New Espresso Machine

I know this is not Coffeegeek.com – but I just have to tell about my new espresso machine. An ECM Technica III….a mean coffee maker with a 2,1 liter boiler. You wouldn’t believe the steam power of this baby. Even after 1½ month of training my shot performance is not near were it was with the Valentina – but my milk, wauv I’m making microfoam as smooth as silk on command now.

Lisbeth turns 60 years

Surprise Lisbeth is actually 60 years old. She had planned for a birthday party with friends and family. The short version was that the day turn out really good – a beautiful sunny day (it was raining the whole week….but stopped for that one day) and everybody enjoyed the party.

Summer Holiday '07

As we were expecting that this would be our last summer in copenhagen and the kids went to Mallorca with Birgitte – we decided to stay home for the first week of the holiday. The week was just totally relaxing for all of us doing only stuff like going to the beach for a swim every morning, cooking together, taking walks at the beach and so on. Marie and Annemette did a bit of running – and I tried to teach Frederik to swim – but we didn’t succeed completely. Marie and Frederik wanted to go for the usual campling trip with my tiny mountain tent – but unfortunately it was pouring down most of the week.The next week we spent in Hjerting in Hans and Lisbeths house – nice to go somewhere with a garden. The first night me and the kids slept in a tent in the garden – and there was the most awful thunder storm. We sticked to it and stayed after a bit of crying – good job kids! We had a nice week – and the kids had a chance to spend a day with Hans and Lisbeth at Fiskeri Museet. And that’s it for the first to weeks – the third week was spent in Løgstør at my parents summerhouse.

Annemette's MBA

Annemette expected that she would be able to catch up with her MBA class – completing two semester assignments and a master thesis in 4 month – and at the same time be a good mother to Kirstine during her first months. Guess what – Annemette has been a great mom – but not too much work was done on the MBA assignments during the spring. So Annemette had to go the business school in late may for the graduation of class of ’05 as a guest. The graduation gave somewhat a boost of motivation and in may/june the two semester assignments were turned in after a joint family effort. The results came in early September – a 9 and a 10 (on the old scale) which was ok. Now Annemette just need to put in 400-500 hours of work into the master thesis – and the MBA graduation is a reality.

Maries Birthday

Marie turned 8 this years – we had a birthday party in Copenhagen with the whole family. On her birthday I went to Ålborg and went to school with her. After school all the girls came home with Marie and we had a great birthday party – with a fantastic treasure hunt that Frederik and I had planned.

Harvard Business School, Again!

Nothing beats the first time – but the program was great. This time it was a course on financial evaluation of business opportunities. I was in good physical shape and the weather was great – so I had some really great 5K and 8K runs along the Charles River.

Diving Adventure

Besides family-life there has been time for me to have the adventure of my life. One week of diving in the southern part of the Red Sea. I went together with Morten on this live-aboard in early june. I had 20 dives in 5 days. And what dives – wall dives, cave dives, deep dives, night dives the most beautiful diving you can imagine. I was completely ZEN for one week. Nothing else than Diving and sleeping. But still there were plenty of action we had encounters with sharks, manta-rays, murrays, sea turtles, barracudas, squids…..and we had the most fantastic experience snorkeling with a big group of dolphins (75-100) for almost an hour…vauw! The whole group was great – so thank you to Morten S., Liv, Jørn, Betinna, Cathrine, Pia, Mike, Tina, Børge and especially Morten Løgager. WHAT A TRIP!!!

Kirstines baptism

As we do not have a close relation to any church in Copenhagen – we chose to have Kirstine Baptist in ‘Hjerting Kirke’. On our preferred date the service was full with 4 baptism – but Annemette somehow pursued the Preacher to setup a ceremony only for Kirstine. We had a beautiful day with a starting in the extremely beautiful church then having brunch at Hjerting Strand Hotel – and ending with coffee at Annemettes parents (Hans and Lisbeth) house. And as you probably noticed by now we gave our daughter the name of my grandmother – Kirstine. Just a perfect day….

Kirstine

Kirstine Has turned out to be the greatest little girl. In the first 4 weeks there was quite a bit of crying all day and all night. After that short period the crying completely stopped and she’s just a happy little toddler – smiling and babbling.Both Marie and Frederik have been so excited about their new little sister. Really giving her a lot of love and care – especially Frederik really has turned into a big-brother, taking care of Kirstine and helping her with stuff.

