Feel Good Friday – 30 November 2012

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Three things that have put a big smile on my face this week:

The look on my kids’ faces when our number was drawn during a school raffle…one whole kilo of delicious Danish marcipan chocolates for us to feast on with the whole family come Christmas Eve!

Guess who gets to pick first?  DS12!

After what was a very ‘up-then-down-then-up-then-down’ day…10 minutes in a massage chair while the kids and I were at Experimentarium (Denmark’s ‘hands on’ science museum/playground).  If anyone has loads of dosh to spare, please buy me a massage chair for Christmas.  Thanks, ta!

Sssshhhhh….keep the noise down out there!

My friends.  Whether we are down at the sea in the morning having a skinny dip, or in town looking at this year’s designer Christmas decorations, we can sort out the problems of the world over a cup of tea!

My sweetie friends V and H

Have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend!

Diane :o)

Feel Good Friday – 23 November 2012

Three things that have put a big smile on my face this week:

Watching my daughter and her rock band in action.  This week…the After School Club.  Next year…Wembley Arena? ;D

DD10 warming up in the studio, on the bass

Getting a card and emails saying that I make a difference (I teach English to Danish schoolkids).  The nicest  reward a teacher can get!

Getting myself dolled up and my glad rags on for a – much needed – night out on the town with my sweetie DDH (dear Danish husband)!  The kids will be looked after royally.  DDH and I are meeting friends for a cosy bistro dinner.  Then we’re going to a totally sold out gig by Denmark’s finest rock band Magtens Korridorer.  (Where our sweetie friend R just happens to be a guitarist.)  Yep, I am ready for the weekend to begin! 😀

Have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend!

Diane 🙂

Feel Good Friday – 16 November 2012

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Three things that have put a big smile on my face this week.

I love Clinton and Tracy from the American version of ‘What Not to Wear’.  And laughed out loud when Clinton said, “Crocs are the first sign of the Apocolypse!”  Now I’m laughing because I actually caved in and bought a pair.  Not for wearing on the street (perish the thought!).  But for wandering over the frozen sand when I winterbathe in the mornings.  Please cross your fingers for me and hope, by jingo, that there will be no witnesses! ;D

Never say never…

That the kids and I – for better or worse – are very much alike.  In more ways than we realise!

From top: my glasses, DS12’s glasses, DD10øs glasses

The wee bench in front of our SwedishSummerhouseByTheSea.  A great place to sit and watch the waves rolling in.  My greatest pleasure?  Being beside (or in!) the sea…

 

Have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend!

Diane 🙂

Feel Good Friday – 9 November 2012

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Three things that have put a big smile on my face this week:

Switching off my telephone and going to bed before 10 o’clock in my nice clean, cosy bedroom (thank you, Flylady!) and reading a chapter or two of Martin Beck (a series of Swedish crime novels that I’m reading in Danish) before I turn off the lights.  Not just once, but three nights this week – bliss!

Not only a smile but a tear in my eye from this one…  My sweetie friend Heidi (a fellow flybabe) wrote a lovely post about me – was a fantastic thing to wake up to on a dreary, dark Wednesday morning!

Jack The Story So Far

Jack The Story So Far on Facebook

 

Getting a great deal on confit de canard (duck confit).  It’s what we eat for Christmas dinner – which in Denmark we celebrate on the evening of 24 December – and we will be having it for dinner tomorrow night.  Much yumminess!  And a saving of 70 Danish crowns (ca. US$12 or £7.50) per tin.  Said the canny Scot! ;D

 

 

Have a fantastic Friday and a wonderful weekend!

 

Diane :o)

 

 

 

 

Feel Good Friday – 2 November 2012

Three things that have put a smile on my face this week:

Getting ready – the Flylady way, 15 minutes at a time – for visitors.  A dear friend (and former colleague from the EC Court of Justice in Luxembourg) from the Basque country and his wife.  Can’t wait to see them!  Table is almost set for dinner…

Receiving lovely messages from the parents at school.  I’m giving the Danish kids in 6th grade a course of extra English classes – and they’re loving it!   I always throw myself heart and soul into my teaching…and getting positive feedback from the kids makes it all worthwhile!

Our mascot, Morag

The smell of cake baking in the oven, mmmm!  This is the coconut meringue base of my DDDMIL’s (dearly-departed-Danish-mother-in-law) Kokosdessert or “Choco Coco Dessert”, ready for the oven.  When it’s cooled, I’ll add a ganache chocolate topping and whipped cream.  Yum!  You can see the full recipehere.

Have a fantastic Friday and a wonderful weekend! :o)

Diane

 

Feel Good Friday (25 May 2012)

Three things that have put a big smile on my face this week…

Going to see one of my absolute favourite bands “Kent” – giants of Swedish rock – with friends.

Kent at Vega, Copenhagen – 24 May 2012

DD10 was at her swimming lesson yesterday and – because of the fantastic weather – her swimming teacher surprised them all by diving into the water and playing with them.  Swimming through each others’ legs (five sets of legs in a row!), teaching them to do underwater sommersaults, playing ring o’ roses, water fights and more.  They had such a good time – hooray for inspirational teachers! *o/*

DD10 when she was just a babe in arms

My sweetie Danish friend H. taking her first ever skinny dip with us!   Current water temperature is about 10c/50f.  We celebrated afterwards with hot tea, strawberries and chocolate…

Have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend! 🙂

Feel Good Friday – 27 April 2012

Three things that have put a big smile on my face this week:

Finding a duck sitting in our front garden on Sunday evening!  DD10 gave it bread and water (which it gobbled up) but the next day the duck was gone.  We’re wondering if it was the same one who came to visit us two years ago with her ducklings…

Ducks in our paddling pool

Watching DD10 swim her 300m badge and DS12 swim his 1,500m badge. You’re obviously not allowed to take pictures at the pool, so you’ll have to make do with a pic of them on holiday when they were just wee tots!

