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The Big Roundup..

New York

As most of you know, I (we) have been to New York for a couple of weeks to visit my sister, who graduated from Rutgers College while we were there. Actually, that was the reason we went this time, as she held a big party in the backyard.

Here is a little rundown of things we did, things we saw and places we visited while in the States:

The Late Show
The Theatre
We went to see a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman. I was prepared and brought an extra shirt, but the theatre wasn’t cold at all – for years Mr. Letterman has been telling jokes about the low temperatures inside the studio, but I guess they fixed the heating system 😉
The guests on the show were David Arquette whom I guess is only famous because he is married to Courtney Cox. Well, he is an actor, but can anyone name a good film he has starred in? I can’t. The other guest was British chef Gordon Ramsay who was there to promote his new show, which I can’t remember the name of, and it sounded like a typical reality-show: boring and mind-numbing.

New York City
The PSP in big
We (Louise and I) spent a couple of days in the city. We stayed at a nice hotel on E24th Street called “The Marcel“, although we hardly spent any time there. It was merely used as a base, while we went and spent our time shopping, going out for lunch/dinner and just walking the streets of Manhattan. The picture shows a giant PSP, which is the biggest thing in the US right now.

Family
The whole family
Obviously we spent a lot of time with the family, as we rarely get to see them. For those not in the know, the picture shows Joel, Katrine, Kirsten and Lucas in a hammock.
Next up is a silly picture of Kirsten…
Kirsten making a silly face
And here is one of Lucas looking a bit spooked…
Lucas making a silly face

The Yedids
As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I used to be an au-pair/nanny when I lived in the States, so Louise and I went out to visit my “family” in Long Island. It was quite scary, because the kids are growing pretty fast and the oldest (Alan) is looking at colleges! Anyways, it was great to see them all again, and here is a pic of some of them (Dave, Jake, Elyse and Alan):

The Yedids - well, at least 4 out of 6

Party time!
Katrine threw a big party in the backyard, and on my request there was a keg of beer 🙂 Nobody got drunk, but it was a good party, good food and lots of nice people.

In the garden, drinking beer..

Other stuff
While we were there Manchester United lost the FA Cup final on penalties to Arsenal, even though they dominated them in regular time. I have never seen an Arsenal team so anonymous, so it’s quite a shame that they got the trophy, but it just goes to show what kind of season, United have had. Malcolm Glazer has now taken full control of Man Utd, so I guess the club could be in dire straits within a few years… Join Shareholders United! NOW!

FCK also lost to Brøndby, but let’s not talk about that anymore…

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english posts nothingness

I know, I know…

I got back on thursday, and here I am on a saturday writing some lame excuse about not updating my blog. I have a lot of stuff to write about, but I’m just not in the mood right now, so be patient.. Maybe tomorrow… or monday… or tuesday…

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english posts fodbold

A Sad Day

For sale?
The end of Manchester United as we know it???

American tycoon Malcolm Glazer has purchased another 27% of the shares in Manchester United, and that makes him the owner of over 53% so far – some people say he is already on his way to 70%. If he reaches 75% he is practically in total control of the club, and if that figure rises to 90% he can take the club/company off the share market and make it a private company.

What’s the bad news I hear you say? Why isn’t this great? Didn’t Chelsea just win the league with a tycoon as the owner?
The bad news is that Malcolm Glazer doesn’t have the cash that he needs to purchase all the shares – which, by the way, are valued at around £780 million. He has had to borrow a lot of that money, and the way he intends to make the money needed to pay his creditors is what worries everyone who loves United. He will most likely increase the prices for merchandise, match tickets and everything else related to the club. He could also sell the stadium and lease it back – this is what we danes call the “pissing in your pants effect”: at first it’s warm, but it will quickly get cold! If Manchester United fail to qualify for the Champions League, the income for the club will fall drastically and Glazer will have to find that money somewhere else: selling the best players!

Leeds United were in the Champions League semi final 4 years ago – now they are in the second division, because they had a tycoon as the owner, and when results started going downhill, so did the finances. This must NOT happen to Manchester United!

Oh, and if you are a fan of some other English team and you are happy about this, think about one thing: Glazer is not likely to agree on a tv-deal with the other teams, which means that he wants to own the rights to all Uniteds games, and this leaves the smaller clubs with less tv-money, as it won’t be a collective deal = Bad news for English football.

