the long absence and silence were to do a 3 week vacation to the pacific north west. the bunny-rabbit, better-half and yours truly went on a seriously amazing road trip visiting friends we had not seen in a long long time.

we flew to seattle (one of my fave cities in the world - of those i have visited so far ) then drove up to tsawassen, took the ferry over to victoria, explored the island a bit, back to seattle, down to olympia, back up through the puget sound, stopped at some wineries for some free wine tasting… port townsend, whidbey island… back across to the northern cascades… 2 nights camping, one of which by lake chelan and more wine tasting (truly recommend the karma winery - the installations are brand new, but they have been working on their vines for some years, and their oopsy daisy wine went down well with the view of lake chelan that night by the camp fire).

we hit walla walla and their established breakfast place. then more wineries along the gorge… they close early though… pity. there are no good words to describe the drive along the columbia gorge. it is simply breathtaking. if you like windsurfing, then hood river is for you. we had some amazing coffee in a great café atmosphere at dog coffee house. and free internet too…

then we drove down to oregon through portland, checked out the multnomah falls which are nothing short of … i don’t know… adjectives can’t quite describe it. one of the tallest waterfalls i have ever seen. the bunny could not get enough of water falls. that and playgrounds. i believe we hit every playground in both washington and oregon states!

all in all… i would not mind relocated to the states for a few years. only to a green state though… red necks have a tendency to freak me out. but i like seattle. or maybe we just got lucky with the weather. july 2004 was very warm. june 2008 was also very warm. sunshine and warm breeze. great coffee shops. ethnic restaurants on every corner. relaxing. bookshops… i miss checking out bookshops, sitting in a corner and reading with a cup of coffee in your hand and walking out without buying anything.

anyhow, i digres… sad the vacation is over. back to the usual routine. in any case: back

i came to the conclusion that the sole reason i keep a blog is to post about days like today.

it was 19.00 hrs and i was still at work. highly stressed because of a deadline. better-half picked up BR from daycare, cooked dinner, given BR a bath and now BR was going to bed. i wanted to get home to give him a beijinho (kiss) before he fell asleep. so i shut down the computer, hopped on my bicycle and was biking the 2kms to the train station.

i was in a hurry so i did not cross the road to take the bike lane on the other side of the street. i took the one that was fastest. there is enough space on the bike lane i was biking on for traffic going both ways. in fact a lot of people bike on that lane regardless of the direction they are going. half way down to the station i am stopped by 2 policemen in their white and blue POLITI car. conversation as follows:

frowning-danish-policeman: hvor kommer du fra (where do you come from?)

me: (unsure about meaning and relevance of question) hmm, portugal….

f-d-p: on what side of the road do they bike in portugal? (in danish)

me: (finding this line of questioning quite bizarre and almost funny): well, we don’t really have bike lanes in portugal (well, i know there are a few in aveiro, porto de mós, and other super advanced provincias, but if you bike in mid-ribatejo, you are for sure suicidal!)

f-d-p: (giving me the “either-you-take-this-seriously-or-you-end-up-in-the-back-seat-of-this-car” kind of look) nå, men hvilken siden af vejen kører man i portugal? (on which side of the road does one drive in portugal?)

me: (realising that he was not the joking type): på højre siden af vejen… (on the right side of the road)

f-d-p: sådan gøre vi os i denmark! (so do we here in denmark)

he waited until i had crossed the road and started biking down the road before he decided to take off.

don’t you motherf***ers have anything better to do?

this whole incident agravated me not so much because i was stopped for biking on the wrong side of the bike lane (albeit MANY people doing so) but because the policeman did not say hello or goodevening but got racist straight away just because i don’t look particularly danish. how is my nationality relevant to me biking on the wrong bike lane? someone, please explain it to me. what if a blonde girl was biking down the wrong lane, how would have the policeman approached her?

