SVEN-HANSEN.DK - Mit liv - Mitt liv - My life

ENGLISH 10

August 23, 1989.

August 23rd the plane takes off from Sondre Strom/Kangerlussuaq with course for Kastrup and finally forward and through customs, I received a more than warm reception of my Lisa at the airport. JUST SUPER!

We go home to Lisa's apartment on Amagerbrogade, as I do not have furniture in my own apartment yet. We spend a few days enjoying each other before I go out to Poul Villy, at De Blå Busser in Holte. I just want to hear if he has a job for me. Ok, just missing a driver on line 195 on Monday. Really good, so I happily show up and get started on my driving again. But it did not last long as the swelling with the yellow dot under my left eye gets bigger and suddenly one night while driving, I start to see double. I simply can not go on and get hold of Poul Villy, to get a replacement out on the line. Poul Villy gets a little angry and I understand him well now. Now I have just started in the company for the third time and then I am already getting sick. Sorry Poul Villy, that was not my plan.

So I am looking for a doctor who will send me on to Gentofte Hospital. Here I get samples taken from the swelling and then I just have to wait for the result. The doctors are in doubt and I will then have a spinal cord sample taken as a precaution.

Finally, Lisa and I are called in for a conversation with a doctor named John Myhre. He is somewhat serious and tells that the tests show that I have Acute leukemia in full onset at 6 weeks. Also tells that with Acute leukemia, there are only approx. 4 months from the first uncontrolled cell division until death. That was really nice to hear, wasn't it? Not so much packing things in, but short and precise message that leaves out any doubt. Please rinse!

My Lisa has heard about the disease before and reacts very violently to the information. I do not know about it and just want to swallow the news first and the explanation from John. He says that now I need treatment very quickly and can start the next day if I am ready. Whoa! I'll have to swallow that information first and agree with John to get in there Monday morning instead. Lisa and I go all the way home, about 15 kilometers from Gentofte to Amager, where we have to spend the weekend understanding and at the same time prepare what it is now stood in front of us and what tasks need to be solved immediately.

With Lisa by my side, I am admitted to Gentofte Hospital, ward 724 and quickly enter a treatment room, where I am hung almost vertically up in a stand, with my head down. Then I get a catheter inserted directly into the spinal cord down at the hip. Not very nice, I just have to remember to say. In short – AUCH DAMMIT.!

Then I have to hang here for 8 hours while the chemo fluid runs directly into the spinal cord. Something of an experience to hang out here and just wait. Lisa sat faithfully by my side and we held hands each other all the time. Hard to talk while I'm just hanging there upside down. But we try then even though it is not very cheerful to look at the head.

The next day I have a "Hickman" catheter placed in my chest, for use in the next 5 chemotherapies planned. Asking what the prospects are for healing and hearing opportunities are now so good that up to 65% survive Acute Leukemia today. 65 percent! These are not the brightest prospects, so it does set our thoughts in motion.

A few days later I get my first chemotherapy through the Hickman catheter in my chest. It goes really well the first few days, but then it also goes completely crazy and I am appointed to King of side effects. The kilos rattle off me and as the weeks go by I start peeling skin all over my body, just like the hair goes loose in big tufts so I shave all the dirt off. I am completely losing my sense of time and place now that I am being filled with painkillers and all sorts of other medications to alleviate other side effects. I float around in an unreal foggy world and in the morphine intoxication I imagine a lot of unreal and ridiculous things, my Lisa tells me later. Among other things, I am convinced that I have a birdhouse in my back.

But now things are starting to get a little more stabil and after a month in hell, the morphine is being taken from me a lot against my will. Honestly, I can see now afterwards that I had become addicted to morphine and just wanted it, whether I needed it or not. But it was Lisa who made the decision for me and got me out of the morphine craving, I'm convinced of that now. It is very easy for healthy and "normal" people to say it is easy to stop, but now I have tried to just be able to say "it hurts and I want morphine" and then get it almost unlimited by the doctors. So today I see a lot different on addicts.

