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Tivoli i lov’ it


My final day in Copenhagen I spent in the city’s entertainment park, Tivoli. (Flickr photo set) It’s closed in winter, but opens during Christmas when they’ve decorated the place in lights.

Tivoli has the dubious honour to have inspired Walt Disney to build his Disneyland, but the Danish park is charming, not gaudy. It’s old fashioned and far too lovely to be camp.

When I was little I wandered into one of its gambling venues with a handful of coins (from my uncle) in my pocket.

There I found a strange betting machine. It was based on horse racing. I didn’t understand the instructions, but it looked fascinating so I dropped in a coin and pressed some buttons.

A few minutes later a heavy load of money spilled into the receptacle at the bottom of the machine. I looked around me, but none of my relatives had followed me into the building.

I was a little sad that no one had witnessed my fortune, but I pocketed the winnings with a thrill. And spent it all on other, less generous, machines.

Party scene. Crowded. He brings her in, comes over, kisses me while she avoids me. They sit down at the table behind me. I can hear them fight.

“I can’t do it with HER here,” she says and I turn around.

She is laid out on a silver plate. Her hair is done up and wrapped in a black nylon balaclava like the queen in Disney’s Snow White. Her neck is Modigliani-long. From the shoulders down she is… fish. Sashimi. Glittering cuts of silver and blue herring.

I wake up.

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