am having a hard time dealing with these ladies from the vuggestue (daycare). more than once, i go to pick up the bunny-rabbit and ask how his day was. some will tell me that i have to ask the educators, when i ask the educators, they say they were in a meeting all day and so on and so on. today, i got to the playground, BR was running around barefoot in the sand (no problem with me) but the worrying thing was that no one had noticed he had been running around barefoot. we could not find his sandals. when i got to him, he was about to swallow some yellow plastic ball. HELLOOOOOOO!!!!! what are you folks doing? drinking coffee and gossiping all day?

also today, BR had suffered a major scratch on his nose. most likely fallen on the cement. i asked what happened and not a single soul in that daycare centre could tell me what happen. my own son told me he was playing around with Marcel on some high beam and they both fell down. Marcel has a big scratch on his head.

do i feel that my son is safe during the day? no. do i have other options? no. well, i could become a stay-at-home, but the government frowns upon stay-at-home moms. they like kids to be enrolled in the vikings’ system. well, this post is turning into a rant. or it started out as a rant. but the truth is that i do not have many options. i could ask the commune to have him transfered. there are no privately run daycares. all systems of daycare (be it institutional or any other caregiver) are registered in the commune. big brother society!

where is my glass of port?

…the bunny-rabbit - the one playing with the sand, on the header, with a fluorescent green jacket.

the sunlight was just right through the bathroom window. i was there washing my hands and looking casually at the mirror when…. i spotted my first white hair! DRAMA! it is right there up front. maybe i have other white hairs hidden at the back of my head, who knows. but this one is just so visible…

need to buy some hair dye. fast. and the hair dyeing process is starting at 32. much earlier than i had hoped expected.

any ideas for hair colouring? anything except green. or purple for that matter.

a lot of posts has been written to moan about the medical system in denmark. here is yet another one…

the bunny-rabbit started out with chicken pox on April 10. it lasted a week. grandma flew in from portugal to help us out (hard for both better-half and me to get a week and a half away from work…) then on saturday, when he was over the chicken pox, he started with fever. we called the vagtlægen. the usual recommendation is: “give a panodil/paracetamol”. the following day he has trouble breathing and wakes up in the middle of his sleep gasping for air. we called the doctor again on a sunday and we are sent to helsingør hospital… which is MILES away from our house. he was diagnosed with croup. supposedly something that goes away by itself within 48 hours.

today, i am home alone (better-half is in spain) and i am in a complete panic, because the bunny has trouble breathing, he was having chills, high fever and coughing. i decide to google the symptoms. i find out that it could be pneumonia. and it is not uncommon for kids to get pneumonia as a consequence of the viral infection due to chicken pox. instead of croup, he could have been suffering from pneumonia for 4 days.

ok, no need to hyperventilate just yet. i will call the clinic first thing tomorrow morning. if they tell me to continue giving the bunny panodil, så få lægen ballade!

we took the bunny-rabbit to the hospital for a scheduled check. the nurse was amazed that he was non-stop action and many times she was getting up, afraid that he was going to kill himself. her comment was:

do you have a klipkort* to the emergency room?

i did not know they were available….

*punch cards in danish

came across a shocking video this morning and i am speechless. where is the discipline in the classroom? it is a spoiled brat society. are these the adults of tomorrow?? the teacher is left to be thrown on the floor, as the 9th grader is agressively trying to get back her mobile phone. why are mobile phones even allowed in classrooms? and the whole 9th grade class turned into a mob.

i had been going around saying that denmark was creating a spoiled brat society, because the parents do not discipline their children (there is no discipline - full stop). but it seems that portuguese parents are not far behind…

bliss = 1 pastel de nata (custard cream pie), 1 bica (what others refer to as espresso), uma ginginha (cherry liquor), Publico (national newspaper). status: nirvana

me and my daily fix (without the ginginha…. this was a special occasion….) note to self: don’t worry about the excess calories….

the slowest countdown in history … or so it feels.

it is d-day minus 3. what is d-day you ask? on d-day i will be doing…

this

thank you

v. for giving me something to look forward to.