Monday Motorway Music™, June 18 – Those Su-ummer Nights!

We’ve had a long, long stretch of warm, sunshiny weather.

So long, in fact, that the area I live in is dry beyond belief and the traditional Midsummer celebration in my village has been cancelled – it was due to be this coming Saturday but the ban on bonfires that has been called to to the draught will be in place beyond that. And a Danish “Skt. Hans” (Midsummer) celebration without a bonfire isn’t one.

(Here is one of last last year’s local bonfires)

Oh well. We can enjoy the summer and the weather in other ways. The photos up at the top and down below are both from a canoe evening with the scouts last Wednesday. A truly great and beautiful evening!

Thunderstruck – AC/DC
Missing – Everything But The Girl
Bat Out of Hell – Meat Loaf
Chicago Institute – Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
The Man With the Child in His Eyes – Kate Bush

Photos by me.

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Monday Bicycle Music™, June 11 – That “Horses” Thing

I did the bike thing again yesterday 🙂

And this picture is just one of these small things that makes your day better already from the morning (snapped at 07:34) – and that you don’t see from your car window on the way up the motorway.

(and yeah, I have scrutinized my calendar and realised that some glitch – probably around 40 cm in front of the screen – meant that this didn’t post Monday…)

[Now, where did the music list go…? Ed.]

Photo by me.

Monday Bicycle Music™, June 4 – Back On Several Horses, Finally

Oh my, there has been a lot of blank pages here, lately. Basically, I have hardly checked in since I checked out for vacation. And yes, it was a very good vacation – but not really so good that it lasted for weeks and weeks afterwards 😉

I don’t know –  I just have not had much writing juice. With work and work travel and private travel also and life and what have you… The ink well has been pretty dry, is all.

And utterly unrelated – but for a much longer period of time I also haven’t really done much on my bike. Whether it’s a sudden flash of motivation or the fact that Denmark is really having some summer or whatever I have no clue – but over the last weeks, I have started a reasonably regular biking schedule once again. Four trips to my regular work site over the last weeks (those are 18 km each way) and, today, a trip to the other main company site. As that’s a 24 km trek, I felt quite good about it this morning! And I’m planning another one to the same place on Friday. Go me 🙂

From one of the many travels in the spring, here is a photo showing that it is not just Denmark and the Netherlands that can call themselves bicycle countries:

– picture snapped at the, admittedly, big bicycle parking at the back of the railway station in Ghent, Belgium.

A beautiful city, by the way – I was there for a conference but would imagine it could be a perfect place to go for a weekend getaway.

 

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And with that, over and (hopefully not) out.

Lullaby of Birdland – Andrea Motis; Joan Chamarro Quintet & Scott Hamilton
Stand By Me – Bruno Camurati
Let’s Stay Awake – Sinne Eeg
Constant Craving – k.d. lang
Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing – Aretha Franklin
Un-Break My Heart – Toni Braxton
Don’t Let It Bring You Down – Annie Lennox

 

Lonely House

I walk around in this house
Really,  I don’t
But, well, in my mind, I do

The house that only exists there
In my mind

I’m alone there
Of course I am
Since no-one else know about it
But also because that’s why it exists

It is, after all, the house of my loneliness

It’s not a bad house
It is big, with many rooms
The furniture is nice if a bit outdated
And worn if you look carefully enough

The cupboards are a thing of their own
If you open one, it is sure to be empty
Yet, they hold the memories

I walk around there mostly
Rarely sit down
Normally do not spend much time reflecting or pondering
It is as if the house has a certain warmth
That strangely fails to spread to you

It’s odd, actually
That I walk all the time from room to room
But never notice that the windows have no views

Maybe it’s because the house
Though silent has it’s own music
Sad, slow songs that mostly play inside your head
So I can listen to what it doesn’t play to me
To me, the music seems very pleasant,  melodic, harmonic
Even if, should you write it down, it would likely be all in minor

I think of the house as one
That is so like a house of distant, vaguely nice relatives
You’ve been there often
And know your way around
And yet, you somehow feel that you ought to leave

I sometimes wonder
What would happen
If I one day found that the door was open.

—

The start of this came from a few lines in a play we saw over the weekend – a play about 1930-40s Danish singer Liva Weel. Of course, I can’t recall the words used – but it had the image of a house as a picture of loneliness.

A note on the photo: Yes, I know that I ought to have used a photo from inside a house. And if I find one in the collection, I’ll throw that in instead. But is is just not too often that I am inside such houses – so this one, from Syracusa, Sicily, will have to do for now.

Photo by me.

Monday Motorway Music™, February 19 – Checking Out For 3-4 Weeks

 

It’s vacation time – we’re going on a major 3 1/2 weeks trip to Patagonia (south end of Latin America, not the clothing brand). I expect pretty sparse internet connections and a lot of enjoyable vacationing with my wife. And all that in turn means probably very little writing.

The house-sitters are moving in as we move out, so that’s taken care of – no empty house to worry about. And tomorrow will be a day of me relaxedly sorting stuff out and putting it into suitcases (yeah, well – this time, for a trip this length and with hiking gear to include also, even I will check in luggage 😉 ) before we take off in the first part of the evening.

The photo above is from the plane on the way home from Zagreb last week. Nice view!

Stay cool, dudes.

