Another Question

To start out with I have to tell you all that I have ALOT of t-shirts. Many of them have some writting or picture on them concerning martial arts of some sort. This shouldn't be too strange thinking that I have been doing the stuff for 11 years.
But the t-shirt in question today is not a martial arts t-shirt. It is a band t-shirt. And the last 3 or 4 times I have been wearing it people has asked questions about it. The look on peoples faces is the look of "Huh!?". The most common question is without a doubt: "What's that supposed to be?" And now I am going to tell the entire world. Hoping that I wont get the question next time I wear the shirt. But knowing the people around me, who might even read this, I am sure to get the question now that I write this. Well... Bring it!
Anyway!
The t-shirt on trial is this one:

And it is a band t-shirt for the Danish band "Nephew". And yes! I do like "Nephew" and I do have all their studio albums. The symbol on the shirt is an "N" and is also the album cover for the album "Interkom Kom Ind". I did not buy it because of the colors. That would be like buying an "Iron Maiden" shirt because Eddie rules. UP THE IRONS! Ok bad example. Because we all know that "Iron Maiden" and Eddie go hand in hand with awesome. Let's just say that I bought the shirt because I was drunk on a festival where I had just attended a "Nephew" concert and it was a nice t-shirt with pretty colors on it. And the fact that "Nephew" makes some, in my mind, kick ass music has nothing to do with me purchasing the shirt.
So there you have it. Among my many t-shirts there is one with a colorful "N" on it. An "N" that might very well stand for "Nephew"? Could it be? And the fact that people don't know this surprises me a bit. Even people who say they listen to "Nephew" haven't seen this shirt and symbol before? Maybe because they are all criminals who download your music illegally and therfor don't know the album covers? Just a thought. ;o)

Questions, questions.

Whenever people get to know just a little about me two questions start to surface. And they will always arrive sooner or later. I have no idea why?
In recent memory I have gotten the two questions more than ever...
The first is "What is it that you do with your evenings really? You're never home and you never answer your phone?" And the second following close behind: "But!??? Don't you have a girlfriend?"
My answers are usually and honestly: "I am training, teaching or working, and no."
This respons has made me think a bit about my situation. Is it really true that I use so much time teaching and training? And I am both sad and proud to say that it really is.

My training/teaching/work schedule looks something like this:
Monday: Teaching a kids class (5-8 year olds) from 16:45-17:45. And later at 20:30-21:45 I either teach or train aikido. Both classes in Fredericia.

Tueday: Teaching aikido from 20:15-21:45 in vejle. Because it is vejle and I have to take the train I start out from my flat somewhat earlier at around 18:45.

Wednesday: Teaching or training aikido from 18.00-19.15 in Fredericia.

Thursday: At the moment this is my day off. But starting next season I will most likely be teaching the kids class here as well. Same time as on Monday and again in Fredericia.

Friday: Train aikido in Fredericia

This brings us to the weekend. Every other weekend I work at "Dronning Dorotheas Badstue", which is a health-spa, in Kolding. Both Saturday and Sunday is from 9.00-18.00. At times it happens that there are some spa-thingy in Kolding which require extra hands. This is usually Fridays from 17:30-24:00. This obviously means that I am not training on those Fridays.
Moreover I have said yes to take on some new shifts once in a while, also on Fridays. Meaning more work for me, which is good. New shifts are from 18.00-23.00 or something like that?

On weekends that I do not work I most often spend Saturdays at my parents place. Washing my clothes, eating their food. Lifting and moving heavy objects. Stuff like that. And Sundays I like to spend going to football games to support my team FC Fredericia both home and away. I call it football because I am not American.

