It is always nice to go to the USA. Especially in these days when there is turbulence in Europe due to war in the Ukraine. What would Europe be today if the American and British army didn´t invade Normandy in north France; often referred to as D-Day the 6th of June in 1944? This led to the liberation of France and Western Europe after being occupied by Germany. Thank God.

Yesterday I was in London and now I have stayed a night in Charlotte. I have never been here and I was embraced by a European feeling. It was cold, and perhaps a snowstorm is on its way.

There is much going on in the USA because a new president will be inaugurated by taking the presidential oath and taking office. I am going to the American Virgin Island St Croix and this Island has been Danish. Already, Donald Trump is trying to buy Greenland (which is Danish), just like America did with the Danish Virgin Islands.

A lot of people have been coughing for weeks this autumn and Christmas. I hope I will stay in shape and not beeing caught by a virus since people still are coughing.

I cross my fingers.

I wish you all the best for 2025. December went by so quickly and maybe it passes so fast because you know from experience that December is an intense and eventful month. This Christmas I didn’t have much Christmas feeling. Christmas candy is available in the summer, and cream buns are available during the Christmas holidays. Nothing is as usual anymore. This year I was mostly looking forward to a quiet weekend with a naive wish for peace on earth. I was looking forward to and hoping for a beautiful white Christmas Eve. I got my wish fulfilled. No hares but deers jumped across the field to Molly’s great delight.

Last Friday I took my 6th dose of COVID-19 vaccine. I like to exercise and stay active and I do not want to suffer from long-term Covid. Do you remember the orienteering deaths in the 1990s in Sweden? When orienteers died of cardiac arrest due to subacute myocarditis; caused by the TWAR bacteria, but it later turned out to be the Bartonella bacteria. Competing orienteers had to be quarantined from orienteering for several months. They were treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics. Many orienteers had probably unknowingly carried the infection for a long time. It was believed that sudden death was due to too little recovery between training sessions. The sports doctor said that the immune system works intensively for a period but requires rest and recovery to function optimally.

Sometimes people tell me that I have inspired them to read. That makes me happy. After working for many years on my book Generations, I have had a lack of inspiration. My next book will be about epigenetics; how environment and genes interact. There must be an enormous amount of information to be processed, I thought. Maybe AI (artificial intelligence) will be useful? After emailing a very skilled researcher in AI, I understand that AI is already being used. I was given recommendations on reading, and the fact that AI is already being used in reality in this area made me silent. I was overwhelmed by this tool that will lead to major changes. The pharmaceutical industry is already well on its way, I was told. Please see:  Artificial intelligence is taking over drug development.

Now it is a new year and a new year of exercise. There is no doubt that training has a positive effect on health. A fine example of epigenetics is long-term training which affects the genetic material of muscles, i.e. DNA. My genetic information;

We are now in one of the darkest months of the year. December has always been special to me, and I love decorations and other Christmas-related things. As much as I think it is nice to remove the decorations after New Year’s.

Snowflakes falling. A walk in a temperature below zero degrees with snow and sun. Where the frost has bitten the trees. My dog sniffs for traces of the hare that has just jumped into the snow in the field. Some mulled wine and ginger cookies when I get home. In moments like this, I like to listen to Puccini, which reflects the sharp, severe cold winter weather.

Today, it is Lucia. I still remember many Christmas carols, the nervousness before my verse was to be read, and the candle wax, which unfortunately blurred the text on the paper cuff, so it could not be read.

Ending by sharing some music. Maybe some people from the party last summer will read this. Wasn´t she wonderful, Anna (not me), who sang in the greenery by the blooming fields? Right in the middle of summer.

A former colleague from Astra Zeneca moved with his family to Vietnam and I visited for a few days. I had the opportunity to see Vietnam and traveled to the myth-surrounded Hanoi. I was traveling alone but felt safe despite the huge and intense city. The French movie “Indochine” with Catherine Deneuve, which I saw several years ago, made me visit the French Quarter (see above).

A long ride by train brought me to southern Vietnam and HCMC, a vibrant city with historical elements like Hanoi. HCMC is a thrilling city where I had the film “Good Morning, Vietnam” with Robin Williams on my retina. I learned that there are many underground tunnel systems that I never visited. I visited a museum where Vietnam and the United States today are unified (see below). Such a long time ago, yet so historically close.

Movies romanticize, but when reality is incomprehensible and cruel, I want to escape to the world of movies. This was seven years ago. Will I ever go to Jerusalem?

Time will tell.