Dansevise – Lars H.U.G.
Angel – Eurythmics
Sometime Lately – Darts
Oh Yeah – Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music
Twilight Birds – Gasolin’Vacation

Photos by me

Cobblestone Cooking Music XXXVII – Sauce Tartare

Hey – it’s been a while without CCM posts, hasn’t it? Don’t worry – the family has eaten in all the time that has passed since I last did some cooking stuff here 😉

Today I’m not doing a full meal (well, ok, yes I am – I’m just not writing about it all) – it’s Friday after work, it’s the weekend, there is a limit to the creative energy…

• The Kinks, Sunny Afternoon
• Katrine Madsen, A Rainy Afternoon

I’m actually cooking Fish & Chips today – and for that, of course, you need to go to the Brits for how-tos and recipes. My favourite is a very nice and easy to handle recipe from the BBC – I’ll leave you to peruse that by yourself.

• Melissa Etheridge, Rock and Roll Me
• Diana Krall, Dream A Little Dream Of Me

But I have one point where I disagree with the recipe – the side / condiment, whatever you call it. Tomato sauce? Nah! A tartare sauce is the thing! And it is dead easy to make 🙂

• Majbritte Ulrikkeholm, I’ve Been Missing You
• Maria Augusta, How Deep Is Your Love

Taste-giving ingredients (well, most of them) – from the bottom left and clockwise: onion, capers (vinegar-pickled), parsley, chives and cornichons, all finely chopped.

Actually, this is the part that takes most of the time – the chopping of these things.

• Melody Gardot*, My One And Only Thrill
• Bette Midler, The Rose

Once that is done, put together a mayonnaise dressing: a good mayonnaise – I’m too lazy to make my own, so I tend to use Hellman’s – and some yoghurt naturel or creme fraiche, a bit of Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Mix in the chopped stuff – and presto!

• Elton John, Candle In The Wind
• Darts, Sometime Lately

Total time today from start to finish was 18 minutes – not hurrying. And then just leave the tartare sauce could for a while while you do the rest and check if anything misses in the taste just before serving.

Happy cooking!

Photos by me.

* Melody Gardot is playing at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival later this year. And guess who’s got tickets? 🙂 🙂

Thursday Motorway Music™, February 8 – Whizzing About

I might have mentioned it in passing before – but I tend do do some travelling once in a while 😉

And, sure enough, this week has had two trips already – Monday and Wednesday; two day trips with early starts and late finishes. And so we arrive at Thursday before I had a moment or five to open WordPress.

I’ll never get the hang of leaving the house at 6:something in the morning. But if I should find a positive effect of it, it might be the sunrise that I witnessed somewhere above the clouds a little later in the morning (on the Monday trip):

And as of today I have eight workdays left before a major vacation/expedition trip coming up. And, true to form, three of the eight days will be spent … travelling.

Careless Whisper (12″) – Wham!
Stairway to Heaven – Led Zeppelin
Sorry – Madonna
Endnu en weekend (live) – CV Jørgensen

Photos by me

Monday Motorway Music™, January 29 – Something Is Up With …

…the weather. Or, sadly, the climate. Which, in turn, might mean that there is something up, indeed, with the weather.

(Bonus points for getting the song/movie reference somewhat hidden in the headline)

The photo above is Pont Neuf in Paris, snapped last week. (In there, there is also sort of the usual excuse for not having updated this column last week as first half of the week was spent on sales calls and other meetings in Western Denmark and in Paris).

There is a lot of water running under that bridge. In fact,  have never seen the Seine at such a high level. The story goes that it will not reach its record high but the level is at the highest since 1982.

The roads and paths along the river are not only closed but actually flooded. And the “Bateaux Mouches” (turist boats) and various boat-based cafes and restaurants were closed en bloc.

Having said all that, it was as always a pleasure being back in Paris – I do love that city!

 

Shame, Shame, Shame – Shirley & Company
Let’s Dance – David Bowie
The Look – Roxette
On the Radio – Donna Summer

Photos by me

Monday Motorway Music™, January 15 – Feathered Friends

Well, we had winter, For all of two-and-a-half glorius days. We’re back at the usual gray, wet gloom. Yay (not).

One of our small pleasures during winter times is to follow the birds who come to feed outside our dining room window. We have quite a few recurring visitors (or, at least, some that look the very same) – a spotted woodpecker and also the robin that you see above.

What is interesting about the robin is that it’s a shy and cautious little fellow – most often, he (if it’s a he – robins are not, like many, different in their colours depending on gender) sits in the hedge or maybe in the bird house that stands right next to the hedge.

But recently, he’s been dauting and brave and come to feed at this feeder –

– where I did try to photograph him yesterday. Suprisingly, he did stay long enough for me to get the camera, change to the 55-300 mm and go back. But in the short seconds after that, I only got three lousy pictures that were slightly – but surely too much – out of focus. Drats. So you’ll have to do with a picture of the feeder with a great tit visiting.

And yeah, at least one of these photos has been published before, here or elsewhere. But hey – when your photos don’t come out well, that’s when you need a plan B.

Spinning Wheel – Blood, Sweat and Tears
Hustlerstil – Østkyst Hustlers
I’m In The Mood – John Lee Hooker & Bonnie Raitt
Lovers Live A Little Longer – ABBA

Photos by me

Monday Motorway Music™, January 8 – We’ve Got Winter!

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OK, we can’t compete with North-Eastern North America. And, honestly, I don’t particularily want to. But after weeks and weeks of gray and wet and dreary – we finally have cold and sunny and clear and frosty and lovely!

Yep, that’s muchly (!) my preferred winter weather.

Cool Jerk – The Go-Go’s
Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5
A To The B – Infernal
My Coo Ca Choo – Alvin Stardust
Last Night A DJ Saved My Life – Indeep

Photos by me