a royal jewelry box

a diamond daisy for queen daisy

the greenland crown

a more contemporary headpiece that fits the queen's up-dos. 

some of the many honorary titles and orders the queen has been given by various countries over her 50 year reign.

the pearl and diamond set that the queen often travels with, since the crown jewels aren't allowed to leave the country. 

a versatile three-piece set that the queen often wears.

this is probably a bad blog post because i know so few of the details of these pieces. i went to an exhibition at the amailenborg museum (that's the residence of the danish queen). it features the queen's jewelry. actually, the royal family's jewelry, not just the queen's. it is quite well done - you get a listening device that you scan along the way and hear the queen tell about the jewelry on display in her own words. my friend and i were speaking english, so the docent handed the device to us, set to english. the english voice was some snotty brit and hearing the explanations in her accent was utterly off-putting, so we had to go back and have them set them to danish. it was so much warmer and more palatable in the queen's own words. it was actually quite interesting, the difference that made. the brit imitating the queen sounded so condescending and the danish queen doesn't sound like that at all. 

and it wasn't all historical tiaras passed down from the russian tsars or the swedish royal family, there was also a pair of blue plastic earrings that the queen bought one summer in matas, a shop with an outlet in every town that features makeup, shampoo, nail polish and other personal care items. 

there's so much history and thought behind the pieces. and so much thought behind when they are worn and by whom. and who made them and for which occasion. it made me glad that i live my ordinary life, though it made me want to do so more deliberately. 

wordless wednesday - cop15 edition

all dressed up....

the reports of the nearly 1000 protestors detained yesterday here in copenhagen continue to be conflicting and sketchy. most of the accounts i've read (nytimes, bbc, the guardian, seattle times) cover the arrests in a cursory manner and then move on to the larger picture of the potential agreement that's on the horizon at the end of the COP15 meetings. and i think that i'm heartened by that, because it means that the focus is indeed on the bigger picture, which is the future of our planet and not whether some people wearing cow costumes were arrested for covering their faces (which apparently isn't how we wish to conduct ourselves within danish society). apparently all but 4-5 people were actually released without charges, so i think that the whole thing was a show of strength by a danish police force that has done a lot of preparing and hasn't really had anywhere to channel all that energy as of yet.

i mean, it must be rather disappointing if you've made all those preparations for violence and the majority of the messages coming from all of those gathering in copenhagen are ones of hope and peace and mutual caring for our planet. oh, and solutions.

bicycles that save up energy for when you need it.

a model city of the future that is jakarta (which i'll admit i found rather counter-intuitive).

shopping bags with a positive message.

a room for silent meditation.

and even france being ready to do something other than go on strike.

even brad pitt wants to save the earth.

no wonder the police were feeling frustrated and like they wished something would just happen.

and the plot thickens

apparently several thousand people demonstrated in copenhagen today.

968 were arrested and taken to the temporary holding facility in the old brewery.

and our local national news can't explain a single thing about it.

so much for free speech.
and hopenhagen.

COP15 begins today

the COP15 meeting on climate change begins today in copenhagen.  the danish parliament hurried through legislation enabling a big crackdown by the police on protesters. there's a holding area complete with cages for 350 set up in the old brewery not far from the center of copenhagen. and denmark has been granted permission by the european union and the schengen treaty signatories to institute border controls once again should that be necessary. "we're ready," say the police. per larsen, the gentleman in charge of the copenhagen police efforts said in the new york times, "his officers would have low tolerance for behavior that deviates from "Danish society as we prefer it to be." that could get interesting.

so there you have it. we're ready. the world's top leaders are coming (not all of them for the right bit of the meeting, ahem, mr. obama), but the meeting is expected to fizzle out and not achieve any legally binding agreement. the best anyone is hoping for is political agreement, but even that looks like a bit of a longshot.

the climate skeptics have given voice again in recent weeks in the lead-up. but i see signs of climate change all around. yes, the rose in my garden had frost on it last week, but the fact is that it's december and it's still blooming and we're not talking not only one rose, but several of them (tho' i only photographed the one). on the weekend, i saw forsythia blooming down the street, tho' ours isn't (our yard is north-facing and cooler and shadier). there was a canola field near sabin's riding school with many of those characteristic yellow flowers beginning to show. the climate is changing. and if there's a chance that there's something we can do about it, we should do so, immediately. at the very least, fossil fuels are limited and we've got to come up with alternative energy sources if we're going to continue in the lifestyle to which we've been accustomed (if that's even a good idea).

i've said it before (tho' cannot find the post for the life of me), i fear that it will take losing a major european country, like the netherlands, which will be severely affected by rising sea levels, before the world really wakes up. places like the seychelles and bangladesh are in danger too, but sadly, i believe the impact of losing them wouldn't be the same as it would losing the netherlands.

