I was born in 1941 on a small farm (see photo here) in Rødby Havn a little town in the southern part of Denmark. Here I lived the first 13 years of my life until my parents sold the farm and bought a greengrocery in Vordingborg. After a short time my parents sold the greengrocery, and we moved back to Rødby, where I lived until I had finish school. Then I moved to Maribo where I was employed at the head office of Lollandsbanen (Lolland's Railroad). I lived in Maribo for almost 3 years, then I moved to Hillerød (North of Copenhagen), where I was employed at the head office of Privatbanerne (The Private Railroads). After awhile the higher salaries in the capital were attractive, so I was employed at the office of Caltex Oil Denmark in Copenhagen. But in about 2 years it became inconvenient for me to work in Copenhagen. My son had to stay in a day nursery home/kindergarten while I was working, and it was difficult for me to be on time at the nursery/kindergarten, to pick him up, because of my employment in Copenhagen. The 1st of January 1966 I was employed at the ATP-huset in Hillerød (an office where the administration of a special pension for the Danish Labour Market takes place). My employment at the ATP-house was almost 25 years, but because of a greater efficiency drive in 1990, I became redundant and was fired! Well, the efficiency drive was OK. I think there was a person or two who were "redundant", but not me, I thought! Anyhow, the administration was changed to so-called "total administration" and the "girls" I had "pushed around a little" in the Legal Department's word-processing-centre were moved to other departments of the ATP-huset, and I sat all by myself in the word-processing-centre and could "push myself around". Of course that was not a good idea, so I was out of work. It was certainly some change! I applied for many jobs, but at that time I already was considered as "too old" (almost 50). During these years I was involved in several societies, and I had among other things, done some work for EDR (The Danish Radio Amateur's Society), and I established a small firm for word-processing, which I had besides my employment in ATP-huset. When I had been unemployed for almost half a year, I decided to use my recourses at my small firm, instead of being forced to some useless seminars by the "unemployment-system". As someone may have noticed, I always have had some itching for writing, and had an ambition for writing "My Book". I did succeed, but with some delay. It is telling about my childhood at the small farm in Rødby Havn. See my Danish pages about "My Book" here. I have written another work, too, called "40 år med tekstbehandling - næsten" (40 years of Word-processing - almost), it tells about my experience with word-processing through 40 years. See my Danish pages about it here. That work was born in a strange way, as I found in some of my drawers, an old manual for an old word-processing machine. One day I spoke with one of my former employees from the ATP-huset and told her that I had found the old manual from "long ago". She said that she had just visited the Danish Technical Museum in Helsingør, and there she had seen the old machine among many other kinds of word-processing machines and computers. We talked a little about "the good old days", and wondered if the museum did have the manual I had found in my drawer. Some days later, I called the museum to ask if they wanted the old manual for the machine in their exhibition. They certainly did! I then wrote "40 years of Word-processing - almost." At first it was just a kind of report, meant for the library at the museum, but after some months I received a request from the museum as they wanted to print my report in their annual 2001. I gave them my permission. I told the gentleman from the museum that at lot of other people may have the exact memories and experiences about "old word-processing", as I have. "Yes!" he answered, "but they did not wrote about it!" I still have my little firm, but I have resigned some of the work for several societies, as I want to have the time to do more interesting things! In 1993 my husband, Aage, who at that time was employed as an office head at Chevron Oil (Caltex) in Copenhagen, was fired, too. I.e. Chevron Oil Denmark was closed, so we moved from North Zealand to Lolland, where the houses are cheaper, there is a lot of fresh air and "high to the sky". Today we live in an old "outlying farm" called Spurvely with about 2.100 m² garden, and my husband is "passing his time" managing his small accounting firm. When we moved to Lolland we were sure, that although we moved into the countryside, we would have no animals. The decision of "no animals" has resulted in 12 cats. They are not some "fine" pedigree cats, but are quite common cats, if you can call a cat that! They are also called European cats. You can read about them all here and how we got them all. Through the years I have had several kinds of hobbies, which I for longer or shorter periods, was "hooked on". Knitting: resses, coats, jump suits, shirts etc. etc., and I did not use a knitting machine. Sewing: anything from the most common skirt to my wedding dress. Collecting stamps: from many