Well, but no hair, nails and teeth, so no problems there. The kilos rattled off, so I am now 37 kilos lighter than when I started the chemotherapy. My strength is completely gone so I have to be lifted by a crane to get up, just to be washed. I'm like a wet cloth just lying there. But one late night at 11 o'clock, in the private room where Lisa and I are talking, suddenly the doctor John Myhre comes in and says good evening. What now? Yes, he said seriously. Now it was actually him who brought us the bad news earlier that I had Acute Leukemia, so now he would also be the one who came with the good news.

After the last spinal cord test, it has turned out that my Acute leukemia can no longer be seen in the bone marrow! Incredible! Had otherwise been told that it was not unusual to have to have both 3rd and 4th chemotherapy to get this effect. At the same time, John told me that fortunately it had been possible to give me a very strong chemotherapy, because of my good training condition after the weight training, then they could give me a chemotherapy many others would succumb to.

John smiled warmly and said goodnight. Who in the world could sleep now? Lisa and I were happy and there were tears in buckets and we just could not say anything for a long time. There was just hugging and crying indefinitely, so the night just disappeared.

Then it was less important with all the side effects that were now just curls on the road. The hair was gone, the nails were gone, the skin was peeling in large flakes so Lisa simply peeled all my old skin off everywhere in thick pieces so it was a pink baby lying there instead. The teeth started to become quite loose and hurt a lot due to inflammation and it was decided that the best thing would be to remove them all. So in just two days, I'm toothless and can no longer whistle for the girls. Pffyy plfor flnoget lfotrt, with mouth full of vhatt tdamplohner.

Well, now we're moving on. My old friend Morten Deenfort, who I got to know through my old mechanic colleague Bent Sjørup at the HT buses, is a dental technician and offered to make some new teeth for me at a reasonable price. So Morten conjures and I got some completely natural teeth in my mouth, with natural colors. One should probably not look like some Hollywood actor, with plastic smile. Thanks Morten!

Now I was so badly included by the first chemotherapy that the doctors simply did not dare start the next one up, simply because I would not be able to survive the treatment in my current condition. But now that my bone marrow was happily clean now, it was decided to keep me under close supervision and it took almost 6 months before I was strong enough for a chemotherapy again. The kilos slowly returned and the various organs involved began to work again. Lisa and I took a week on Corfu to relax a bit. But without insurance, as no companies would take responsibility, so it became ourselves. It was down here that I suddenly "learned" to eat again. Cheers, where it started to move forward from now on. Weight and strength crept up on me at a nice pace.

Back home, I went for a check-up at the hospital and came into closer contact with a chief physician named Hans Johnsen. He had followed me and noticed that I had worked at the Thule base and therefore could have been in contact with nuclear waste from the plane crash in 1968, when an American bomber crashed on the sea ice up towards the base. Maybe and maybe not, but now I did not have the strength to follow it up, so we put a lid on the case and contented myself with thinking a little "maybe". It will be cumbersome and both time and personally demanding to follow up on such a case. So I would rather focus on completing my treatment here instead. So Lisa and I charge up a few months so I had picked up 20 kilos of the lost 37 again. Then we think it's time to take chemotherapy number 2.

Summer 1990.

The summer of 1990 was spent mainly at Gentofte Hospital, ward 724, where I had become a fairly well-known face, not least because of the many and sometimes serious side effects of chemotherapy. But the incredibly skilled doctors and nurses at 724 did an incredible job for me to get well again. It is impossible to name everyone, so I would say "almost no one mentioned, no one forgotten", but everyone should be thanked for their competent work and efforts. Exceptionally, I would like to highlight doctors Hans Johnsen and John Myhre, who followed me closely, as well as Chief Nurse Marianne, who led the troops on the ward. But otherwise I remember especially the nurses Thyge and Benedikte, not to mention nurse Barbara, who often baked pancakes in the evenings.

