This might be a superfluous post!

Wednesday.
Morning.
Not really that early.

On the second cup of coffee of the day, probably won’t be the last, though breakfast is still to be had and might even go into the hours of lunch before I finally get around to getting something.
Yesterday Dave had an appointment so Empy and I went to The Big ASDA to practice the Art of Grocery Shopping since Yule is around the corner, temporally speaking, and we needed to acquire foodstuffs for the traditional Feast of the Brits which includes both beef and turkey. So off we went!
I had expected a big store but what I hadn’t expected was the gauntlet of employees pushing carts, trolleys and cages around with little regard for human life as they milled about, absorbed in their duties and blind to the presence of customers. Armed with our own trolley we began the careful negotiating the aisles of the shop, traversing one landscape after the other inhabited by a flora of kitchenware, seasonal snacks and the occasional shopper in a more or less vegetative state as they scurry through the labyrinth of great deals with an unsatisfied look on their faces…
Shopping in a foreign country is one of the best things about travelling because more than anywhere else, it’s at the supermarket you get to see the real country, the real people and a good chunk of the culture encompassed in how people behave, what foods are available and all that and foods are important as one goal while here is to cook a traditional Danish Christmas dinner for Dave and Empy. The task is made interesting by the fact that the names of the various cuts of pork in Denmark isn’t necessarily named for the part of the pig where they’re situated but rather have names based in old traditions and they rarely translate well. I think I have it figured out, though, so tomorrow I’m off to the butcher’s! Luckily, there’s not one but two butchers within walking distance so there should be a good chance of getting exactly what I need.

The timing of our different traditions also work well since Danes celebrate Yule or Christmas on the 24th of December so we’ll have two delicious holiday meals!
In Denmark we generally celebrate holidays on the evening before the actual holiday and I suspect it’s because people back in the day could then get shitfaced during the celebration and use the holiday itself to nurse their hangovers. Or maybe a thousand years ago they just started drinking right after work was done and continued through the night and into the following day, who knows? It wasn’t all plundering and pillaging, ya know!
Now it seems that the main concern is the pickled red cabbage because it’s probably not the same as in Denmark, it almost certainly isn’t and I wasn’t too keen on bringing a kilo of it with me in my luggage which would be transported in a cargo hold that might not be quite as pressurized as the passenger cabin.
It’ll be fine!
I never really had a point with this entry…