Daenmark

October 16, 2009

Charlies Bar on DR!

Posted by daen at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)

August 20, 2009

Funny signage

I was in Copenhagen last week and met my cousin and her new baby in a cafe at the main train station. There are a lot of casual passersby who probably are looking for a free money changing service (can you split a 100 for tens, that kind of thing), given that it's a major transport hub, so I can see why they would have a sign saying 'vi veksle ikke', which means 'We don't make change' in Danish. But underneath, in English, they had written it as 'We don't change'! It's nice to have some constancy in your life, and if you need to get it from a shawarma bar, then so be it. Although, as my cousin said, it could also be interpreted to mean that they don't change diapers - something that we didn't put to the test!

Posted by daen at 05:17 PM | Comments (0)

May 20, 2009

This is the end

It's been three and a half long months since the last entry. I'm writing this current one from the (relative) comfort of seat 55, coach 28 of the Thalys high-speed train from Brussels-Midi to Paris Gare du Nord. The well-informed among you may be aware that the Thalys is basically the same design as the French TGV, its only distinction being its longer run (between Paris and Amsterdam, essentially). The attentive among you will surely be aware that something has changed in my life. "No more beatings? No recent eviction attempts? No accidents or thefts?", I hear you proclaim, incredulously.

Well quite.

Fate has decided (for now) to treat me a little more kindly than it did over the last six months. My new girlfriend lives in Paris, in a small-but-comfortable top floor apartment. I have a new job, managing research data for a mid-range Belgian biotech company. Summer is approaching, as evidenced by the 25C temperatures outside and the greenness of the fields we are zipping through at 186mph (OK, we're dawdling right now because of the late train in front of us) and I will be driving with the aforementioned girlfriend to the Loire Valley tomorrow to go hot-tubbing, chateau-spotting and haute-cuisine-consuming for four days.

So it is with a sinking heart that I have to tell you that I will be closing down this blog at the end of the month. It no longer seems appropriate, having absented myself from the ancient Kingdom of Denmark, to be updating a blog about my life in Denmark.

Calm yourself. Let your breast remain unbeaten, your hair untorn and your garments unrent. For there is salvation, gentle one.

I'm looking for a name for it, some portmanteau of "Daen", "Paris", whatever ... but it will live at http://www.daen.fr ...

That's all for now ... for some reason we are at a standstill and the bar is open ...

Posted by daen at 06:48 PM | Comments (0)

February 12, 2009

The Big Move

I wrote a week-and-a-half ago about the Big Move. Well, it happened. It wasn't easy, but it happened.

Day #1: I collected the van, a bit late. The girl at the van rental place ("Rent-A-Wreck", just next to the airport on Amager Strandvej) was on her own, a bit stressed, but nice. We filled in the prerequisite paperwork (she handled my elderly UK A4 format driver's license as delicately as the Mona Lisa when she photocopied it), I took some free sweeties and she showed the van. It was black, badly spraypainted over a kind of orange colour. She showed me how to work the temperamental rear door, advised me that I had to fill it up on return, and in I got.

I decided to go to the storage depot first, so I could get the room booked and all the paperwork out the way. On the way I noticed the fuel gauge was showing empty! So I called "Rent-A-Wreck" and spoke to the rental lady. She said it was more than likely that the gauge was broken, because she'd filled up the van for sure. So I restarted the van, and sure enough, the fuel tank needle shot up to the top, then kind of slid downwards despondently. I thanked her, and carried on to the storage depot.

In I drove, and talked to a nice chap about prices etc. Unfortunately my financial situation wasn't great, so I couldn't take advantage of their pay-for-three-months-up-front-get-one-free offer. We went through the paperwork (lots more than for hiring a van) and he told me in great depth what would happen to my stuff if I didn't pay the rent. Basically, after a period of time, they break in and sell it, cover the outstanding costs and presumably give you what's left, if they can find you. He showed me the room, gave me my lock and private entry code. I decided there and then not to go to Ikea - that had been the original plan, to buy a bunch of plastic boxes for the books - but instead to buy some new, smaller cardboard packing boxes. I got more of them, for less than the plastic boxes.