different countries. I sold the collections when I found it was too expensive to keep them up-to-date. I collected mints for many years and from a few countries, mint sheets. Watercolour painting: In a very stressed period of my life I felt very much pleased and relieved through painting. I still have all the equipment, although I think the colours and the brushes are not very useful any more. All my "works" are kept in an old blue chest of drawers in the attic. A few of the works I have given away as a present, when somebody expressed a wish for it. A few are hanging on the walls in the guestrooms, but the most are in the blue chest of drawers. I look at them sometimes, when I search for other things in the chest of drawers, and sometimes when I see them again after several years, I mostly want to burn some of them, while seeing others I think: "Well, maybe not too bad at all". But they had to stay in the old chest of drawers, and I do not hope I ever will feel "the need" to paint again! When I wrote the Danish pages "Arnold - og lidt flere", "Per og Marie" and "Spioner", I put some of the "work" at those pages, as they are a part of the stories. You can see them there, but the pages are, still, in Danish. Amateur radio: I could write a very long novel about my "radio-amateur-life". I have had many wonderful experiences as a radio amateur, and I met a lot of wonderful, nice people "in the air" as well as face-to-face. The amateur-radio indeed enriched my life especially in "the old days", where almost everyone did not have a Mobil phone, computers or Internet. I have written about some of my very best, most funny and enriching experiences in "Højdeskræk og fåremøg", "Spioner", "Danskvands-diplom", "Per og Marie" and "Arnold - og lidt flere". So far these articles are still in Danish, but I will try to translate them bit after bit! Polishing stones/gem cutting and "jewels-making": Once I had "a stone on my brain". And still, when I am walking on the beach, in the garden, crossing a field and even passing by "a stone-bed" where the parish had placed "nice stones" to keep the weeds away, I had to take a look and maybe pick just one more stone for my collection. I do not cut and polish anymore. Some years ago my son's mother-in-law needed some "employment", so I gave her my stone-saw and honing machine. But I still have my big collection of raw and very nice polished stones and minerals where a lot of them are mounted as " jewels" or as an article for everyday use. You may see my collection of stones and "jewels", but the pages are in Danish. Some of my experiences as a radio amateur, mentioned above, was connected to my "stone-period", and gave my some funny and exciting experiences. Embroidering: I have done lots of embroideries. Most of them are given away, but I still have the one I call "My country", a typical Danish landscape. It is on the wall in the dinning room. I bought the kit at Eva Rosenstand's shop in Copenhagen. I had just returned from a holiday in Norway - three weeks were it almost rained every day, by the way the only holiday I have spent in Norway where it was raining! I saw it hanging in the shop's show window and it "hit" me: There was MY country. Sun and sea, yellow cornfields, horses and cows in the meadows, a blooming elder bush and a magpie sitting on a pole. If I go to the Ravnsby Bakker, a place not far from here, I can see it all live. You can see the embroidery here: In my "embroidering-period" I also composed my own "kits". For some years I was a member of the Luftmeldekorpset (The Air Defence Warning Service), and I made some large embroideries of their logo. One of these I used as a present to the Service at a consecration of the colours, which took place while I was a member. Books/reading: I read a lot and have done so all my life. I mostly want to own a book, so I do not use the public libraries very much. Well, I do visit the public library if I do want to read a book, which is no longer for sale. We own about 2,000 books, and I have read them all - at least once! This do not count for encyclopaedias, dictionaries, specialist literature etc., but I have been using those often, although today it is very easy to find everything about anything on the Internet. The 2,000 books are numbered and catalogued, so one can search for the number, the title or the author as well as where, on our many selves, the books are located. At the same time as the numbering and cataloguing took place I, just to "please" myself made a sum-up of all the pages. There are about 500,000! Beyond the paid work, I am creating on my computer, I have a good time making a lot of other things. For some years I have made a "Missekalender" (Cats' Calendar). I give them to family and friends and a few business-connections. The Calendar tells various things about our cats and how they are spending their lives at our home. You can read about the Calendars and see some examples here. Sometimes I meet people who says, that they have to "kill the time" to make the days pass by, but I do not ever think I will reach so far. I think, that no matter what, I will always find some interesting things to do! Kind regards Ellen-Sofie, shortened to "Fie" Back to bookmark