And now there is a wish nr. 2

1 out of 3 wishes came true!

Morten got his drivers licence. That means I get to not to be a permanent driver and I get to tell him what to do while he is driving.
Congratulations!!!

what can go wrong will go wrong

What could go wrong, did go wrong.
We have moved 4 weeks ago to our house and guess what… We have had burglary. Great, just great.
We came home and at first we haven't notice much. Morten however began to wonder about that we shouldn't be in such a hurry when we are leaving the house and close the cubots. And then… We could se that we had been robbet.
Money, jewelley and my precious hippo piggy bank was stolen. The worst part about all that that it had happened. That someone was in our house.
It stricked me that the house was warm when we came ind, but the dours were open, so it all happened while we were on our way, or maybe we have interrupted all the process.
The police came, got all the pictures, then the insurance came and got all the windows covered. And then came another day.
At the moment I literally can't stay at home alone so I am afraid it will go over Mortens Christmas Party on Friday.

What else can we say… Not everything is that bad.
David had a fantastics performance last Friday at Lousiana. 100.000 DKK worth of to his teacher and his wife. Very much so deserved.
http://www.youtube.com/user/davidmasha#p/a/u/2/gI4aO521H2E
http://www.youtube.com/user/davidmasha#p/a/u/1/ty5XvwJSTFA
http://www.youtube.com/user/davidmasha#p/a/u/0/6I9S1T26Gyc

As for me I am closing up all the unfinished business at my work and getting ready to go to a new challanging job. I will dearly miss SOME of my co-workers and I will be missed by them. However for some it will be a great relief and I guess a step up in the carree.

And the most important: WE GOT MARRIED!!!

WE... GOT... MARRIED!!!!! Yes, and.... we got Chris to witness the event. He came on a short notice to be a part of a very small celebration.
We are so happy, really. Finally, we got to say "I DO" to each other. So now we are Mr. Høgholm and Mrs. Kvistorf (just for the record, Morten has many names, and one of them is Kvistorf). It is strange to say that we have been married only for 3 weeks. I love this guy, I really do. He is the most wonderful, understanding and annoying guy on the planet. And he loves me, this is what counts. As the decision happened to be very fast we haven't manage to invite so many people. actually only some guys from Mortens and my work. But... who cares.... it was our day and only ours. However we are grateful for the attention and presense.

many changes

Wow, it seems like ages since last time we have written on this blog.
Let me check my calender. Thousands of things had happened since our last entry.
Where do we start. I guess with the youngest one.
Masha...
She is showing her character, and boy, she has one. Getting older and very good at communication. People can't believe that she is two. She speaks so well. Still no news about the school, so she is moving to the danish kindergarten.
David...
Ah, that mister David.
He is a busy guy. Above all the girlfriends he has lots and lots of concert. He turns 9. Has a big party at a bowling club with 9 boys and 1 girl. Lots of presents and attention. Violin is going very well. Today he has been offered a master class with someone, sorry do not remember his name, but the one that has been having lessons under Itzhak Perlman!!!! Wow. next concerts are on the 3rd of December and 14th of December with orkestra, 27th of November - solo.

On the job situation. Mortens company has been having firing rounds. Thank goodness Morten is still in the company, just thinking about the 5% were fired. It is strange to go to the office where people dissappeare. I am trying to back him up as much as I can. So does he. I have recently changed the departments. Yes, I did.
Apart all the things that had happened, we moved to the house. So now we have plenty of space. So come and visit.

Things that are happening around us

It has been a turbulent flight for the past 2 weeks.
Things are moving very slowly, or not moving at all. Some people are trying to destroy my carree and hurt me as much as it is possible.
It is so stressful to look at, to be surronded around by these kind of people. It seems like the whole world is working against us. I know that this downsides will go away, the question is when. It makes one like so unmotivated.
Well, however, one thing I know that I am surrounded by the wonderful people who are trying to chear me up and to help as much as they can. It is during these times one finds of who is real and who is not.
But... I know, that no matter what I will go and I will win. Noone will ever stop me and one way or the other the things will be the way they should be!

Abigail Marie Larsen

By Will(AU) in San Francisco

We are moving

Yes, we got a house. Who would have thougth that one day we will get a house. And yes, we did. It is about 25 minutes away from Copenhagen on a train, so it works just fine for us. I am so looking forward for lots of space, seperate room for the kids, and lots of space for guests.

We have set up a date for the move.

