Beautiful Day in the Snow

Friday, Dec. 30, Copenhagen

Grethe was off work today. The sun was out, and everything was beautiful with about 30-40 cm (12-16 inches) of snow everywhere. We stayed inside during the morning and watched the film Frida which we had recorded. Then we left at 11:30 for the rest of the day.

We went first to Nørrebrogade, a street where many immigrants live and work. We went to my favorite shawarma place and each ate TWO sandwiches (pita stuffed with shaved meat, lettuce, tomatoes, and sauce). I put lots of hot pepper sauce on mine! UMMMM!

We proceeded downtown from there and went to the bookshop to use my gift certificate Grethe had given me for Christmas. I got two books I had considered buying in India--Salman Rushdie's first novel that made him famous, Midnight Children, and the current Indian best seller throughout the world, Shantaram by Gregory David Robetts, his life story about being a criminal and drug addict in Australia, escaping from jail, fleeing to India, becoming a Bollywood actor, leaving to fight in Afghanistan, etc. Here are links to both books:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140132708/qid=1136028366/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-5166609-4721752?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312330537/ref=pd_bbs_null_2/102-5166609-4721752?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Grethe wanted to go to Tivoli. It was the last day of the Christmas season there, so we spent about 1 1/2 hours wandering through the park. I took some good snow pictures. Grethe looked for sales and was disappointed to find there weren't any that were worthwhile. We got good close-up views, however, of the animated Christmas scenes and enjoyed the winter landscape.

http://www.tivoli.dk/composite-2450.htm

From there, we went to a next-door cinema to see Brokeback Mountain. It's very popular here. The former TV film critic (retired now) for Danmark Radio TV was in the audience with us. It was nice to see the film outside the U.S. I'm sure there were gasps in the audience in the U.S. when the guys had their kissing and their sex scenes. Here, it is considered a natural part of life.

http://www.brokebackmountainmovie.com/splash.html

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/brokeback_mountain/

I had a surprise at 6:20. Grethe and I were at Føtex to find some flowers to take to Jens' and Robert's when I heard someone say, "Randy?" I knew it was likely to happen, since I know so many people here. It was Stig from WHO and his partner Harry. How nice it was to be recognized and to see them briefly. I told Stig I hope to go by WHO on Tuesday of next week.

We had dinner with Jens, Robert, and thier friend Claus. It's so nice to be in their new, roomy apartment with them. We were so comfortable. And with its dishwasher, Robert no longer gets upset about being the one responsible for cleaning up. We had drinks with rice chips. T hen Jens brought out a beautiful 4 kg (9 lb) roast turkey. It was served with his fantastic potato salad (sliced boiled potatoes, sliced cherry tomatoes, chopped chives, vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper) and a bread dressing he made. We all stuffed outselves and drank a nice Italian wine. Later, we had sacher torte with coffee and drambuie. Grethe and I stayed until 11:45, the latest I have been out in ages, before leaving to walk with Claus to the stop where he caught the metro and we got a bus. It was a great day and evening.