Okay. I will try to write up the christmas party story before I have to leave for the concert.

I was a little nervous before going. I wasn’t entirely sure when I was supposed to be there. I had asked Per when the party was going to start and he had just said something like “oh I don’t know, around the time when we close the playground, around six or so”. So I was kind of worried that I’d show up and everyone would already be seated and eating and talking. Or that I would show up and nobody would be there and I’d have to stand around for ages while they were preparing things. It’s all in the timing.

I ended up going around a quarter to six. And when I got there I only saw Alice and two people I didn’t know. Making preparations. So I thought “Eek, what do I do what do I do? Do I go in, do I help, do I sit down? What do I do?”. I went inside and said hi, put down my cola (bring your own drinks night) and then said that I’d just go say hello to the goats.

So I went to the goats. It was dark and everything was locked, but lucky me with my own key. I didn’t go all the way in and sat in the hay, didn’t want to start smelling all goaty for the party hehe. But I stood at the gate to the goat pen and Mads came up and I gave him a good rubbing. And just stood there for awhile and calmed myself down. And then I went back to the party. More people had arrived. And I was introduced to the ones I didn’t know. Everyone was sort of standing around, talking and eating snacks. While the food was being prepared. Before I started feeling too self conscious I heard someone talk about Nina, how she was inside. So I went to Nina and cuddled her. Then I went to the couch and sat down. And Nina followed me there. So I sat on the couch and concentrated on Nina. That was a rather nice way of avoiding the small talk and socialness. I know that’s not really a good thing, it’s not too smart to be the weird guy who sits and talks to the cat in the corner and avoids everyone. But I didn’t know what to do with myself and Nina kept me from panicking, so I’m okay with that. And I did do some talking. Talked to Alice for a bit. About Nina and other things. And then Bodil arrived. Without her dog Lulu. She came and said hi and I talked to her. And then I got up from the couch and sort of joined the mingling. Talking to Bodil. She is really nice, she is easy to talk to for some reason. She’s very open, drawing out words even from shy people like me.

Then the food was all ready and we took our place at the table. I made a conscious effort to sit down next to Bodil, seemed the best thing to do since she’s the one I felt most comfortable talking to.

Who was present? There were the four “main” people who work at the playground. Kurt, Per, Alice and Pernille. Then there were Jannie and me, we work the weekend shifts. Then there were four people that I didn’t know, they all had some relation to the playground. Either they used to work there or they helped out some times. One of them was a former park ranger, from the park right across the road from the playground. And then there was Bodil, the only one who didn’t have some relation to the playground, other than the fact that she often stops by and talks to people and looks at the animals and such. So that was 11 persons in total.

I didn’t talk too much, especially at first. When I did talk it was mostly with Bodil. And then I participated in other conversations by smiling, nodding, listening. And that was okay. Quite nice really. Of course it would be nice if I could talk a lot and be outgoing and dance on the table with a lampshade on my head. But that’s just not me. What I really liked was that I could sit at a table and eat and be reasonably social without feeling panic and anxiety. The social phobia is there somewhere. But only slightly in the back of my head. There was no fear. No need to flee and escape. Like I said last night, my mother was surprised that I stayed as long as I did. She expected me to be home in a couple of hours, but I ended up staying quite late. And that is a big improvement for me. Being in a social situation, even with some people I had never met before, and not feeling like I had to get away. That is good. I had a good time. Imagine that. And I also did do some talking, not just to Bodil. I managed to take a few initiatives in the conversations. Bodil was talking about how her dog is afraid of fireworks and when that part of the conversation was sort of over I brought up my own bad experience with fireworks. I’m sure I have written about that, how I spent one new year’s eve in the hospital after getting a firecracker in my boot. But that was almost text-book conversation. Like a roleplaying exercise from therapy. Picking up on a subject in the conversation and adding my own opinion and experience. It may seem trivial to people who are used to these things, but to me it’s one of the hardest things. Taking the initiative to say something. Not just responding, but actually saying something new. And I managed to do that a couple of times, so that’s quite good.