For an average person and due to the financial crisis, most likely one needs to sell in order to buy something else. However due to the positions we occupy and due to some "smart" moves we were fortunate to be allowed to keep both. That doesn't mean that we will be capitalists, no, we will sell our apartment, graduatelly.


What else...
Masha is starting to attend Ballet classes. She is so ready. And she so wants that and so excited about the fact that now she is a big girl.

David has finally started in school. You see, all Danish kids have started school 2-3 weeks before our French school. This year was a special one for David, as for the first time he was at school on the first day of school. So now, my big boy, is in the 4th grade.


And the last thing. I got my IPhone. Yep, and it is a very fun and cool toy. And I love it.

Home

We are home. But only barely. Firstly the shuttle from hotel to airport took considerably longer than we were told as it apparently had to go to three other hotels after picking us up first: fifteen minutes after we got on it, it was picking up passengers at our neighboring hotel on the other side of the street! Not what one needs after too little sleep and a plane to catch. Anyway, we make it to the airport and the line for check-in is longer than for the studio tour at Universal Studios... We had 10 minutes before check-in closed and much, much longer than that to wait in line. So Zhenya got the attention of some staffers and we were somehow whisked through (don't ask me how - I just tagged along), making check-in with no time to spare, straight through security check and then to the gate where the plane was already boarding and our names were being called out by the staff at the counter. A nice warm-up for our quick transit in Washington!

Ah, good old Dulles Airport in Washington. How I haven't missed it! Hot and humid and people waiting everywhere. We knew we didn't have much time between the flights and we were right. When we finally arrived at the gate, people with kids were called forward for boarding. So somehow we managed to get on two flights without ever waiting at a gate. I guess this is part of the reason why the journey home didn't feel as long as it was (5h + 7h).

But we are home and severely jet lagged. now we `just' have to revert to CET time...

San Diego again

Oh, San Diego. It is a dream, it is Shamu, it is a place one should come again and again. This time we had a tight program: zoo and Sea World.
The zoo: HIPPOS!!!! There are beautiful Funani and Otus. Wonderful, beautiful hippos. After spending an hour or so next to them, more animals as koalas, kangaroos, bears, lions, gorillas, etc. must be seen. It was a long day, as too many things to see, but... we managed, we made it. And a cup with the hippo is on its way to Denmark.

Sea World: We went to see Shamu. David was so happy that we just cried. He couldn't hold his feelings. He loves Shamu so much, that now it is a bigger Shamu is on the way to Denmark as well.
Sea World made something interesting this year. They expand working hours to 11 p.m. and one could enjoy extra evening shows. Evening shows are much, much better and funnier. Especially when Shamu dances and rock-n-rolls.

I like the ticket system in America. You buy a customize ticket and then, when you enter the park, your finger print is taken. Excellent idea, so no one can get in with your! ticket. And this system works perfectly. Sea World can still remember me from 3 years ago, so no problem there.
The weather was strange in San Diego. There were no sun. If one reads the forecast then San Diego is the most sunniest (in a good way) city in US, but not this time. And we were so happy about that. It was great. We didn't want sun, or heat. We just wanted a normal temperature which will allow us to walk around without getting a heat stroke.

Yosemite-Death Valley-Las Vegas-Palm Springs-San Diego

And we have started our long trip around California, plus a little bit of Nevada.

Yosemite

That is the best place on earth. Well, at least one of the best ones. Waterfalls are awesome, the breathtaking nature, trails, all is just great. One should come a bit early in order to get some kind of parking. But all is very well organized. You get to park your car at the parking spot and off you go with a shuttle anywhere in the park. You get off and wonder around, get back to the bus and off to the next stop. The waterfalls are just right there. To some one should go a little, to some a lot, but one can always see them. We have managed to get very close to the lower Yosemite one. And please do notice, all of us. So we have climbed up and down and so did Masha and David. And that was just awesome.
Yosemite park has everything: snow in the middle of summer, dears, squirrels, and the bears. And the sign BEWARE OF BEAR is not for fun. Because... there are bears. And we have seen one! Yes we did. And we are very proud of that.
At the certain point me and the kids almost lost Morten, but we were in more advantage position: we knew where the car was, we had the keys and the money. But... we managed to find him. So all was good at the end.



