Monday Motorway Music™, September 26 – Done with Flying Around. For Now.

Bavaria, Germany on an early, sunshiny morning

Three weeks, just four scattered work days in the office, six different locations visited in two major languages… Phew!

I must admit that even if I do truly love travelling and have met both dear colleagues and lots of friendly new people and even caught up online with previous friends along the way – it was vewwy, vewwy good to finally get home after all that.

And it is 19 days until I travel again – not really counting a one-day drive to the other side of the country next week (Denmark isn’t that wide, after all).

Fever – Peggy Lee
More Than A Woman – Angie Stone
Let’s Face the Music And Dance – Diana Krall
Anything Goes – Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett
Dancing In the Dark – Bruce Springsteen
Hot Stuff – Donna Summer

Photo by me.

A Walk Through The September Garden

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Photos by me.

Monday Motorway Music™, September 12 – Interlude With Potato

 

I saw one of these internet memes the other day: “Anything in the world is either a potato or not a potato.” Well – that thing above? Sure is a potato! And doesn’t that post title sound exactly like something one of this world’s big still life painters could have thought up?😉

Back to ordinary life: This is a regular work day. In the office. Wheeee! But – already walking from the car to the front door of “my” building, I was tapping into the SAS app in the process of checking in for my flight tomorrow morning. 17C, emergency exit row seat, check! (you also do check in early, right?)

And, with that –

Amerika – Rammstein
Thunderstruck – AC/DC
(yeah, needed a wake-up this morning, ok?)
Don’t Speak – No Doubt
Crystal Ball – Styx
Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac
Hotblooded – Roxette
Nothin’ But A Good Time – Poison

Photo by me.

A Misty Morning in August

Photos by me.

Cobblestone Cooking Music XXIX – A Craving for Chocolate

There are days like that🙂

But apart from that, the whole thing started because I used a couple of egg yolks yesterday – to serve with a smoked mackarel, but that’s a whole other story. Egg whites = meringues. Combine with the mentioned chocolate need and … dessert.

Dessert menu, then: My chocolate mousse – plus the meringues and, in all likelihood, a glass of port.

• Andrew Sisters, Rum & Coca Cola (Jojo Effect Remix)
• Daft Punk, One More Time

Whisk egg whites until they are about stiff. Then gradually add sugar – add, whisk, add, whisk (you get it) – until they are quite stiff. Add a few drops of vinegar (whatever food vinegar you have handy) and whisk on for another, say, five minutes.

• Cher, The Shoop Shoop Song
• Infernal, A to the B

… Swirls!

Mix in a bit of unsweetened, real cocoa and gently blend in some melted, somewhat cooled chocolate – don’t mix too much as we’re going for swirls.

• Kim Carnes, Bette Davis Eyes
• Donna Summer, On The Radio

Using a spoon, put them on a baking plate covered with baking paper. Aim for … 5-6 cm ( 2″ or so) across. Bake at 100°C for an hour and let cool in the oven for another hour with the oven door ever so slightly open.

• Earth, Wind & Fire, Boogie Wonderland
• Bee Gees, Tragedy

Photo by me.

Keeping one step ahead

Man, am I happy that we decided to ask Air Canada whether they had seats and would let us fly on the 14:30 flight from DTW to YYZ instead of our scheduled 18:35 departure. And, praise to AC, their answers were “yes” and “yes”.

The above is the prediction for our original flight: arrival 20:27. Our transatlantic flight boards at 20:10 for a 20:55 push-back – it would have been hairy and stressful to make that connection…

Part of it is weather – it’s been hit and humid all over the region and that leads to thunderstorms and other flight-unfriendly phenomena. 

Here, we got the airport pelted with rain just as the sun was setting. 

Photos by me.

Monday Motorway Music™, August 29 – Normality Restored. For now.

A calming photo from nature. What can be nicer, more relaxing and normal?🙂

One possible answer: Anything but last week and the three weeks to come😉

Last week, I had an online meeting Monday morning – and 9 hours later, I sat in a plane to France. Sudden customer meeting needed. So off to Nantes I went – where it was 37°C – and hence, I didn’t get around to updating here.

After that bit, the rest of the week’s work compressed into half of it – so it was nice to go to Sweden in the weekend, in the (in-law) family’s cabin. Even if we were there to be practical.

Next three weeks: Three work trips. First, the US (Michigan), then Poland and finally Germany (Munich) with a short side trip just across the border to Austria and then home via the Netherlands.