My beatiful daughter

To ’all’ you loyal readers of my blog – here comes the greatest news of 2006. On the 29th of November Annemette gave birth to a beautiful little girl – 3800g/52cm. She was delivered by caesarean-section which was kind of odd to begin with. To have the exact date and time for the birth just seems a little strange – actually I put in my outlook calendar. But over time we got used to it – and by the 29th we were REALLY excited. We came to the hospital about 11 o’clock and shortly after we changed to the OR clothes. About 12.30 we went to the OR – and Annemette was ‘Lokal bedøvet’ – so she was awake during it all. Before the surgeons started a green curtain was put up at Annemettes chest, so she wouldn’t be able to see the cutting. It was quite surreal - at one end Annemette was chatting with one of the nurses, sometimes laughing. And at the other end 2 doctors and a couple of assistants were cutting and pulling muscles aside. Well to make a long story no longer – suddenly that little perfect girl came out. The nurse dried her and put her under my t-shirt. Its important (so they told me) that the baby is kept warm and feels skin contact immediately. And as Annemette needed another hour to be patched up – this was the way to do this. In support of Lars Løkke Rasmussen I must say that everything went perfectly at the hospital – the staff really did a good job
Today Kirstine – that’s her name – is 2 weeks old. Annemette and Kirstine came back from the hospital 2 days after the birth. The same day Marie and Frederik came – we thought that it was important to involve them as early as possible. Having a baby-sister is a big thing, especially for Frederik who became a big brother for the first time. Actually Marie and Frederik flew alone from Aalborg to Copenhagen for the first time – and it went very well.
I had the week off from work and we had a lot of visits, calls and presents from family and friends. Thanks for everything! I will though highlight a beautiful little dress we got from Ivan and Ulla (legendary characters on the blog)– I will consider letting Ivan taste my best single malt…a 21 yrs Brora….hmm!
Well the first couple of weeks have been great – of course she has been crying a little or actually a lot – but from what I’ve heard that’s normal for a new mother. Right now she is sleeping – she just the most beautiful sweetest little girl. I feel very thankful!

Different stuff...

We had a great vacation with the kids in October. We stayed in Copenhagen and enjoyed the new apartment. Marie and Frederik just loves their new rooms. We did some different activities e.g. Ghosttour in Copenhagen (that's a walk in the old part of town – with a story-telling guide), went to the Theater to see ‘Ronja Røverdatter’ and we went to ‘Glyptoteket’ with sketching paper and drew some of the statues. Well the main focus was to just enjoying being together.

‘Lille pjevsen’ is not sitting in the right position – so tomorrow we’re going to ‘Rigshospitalet’ where the doctors will try to turn him. We hope everything will be ok after that – so it can be a natural birth. Should it be a section we're ok with that as well. At this point we're just looking forward to having the birth well over – and meeting our little beaty. We have been looking at names – but that a secret so far. Well we're down to approx. 20 boys and girls names – so we're not quite there yet.

MBA TMO Alumni Seminar #2

On the 10th and 11th of November we held the 2nd annual MBA TMO1 Alumni seminar. This year the theme was ‘New Organization forms’. We had guest speakers from DR and Devoteam talking about loose coupled organizations. Then we had some from the team talking about Blue Ocean Strategy and Scrum development model,
It was so great seeing the guys from the MBA class again. 26 out of 28 participated – which is just unbelievable 2 years after graduation.
My contribution to the seminar was being responsible for a ‘playing’ session before dinner. I brought 4 canvases, brushes and paint. The group was divided in 4 teams who had to paint some of the highlights from our 2 years at the Copenhagen Business School. The painting turned out to be really good – and they were all given to our ‘old’ programme leader – Peter Karnøe who were guest speaker on day 2.There were a fantastic energy and atmosphere – and i’m looking forward to seeing them all again at our spring meeting in April.

Harvard Business School

It seems like I got a little carried away when telling about the NewYork trip – so I’ll try to keep the following ‘posts’ a little shorter. My expectation about going to Harvard was just sky-high – HBS is the best business school in the world. The course I participated in was titled ‘Negotiation and competitive decision making’ – my classmates were from all over the world f.ex. I was sitting next to the Nigerian president to be the whole week. It was a great learning experience – the professors, the campus, the classmates, Boston. I learned my first lessons 15 min. after the first class started, when I lost 110$ in a bet to the Programme Director in front of the whole class. Well 110$ is really not that expensive for making a strong appearance – well at least all of the 75 classmates knew who René Balle from Copenhagen was from day one. Actually I made a deal with the Professor: I didn’t have to pay him as long as I spent the money on drinks for the Class down at Harvard square…and within the next couple of days I brought him receipts covering way more than the 110$.