Death Valley

No wonder it is called death valley. Have you tried it? We did and we are not! doing it again. It was hot. Hot like hell. 115F (46 C) and that is at 6 p.m. It was hot. And miles and miles of roads with no cars, just us. And then there was our hotel in the middle or the desert.
Death Valley has lot and lots of sand, rocks and salt. That is about it. It is a very strange place. The strange experience has been for us as we were driving from the picture full of life, snow, water, green trees, to heat and nothing just in the matter of 5 hours. That is awesome and strange.
As we looked at it then we do agree with U.Chris that one should not visit Death Valley in summer and we look at it that way: been there, done that, never going to do so again.
Fun experience: the swimming-pool in Death Valley had to be cooled down, yes! cooled down to 28 degrees with ice!



Las Vegas

When you drive and drive in the desert suddenly there are lights... Las Vegas... It is just unrealistically fun. Everyone has seen pictures of Las Vegas, but it is way different to be there. The light, the experience, people, casinos, shopping center, Caesar Palace, restaurants with the casinos, it is different and unique.
Even our hotel had casino in the restaurant. Kids were not allowed to be at the casino but there were allowed to pass by, so we had an opportunity to see what it is like.
The shopping center are crazy: a little Venice is just right there with channels and gondolas. That is just fun.
And the nights! Oh, the nights. Las Vegas never sleeps. It is full of lights and noise and life. Oh, I love this city.
And of course, the hardest choice one might face in this city to chose between if Elvis or McGraw should marry one.



Palm Springs

And then again on the road again. This time to sunny Palm Springs. The mission was to relax and not to see anything. However we ended up going via some kind of desert, again, visiting Joshua tree National Park and as a bonus taking a cable car to the top of the mountain. All in one day. The cable car was the funniest experience as you get from 35 degrees to about 22 degree, and all the was 8529 foot (2,5 km). That was just great. And the view. Breathtaking.
Do you know how many wind meals Americans can have in one tiny place? The answer is... MANY, VERY MANY and densely packed.



San Diego

And then we were off to San Diego. As one can notice, we have started our blog in San Diego and now we were back here. We love San Diego and trust me, David has been dreaming about coming back to Sea World for years so here we are.

North of California

We got the car and off we go. Well, just as we picked up a car Chris needed to pick up something so he left, coming back 30 minutes later and having one of the dour handles inside of the car and not outside. So, we had to change the car first. But all in all we managed to leave SF area with a few rides over the hills.

The first stop was the north coast of California. We have visited Muir Redwoods and
Muir Redwoods had one of the greatest natures in North California. Huge and tall trees, deers just right there. Everything is wonderfully organized by Chris, who knew when he was taking us and where.

Riding the car on the coast of California is a great fun, but not for those who sit on the back of the car, as it is a very curvy road.
The next stop was Point Reyes - the windiest point in the Pacific US. And we do believe it. Oh boy, and it is cold as well. Well, that is where one should look for whales in the last of March and for harbor seals and elephant seals when we were there. Great nature and not so much visited.


And the picture of the day. David got in an accident, so thankfully it happened in America in the woods where all ordinary Americans have tissues, wipes and practically all the necessary medical supplies.

Bridge and the rest of San Francisco

Well, even that it is summer it is not that warm. Especially if one decides to sail on a mini ship to see... the bridge. The most famous Bridge. But even that we got frozen to death we have seen it, we have sailed under it, we made it.

Then there we sea lion, of course. There were just there when we have arrived at the dock. Kids couldn't believe their eyes.

And during the last days we were visiting Academy of Science hosting aquarium, natural history museum, planetarium and tropical gardens under the same roof and San Francisco zoo were on the program. Did I mention that in San Francisco if one takes a public transport one receives 2$ to 4$ off from admission. Very smart system.

As of the rest of the time... there was food of course, very lovely and very expensive food.

Action: Gay parade and preachers

When you watch American movie and the main actor needs for some reason to escape from the police there is ALWAYS a parade in the city. Well, when we arrived at Union Square there were thousands and thousands of people. San Francisco happened to host a gay parade. Very interesting experience.

At the same time we walked in to the street preaches. I don't have a problem with gay people or street preachers or for that sake any other kids of professions/believes. But... That street preacher was aggressive. He was shouting, talking about how sinful gay people are and that they all will go to hell. When, that might be true in his point of view, but... if he wants to bring the message of Bible and Christ to them, maybe, and again it is only my opinion, that is not the right way to do so. I am doubting that people will just jump right into his arms and ask to help them not to be sinners, especially in this kind of way. Oh well, it was fun to listen and see.

