Coping again

I'll stick with a mullet thanks.


A few weeks a go my friend mentioned that he was going to see a Matisse exhibition in Denmark. I like Matisse and after a little chat about various things including the fact that, earlier this year, I had visited the chapel he decorated in Vence and after my friend mentioned that his daughter didn’t want to go (and so there was a spare ticket) he suggested I went; so I did, last Thursday.

We arrived at the very handsome airport (unlike the Crawley Arndale Centre which we had set off from) just before lunch and made our way by foot to the hotel. We were working on instinct and so headed off in the wrong direction. Eventually we were given directions by a police man by which time we were a both a bit peckish and ready to sit down. As we came by the train station again, I was walking slightly ahead of my companion, when I heard his bag hit the ground behind me. I turned in time to see him hit the ground very soon after. He then rolled off the pavement into a puddle at the edge of the road; he is epileptic by the way. We weren’t looking very expensive when we eventually entered the Grand Hotel. I don’t think my friend had fully recovered from his episode as he got quite angry about the lighting arrangements in his room. He complained, got dried off and we went for lunch.

This meant retracing our steps yet again, passing the interesting looking Tivoli Gardens, earth’s oldest theme park, which was closed for the application of Christmas decorations. In due course we got to the more interesting part of town. By the station, as is often the way, the City is a bit bleak but you don’t have to walk far to find an attractive, buzzing centre with plenty of cafes and happy looking people. We found a restaurant down a side street which we liked because of its lack of touristiness. It was quite dark inside, pictures of kings and queens on the wall. It was busy with locals, many of the tables had large platters on them which looked good. When ours arrived it had two pork chops, two breaded haddock, portions of other fish and various salads as well as a tasty thing that we decided to call ham and mushroom surprise. We ate the lot; very good it was too at 15 krona per head, about £14.

Afterwards we felt we deserved a rest and retired to the hotel for a couple of hours before retracing our steps again, headed for a bar or two. Bar number one was quite uninteresting. Bar number two; Oscar, looked inviting. My sidekick found a table whilst I went to get a round of drinks. It was much friendlier in here. I placed the drinks on our table and as I sat down, mentioned that there was a very large jar of free condoms on the bar. This didn’t seem to register with my friend; I said, “it must be because it’s a gay bar”. “Is it?” he looked round. “There are some girls over there”, he countered.

In a short while a couple of lasses sat down at the table next to us. They were lovely. The girl opposite me had a kind of tight skinned alien quality, the girl next to me was less feminine. We chatted and bought each other drinks for an hour or two before leaving about elevenish. The women walked with us towards our hotel (they were getting a train home) and pointed out where they had been married two years ago at the town hall, Beautiful Alien proudly showed me her wedding ring.

To be continued………