Serendipities

Small discoveries - online, off the page and elsewhere

The Fat Man in Canberra

On the Staircase by Keld Moseholm

Noticed in Civic a week ago. This sculpture is called On the Staircase. It was created by Keld Moseholm, a Danish sculptor, in 2005. The ACT Government installed it in Petrie Plaza near David Jones in 2009 - but it seems to have lost two of it's men. You can see how the sculpture originally looked here.

I'm not sure what these fat fellows say about the benefits of reading. The caption says the artwork reflects the effect of reading on the spirit, 'the more I read the smaller I feel'. I don't agree with the sentiment. Reading enlarges my mind and my spirit and my understanding of the world ... but I love anyone who can read walking up stairs.

They also remind me of one of my favourite collections of short stories, Peter Carey's The Fat Man in History and Other Stories. It was his first book and I have never forgotten it. Might be time to read it again.

Daniel Day Lewis at the Oscars

I'm an Oscar tragic so, even though I knew who had won the major awards, I sat in front of the television watching the replay of the ceremony until 1am last Tuesday morning. At first, I convinced myself I would only watch until the 'In Memoriam' section, which is probably my favourite part of the Oscar ceremony. But having come so far, it seemed crazy not to watch to the end. And it was worth it to see Daniel Day Lewis accept his third Oscar. Read what he said - and imagine him saying it in his gentle English voice. What a great speech!

Paper and Salt

Want to know how to combine a love of literature with a love of food? Visit Paper and Salt, where New Yorker Nicole blogs literary recipes. Last week, she wrote about Jane Austen and food, and featured a recipe for Brown Butter Bread Pudding Tarts. I loved her post on Virginia Woolf and breadmaking too.

Bill Gekas and his Daughter

Maid It by Bill Gekas

Take a look at these glorious images by Australian photographer, Bill Gekas. I discovered them via Flavorwire and then, having worked my way back to Gekas's website, also discovered he lives in Melbourne. He has recently won the Gold Award at the International Loupe Awards. The images Gekas took of his five-year-old daughter, an homage to works of the Old Masters, seem to be working their way around the ether at the moment. I hope you like them too.

The Legoland Experience

WARNING - Sharing this post with small Lego-lovers may inspire envy and result in years of nagging, for which I take no responsibility.

Travel Tip - Legoland is best to visit when you are at least 90cm tall but even better when you are at least 120cm tall. The taller you are, the more rides you can go on.

The Legoland experience begins even before you reach Legoland. We took the train from Copenhagen to Velje, which is about half-an-hour from Legoland. As the taxi drove us through the Danish countryside (very flat, remarkably pretty), we began to see giant Lego bricks gathered in twos and threes on the verge. By the time we reached Hotel Legoland, we were primed.

Hotel Legoland is part of the whole experience and shouldn't be missed. The hotel welcomes children, really welcomes children. There are kid zones dotted throughout, where giant tubs of Lego bricks are available to play. Lego cartoons are screened in a red bus near reception. There's a games room with Nintendo DS's and Wiiiiis to play with and giant Lego characters dotted around the corridors. Each day, you can enter your Lego build in a competition and there's a treasure hunt too. All this before you even get to your room.

We stayed in a Kid's Room on Space Street, which overlooks the Star Wars display in the park. Could that have been more perfect for our little Star Wars lover? A small Lego gift was waiting on the pillow and the room also comes with boxes of mixed Lego and Duplo bits to play with. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and had plenty to keep us busy while we waited to go to the park on Sunday and Monday.

The hotel has two restaurants and the family buffet was the big hit with Miles. Apparently, children all over the world eat spaghetti bolognase, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, peas, cauliflower, broccoli, corn ... and chips shaped like Lego bricks.

The park itself is a mix of Lego builds and rides, separated into different themes (Adventureland, Pirateland, Legoredo, Polar Land, Lego City). We easily filled two days exploring, riding the Lego trains and monorails, trying out the many rides and repeating some.

October proved to be a great time to go. The weather was very variable, sunny one second, raining the next but (as Jim is sick of me saying) the Danes have fantastic wet weather gear and just keep on going - so we did too, breaking in the Aldi snow jacket. But in October, the crowds were minimal. The park was busy but we didn't have to queue long for any ride.

Another warning, a number of the rides have little roller coasters. I went on the Dragon, thinking it was a bit like a ghost train and ended up so scared, I cried. I'm sharing this because if I don't, Jim and Miles will. I HATE roller coasters but did very well on spinning barrels and rocking pirate ships.

And of course, there's the Lego builds themselves - minature towns, wonders of the world, Pirate scenes and pyramids and all sorts of things.

All this, and Miles got his Legoland driver's licence too (but you have to be at least 7 years old to do that).

Denmark 101

When we arrived in Copenhagen on Thursday afternoon, my knowledge of Denmark consisted of the following:

• Mary and Frederick
• The Little Mermaid and Hans Christian Anderson and Danny Kay playing Hans Christian Anderson, singing 'Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen'

• Danish Kroner, which wasn't available from the local bank branch at Jamison
• Lego and Legoland.

Three days later I'm not sure I know much more but I have been discovering a wonderful country, full of juxtapositions - not contradictions. Our first glimpse of Denmark from the plane was of wind turbines spinning like gulls over the sea and smoke stacks from chimneys on shore. The wind turbines have been a feature of the countryside we've passed through. Not huge windfarms like the one on the hills of Bungendore (although at Legoland we have learnt that an offshore windfarm is being built and will be completed next year). Just two or three dotted across paddocks.

The recent extention to the National Library  of Denmark is known as the Black Diamond. Clad in polished black granite, it looms over the waterfront but nestles against the old Library, founded in the seventeenth century. I'm starting to think of it as something of a symbol for Denmark itself - the old and the new co-existing in harmony.

Copenhagen is the city of bikes and makes a mockery of our own attempts to promote cycling as a transport strategy. It helps that the city is relatively small and flat. But it also helps that you can take your bike with you on the train, that there are large bike parks at railway stations and outside the 'Grand Magasins'. There are broad bicycle lanes on the main roads so that you aren't threatened by passing cars. I thought, for a while, that very few people chained their bikes - but it turns out that small bike locks are hidden beneath the seats and for most occasions these are enough. And there are very few helmets and no Lycra in sight. People hop on and off their bikes as we hop into and out of our cars. No dressing for the occasion. And bicycles do look lovely propped against an old brick wall.

We spent Thursday afternoon walking around Copenhagen, getting drenched and running for cover into the Grand Magasins. On Friday, we took the train up the east coast to Helsingor, visiting Kronborg Castle - reputedly the setting for Hamlet but more significantly home to Holger the Dane, the giant who will wake when Denmark is threatened by a foreign enemy. We spooked ourselves out visiting Holger in the castle's casements and then wandering through narrow, low, very dimly lit corridors trying to find our way back to the light. Living in a castle is not romantic. And then we travelled back to Louisiana, 'the most beautiful museum in the world'. It opened in the 1950s and was named after the three wives of the property's first owner, all of whom were called Louise. It is an incredibly beautiful place, with long glass corridors looking onto gardens filled with sculpture and views across the sound to Sweden. Inside the museum, we saw an exhibition on artist's self-portraits, featuring works by Picasso, Dix, Kahlo and David Hockney (including five of his ipad portraits).

Yesterday, we travelled about two-thirds of the way across Denmark to Billund and Legoland. It is a child's idea of heaven (well, Miles' idea of heaven) from the small gift left on the pillow to the colouring books in the buffet and the largest Lego shop in the world.