Great Vacation

23rd of Dec.
Dinner and stroll around Copenhagen to enjoy the X-mas lights.
Here is Tivoli.


Later Avatar and loads of candy:



24th of December
Celebrate X-mas at Morten's place with the entire family.
Eating way too much and playing with the kids.



25th of December
Dad's 80th birthday @ my place



26th of December
Brunch with my parents and Sherlock Holmes in the evening



27th of December
Relax at home, cooking and drinking red wine.


28th of December
Shopping! Clothes and a bit of hardware:


29th of December
Enjoy nature.


31st of December
Happy New Year

Merry X-mas

I'm writing from home, celebrating X-mas in me and Thomas' flat :)
In an hour, we will drive to Thomas' brother's house, to celebrate Christmas Eve with the entire family.

Yesterday was great adn very long :), I got up at 0400 in the morning in order to catch the plane at 0700 from Keflavik to Copenhagen. I didn't get that much sleep during the night, it is really hard to go to sleep at 2200 for me. I did manage to get 1-2 hours sleep on the plane.

Landing in Kastrup was great, all of Denmark is covered in a thick blanket of pure white snow clouds, it actually looked like proper snow when we were descending.
Copenhagen is still covered in the last remnants of the snowfall earlier this week. Very X-massy :O).

After packing out, getting an hour of sleep and a shower, me and Thomas went to central Copenhagen to get some food, take a stroll up and down Strøget and last but not least, watch Avatar which is amazing. Go see it!

First X-mas present.

I opened my X-mas present from CCP today ( I plan on traveling light when I go home, so I can refill the luggage with necessities) hence, I thought I would open the present here, instead of carrying it with me. Accordingly I shall not post what the present contained, in case some unfortunate CCPér, with an unopened gift, stumbles upon this blog before the 24th (or 25th).
However suffice to say, I think the present itself will be very entertaining for the Mexico trip.

All day has been saturated with Christmas vibes at CCP, people been dressed in Santa outfits, X-mas shaped cakes for snacks and then of course the big outing tonight, were all get to see Avatar.
All in all a great day.

with some luck I might be able to go and see one more flat tonight, if so, and if I like it, I will spend part of tomorrow moving.
If not, I will rent the current place for one more month.

Zephyr

Friday was also the day for CCP's gift to EVE players 2009, this cool ship The Zephyr.

Now it is getting cold.

I just got back from a busy day and wow now it is getting cold.
But the sky, oh my, it is beautiful, clear and colorful wherever you look.

Since my plane is leaving at 0700 Wednesday morning, I decided not to sleep late, even though it is weekend.
I recon it will be easier to gradually push the time for waking up back, than just do it in one go.
Furthermore I want to be reasonably fresh the 23rd, since I am going to see Avatar with my hubby Thomas in the evening.

But I have managed to get a lot of things done by getting up early:

• All my washing is done and ready to be packed for the vacation.
• I have looked at 2 studio flats 2 min walk from were I live now.
• I braced the chilly weather to do the grocery shopping.

So now it is time to kick back and relax with some WOW :)

Friday was busy too.
I am now officially Product Owner for one of the teams and more and more things start rolling at CCP.
But is is all very good and enjoyable. I am having a blast.

CCP

Thought it was time to show where I work:

Secret Santa

Tomorrow CCP is having the Secret Santa X-mas bingo, so everybody is going to bring a present.
I went shopping after work and her are a couple of images from the town.

Amarr Titan

Nice shot of an Amarr Titan from EVE.

New week already!

I survived the X-mas lunch :)
But it was more because I was tired and got home about 0100.
I think moving, traveling and starting a new job just caught up on me.

Things are great though. I had a very relaxing weekend.
Weather was super gray so I did not have any issues with staying in to play WOW.
I am also enjoying work. There are a lot of things happening, lots of meetings and of course on top of that lots of practicalities to sort out in respect to moving.

I visited my local burger joint today it is super cozy, just situated across from the street where I live and makes good and affordable burgers. Great when you come home late and need some grub.Here it is below, it might not look like much, but inside it is great :)

My computer arrived!

Yes finally, my PC arrived 2 days ago and it works.
It is really nice to have a proper rig and not just have to rely on my laptop all the time.

I also got my employee account at CCP activated, so I am currently getting back into the EVE groove when I come home from work at night.
I am basically starting over so I can familiarize myself with everything again.

Tomorrow is the yearly CCP X-mas party, which I am sure will be amazing.
I am happy we Danes are proficient in "Julefrokoster", however I am sure my head will hurt anyway Saturday :)

Goodmorning Reykjavik

Went for a 2 hour "morning" stroll through Reykjavik today.
The sun is rising quite late this time of the year, so I left the apartment at roughly 11:00
It was amazing!!!


On my left I had the sea and the mountains and on the right the waterfront buildings.
I didn't even realize that suddenly I had reached the Hilton, so I decided to turn right and move uphill and inwards.
Then when I reached the top and had a marvelous view of the sun I aimed for the city center and bought fresh coffee and croissants for breakfast.