Today was supposed to be a happy day – instead this could turn out to be the second worst day in the history of Manchester United

Related links:

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Start spreading the news

taxis
I’m leaving tomorrow

Tomorrow I am going to New York to visit my sister, her husband and their two kids. I haven’t been to the States for a couple of years, so it will be great to go back. For those who don’t know, I lived in New York for a year back in 1996, where I worked as an au-pair – au-pair is just a fancy word for a nanny, isn’t it?

I am going with Louise, and a few days later my mother and her boyfriend are joining us as we are all going to celebrate that my sister is graduating college. I’ve asked her like a million times what she has been studying, but I keep forgetting the exact word, although I know it has something to do with social studies..? One thing I am sure of, is that she has had to endure some math tests along the way, and she hates math. With a vengeance. She passed though, so now it’s actually only the graduation party that is left 🙂

Our program is pretty tight, but among other things we will attend a taping of the David Letterman Show, which I think will be really cool (no pun intended – rumour has it that the theatre, where the taping takes place is freezing).

Louise and I will also spend a couple of days in a hotel in the city, where I predict there will be some pretty heavy power-shopping going on. I know I will be doing the usual rounds looking for rare sneakers and records.
We will also visit the family that I used to work for, and that will be a fun experience – it’s been 3 or 4 years since I last saw them, and the kids have changed a lot. They are four boys, and when I left in 96 they were 2, 4, 6 and 8 years old – imagine how much has gone on in their lives since then!

Other than that, we will spend a lot of time with Kirsten and Lucas, chill out in the house and just enjoy being away from home for some time.

I will try to keep the blog updated, but please be patient 🙂

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english posts nothingness

Television: The drug of the nation pt.2

More than a year ago, I described on my blog how television was addictive and how it had affected me. Well, a few days after that admission, my tv was sold and out the door. Instead I took my computer lcd-monitor and installed as a tv, which made the livingroom into a livingroom again, and gone was the days of the tv dominating the room – All of a sudden we had a livingroom where you noticed other things than the giant grey box in the corner.

Now, I need a new tv though. The lcd-monitor has done a great job although it is only 19″, but it makes a wierd noise when it’s turned on, and now that noise has driven me crazy (remember: I hate noise). At first I was certain I was getting a Sony – they always make nice designs, and I own so many other things Sony, that I quite trust the quality of their products. Unfortunately for Sony, they will not be getting my money this time, as they only have pc-inputs on the lcd-tv’s that are 32″ or bigger. And just because I am getting a tv again, doesn’t mean I want to give up my livingroom, so the maximum size of the new tv is set at 23″.

So now I have been studying the market and I have a shortlist of three tv’s:

  1. Samsung LE23R51B
  2. JVC LT-23c50B
  3. Sharp LC-22 AD1

All that is missing is the final decision on which one to pick? Any recommendations? I really want to go to a store and see the tv “in person” – although I will probably end up buying it online – I just haven’t been able to find any of the three in any store in the Central Copenhagen area!

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english posts medier

Forstad

Forstad
An experience with “high culture”
Anybody who knows me will surely tell you, that I am not into “high culture”. Actually, I will tell anyone willing to listen just how much musicals suck. How much you ask? Big time! Anyways, I haven’t been to a play for I don’t know how many years, it was probably while I was in school and got forced into going, that I last attended an actual play of some sorts.

Yesterday I went to see a play. And I didn’t get forced into doing it. No, I actually did it voluntarily – I even ordered the tickets myself! So why this change? I don’t know, really. Anyways, Louise and I went to Mungo Park and saw “Forstad“, which is a play about three teenagers struggling with life in a small suburb. One of the actors was Jonatan Spang, whom I have only known as a stand-up comedian, but I was quite impressed with his acting skills.

When you haven’t been to a play for years, how do you choose which one to go to? What I did was the following: read a mention of the play in a blog, read about the play on the theatre’s website, order tickets. It’s that simple.

All said and done, I really enjoyed the experience, especially because the whole atmosphere about the theatre-experience was so relaxed, and the feeling of “high culture” was totally absent. I’m going again sometime soon 🙂

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Back from Manchester


Lunch
Uploaded by kimblim.

Ok, arrived back from Manchester late Monday night, but I haven’t had the time to blog until now.

