The Silent Watchers of the North Sea and the Singing Swans

They watched the sea, waiting for any sign of their men returning...

It is a wild and windy coast, a place where fishing boats left from, and some never returned. It is  a place of deep antiquity , layered with the centuries of human and geological history. Amber is tossed upon  the beach , a relic of storms passing...
It is  a place of war, where the German battlements now lie conquered, in the sands of the sea, as it claims its victims and buries them with no fanfare.
It is a place where in 1000BC, farmers created an agricultural beginning.....

and the women of stone stand

as a memory  and a reminder of human loss




and we drove away
to the inland
where swans  had gathered to feed,

the singing swans of Denmark in the fading daylight



it is a beautiful place.


The coffee and the bread made from special wheat by a boutique baker

then home

A Tale of Two Women- Florence Manages the Impossible

Strange indeed! The reality of my Danish Xmas is such that it was an impossibility !

Many years ago, in Far north Queensland two young women met. A friendship was made. We had our babies and spent may hours together but life changed.
After some years, one returned to Denmark  with her son and the other remained in FNQ.
Life changed again and one moved to different parts of Queensland.
She did not now where the Danish woman was by now as her contact details were always different.

Sadly, there was a return to Tasmania- a place she had declared was forever off limits.
But
a Viking took her across the seas to Sweden
and together they searched for any sign of the Danish woman.
This happened several times  but it was not possible to know where to look so that came to nothing.

In the tired town of Devonport, her son turned up one day declaring there was a Danish boy in his Japaneses class, and his name was Lex.
She sent him to ask if he had a mother called Birgitte..

he did

my dearest friend and I had found each other  after all those years and all those kilometers...
She was still in Denmark
He was learning Japanese at Don, with my son.

She came out to Australia for a holiday

we have never lost contact again
and I am here in Denmark with the  people who are my family.
And we Skyped my offspring so they could join us on Xmas day...

Funny isnt it! Whoever knows what can happen in this game....

Florence and the Xmas Tree

Flying in over Denmark to Aalborg was a wonderufl experience. Coming from the overheated, dusty Kuwait city to a very wet, grassed and treed country was so good. It had been ages since I had flown in  here and coming over, seeing the Danish houses( which are terribly Danish) and the open flat countryside was a reminder of other times in Denmark.

It is cold
and wet
and so good to see rain and water.
There is no dust!

Yesterday afternoon I spent my first time in a church since those days when it was a required action on Christmas morning. NOt only did I spend the time in a church but listened to a whole service in Danish, had no clue hat was going on but fnally had the opportunity to sing Hark the Herald Angels sing - my version in English and everyone elses in Danish!
There we were in an ancient , thick walled church- carved figures surrounded the pulpit , candles burned in the windows and there were echoes of much older times. l love the churches here, with their intense history and stories... more later.
And our Christmas was celebrated on Christmas Eve- fabulous food- roasted duck and pork, potatoes and the rice pudding with the hidden almond( which I did not get)... and the gift giving was fun.. and sincere.

and now it is Xmas day in the rest of the world.

The Exfoliation of Florence..... in a steamy room

There goes my first 4 months in Kuwait! What a place this is and how I am loving it!
First day of holidays..
off to Al Corniche
gym

and the Royal Hammam.
For those of you who have never had one ,  it is something to be experienced!
it is a Turkish bath, in your own room, on a marble table... steaming and hot.

It is another person soaping you down

and exfoliating those years of dead skin..

Poor woman- I think she was horrified that I had never done anything like this.. and I smiled as I sweated and lolled on my marble table... losing kilos of skin...

and washed

again

and the scrub...
and washed again

and the body mask

and washed again

and the hair
washed

all the time, steaming... divine experience!

On completion , it was time for a Swedish relaxation massage
in another room
of quiet

Phew
So here I am, packed, relaxed, hydrated

and about to head off for a sleep as I will be being picked up for the airport at 12.30a.m
flying to Schipol. So many of the other teachers have already gone.... a mass exodus for exotic locations - Athens, Cambodia, Amsterdam, London, Canada........Thailand....Kuwiat is an awesome place to be

then Aalborg...

and Xmas with Birgitte!! and Lex and Andy and Dorit!!!

More later...

and washed

Fragrant Florence and the Scent of Man

The trying of the scent

Yum! What an afternoon! Enticed by the constant assailing of the olfactory sense- the sweet seductive inducement of trailing desire into the senses of every other human has proved too much for my companion!

Musk and oud and other unpronounceables... mmmmmm

Thus we ventured into the perfume house.... and proceeded to try to figure out one odour from another! The fragrant scents were broken by coffee powder.... but it is confusing.There is aways the smell  of delicious incense... and I have yet to be slammed by an unwashed body odour.......
these perfume houses are throughout the Souk and there one can find incense too but today it was seeking scent for my friend....
so many different smells
so delicious

For the guy who wants everything

Possibilities.... and the incense in the jars

Faded Florence faces year's end with glee!

Ah well! A night out at the local! 

It has been a big week and am sure that the powers that be have slipped in a couple of extra days! A badly needed  relax and debrief on a Thursday night was on the cards!

OK... soup? best served in a large loaf of bread- delicious!

 Camel's milk was next... beautifully served to a thirsty audience!

 Then the chicken and the mutton!

 And finally , the cardamom based chai to finish...

Was I feeling better? Yes I was!
Being here in Kuwait and teaching is the same as being anywhere- the end of the year comes and we are hanging out for it- kids are hanging out BUT, this is just a break for us and with only two weeks off, it is a mere drop in the ocean of time! That will move us into next year and the six months before summer holidays! I can already taste the beaches of Portugal! Great plans for that lot!

