biking with vikings

'essentialist' English

I like these definitions of English (via Boing Boing)

Hilarious essentialist comparisons of English and other tongues
This list of "Essentialist" descriptions of English (scroll around on the page for essentialist characterizations of other languages) made me laugh aloud six times before I even hit the scrollbar. These esentialist statements take the form "Language X is essentially language Y under conditions Z."

English is essentially any other language spoken with a very hot potato in one's mouth. --Ivan Derzhanski (based on Alain LaBonté on Swiss French)

English is essentially Low German plus even lower French minus any sense of culture. --Danny Weir

English is what you get from Normans trying to pick up Saxon girls. --Bryan Maloney

English is essentially French converted to 7-bit ASCII. --Christophe Pierret [for Alain LaBonté]

Inglish iz issenshali a langwidje dhat, wen rittun fonetkli, iz ilejibul tu netiv spikerz. --Peter Bleackley

more:  http://mercury.ccil.org/~cowan/essential.html#English

Bornholm

We left for Bornholm after the Triathlon on the 21st. 

We had a great week there right on the beach @ Dueodde (“the nicest beach in Denmark” I was told, now I believe it) in a very nice, well-appointed beach house about 200m from the baltic, over the dunes.  It was *just* what I needed after the triathlon, and a great respite for Susan as well.

The weather was mostly good – 20’s and sunny, a bit of wind and a little rain near the end, but nice.  It reminds me there of Nova Scotia where I spent many happy summers as a kid and teenager, but a bit nicer.  The Baltic is warmer than the North Atlantic, and the sand at Dueodde is whiter and finer, like talcum powder. We were in the water about every day.

There are some very good cycle routes on Bornholm so we got in a few good 30–60 km rides while there, although Malcolm doesn’t really have the patience to sit in the burley wagon thingy for long.  As it is Denmark, there are safe, separate, well-marked bicycle routes virtually everywhere, and many people make the journey over just with bicycle and gear (no car) including older people – I was impressed by that!

It was also a ‘first’ in that Charlie, our cat, came with us on holiday for the first time! He did really well and enjoyed himself, although he brought back a few tick souvenirs from the island, so it is off to the Vet on Monday to get him fumigated.

 

 

 

 

 

Hillerød Triathlon

I ran my first triathlon on August 21st, mostly just to see if I could do it.  It hurt , but I finished!  It wasn’t a full distance triathlon but 50 kilometers total (500 meter swim, 40 km bicycle, 10 km run).

I had the following goals for the race:

• have fun
• don’t reinjure the knee (I’ve had two meniscus tear surgeries on the left knee due to a hockey injury)
• complete the race w/o walking etc.

Those goals were achieved.  I finished somewhere near the back/middle of the pack, but that’s fine: I was about 5% above the average time overall, seriously slow on swimming (26% slower than the average for 500m, I didn’t swim train at all) and about 9% above average for the running time.

Within my sex+age group it wasn’t as good: about 12% slower than the average, I need some improvement here, esp in swimming.  Steffen Leuders, a former Danish triathlon and ironman champion, was in my category and won the entire event.  We trained with him once before the race and he gave us some good tips.  I saw him after the race and he said he had a great day but in typical Danish fashion didn’t tell me he came in first overall, that would be bragging I guess .

So given that I biked a lot, didn’t swim at all beforehand, ran a few times and basically drank all the beer and cider I wanted in England the month before, I’m pretty happy with the outcome!

 

John and Jacki Visit

No sooner had we returned from England than our friends John and Jacki arrived from Seattle.  It is great to see them again – It definitely makes us a bit homesick to have them around for a bit! 

They’ve been touring Copenhagen (as well as and taking in the sights around N. Zeeland such as Hillerød – Fredensborg and Helsingør – Kronborg).  They’re off to see friends in Sweden in a bit while we’re off to Bornholm on August 21st.

England July 2005

we had a very nice holiday fortnight in England in July: Ferry w/our car and bicycles from Esbjerg to Harwich, UK, out to west country (Bristol/Bath/Salisbury) then  Stow/Cotswolds, then family in greater London (Hemel Hempstead and thereabouts) and finally the WOMAD festival in Reading for 3 days with our mate KC!

I have lots more pictures to post yet and stories to tell – will do that this week, before the calendar rolls over into September!!

Denmark 4 England 1!!

OK it was just a ‘friendly’ but John, Jacki and a bunch of Danes from my work went to see England get absolutely tonked by Denmark 4–1 in a friendly Int’l @ Parken… that was not the expected outcome!

 

I’d come to see Beckham, Owen, Rooney et al in action but instead what I saw was “England’s worst defeat in an international in 25 years”, even if it was a friendly, it was humiliating for the team that claims they’ll go all the way in 2006.

Yet it was great fun to sit in the Danish section with the ‘roligans’ (a pun on the Danish word for ‘quiet’), they really are rather polite for football fans, and I was rooting for the underdogs. It was also a great way to “live like the locals” for a bit for John and Jacki… I had no idea it was traditional to throw your beer in the air when Denmark scores, we all got drenched!

And to put a cherry on top: the US is now ranked #6 in the world in the latest FIFA rankings, above England who are #7!!  I’m not convinced that ranking is totally deserved, but it is great to see the England team eat at least a *little* humble pie as they think they own the game most of the time.  Natch, I’ll probably end up rooting for England in the ‘Cup next year anyway, but a US-England showdown in the final would be an amazing game. 

Now if the Danes can beat the Turks and win their next 3 in a row, they will advance to the World Cup next year.  I have a 3 pint-bet riding on DK winning these games but bowing out in the round of 2nd place teams before the finals…

 

good grief, where to start?

I’ve been a bad, bad blogger this summer, and to you dear reader (assuming there are any left) I sincerely apologize.  It has been a busy summer time with relatives and friends visiting, trips to England and Bornholm, a triathlon and more… well today is catch-up day!