GoKarting in Sweden

Just returned from a few hours of GoKarting in Lockarp (Sweden) with a couple of other MS workmates. Even though we were only 15, we had a great time and some awesome driving in these professional karts running on gasoline (top speed 90Km/h). Massive race track with each lap taking about 1:25 (best lap today was 1:14 by Martin Born). Free sandwiches and drinks also made the subzero temperatures abit more bearable.

Roskilde !

Full day at Roskilde, including Roskilde Viking Ship Museum and also the "Domkirke" and piazza. Pity the old butcher and grocer shops were closed.

Easter Sunday

After a good meal of lasagne courtesy of Erika, we headed off for Christiansborg and the neverending Copenhagen National Museum followwed by Easter mass at some chuch full of philippinos and indians.

Encounter with a Smørrebrød and other stories

Woke up *early* and headed towards Copenhagen City (centre) which is full of old buildings, cafes and shops. First stop was Radhuspladsen (Townhall square) where we visited the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum, a tribute to the weird and the wonderful. This place had some cool stuff like ugly people and a two-headed cow (yay). Next stop was the new H.C. Andersen museum with dioramas of the author's life and his works, including some very cute displays for his most famous works such as Thumbelina and The Little Mermaid. Never realized this man was responsible for so many of our childhood stories!

By then it was about 2pm and time to start hunting for a restaurant. We found this small underground place where we decided to try out the Smørrebrød, a very popular dish in Denmark consisting of a slice of rhye bread and butter with a mountain of err.. anything you can imagine on top. Toppings range from slices of beef and onions to lettuce and herrings with tartar sauce. Its quite a meal in itself and the combinations of toppings can be quite interesting. Erika had the Smørrebrød with a minced-meat pat and fried egg and onions, whilst mine came with liver pate, bacon, ham, and an interestingly tasteless cube of jelly fat.

We then walked through the main pedestrian and shopping streets with our last stop at this massive sweet shop where you get to choose from hundreds of different types of sweets, and just put them in your paperbag. Strangely, 500g of sweets only lasted 2 days.

visiting Fjordland

Just hearing the name "Fjord" conjurs up images of cold lakes and rolling green shores to the minds of many. Mythbusters Erika and Mike went on a mission to investigate what a Fjord really is.

We took the 45min train to Fredrikssund, north-west town in Zealand, which runs along the great Roskilde Fjord. The icy sea breeze accompanied us as we walked around the bay pontoons and visited a pretty little Viking village (Vikingspladsen). The silence and peacefulness in the air was just inspiring. Its as if time has not tarnished this beautiful slice of land far from the hustle and bustle of Copenhagen's traffic and fumes. If i had to sum up a Fjord in one word, it would be "peaceful". Its a pity we couldnt take the ferry right down the Fjord to see the rest of the countryside. The area is also host to a number of seagulls, ducks and swans which provided much entertainment as they flapped around and generally made themselves a nuisance to eachother. Yes, we talked to the swans. No, i refused to share my twistees with them.

We also saw a really cool viking hat in a shopwindow. Brass skullcap with steel rivets down the centre, and real bone horns which would make any viking proud. I hereby proclaim that i will not leave Denmark without one of these. MUST.... HAVE.... VIKINGHAT!

The Little Mermaid

Oops, i forgot to mention that we also went to see Denmark's most famous attraction: the mermaid statue placed at the edge of the shore, based on H.C. Anderson's tale by the same name. And i've got good reasons for forgetting to mention it... twas abit of a let-down... just a tiny statue sitting on a rock. Yay. great fun. Time to move on.

We also went to what the map described as a "Castlet", which we thought was a massive castle by the sea as it took up a good part of the map. Somebody should correct the map and call it "funny red almost modern-looking army barracks".

On the other hand, i did see two statues i really liked. One was of the mythological figure Gefion, goddess of unmarried women, who had four sons which were transformed into powerful oxen at birth. Legend has it that she was insulted by the King of sweden so she decided to pay him back. Dressed up as an old beggar, dared the King that any piece of his land she can plough within one day will be hers to keep. The King thought it would be entertaining to watch an old beggar woman plough the land without any tools, so he accepted. She set her oxen-sons to work who ploughed deep into the earth, breaking off a part of sweden and dragging it across the ocean. This land she named Zealand, which is the largest island in Denmark on which Copenhagen is found.

Another statue i liked was of a Valkyrie on horseback, spear in hand and charging into battle. The Valkyries were female warriors who rode high into the sky in battle, directing the fight and helping the souls of the heroes into Valhalla.


Note that my love for Norse Mythology had no influence on my liking these statues *wink*

visiting the Rosenborgs

Erika came over yesterday so we've been doing some sight-seeing.