Above all that action, we are living in the center of San Francisco on Powell Str., right nest to Union Square. The rooms are quite small but the closer is as big as the room! So it is in a way an extension for the room at the moment.
And the picture of the day...

on the way

Well, the flight was fine. I have learned that one should not sleep in the aisles as it was a part of flight information.
8,5 hours with a wonderful David glued to the play station and annoying Masha not knowing what to do.
Anyway, we made it in time. Immigration, check out, check in took about 1 hour and so we are at the gate. What happens next is beyond our control. I look at the tickets and realize. Wait a minute, we are sitting on 4 different rows. So lucky me, not so lucky the passengers who were suppose to sit next to each of my kids. The personal of United could not do anything, so the result was that we got a room at Crown Plaza, 4x$15 food vouchers and new tickets 10 hours later. Not a bad deal judging on how jet lagged kids and we were.
We have arrived in San Francisco the next day with a wonderful 5 hours flight. The question was... where is our luggage... as the luggage flew the day before. But to our great joy all 3 bags were there, Chris was there as well. So everything and everyone were united and we went off to our adventure.

We made it

We made it to San Francisco. 12 hours later, but we made it. All are so jet-laget.

Off to USA

School is over, violin is over (just kidding, it is never over), work takes a break and we are off to America.

At the moment there are lots of clothes, wires, adapters, books, papers and hippos on the flour. Hopefully all of that is eventually going into the suitcases sometime soon. One of the positive thing is that the kids will stay away for the night, so it will be a little easier to pack.

I had to set up a limit about how many toys each kids should take (2 per person, including gameboy or any electronic device).

We are so looking forward to see "Uncle Chris" and "Uncle Herbert and Aunt Christine".
It is so fun going to TeX conference year after year because you see familiar faces and the familiar faces see you.

We will be flying directly to Chicago with SAS, changing to United going straight to San Francisco. If everything goes according to the plan, we will be on our way about 18 hours and we will setting a foot into the hotel 8 a.m. Danish time. And Chris will be meeting us at the airport, so sweet of him.

Bon voyage!

Trains, no kindergarten, concerts and America

America is settled. The plan is huge, a car is ordered, so are hotels. Places like Yosemite, Death Valley, Las Vegas, San Diego, Los Angeles, etc. are booked.

Two of my colleagues will be in the area right at the same time, so a big Nordea lunch will be arranged between Yosemite and Death Valley.

I have been asked why we are not going to see Great Canyon? Well, I am the only driver and to have 2 kids sitting at the back of the car for 6 hours every second day doesn't qualify as a super holidays. The other reason is all points up to the fact that I will be returning to Las Vegas in March 2011 for SAS Global Forum. So while discussing the possibility, we have decided to do the Great Canyon in March, much nicer weather and much less driving.

Things are going slow here at the moment. No public trains as there are major track renovations. We have buses instead. One can wait about 40 minutes for the bus once in a while. We have a schedule but that doesn't mean that buses follow the schedule. So at the moment we are taking the car to the city center in order to make it in time with school and work and violin.

Violin is going very well. Hopefully David will get an opportunity to show what had happened with his skills in SF. Yesterday he had performed at the concert with an orkestra.
http://www.youtube.com/user/davidmasha#p/a/u/0/KE_tgNMdykk

Masha didn't get a spot at the french kindergarten, so we are quite annoyed about the fact that she has to continue in the danish system. The matter of fact is that there are too many french kids this year and as NOT french nationalities we do not have a priority to get to the school, even taking in consideration that David is in the same school. So we will continue bugging the principal about the spot in the system.

Davids concert

The program:
Brahms Valts and Bach Menuet 3. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4mUvc2yI-c
http://www.youtube.com/user/davidmasha#p/a/u/1/OzsVgjZi0Rg

Santa Chris is coming to town

Yes, you have read it correctly. Chris, mr.Rowley himself decided to come for an extend visit. Apart of that we will not be able to show him the Little Mermaid (she is in China at the moment), there are many plans, going as far as visiting Kaya Christiansen in Århus. It will be very interesting and I believe crowded.

On the daily news:
MASHA.
I have completely forgot about her 2 years check up. What a mum am I! So it has to be urgently booked! She is 26 months tomorrow. The doctor is going to speak to me about her mental, physical and language development, which are all fine. But I should better do that.