So, boxes loaded in the van, round to my ex's place. I went down to the basement and basically spent the next seven hours repacking the books into a slightly more logical and manageable order. Once the basement was empty, I stacked everything up ready to be moved (except the sideboard) and went upstairs. My ex had a wee hangover, so she couldn't help much. It took about another hour to pack and move everything that was inside the apartment into the van. I topped off the van with about two-thirds of the boxes from the basement and headed back to the storage depot.

Using my magic code, I opened the outer gate and backed in. Fortunately, they had a trolley, so unloading and stacking in the room was so very easy. Once the first load was done, it was back to my ex's place for the second and last load, then back to the depot for a second round of unloading and stacking. Then I took the van back home (with a few bits and pieces for my room), parked the empty van in a nearby side street, walked home and slept.

Day #2: Message from Brian, the guy who took over the lease on my old apartment, where the remainder of my stuff was stored: can we delay by an hour? Fine by me - so I got there around 11:00, and we spent the next hour doing a bucket-brigade of boxes from the attic down to the top stairs (Brian's apartment is on the 5th floor ...), and then trickling down each flight of stairs. Frequent cigarette breaks, then the van is packed with the first load, and to the storage depot we go. Then back for the second load, and back to the depot. It actually took about three hours for everything to be packe, moved, unpacked and stacked. Then the last, final item - the sideboard ... So back my ex's we go, and manhandle the damn thing into the van, and back to the depot for the fifth and final time! We part, agreeing that I should meet Brian in Charlies Bar and buy him a drink or two. So I drop the van back at the rental place, get the bus home, shower, change, eat and head for the bar.

Unbelievably, it got done. And so 95% of my possessions are now in safe storage. I didn't hurt after the first day, but the days after the second day I felt like I had run a marathon. But it was definitely something that had needed doing, and it got done. It got done.

Posted by daen at 12:20 AM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2009

Judgement

The weirdness continues.

It appears we have a problem with our landlord. There have been various problems to do with aspects of the apartment, which have led to a battle of words between my two landladies and him. I won't go into details, because that would only complicate matters, but it essentially boils down to money. Doesn't it always? I ended up getting fed up with him sending email from his employer's email account (which happens to be a powerful - THE ultimate powerful, perhaps - bank in Denmark) so I emailed him there, being careful to cc the press office and HR department. I'm afraid now that it's done more harm than good, kinda stirring up the ants' nest sort of thing. He's threatened to evict us tomorrow evening (not because of my email). I wonder if that'll happen?

And another thing: I managed to get beaten up over the weekend, not badly, not too much blood, but it still hurts, and I have a big lump on my chin and a cut over my ear. I had been drinking vodka, unwisely, with a Russian, and apparently I became somewhat unpleasant. A scuffle/beating ensued. However, amends will be made, and no permanent damage either to me or the relationship between me and the Russian has been done, I think.

Is my judgement becoming increasingly impaired? I know I've always had a problem with impulse control, but has it gotten worse? Is that's what is getting me into these messes? Or is this just a run of bad luck beyond the pale? Will the rest of 2009 go smoothly? Will I have a home this time tomorrow night? So many questions to which the answers would be oh so useful now.

Posted by daen at 11:43 PM | Comments (0)

January 30, 2009

Moving with the times

Today is the first of the two days that most of my life will go into storage. Well, the accumulated junk and trappings anyway. Books, clothes, mostly rubbish, all will be repacked and stored in a secure facility not far from here. About half of my stuff currently lies in a dank basement, again not far from here, underneath my ex-girlfriend's apartment. The other half resides in the rarefied atmosphere of a 6th floor attic. Over the next two days, they will be reunited. Will my tax returns from 1998 clasp the neck of my grandmother's sideboard as they weep and share tales of their joint exile? Maybe.

This is a kind of enforced storage, partly due to my girlfriend becoming 'ex', and partly due to the aforementioned attic space soon becoming apartment space. I will be quite pleased to have it done though - I shall no longer be dependent on the goodwill of ex-girlfriends and friends to store my stuff, and who knows? Maybe I'll even get rid of some of the shite that I've been lugging around on my back for the last eight years. Some of the books and clothes in the dank basement are ruined anyway, after a flood last year. The rest, well, we'll see. I need some summer gear, my most sentimental, valuable and enjoyable photos, books and CDs, the server, laptop and printer, and that's about it. I might give the rest away. It would be such a nice feeling to start from scratch - tabula rasa.

Posted by daen at 08:45 AM | Comments (0)

January 19, 2009

What a year ...

On the evening of Tuesday 6th, I went for a drink with one of the bartenders from Charlies. It was a cold night, but in the interest of saving a bit of money, I cycled, although it had started to snow. We went to Heidi's bierkeller ...

And I woke up in the accident and emergency ward in the Royal Hospital in the small hours of Wednesday morning, with two stitches in my left eyebrow, a black eye and a very sore left shoulder. I don't know how I got there - I have some paperwork that says I was driven in an ambulance, called out by some anonymous person who will forever have my gratitude. I was found on Frederiksholms Kanal, a street running down the side of the Parliament. My bike has not been seen again - I have no idea where it is. Nothing was taken from me, so I don't think it was a theft. I have no recollection of events from leaving Heidi's - I assumed I had gone straight home, but apparently we went on to Mojo's, a blues bar. Well, so I'm told. It's the amnesia that worries me - was I drunk, or was it the blow to the head that erased a bunch of short-term memories?

Then, on Wednesday 14th, I went to the Moose. With my laptop in its bag. And went to the loo for five minutes, and found the bag still there - but the laptop gone. Fortunately, I built a home server earlier this year one of whose purposes was to act as a Subversion repository, so all the project work for my customers was checked in to that. Still, the hassle and expense was something I could have done without.

So, I'm rather disenamoured of 2009 already. Perhaps it felt insulted by my cynical New Year poem and decided that karmic justice had to be meted out. I'm rather nervous about what the remaining 11-and-a-bit months will bring now ...

Posted by daen at 06:20 AM | Comments (0)

January 01, 2009

Happy New Year

I went out with some friends to see in the New Year. We started off at Mikkel's boat, a nice Nautor, eating barbecued lamb, red cabbage salad, potato salad and green salad, and drinking some beer and wine while chilling out.

I got there a bit late, having had to collect my bike first, so the lamb was cold - but still tasty and tender. The plan was for the six of us to cycle into Copenhagen around 11:15 pm, but we were slightly late and got to Dronning Louises Bro just before midnight - I think the leap second saved us! Being at Dronning Louises bro, one of the bridges that spans the lakes in Copenhagen, has become a tradition for many young Danes, and many thousands turn out each New Year's Eve to watch the fireworks, drink, laugh and dance. The fireworks were visible all around Copenhagen from the bridge, and we spent about an hour just drinking, watching and wishing people "Godt nytår!" or "Happy new year!".

It was a very cold night, and someone had the brilliant idea of starting a bonfire on the bridge. I think everyone who was there last night at some point re-raised their body temperature to above freezing around that bonfire! It was so nice to feel the cold seeping out of your bones and feet.

There was live music from DJ Whopper and the rapper Lucy Love. Dancing also helped to keep the circulation going, along with beer reasonable priced at 100 kr for 5 50cl glasses. Thus fuelled, we danced and drank until around 3am, whereupon my mate Pete suggested that we go to Tietgens Collegium, a new and impressively architected student dorm out on the island of Amager, near where I live.

When we got there, the party was in full swing, and more drinking and dancing ensued. We left around 7am, and the sky was a beautifully clear blue, tinged with pink from the dawn. It was still damn cold, but fortunately the combination of alcohol and the short distance to get home meant it was not too much of a chore. And then I slept, waking just a few hours ago with a surprisingly clear head and feeling hungry, which I take to be a fairly good sign!

Posted by daen at 08:20 PM | Comments (0)

December 28, 2008

Eight years of weirdness

So. I'm writing this at 4:04 while borrowing my (ex? current?) girlfriend's couch to sleep on, burrowed into a mix of sleeping bag and blanket, having recently dossed at a mutual friend's apartment over Christmas. Another relationship on the rocks, mostly my fault, and I'll be renting a room - a 4m x 2m room! - from Monday. Since 2002, my square meterage of living space has been declining, with worryingly increasing frequency, scale and quality. By this time next year I'll be living in a sardine tin in the middle of the high street - and sharing it at that. You try telling that to the young people of today; they won't believe you.

My family are also going through a rough time. I won't go into details, because they upset me, but it has not been a great year regarding my family's health.

And money. The situation is improving, but I owe money to family members, and I have promised to repay them soon, but what with the deposit and rent for the room, I'm not able to do so right now.

It's improving because I have a new pharma software contract. I'm hoping I can finagle at least one more in the new year, which would mean the difference between merely surviving and actually being able to indulge in some luxury items, like travel and food. Only joking.

I had no clear plan when I came to Denmark in January 2001. I certainly didn't expect that things would quite turn out like this. I am most happy about the work situation right now - the relationship stuff will get sorted out - or not - and the housing situation will improve with income. I'll be in that room for three months, tops. And it's a nice enough room anyway!

Tomorrow morning I will be heading for Charlie's Bar in Copenhagen to open up for the 12-6pm shift. The brass has to be cleaned, floor mopped, loos cleaned, fresh bottles brought up from the cellar, cask spiles switched from plastic to wood, cash float prepared, grills and doors unlocked, fire extinguisher put behind the bar and beermats put out. Voila! Instant pub. That probably takes 1 1/2 hours, so I have to be there for 10:30 ... more like 5 1/2 hours sleep, I guess.

You can't help but wonder what the next eight years will bring ... I promise, if I am able, to write an update on 28th December 2016 ... wow, that's a long way away ...

I'm going to keep this blog more up-to-date in the New Year, including entries on alternative music in Copenhagen, drinking spots, the biotech and pharma software business and many, many more. I am abrim with potential ...

Thank you for your attention.

Posted by daen at 04:03 AM | Comments (0)

December 08, 2008

Danish Christmas Lunch(-es)

Thomas Kennedy has written about the peculiar occurrence that is the Danish Christmas lunch. I will be attending no such lunch this year, as I claim no affiliation to any of the institutions, organizations or companies which are the typical instigators of such an event.

But a Danish Xmas lunch is far from only an office party, though that too is one of the masks it dons. And a piquant mask it is – an opportunity for men and women who have been appreciatively and more or less obliquely eyeing one another all year to let loose for half a day and half a night and partake of the original Roman Bacchanal that was the pagan antecedent of the birth of Christ: eat to excess, drink to excess, hold speeches fraught with erotic double entendre, tell lewd jokes in mixed company, sing parodies of endeared sweet Xmas songs

Posted by daen at 03:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 14, 2007

Walter Pigeon and child ...

Walter Pigeon set up home on my balcony sometime between 18/7 and 31/7 ...

She laid an egg in the nest ...

... which hatched sometime in the last 24 hours!

So I'm having some white wine to toast the newly-baked mother.

Posted by daen at 05:09 PM | Comments (0)

October 26, 2006

Dragsholm Slot

My company is celebrating its 5th birthday by heading for Dragsholm Slot for two days next week. Looks like a great place: 12th century castle, top-notch restaurant, drink, music - and the ghost of the 4th Earl of Bothwell, apparently.

This snippet from the English section of the website made me laugh ...

Balls and dinner
Through centuries, Dragsholm Castle has been the setting for both balls and smaller parties.

Both balls? Not one? Oh, (in the words of the great Frankie Howerd) never mind.

Posted by daen at 02:49 AM | Comments (0)

September 25, 2006

Game Tester

IO Interactive are advertising for game testers. This is a job that I would have killed for 20 years ago. Being paid by the hour to test new games. How come these things never come up when you want them to? I don't have the interest or the concentration these days ...

GAME TESTER for Hardware Compliance and Network

IO is looking for a game tester for an upcoming new title with specific responsibilities for hardware compliance and network testing (PC). You don't have to be a hardcore gamer, but an interest in games is clearly an advantage. You are hourly paid with various working hours as required.

Several Dilbert strips come to mind for this ...

Posted by daen at 07:08 PM | Comments (0)

September 11, 2006

Tycho Brahe's moose

Tycho Brahe once owned a pet moose which died after it drank too much beer at a party and fell down the castle steps.

Posted by daen at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)

June 12, 2006

Ghana World Cup supporters

Met a bunch of hopeful Ghana supporters in town today. They seem fairly confident that they can beat Italy ...

Update 13/6-2006 Sadly it seems the Ghanaian lads' confidence was a bit misplaced. They've got another chance on Saturday against the Czech Republic (who made short work of the USA last night, 3-0).

Posted by daen at 08:31 PM | Comments (0)

June 08, 2006

Danish PC license fee

Politiken reports (in Danish) that a license agreement for net-connected PC's is on the way. What is not clear is whether this is in addition to or instead of the existing license fee. Very rough translation below.

"More and more Danes are watching television on their computers. So now they will be included in the (TV) licensing arrangements. This emerges from the new media agreement which Folketing [the Danish Parliament] voted upon this morning by a wide margin. The new media license includes all equipment which are capable of receiving programs and services, namely computers and certain mobile phones, according to the agreement. The media license will be at the level of the colour TV license, and will increase by inflation during the period 2007-2010. That means it will cost 1,075 DKK semiannually in 2007 and 1,130 DKK semiannually in 2010. That covers all the household's license-incurring equipment. Poorly-off pensioners, the blind and visually impaired will continue to have the possibility of a license reduction or waiver. The new media license is a victory for DR. The station's Director General, Kenneth Plummer, has strongly argued the case for extending the license, and earlier declared that DR stands to lose 30 million DKK in 2006 because 15,000 Danes watch TV on their computers, and therefore don't pay the license. On the other hand, DR didn't get its wish that TV viewers must actively opt out of the license. In the future they will continue to opt in as users in order to pay the license. The issue had been one of the decisive sticking points in the negotiations - both Social Democrats, Radicals and Culture Minister Brian Mikkelsen (Conservative) had wanted an opt out model, where all households automatically pay the license unless they actively opt out. But opposition from several prominent Venstre politicians lead to the suggestion being dropped. With the agreement that was arrived at, DR will establish a combined children's/history digital channel and transmit news in various languages to immigrants and refugees."

Posted by daen at 12:47 AM | Comments (0)

May 20, 2006

Beer! Part 2

Well, I did my stint at the beer festival yesterday between 3:30pm and 11:30pm. The things you have to do when you're a regular at Charlie's Bar :-)

In this picture of the elegant Charlie's Bar stand (yes, those things in the foreground are taken from nearby roadworks) you can see Andy (the Copenhagen Charlie's Bar manager) and Tati (one of the bar staff there) getting ready for the influx of people. This was taken about 3:45pm - and by 4pm people were beginning to turn up in droves. At one point, apparently, there were over 30,000 people in Valbyhallen - and a long queue outside of patient beer enthusiasts waiting to get in!

The Charlie's Bar stand was one of only three stands outside (along with the Christiania beer stand and the grill). That meant the incredibly variable weather was always a factor (eg freezing the bar staff, blowing away the stand, having the stand filled by people avoiding the rain/eating sausages) but it was also the ideal temperature for keeping the casks conditioned - about 13C!

The beers on tap (no electric pumps here!) were (from left to right on the stands in the picture):

0. (Lower than the others) Brooklyn Brewery ale, brought over by plane by the Brooklyn Brewery guys, which wasn't ready to be served, unfortunately - and by now it will probably all have gone!
1. Mordue Geordie Pride
2. Mordue Radgie Gadgie (strong beer prizewinner)
3. Mordue Workie Ticket (championship Beer of Britain winner) (similar taste to Newcastle Brown)
4. Mordue IPA
5. Springhead Charlie's Angel (light hoppy ale)
6. Wickwar Mr Perretts (stout)
7. Youngs Special Ale
8. Youngs St George's Ale
9. Marston Pedigree
10. Marston Old Empire IPA (strong IPA)

Additionally, there was Westons Old Rosie cider and a perry whose brewery I have forgotten.

A great evening, but my feet hurt so much by the time I'd finished!

Posted by daen at 03:31 PM | Comments (0)

May 19, 2006

Beer!

The Danish equivalent of CAMRA organises an annual beer festival which opens in about 1 1/2 hours.

I'm due to be helping out with the Charlie's Bar stand. If you fancy sampling more than 1,000 beers then you know where to be. And apparently, with the predicted 30 new microbreweries opening in Denmark this year, there is due to be a huge shortfall of educated brewers ...

Of the 1,000 beers about 150 have never been at the festival before. Furthermore, there are 65 breweries of which 15 are also new to the festival! Should be fun.

Posted by daen at 02:35 PM | Comments (0)

April 19, 2006

Back to business

Easter holidays over, so I'm back to work. We went to a part of Denmark called Skagen, at the very northernmost tip of mainland Jutland. I'll post about it later on.

Posted by daen at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)

April 04, 2006

Denmark : economic miracle?