New York, New York

WHAT A CITY! Annemette and I went there on the 28th of September – and no planning was done before we went….NONE! So at the airport we bought a travellers guide and the trip started. After some stressful weeks at work for both of us it was just great to sit down in the plane-seat and just totally relax. On the flight we saw the beautiful Greenland from above – a really spectacular view.
Well landing in Newark airport, New Jersey – Thursday afternoon it was the end of relaxing and the beginning of an exciting 4 days of high paced adventures in the BIG APPLE.
We agreed that we wanted to get a feeling of the energy and vibes of New York rather than spending our time in museums – so MOMA and Guggenheim, sorry perhaps next time.
So what did we do? Well staying on 32nd between Broadway and 5th Avenue – 10 min. walk from Times Square….we just had to go see a Broadway show (actually I don’t like musicals…but I got carried away). We went to see ‘The Producers’ and from what I heard from Annemette it was a really great show – unfortunately I fell asleep.
During the days we spent a lot of time just walking around 5th avenue shopping and going to lower Manhattan with Greenage Village etc. By coincidence we passed Ground Zero – which turned out to be quite a strong experience. There were a photo exhibition there – and some of the faces captured from 9/11 really told a story more powerful than I have seen it in any news on tv.
We went for a baseball game in the Bronx – the New York Yankees vs. Toronto Blue Jays. That is just one weird game – in the 3½ hours that they played (including approx. 1000 breaks) – I didn’t come any closer to understanding the rules of the game. But it was a really funny event!
Sunday morning we went to a church in Harlem – participating in a Baptist service. It lasted almost as long as the baseball game. But it was a very intense experience – the church was very involved in the local community and the preacher spoke not only about the bible but also about healthy food habits. Well all that talk about food made us hungry and we went for a good brunch in Harlem before heading back. On the way back we went for at long walk in Central Park – it was so beautiful with the red, yellow and brown autumn colours.
Well we experienced more than I can even come close to describing here – but Sunday evening ended with a boat trip to Staten Island and back - passing Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty on the way. Just sitting there in the dark cold October evening at the upper deck of the ferry with my beautiful girl and with the Brooklyn bridge and the Manhattan skyline surrounding us – that was just one of these rare perfect moments….Monday morning the trip ended. I went to Boston and Annemette went back to Copenhagen. Thanks for at fantastic trip, A.

Thinking about ‘Lille pjevs’

Didn’t write too much about the little wonder growing inside Annemette. ‘Lille Pjevs’ is almost 40 cm long and weights about 1400 g. Incredibly he’s now opening his eyes, reacting on light and looking around. We are looking somuch forward to meet that little guy now. The basic things is getting in place – we have the new apartment ready, Marie and Frederik has got a room each and are looking very much forward to having a baby brother or sister and the job situation seems stable for the coming periode. For Frederik this is a big deal – he’s going to be a bigbrother. They have split up and agreed that Frederik will learn the baby to talk and Marie will learn him to walk.
With all the basic stuff in place we will be spending the coming months enjoying life and focusing on the little wonder that will arrive in November.I have occasionally been singing and talking to the little guy – but not as much as I would have liked to. So I will try hard to give the baby some attention – but I must say that even though this is my third child it is somehow still a little abstract and hard to comprehend that a fantastic little person is growing and getting ready to enter our life. I’m so happy!

Going to New York and Boston

Yes, yes, yes…..it is now a fact. I’m going to Harvard Business School for a week in start the of October to participate in one of their open enrollment executive courses – Changing the Game: Competitive decision making and negotiation. Actually I had a course ready in the spring – but due to an FDA inspection at Radiometer where my area would be a very likely subject for inspecting R&D issues, I had to cancel. Unfortunately Annemette and I had planned that we would take opportunity to take a trip to New York. So when this was cancelled, and with Annemette being pregnant – I thought that this was not going to happen after all – and actually I was a little bitter…at Radiometer, at the FDA….and probably some other things as well. But on the 28th of September we are going for a 4 day trip to New York – so sometimes things just works out after all. Is there any lesson to be learned here? Who cares – i’m just so excited about going :o)

Going under

Okay this is a little dream coming through. For the last year or so I have wanted try out diving. My initial though was a diving trip to Thailand – but with Annemette being pregnant this is probably not going to happen the next couple of years. So I decided to go for it anyway. This week I started a PADI Open Water Course at Amager Dykkercenter. Just in the middle of us moving to a new apartment one could argue that this was perhaps a little to much – but I chose to go with passion instead of sensibility. This week the course have been from 17.30 to midnight Monday, Wednesday and Thursday – and the we have been diving in Øresund today and will continue this again tomorrow.
The water is not very clear and there are not reefs or exciting wildlife. Well sometimes you cannot wait for the perfect opportunity – it has been great fun this week and I have had some good times with some cool people. Especially Morten Dyk – the diving instructor has been a real experience. And isn’t that what its all about! Correction/addition: Øresund has been very exciting!


