faster on the craft buttom, but most of the times it can't craft items ... which is just annoying.

Most mobs I killed was no loots, as usually - and not where they used to be. Which is shitty - so after running for half an hour to find a red dot, all you see is a lonely daikiba - and if you die in a fight anyway, you can't hurry back because tp chips doesn't work yet ...

Golden age my ass ...

As usually it seems as if nothing was tested! Heck, I guess it's cheaper to get it up running fast and then use the players, who spend thousands of dollars, to test it for you??? It's bad business, MA, bad business.

Yes, I'm disappointed!

HUGE book ...

2009-08-07T18:25:00.004+02:00

I know Peter is very fond of Atlas Shrugged a novel by Ayn Rand - which he got from Saxo Bank...

I never read it because 1) it's in English and 2) it's very long ... big .. huge ... fat book...

But after having friends over for sushi and hearing them talk about the book very entusiastic - I now decided to read it ... Peter doesn't know yet. I know it would give him a kick ... and I don't want that to happen because 1) that would mean he would be happy :D and 2) then he would start bugging me with all the things from the book he needs to discuss ...

I reached page 5 ...

huh.. yeah ...

LOST in a serie

2009-08-06T11:35:00.004+02:00

I proudly admit, that we also got sucked into the whole LOST hysterics - and we don't even watch tv! How is that possible then? Well, we watch a lots of DVD's ... sighs. We are suckers for series in total - atm we watch Twin Peaks again, before that Lost season 4, Before that Sopranos, 24 ... etc.

LOST is so awesome - the story is brilliant. To me it's the whole mysterious thing going on which drags me to it. I'm stupid enough to read the spoilers - but a part of me wish the serie would never stop. There are still so many questions to be answered.

I read a lot about the Bermuda Triangle when I was pretty young. And therefor my theory is, that the whole serie actually is based on that.

See, what I wrote in DarkUFO:

http://theoriesonlost.blogspot.com/2009/08/is-lost-inspired-by-bermuda-triangle-by.html

Or (quote):

Many years ago I was pretty obsessed by everything mysterious and unexplainable.I read books about ancient Egypt, UFO’s but also about the Bermuda Triangle … It’s more than 20 years ago and I nearly forgot!

Then today suddenly something dragged me my book shelf. I like to read, but haven’t read anything there for quite some while. First thing I noticed was my old book by Charles Berlitz (the Danish version) from 1974, Bermuda Triangle – the window to the universe.

My first reaction was “weird, haven’t read that for years, but now is not the time” (it’s long and written very old fashioned – though luckily in Danish, since English is not my first language).

Anyway I ended up taking it down and bring it with me to the bath, I was having. All thrilled about the old forgotten story, I was about to read.Already a few pages in the book I was thinking by myself that this was like a flashback to a newer story.

Planes and boats missing over sea – their last discovery of unknown islands, weird whether, cloudy sky or suddenly blue sky, weird looking water, sudden weird radio contact hours after a plane should have crashed, suddenly fast diving planes, no survivors, the talk about energy fields which kind of block radars and instrument panels, captains shouting “Do not follow me, they are from another planet..” etc. Even ‘codes’ being transferred through radio afterwards…

For example the 29nd of December 1972 an Eastern Airline Flight 401 (a Lockheed L-1011) with more than 100 people on board disappeared. During the last 10 minutes the plane just suddenly dived with such a speed that the control room in Miami couldn’t follow. Suddenly the plane was gone – only few minutes from reaching land.Some boats have been found though – but with no bodies on it – alive or dead. Even some pets where missing – though some where found alive on the boats, drifting around alone with no track of their owners.

I watched the documentaries were JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof tell about how they got their ideas for the story. I didn’t see Bermuda Triangle being mentioned anyway - or did I miss it?

You can read more about the Bermuda Triangle here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bermuda_Triangle

Point is, the similarities are stunning! If you believe in what happened at the Bermuda Triangle – you might as well believe in Lost …

-----------------------

So tell me, what do YOU believe??

New site :)

2009-08-04T20:36:00.001+02:00

I changed the look of my blog! You like? I was tired of the other dark, small blog - and this one gives more opportunities!

So - I hope to see you more in here in future :)

Lykke

Been a while ...

2009-07-13T08:21:00.007+02:00

... Just been too busy to write anything lately - it's definitely not because nothing happened ...