My prescience amazes even my good self sometimes. Just 3 days ago I blogged about the Economist Intelligence Unit ranking Denmark as the foremost business climate in the World. Now it seems that Denmark's wise approach to fiscal responsibility has paid off in another way : the National Bank reports that the country is free of foreign debt for the first time in over 50 years.

The low point was in 1988, when foreign debt reached nearly 50% of GDP. Since then, an insistence on balancing the budget has seen that debt turned into a surplus. There are no plans to hand out surpluses as tax cuts though : instead interest from the surplus will be used for public-sector projects.

The other thing I presciently mentioned was strikes : bus drivers on 16 lines were on strike today over a spitting incident: a passenger spat at a driver, who then was not allowed to go home to shower and change clothes. Ugly stuff, and my sympathies are with the bus drivers (especially as my line probably won't be affected when/if they strike again tomorrow).

Posted by daen at 12:25 AM | Comments (0)

New Asger Jorn record

In September 2003 I blogged that a new record had been set for an Asger Jorn painting, "Titania I", at 4,619,000 Danish kroner. Auctioneers Bruun Rasmussen tonight beat that by 1,781,000 Danish kroner tonight when they sold "Tristesse Blanche" ("White Sadness") for 6,400,000 Danish kroner (the link is probably time limited) at an auction of 100 works by CoBrA artists, raising 30,000,000 DKK in total.

Politiken story here (in Danish).

Posted by daen at 12:02 AM | Comments (0)

April 01, 2006

Copenhagen buses

The last few days have been a bit exciting on the Copenhagen buses.

Wednesday and Thursday saw the Dannebrog (the Danish flag) flying in tandem from the buses because of a "Bulgarian state visit", apparently. The Dannebrog is also flown on Royal occasions - birthdays, weddings etc.

On Friday, one of the Dannebrog flags was replaced with one of a number of international flags to celebrate Dialogday, a celebration of the diversity of Coepnhageners' ethnic backgrounds - one in five has foreign roots. The flags chosen were representative of those backgrounds - Iceland, Italy and Iran among them.

Today, we took a trip into town on the number 19. Usually, the 19 is one of the older yellow buses (like this but without the red stripes).

But today's trip was on a new lightweight bus made by VDL Berkhof of Belgium (wikipedia entry here). It's a model SB200, HUR number 1000 (you can read more technical info here). It appears to be a bit wider inside, and has a single exit. It seems HUR (the Copenhagen city area travel authority) has been running them for a while according to this forum thread on myldretid.dk (in Danish).

Posted by daen at 11:15 PM | Comments (0)

Le employment

Much has been written about what's happening in France. If I was a recent graduate about to enter the workforce, I'd be pretty pissed off that the rules had been changed under me. To recap, the CPE law says that employers would have the right to fire staff under 26 without explanation over an employee's two year trial period. After the first months, they must give two weeks' notice, and after six months the notice period is one month. President Chirac has declared the law constitutional, but suggested that the period be reduced to one year.

Derek Lowe has picked up on this. It's a funny thing, but when American commentators hear about labour issues in Europe, they nod sagely and say, "Ahh. Old Europe. Socialism. Doesn't work, does it?". He hasn't actually gotten the point that the students in France aren't pissed off about the fact that employers can fire staff in the first two years of their jobs (they always could), but that they can fire them without reason and on reduced notice. This is not good. I'm all in favour of labour flexibility, but under CPE if your boss simply doesn't like you (or makes a pass at you which you turn down) then you're out on your ear with one month's notice, thank you very much, goodbye with no recourse to a labour tribunal. Except that might have been the job you wanted to start your career. Doesn't look good on a CV, does it?

Several commentators have posted the usual anti-French/anti-Europe garbage too, which as usual flies in the face of actuality. The US economy is not in a good state. The fact is that the enormous and massive engine of commerce in the US has been running without sufficient lube for about 20 years, and it's simply momentum keeping it running. One day, the system is going to jam solid, and the whole thing is going jump off of its mountings and land in the laps of the smug US economists and politicians who abdicated responsibility and put the bankers in charge of the economy (which is like putting an alcoholic in charge of a brewery - they'll impress you by increasing beer production, but you're left wondering where all that extra product went).

The problems in France and Germany are simply that their economies are different to the US. France actually embodies some fairly basic capitalist principles which are no stranger to US companies : globalization (Toyota built its latest manufacturing plant there), foreign investment (40% of French quoted companies are foreign owned) and recent decoupling of private enterprise from the state. But France also has a progressive social agenda which the US lacks, and this is a source of some of France's woes. Its primary and secondary healthcare system is enormous and much-abused, and labour security has been a deeply engrained ethic.