I think it is a shame to upload the pictures I took on the blog, due to resizing and data-loss
so instead here is a link to imageshack:
Album with images

We're all living in America

It was raining today, so I decided to take a trip to the local mall Kringlan.
All the convenience of 21st century shopping at your leisure.
The only thing I couldn't find was a copy of EDGE but other than that it is a shop until you drop place.


I was extremely "overdressed" in my Sorel fur-lined boots, Eastpack backpack and "Heidi" style pigtails and winter hat, compared to the locals who were all smart and casual for their Saturday shopping trip.

I got myself a really nice pair of Goretex hiking boots, that will serve me well until the weather gets cold enough for the Sorel boots.
I also treated myself to some niceties from the Bodyshop and some Blue Lagoon products.
Last but not least I got groceries which included large mouthwatering pieces of smoked salmon.

Reykjavik around the city center

Reykjavik houses

After being inside for 2 days in a row, I decided to go out and take some pictures this evening.
It is around -5 and the sky is so clear and the air so crisp.
The moon was out and full and when I say full I mean FULL.
Once you've seen the full moon on Iceland it will never be the same again elsewhere.
Unfortunately none of the pictures I took, really does a good effort portraying how beautiful it is.

I took a bunch of pictures, here are some of the houses.

Fast forward

So much stuff happening I think I have to split this into multiple posts :).

Yesterday I was attending an agile/lean seminar @ The Hilton together with some of the other CCP'ers.

Today I had the first session leading up to my Product Owner certificate, tomorrow I will attend the second half. These sessions are also held at the Hilton, which means that I am being really well fed at the moment (understatement really). But that is ok because I think I need to build up some winter fat for January :O).


Speaking of Icelandic food, yesterday I had a chance to sample some of the Icelandic seafood, yummy! I have also discovered Skyr which is an Icelandic dairy product.

First day @ CCP

First day at CCP today and it was excellent!

It was of course dark this morning when I got up and walked to the office, but it was actually OK, because I approached the office from the side were you can view the construction going on behind it and in the dark it just suddenly looked like a spaceship construction yard, very fitting :)

It was a special day today at CCP as the new expansion "Dominion" was released for EVE.
Hence the smell of warm Danish greeted me when I entered the Cantina, good way to start on a new job.

Most of the day was filled with introductions etc.

Tomorrow I'l be attending an agile/lean seminar in Reykjavik.

Ice ice baby

Yes, I am writing from Reykjavik Iceland.
I arrived today at 14:10 local time.
The weather was clear and the inflight view was beautiful.
Snow everywhere and a really nice sky.
I think Iceland did an extra effort to greet me nicely :)

At the moment I am staying in a guest house on Agisgata, it is basically 5 min walk from CCP, 8 min walk from a grocery discount store and 8-10 min walk from downtown.
I have already done a bit of exploring including visiting the tourist office to pick up some leaflets. I also decided to eat out.
The view over the harbor was spectacular, white mountains and blue crisp winter evening sky with a full moon, shame I didn't bring the camera, it is still in my luggage.

Now I am really tired, but in a good way, so I think I'll hit the shower and then taste the Cognac I picked up tax free on the way over, yum yum.

Bags are packed

Yes all bags are ready.
Ticket has been printed.

Not much to do now than kick back and relax until tomorrow.
Flight departs at 11:55 Danish time.

Next time I write it will probably be from Iceland :O)

Almost there.

Shipped my PC today, so with a bit of luck I should have it Tuesday next week.
Internet is already enabled in the new flat in Reykjavik, so I can get online pretty much ASAP, which is nice.

I also bought a really cool new wintercoat today, so I can survive January :O).
But no luck in respect to getting new boots, somehow the shops don't seem to think that women need sensible waterproof boots when they go outside in winter.

All in all this has been the easiest move I have ever made. On the Icelandic side CCP has taken care of everything and since my husband stays here in Copenhagen, I have not been forced into thinking about shipping furniture. Basically I have only shipped my PC and my winter clothing I can have in my suitcase on the plane. Easy peacy.

I'll probably ship another crate with summer clothing and books, come late December, when I am home for X-mas.

1 week to go.

6 days until I fly to Reykjavik and 7 days until I start work.

I got my travel guide to Iceland today, as well as some nice, warm and wolly jumpers. :O)

CCP has been real nice with sorting things on the Icelandic side for me, they are looking into apartment and Icelandic ID number. Oh yes and I believe the bank situation is sorted as well, I basically just need the ID number and to sign the papers and I'll have my wage account and VISA.

Can't live without plastic ;O)

The games I will be working on

EVE
The Butterfly Effect


DUST 514
Official trailer

Crazy Crisis

I tried to call my A-kasse yesterday so I can get my vacation money payed out before I leave,
but got the following message:
"Due to the high number of recently unemployed members, ASE is not taking any calls from existing members today in order to deal with the high volume of new cases".

New adventure coming up in 3...2...1...

In less than 14 days I'll will be flying to Reykjavik to work as an Associate Art Producer for CCP the company making (EVE Online). So I thought it would be a good time to start my new blog so I can share my adventure with my family and friends.

There are still uncertainties in respect to how I am going to ship my computer, but everything else seems to fall into place quite nicely. I just received 1 year worth of contact lenses in the mail, so I don't have to worry about getting a new optician right away which is great.