Last Sunday I went to see a local football match in Copenhagen. Lyngby vs. Vejle. No big names on the pitch like the last game I saw in Barcelona, but as it was quite an important match in the Danish 1st. division. The situation on top:

So 4 more matches left and Lyngby had to win this one to stay in the race for one of the top 2 places which earns promotion to the “Superliga”. Quite amazing Lyngby made it so far, as it’s only their first year back in the 1st. division, after they just made promotion last year.

Lyngby is Mette’s favourite team, and ever since I went with her and Thomas to see a match, I can’t help by like them as well! First game I ever went to there was 2 years ago, when Lyngby played their first year in the 2nd division (Lyngby was set back to the 3rd division in the 2002/2003 season, due to financial problems). Lovely little stadium, still enthusiastic fans, open fire (not kidding!!) on the stands to keep the grill going for the famous Lyngby sausages and a lady that goes around the football stadium with a baby-stroller filled with coffee pots and cookies (not kidding again!!). :-)

Also the game I saw back then was quite extraordinary… Lyngby was 0-3 down at halftime, but still played 3-3 with the Lyngby goalie (…) scoring the 3rd Lyngby goal 5 minutes in overtime (!!!!)… Just looked up the game details, quite fun to see again and remember that fun day:

It was great to see that Lyngby has come a long way from that game. Especially the number of spectators (tilskuere) have increased enormously! 518 when they played 2nd. division two years ago and a stunning 4.826 in the 1st. division last Sunday!

The match itself was quite exciting! Lyngby had to win, Vejle would almost be sure of promotion when they would win. Vejle starts great and leads with 0-2 after 20 minutes… Lyngby fights back till 2-2 but just before half time Vejle get lucky with a clumsy Lyngby own goal. Barely 5 minutes in the 2nd. half a Vejle player makes are horrible foul and is send off. With 11 against 10 Lyngby plays to win, gets at least 4 big chances, doesn’t score and as more often in football the goal “falls” on the other side on a counter attack. 2-4. Game over.

Sad result, as I was clearly cheering for Lyngby, but they still have a little chance, and else they will go up to the Superliga next year! :-) Just one sad thing with the increase in crowd was that I didn’t see the coffee-lady anymore with her baby-stroller… Or maybe she is just at home at the moment recovering from a burn-out? ;-)

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Oi… One week down, one week to go. This bunnysitting is not proving to be easy. Kevin A is the sweetest little bunny, but he has quite a mind of his own. For some reason he likes to get bunny candy… in the middle of the night! :-) Yes, a smiley, because it’s quite an experience to wake up in the middle of the night and see a bunny 2 cm from your face! Begging for candy! You can’t be mad, even at that hour! ;-) Ok, I could lock the bunny in the cage at night, but I just can’t set myself to do that… I tried it the second night, but after less then 30 minutes I moved back to the living room to make sure that Kevin could roam the room at night. My compassion wins it over my need for sleep! :-)

Besides that, there is the worry. The worry about the bunny. Ever since my brother tried to be “funny” and point out all the bad things that could happen to the bunny while I was bunnysitting, I worry quite a bit… I know there is no reason what so ever to worry about the bunny as he is in tip-top shape, but I still do. Strange in a way, because I never worry about my own bunnies, but knowing how much Mette loves Kevin A, I just check up on him much more then necessary to put my mind at ease.

Finally there is his cage. Any bunny kept as a pet would be so happy and lucky to have such a big cage as Kevin A does, but to me it still feels much better when he can run through the whole room. Not that he does, as he sits under a chair most of the time, but just the idea “that he can” feels much better. When leaving the apartment he needs to go in the cage, and even though he is perfectly used to that, it still feels sad to see him behind bars… So even when I am out, I think about him being in the cage at home, and that he should be out…

Well, just one more week of worries for me. After that it’s time for Mette to worry again! ;-)

Trademark	So cute

Posted in Travel, Animals | 2 Comments »

Ever since 9/11 airport security obviously became a big issue. At Amsterdam Airport Schiphol they are trying to deal with this as well, but in my point of view it’s still a far from flawless operation. Of course there are the normal checks, but for some reason they fail to see the point of preventing random people (or people who have no reason to be there) to enter the “secure” Departure halls. Because even without a boarding card you can get to any gate you like, or since recently, even go tax-free shopping without boarding any plane!

Yes, sounds amazing, but it’s pure reality at Schiphol airport. First there was the possibility to enter the Departure halls with a Privium card. The Privium system allows you to pass the Dutch border without showing a passport, but by just using border passage with the irisscan (you identify yourself using iris recognition). Sounds safe, but in the FAQ it states:

In real life this means: there is no check. After a while I started to notice they never checked my boarding card when passing the border. As I found this strange I urged, at one point, one of the security people to check my boarding card. Nevertheless, I could have no business being there. To my great surprise, they refused. After a long discussion I became clear they were not allowed to check boarding cards by order of their bosses… Very strange. As I figured, if I can figure out I can get into the secure area like this so easily, people who have bad intentions will have figured this out a long time ago. Alarming.