More than a couple of times a year I use my weekends training aikido. 3-4 times a year a German instructor is invited to Denmark to teach. And because of my rank I am pretty much expected to attend unless someone dies or my legs are broken.
I am currently Shodan, 1. degree black belt, and one of the first to get this rank in Denmark. Now there are 7 black belts in Denmark, so I am one of many. But because I am also an instructor some of the Germans tend to expect more of me than some of the other black belts.
Also I spend many weekends travelling to Germany to train. Going to seminars both with German instructors, but also making sure to be there when Shimizu Sensei is there. Again we are a few who are more or less expected to be there. At least when Sensei is travelling to Northern Germany.

So there you have it.

That's answering question number one. And I guess also question number two?
In between training, teaching, working and travelling I don't seem to have time to do much else.
I am not complaining. Not at all. I enjoy my life. And I am sure that when I get a girl there will be time for her as well. But right now I am not thinking much about that really.
It might sound a little harsh, but in between work, training, football-trips and everything else I pretty much get my social cup filled. And at the end of the day I do enjoy my alone time.

All that being said I do like girls. And I have every intention in getting a girlfriend again some day. But for now... I don't know? Lets just say that I wouldn't say no if the right girl came along.

King of Spontanious Actions... And sadly impuls purchases.

It all started yesterday.
The plan was to hand in my watch for repairs (the glass has been broken for nearly a year) go a local book sale with my mother and buy 5 books that I had seen in a catalogue, have lunch with her at a café owned by a friend, go to my local record dealer and buy 3 specific cds and then go home. This is what really happened...

It started out all right. My watch got handed in and they will contact me when it is ready.
I then went on down through Fredericia to meet up with mum and go book hunting with her. I quickly found 3 of the 5 books I wanted:
"Den der har evnen" - a book with quotes from 2 very very succesful Danish businessmen.
"The Da Vinci Code" - by Dan Brown of course, but in danish. I will have to buy it in english as well.
and "Geographica" - a world atlas with facts about different countries.
What I didn't find was: "Håndbog i Hemmelige Selskaber" - which is a book about different secret societies.
And "Zoneterapi og Akupressur" - a book of techniques I might be able to use in line of work as a masseur.
Sadly the secret society book was sold out but the nice girl behind the counter called another book store and found a copy of the akupressur book. She got my phone number and she would then call me when the book had found it's way to Fredericia. She kinda did, but more on that later.
After the pleasing and somewhat succesfull visit to the book store we headed off towards the café to have lunch. As we arrived at our destination we found that it is closed on Mondays. Somehow, somewhere in the back of my mind I kinda knew that, but here we were, books in hand and nowhere to eat. We quickly decided on one of my favorite spots in Fredericia. "Den Engelske" - My local pub. So we turned around and went back. And I mean litterally back. The pub is on the opposite corner of the book store we just left. We both had lunch (mum a club sandwich(and she's not even a member?) and me a bacon burger) and coffee and then we went on in the program for the day.
Outside the pub we went our separate ways for a short while. Me to go look for the cds and mum go to do her grocery shopping. I didn't find what I was looking for at first, so it was pretty much in and out at the record dealer. And I just went back at met up with my mother who was shopping. I walked around with her for a bit but after a few minutes we parted again. I left to go back to the record dealer and ordre the cds that I wanted.
"Beautiful Minor" - by Julie Maria
"På Kanten af Virkeligheden" - by Julie Maria
and "Yaguar" - by Julie Maria.
The story of me buying 3 cds from the same artist is that I am going to one of her concerts in a couple of weeks. And eventhough I don't know if she will actually come out afterwards to sign autographs, I would not want her to sign some cds that I have burned myself just because I legally have downloaded her music. That wouldn't be right. So I want the cds, and I hope she is signing.
Anyway. I looked around in the shop and found one of cds. But in looking I found 2 completely unrelated cds that I ended up taking with me to the counter. 2 cds with "Me First and the Gimme Gimmes". As I was standing there ready to pay I saw "Meteora - special edition" by Linkin Park at a stupidly low cost. So I grabbed it off the shelf and put it on the counter. I ordred the last 2 cds by Julie Maria and because I am such a good customer I ended up not having to pay for the Linkin Park cd. Sweet!
On the way back through town to get home I once again stopped by the book sale. Just to ask the nice lady if some of the specific books were in english or in danish. The next natural step apparently was to go and have a look at the shelves with books written in english and I found myself a few copies of Harry Potter. "Chamber of Secrets" and "The Goblet of Fire".
From here I started my way home but for some strange reason, even unknown to me, I ended up in a shoestore and after maybe only 5-10 minutes left with a new pair of black Ecco shoes? I still have no idea how this happened?
From there I really did go home and started preparing for teaching my children's group in kicking ass and taking names. And later when I was teaching them I got a call.
Off course I didn't see that until after practice, but it was the nice girl from the book store who told me that my book had arrived and I could just collect it whenever I had the time. So neato for meo.
That was day one. Quick summery. 5 books and 3 cds had spawned into 5 books (3 original and 2 spur of the moment) and 4 cds (1 original and 3 woops, I don't have that ones) and 1 pair of shoes.