The weekend was fantastic! Arrived at my uncle and aunt’s house Friday night, had something to eat and went straight into “hygge”-mode. If you don’t know what “hygge” means, don’t bother looking it up, no translation does the word justice! It basically means relaxing, eating, drinking, chatting and hanging out – and that’s only half of it, but I can’t find the right words to describe it.

On Saturday we started off with a long walk, ended up in the pub for lunch (fish and chips, what else?), went back home to relax before going out to dinner. Around 7 we took the train to Central Manchester, went for dinner at Stock, which is a restaurant based in the old Manchester Stock Exchange. The food was brilliant and from what I was told (I didn’t have any) the wine equally so.

On Sunday we enjoyed lunch in the garden, played garden bowls(?) and Louise and I went to Old Trafford to see Man Utd take on Newcastle. It was a close game, but Man Utd eventually ended up winning 2-1 – Wayne Rooney scored an absolute screamer, probably a candidate for goal of the year. On Sunday night we had a fabolous home-cooked dinner and ended up doing more “hygge”.

Monday was spent shopping and browsing in Manchester before going to the airport.

We will be back soon!

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Off to Manchester

I will be leaving for Manchester tomorrow afternoon. I haven’t been there for 2½years, which is quite a long time, considering I have family there.

Hopefully my uncle will have gotten us tickets for the match against Newcastle on Sunday, which will be quite entertaining – on my last visit to Manchester we saw a Premier League match against Newcastle, and United ended up winning that 5-3! Not that I have any hopes of a repeat, because the way they are performing at the moment doesn’t exactly give me high expectations.

I don’t know what it is about Manchester that I like so much. The city centre is relatively small, but the atmosphere is great, and I would choose Manchester over London any day! My family (uncle + aunt) lives right outside Stockport, which is located outside Manchester, and the place has a nice country-side-feeling to it. It will be three days of pure relaxation, great food, lots of drinks and good old fashioned “hygge”.

Will be back Monday…

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Rio deserves more?

Rio Ferdinand
Zahavi: Rio deserves more

Rio Ferdinands agent, Pini Zahavi, believes that Rio wants to stay at Manchester United, but that United must make him the highest paid defender in the world, or else Rio will leave United when his current contract expires in two years… This astonishing statement comes a few days after it was revealed that Zahavi AND Rio met Chelsea’s Chief Executive, Peter Kenyon in a posh London restaurant.

First of all: Does Peter Kenyon – who used to hold the same position at United as he does at Chelsea now – think he is above the law? He and Chelsea are already being investigated by the FA about one “tapping-up” scandal, and now he goes and meets with Rio? I guess all that Russian oil/gangster money has gone to his head.

Secondly: Is Zahavi on drugs? How dare he make threats about Rio leaving United! United had Rio’s back when he missed his drugs test, and they paid him for the whole period that Rio was suspended – and it’s not like he was out for a couple of weeks either! He was suspended for 9-10 months, and he probably makes about £75k a week. Yes, that’s right: £75k a week!

Agents really piss me off sometimes! They can not only ruin the romance of football, but sometimes they manage to wreck players careers too, because they get too greedy on a players behalf – or should we say their own behalf? There is a reason agents are called “Mr. Ten Percent”… Rio deserves more? No, Man Utd and all of the fans deserve more, Mr. Zahavi!

Bonus info: My favorite player, Paul Scholes, doesn’t have an agent. He doesn’t need one, he says: He can sign a contract on his own.

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english posts tech

Hardware


I have a server in my home-office. The server is noisy. I hate noise. I also have two external harddrives connected to the server. The harddrives are noisy. I hate noise. Now I am on a mission to make the server as silent as possible, and that means I will probably have to replace all the fans and possibly the entire cabinet. My external harddrives are a bigger problem – I could sell them and buy others, but it’s just too big a hassle right now.. plus it’s going to be expensive!

Call me lazy – I know I would: For the past year I have had a Shuttle pc in my livingroom, that was supposed to be a mediacenter that could stream all of my music from the server (remember, the noisy one!), stream movies, play/record dvd’s, show my digital pictures, be a harddrive recorder and all that fancy stuff that people in the US uses TiVo for. Why am I lazy? Well, I haven’t even installed the machine yet, and now the hardware is a bit out of date.. I might have to update the tv/graphics card, and I haven’t even used the old one yet!