New Kanzashi

After much planning I have created my new kanzashi which I have called Jade Ume.

My inital design is below.


The design uses the graduate green silk that I brought on ebay and I wanted to take advantage of the graduated green.

I also wanted to add some falls onto the kanzashi as it has been a long time since I have done this. As you can see from the plan, the falls are not the traditional ones used on kanzashi.

Anyway the end result is this!



I have to say, it has turned out nicely. I have not decided whether to mount this onto a haircomb or hairband. My inital thought is a hairband but I'm not so sure now.

Here are close up of the kanzashi.





As normal, if you are interested in this kanzashi then let me know! I am trying to figure out a way of painting silk to create the graduated colour. Any suggestions will be welcome.

Back from my adventures

All good things had to end and I'm back at home in the UK.

Lets see what I have achieved out of my 4 days in Copenhagen....

Day one - Monday

After having an early night (he had just spent 15 hours travelling), my boyfriend and I got up and had a nice continental breakfast, I enjoyed having a healthy breakfast since my family haven't quite got the hang of healthy eating yet. Then after a bit more fussing around with bags and clothes, we got ready to face the snow and walk to Copenhagen University. Lucky it wasn't windy so the walk wasn't too bad only 15 minutes at most I think.

Once we managed to find the right building (there wasn't any names) we then had the fun of figuring out the layout of the building. Strangely the maths departments floors were not in line with the main building corridor! So the door to the first floor of the maths department was actually half way up stairs in the corridor. This was confusing! Anyway once we realised this we made our way to the secretaries' office to get the key to an office for us to use during the week. I will be polite and just say that they were not pleasant.

So we got settled in the office and then had a wander to find someone that my boyfriend recognise. In the end someone recognised him which was good and he went off to his first topology workshop. I sat around in the common room/office reading a book.

At some point I had a bit of lunch but I only had a sandwich so nothing exciting.

Then at 17.00 the talks finished and one of the staff (Antonio) took us out for dinner. It was only burger and chips but it was a nice burger. 100DKK (= 12.50GBP) for meal and 42DKK (= £5) for a small bottle of pear cider. But I can't complain since Antonio was going to claim the meal back on expenses.

Day Two - Tuesday

Morning was the same as yesterday but in the afternoon, we decided to go for a bit of sightseeing! We decided to go the the National Museum of Copenhagen and what can I say, it was full of old stuff. Since Copenhagen was expensive we felt that we might as well have lunch in the museum how much more expensive could it get! I think we spent a couple of hours there before we had to leave. As we left, it started to snow which is very pretty when you are in a warm office however it is the opposite when you are outside.

Again a bit more wandering around town before it was time for dinner at a Spanish restaurant. We chose two selections of tapas and most of it was nice. There was some weird tuna and veg in white sauce and mushrooms with a strong alcohol taste which wasn't nice but the rest was good. That meal cost 410 DKK including a couple of drinks.

Day three - Wednesday

Wednesday was the same as Monday for us however in the evening we were invited to a party in the evening by the organisers of the talks. Around 20 mathematicians turned up for a Indian takeaway meal in a really nice flat and after food came the silly games. There is one thing you can say about mathematicians, they are students at heart and the more sillier the game, the better the evening.

Day four - Thursday

My boyfriend had managed to arranged a meeting with Jesper at the department to talk about maths at 16.00. Which meant we could spend the morning and afternoon being tourists!

Starting off at the Stroget which is suppose to be the longest pedestrian shopping area in Europe for a bit of window shopping however there wasn't anything amazing. Once we reached the end of Stroget we walked toward the Little Mermaid at the harbour. I am not sure what I was expecting but it was a statue on some rocks. Very exciting!

It was only 12.00 and we were cold so off we went to find somewhere to shelter from the snow. But we got bored walking around Copenhagen and just went back to the hotel after buying a chocolate covered cake. After demolishing the cake and watch some tv, we went back into university for the maths meeting. My boyfriend went off to meet with Jesper and I wasted my time on the internet looking for a place to eat.

After the meeting, we had arranged to have dinner with a friend who was a postdoc at the university. It had been over 2 years since we last met him so a lot of catching up to do. Instead of going to the italian we found, our friend took us to a swedish bar because it was more cosy. I had a nice vegan burger, far better then the one I had back in Essex. My boyfriend had swedish meatballs and our friend had a burger. All in all a good meal but I have no idea what the name of this place is.

We ended the evening quite early as we had to pack for tomorrow and our friend still had work to do.

Day five - Friday

We both had early planes to catch so once we had breakfast we had to get to the airport straightaway to check-in.

Conclusion

It was a nice break but here is my advice.

1) Do not go to Copenhagen when it is snowing it is very boring and cold.

2) Be prepared to spend money on food especially on booze.

3) Don't bother learning danish, it is too hard as you will never get it right. However all danish people speak excellent english.

Hello from Copenhagen!!

I have managed to get access to the Internet at Copenhagen University. Thank god, I was beginning to feel withdrawal symptoms from not being able to surf the net.

That sounds really sad :(

Anyway, what can I say about Copenhagen. Well it is covered in about a foot worth of snow so it is cold. However unlike the UK, the country is still going about its daily business. I haven't had much time sightseeing since there isn't much to look at as it is covered in snow. I did visit the National Museum which was fun and brought a cheap magnet for my mother's fridge (don't worry it is a running joke in our family). Oh and if any of you plan to visit this city be prepared to spend money! It is expensive, even just buying a simple sandwich is around 4 GBP. Ok that may not sound like a lot of money but I am unemployed so every penny counts.

Actually the main reason why I have not gone sightseeing is that I spent most of my time at the University reading my book and just enjoying the peace and quiet that I have missed since moving back home 2 years ago.

When I get back I suppose I better start looking for some temporary work until my boyfriend returns from Canada. Although I have a kanzashi design that I would like to make. But I haven't decided to put it up for sale as I like to own a copy of all my kanzashi designs and I do not know if I can find suitable fabric for future creations.

Yippie!

After a rubbish start to the year and the lack of job vacancy I thought I need to cheer myself up.

My boyfriend has been invited by the University of Copenhagen Maths Department to give a talk and I'm tagging along for the fun. The tickets have been brought and now we just need to sort out accomodation (which we hope the university will provide) and travel money.

Question for anyone, how much spending money per a day should I take? I will need to sort out travel money soon and since I don't intend to visit Denmark in the near future I don't want to have too many Danish Krone at the end of the trip.