Villepin's government is trying to reduce long-term unemployment. Unfortunately, the CPE law will simply create further uncertainty among an already uncertain graduate labour market, shift power into the hands of unscrupulous employers and make it harder for the best students to find the best jobs.

The situation is Denmark is interesting, and one which 99.99% of US commentators neglect completely. Socialism in Denmark is a reality, perhaps more so than in France. Healthcare, education and public transport are funded by the hefty taxes levied, and it has been that way for a long time. As in France, there is considerable resistance to changing the system. Even under perhaps the most rightwing government ever to take office, there is little stomach for deregulating any of it. There have, admittedly, been reforms in healthcare, education, employment and taxation, but compared to, say, Thatcher in the 80's, these are as nought.

And I hope it stays that way. I share that wish with the Economist Intelligence Unit who have recently ranked Denmark as having the number one business climate in the World between 2006 and 2011.

I love things like this - it completely confuses libertarian economists who cast around for mitigating factors - maybe Denmark is too small, too special, too strange. The fact is, it's a good political and economic model, carefully cultivated over a hundred years of democratic debate (with a small interruption between 1939 and 1945). The Danish political system is based on proportional representation, so anyone who has a view can find a voice in parliament. Union/employer relations are stunningly cordial. That's not to say that there aren't disagreements or strikes (and sometimes the strikes are annoylingly unplanned) but broad employment conditions and salary levels are discussed. This is because Danish students are encouraged from an early level to participate in decision making. High school kids here are often highly socially engaged, and this engagement follows them through to university and into the workforce. It's hard to feel dispossessed by society when you've been taking an active part in it virtually since birth. Danish businesses do fairly well here - Novo Nordisk, Mærsk, LEGO (OK, they have problems), Arla, B&O. And the biotech/biomedical sector here employs 40,000 people. Not bad for a small country.

Of course, there are exceptions and problems and things that don't work. But the impression one gets is that the Danes have spent a long time trying to get a holistic system together and have for the large part succeeded.

It makes me nervous when politicians start talking about making wholesale changes, and it makes me depressed when US commentators start talking about things they know nothing about. I hope the French government goes back to the drawing board on this - and that Dansk Folkeparti don't start getting ideas.

Posted by daen at 12:00 PM

March 30, 2006

Lost and found

Some kindhearted anonymous person found my wallet and handed it over to Arriva's lost property office last week. If that person is reading this, I would like to offer you a small reward for your honesty. Email lostwallet at daen dot dk and describe some distinguishing feature of the wallet to claim the reward and receive my thanks - you saved me some expense and a lot of hassle and legwork by returning it!

Posted by daen at 04:50 PM

March 29, 2006

Nybrogade, looking North West

Taken at about 19:25, looking across the canal to Nybrogade from the bus stop outside Christiansborg Slotsplads with a glorious sunset in the background. Shame it wasn't like this at noon - could have seen the eclipse then :-/

Posted by daen at 11:15 PM

March 28, 2006

Uffe Christoffersen

It would not be an understatement to say that Uffe Christoffersen is fond of painting tigers. Very fond of painting tigers.

I'm blogging about him because he's cropped up recently on three separate occasions.

First, J and I went to the Danish Artist's Association exhibition in December last year (CORNER 2006) at the Charlottenborg exhibition hall. Christoffersen had a number of his "tiger" series on show there. One tickled me especially:

The caption (very hard to read in the painting) reads:

Et æsel i tigerskind skaber panik. Men når en ørestump viser sig, bliver der tigerjagten på møllen.

A rough translation is:

A donkey in a tiger skin causes panic. But when an ear peeks out, the tiger hunt is over.

Secondly, someone we know told us last weekend that they were buying a Christoffersen painting.

And finally, the painting below ("The Tiger") showed up in our office yesterday as part of our rotating (and loaned) art collection!

Posted by daen at 07:11 PM

March 24, 2006

Tom McEwan

Once you've done it, you have a different view of what the strangest thing is about moving to a different country. Not learning the language (although, for me, Danish is hard enough). Not even lack of easy access to childhood foodstuffs (Marmite can be bought at Abigail's). No, it's the huge void in your cultural background that shows up whenever anything or anyone of historical significance hoves into view.