We got two bunnies ... a little Vimse and a little Cirkeline. They are sisters and quite cute. They are 'lion heads' - having a HUGE set of hair sticking out from them - especially Cirkeline. We actually thought we got bunnies - but after a few days we realized we got pigs. I never EVER had bunnies eating THIS much food ... ever! Especially Cirkeline - she is fat. Peter says it's only all her hair, but that's typically parents to ignore real problems .. she IS fat! Vimse is tiny though - and I'm a little worried that one day Cirkeline will squeeze her to death! She enjoys lying on her head ... They are incredibly cute though - but we need to cut some of Cirkelines hair - maybe she will even turn out to be smaller underneath :D

Our trip to Scotland got cancelled. The company messed up and we ended up not daring going in case they would mess up even more when we stand in Scotland (not being able to go home, have a hotelroom or whatelse - though Peter thought we might just get room at one of the distilleries ... I'm not so sure about that .... ).

It was/is a shame - but since we also have the wedding to take care of - it might be the best. That will cost s quite bit of money, and as we say in Denmark: You can't both blow and have your mouth full of flour ... yes, that's a saying ...

The veggie garden is up running. Peter really did a great job there. We pondered about having another terrasse at the end of the garden, but instead we now agreed to get a veggie-green house. A couple of people we know, including Amandas dad, has some very nice green houses with HUGE cucumbers ( I want huge cucumbers ... ), tomatoes and chillies (some we visited even had weed ... BUT I'm not so sure about that ...). I want a cosy green house with wine, a cosy chair to sit in, tomatoes, cucumber, chillis, corn ... etc. ... I wonder if you can get them big enough? :D

The little one is in Italy with her dad and his gf and 2 kids. She got her ears pierced and I got a picture of it. It's so cute. She called me the same evening and with proudness in her voice she told me that NOW she was a real big girl. It didn't really hurt. I didn't want to tell her that it DOES actually hurt ... she already had it done, so what's the point?

She comes home again Thursday and Monday we head Holland for our own little vacation. We need to buy her a school bag and some other stuff - and I hope we have the possibility to head to one of those fantasy / amusement parks with her too!

Our business site is finaly also up running. Please check it out on http://www.scottishdelight.com/

Next weekend we will even advertise for the first time :D Someone I know is managing a huge Old American car-event in DK and we made a banner to put up, including an advertising in their magazine. On top of that we gave some prices for a contest, including 3 gift cards.

It took us a long time to get the website up - but now it is, and it's gonna be interesting to see, wether the company will be running or not. We have plenty of great ideas for it though. If I had the money I would buy a bar/restaurant and make the whisky tastings there ... but I don't have the money - and I don't have the time either ... so there ;)

The oldest just been in Barcelona. I know she is 17 .. BUT STILL!! Yesterday I talked with her as usually every Sunday and she said: I went to bed at 4 - you know, we where just having a cosy time, drinking some, I got SO drunk and ..." ! There must be rules about WHAT you tell your mother ... no? Oh well, at least she is sitting home while drinking ... or am I being blonde now??? They grow too fast :)

Untill next time (I will throw in some pictures later ;) )
Have fun and remember; No reason to dwell about yesterday, it will never come back - let it rather be an inspiration for tomorrow - that's something to look forward to.

Lykke

5 months marriage!

2009-04-17T08:52:00.006+02:00

Yesterday Peter and I had been married for 5 months! Imagine - time goes so fast :) We also recently had 3 1/2 year day - Peter told me. He is the one who remembers the dates - I more feel it.

Sometimes I think back on the times where we where apart and how much it hurt - at the same time it was full of excitements when we met. We could gather together all our love and energy and only focus on that the 2-3 days we saw each other every 14 days. Today it is different of course. We live together - and weekdays sometimes choke us into tiredness and it is easy to forget the passion and to show appriciation. I love Peter with all I have - and appriciate every little tiny thing he does for me - even though I'm bad at showing it <3

Lately I have been spending too much energy on my pain - and I'm trying out a new diet, because living in constant pain is just awfull and drain you totally, not to mention how negative you feel you become because you have to fight through the days, without being able to tell or explain how hard it really is. The biggest issue is that I love to enjoy food and drinks - but I just can't and I have to realise that. It makes me ill - so I would have to eat carefully in the weekdays and then maybe, if I'm feeling ok, I can enjoy some of the better stuff in the weekends. It makes me in such a bad mood though - and I really need support from my surroundings to keep it up - because having to lie down all day/evening because of pain is just not an option anymore. Seeing a doctor is not an option either ...