Now I do not want to brush up on chemo numbers 2, 3, 4 and 5, but the effect of these were close copies of the first, but allmost without the same dramatic effect. They each had their "bill" for me. If I did not suddenly get super negro curly hair, then I would have a hemorrhagic stomach that would have almost killed me if I had not been stuffed with 26 bags of platelets. Now I'm not really an "Arnold Swartzenegger" anymore, as my arms probably most resembled a pair of pipe cleaners and I was so weak that I could hardly bear to just glance out the window. But it went as planned, perhaps just with the exception of the last chemotherapy, which was close to getting too strong. Instead of the usual 6-8 days of waiting before the bone marrow starts producing blood cells again, it took almost 3 weeks before production started. In fact, it was not until December 23, 1990 that production suddenly started and the blood counts skyrocketed, so I was allowed to go home and celebrate Christmas Eve. A Christmas Eve, which is celebrated in Frederiksberg in Lisa's Grandma Magda's home, where my mother also came. Lisa's brothers Niels and Kim were there, as were Lisa's father Per and his fiancée Charlotte. Look, it was a real Christmas!

New Year's Eve 1990-91. Lisa and I celebrated it in the apartment in Hessensgade 48, 4th floor. A quiet evening with good food and wine so we could enter the new year with good health.

I just enjoy being with my Lisa and we get closer and closer to each other. I have been in love before and probably also thought that I have loved. But it's something completely different with Lisa, who's just in her heart full time. Unbelievable that Lisa did not give up during my illness, where I was sometimes quite unreasonable, to say the least. But Lisa stood by my side unconditionally when I was most unreasonable and I promise myself to keep it in my heart forever. And then we could just as well be together for just as long, right?

Nice to be home again. Gradually I became stronger and start to be able to live a little normal again. I still receive sickness benefits from the municipality, even though I was about to lose them because I had been on sick leave for a year. There were now no major problems getting it extended because the doctors were able to give me a statement which testified that I was back on track. Lucky! Think of the people who are terminally ill who cannot get the doctors' guarantee that they will return to a normal life, but are waiting for the inevitable. They will be forced on cash assistance, with what it now means, by problems in meeting the financial obligations. It is not exactly what a sick and severely debilitated person needs to struggle with, on top of the disease. But this can become a reality for any citizen in Denmark who becomes incurably ill. Thank you for that Denmark! Likewise, during the course of the illness I had used everything I had saved up during the 2 years in Greenland, so the box was empty. I then went to Lyngby-Taarbæk municipality to hear about the possibility of help from there for some new teeth, but got an improbably flabby treatment I did not have the strength to stand up to. I was told that I could just sell my Harley, which was the one of value I eventually had. Had it been a car I had, they could have helped me, but a motorcycle is only considered a hobby and could therefore be dispensed with. Color television was to be sold, black and white could be retained. Flaben at the Municipal Office was also so cheeky to remark if I did not think I had soon had enough, with the treatment in the hospital system. I did not have the strength to take up the fight, but turned around and left the office with pride intact. Look, it was the lovely Denmark I was so lucky to be born and raised in. No, you should rather be a convenience immigrant here and be able to get in a bag and sack, just by being able to say "Asylum".

But now I had gradually gathered enough strength, I thought and I wanted to find a job again. Luckily it went very easily and soon I was out driving again, this time in City Trafik. I was also offered a bus mechanic job in the company, but declined because I am not sure I have enough strength for the sometimes heavy work as a bus mechanic.

Lisa and I just enjoyed being together without thinking about illness anymore. And our employers were great when we asked about extra vacations and extended holidays. 3-4 times a year we went to a warmer sky. Often on Gran Canaria, but the curiosity also sent us further out into the world that entices with experiences and exciting people.

February 29, 1992

Leap year! Nice enough so that the year is not postponed, so we suddenly have Christmas in the summer. Actually, February 24th is the day of the shooting, but it has been moved to February 29th for practical reasons. Another tradition is that on February 29, the woman is entitled to something special on the day of the shooting. It dawns on me when my Lisa suddenly proposes to me!

Can I say anything other than YES? With everything we've gone through together, so it's pretty well polished edges we can start out with and the future looks bright for us. We find the day, Saturday the 18th of July (Lisa turns 30 the next day) and get an appointment at Copenhagen City Hall.