Going to bed early with a great book and enjoying my secret stash of Cadbury’s creme eggs.  Thank you, Scottish family, for bringing the eggs over and thank you, Flylady, for giving me a terrific, cosy, clean, welcoming bedroom!

Have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend! 🙂

Feel Good Friday – 20 April 2012

Three things that have put a big smile on my face this week:

I still have WhoMadeWho playing at full volume inside my head, six days after the concert!

Read all about the concert over at my ‘crazy Danes’ blog dailydenmark.com

‘Surfing’ at our local science museum Experimentarium with my brother and his family of five.  Everyone fell of their boards but no-one got wet…hooray!  Watch out – surf’s up!

Meeting up with my cousin from Edinburgh.  Who, by sheer coincidence, was also in Copenhagen this week.  (Working at the European Wind Energy Event.)

On the canal boat trip – the best way to see the city, even though it’s windy! ;o)

Have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend! 🙂

Feel Good Friday – 13 April 2012

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Ooooooooo, it’s Friday the 13th!  Not to worry – I’m not superstitious… [she typed, throwing salt over her left shoulder]

Let’s get on and find three things that made me smile this week:

Getting ready to welcome my brother and his family of five. Thanks to my Flylady routines the house is clean and clutter free, the fridge is stocked to the gunnels with food, the basement is bursting with booze and I’ve just put the touches on the last bedroom. We.  Are.  Ready! 🙂

DH remembered our (14th) anniversary and brought me flowers.  ‘Awwww’!  And knowing that I’m not a ‘red rose’ kind of girl, he chose them in my favourite rose colours – light pink and hot pink.  Double ‘awwww’!  🙂

Playing Perudo (a Latin American dice game – a mixture of luck and bluff) with the kids every night before they go to bed.   DH and I used to play it all the time when we worked in Luxembourg in the 1990s.   And now DD10 and DS12 are hooked too!

Hope you have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend! 🙂

Feel Good Friday – 30 March 2012

Three things that put a smile on my face this week:

Beating DD10 at Club Penguin card Jitsu… ;o)

We have a new family ‘sport” – darts!

 

Skinny dipping at the beach where the sand is no longer ‘crunchy’ underfoot because of frost but – wait for it – very, very, very slightly warm! 🙂

Have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend! 🙂

Feel Good Friday – 23 March 2012

Three things that brought a smile to my face this week:

DD10’s face when she opened her birthday presents and spied the Enid Blyton “St Clares” boxset that was on her wishlist…

Taking DS12 to the gala première of The Hunger Games film.  He’s read the books from front to back and back to front (first in English, now in Danish from the school library).

The ‘Reaping’…cinema ticket stubs for prizes 🙂

A skinny dip with my bff on a completely deserted beach.  Water temperature 3c (37f) and sun peeping through the clouds – bliss!

Have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend! 😀

Feel Good Friday – 9 March 2012

Three things that have put a big smile on my face this week:

Spotting this educational journal at the Danish library.  I know I shouldn’t laugh.  But I can’t help it.  (By the way, ‘BUM’ or Børne- og ungdoms-litteratur magasinet stands for Child and Youth Literature Magazine)

Baking a spur of the moment batch of brownies for DS12 to take to a boys only after school class.  Mum of the Year award? ;D

Catching up with my bffs on a lovely jaunt to Sweden.    On the train from Copenhagen at 9am, chatting, shopping, chatting, lunch, chatting, more shopping.  And back in Denmark by 3pm.

Have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend! 🙂

Feel Good Friday – 2 March 2012

Three things I love this week:

Am I allowed to say the longer days, again?!  No?  Okay, well…

Thinking that “Yikes, I’m never going to get to grips with this new piano tune”.  Then – after working on it for 5 minutes at a time everytime I pass by the piano in the living room – having an “a-ha” moment, and it all falls into place.  Yeargh!

Celebrating my bff’s birthday with a skinny dip in the sea (current water temp 1c or 34f), then a picnic lunch in our ‘bathing hut’.  Cheers!

Spending a relaxing hour at our local Danish library and finding a whole treasure trove of books (in English and Danish) for me and the kids.  Cosy weekend on the sofa ahead!

Have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend! 🙂

Feel Good Friday – 10 February 2012

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Three things that I love this week:

*  That it’s now daylight when we do the school run in the morning. Woo hoo!

*  That it’s still light at 5 pm. Double woo!

*  And – as white candles are just too boring after the cheery red Christmas ones (but it’s a tad too early for happy, yellow Easter ones) – I’m cheering myself up with a nice mix of freesia coloured candles to keep me going until spring has really sprung…

Danish schools are closing today for a (well deserved…) ‘Winter Week’ holiday – so I’m dusting my blog desk (after I’ve set my timer and decluttered papers for seven minutes) and going off to enjoy some fun with my family.

Have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful week! 🙂