DAVID.
We are officially got Aleksander Zaposlki not only as a teacher in an orkestra but as a private teacher. We are aiming to get into the competition "Spil for Livet" (Play for live) in 2013. Now it is al least 1 to 2 hours of practice a day starting from the beginning. I am so proud of "the mouse" of mine.

MORTEN.
Is still trying to decide about his future. Hopefully the decision will be wise and the place will be where people appreciate him and set a value on what he is doing.

As for me. It is going fine a work. Can't believe it has been a month already. I have even baked (yes, I have baked) a cake to work in order to commemorate a whole month.
This has been quite a cultural month as well. Theaters and exhibitions. Lots of interesting experiences.

P.S. If you are in DK. David is playing in Frederiksberg Church on March 19th, at 5 p.m.

Frankfurt and Paris

So, while people are taking winter vacations, I am in the process of planning the Easter. And as Masha nursery is closed 3 days prior to Easter, I don't have any other choice as to take vacations.
So, the idea is to jump into the car and off we go to Germany and France and Luxembourg.
As for the rest:
David has started to go to swimming twice a week, which I hope will help him to actually learn how to swim.
He is still going to both violin teacher, but now, due to the David long tongue, both of the teachers know about each other. So we have found ourselves in the middle of quite an interesting situation.
February and March are busy socially months, which is very unusual. Theaters, concerts, cinemas, museums: all that in two months.

IT problems and survival

So, I have survived the first week.

Things are moving quite quickly now. I wake up, go to work, get totally confused with so much new stuff, get a squared head (try to listen and understand English with Danish/Swedish/Norwegian/Finnish accents during the same meeting), pick up the kids, get home, do violin and homework, and off to bed. This is the schedule of mine for the past 5 days.

Systems do not work at my work, so it make me battle inside and really someone is testing my temper. So far, so good. At the end of the mouth I will be on the "wanted list" at our IT-department, as I make the largest amount of service requests. And all comes to the point, IT forgot all about me, so I got an empty computer.

On the bright side, I have a wonderful team, all are helpful, even in the critical situations (I have managed to burn my hand on the 4th day at work). Questions are welcomed (so far).

David is having 2 weeks of holidays (lucky him) and Masha is taking off with him. Too make sure that the big brother is fine.

We got a HUGE couch, it is white and has been white for the past 2 weeks. There is a plan to make a bathroom bigger, but so far it is still a plan.

What else... Oh, David got bigger violin. Which reminds me that we have found ourselves in the middle of the conflict. Our Norwegian teacher thinks that we need 1/8 violin, while our Russian teacher things we need 1/2. So David got 1/4. (Couldn't wait till America). He is very proud and happy for his violin. And so am I.

And last but not the least, I am including the diagram of the way my IT department handle there job and my way of struggling with them. ENJOY!!!

It is strange to wake up early in the morning and can see everything. Now it is kind of weird to ask for a cup of tea, using the line "Oh, but I don't have my contacts on". It doesn't work like that any more, or does it?

It comes to an end my sick-vacaton leave and I am going to the war of finance in a new bank. And I have no idea how I will make Masha to wake up. At the moment she has a luxury to sleep till 10 a.m.

I have tried to have a party and it looks like with Wii-Mario, Lego-Batman and lasagna it worked out. THere were 5 kids (excluding David and Abby) from age 1 to 6. All were playing nicely and quietly, and notice not at any time someone was taking anything from anyone. That tells me something, it tells me that my kids have way too many toys, so many that they can keep 5 other kids occupied with no problems.

And the violin news. David is now attending classes at Alexandre Zapolski, a wonderful and talanted violin teacher. From day two there was announced that violin is too small, position is wrong, Davids can't read notes and now we literally play violin 2 hours a day. We can't quite from Suzuki till May, so David attends violin from 2 to 4 times a week.

And the last thing, David is going to play on a violin concert on Sunday.

News of the week

If you want to increase your salary, change your current job. That is the major drive in the financial business. And I can actually see the idea of that. Since yesterday someone has discovered that someone is so under-paid that someone came to the obvious conclusion: things need to change.

Zurich, eyes and TUG2010

Zurich was wonderful. From the Movenpick to the penguin parade at the zoo, from the snow in the mountains to the tram rides on the streets, from the most expensive shopping to the local restaurants.
I got finally done with the second eye, so on Monday I will find out if I will be able to read between the lines or not.
And we are ready for TUG 2010. Kids are traveling for free with SAS at the moment to America, just paying the taxes, so we have bought the tickets.