Lisa shows up in white and yellow with a smart hat. Stupid me a lot, because of course I forget to buy the bridal bouquet, what else? But my lovely sister Lizzie saves me at the finish line as she had a beautiful bouquet with her for the purpose. Many friends and family show up to see us get married. And the answers to the question: "Do you want?" Sounds happy 2 times jaaa from both of us.

Later in the day we invite the guests to Løjtehus on Amager, where food and drink are enjoyed in a good mood before we go home to Hessensgade and continue there. In fact, we would have continued at Løjtehus, but here they have completely misunderstood the agreement. They think we stop after lunch and afternoon coffee, so they are waiting for another company in the late afternoon, so there is simply no room. How they got that idea, we have no idea. Well enough, we had not ordered dinner here, but then had, we believe, an agreement to let the day and evening show see what would happen. At the same time, the t jener starts to become somewhat untimely and turns off the music, so we do not want to put more money here. In fact, a little annoying, because really the intention was to continue the party. Well, but maybe we can continue the party another time somewhere else. In any case, Løjtehus does not have to add premises.

Our Honeymoon goes to Seattle on the west coast of the United States and in a rented car we drive inland and north to Canada. Here we have an agreement with our lovely friends Iben and Kim, to meet in Jasper National Park, where we were to stay in a nice hotel. So fine, we had 4 waiters at the dinner table and Kim and I have to be provided with a borrowed jackets and tie to be able to enter the restaurant. Haha, we were entertaining to watch, to say the least, Kim and I. Wearing these checkered jackets, we almost looked like Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Kim with too long sleeves and I with too short. Many thanks to Iben and Kim for the wedding dinner at the hotel. Super dinner, which we supplemented with picked up Hotdogs in the hotel room later. A time of great experiences followed when we, with Iben and Kim as guides, saw so many interesting places, just as we were again filled with good food and drink, not least at their home. They are not cooks for nothing.

Iben and Kim show the way to their home in Alberta Beach, where we get a room with them. A really fun time follows, where we bla. Iben's brother Jens and his lovely wife Alice also visit the town of Little Smoky, where Jens acts as a hunting guide for tourists, just as Jens' son Jacob has come to help with the guide business. Here we drive around with Jens in the forests and enjoy the landscape to the fullest and soak up the grandeur of the Canadian forests, if we do not just enjoy being together in the huge log house in the middle of the large forests.

.Home in Alberta Beach again, we should also see the "Edmonton Mall", which is supposed to be the world's largest mall with 953 stores (see also the "Links from Everywhere" folder). After a few weeks with lovely Iben and Kim, we drive south and into the USA again, where we drive around for a good week with no special goals, other than to relax in some good hotels and otherwise just enjoy life together and relax with eyes open.

Encounter a lot of nice people before we find Seattle and the plane back to Denmark again, so we can just get the job done and get some money in the coffers before we find a new interesting place to visit.

Margarita, an island north of Venezuela, was honored with our visit to the capital, Porlamar, where we stayed at the "Eagle Inn." We were there for 3 weeks and often took taxis around the island. One of the many trips went north, up to a National Park where we rented a boat with a skipper that sailed us around the lagoon towards the Atlantic Ocean and here we saw pelicans and other birds up close and the fish swam in the clear water around the boat. It's just life here!

Another "experience" was buying gasoline on the island. Only 60 øre per liter! No wonder there are so many old and big cars here. Even taxis are big and we often drive around in a big American jerk with red velor upholstery. To drive us around for a whole day, including the visit to the National Park, the bill was only about 80 kroner. So I wonder if you can afford it? Just luxury!

The first time Lisa and I were in Thailand, it was a 10-day trip to Bangkok filled with experiences. We see Rose Garden and Samutprakarn Crocodilefarm, among others, just as we often hired a tuk-tuk (3-wheeled scooter) to transport us around the capital. New restaurants every day and for every meal, pretty much. A really good piece of advice is to go down to the 3rd behind the alley to eat where the menus are only in Thai. Simple cheap food and the food is absolutely delicious and exciting. You can not read or see what it is, but it tastes great! So it's just about looking local and pointing to some dish.