Today we went to ‘Kanonvraget’ at Saltholm. This is an old canon boat that sunk near Sweden during ‘Slaget på Reden’ several hundred years ago. The wreck is lying at 12 meters and it was so fantastic. The visibility was good and we could just se everything….the bronze canons…the sides of the ships…and a lot of wild life…..Wauv!!!

Moving to the new apartment

Moving to New apartmentThe first week back from the holiday ended with a little moving project. It turned out that we could have apartment by Thursday – so we made it quick and dirty. Started moving Friday afternoon, and was finish with all of it by Saturday evening. Søren and Annette did a great job of helping – thank you. Marie and Frederik was over for the weekend – and we thought that it would be good for them to be involved. So they pointed out there new rooms and did their own ‘decorating’ of the rooms. It was nice to have the new150 Kvm with 2 bathrooms and a dishwasher apartment rather than Annemettes 50 kvm apartment – it is really nice but not really suited for 4 people. As I’m writing this we have been living in the new apartment for one week – and we are just so happy about the place and the fact that the moving project is now DONE.

Holiday ends…

Okay holiday is over….but there are still a few things that I would like to share from the last week. We spent a good week at ‘Lendrup Strand’ a beach area close to Løgstør. We were really looking forward to spending the week 100 meters from the beach and just go swimming every day. BUT because of the hot summer the water was disgusting – so we had to find some other activities. We had a few good trips ‘Rønbjerg Feriecenter’ where we enjoyed the indoor waterworld with the kids and I had some good games of Squash with my brother Søren (again result will not be commented). We went to some of the local museums – it was quite funny to do that in your hometown.

Anyway what I’m coming at here is the real highlight of the week – a guided horseback riding at a plantation a little north of Løgstør. We went out riding icelandish ponies with the kids one afternoon. It was so much fun for all of us – even Frederik was riding his own horse for more than one hour….god job son.

We also enjoyed some of the good seafood of the area. One night we had ‘Stegte ål med nye kartofler og persillesovs’ – the kids just loved it (for som reason) and the 4 of us ate 2 Kg of ‘Ål’ which is…a lot…We ended the week with a perfect night together with Ole, Lena and Nicolai at ‘Kunst torvet’ in Løgstør where we just chilled out with some live music and some of Løgsørs famous muscle dishes. Thanks for a great week to everybody in Løgstør.

Sightseeing around Esbjerg

The last 5 days we have been spending with Annemette parents right outside Esbjerg. Besides from relaxing big time we have been taking a few trips around the area. We have been to Esbjerg city and to Blåvand (a really nice beach by the westcoast). Then we have been seeing a lot of people and celebrating Lisbeths (Annemettes mom) birthday. I have had the chance to go to the gym with Hans and Lisbeth including a few squash games with some of the guys over here (no comments on the result)
Today we are invited to afternoon drinks at Ivan and Ulla. I call him ’Ivan den grusomme’ as he handed me a ’Thy Porsebryg’ (STRONG beer) before even presenting his name, the first time I saw him. Well he really is a nice guy and I brought a few singlemalts that I know he will like to taste.













We have had a really nice week at Annemettes parents…and I think they have to. Thanks a lot for your hospitality Hans and Lisbeth.
Tomorrow we will continue to a summerhouse at ’Lendrup Strand’ by Løgstør (thats were my parents live). As an extra service I will just put in the website for Annemettes apartment at Home. I think the photographer did quite a lot better than I did….well judge for yourselfes. http://www.home.dk/sag/126E4090













OBS: The picture with the 4 white staues shows Esbjergs city mark. This artwork were originally bought by the city of Skagen - but when they saw it they didn't wan't it anyway - so it ended up in Esbjerg.

Annemettes apartment

Juts before we left for Hjerting I took a few pictures of the apartment on Østerbro. Just thought you should have an impression – as this apartment hopefully soon will be exchanged for the new and bigger one....coming to think of it we haven’t heard a word from the guy who was going to handle the contract. Probably dosn’t mean anything....no reason to panic. Perhaps I should just give him a call!

Holiday continues in Hjerting

Yesterday we packed and drove over to Annemette’s parents in Hjerting. Hjerting is in the outskirt of Esbjerg and is approx. a 3 hours drive from Copenhagen.