Peter asked me the other day what my favorite songs where - and it's difficult to say, because I love so many songs - also old ones - as new ones (yes, Runrig too, Peter ;) )

But then this morning it hit me - this song I absolutely love:

Spring is here...

2009-04-15T09:21:00.005+02:00

Wow - what an Easter! Incredibly sunny and nice. We spend most of our time working in the garden - I found out I have muscels I thought was long time gone and forgotten.

Anyway, we managed to burn off all the trees and wood lieing around in the garden after cutting down trees and bushes. It was great. Also Peter and my brother, Michael succeeded finishing up the birds volier - and I tell you it is awesome. I will post a picture of it later on - really, the birds love it. It's just sad Sunny didn't live long enough to be able to enjoy it too ...

The guy we bought the female parrot from (her name is Maria - named after Peter :P I'm not kidding you, one of his middle names are Maria .. and yes, we already laughed enough about that - but laughing is healthy, no? ;) ) - wrote me a mail a while ago, that they where going to move, and he wants to give us a couple more of his parrots. Now, when the volier is done - we would really like to have a couple of more parrots. The good thing is, that Maria was together with them before (it's her brothers and sisters), which means, that there will hardly be any complications putting them together. You can never be sure though - parrots are very agressive towards other parrots - and now Joe (our other parrot) and Maria (NOT Peter) is a couple - so maybe she just wants to eat all the birds coming near him ...! We'll see...

The farm is getting bigger though - we head Holland next week and we're planning on looking for a bunny cage - which is so much cheaper in Holland than in Denmark. If we find a nice one - we plan on giving the little one, Amanda, a bunny. But we haven't told her anything yet - not to disappoint her.

The one side of the garden, which we already nearly cleaned for trees, exept for some bamboo roots (ouch :( - we're gonna pay some guys to remove that for us ...) - will be our new vegestable garden. Already now we put the seed in soil and it's standing inside to grow - and we bought different kind of bushes, like raspberries, blueberries etc. Today I found an article about asparious (dunno how to spell that - asparges in Danish) - and since both of us love that, it would be great also to plant out there.

We had an enormous bush in the left side of the garden .. half of it is still there - but when that is removed, Amanda will have a playground with a swing and a sandbox. Weeeeee ... she still doesn't know ;) Like the bunny - it's nice with pleasant surprices but not with disappointments.

My parents had their golden wedding 14 days ago. Damn, imagine to be married for 50 years!!?? That means I would be 89 if Peter and I ever will experience that! I arranged a surprice breakfast for them - with a band, playing some Danish songs. They had high hats on - and it was very funny. My parents where woken up by the music in the morning, and we all was standing under neath their balcony. The look on my parents faces is something I will never forget. They where so happy about the surprice. 44 people turned up to celebrate them that morning. In the evening they invited for a big party - and I wrote a song for them. I planned to write a song for a while, but the day before I still didn't write any - luckily it only took me around an hour hahahah - and the song was great. It reminds me of my school times - the homework made in the last minute was always the best :)

All in all - a couple of very nice weeks! Next week we drive to Holland where we, among other things, have an appointment with the castle, where we plan to hold the wedding.

Happy spring to all
Lykke

RIP little Sunny :(

2009-03-27T18:07:00.004+01:00

This morning little Sunny was lying in his cage without moving. Peter came over to the main house with both him and his cage. He moved the birds the other day from the guest house to the shed, where they use to stay. We thought it was warm enough now.

The two other parrots are doing fine - but Sunny was quiet, though still breathing, and you could see his eyes was moving behind his eyelids.

We gave him a little water with a pipette - and tried to hold him warm in our hands, talking to him gently, telling him he would make it. We moved the cage towards a small heater we have and placed some fresh hay in the bottom of the cage to place him on.

At a moment he suddenly seemed better. He looked at us and he moved a little. He could sit by himself.

We placed some fresh water, some food and I cut a little piece of apple and placed in front of him - and then we had to head work :( Though both of us felt terrible leaving him. He was sitting up when we left, all puffed, but with closed eyes.

When Peter went home today he found him lying down - gone to better places.

We're still not sure what caused it. I have a feeling he might have flewn into the bars somehow and hit his head. He damanged himself once before - Peter came over and there was blood all over - but back then it wasn't this serious.

Poor little creature :( May he rest in peace!

MORE Aebleskiver ....