That brings us to today.
Already yesterday I decided to go downtown and get my book today, because they would be renovating the sewer system in and around my building today. Starting at 8 AM and stopping at 5 PM. I knew that this would result in my entire flat smelling like sewer so I wrapped myself in warm clothes and headed out on foot into the blizzard that hung over Denmark.
I came down to the book store and told them that I had recieved a call telling me that my book should be here by now. It wasn't!? But it was available only in another city (I got that info yesterday) and it would be in Fredericia later today. Around 3 PM. My thought was something like "Meh! I now have 3 hours to kill." and I went into the next room of the bookstore and bought myself a shit load of stuff for my Filofax. Calender, note, adress/phone and divider sheets. This was not planned. And I went across the street to the pub to get myself something to eat.
After spending 2 hours in the pub which resulted in eating lunch, having a pint of John Bull Ale, 2 cups of coffee and a chocolate muffin I took the chance and went back to the book store. The guy that was out getting books had still not returned, so I ended up walking around the shop finding a book here and a book there and even though I had no intention in buying anything I left the shop with 3 purchases.
"Valhalla 15 - Vølvens Syner" - a comic about the Gods of Nordic mythology.
"Muskler og Styrke Træning" - an anatomic guide to different training exercises.
and "1001 Movies You Should See Before You Die".
I then came to my senses and started on my way home. As I was walking I remembered a dear Facebook friends status update about the blizzard that was to hit Denmark and my joke-comment to that. He had written something about blizzard and the first thing that popped into my mind was the computergame "Warcraft", and I made a comment about Blizzard releasing a "Warcraft IV". For those of you who don't know Blizzard Entertainment is the name of the company responsible for the "Warcraft" and "World of Warcraft" games. Well you get the idea... So back on track! I had this thought about blizzard and "Warcraft" and took a small turn to end up in Fona. As I was leaving Fona a few nimutes later I was carying a small bag with "Warcraft III - Reign of Chaos", "Frozen Throne - Warcraft Expansion Set" and "Fearless" with Jet Li.
Once again I started on my way home and got most of the way without any troubles.
Walking home I realised how much I really enjoy new fallen snow. The sound it makes when you step in it, the way it just covers everything in the landscape and the fact that it muffles the sounds of cars, so one second a car goes by and the next no sound at all. I like that. I don't mind the cold and the snow. It's the wind and the ice that pisses me off. But that is an entire different story all together.
Walking and pondering I made yet another small de-tour to end up buying a little something sweet to go with my coffee later. And then I arrived home. To a flat that smelled like feet and sewer.

So there you have it. What started out as an apointment with my mother to go to a book sale and buy 5 books, have lunch with her and get my watch fixed ended up somewhat different.
The status is:
8 book and 1 waiting.
4 cds and 2 waiting.
1 DVD movie
2 computer games (1 game, 1 expansion pack)
Several sheets for my Filofax
My watch at the repair shop to be collected later this week
A little something sweet to go with my coffee
And a pair of new black Ecco shoes.