We had to leave the apartment totally tight and shinny cause the real estate agency’s photographer is coming today – and also we expect a number of showings while we’re gone.The first half of the day was quite boring for the kids – cleaning the apartment and a long drive. But it went ok! When we came to Esbjerg they played in the garden and we played some games with them (result will not be commented here). Before dinner Annemettes dad – Hans – the kids and I went for a walk to the beach, which is only a few hundred meters away. We had a lot of fun – Marie found a small crab that we brought home. We put the crab in a jar with water and some salt – but still this morning it was dead. After dinner we saw some pictures from The Sørensens family album – it was quite amusing and what a beautiful girl Annemette was…and still is. I’m just a lucky guy!

2nd Copenhagen Home Barista Jam

On Friday the 21st of july the 2nd Copenhagen Home Barista Jam were held at ‘Risteriets’ roasting and storage location on Islands brygge in Copenhagen. A barista jam is basically just a get together – on this occasion 16 guys – with a strong passion leading to obsession towards espresso. On the 2nd barista jam we had a lot equipment present 4 espresso machines e.g. the ECM Giotto, the Vibienne Domobar super, 3 grinders e.g. the Rancillio Rocky, 3 roasters e.g. the I-roast 2 and the Hottop and then a lot of accessories tampers, portafilter holders. We started out with some group sessions – doing a few roasts, tried out the different machines and actually had a chance to see Rune do a roast on the 14 Kg Oscafe roaster.
After a few hours we went to the main event of the evening – a signature drink competition. A signature drink is just a drink that needs to include coffee somehow and besides that only your imagination sets the limits. 7 guys joined the competition including yours truly. The competition took about 3 hours and took us through a number of great drinks e.g. an Ice coffee with homemade hyldeblomst syrup, a coffee-coconut drink, a coffee sorbet with hazelnut cream, a pineapple-bisquit drink and mine which was a base of cognac with a small scoop of vanilla icecream, a shoot of espresso and a orange-chili syrup to top it of.
I ended up 4 – which was ok with limited preparation and no test-runs on the drink. Teeme (the finnish guy I have been written of earlier) won the competition with a great drink made of homemade blueberry syrup with finninsh vodka, a shoot of espresso and some vanilla cream. This was a really a perfect balanced and creative drink – and all respect to Teeme for his great work. It seemed that preparation paid of after all.
It was a perfect evening that ended up with all of us going into Copenhagen and had some beers. Thanks to Risteriet for hosting this event.While I was at the Barista Jam – Annemette and the kids went to the Zoo for something called Zoo by night, where you have the chance to see the animals before the go to sleep. Everybody had a good night – so let that be the end of another perfect day. LIFE IS GOOD!!!

New apartment needed and found

In may 2006 Annemette and I had to move out of my 125m2 apartment by the lakes in the centre of Copenhagen. It was a really nice apartment perfectly located – but due to a fixed duration contract there where nothing else to do but to move into Annemette 55 m2 apartment on Østerbro. It really is a nice little apartment – but it is just to little for 2 persons – and with Marie and Frederik staying for weekends and holidays and ‘lille pjevsen’ joining in November, this apartment is simply not big enough. Well getting to the point – within the last 2 weeks we have put Annemettes apartment up for sale and started looking for a new one. Anyone knows how hard rental apartments in Copenhagen are to come by – but by accident we just past a great apartment on the way home from the beach the other day, and it had a ‘for rent’ sign in the window. A few day later we got in contact with the owner and yesterday we closed the deal. It is a 150 m2 apartment on Amager Strandvej a few kilometres south of Copenhagen centre. It is brand new, is located 300m from the beach and both Karen (Annemettes really good friend) and Søren my younger brother lives within 1 Km.We’re moving in august – that’s 2 times within 4 month – but anyway we are very excited about it and everything will be in place well before Lille pjevsen arrives. This apartment felt like a really good win - and all credits for this goes to my beatiful girlfriend.

A nice surprise visit

The last day of our camping trip, we had decided to go to the circus. Circus Arena was in Hornbæk on the 19th – and we went there early to get 3 good tickets for the show. Then later that afternoon Annemette came by. This was really a surprise, but still we had to go get a 4th ticket in a hurry – fortunately we got one and all of us spent a fun night at the circus with popcorn, elephants and of course some really dangerous stunts.
The next day me and the kids packed all our stuff – and Annemette came to pick us up at around 12. We had a game of minigolf and a swim in the ocean before we went home to the apartment.When we got home the kids were allowed to see some tv for the first time in 4 days – and dad took a good long nap in his nice, comfy bed….hmm!