2009-03-27T13:28:00.002+01:00

OHH I found this already in english written recipe aswell :P

Danish Ball Pancakes (Aebleskiver)

4 separated eggs
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups buttermilk (or 3/4 C beer plus 1 1/4 C milk)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups all purpose flour oil or lard
Vanillasugar and lemon juice/skin as you like

Beat egg whites until stiff; set aside. Beat rest of ingredients until batter is very smooth. Fold in egg whites. Heat [at a moderate temperature] a well-seasoned monk's pan (see tip below) with 1/8 teaspoon oil or lard in each of the 7 holes.

Fill each hole about three-quarters full with butter. Make sure to add a few drops of oil to each well in the pan before the next round of batter.

When browned on one side (almost right away), turn with knitting needle or two-tined fork and keep turning until needle comes out clean after piercing through the cake.

Personally we enjoy putting small pieces of real salty butter on top of the hot cakes - make sure they are so warm the butter melts. After that you put on the powderd sugar. Eat them also with jam, siryp or fresh lemon juice and sugar :)

Tips: You can purchase a cast iron monk's pan at Scandinavia gift shops or at small town hardware stores in Danish communities. As for servings, plan on each person eating 7-10 cakes. Makes approximately 48 pancakes.

How to make an aebleskiver

2009-03-27T11:27:00.001+01:00

This is awesome :) A friend asked me how to make Æbleskiver - so here it is :D enjoy ....

Under the bridge .. the literal version!

2009-03-12T06:47:00.002+01:00

This is just too funny (and awesome made). Peter Pointed me to this version this morning. They made a new text for the song, describing what they do in the video! Creative :P

Enjoy
Lykke

I wonder ...

2009-03-11T19:10:00.003+01:00

Today, when I drove home from work in my car, I learned that people driving cars pick their noses a lot ... (especially at red lights ...)!

Which makes me wonder; where do they put their bogeys???

People should really think about what they are doing in public *rolls eyes*

;) Lykke

Whisky art

2009-03-08T20:37:00.010+01:00

Made a new picture today - it's a gift for my parents Golden wedding... and even though it doesnt look like it, It's actually quite big :P

Other than that, Saturday went with working, a walk and making a nice dinner. After dinner I had WoF (World of Firepower) going on in EF for 3 hours .. it was a little longer than I remembered from last year - so a quarter past midnight I went to bed dead tired! And disappointed for getting in second last ... Then again both mobs and loot sucked :P (And I'm not only saying this because we were bad lol ... ).

Today Sunday we had a really nice homey-day. I took a bath with the little one - I was an island where all her barbies and ponies where stranded (I'm not gonna analyze that one ... ). After that we painted - Amanda little pictures, and I this big one. It's so cosy when we do that in the kitchen while listening to old ABBA songs. She is 6 years old but crazy about ABBA - just as I was in her age (MANY many years ago.. sighs.

Later I made Æbleskiver - in Dutch called poffertjes. And we watched a movie with that.

After reading goodnight story for Amanda, Peter and I went for Crystal Palace. Damn, what a bad hunt too :( We're really pondering if this is worth it .. We're both mid-level skilled (I would say quite nice skilled), and yet, our loot stinks! I'm not sure how long we can keep this up ... unfortunately.

All in all the weekend went fast, but it was nice :)
Lykke

The boiler ...

2009-03-06T19:51:00.003+01:00

We got the new boiler! It took them about a whole day to cut out the old one (Peter asked if he could keep it .. it was nearly as big as an old steam train, so I refused .. he's still sad about it because he was sure it would look awesome and kitch in the front yard ...) and replace it with a brand new light, white one ...

The basement though, was everything but white when we went down there. Actually our bathroom .. the sink and the toilet was all but white. I asked one of the guys .. "sooo ... did you guys pour some oily water in the toilet?" And the guy (while looking down in a little too shy'ish way for a guy in the mid 40'ish) .. "eh yes .. but I think you can clean it easily ..." .... Me: "and did you also use our personal hygienic nail brush from our bathroom to clean up some oil stuff????" ... Guy again - still looking down, swaying his leg from side to side "ehh .. yes, we spilled something in the basement on the wall and we couldnt find anything else to clean it with ... " .... Me "..... !!!?????!!!!!wtf?"

SO .. after they left we analyzed the basement .. first the steps down to the basement .. .ruined ... mmm black walls - a finger here, a hand there ... steps where totally messy and the basement was ... dirty! At least it was better than last time, when we went down AFTER they left and found they managed to break a window ... oh yes, and they hurried out without telling us ... bastards! (we called the manager and he went out and paid a new window, which is why we used them again, because this time it was other guys ...).