This time next week I will soon be in Thisted!
Until then, I have shopping to do, exams to complete and things to do!

Freezing Florence and thermal long johns

Sadly Florence has no thermal long johns and is currently forced to grit her teeth and bear the cold.
I can see you all smiling...
Cold? They live in the hot part  of the world where it gets up to 60 deg C... sure it does- in summer!

It is now almost winter and these mornings of early rising and enthusiastic off to work smiles are fading fast - only once this week have I smiled!
It is cold! Kuwait has suddenly become almost Antarctic in its weather and all my real winter clothes are back in Tasmania. I have two jumpers and that is it. I do have my beautiful new coat but it is currently being cleaned and I do not think it is suitable for an ACA day!

Counting the days for our winter break when I will get myself some  warm  clothes and not things designed to flirtatiously cover  other things unfit to behold. The nights get dark quickly and the cold is here....

Short, sweet and written with cold fingers.....

Florence feels the pain .......work, temperature and sand!

Looking out my window in the early morning showed a hazy vista! Looks like the sand is back ! My housework is about swiping dust off things.... constantly... please do not get me wrong.... I am freed from housework ... or constant housework cos , well, I just dont have to do it!

The street taxis... just hail and they come

So when I went off to gym this morning it was cold, not Tassie cold but comparitively cold. Looking out across the water, towards the city this morning was really hazy as the cold wind blew across the place.....fortuitously I was condemned to marking 120 science inquiries this weekend so being inside is no issue.

Feels strange though as this is my first  full weekend working solid for a while- no Paris this weekend!

We had a great week- a four day weekend then the day after we came back, all the schools in Hawally were closed due to the GCC meeting-  a meeting designed to finding a road towards peace between Saudi, UAE and Qatar with Kuwait as the broker. You probably do not understand the situation here but Kuwait's position s such that its role as broker is  major  as it is between everything.
Unfortunatley Saudi and UAE rejected the hand, displaying a disrespect to this place and to Qatar. The issues here are highly complex and cannot be solved easily...
So  we went back to work for two days then had a weekend!

Hanging out for the holidays... has been a huge leap of faith and a huge change of life style..... some days it feels like i am back in boarding school!!!!
And tonight is cold!

In front of the gym.... waiting for my taxi

Flying Doctors and Florence of Clignancourt.

Girls' Night Out

It is a hoot- famous words of dear friend! Have not done hooting for some time and it would seem that this was an appropriate opportunity.
A four day weekend just happened along. Unlike Australia where all is planned out years ahead, sometimes we just seem to go with the flow and what sounds like a good idea can become a reality!

A word from Paris- the only window of travel time was this weekend and then the opportunity would have moved to other places.

Why not? Usually Paris is a huge haul with exhaustion as an outcome. Kuwait to Paris? about nine hours with wait times et al. The worst part is leaving Kuwait on the Prophet's birthday weekend! Even at 1 a.m it was packed with everyone headed out- tempers fraying and frustrations bursting.
After lining up for over an hour, movement happened- the letting out is easy enough.
So, Kuwait to Doha.. easy
Doha to Paris - I travelled on one of those spectacularly huge planes where passengers can actually stretch out their legs and there is a gap between the body and the seat in front- very nice but I did still have this urge to run into business class where I was a named entity.
Had organised for my driver in Paris as I had no time for mucking around...
Terminal one at CDG is a huge series of these glass tunnels crossing levels so it is possibel to view the accompanying thousand as they head up and down and across the circled structure.

The countryside was wintry- naked trees and grey skies. My driver was friendly. I was tired.
Porte du Clingnancourt- my destination sits about ten minutes walk from Sacre Couer and Montmartre- a beautiful spot?
Entering the neighbourhood was odd as the streets were tiny and untidy and seemd to be forbidding but the odd part was arriving at the place and had no wifi and my phone did nothing. Knowing I cou ld only let my friends know I had arrived if I could text them left me with a dilemma.  .What was going to happen to me? I would dumped on this  neighbourhood where it was about 3 deg- no shelter, and so on! But, I had a wonderful driver! Together we got the wifi happening and down she came! Rescued!
What  a great weekend! Paris Metro to the Musee D'Orsay to see the Degas paintings. Interesting ties on the metro as we came home. It wasnt late- about 8 and the train stopped at the station before ours; two people hastily left.... not together but not apart. The trainw was stills topped then it atarted and moved us to the next station. We got off and a tall man holding a dog,  straining on its leash stood just to the side fo the exit door... as we walked past, he said something and the dog pulled him into the train, barking and growling as he was on the track of something... we quickly exited. Exciting times! Drugs? Crims of some sort? Who knows but Paris is a very big place with so many ways of living in the world... but it snowed! Large fat flakes floating to the ground- what better way to view Paris under street light....

Next day was the day for the LouisVitton Foundation ( I am an ignorant clod as I thought we were going bag shopping) . Off we went to MoMA- for those in a similar mental place to me will b epleased to learn that that is the Museum of Modern Art-  a fabulous strucure inhabited by weird objects where some assault the senses and others just leave one wondering about the artistic value of soup cans. One that I considered to be a bit of a dog's breakfast was a Jackson Pollock- so much for my artistic knowledge.
Then to the city so we could watch the lights along the Champs Elysees, do a spot of shopping and eat. Even at this time there are so many people in Paris,all wanting to feel the city. I will confess that there is a large group of  travellers who prefer the  selfie sticks and posing V fingers to the profound beauty of Paris.

It was to be an early leaving as they were to be out and off to UK and it was icy cold. I left Paris on that cold, frosty morning and I do not know when I will return.

Lady and Peacock

Bois de Boulogne