And I am sure that the Travel Norns will think of other places to fling me to after that.

Solid Rock – Dire Straits
Runaround Sue – Dion & The Belmonds
Hit That Jive Jack – Diana Krall
Coco – Miss B. Haven
Sunny Afternoon – The Kinks
Lady Marmalade – Patti Labelle

Photo by me.

Cobblestone Cooking Music XXVIII – Summer Soul and Sides

Spotify (yep, the fourth “S” – the alliterate me is happy!) this Sunday (!) offered a playlist full of soul – and basically, it’s been my go-to all day. From breakfast preparation and through to dinner.

• Marvin Gaye, Sexual Healing
• Anita Baker, Sweet Love

The dinner today will be barbecued loin of veal – done with a mortar-mix of salt, garlic and thyme on top. Should be yummy. Just came off the bbq and is now resting🙂

• The Islay Brothers, Between The Sheets*
• George Duke, Say You Will

* I swear, I did not intend a <ahem> theme to the music…😉

The two sides are certainly from my list of favourites in the summer. First side: classical Danish cold potato salad.

Boil potatoes in good time (tip: plan them as leftovers) and let them get cold.

• Commodores, Nightshift
• George Benson, Give Me The Night

Make a dressing of a good mayonnaise (yeah, you can do your own – but I’m too lazy and default to Hellman’s) and creme fraiche or yoghurt approx. half and half with a bit of Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Mix in the potatoes, cut in mouth-size pieces and add similar sized chunks of cucumber and tomatoes. Sprinkle with chives. Keep cold until serving time.

• Isley, Jasper, Isley, Caravan Of Love
• Teddy Pendergrass, Love T.K.O.

Second: tomato/watermelon. Fresh with a bit of a bite.

Cut a reasonable amount of watermelon in, again, bite size chunks. Seedless is a bit easier… Similarly, cut about the same volume of tomatoes in bites. Add rather finely chopped red onion and really thinly sliced (or half slices, if it’s a big one) garlic. Toss with a vinaigrette – today, I used olive oil & condimento bianco (grape must & white vinegar) but a balsamico also works well.

• Randy Crawford, One Day I’ll Fly Away
• Earth, Wind & Fire, After The Love Has Gone

By the way – that veal? Mrrrumph! (that is a satisfied sound!) Very tender, very tasty, went very well with the sides – and to top it all off, we could sit and have our summer dinner on the back garden terrace.

Hey – sometimes life is just good to you and then you’d better enjoy it.

• Dennis Edwards, Don’t Look Any Further

Happy cooking!

Photos by me.

The Way It Is Here

Raindrops on windows
Yet, sun in the evening sky
That Danish summer…

Photo by me.

Monday Motorway Music™, August 15 – Those Other German Cars

 

The photo is, once again, utterly unrelated to anything else in this post – it is a sunrise as shot from a long-distance bus somewhere near to the Switzerland-France-Germany border triangle during my summer vacation.

It was also morning this morning. “No sh**, Sherlock”, I seem to hear you say – but the point is that a few other drivers made it much less of a serene experience. So being morning was the major part these two different mornings had in common.

I have previously ranted about BMWs. This morning, the prize went to the Audi team. First and foremost to the guy who started out zooming past me with 70+ km/h in a 50-zone. Of course, he was impatiently waiting at the next red light, a few hundred meters further down.

Because I didn’t have to stop there due to execllent timing (*smug smile*), I passed him – right until he accelerated on the inside of me, cut out in front of me because a lorry took up his lane – and promptly had to brake in front of me because the light he couldn’t see for the lorry was red.

What the – and sorry about not using asterisks this time – actual fuck?

A piece of advice or two and a useful piece of information, mister Bad Driver:

• That sort of driving is what actually gets people killed in traffic (yeah, you were likely doing 75, when you illegally overtook on the inside)
• That sort of driving can be completely avoided by getting up in time in the morning – or, if you will, by learning to be too late
• Your car has four rings on it. The Olympic Games sports five. And, by the way, do not include motorsports. So just drop it, ok?

More Than A Woman – Angie Stone
When I Kissed the Teacher – ABBA
Where Blue Begins – Sanne Salomonsen
Killing Me Softly – The Fugees
Månestråle – Sinne Eeg
After the Love Has Gone – Earth, Wind & Fire
Kloden drejer stille rundt – Gasolin’
The Windmills of Your Mind – Sinne Eeg
Rhiannon – Fleetwood Mac
The Boy From Ipanema – Diana Krall

Photo by me.