I DID talk with the guys afterwards this time too and they DID take a little off the price for new paint (and a new nail brush) and I did NOT yell or sounded mad in any ways, but seriously? Must admit I'm a little embarrased on their behalf. What became of the normal (or I think it's normal) decent "Sorry, we spilled, do you have something we can whipe it up with?"-question ... I mean, isn't it a little sneaky??? And bad manner'ish??

I had to look through our laundry basket to make sure they didn't use a pair of Peters underwear to whipe off some oil from the walls :D

We cellebrated this little disaster (Nah, having the new boiler is good ...) by walking all the way up to the chineese restaurant. They have a buffet which Amanda loves. When you're 6 there's nothing better than chicken on sticks, fries, nuddles and shrimp-chips untill you break down and throw up ... while we had chineese chicken soup, spring rolls, fried shrimps and duck .. and more spring rolls and chicken and fried banana with icecream and spring rolls ... untill we felt like breaking down ... and throw up ...

We kind of regret we had the banana in the end :P when we walked home again - our tummies where hurting from every step we took all the 30 min. it took us ...

BUT nothing a hot bath can't fix :D

See you laterZ, alligatorZ
Lykke

The Jokes!

2009-03-04T17:27:00.003+01:00

HAHAHAH I have this awesome manager, and today at a meeting she told the two following jokes:

A blonde (of course) just started as a secretary in a new company. She could not log into her computer, so she called support:

Blonde: I can't log into the computer
IT support: Did you use the password?
Blonde: yes, but it still doesn't work...
IT support: Did you use the right password?
Blonde: Yes, I did as my colleague next to me, but it still doesn't work ...
IT support: So you did the same exactly - and wrote the password?
Blonde: Yes, I wrote the same - the password was *****

(sorry - lame, but blonde jokes are somehow funniest (especially when you're a brunette :P) ... )

.... And then another one:

Blonde: Hi - my pc seems to be so slow all the time
IT support: Do you have many windows open?
Blonde: No - but the door is ajar ...

MUAhahahahah still laughing :D sorry, and the jokes might be old, but sometimes I'm just easy ;)

Big grin
Lykke

The wedding!

2009-03-01T10:05:00.005+01:00

I made the invitations yesterday - and it's really so cool! It looks like something taken from a Hobbit movie - which is the purpose anyway! We found the date - finaly - 3rd of October - but first we will take the kids for a couple of days at Efteling in Holland, nearby the place Peters parents lives. It's kind of like Disneyland Paris - and yet not! It's also huuuuuge and we decided to spend a night in one of their awesome hotels!

We will be making a closed website for the invited with information about the area, how to get there, what hotels to find etc. Oooo it's gonna be soooo exciting :P

And another exciting thing is, that we finaly decided to pay Scotland (no, I'm not gonna try haggis :P ) a long waited visit around June/July. We will drive over there and visit some distilleries on the way and spend the nights on some lokal inns(hotels). We will soon make our driving plans for the trip and contact the outpointed distilleries to make sure they are even open (mostly because it's the holliday period and most of them are closed - but it's the only possible time for us ... ).

So long Laddies and Lassies
Lykke

The sushi!

2009-02-28T19:08:00.014+01:00

As a preparation for our whisky tastings - AND because we love it of course :) We're practising making sushi! We had it a lot of times now - and we're getting better and better at it (or I am :P). Normal sushi is known with raw fish and shell fish - but the word sushi actually means "rice made with vinegear" and not "rice with fish" - which means it can be all kinds of little dishes made with these special Japanese rice. I for example lately made it with tender duck breast and a piece of ox tenderline (you should choose the best and freshes meat/fish you can get for sushi. The fish should be from the same morning, if possible and NEVER buy a fish that smells of fish. Yes, it's possible ;)).

The special about the sushi rice is the sweetness. When you make them yourself you know the sweetness comes from the rice vinegear slowly heated up (NOT cooked)with a little sugar and a tiny bit of salt. When the special Japanese sushi rice are cooked, you add the blended vinegear to the rice by turning the vinegear carefully into the rice.

We bought a very very fresh piece of salmon for the nigiri - and I cut it into fitable slices (around 1cm thick - NOT thicker). Also we bought an incredibly nice piece of tuna and sliced it the same way. We love the nori (flat squared piece of seawead - very dry). And we try and add it in lots of different ways. We enjoy the Maki-sushi especially with crap-meat, advocado and a little lime. But the rolls can be made in a lot of different varieties and they taste wonderful. The most incredible thing is the smell from the Nori when you add the rice on it. To make perfect rolls you can use a handy Japaneese bamboo mat (a Makisu).