But since last Friday it has become even more alarming. When checking-in to my flight to Copenhagen using the self-service check-in machine of KLM I was surprise the machine didn’t take my frequent flyer card straight away… strange… normally it would always take it straight away and start processing. Now I had to touch the screen first. So my card was in the machine already, I touch the screen, follow the procedures on the screen, print my boarding-card and remove my card… But when I remove my card, I notice the screen goes back a few steps and asked to reconfirm again to print my boarding card… Confused I press the button to continue again and to my surprise it prints another boarding card! Now I have two!!

Puzzled I walked to the desk to drop of my luggage, but when I got to the security check, it hit me. This is bad! Because at Departure hall 1 there is no passport check…

So this means, I can print out 2 boarding passes, keep one myself and give the other to someone who can go do the tax-free shopping for me and take it home straight away! And that might probably be the least evil way to abuse the system… I stop myself from thinking about the real evil ways! :-|

Posted in Personal, Travel | 1 Comment »

The travelling life is here again. In the coming weeks I will be visiting Copenhagen and a number of places in Australia. Bunnysitting and returning Down Under; an exciting time!! :-)

Bunnysitting. Yes, bunnysitting will make me go to Copenhagen the next 2 weeks. Mette is going to Thailand for a holiday with her family and needed somebody to take care of her bunny, Kevin Arnold. I made it to number 1 on the shortlist and got selected for the “job”! Looking forward to seeing Copenhagen again and taking care of the sweet bunny for 2 weeks.

After the bunnysitting in Copenhagen, the bags will stayed packed and the journey will continue to Down Under! Couldn’t be more excited to be going to Australia again! Seeing Sally again and the great memories I have from the last time I was there… the planned 5 weeks will prove way to short, I am already sure of that! ;-)

So will try to catch up with the blog more often the coming weeks to share the exciting stories that are ahead! :-)

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Being a tourist in your own country… who would have thought it could be so much fun!? And so interesting! Showing and driving around Sally in Holland made me realise Holland is quite the pretty little country! Ok, you shouldn’t mind the weather and the traffic jams, but besides that… Quite amazing! A small recap (in random order) of the places we have visited and things we have done.

The keukenhof  
The worlds largest annual open-air flower exhibition, the keukenhof, is just 4km from my home town, but for the nearly 30 years I have been living on this planet, I never visited the place. Quite a mistake as I found out yesterday… There is so many flower fields in the area I live, it never really appealed to me to go to see even more flowers and pay money for that. But I can’t be more happy I finally went, because it’s a truly beautiful park! Amazing to see such different and beautiful colours everywhere, and the lovely smell of the flowers… oi… Just amazing!

Madurodam  
Madurodam is an amusement park with a miniature version of Holland. Scale models of famous buildings, constructions and sights. I had joyful memories of the place from when I was a kid, but it became quickly clear that the world looks different through kids eyes then through grownup eyes… The park was quite a disappointment… Expensive, small (or at least much smaller then in my memories) and not very well taken care off. Maybe fun for kids, but it doesn’t excite me anymore.

Queen’s Day  
A classic day in Holland on the 30th of April: Queen’s Day. The whole country colours orange and there is a massive amount of people on the streets of Amsterdam that day. Good fun! And quite an experience to see the most awkward orange outfits!

Zeeland/Deltaworks  
A visit to Zeeland, in the south-west of Holland, was a bit of a gamble. I had never visited that part of Holland, and what could we expect out of the mussel-season? Well, I got pleasantly surprised. Ok, it might be a bit boring… Country side, country side and more country side. But it’s pretty country side. And home of hundreds of pheasants! The Deltaworks are very impressive, but in the end you are still looking at dams and bridges. Guess you have to like that, or like to be surprised like me! ;-)

The Zaanse Schans  
Windmills! Very Dutch. Never knew there are so many in my country. I know Holland is famous for it, but when you don’t really look for them, you accept them as being normal in the landscape. But when paying attention you will see them everywhere! From country side to the centre of big cities! The most famous stretch of windmills must be The Zaanse Schans. Just a short ride from Amsterdam and a very popular spot for many, many tourists!

Traditional Dutch food  
You can’t leave the country without having tried some of the Dutch traditional sweets, snacks or other types of food. Only the die hards will probably try and like the raw herring (remember: always by the tail and don’t forget the onions!), but there is plenty of things to try for the sweet tooth’s, like soesjes, stroopwafels, gevulde koeken and not really Dutch, but we claim them anyway: Balisto’s! :-) At dinner try “the Triple“, an Indonesian rice table (what we call “Chinese” in Holland) and of course a chicken Saté with fried potatoes.

Don’t leave Holland without doing/trying this!    Very interesting!    Good fun    Worth doing    If you are desperate    Don’t do it!

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