A super trip where we live in Stalden, "Stable Lodge" , which is owned by Danske Erik and his Thai wife. A pure relaxation and cozy trip without the really big trips around. Here we just wanted to take a city break one day at a time.

Back home at work and with friends and family, time passes quickly, not least with driving on the Harley for meetings and other events in that world. It is now mostly me who is Harley man and Lisamin who enjoys the silence at home when I am out and with the others who are just as crazy as I am when it comes to Harley.

The jobs are also taken care of, Lisa at SAS at Copenhagen Airport and I at Bus Denmark as a driver and mechanic as needed. Well, I was also employed for a period at Copenhagen Airport as a police officer and worked here to drive the "Follow me" wagons and lead the planes into the stands. But it did not last long, as the salary was miserable and I was then offered a job in "SAS Servicepartner" at night. Admittedly, I probably should not have said yes to that, because working hours totally collided with Lisa's working hours, so it only lasted for 3 months before I found out behind the wheel of the bus again, this time in Citytrafik.

Thailand again and this time the trip goes to Jomtien, where we rented the "Grand Jomtien Palace Hotel" for 7 weeks. Nice with good time, so that the day does not have to go at full speed to see it all in no time.

Many things to look at, like the sea on the other side of the beach road calling to us. A lot of time we relax walking or taking a cart to Pattaya a few miles from here where there are many things and we often find a fun restaurant. Suddenly one day we see on a sign that we can get to the island of Koh Chang. Just the two of us and we quickly buy a couple of tickets and hop on the bus, which after a few hours arrives at a port where the boat can sail us out to Koh Chang, where we have rented a beach house just 15 meters from the sea. Just lovely and we laze the days in the sun and enjoy the good food and company in a beach bar run by a couple of gays. Really nice people who do not know what good they will do for us so we can enjoy the days here.

An exciting experience on Koh Chang was when we discovered that Jysksengetøjslarsen had adopted some obsolete work elephants and retired them here on the island by a piece of rainforest, instead of being killed. At least that was the story we got.

We came down to the morning bath of the elephants, where they splashed in a large water hole in the middle of the jungle. After the morning bath, the elephants and their Mahut (leader) went up to a place where we could walk around and greet the individual elephants. A nice close contact with these magnificent animals before we had to climb on the back of "our" to go for a walk in the rainforest. Exciting ride up and down impassable trails that one would not think these large animals could move along. But they went like big off-road vehicles, completely safe along paths we others would certainly avoid.

Totally exciting to try a sightseeing scene on one of these amazing animals and at the same time enjoy the silence of the rainforest here and at the same time experience the perfect collaboration between the elephant and its personal Mahut. Was told that elephants can only have one Mahut and that they sound to him without nonsense. It is the total collaboration we see here at the "guest house" where the experience did not cost anything at all, but we donated a little to the animals' entertainment instead.

After the elephant ride we go down to the local motorcycle rental company, where I rent a motorbike with a 100 cubic engine, there is no bigger one. HaHa, we have to give it up soon, because the hills are too big and steep for it to pull us up to the top, so we have to turn around along the way and stay where we are. So the end will be that we hand over the "moped" again and find our beach house and the food pots at the gay couple in the beach bar.

After the rest and silence of the island, we find our way back to Jomtien and Pattaya where we just drive around, just as we often find in a larger shopping tent city in Pattaya, where there are a lot of small bars and really cheap shopping. Just imagine, a pair of Lewis or Wrangler cowboy pants for 30-35 kroner and you can not see or feel it is copies. The question arises, whether it is not such trousers that are sold in Denmark for 8-900 kroner? I also get a tailor-made black fabric jacket, with a super nice embroidery of an eagle head with the Harley-Davidson DK club name on the back, all for only approx. 200 Kroner. Well, but after 7 really nice weeks, suddenly the time comes for us to return to everyday life again.

February 1997.

