The festivities continued in the third week of December, with a Danish Christmas lunch at the office, at the same time as a cocktail for my department–so I needed to be in two places at the same time! Our book club also met to discuss a classic Belgian novel, and I continued to explore the decorated city.
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I start with the Danish Christmas lunch, held in the restaurant at the office. In Denmark the Christmas lunch is an institution, often lasting several hours (most un-Danish behaviour) and involving lots of booze and a loss of inhibitions. We were much more civilised than that, but we still had akvavit on the table and had a good time:
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Appropriate headgear:
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Another Danish tradition is group singing. A song, especially written for the occasion, is very often part of a celebration like a Christmas lunch, a round birthday or anniversary and other such events. There are actually companies that will write such songs on request. Here, Anne-Sophie had written quite a witty song, sung to the tune of a well-known melody:
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Anne-Sophie rinsing her vocal chords with a spot of akvavit:
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Show and tell:
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Besides the big office-wide event that I showed last week, each department in the office gets its separate Christmas cocktail. The department that I head is quite small, 23 people, so our cocktail was taking place in the same restaurant and at the same time as the Danish lunch. I mostly stayed with my fellow Danes, but once in a while I popped in next door, chatted a bit and of course took some pictures:
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Our Albanian trainee Beja:
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And our German trainee Felicia, talking with Gabor, originally from Hungary:
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Paola and Camelia:
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That same evening, our book club WeRead held its monthly meeting in a bar in the centre. The book of the month had been selected by our new member Charline from Belgium (we always let new members select a book right after they join). It was a novel by the Flemish writer Willem Elsschot, and we had versions of the book in the original Dutch, in English and in Finnish:
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Charline talks about the book:
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Caroline, Elke and Victor join the conversation:
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As we usually do during our December meeting, we finish by holding a “secret Santa” gift exchange. The rules are simple. Everyone brings one book from his or her collection (so no buying new) and wraps it. People then choose at random, obviously avoiding the book they themselves have brought:
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People unwrap the books immediately:
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In case someone gets a book they already have, or in a language they do not speak (as is the case with Victor here), then swapping takes place:
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A couple of times I stopped in the centre after work to look at the bright lights of the season, here outside the El Corte Inglés department store:
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The trees along one of the main thoroughfares in the centre:
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This installation on the main seafront promenade, Esplanada de España, is a very popular spot for selfies and photos:
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A young couple, analysing the results (maybe…):
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I finish with a nice sunrise over El Campello harbour, with a helpful bird improving the photo:
