My 'Gap Year' Begins: (36th) Birthday/Leaving Denmark/Quitting Work Celebrations (during Copenhagen Jazz Festival)

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Background

Thinking back, this is essentially where this travel blog begins, at least for me. The blog's original focus was to be on the nine months or so of floating about the US, the Caribbean, and for the most part, Latin America - but the real picture would then be incomplete. I had earlier in the year (of 2006) finished a secondment from a British company to develop software for a Danish company (the customer being a well-known Korean mobile phone company - business trips and Kareoke included). But that job was only temporary and used to pay for a Big Trip to Somewhere after having completed, in 2005, a thing called an EngD via University College London; that took me six years whilst holding down a full-time job or two, so I was burning for time off and travel, but money being a bit tight, I took the Danish-based contract with a vow to get my ass out of Europe as soon as the client was happy. Now, rendering said client happy turned out to be quite a feat (even though they LOVED my rendition of Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable") and required a rather stressful, brain-busting, RSI-inducing, effort for all involved to design that bloody chip, so by the time my side of the project was done, I'd revised my initial plans for six months of time off to a healthy 12, to allow a full decompression. (And a year out of the IT game in favour of extremely LOW-TECH and cultural stuff appealed greatly).

This however posed some other problems that so far in life, had never really arisen - I had to think about someone other than myself! Yip, as fate would have it, I met my better half during my time in occasionally wonderful Copenhagen, so just nipping off for a year's hedonism and planet-wide exploration was not really conducive to domestic success. Funny, years had gone by where time as well as money was patently unavailable, and now i had both but just couldn't 'have it all' like I'd hoped. The compromise? Use Sofie's summer hols for some 'local' travels, and travel together for four months from the Autumn (she was entitled after several years of working at her school to take unpaid sabattical leave); I could travel a bit longer after that.

Planning

The above sound good? Well, it did to me too of course, and the exciting 'starter' travel that we devised - almost a month of island-hopping in Greece (along with taking the Trans-Sib train, something else I'd never done) - would be good practice for travelling as a pair later (and show us if we could actually do it). My pre-relationship ideas had been loosely the following: a few months in South America, then back to Europe for a 'vacation' from my new occupation as Traveller, before the Trans-Siberian to the Far East. Sofie, on the other hand, had never been to the States, and had seen all these colourful pictures of canyons in the US, and cute towns in Mexico from a friend. I was also pretty taken with the idea of travels in the USA and immediately, images of us in an open-top sports car charging through California and over to Grand Canyon via Death Valley and the like sprang to mind. Looking at maps (always a good idea when planning trips), the idea of circling back around to San Diego somehow and crossing over to Mexico teased my imagination.

"Done. I'm sold", say I.
"Great", say she.

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Jazz in the sun; family and friends arrive

July is a good time to visit DK/Copenhagen - if you like Jazz especially, since the streets and cafes are full of players. (Usually 5th-12th July, something like that). Sofie's colleague, the inimitable Henrik, is a bassist on the side, and we caught him and his mates lighting up the scene on a floating extension to one of the restaurants by the Lakes:







For a view of the scenic backdrop, take a look at this one:





To save having to walk very far, they make sure a bar is floating nearby too:





Those cool jazz dudes......






My bro and sis arrived just after we'd got the beers in. Here's one of Louise, Henrik the bassist, and Sofie (Neil must have gone to relieve himself):





We had a walk around down to a fun spot called Islands Brugge, where there is a diving platform and mange mange mennesker (i.e. LOTS of people) gather to lie about and catch the rays (compensating for the long dark winters):







Soon we get a call, and my crazy pals from a previous stint living in Eindhoven in the Netherlands turn up - now it is sure to be a weekend of madness, and by the way you can see me and Ivan eat ice cream, you can imagine. A fair mix of nations too - typical for any gathering I get involved with these days - Ivan is from the US, Xenia his missus from Belarus/Germany, Stephan also from Deutschland, and Dmitri is originally a Moscovite. First we go for a wander around the botanical garden, which Ivan decides to test his camouflage T-shirt in:




It's a nice spot.



We end up in Kongenshave (the King's garden), where a posher side to the jazz fest is taking place - some nice classical piano in the open-air. Thing is, Ivan has been knockin' 'em back the night before, and is still suffering. The boy takes a nap as smooth jazz tones wash over him.





Anyway, at some point, we're on the move and back to trendy Nørrebro, where I'd been living in my designer friend's designer flat. Ivan is fascinated by his wife's expanding belly .





Sofie et moi.



Eventually, we get into those ice creams and get a bit silly.

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5th July 2006 - 36 years old! (where has the time gone?)

I may be getting old and grey, but true to form, a house party in a marvellous flat of a friend (who'd rented me the place for some months earlier - cool Arne Jacobsen furniture, massive kitchen with huge burners, top CD collection, the works) seemed a good idea to mark the occasion. As I look out the kitchen window, I see Maria (who I met before coming her home country, Denmark, when we both lived in Holland; she's the one who introduced me and Sofie :-) ) has arrived, but she seems to have bike trouble:







Dmitri and Stephan prepare themselves.



Folks start arriving - Thomas, Sofie's colleague from work, is even happy to begin slicing lemons.



Enough mint to keep us in Mojitos till next spring: good to have such a herb-planting girlfriend (she actually has three kinds of mint planted in her kolonihave - a kind of big garden out of town with a small summer-house).



The sofa looks good now!



Various dynamics in this photo: Niels and Henrik come along too to give us a bit of jazz-cool and chill-out flavour to the festivities, while Sofie and Tine chat away oblivious - check my sister Louise to the left simply sucking down a beer.





Max and Nanna get down.



Many legs were on display.



Brother Neil and Dmitri





Back of Neil's head, Ole and Treasa (from Ireland)







The Great Baldini.



My sis Lou and Nanna



Henrik: 'spliff anyone?'



Party after-effects
All good parties come to an end, and that's when the familiar smells of fags, stale ale, rotting food, farts and sweaty arm-pits (if a crowd from the united nations have just slept over) all mix together and assault your nostrils the next morning as you try to find just ONE glass to put some juice in (of course all the OJ has been used for vodka too, so TEA is the only hangover cure available). But then you have to find a mug among the mess:







....and humanly contributing to the stench......



Even a Moscovite comes around though with a good cup of British tea - Dmitri, looking a bit jaded.



But eventually, a great British breakfast (after scavenging the nearest ingredients we can find in this country) - as demanded by Ivan whenever he visits me - is served to my visitors; at least they sell HP sauce here!








Maria popped over too, and manages to not look like she consumed vast quantities of cocktails the night before, looking cool perched in the designer chair:

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