So off to Hvidovre Hospital on Monday morning, where Lisa and I will soon talk to doctors and nurses. The doctor wants to put Lisa under general anesthesia but the Queen will not, so it will happen under local anesthesia instead. A nice big piece of her muscle in the forearm is being removed, so Lisa can be sure that there are no metastases on the way to another place. Everything is going well and it then needs to be checked for the next 10 years because Lisa has a lot of birthmarks. It also needs to be removed some of them as they look suspicious but luckily no one else has cancer in outbreaks. Just really nice!

But in the future, we must always be aware of whether a birthmark changes and becomes "woolly" at the edge, or even worse if wounds begin to appear, which is a clear sign that something is wrong. Then it's just off to the hospital again.

February 1998.

We enjoy life with a lot of wonderful friends and acquaintances, so we do not really think about long journeys before February 98, as we look forward to Thailand again. "Larsen Rejser" has sold us a 3-week flight to Pattaya and Nordic Air is chartered for the flight. But only 2 days before departure, "Larsen Rejser" canceled our trip, as Nordic Air crashes and closes. We are told that Larsen can send us to Thailand, with scheduled flights and flight changes 3 times along the way. No thanks! Quickly into Spies and here we are so lucky that they have a 3-week trip to Miami, Florida, departing in 2 days. Buy the trip immediately and then in to "Larsen" to get our money back for the canceled trip. It can not be done right away, but the travel agency promises that the money is in our account when we return home from Florida. Fine.

Off going it goes with SAS and Florida received us kindly. We take a taxi to the hotel on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach. Friendly place with nice pool and sun loungers just outside our room. Can you ask for more?

Lisa and I go as usual many walks, either down through the city or along the coast and enjoy the Atlantic Ocean with the great silence that is here in the evening hours. But we will see more and rent a car and drive north on Highway 95 through cities like Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Jupiter and Palm Bay, where we will spend the night in a few places before we plan to drive west inland to Orlando, where Disney World is located. In fact, the plan was to drive into the city of Kissimmee (pronounced: ki'-simmi) to find a hotel here. But by chance we find a motel on Road 91, also known as the Ronald Reagan Turnpike. Lovely place not far from the town of Kissimmee, we will probably drive in until later in the evening to take a look.

February 22, 1998

Just want to mention that it's February 22nd, 1998 and early evening it starts to rain and the wind is increasing quite sharply so we decide to wait to drive into Kissimmee until the next day. Now it starts to blow really hard, so the building starts shaking and creaking in the walls. Looking straight out the door, but quickly closing again and going in and turning on the television. Maybe there's a movie or something else worth watching. The first channel is a news channel broadcasting Tornado Alert for Kissimmee right now! It is only 4-5 km from where we live now, so we are on the canal all night. It's a bit scary because the storm pulls well in the motel and a little fantasy images come to mind using the television

Luckily the storm calmed down a bit in the morning and we fell asleep. The first thing we do when we wake up is turn on the television. Wow! News from Kissimmee, where the tornadoes have virtually wiped out most of the buildings in the city, not far from where we slept at the motel. Kissimmee looks like a war zone where the bombs have fallen close. How lucky can you be? Imagine if we had found a hotel in Kissimmee as planned, instead of here on Route 91 outside Kissimmee. It was pure laziness that we did not drive on and instead rented into the hotel here in their last available room. And thanks for that!

We do not want to be curious and drive into the disaster area because we simply have nothing to do where there is a chaos of emergency vehicles and rescuers are busy working their way through destroyed homes scattered throughout the area where there was a by the day before. Scary to think that Lisa and I just by chance have not been at the center of this disaster. Had there not been a vacant room left at the hotel we slept in, we would have driven on to Kissimmee and found a hotel there.

We hear later in the news that there have been 7 Tornadoes in the area and so far there are 42 killed and 260 wounded. It's been the tornado in Florida's history with the most killed. We can not help but think that only one incident meant that we did not stay overnight at a motel in the middle of Kissimmee and in that way we might have been part of the numbers in the news. A little creepy.

