FINALLY A BIT OF NEWS!

Dear all,
First of all my apologies for this way of communicating and staying in touch – yes I know; I have been terrible!!! Also I am writing this in English because I know that both my lovely friends and family are pretty good with the language and then we can all practice ;-)
Why don’t I start with what is happening right now.. We are packing and moving within the next two weeks. We absolutely love Llandudno where we have been for the last two years – yes this November it is exactly two years since we came to South Africa! The house is stunning and very beachy.. no wonder when it is only 30 sek. walk to the beach! However the rent is very high, especially now with a very strong Rand and we have been struggling with a hectic building site across the street – the guy is building a 1200 m2 house in 3 levels, which is now on the level so the builders are looking into our living room. He has changed his minds a few times which has required him to blast away for two weeks every hour – our poor dog was going crazy with all the explosions. So the house should have been finished in September and now we believe the nightmare will continue maybe another year – so however much we love it – it is not worth it any more.
So with no other houses for rent in Llandudno we have been very lucky and found a lovely house in Hout Bay (31 Luisa Way, 7806 Hout Bay – if you want to find it on Google earth Daddy). It is light, bright and white with nice mountain views, a big garden, swimming pool and we will be saving more than Rand 7000 a month + petrol since the boys can now jump on their bicycles and ride the 5 min. to school – YEAH very Danish! Will send pictures when we get there…
So for me there is another perfect feature of the house; the upstairs is the ideal workshop/showroom for my new fashion range!!!! YES, can you believe it? I am actually building up my own company together with my dear friend and now business partner Al. I can’t tell you all about it just yet, but the idea came a few years ago in Denmark where it was completely high fashion to get some very relaxed pants in Liberty fabric (for those of you who doesn’t know; Liberty fabric is some of the finest quality fabric and prints in the world, comes from London’s leading department store and is crazily expensive – but worth all the money). However the designs were very basic and honestly not up there with the quality of the fabric. So I have decided to make up some funky and groovy designs using Liberty fabric (imported from London by “fabric buyer” Thor Thorøe ;-), leather, trims and other stuff to come out with a Cape Town inspired women’s high fashion range this SA autumn/winter. It is very exciting and so much fun and the heads of Al and I are spinning! Anyways we will use the upstairs of the new house as a showroom/shop to begin with – and it is such a nice space – oh did I forget to mention the classy bar in the corner with chilled wine and sparkling water at all times! Our name will be “Strawberry Thief” from a famous Liberty print and we will work hard on getting a nice homepage up and running next year.
So just to make sure that I won’t get bored I have started my work as a doula (support person at deliveries), while I am waiting for my papers to come through with my authorization as a midwife. I already had the exquisite honor to help deliver Michael and Natalia’s little son Samuel and am really looking forward to the birth of Philippa and Paul’s little son. I am much honored to have been part of the group meetings with the very few private working midwifes in Cape Town and seriously hope that I can soon become part of their workforce – 75% Caesar rate is really outrageous!
The boys are doing GREAT! They can’t wait to see Farmor Jette, Anton and Oldefar Jack Bill who are coming for a visit from mid Nov. till beginning of Dec. and Morfar Børge and Mormor Sussie who will be here for two months from the beginning of Dec.
Marcus has just been given the lead role as Joseph in this year’s nativity play at school; he will have to sing a solo – I am so proud! He would actually rather have been an alien, but he was the best singer so he kind of had to do it; as he said. He has also just started “Lifesaving” at Llandudno surf club – I doubt it will be long before he wants’ his first surfboard.. for Christmas.. So Alex we need you here as a surf mate! Can’t believe that my boy is going into grade 3 in January, and already very popular with the girls!
Asbjørn, the little bandit, is starting in grade 1; he is already reading little books and writing his name etc. However being as independent as his father; he has decided to spell his name Asbjønr and nobody can tell him different!
SO FINALLY our Mozambique project came through! And don’t forget to look out for the program about Thor and the project on DR2 that is being filmed right now – will let you know when it is shown…
He is very busy building up a new business with raw chocolate, nuts, nutbutters, ice cream paste etc. difficult to explain about as it is still in the process – however we are hoping to be able to stuff ourselves with healthy chocolate this X-mas!
I really will try to put photos on as soon as I have my husband and camera back.. Oh and otherwise have a look at Facebook; I try to at least update that once in a while…
And also looking forward to all of your news and stories – we really are missing you all terribly!!!!
Lots of love from a beautiful summer day (sunshine and 27 degrees) from Thor, Lisa, Marcus, Asbjørn and Alba

Beach & Bling

Wauw sikke en fantastisk 40 års fødselsdag jeg har haft!!! 1000 1000 tak for alle hilsnerne, komplimenterne ;-), gaverne, festerne og besøgene!!! Det har været en fantastisk, omend noget hektisk tid med mange oplevelser. I slutningen af november kom mine forældre og vi var vildt heldige at finde en super dejlig lejlighed lige rundt om hjørnet, så de havde deres eget sted i de næsten tre måneder - ja så er der kun en uge tilbage til de skal hjem... Så kom bror Alex med Lisbeth og hvor skønt var det lige at se dem og niece Johanne 3 år og nevø August 10 måneder! Vi havde en god dag d. 4 december, hvor der jo ellers på min fødselsdag er så elendigt vejr at man skulle tro jeg havde opført mig helt frygteligt hele sidste år - så strålende solskin og 27 grader var jo super!

Så gik turen til Kwa-zulu Natal (Durban) hvor vi havde en sjov og oplevelsesrig tur med jungle, safari, dykkertur, bjerge, ridetur, strand (med varmt badevand), Durban krydderi marked og indkøb af bling kjolen over alle bling kjoler...

Juleaften tilbage i Llandudno var totalt luxus med hele familien omkring, ande og flæskesteg, juletræ, ris a'la mande etc.

Så ankom Christina, Christian and Sarina fra Schweitz - også kom der gang i festforberedelserne... Så den 30 december da solen strålede og vejret var helt fabeltagtigtvar vi klar til den store strandfest; beach volley, surfing, mad, drinks, musik, sol, sand og vand... ahh dejligt! Og lige i tid til grillmad ankom svigermor Jette og lidt efter Tanja og Christian - hele vejen fra Norge! Efter en skøn dag på stranden i 14 timer måtte vi hjem og hvile til fest aftenen efter.

White and bling party nytårsaften blev en success: se billeder! Dj'en syntes min far var den sejeste danser nogensinde; han både åbnede og lukkede dansegulvet!

Men festen fortsatte for vi var 12 overnattende + 4 andre gæster udefra...

Så er der en lille uge til faster og Lene skal hjem og vi flytter i nyt hus helt nede ved stranden i Llandudno. Vi kommer til at savne udsigten, men får tilgengæld swimmingpool og ca. 37 sek. gang til stranden...

Knus fra Llandudno