We visited Rosenborg Castle today. Pretty little building surrounded by a large garden, but you could hardly call it a Castle.... I've seen boathouses in Gnejna which had more rooms. I didnt know a castle could even be that small! Turns out this place was more of a "store/showroom" for the royal family's stash of jewellery, porcelain, furniture, and other goodies handed down from generation to generation, plus it doubled up as a summer house for the bluebloods. There was also this cool exhibition of the family jewels: crowns, bracelets, weaponry, and other gold/stone-laden items probably worth a fortune.

Full-day MS Seminar

Its not every day you get to go to a Microsoft product presentation. We've been downloading videos of them off the internet for a while, wishing we were there. Well, i can now say... I was there!

Rick LaPlante kicked off the full day presentation of the new Visual Studio 2005 Team System at the Cinemaxx complex (ie. big cinema thing) in Fisketorvet (Dybbelsbro) just 10mins away from the centre of Copenhagen. An awesome set of demos and his usual touch of comedy kept us gripped to our seats until (free) lunch, after which Binia continued talking about various parts of the system. Great fun and a real experience shared with hundreds of other software gurus in Kobenhavn.

chef's choice

Today i had to fill in a form in danish for a microsoft event, so i asked a guy what "informationschef" means, wondering if it meant i'd be peeling potatoes for the next few months. Turns out, "chef" just means "chief". But then again, a "chef" in english translates to "kokk" in danish.

visiting Christiania

I just got back from Christiania which is this "hippy" village built on an ex-military base. Its like one weird community full of pot-heads, misfits, political refugees, eco-freaks etc. The place is actually quite a sight since all the houses have these really beautiful graffiti... more like paintings than acts of vandalism. Its also a place to buy hash.. there are dealers at every corner and in every coffee shop, and its generally acceptable to smoke anywhere outdoors. The flea market also sells all these drug-related goodies like pipes and bongs, hats and t-shirts with columbian colours, Bob Marley memorabilia, massive 3-foot bongs in the shape of a cock, and even grow-your-own marijuana seeds. You also get all these people dancing around and with a smile on their face.... must have been the sudden change in weather (-1 degrees but clear sky and warm sun).

Mike moves to Visual Studio Team System

Looks like I'll be working on Microsoft's new Visual Studio Team System from now on... pretty cool stuff and looks like more fun than the MBF stuff i've been working on for the past 3 weeks.

danish hot dogs

ok these countries may be famous for their sausages but today's hotdog was plain funny. 12 inch sausage... very tasty. But with it you get a 3 inch bread roll and a dollop of ketchup/mustard on a piece of grease-proof paper. The words "what the fuck" come to mind.

partyboy gets home at 9am

Umph.... still hungover and really tired. I woke up at 7am yesterday... was at work by 9am. At 3pm we had a small office farewell party for Sharon (Australia), IAESTE student who's been at MS for a year and is leaving on Sunday. The food n drink lasted til bout 5 or 6, after which i established myself as the new upcoming master at Halo on the Xbox against some of the guys from work.

9pm we were at Sharon's place straight from work, some student apartment block in some long-lost part of north Lyngby. The party later moved down to the disco hall and bar and, a few punch-bowls later it was 5am. By then, the slav girls had left and all that remained was a couple of drunken guys fooling around. Oh yeah, then James Skywalker (USA) broke the table-tennis table in half and that kindof sobred us up abit.

Probably best part of the night was me lying down for an hour on a comfy armchair in an empty disco hall... no music - just utter silence - but the swirling lights and disco balls still shone a constellation of multicoloured dots around the room. This was the perfect way to recover from the hangover and wait for the morning bus to arrive. We then took the first bus out of there and i got home around 9am... whoa! what a night :)

One small step for mikekind

Today i "closed" my first bug at work... yay !

-3 degrees and a wind so hard it could cut diamonds are not good for your health

I suppose a blizzard is nature's way of occasionally showing who's boss, as it did today.

Its been snowing real hard since noon, so there's about 4 inches of fairydust coating anything and everything which faces the heavens. The raging winds don't help much either, blowing snowflakes into every crevice of your face and right into the bus where you think you're safe from it all. I swear i checked my ears at least ten times to see if they're still in one piece. Ears are always the first to go!

Anyways, i took refuge in the warmth of the trainstation until my ride arrived. I was sitting alongside a dozen or so people - mostly foreign workers from microsoft and the neighbouring factories - all huddled up, shivering and nagging about the snowstorm, when outside we caught a glimpse of the true rugged Norseman. Wearing what seemed to be a light jacket and corduroys, this rough blonde-bearded bloke casually strolled along the aisle eating his apple, without a care for the wave of ice constantly crashing against his brow. He was later joined by his friend, also well over six-foot tall and lightly dressed, who chatted away on his mobile and waved his arms around, as if he were on some Hawaiian beach. No hat. No scarf. No gloves. We shuddered.

Rude awakening

In true danish fashion, the neighbours woke me up at 6am to drink and celebrate my birthday. 3 pints of beer and 1/6 of a Gammel Dansk later, i was back at work. Skol guys, was a good birthday :)