Now for some long overdue updates. I don’t know how many actually read this, but most of the time I write down these updates for my own benefit as well.
Lightning strikes as often as it likes
Life is a bitch. I was on my way to skydiving some Sundays ago with a good friend. We met up at around 8am, well in advance of my jump schedule of 11am. We were to take the A train to Køge, transfer to a regional train to get to Haslev and then bike to the drop zone.
We got to Haslev at around 9:30, only to discover that the regional train going to Haslev was closed for the whole of July! Since we had our bikes with us, we couldn’t take the bus, so we had to go back to central station to take another route via Roskilde.
We got back to the central station at 10:45. I called up the skydivers and told them we were going to be late because of the mix up with the train schedule. The colleague who invited me offered to pick us up at Ringsted when we get there, so we decided to leave our bikes at central station.
On our way out of the station, there was a slight ruckus at the door because the guy opening it was taking too much time. When i finally did get out and started looking for a place to leave my bike, i noticed that my bag was open and my wallet was gone.
F*ck.
I had to call my colleague to cancel the jump because i didn’t have money to pay for it or even get there. It was the third time in 8 months that somebody robbed me in freakin’ copenhagen. They managed to get 2000 DKK in cash, which i was supposed to use to pay for the jump, and withdrew a further 5500 DKK from my account. (All in all, about P70,000 in cash.)
Whoever said that lightning doesn’t strike twice (much less thrice) is a fool.
Luckily for me, the bank gave me back 4300 DKK. They kept 1200 DKK as my self-risk payment (or something to that effect) for my negligence in letting the thieves know what my pin code was. I suppose they were looking over my shoulder when I was buying train tickets. And after about a week of self-imposed seclusion, due mostly to the fact I didn’t have any money and was waiting for the next paycheck, my insurance company gave me back the 2000 DKK in cash and the 1200 DKK I had to "pay" the bank. No questions asked. It was so easy. Thank God for insurance and the ease of claiming from the Danish system!
Speaking of insurance, I also got a new pair of Oakley-framed prescription glasses from them because I broke the old one I bought from the Philippines. I bought my old pair for around 2,000 pesos and managed to get a new pair worth about 40,000. Sweet. (I had to pay 5,000 myself though, but that was absolutely fine with me.)
Jamie Cullum - Live!
It was 10 minutes to 10pm, and I was rushing from the office to Tivoli, trying to catch Jamie Cullum’s free concert. I had just come from tennis and dinner with a friend, showered at work and left my bag there. I was pushing my squeaky bike to its limits. I got to Tivoli at exactly 10pm, but it was almost impossible to find a place to leave my bike, and then the line to get in was unnaturally long.
I reached the open-air stage around 10 past 10, and he was already in the middle of Frontin’, which could be his opening song. The area around the stage was completely packed. In the beginning I had to stand behind a tree, right beside a garbage can. The tree was blocking my view of the stage but at least I could see the big screen from there. Throughout the concert I slowly tried to make my way closer, and towards the end the closest I got was around 100 meters away from the stage.
He sang most of my favorite songs from all his albums. Mind Trick. Everlasting Love. All At Sea. Lover, You Should Have Come Over (which was equally as haunting as Jeff Buckley’s version). One of the highlights was High and Dry, where he got everyone in the crowd to sing, splitting us all into a three-voice choir. He even did a cool medley of So Sick, Don’t Cha and Crazy (weird, I know, but it worked!). I was singing along most of the time that the people around me were giving me strange looks, but I didn’t mind.
Too bad I watched alone. My friends who had gotten there earlier were somewhere in the crowd, but there was no way for me to find them. Nevertheless I enjoyed myself immensely, so much more than I expected. Jamie was a lot more entertaining than I thought, putting good, classic, self-deprecating Brit humor to good use.
I hope I get to catch Jason Mraz perform live, too, soon.
In honor of Jamie (and the late, great Jeff Buckley), here’s the lyrics to Lover, You Should’ve Come Over. (the shorter Jamie Cullum version)
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Looking out the door I see the rain fall upon the funeral mourners
Parading in a wake of sad relations as their shoes fill up with water
Maybe I’m too young to keep good love from going wrong
But tonight you’re on my mind so you’ll never know
I’m broken down and hungry for your love with no way to feed it
Where are you tonight, you know how much I need it
Too young to hold on and too old to break free and run
Sometimes a man he gets carried away, when he feels like he should be having his fun
And he’s much too blind to see the damage he’s done
Cause sometimes a man must awake to find that really he has no one
So I’ll wait for you and I’ll burn
Will I ever see your sweet return
Oh will I ever learn
Oh lover, you should’ve come over
‘Cause it’s not too late
Lonely is the room, the bed is made, the open window lets the rain in
Burning in the corner is the only one who dreams he had you with him
My body turns and yearns for a sleep that won’t ever come
Sometimes a man he gets carried away, when he feels like he should be having his fun
And he’s much too blind to see the damage he’s done
Cause sometimes a man must awake to find that really he has no one
So I’ll wait for you and I’ll burn
Will I ever see your sweet return
Oh will I ever learn
Oh lover, you should’ve come over
‘Cause it’s not too late
‘Cause it’s not too late
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What’s on the Menu
Hopefully my derailed plans for skydiving are pushing through this month, if not September at the latest. I’ll also be starting company-subsidized scuba diving lessons next week (hopefully). And then by the end of the month I’ll be heading off to New York City to visit some friends, watch some Broadway shows, ride Kingda-Ka in Six Flags Great Adventure, and watch some US Open matches at Flushing Meadows with a Danish friend. He might also join me in spending a few days at Washington D.C., so I can finally scratch the Lincoln Memorial off my list of 100 wonders of the world that I need to visit in my lifetime.
