Driver's Guide To The Universe

I have given in my notice to the renting company. This of course, mean that they have the right to go into my house and show it to people interested in moving in after I am gone. Given the property situation in Copenhagen, this means there will be strangers coming into my house even now, more then a month before I leave.

So I have to leave the house in an 'acceptable' state, and since I am usually in a hurry to leave the house that means I have to take extra time to make up the bed and make sure that the dishes are packed away instead of left to dry as usual. I mean, it is pretty weird to worry on what the random stranger might think of my housekeeping habits, but I know I'd feel embarrassed knowing if I had left something that makes the place look unclean. I know, I'll never see the people, but I remember when we were looking for a place that was unbelievably filthy and even though we never saw the people, I know, I never ever want to feel that I had been judged by strangers on my house, since it is a reflection on what I am. Strange attitude to have maybe, but the kitchen and the bathroom had been cleaned from head to toe and all the areas are neat and tidy.

Perhaps I need therapy for this, but I cannot help this annoying Martha Stewart response.

Denmark has a tendency to have wet snow and freezing winds. Having experienced a taste of things to come last week, we have decided to buy jackets for ourselves. One of the ladies from work has graciously volunteered to take us to some factory shops so we could get the jackets cheaper. The main shopping was to be done near the docks, where there is a mini-mall of designer brands factory outlets.

The area is called Østerport, and the shops are right on the docks so I took a few more pictures with my cell (it would have been a bit of a mission to carry a camera bag when one does shopping). The area is beautiful and if I could rent there, I would.

So here some scenery shots.

Along the road, near the shops.



The view across the harbour. The thin dark light on the horizon - that's Sweden. The town closest to Denmark is Malme, about a half-an hour train ride.



Just a nice view of the harbour dock on a clear Saturday morning.



A thousand years ago, or maybe more, mighty Vikings looked ahead for potential bounty on the opposite shore, where those cars now stand.  These days, Malme is a good bargin-hunting place, where all the goods are stuffed into the boot of the cars after shopping sprees. A similar situation in modern times methinks, but I think the Vikings had cooler armour and no number plates. After all, what kind of a Viking name is 'BMW'?  *Grin*


The view is simply spectacular, despite it's being a late autumn.



The street about 50-70m away from the harbour. The buildings are mainly new and very neat. One snag about living there, a 2-3 bedroom apartment can cost about 70 000 DKK a month, that's about R91 000 or  £6500. So unless I marry a Danish millionare, the closest I can come to living there is working at a nearby office block.



A local marina near the shops we were at. I'm sure there are plenty more grander boat and yachts on other marinas, but we were late getting to the Nike factory outlet on the other side of town. So not enough time to explore or shop. Those factory outlets were much cheaper then regular shops despite selling some good well-known brands; but have one tried shopping longer when shoping with 3 males, who already finished their shopping? Well, I'm coming back to this part of town in the fiture, that's for sure. Who knows, maybe I'll meet a Danish millionare (most likely from very very far away).



After much travelling, we finally did get to the Nike factory store and I did manage to buy a jacket. Of course it seems silly, to spend a lot of time just to buy a jacket from a brand name and not something that is much cheaper. This is not the case however, when it is -7 Degrees and a freezing harsh wind is trying to knock you over. A certifiable, waterproof and waterresistant jacket is a heavensend.

P.S. If all goes well at work, I shall be going to the Denmark countryside to a modern arts museum about an hour outside Copenhagen this weekend. More pictures from me then.

I finally got my phone to stop complaining when connecting to the PC, so some pictures and video this way come:)

First, is the view from outside my window to capture the spiralling snow, thanks to yesterday weather I am about to spend a lot of money on a wind-proof water-resistant jacket.
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The video is small, only 257KB, with mine and colleague's voices in the backgound trying to get the best shot.

It's Daylight Savings Time err Time. As of Sunday, the clocks have turned back by one hour. A fact that I was only vaguely aware of. Guess I'm so used to South Africa not having it. Well, as I generally go by my laptop's time anyway, which is set to Automatically adjust to the Daylight savings time. This morning, the phone which doubles up as the alarm clock sings the Firefly theme tune about 10 minutes before I'm supposed to be up and about.