Only one thing to say about it really.

Meh!?

The Beginning

Hello.

I have now finally made up my mind to do this thing. Tell the people of the world useless things about myself and the stuff I do and the people that I do these things with.
To start off I think it would be appropriate to tell you all about myself.

As you can see my name is Steffen and I am Danish. Not the pastry, but from the actual country of Denmark, which coincidently is not the capital of Sweden.
I am one of 3 brothers. I have a younger brother: Kenneth and an older brother: Ulrick. Parents: Bente and Niels. I live in Fredericia, born and raised, and so does my parents. Kenneth lives in vejle with his girlfriend Karina, and Ulrick lives in Esbjerg with his wife Sine and their two children Søren and Astrid.

As far as interests go I have a few things that I feel really strongly about. And these topics will without a doubt use up a lot of space in this blog in the future.
On this exact date(01.02.2010 - Which is actually a palindrome, how cool is that?) I have been practising Tendoryu Aikido for 11 years. Aikido is a very dear passion of mine and I spend a lot of time training and teaching it both here in Denmark, but also in Germany. I teach it every other week in my home town of Fredericia in Fredericia Judo & Ju-Jutsu Klub. The weeks that I do not teach there I get to practice myself. Other than that I recently started teaching aikido once a week in vejle at vejle Taekwondo Klub - Tang Soo. And because of the schedule of the different clubs I get to do Tendoryu Aikido up to 4 times a week. And I really enjoy it.

Another big passion of mine is movies. I love my DVDs, and apparently I have a lot of them. At least that's what people tell me. The range of the genres go from old danish comedy over cartoons and animated movies across to TV series (C:S:I, Heroes, Friends, 21 Jump Street, He-man, Black Adder, The Young Ones, Bottom, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, etc) and ending up somewhere around the point where "The Sound Of Music" is on the same shelf as "Deer Hunter", "The Blues Brothers" and "The Shawshank Redemption". So there is a little of everything. But looking into things I would say that martial arts movies do have a special place in my heart. I know it's very kitch but I do enjoy my Steven Seagal and my Van Damme movies. Without these two fine gentlemen I would not have started a)Collecting movies and b)Practice martial arts.

After some time where I haven't touched a book unless I really really REALLY had too, I have started reading again. Just for fun - I know people might not see this as normal behavior. Again I can't really put a category on what I enjoy more? The shelves show titles like "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep", "The Catcher In The Rye", "Lord Of The Rings", "The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy", "Harry Potter" and "The Name Of The Rose". So again. Not really anything concrete in terms of preference. But fantasy is always fun to read.

When it comes to music I can just say that I enjoy it a lot. My prefered kind is rock, hard rock and metal. I do like the sounds of the electric guitar. That being said I also listen to pop, classical and other types of music with great joy. But to make a perfect day Steff needs his electric guitar. But again when the shelves are lined with CDs from Jethro Tull, R.E.M., Jewel and various soundtracks I can't really hide from the fact that here the taste is also somewhat mixed.
And this last thing might come as a surprise to some, but I actually play a little golf as well. Nothing big yet but my goal for the year 2010 is to get permission to play the 18 hole courses around the world. At the moment I have not taken the different tests and so on and so forth, but as I just wrote. That's my golf goal of 2010.

With past time interest, or some of them at least, out of the way we now head down the road that is work and educational related.
Last year I pasted my exams and got the title of masseur. At the moment I am employed in a wellness spa in Kolding, which I enjoy a lot. And my future plans include my own practice/clinic.

I have during my years doing aikido taken various courses that in the end entitle me to call myself a licensed instructor. In that same category I have taken and passed classes that now makes me a qualified mediator. In other word I can tell people what to do and I am pretty good at it.

Now then. I will now end this first of hopefully many contributions to this blog I'll see you all soon.