Gift og dansk
Så blev jeg endelig gift med Phyllis!
Iklædt Buchanan-klanens smukke kilt, med sporran foran og en sgian dubh i højre strømpe så jeg ret skotsk ud, og Phyllis var enormt smuk i sin sorte kjole med hvidt mønster.
På samme tidspunkt, som vi blev erklæret for rette ægtefolk at være, skete der noget andet: Anna blev dansker.
Loven om dansk indfødsret siger i § 2: “Har et barn af en dansk far og en udenlandsk mor ikke erhvervet dansk indfødsret ved fødslen, erhverver barnet dansk indfødsret ved forældrenes indgåelse af ægteskab.”
Efter vielsen gik vi hen til Derek og Amandas lejlighed, hvor vi havde en dejlig reception med den største og lækreste kransekage, jeg nogensinde havde set – den havde Miriam (min søster) bagt aftenen før.
Vi glæder os stadig til at holde en rigtig bryllupsfest, når vores jobmæssige situation er afklaret, men tusind tak til alle, der gjorde dagen i går til noget særligt for os!
Happier news
The fact that my job is at risk means that our original plans for a wedding in early summer aren’t feasible any more.
However, waiting for stability to return during a bad recession could mean that we’d wait for the right moment for years and years, and we don’t want to do that.
So we’ve decided to do the opposite and get married as soon as possible, but have the party later.
My parents had already announced a visit next week, so we decided to get married on Saturday the 28th of February at 2pm in Park Circus (please do come along if you get a chance!).
Fortunately my sister, Miriam, has been able to get a ticket despite the ultra-short notice! 
As I wrote above, we’re still planning to have a real wedding party for friends and family at some later date, but we’ve no idea when that’ll be – it could be later this year, but it could also be one or two years hence if the recession gets worse.
What a Christmas!
It sounded like a good plan: My parents would arrive on the 19th, and on the 25th Phyllis’s parents and brother with wife and son would come for Christmas lunch.
I was going to serve some crostini when they arrived, and the actual lunch would then be a prawn and sweetcorn bisque followed by goose and pork roast, followed by cheese and finally three-coloured chocolate mousse.
However, first nephew Gordie got a stomach bug. Then Anna got it. Then my parents. But Phyllis and I were still going strong.
Then yesterday, we had a nice Danish Christmas dinner, my parents went for church as 11.30 pm, and when they came back I was feeling queasy.
I lasted till bedtime, when I emptied my entire stomach. Phyllis lasted till 3am, and in the morning, we were both feeling dreadful.
I found my parents and asked whether they were well enough to cook some food. They fortunately agreed, so Christmas day could go ahead, albeit with a reduced menu.
I didn’t join them for lunch, but I believe they had carrot soup followed by pork roast, then cheese and finally Danish ris à l’amande.
I think the day went fine, even if Phyllis and I were completely useless!
Pensionistmor
Min mor havde sidste arbejdsdag i dag, efter næsten fyrretyve år som sognepræst i Sdr. Vissing og Voerladegård.
Hun sluttede af med to gudstjenester og efterfølgende reception. Vi kunne desværre ikke komme, men sagde farvel til præstegården – mit barndomshjem – for en uge siden.
Nu har hun så ferie i et par uger, før hun officielt bliver pensionist den 1. december.
Min far følger så i hendes fodspor to måneder senere.
Det bliver jo nok desværre ikke helt så nemt og behageligt at besøge dem, når de ikke længere har en kæmpe præstegård, men til gengæld får vi dem måske så oftere at se herovre!
4D-scanning
Filed under: da, family, featured, kids, love, photography, pregnancy, science
I dag troppede vi syv mand høj (os, børnene, Dougie og Ann) op på en privat scanningsklinik på Ingram Street.
De scannede Phyllis, og ikke blot sagde de, at det med 97% sandsynlighed er en pige, men vi fik også en DVD med hjem med utrolige billeder af pigen!
Er hun ikke smuk? Jeg kan næsten ikke vente til december!
Relatedness
Phyllis and I were discussing today how closely related you actually are to different people genetically speaking.
After doing some simple calculations and applying a bit of logic, we came up with the following (1/2 means that you share half your genes with that person, and so on):
| 1/2 | child |
| 1/2 | parent |
| 1/2 | sibling |
| 1/4 | grandparent |
| 1/4 | grandchild |
| 1/4 | half-sibling |
| 1/4 | uncle/aunt |
| 1/4 | nephew/niece |
| 1/4 | double cousin (child of mother’s sibling and father’s sibling) |
| 1/8 | greatgrandparent |
| 1/8 | greatgrandchild |
| 1/8 | cousin |
| 1/8 | greatuncle/greataunt |
| 1/16 | greatgreatgrandparent |
| 1/16 | cousin’s child |
| 1/16 | parent’s cousin |
A son of the manse
There’s an article in the Sunday Herald about what it means to be a son/daughter of the manse.
Of course I was a son of the manse in Lutheran Denmark, not presbyterian Scotland, but I can still recognise many of the things they describe.
Sønder Vissing was not at all a desperately poor place, so I have no memories of dinners for the homeless and such things. But I do remember the council of the elders meeting in our dining room, the yearly gathering of the old folk in our house and garden, sitting in the front of the church and having everybody stand up and sit down depending on what I did, and most of all, that feeling of being supervised by the entire community at all times.
I think it does affect one’s personality, and I guess it’s therefore quite useful to have a label to stick on us, the children of the manse.
Pizza oven
My parents have a pizza oven in their cellar. I guess it’s really a bread or ceramics oven, but it doesn’t look significantly different from the pizza ovens I’ve seen in Italy, and nobody ever uses it for anything else.
I seem to be the only person ever to use it, but even I only use it at 20-year intervals. However, today we decided it was a good day to try it again, and Simon, Lykke and Sebastian came round to taste my pizzas.
The first two pizzas were rather awful, but the quality improved gradually. The only problem was that they wouldn’t come off the metal plate we used for putting them into the oven, so we had to bake them on tin foil. That made them somewhat less rustic, something that I think the kids appreciated.
Gift og døbt
Så blev min søster, Miriam, gift med sin Bjørn, og deres datter, min niece, Ursula Widmann Rasmussen, blev døbt.
Vejret holdt stort set tørt, og det var en fin fest.
Vi gav Miriam og Bjørn et fotografiapparat (et Sony Cybershot T20) i bryllupsgave, så nu håber vi på oftere at få billeder af min nuttede niece at se – hun var meget sødere, end man kunne se på de billeder, de havde sendt os.
Det viste sig, at min kusine Elisabeth og hendes mand, Peter, venter deres første barn til oktober, og min fætter Henrik og hans kone, Ulla, venter deres andet. Ulla forventes at føde den 13. december – dagen før Phyllis!
Léon var i øvrigt naturligvis en stor succes i sin kilt.
Kids
Großmutter was born in May 1899, and she had 13 kids.
Given that bit of information, most people would probably assume she started having kids around 1920, but no. The birth dates of her kids were as follows:
- June 1927
- September 1928
- November 1929
- December 1930
- February 1932
- June 1933
- October 1934
- December 1935
- March 1937
- February 1939
- April 1940 (my dad!)
- August 1941
- July 1944
Beat that! 