if i'm honest, i can see the upside in climate change for us living here in denmark. we're already increasingly able to grow grapes and that means we can make wine (pretty good if you've got an eye on self-sufficiency and a taste for the grape elixir). farmers are able to have two crops per year from their fields. in the decade i've been here, denmark has begun to grow corn. it's not as tall and robust as what you see in iowa, but corn nonetheless. and we could use more warm, sunny days.

i'm going to go in to the city to soak in the atmosphere with my camera and we've got couchsurfers galore coming (hotel rooms are scarce) in the coming days, so it will be interesting to see how it all unfolds. stay tuned, i'm sure i'll be returning to this subject.

sights and well, sights...

several things about the journey. long layover in amsterdam due to optimization of ticket prices. happily, we decided to take the train to amsterdam and walk around. it was a beautiful day and that was wonderful. and no doubt fortified us for the horrendously long flight ahead. because it is a horrendously long flight. and there is a world of difference between monkey and business class (which i will regale you with tales of another day, when i don't have to get up early and fly to kuala lumpur for the day). in the meantime, here are some snapshots of the journey thus far...

totally adore these retro-painted SAS planes. SAS has class. too bad we flew KLM.

love those silver converse all-stars

mmm, frozen hazelnut coffee in (you guessed it) amsterdam

and little pancakes with lovely, tart lemony sauce.

worth the 7-hour layover alone.

playing drawing games in the sunshine.

an interminably long time later, cut to a japanese restaurant at clark quay, singapore

a fountain to play in and keep the sleepies at bay.
crocs are good for something, they can be wet.

and a couple of martinis for the folks.

plus a shirley temple for the pooka.

yes, that's outdoor air conditioning. indefensible.

sneaked a self-portrait in the fitting room of miss whatever while sabin tried on a dress.

gee, i don't look tired at all, do i?

keeping the jetlag at bay with a grande latte.

sorry, i just gotta do starbucks when i see it.

i adore this system of wooden clothespins used by the waitresses
at bi feng tang in the wisma food court.

also adore the sambal kung kang, but failed to photograph it.

will have to go back.

seen in the window of some telecom provider.

loved it.

and it seems like a good note to leave on...

see you soon...

p.s. blogger cutting off the right edge of my photos strangely and i don't have the energy to figure out why, so just know that i'm aware they're kinda cut off, but the originals aren't...i promise to fix it later.

random wednesday

i love the rainbow-colored S-train. it makes me happy just to see it. they're usually just plain old red, but a few of them are rainbows. almost makes you like the public transport. and speaking of public transport, i started off my first week of birthday resolutions by speaking to a stranger on the train. in denmark if people speak to someone they don't know in public, they are either drunk or mentally...ahem, shall we say...diminished...in some way. true to form, the woman who spoke to me, while high functioning, was clearly not all there. but, it still counts. even tho' she initiated the conversation.

* * *

gerber daisies were 3 bunches for 50 kroner (that's less than $10!) at magasin. it made it feel like spring or even summer, even if the wind was pretty biting today, despite the sunshine. they look perfect in my ktichen, tho' they got a bit droopy on the long train ride home (made longer by some signal problems that meant we sat between the main train station and dybbølsbro for an inordinately long time):

* * *

i ordered some acrylic waterfast inks from dick blick art supplies in the US the other day, a big whopping $20 worth and they sent a quote on the shipping today (thank goodness they actually sent it for approval). they have the skills of a fence post in finding reasonable shipping. their offers were $38.08 for fed ex or $29.75 for the slow boat USPS (2-3 weeks, they said). all for something which can't weigh more than a few ounces. are they completely mental? do they think they can just take advantage of stupid foreigners who don't know any better? who are they trying to fool here? i'm positive that it wouldn't take more than $10-12 to ship to me and it could be here in a week to ten days with regular international mail.  i think it is a really crappy way to do business, making up what are perhaps too-low prices on the actual items on shipping costs. madness. i'll harvest some squid myself, thanks. 

* * *

sabin's big (half)sister has been hanging out here all week. normally she comes only every other weekend. she's 17 and you'd think it was a pain in the patootie to have a teenager in the house, but with husband in north carolina, it's pretty good having her around. she's made dinners and snacks because she wanted lessons in making The Pasta dish, hummus, and spanish omelette. so lessons she got. easy peasy for me. and she's a sensible, good kid. i hope sabin's this easy when the time comes. 

* * *

that's all i got today, folks. turns out this going to work on the train and sitting in an office all day is kinda tiring. hope your wednesday was less random than mine.

a matter of perspective

i had a very pleasant lunch meeting to attend in the city today, so i went in a bit early and took the camera. my sister and i took 577 pictures total in about an hour and a half. there ought to be a couple of good ones to share in the coming days and perhaps we'll even let ourselves be inspired by tangobaby and go visit blurb and create some fabulosity with them there. stay tuned for that.

in the meantime, i decided that these were good words for a monday:

i'm not sure what these cubes with this phrase on it were really for, but there were several of them around the city today. i was so busy taking pictures of them, that i didn't really read the other sides of the cube to see what it was all about. but, as far as i'm concerned, they are words to set the tone for the week and frankly, for life in general. everyday we are met with the unknown and i've learned over the past week or so that i don't want to meet the unknown with fear and negativity, so curiosity seems like a good alternative. it's open and positive. who wouldn't want to be more open and positive? what a great message to send on the streets of copenhagen. and putting it backwards--a stroke of genius--you have to actively read it that way. awesome.

