Inside the stomach of a Christmas whale
in Stationsgade 11, Risskov
 

Huh.... I feel like having been inside the stomach or womb of a whale.
A whale with the name "Family".
For a couple of days, we all left the net. Forgot about the mailbox, tv screens, radio.
As if God (the one or the other) had said "Time out!", and then stopped the globe from turning.
We broke down all the wellknown patterns and took a walk in the forest instead.
Or played music.
Or just sat and talked over the dinner table.
Opened bootles of red wine, mjød, snaps or Trinidad rum.
Lit candles and fires.
Exchanged the old calendars with new ones.
Looked forward.
Prepared ourselves for the year to come. What to expect. Goals to be set.
If not the risk of a "gamma ray burst"... then new carreer stategies, or some down-to-earth-real estate calculations.
Boosting each other's confidence: We're doing great! Don't you see it? We'll not only make it – we'll take it to the next level!
And when some of us got tired, or too drunk, the obligatory ugly old family ghosts came out of the closet, and blended in beautifully with heated debates defending, attacking or explainging classical subjects such as Islam, immigrant politics, colonialism and globalisation.
Life inside the Christmas whale – for what it is.

Below, some snapshots of what actually happened...

Christmas holiday – a time to catch up
Cyril & Pernilla brought some pictures from their house
in France which is going through a major reconstruction.
Solveig (right) is Finn's neighbour across the street.

Christmas holiday – sharing dreams
"Le Chalet is going to be turned into the most incredible
recording studio in Europe – with a ‘Salle de Chopin’ with
big glass walls and this fantastic view straight to the lake." 
Cyril talks with enthusiasm about the visions for the
reconstruction of the house.

Traditions valued
My cousin, Lone, and the Christmas tree which my
sister Pernilla had cut down herself, free of charge,
in a forest nearby.

Upholding traditions, we were singing old religious Christmas carols (everyone of us being rather if not totally un-religious) and walking hand in hand around the pine tree.... Corny, but still... yes, enjoyable.

Christmas holiday – time for playing music
No Christmas in Risskov without music. It must have
been 20 years ago since my sister and I have
played classical music together, in this case:
'Le Cygne' and 'Apres un Rêve'.
Good fun to give it a shot once again!

Speaking of classical music.... my Christmas gift for my sister this year was something I recorded (just for the fun of it) when I was visiting her in France this summer, one night she invited us out to a little concert she was doing in a very pitoresque old church on top of a mountain. I've put a QuickTime (.mov) version of it here: pernilla.dk/video/Philip01.mov
pernilla.dk/video/Philip02.mov
....but don't try to click if you are on a slow connection. They take up 14 and 23 MB.

Christmas holiday – party of the children
To create the right "spirit of Christmas" this year, we
had a darling newcomer among us: Pernilla's and
Cyril's daugther, Celena who is now close to one year
old, and who won some extra points for her dancing
steps to Herbie Hancocks 'Head Hunter'.
(She still can't walk, but she can dance!)

Christmas holiday – time for games
Cyril comes up with a mathematique riddle.
It goes like this...
Look at these numbers, figure out the system,
and then write the seventh line:

11
21
1211
111221
312211
13112221


We all thought about it for quite some time,
but... yes, we DID manage to break the code. :-)
And you? Can you figure it out?

Time for more games
Cyril had another one. You take three glasses...



Place them like this...


Then the task is to turn them, in only two movements,
so that all three glasses stand face up, not down


It took time. But... eventually, we figured
Cyril's trick out.

My dad had a bottle of "mjød" – a very very old kind of alcoholic drink brewed on honey which the vikings used to pour down at their orgies a thousand years ago and which is something we've all heard of but never actually tasted. So... here we were, drinking mjød and talking about viking virtues all through Christmas day. In this new global perspective of 2003, one becomes more aware of ones own old roots!
This is where they sell the stuff: www.mjod.dk


Outside, it is pouring down. Grey grey Christmas. The front of my ancles still hurts from the walking in the forest.
My body needs sleep, my stomach is upset, and my head is kind of emptied out from too much talk, and maybe also the alcohol.
It is time to leave this ‘Stomach of the Christmas Whale’.

Lots of thanks and greetings to all of you who contributed making these two-tree days of holiday into such a special and warm-hearted experience.



Mik, 27.12.2003, 12:30