It's been advertised on facebook for a while now - 2 or 3 months or so. It's been advertised along with another advertisement of a Russian hooker with huge boobs that wants to "talk" with me. They all seem to want to make love to me but first want to sell me Viagra. Who told them?
Anyway...... I wasn't really sure what I was going to do on my free week and at the last minute I asked Jens if he want to go hear Rufus Gifford at the Bella Center. To my surprise, Jens said yes.
Before we go on, here is a video of who Rufus Gifford is. It's from about 8 years ago. In the video he was presenting himself as the new and upcoming American Ambassador to Denmark.
So like everything else in this country, I went on-line and ordered tickets.
The Bella Center is just a 9 minute drive from our home.
The Bella Sky hotel (wild and trippy design - looks like the building is gonna fall over) and the Bella Congress Center is the lower building to the right.
We went in good time as the seating was opened. We could have sat closer but we decided to go for an end spot and not fight the crowd.
We were 40 minutes early.
We watched the advertising slide-show with music playing again and again....
....and then finally Rufus Gifford was introduced.
He's a very good speaker. He was good at putting people in a good mood and he had us laughing.
He talked a lot about how he sees Denmark and gave a very quick briefing on American government. And he did it all in a very entertaining way.
At the end of his lecture, there was a Q&A secession. People could ask anything at all he said - from the lecture to his personal life.
I finally got my chance to ask something I have been dying to know. With a microphone in my hand, I stood up and I told him that Jens and I had celebrated our Silver Anniversary 2 years ago and I was wondering if the invitation we sent to him had by chance made it to his desk. Everybody laughed. I knew they would. "You sent an invitation? Did I answer?" he asked me. And I said, "That's what I'm asking you", and everybody laughed again. Then I said, "It was us, waving the American flag from our balcony as you were departing the Union office on Island Brygge." It took him a second but excitedly he said, "Oh yes! Yes! I remember that!"
He's the guy in the middle furthest back.
At the lecture, he was also selling his biography. And the end of the lecture, people could line up and have their book signed. I didn't buy a book. I had already bought his cookbook from the nearby supermarket several months ago.
So when the lecture was over, I made a mad dash down to the stage to get in line to get my cookbook signed. Bummer - the line was forming to the right and I was all the way at the left as far as you could get. So by the time I got towards the end of the line, I could see that this was going to be an all nighter. I stood there for about 3 minutes and I just knew that my husband was not going to make it. That he even came to the lecture was a good challenge for him because he had been to physical therapy earlier in the day. So he was pretty much wiped out.
OK, so I step out of line and go get Jens. I know his health is much more important than an autograph from someone who WAS an ambassador. We walked down the long flight of stairs and I helped Jens get into the car and we drove home. While driving home, I got this idea that since the line was so long and moving so slowly, and since we live just 9 minutes away, maybe, just maybe, I can drive back and see if I can get back into the building and get in line again.
We get to our parking garage and I walked Jens to the elevator. I gave him a kiss good-by and I zipped back to the Bella Center. I parked the car, ran into the building, up the stairs, then into the conference hall, then down the stairs to the stage and got back in line at an even further spot than where I was standing the first time I was in line. Finally it was my turn.
I always thought it could be fun to get his autograph in my cookbook but I knew that would never happen....
- wrong!
All in all, the evening was very informative and fun. Here are 2 more YouTubes about the ambassador. There are several but these 2 are a good start to see if you want to know a bit more.
You greate eddie. Just peace and love
ReplyDeletethanks John
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