At one point, halfway through the night, Nina suddenly stood at the door and meowed. She had stayed on the couch while we ate. But I guess she got tired of all the talking (even old Plume was talking people’s ears off!) and she wanted to go outside. So we let her out. She is a lovely cat. She helped me a lot. It made it a lot easier for me that I could focus my thoughts on her in the beginning. And that she was a conversational topic. One of the other guests remarked how much she (“she” as in Nina, I mean, not the guest herself) seemed to love me a lot. Aw. She is a lovely cat. She doesn’t like children much, I was told, and she can be fierce and have quite the personality. But when she likes you then she is the cuddliest thing in the world.

So it was a good time. Lots of fancy food. I am quite picky when it comes to food. Most of all when it comes to onions and garlic. I get sick. Physically sick. Even if I eat something that has been lying next to onions. Just there is a hint of the smell of onions. It always complicates things when I have to eat “out”. Because in Denmark we apparently use onions in everything. But the table was full of varied dishes and I did manage to get some nice stuff. The mashed potatoes were really good and “safe” so I made that my main course and added hints of other things. Putting just enough on my plate so that if I happened to get something oniony then I could discreetly push it to the side without seeming too crazy.

One of the things that looked best was actually some kind of goat meat… dried meat. They called it “goat crisps”. Maybe some kind of jerky? They looked tasty but, well you can imagine. I can’t be eating goats. What would I tell Mads and the gang? Per did assure me that it wasn’t any goats I had known, but still. I couldn’t bring myself to have any of that.

Later on there were nice desserts. Alice had made the most divine cheese cake with pear slices. Oh boy it was yummy. It was different from the kinds of Swedish cheese cakes I have had in the past. This was very light and fluffy and just beautiful and tasty. And then we had the “ris-a-la-mande”. I am not sure if that’s a Danish custom or not. It’s a sort of rice pudding and then you put in a whole almond and the person who gets the almond wins a prize. Normal this prize is something really good that you want to win. But at the playground they have a sort of “hate gift”. It’s a sort of pot. An odd ceramic pot with green glaze. It looks quite horrible. And if you win the prize then you have to keep that pot at your house for the next year. And you have to keep it out in the open, on display. Bad taste. Bodil won it last year, so she brought it with her to the party. It was all wrapped up nicely. And she had been sweet and put chocolate and candy in it, so it wasn’t all bad. But Alice was not pleased when she won it! If you have a nice, stylish home then an ugly ceramic pot doesn’t exactly fit in. Hehe. Good fun.

Good fun listening to all the stories too. Especially the former park ranger and Kurt, they had a lot of funny stories. And lots of talk about the past, about people who used to work at the playground and kids who used to come and play and all that. And as the night went on and empty wine bottles filled the table we even got some raunchy jokes from the ex park ranger. And some that weren’t raunchy but just plain old bad. But bad jokes are always good.

I wasn’t the only one who didn’t drink wine by the way. Bodil brought a Carlsberg Ale. And Amir, I think his name was, had a can of Pepsi. And they had some sparkling water too.

And they played Bowie. Space Oddity.

So all in all I would consider the night a great success. I am glad I went. I can’t say enough good things about the people at the playground. They are all extremely kind and sweet and funny and good to be around. I know I am a bit “eccentric” but they never made me feel left out or anything.

I would party with them any time.

I didn’t take a lot of pictures. I felt a bit too self conscious to do that. I also felt to self conscious to put on the flash, so the result is as follows.

On the left side of the table is Alice and Sara. Then two empty seats where Bodil and I sat. Bodil was out smoking at this point. Then Jannie. On the right side of the table is Amir and then you can just about make out Pernille behind Per and then there’s Kurt looking straight into the camera. Next to him were the ex park ranger Bjørn and then Mona, but they were also outside smoking when I took this.

Also present were Pernille’s two dogs. Bongo and Bailey. Although they had to stay in the office during the party. I got to say hello to them when Pernille asked Jannie and I to sign some work sheets. They are incredibly sweet and lovely dogs. There’s an old picture of them here.

That’s about it. In 30 minutes I am off to see Tina Dickow live in concert. I’ll make a short update when I get home, just to tell you if I survived or not.

Finishing off with a couple of pictures of Nina from last night.

And that was the story of how the Nina saved (the) christmas (party).

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 2nd, 2006 at 18:20 and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.