* * *

hilarious true story:  one of the officers i knew in my previous job has recently moved to copenhagen from singapore with his wife and child. although they are from india, they have lived in singapore for a few years now. apparently the wife is suffering from extreme culture shock in denmark, which is totally understandable. 

however, what's quite hilarious to those of us who grew up in places that are not india and all of the preconceived notions that go with that, is that she is shocked at the low standard of living in denmark. yes, you read that correctly--it seems the happiest people on the face of the earth have a low living standard in her estimation. 

here are a few of the reasons:

1. hoards of people on bicycles. (can't they afford cars?)
2. when you call a taxi, you may actually have to WAIT for one to come.
3. people send their children to daycare rather than having a nanny.
4. another child at the daycare hit her child and was not reprimanded with corporal punishment (said children were two and a half).
5. where are all the nannies? (this nanny thing is apparently really bad.)
   
6. and the maids? who will clean the apartment?

i wonder what she thinks of danish design? and she's gonna really be disappointed when she compares those dogme films to bollywood offerings.

it's amazing how things all boil down to one's perspective.

jarring transitions

i started my morning in barcelona. it was sunny and a lovely 18 degrees. there were several thousand madmen and -women running a marathon through its streets. a number of hours later, i landed in oslo, where it is -3 and snowing like mad. only when you fly do experience such jarring transitions. i'm not sure it's good for us, as human beings. how can we catch up with ourselves when the differences are so great?

lucky for me, i'm at the most lovely old hotel up on holmenkollen, sitting in the pretty, quiet lobby, all alone by a fireplace, so i have the peace and solitude in which to make the mental transition to match the geographical transition i made. one doesn't always get that chance, so i'm making a conscious effort to savor it.

the difference in culture between denmark and spain is quite striking as well and was another jarring transition. we noticed it already on the plane, leaving copenhagen. it was a spanair flight and full of spaniards. a bunch of them evidentally knew one another and they were talking loudly across the aisles to one another. they spent long stretches of the flight, standing up talking to their friends, sometimes several rows behind them. speaking quickly and loudly. it was strange for the danes onboard, who never speak in public unless they have to or are together with close friends who they've known since birth. it was really interesting that the cultural differences were so evident already there.

when you travel, at least when you travel for pleasure, you open yourself to the differences. i go into observation mode and try to take note of such things...like the rhythms of the language and the body language of the people. even there, already on the plane, it was evident that the entire rhythm of barcelona was going to be different than copenhagen. the pulse and the beat on the streets was more lively and immediate somehow. less reserved. part of it is simply that there are so many more people, but it must also have to do with language and the actual music of the language itself. people simply express themselves completely differently.

we noticed that there were danes everywhere we went in barcelona. and they seemed to be caught up in the pulse and the liveliness as well, as they too were more animated. they were talking louder and using their arms more as they spoke. so something in the spanish culture was catching. or maybe it was just the sunshine and the warmth.

and now, i transition back to the cooler northern climes as big flakes of snow fall outside and the fire crackles beside me. transitions aren't all bad.

i think i could live here

can i just say that oslo is beautiful? maybe it's because it's a "new" city for me. it's my third visit (or is it my fourth?)...but each visit has been short and spent mostly in meetings or in the office. however, this time, most everything is covered with snow. and snow makes things magical, doesn't it? they look clean and fresh under all that glorious whiteness. when the sun shines, like it did today, it's all sparkling and lovely. and if you eat a totally delicious dinner at a beautiful restaurant with fantastic service up near the holmenkollen, as the sun sets and the city lights below begin to twinkle, well, it seems just almost heavenly. and that dinner takes place after you've had a day of fantastic discussions about a really, truly exciting new project...well you start to think that maybe you could live here...and that maybe even you should.

i'm not sure i've fallen in love with a city like this since cape town. but there's something about snow-capped mountains and a fjord and being on a the 31st floor of the radisson that just totally kicks copenhagen's flat no-more-than-6-stories-tall butt. it makes me feel that copenhagen doesn't DARE to really be anything. i mean, it's sweet and quaint and nice enough in its own derivative dutch renaissance architecture kind of way, but let's face it, the key word about the little mermaid is "little." and that's actually kind of strange, because the danes are otherwise the most design savvy of the scandinavians. they have style when it comes to furniture (not clothes, i grant you--if you see anyone well-dressed in copenhagen, i guarantee you they're swedes). but maybe oslo just has nature on its side. and what nature! i think i could live here...do you suppose they'll want half my salary in taxes too?