The best thing about the sushi (that's from personal perspective) is the soy sauce and the wasabi. I'm quite sure that combination is the reason for us to be so addicted to sushi. It's strong but incredibly good. You can dip nearly everything in it :)

This time I bought some very nice tasting ginger in sirup. It still tastes like ginger with the same strongness - but the sirup adds some sweetness which is really nice together with the wasabi.

We bought a rice cooker and it made the whole process even easier. But the best part is, that Peter and I make this together and enjoy a good glass of whitewine listening to some Chet Baker while preparing the food.

The sushi is gonna be one of our whisky tastings projects :) Home made fabulous sushi - with a colourful Japanese whisky!

Bon appetite :)
Lykke

Looking for spring

2009-02-26T10:47:00.006+01:00

Spring is nearing and I soo look forward to brighter days, warm sun and see all the little things pop up in the garden.

The guy cancelled our oil boiler appointment yesterday - so now we have to wait yet another week untill we can get a new boiler (yet another week throwing money out of the window ...) .. but OH well :) It's soon spring!!!

In Entropia I am skilling up a level III attachment bp and damn, is that expensive??? I skill a lot on it though - and global/hof more - but in the end the result is the same. I need an uber soon lol

And we also need an uber in RL otherwise I'm not sure we can make the wedding plans this year. We got the new car registred in DK now - and luckily it wasn't as expensive as I thought.

OOOoooo and we got our new business cards aswell :) It goes slowly, but we are getting there ... Peter have been talking with a lot of distilleries and whisky providers lately - and soon we have a nice picture of who to grab etc.

I have more ideas going on - but it's frustrating. Ideas needs money - and even though it is GREAT ideas and I already see it as a success (it's food ideas) it needs financial support - and we just can't pull out money from ... well, you know from where lol ... But damn ... Anyone knows what to do about ideas you get? Can you sell them, maybe???

Have a great and sunny day :)
Lykke

Back!

2009-02-17T20:58:00.010+01:00

Wow - Vacation went so incredibly fast - though we were also pretty busy!

The trip down went smooth - we had our steaks (yay) and wine (yayay) and we celebrated that everything - also jobwise - seems to be solved now. So we had an extra glas of wine (there's always an excuse for an extra glas of wine ... vacation f.x. or ... thirst ... :P)

Peters parents picked us up at the airport in Düsseldorf. It is actually closer to Limbricht where they live - than Amsterdam! Limbricht is the very southly region inbetween Belgium and Germany - and it is very cosy and more countrylike than the rest of Holland. With its 16 million people on a tiny piece of Land, Holland is very crowded and the houses are small - but tall - and very close together. In Limbricht there are fields and some forrest - few farmers and not that few gorgeous castles and churches.

We passed a couple of churches when going for a walk Sunday at noon. We were heading the castle where we plan to have the wedding late 2009. The name is Kasteel Limbricht and it has so many things to offer party wise - that we got all confused lol. But already the first day we went there late summer last year, we where sertain what room to have the party in. Our scottish / Hobbitish team fits so well with the "Ridderzaal" (which is The Hall of the Knights) - with raw brick walls and huge iron candle holders in the lofts. Blood red thick cloth on the chairs and beautiful paintings.

Now we just need Malcolm Jones from Runrig to accept the inviation *giggles*

One very beautiful church is St.-Salviuskerkje Limbricht and it's a very old church. Another church is the Church of Limbricht

In Holland they celebrate Shrovetide at this time a year, and it is a very strong tradition. Every town and every region has their own little shrovetide prince carefully selected among the young boys in town who applied for the very honorable title. Then you also have the princes helpers of course - which is not that honorable - but still something :P

At a short shopping trip to Sittard we actually met a prince - which was not that small - but at least he had a helper ;) And a fool on his arm ...

Around in the little villages you could see houses colourful decorated for the "Fastelaven" (which is the Dutch word for shrovetide). Where ever you turned your head you saw flags, posters of the princes and colours ... AND they even have a city Fastelaven mascot ...