Somewhat affected by the situation like other guests in the hotel restaurant here in the morning where we eat our breakfast. But now we have to find our way to Orlando, where Disney World is nearby. Large area which contains everything that childhood was full of as far as Disney is concerned. An adventure world you can not avoid even getting a little childish in. There are many things to try, including a high-speed train that takes us around Disney World. A wonderful day where the child comes to the surface again.

It will be a day filled with Disney characters and fairytale houses before we drive off to find a place to spend the night, to rest on top of the day's many experiences. The next day we find Universal Studios, which also offers many experiences. Here it is especially in the scenes and productions from several films we have seen before. Very fun and it can really be recommended to visit the place.

We then drive east to Titusville and from there south through Indian River City and across the bridge to the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral and where NASA's space shuttle center is also located. Here we come around and see everything and nothing, so to speak. Americans love to show everything that has been a success and it is also really exciting to look around in space shuttles and rockets. We were also pretty high up with the elevator in a building and saw it all from above. Incredibly large areas the space center is located on. Furthermore, we came and while we were walking around looking at things in a giant hall, a nice older gentleman walked around and greeted people and was helpful. It turned out to be Neil Armstrong, "The First Man on the Moon". Maybe it was a part-time job he had in his spare time? But it was a lot of fun to greet the boy.

It was almost a whole day in the sign of the room and after some good food, we find the car and after a night at is fine hotel, we drive again to Miami and our hotel there, 400 kilometers south. Back at the hotel, we relax by the pool in the sun before heading out into the city in the evening and finding a cozy place to eat. The next day we drive out to the Everglades, a large area with streams, forests and plains. Here we find an Indian who offers us a ride out into the swamps for a few hours, in a pontoon boat with propeller motor for propulsion. Off we go along streams, where we stop at a small island, where there are many raccoons begging for bread and other things we might have with us.

And it's just something for Lisa, who is kneeling by the water's and playing with raccoons. Suddenly the Indian, our guide, says to me, "Get in the boat!" And to Lisa he says quickly and loudly, "DO NOT turn around, but get up and go backwards to the boat and jump up quickly!" The Native American had prepared us before the voyage that his words were law out there and should be followed immediately so we respond quickly and Lisa has just gotten on the boat before an Alligator of 3-4 meters slowly grows up through the water, only 1½ to 2 meters from where Lisa used to sit on her knees with the raccoons. A little scary and a strong reminder that it is not right here a picnic basket and sleeping blanket is the best choice. We sail around for a couple of hours or more and see several of these giants of the past having their domain here in the swamps. And back at the mooring, there is now a 2-meter alligator lying by the water's edge looking at us. Our guide tells us that it does nothing. "Freddy" comes in every day and looks at the tourists. Lots of fun and we'll just leave Freddy alone!

Back in Miami, we deliver the car back and instead we use buses and feet to get around and see the city. We are just full of experiences and instead use the time to just enjoy each other full time and after 3 weeks, we find the airport, with the plane back across the Atlantic to Amager and our job, which probably wants us to start working again.

Miami is clearly an exciting place. On top of that, we felt a few times as participants in an episode of the police series "Miami vice", where we witness arrests with the detainees lying on the street and the police shouting with drawn pistols. Not something we usually see in Denmark, but I wonder if it comes with the usual 10-15 year delay to Denmark ?? So we think it will be very normal in Dannevang in 2010.

Florida was an exciting place instead of Thailand, which was the original destination if the airline's bankruptcy had not changed our travel plans very quickly.

Summer 1999:

This year we flew to Newark on the east coast and toured a bit and drove from there north up to Buffalo and Niagara Falls and then west through Canada. We drove back into the United States northeast of Chicago, rounded the city and from there up through Wisconcin and reached the city of Millwaukee with the Harley-Davidson factory, which of course had to be visited. Something I have been looking forward to for many years, so it was with my eyes on the stalks when the factory finally had to be visited and examined by myself.

After seeing the sacred halls in the factory, we drove south again down through Chicago and from there east through the states, including to the city of York where Harley-Davidson's engine factory is located. It was then just a Slaraffenland for an old Harley guy to come in and see oceans of new Harley engines standing in endless rows on the shelves waiting to be assembled.

