Been there, done that and didn't wear a t-shirt

Just back from several days in Denmark visiting Ms A and her son who had his confirmation in the local church. I admit I was slightly puzzled when we had the invitation and even more so when I was told that no, he didn't want to join the church particularly, he was just doing it with all his classmates. What I failed to appreciate was that just about the WHOLE of Denmark year 9 gets confirmed this month. It was a HUGE event, necessitating 2 church services, 2 days apart in that small town alone. Danish flags were flying everywhere, notably outside every single confirmands house. Huge parties took place too, in local restaurants, marquees and private houses.

The girl's outfits were nothing short of spectacular, 14 year old mini-brides in metres of tulle and lace, bare midriffs and and shoulders notwithstanding. The boys wore 'smart', trousers and ties and ours had a brand new suit which he wore with aplomb as though he always dressed like that. For a chap who doesn't even wear school uniform he carried it well. The guest's attire was another fashion story: Mothers in opera length ball gowns, Danish outfits in Laura Ashley style or just plain smart sat alongside Grannies in their finery. Dads wore suits or smart casual, we wore suits and high heels. Good job too we would have looked well out of place in t-shirts and jeans.

The coming of age theme continued down to the presents too, not for our boy a few t-shirts and the usual teenage accoutrements, no he had credit card holders, hundreds of kroner and not one but 2 expensive watches. Somehow the book of Danish fairy tales he also received, albeit in English, for this is a multinational/multilingual family, totally missed the point.

Aarhus here we come

As if one Spring holiday and a recent long weekend in the smoke wasn't enough, another trip away has leapt up and bitten us on the proverbial. Ms A, our zany Danish friend and ex-neighbour, is throwing a party to celebrate her son's confirmation in April, the invite arrived on WH's birthday and of course we are going.

What a logistical nightmare. The most convenient flights are from Stansted, a 4 hour drive from here at least, we take off very early in the morning and arrive back at midnight. So that involves a hotel either side. Then we have to get from Aarhus to the family's home much further south, so we have to hire a car. We could get away with a small one but somehow Denmark doesn't do small ones to rent as WH found out last time he went (alone), so big car it is then. Having discovered all this I tried to make all the relevant bookings. For some reason last night all the relevant web sites were either down or running like treacle on ice, not worth waiting for. So this morning I was up with the lark and maxing out the credit card.

All I left have to do now is confirm the car hire, I put this off as it seems so horrendously expensive and I sort of thought that maybe later on it would be cheaper or perhaps I wouldn't notice the huge amount, either way I've postponed this until last. Last time WH went to Denmark we had an argument with the car hire people that went on for months as they insisted he had returned the car empty of petrol and had charged him £70 for the privilege, in reality he had filled it to overflowing 5km from the drop off precisely so he didn't get charged very much.

So now we have 5 days in Denmark to look forward to, only 5 weeks before the big Greek trip, somehow I think the house move will be on hold for even longer.