Of course we had to go shopping-amok in one of the ourfit stores and we bought two awesome pirate outfits (and a tiny Nun outfit for me of course *wink*) - and MAYBEEEE perhaps later on in a few years I will post a picture of it hahahaha

Friday we went for the Level42 concert which was really nice - we passed the theatre earlier the same day and saw a bus ... or is it THE bus??? Peter wanted to pass it a couple of times but no signs of Level42. We're sure they are "resting" in the bus somehow ;)

We had a very nice trip indeed, yes - it took us 10 hours to drive home in our new car though - BUT it was warm AND the windscreen wipers worked AND we could sing along the radio ... we where bloody tired yesterday evening though - and we still are ;)

Last but not least Peter bought me a chocolate heart - but when I told him I could not wear it - he bought me a ring <3>

Sleep tight and dry

Lykke

The trip!

2009-02-11T07:09:00.004+01:00

Tonight we leave for Holland again - and I actually look forward to this trip.

Even though this morning has been hectic packing all the stuff - the paintings for the b-day, all the papers for work etc. - I know, that when we reach the airport tonight, we're gonna have the best, biggest & most juicy steak + some nice redwine! Last 3 times I think we went there - and it's the best restaurant at the airport. It's A Hereford Beefstouw! Genious.

Thursday Peter is raising in his Freemason degree and will become a master mason. He looks forward to that - and in the meantime I will have to spend time with his parents - which can be quite a challenge, since their english is not that well and my Dutch sucks :P But I'm taking with me some papers from work which needs to be done anyway.

Friday Peter managed to get a hold in two tickets for a Level 42 concert. We saw them 2 years and 3 months ago - but I had a very bad asthma attack, which meant my whole evening was kind of ruined. I could not breath and I had forgotten my asthma spray. This time I'm prepared though :P

Saturday we spend on visiting friends and family and Sunday we have a b-day party to join. Monday we drive home in our "new" old car - Peter's parents car. Our own little red Fiat is dieing and they want a new car anyway - so they gave us their car instead! Really nice. We think of keeping both cars in case we need two cars one day - but seriously, the little red doesn't feel too well :/

The little red looks pretty much like this (though maybe a little bit more dirty ... )

So long amigos :) See you on Tuesday :P
Lykke

Lego :D

2009-02-10T19:05:00.003+01:00

THIS makes me proud of being a Dane .. it's totally awesome!

Mona Lisa made in Lego

It's amazing how some people can be so creative! It really made my day :)

:-) Lykke

The games

2009-02-10T07:03:00.004+01:00

Playing Entropia Universe on my soon forth year! Explaining it to people who doesn't know about the game (or other games) is kind of weird. When people then ask me how I met my husband (who is from Holland) - it gets even more weird - and it is so difficult to explain to them the connection you might get - the times you spend and how you spend them when you're 800km away from each other.

I guess it's like any other love story - though we actually met through the forum first - both very active and having a diary. That's when I found Peter interesting the first time. Then we met in game, played together, spend nearly all free time together, talked and then found out how much we had in common.

We realized by the way it happened there are no such things as coincidences. We have seen that too many times to believe anything else. It reminds me again and again of Neverdies book The Omen, which he was so nice to send to a bunch of people on realityport.

We still look for omens - though most of the times you don't have to search for them - they are just there.

Back to the game - still playing, but I must admit it became harder. Seems like everything I do is wrong now - even though my skills are better. Spending a ton on my amp bp - and now when the QR is 100 I can see how it COULD and MIGHT become profittable in the lenght if only one dared spending the money on it.

But with everything in life you have to prioritise what you have available - is it time or money - or both. And my guess is I'll have to wait till I win the big lottery :)

Keep up the spirit
Lykke

The House

2009-02-08T18:41:00.001+01:00

We have now lived here for 6 months and it's still so awesome. The house is beautiful - but because it's old of course there are stuff inbetween which needs to be fixed (a LOT of stuff ....).

The next thing we need to get replaced is the boiler. Our boiler is 50+ years old and it's expensive like hell. We got some offers and even though it's way more than we expect it to be, we have to bite the dust and get it over with.

They replace it this month - and hopefully we will be able to see a reduction in our heating-oil-bills after that!

Of course also the chimney needs to be fixed and the chimney guy needs steps on the roof ... lol ! We will get all of that done now and we will ALSO get a bigger watertank which means (and this is very important) that I can fill up the whole huge bathtub we have with warm water :P weee....

Hot regards
Lykke

The paintings!

2009-02-01T16:26:00.001+01:00

For the whisky business I made a painting a while ago. I haven't painted for quite some time and I were usually drawing back then (years and years and years ago).

Nevertheless I felt like painting again. Too much time is spend in front of the pc playing games - a little creativity is not that bad :D

Here is my results for the Scottish Delight

And here the result for coffee - this picture really made both me and Peter laugh ... it's so helpless somehow ;)

We are soon heading Holland for a friends 50-year old b-day - and I painted him a painting too. Fool me if I wont make more ... my parents Goldenwedding is getting close *G*

Best wishes
Lykke

The keyboard!