My colleague's perky voice intrudes upon my consciousness: "Are you ready to leave?" We stay in the same building so we often leave for work together. I groggily protested: "Dude, it's like 7 am!"
The same perky voice cheerfully explained: "Daylight savings time, remember? It is actually 10 past 8 right now."
"O shyte, I'll see you later in the office later then?"
Cursing under my breath, I have washed, dressed and fed myself in record time, even finishing up some hand washing. Make-up check, clothes check, no time to put on the jewellery, jacket check, shoes...check. As I was packing my laptop into the bag I've noticed that the laptop is still running on the old time, decided to quickly adjust the timezone and found it to be correct, strange, it is supposed to be updated automatically. Oh, well, no time to ponder the correctness of a computer designed to keep things like that. Made it to the bus stop in record time, got an empty bus (the benefit of travelling later I thought) and looked up at the electronic clock, which showed proudly an hour earlier that I supposed it was.

My colleague forgot to change the timezone on is laptop when he was in South Africa earlier...so his clock was actually ahead and mine was correct. Next time, trust the machine for little niggly things like timezones. At least I was early and true to the Dilbert Principle.

Never ever believe anyone telling you that a furnished apartment that has a bring-a-toothbrush rating (as in marketed as such to the company I work at) is just that. There are three hundred and one things to do, little things - true, yet we take them for granted. For example placemats, I mean seriously, the closest thing to a dining/TV watching table with a glass top, and there is no placemats to put a hot mug of tea on as not to damage the glass. I mean I'm not that Martha Stewartish, but any noticeable damage to the apartment after I move out will come out of my pocket so I'm really looking out for myself here.

Another momentous occasion to happen is that I was momentarily hooked on "Friends", the Danish TV stations replay various seasons ad nauseum. So, when I potter around the house and have the TV switched on, I tend to get "Friends" eventually, and after a while, I started to find them more then mildly amusing, I mean I was actually looking forward to some daily coffee disinspired humour!  I privately started to panic. After all, I pride myself on enjoying some real quality entertainment like "Frasier", "Kiss me Kate" and so on. I mean, how could I like the overhyped, over-cliched, over-celebrity-peppered show? I used to find it mildly amusing - courtesy Lisa Kudrow and highly irratating - courtesy Jennifer Aniston, but now I enjoyed it? WTF?!! Fortunately, as I was washing dishes after dinner, my ear managed to discern the highly pitched squeeling voices of two of the show stars having an all-girl-moment, the spell was broken and this TV snob's ego is saved, Whew.

As soon as I come back from London, I'll post some pictures, I promise.

So, I finally receive my laptop, yey! I am mobile and finally able to snatch more then a few hours online. One nice thing to discover about Denmark is that wireless networks are rather the norm then the exception.  Have been at work for two days now, we are in a large old building without any air conditioning, thus we constantly feel that we are in an African bundu somewhere despite the fact it is an European autumn outside.

One of the most amazing things about Copenhagen is the incredible amount of bike riders. There is no specific demographic, no target audince and no particular trend towards any bicycle. They are everywhere, outnumbering the cars  in a 3:1 ratio. It is not uncommon to find a mom with a toddler in front and an older child in the back gaining speed on the blue lane reserved for bicycles. Small little carts attached to the bicycles for transporting groceries, children and pets are popular making a regular view. Of course it is rather understandable, as the tax on a car is 180%, so owning a car is a luxury. This of course, does wonders not only for the enviroment but for the traffic, the peak traffic laughable by South African standards. When our taxi driver apologetically mentioned that traffic is usually better as we hit a slow lane for about 100m, he could not quite understand our laughter. Working in Sandton, we consider it a good traffic day if it takes us 40 minutes to get to work.  A 5 minute delay is nothing yet it visibly annoyed our driver, the Scandavian love of punctuality coming into play.

As for the people themselves - hard to say, our manager is a Swede and there are many overseas personnel working with us. However, having said this, many Danish men do respond to the general stereotype of good looking tall muscular blonde Vikings with ruddy cheeks and square jaws. What the movies don't tell you is that the dark haired lean, albeit square jawed scandinavs are just as hot and delicious as the blonde haired Viking movie extras. And in our very hot building there are enough of both types of hot men with rolled up sleeves to make melancthe swoon.

As for the women, if the whistles and the slack jaws that my male unattached colleagues have when we get to work in the morning and pass the female bikers, long legs bared and blonde hair shining in the morning light - I'd say the women are good looking too, although I'm hardly an excellent  judge.

I'm off to finish watching "Gosford Park", the TV here often comes with subtitles allowing us to watch everything in English. So I had not been missing my "Las Vegas" episodes.

Any questions about life in Copenhagen? Feel free to ask, although the percentage of unattached cute men in the office will be difficult to procure:)

P.S. The Nordic keyboard is a bit of a mission to master, the extra letters confuse the fingers.