We had a fun little experience outside of York when we found a small motel for the night. The manager here looked like one from the old Chaplin movies, with bald head, villain's beard and all. He lit up when we told him we were from Denmark, because maybe we could help him? He had shortly before had some other Danish guests who had invited him to "Ringiiii". What the heck is "Ringiiii", we thought. But then he told about a festival and of course it was the "Ring Festival" he meant.

At first he thought the others had pissed on him, but when we confirmed that there really is something called "Ringefestivallen" he was really happy and was now sure he would visit Denmark and Ringe the following year. We got hold of a map of Denmark and showed him where Ringiiii was on Funen (Fyn – the big island in the middle og Denmark)) and he was happy.

HæHæ. In the same place there was a coin box by the bed, which we absolutely had to put a 25 Cent in. You big parmesan cheese! The bed began to creak and creak as the bed base twisted up and down. Yeah Al that sounds pretty crap to me, Looks like BT aint for me either. But now it was just a matter of turning off the dirt, but it just kept going. I think the shit had settled in the coin box, because after half an hour I had to go down under the bed and tear out the cord so we could have some night rest.

Puha, we got a nice night's sleep and found Newark Airport the next day and were lucky that there was room on the DC-10 home to Dannevang and the soft beds in Hessensgade 48.

Well, but it only took a few hours before we found a good deal in the newspaper. And then off in the car to Poland and the city of Szczecin. Here we booked into the Hotel Radisson for a few days, to see a bit of the city. Incredible luxury here at the hotel, which stood in stark contrast to the city just outside the windows. We sat at well-set tables of abundance while poor people sat right outside the windows begging. It was a rather strange experience and it got the thoughts going that we were probably a little disadvantaged in this life, just to be able to travel when we wanted and where we wanted. We are lucky!

It is summer and suddenly I see in the newspaper that there is a small bicycle shop for sale in Valby on Valby Langgade. Yeah, why not? I'm quick and buy it without really thinking about it. I quit my job in "City Traffic", which probably shakes my head a little over what I'm up to now. In fact, I do not know exactly what I want either, but the idea is to try it out a bit and then sell again when the fun is over. So I paint the room and throw out a lot of junk from the previous owner so the store is going to look more presentable.

Unbelievable that Lisa does not complain about my sudden whims, but she probably thinks "just let him" and sees what happens. We both get some ideas from time to time and so why not follow them? That's what gives life a little color.

There's really a lot to do here, but I do not think it's bike mechanic I should have left on my business card. It doesn’t really catch on and I decide to sell the business again. So I put an ad in the newspaper and sooner or later a young man arrives who thinks the store is exactly what he is looking for. Then it's just about selling again and I certainly do not lose anything. Haha, it's just me in a nutshell. Directly into it without thinking too much and try things out, from a sudden thought. Fine enough, so now I'm no longer curious in that direction.

OK! Sometimes I probably act before the brain is activated. But that was fine enough with that bike shop, but I will probably never get rich on money with my sudden whims and ideas I get all the time. Well and h what so? I'm rich in experience and can shake a few stories out of my sleeve that I can tell my grandchildren if David could otherwise produce some for me. And I definitely think my lovely Lisa will enjoy being Grandma.

After a lovely summer of Harley driving and winter has started to come, we are going to book a little vacation again. Christmas and New Year go by, so it will be February without us getting together to book the holiday. I have already had a couple of days off and today is my lovely Lisa's last day at the airport before the holidays, with an evening shift which stops at 22 o'clock as usual. Now I have been watching travel in teletext for a while and it is simply no one. But I call in to Travel Spies, without telling Lisa that, in the morning and am told they have a trip for two, for 2 weeks to Madeira tomorrow for 4000 Dkr., if I was quick.

In the afternoon, the price dropped to 3000, but it's still too expensive, I think. So I wait until half an hour before closing time at Spies before I go into Spies Travel and say hello at the counter. See, now they are hot on the sale of the trip and on the question of how much it costs now, the seller says: "What do you want to give?". I say "You can get 1000 for both of them!" and the seller says "Top".

Continued in ENGLISH 11.