2009-01-28T17:13:00.002+01:00

Have you ever turned your keyboard upside down and noticed all the little crap comming out from it?

Have you ever wondered how much LEFT there might be in the keyboard (try shake your keyboard and see how much more will fall out :) )

After all the crashing I had with the pc (after reinstalling this and getting rid of that etc.), I decided to clean up my keyboard.

Actually - I hereby announce today to be the yearly "Clean up Keyboard"-day.

Why? Because it's quite disgusting, that's why! (And I'm a nerd - and I'm ill and home from work and incredibly bored ... )

You have to do this carefully. Turn of your computer and then carefully remove the buttons/keyboard keys with a sharp thing (I used a tiny knife). Before you do this it is VERY important, that you remember where to put the keys again - otherwise it might be just a little bit too exciting (and fun) afterwards and you will just all complain to me - and I will not have that!

Easily remove the keys. After you removed them, it is easy to clean up inbetween the key holes. LOOK at that dirt! You could probably fill up a couple of trucks or feed a whole farm of dust mites ... yummi! Just look at the pictures here (and I tell you - this is NOT all .. I removed most of it because it was disgusting and would make me look like a pig ... ):

I used some small cutton buds to remove the dust.

It makes you think next time you eat biscuits in front of your pc, doesn't it :))

Alright - aspirins and back to bed now! Good deed for the day is done!
Lykke

The wedding!

2009-01-10T16:10:00.001+01:00

It was kind of a surprice. Though Peter proposed to me in the summervacation on a restaurant with his parents. In the lack of ring he rolled together a piece of metal from a redwine bottle .. fancy ;)

We are having the wedding in the end of 2009 but mid november we thought ... hmm why not get wedded in Denmark at the city hall this year (2008) - and then have the party in Holland as planned - with the whole Schottish / Lord of the Rings - hobbit theme late 2009.

First we planned not to tell anyone, though we where in need of two widnesses. So we asked my best friend and she was thrilled. We also asked my brother and told him specific not to tell anyone from the family. Peters family in Holland was informed though - but we knew they would not gossip about it :P

The day came nearer - we chose a date in December - the day we where supposed to meet the first time in Berlin 3 years ago. 16th of December. It was a Tuesday. But a few days before this Peter thought we should tell my parents and daughters about it anyway - so we did and invited them in the morning for the short ceremony and out for diner in the evening on one of our favorite restaurants Cafe Basement in Vanløse.

We went there at 9 in the morning. The mayor himself was there to wed us - which was awesome. My two daughters where there all excited - together with my parents, brother and my friend.

The ceremony took only 10 min ... 10 past 9 we had a glass of champagne and could call ourselves husband and wife! THAT was weird - and it still is.

We went home to our house and a cup of coffee and after that we went for work. HAHA - they laughed at the city hall - it's the first time they wedded people so early with a glass of champagne (they asked and of course we said yes, please. You're not getting married every day now, are you :P). And also they where nearly falling backwards when we told them we would head back to work afterwards!

In the morning in DK we woke up from an earthquake. It is VERY rare in Denmark - and we havent had one for 30 years or so. Incredibly - really a day to remember. We got so many good wishes from people around - even the scouts came with flowers. Thanks everybody!

Here you see a bunch :)

Seize the moment

Lykke

The beginning!

2009-01-01T14:27:00.000+01:00

It's not true. It's not the beginning - at least not the beginning of my writings, blogs or diaries. But it's the beginning of this blog! A new beginning.

I won't repeat myself telling about it all - because there's a lot to tell about. Let's just begin with the present moment. If you should be interested in my previous blogs and diaries - I'm sorry to inform you, that I deleted the accounts. But if you're wondering about how to pronounce my name - take a look at this youtube video :P

English is not my first language, which the clever eye already would have noticed. It's Danish. I'm a dane - but my husband is from Holland. Which means we speak and write English together. I DID buy a Dutch course - but hey, Rome wasn't build in one day - and I still need to get myself together for that ;)

Why a blog? A lot of people might ask! To me it's challenging. And I love to tell and write. I'm making this blog for my own sake mostly - and shouldn't that be the first reason? Second I wish to share thoughts, ideas and my life with you. Why, you might also ask!? Because I can :)

Hope to see you on my site again :)

So long!
Lykke