Chicken & waffles

While strolling through Harlem on the weekend, I decided to stop at a small take-away/diner for some lunch. I was hungry. But couldn’t decide what I felt like, so decided to pick something random. The place I walked into offered Chicken, fish and waffles. I figured it would be a standard take-away joint that also sold desserts, perfect. Much to my surprise though, there were no desserts, waffles formed part of the main dish! Although I got myself a standard chicken and chips (though I did try the ‘jerked’ chicken, having no idea what it meant – and I’m still not quite sure what it means), the guy at the counter next to me had what seemed to be the standard dish there: deep fried chicken together with large thick waffles. The waffles then got saturated with butter and maple syrup and formed part of the main meal eaten with the chicken! Wow! Not even I could stomach that!

On the subject of weird things in New York, I still can’t get over the role of doormen here. While I think I have been convinced somewhat of their usefulness (added security, someone to sign for parcels when you’re not in, etc), I’m really not sure I get the utility (efficiency?) of the doormen in the building I’m staying. Mainly because more often than not there are 2 on duty. In the evenings, one of them seems to be permanently assigned to operate the elevator as if the people who live here are incapable of pressing numbered buttons themselves! And this is a relatively small apartment building – 25 floors or so and about 5 apartments per floor. Talk about a waste of money!

MoMA

I went to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) – modern art is definitely the more interesting form of art for me. Partly because I do actually like some of it and find it quite impressive, but partly also because I find it interesting how crap some things can be that people pay lots of money for. Whilst the MoMA doesn’t have a urinal as an art installation like the Tate Modern in London, it didn’t disappoint and I managed to spend almost 3 hours there. In short, whilst I really like some of the Matise, Chagall and Dali, there is some utter rubbish there, namely most of Jackson Pollock’s work (there was one painting there that I thought was OK) and quite a lot of the Van Gogh. All in all, interesting to see some of the famous works, even if some of it is rubbish. What I did enjoy were some of the art installations rather than paintings – there were some cool works which were artistic, colourful and quite obviously required lots of talent in their creation. All in all, a worthwhile outing.

It's going to be a white Channukah

View of the courtyard from my kitchen window

Although the skies started looking rather ominous, I didn’t really believe the girl in the canteen when she said it was going to snow later. I did expect snow later in the week after seeing the Friday forecast as having a minimum of -7’C and a maximum of -5’C. But sure enough, that evening, snow flurries started falling. And sure enough, when I woke up this morning the city was covered in a light blanket of white powder – at least that’s how it looked. I quickly discovered after walking to the shops and back that the powder was rather icy and it probably wouldn’t be too long before I slipped and fell on my ass (or worse still, on an outstretched arm!). However, it was still very pretty seeing all the cars, trees, rooftops and parks covered in white.

I'm not naked, yet I'm the odd one out!

In my short time in Denmark I had heard from a few people stories about the Danes' openness when it comes to nudity, but it wasn't until recently that it hit me in the face.

After discovering a public swimming pool around the corner from my apartment, and realising it would be a long time before I would be able to swim outdoors, I figured it was better than nothing (plus it might be good physical therapy for my hand). So off I went. However, I wasn't quite prepared when I walked into the men's change room. The way the Danes behave made me realise how prudish we (Australians and other similar countries) are. It's not like a change room I'm used to where people just get changed - everyone (and I mean everyone) walks around totally stark naked! The showers are all open (think of a scene from a prison movie) and people don't think twice about walking around totally nude. You are encouraged to have a proper shower before you put your swimmers on, and then people do the same after going for a swim.

So boy do I feel the odd one out walking around with swimmers on...


On a side note...
An interesting channel on TV here, channel 11 on my TV is some kind of kid's channel, but they have a novel idea: when kids are supposed to be sleeping, they simply show someone sleeping on TV. Yup, hours and hours of watching someone toss and turn, snore a bit, etc.

Being a tourist in Copenhagen

Frederiksborg Slot - the royal castle at Hillerod

In my attempt to partly treat my trip as a holiday I am making sure that I spend some of my time on weekends being a tourist. Most of my 'touring' so far has been in Copenhagen, but I did make use of the "free S-trains on the first Sunday of every month" to go check out a beautiful castle at Hillerod, North-West of Copenhagen.

Unfortunately, many of the sights I want to get photos of I haven't been able to due to the continuously crappy weather here. So eventually I'll get some photos up of Copenhagen more generally - the lakes (or moats essentially) that surround the inner city, the housing, the wind turbines all over the ocean, etc. Most of the time is has been totally overcast and much of the time there is a constant drizzle. Very rarely is there heavy rain. But I at least now understand how some people in this world don't understand the concept of a drought!

Stupid Bed Sizes!

When I moved into my apartment here I found I had what I thought to be a 'standard Danish king size bed' - AKA, 2 single beds pushed together to form a large bed. In standard Danish fashion, there were also 2 "top mattresses" (kind of like mattress protectors in the rest of the world), and then single size doonas too (which seem to be all the rage in northern Europe). I had a large bottom sheet though.

Unfortunately, when you have the above combination on timber floors, with bed legs made out of wood, not only is it bloody uncomfortable lying across 2 single beds, but it doesn't take long for the beds to slowly push apart in the night while you're in the middle.

A Handy Update

I've had enough of this broken hand saga. There is no novelty in it, no fun at all. As of today I have started serious physiotherapy, aka torture. It turns out that most of the pains I am experiencing are as a result of not moving the joints for so long, rather than the fracture (general pain versus sharp pain at the scaphoid) and therefore I need to push things to the limit. Well, it's bloody tiring!

Using my arm muscles I can bend my wrist forward around 30', and backwards around 40'. Add a few degrees if I push using the other hand. It's very frustrating when your body doesn't do the simple movements it has known its whole life and you experience pain when you try to do such basic things. On the other hand, when I look at my left hand it still looks rather awkward (I try to capture it in a photo but it just doesn't come out). Unlike my right hand which is effectively 'flat' on the top-side between the wrist and my knuckles, my left hand is concave. The effect of this is when I do bend the wrist, the curve is entirely at the wrist and then flat between the wrist and the knuckles (as opposed to the right hand where the curve stretches a lot further towards the knuckles). It looks rather weird actually and makes me wonder whether my hand will ever return to normal. The physio assures me though that normal rehab time is 6-8 weeks. Can't wait.

On an unrelated note, winter is finally kicking in here. With temperatures around freezing point and some crazy strong winds, it's time to start wearing my beannie on my walk to work! Also, I have done a bit of touring in Copenhagen and surrounds and will put some photos up soon...

Ah - a quality medical system

Fine, although I haven't quite yet been indoctrinated into the Danish public health system (I am currently awaiting my CPR number - which serves as a national ID number which just about everything in this country relies upon), I have seen the edges of it and I've had a taste of the private health system here. And boy is it good! There is definitely something to be said for good ol' socialist ideals!

2 shopping mistakes in as few weeks...

Although everyone here speaks English, nearly all signage is 100% in Danish. Supermarkets are no exception.

My first mistake was the first time I went to the supermarket. Looking for milk I purchased kærnemælk. Since all the cartons had the word mælk on them, I just had to decide which prefix I wanted. Since there was a high proportion of kærnemælk cartons and they also came in various percentages (fat content I assumed) I went home with one of them.

I discovered when pouring it on my cereal the next morning that it was indeed buttermilk. Argh!

Today I made yet another mistake. What I thought was fabric softener (pink, creamy looking, big bottle, smelling like fabric softener) ended up just being washing detergent. So now my clothes have all been washed twice, smell very strongly like flowers, and feel a little soapy!