I often take "breakfast" (well, what else can you call the first meal of the day, even if it is at 2pm?) at "Croissanten" on Frederiksborggade. On Tuesday, I ordered a cheese slice and a café au lait, as usual. I reached for my wallet. Not there. The usual slap test (all pockets, then the forehead) turned up nothing. Conclusion: I'd either dropped the wallet on the bus - I know I had it when I got on, because it had my DSB travel card in it - or some light-fingered person had relieved me of it. After I'd phoned the bus company to see if they'd found it (no luck), and after phoning the bank to cancel my cards, the good people at "Croissanten" gave me a credit for the pastry and coffee and lent me 20 Dkk for the bus fare to work (I paid them back the next day).

Yesterday, one of the servers who'd helped me out asked if I'd found the wallet or heard anything, and the only other customer, an elderly guy, started chatting in English. I could immediately hear that he was English, so I started talking to him in English. After a brief chat about what brought me to Denmark and what work I did, I asked him. Before he could answer, the girl behind the counter said "He's one of our best children's TV presenters!". I think he was simultaneously pleased and a bit embarrassed! The guy's name is Tom McEwan. He came to Denmark 35 years ago, and through a succession of jobs (including washing cars in Silkeborg, in Jutland) ended up teaching English in Copenhagen and playing drums in some bands (one of which, I have just found out, was the nascent Gasolin', one of Denmark's most successful bands of the 70's). Somehow, this turned into a stint in television and film, which is where most Danes under the age of 35 know him from. For my edification, he jotted down some names of songs and shows on a napkin, which I have in front of me: "Nu er det ikke sjovt længere" ("It's not funny any more" - a TV show) - "Fy Fy Skamme Skamme" (no idea how to translate, but it's a song which almost everyone in Denmark except me knows) and "Ude på noget" ("Up to something", another show, with Tom playing the part of Polle, alongside famous actress Ghita Nørby, playing Ruth).

I showed the napkin to J, who was very impressed - I guess for Brits it the equivalent of bumping into Geoffrey from Rainbow, and getting him to jot down some songs that he did with Freddie and Jane ...

Tom will be playing drums during in this year's Copenhagen Jazz Festival, and often pops up in plays around town (I only remembered afterwards that I'd seen him in "Waiting for Godot" at Krudttønden).

Posted by daen at 11:40 PM

March 12, 2006

Rosenborg Slot

Sunshine and I'm outside in snowy but springlike Copenhagen after being ill last week.

Posted by daen at 04:33 PM

February 26, 2006

Danish Metroanagram

Thorbjørn Kühl has fittingly made a Danish anagram version of the Metro map. See it here.

Posted by daen at 10:35 PM | TrackBack

February 25, 2006

Hence Goeth Porn Meat

Seems to be all the rage to anagrammatize your local transport system. So here's Copenhagen's Metro system done for your pleasure. Slightly larger version here. I cheated slightly by Anglicising the Danish letters (mainly "ø" became "oe").

Posted by daen at 02:12 AM

February 20, 2006

Denmark on "60 Minutes"

Well, I didn't see it last night, but I've just read the transcript and a slightly indignant review in "Politiken" of the segment on Denmark .

"When you use the freedom of speech to make jokes of other people's religions and you do it with the single purpose of demonstrating that you have the right to do so, then you are undermining the freedom of speech as I see it," [former foreign minister and newspaper editor Uffe] Elleman says.

No disagreement there.

I can see that the tone of "60 Minutes" will have ruffled a few feathers in Denmark, nothing that more progressive Danes and Muslims here haven't already figured out for themselves:

"Muslims make up only two percent of the population. Not much, perhaps, but enough to have spawned a backlash. Denmark now has the toughest immigration laws in Europe. And in the last five years, Danes have voted the ultra-rightwing People’s Party into the ruling majority. Since the cartoon controversy, support for this anti-Muslim party has grown to almost 20 percent. ...

I'm scared," [Dr. Kamal] Qureshi [MF - a Danish Member of Parliament] replied. "I think there are a lot of Muslims that are afraid that they could be turned into scapegoats, and people would say that the reason that the world hates us is because you people are telling bad stories of Denmark. We have to take the ball away from the extreme groups in Denmark and put it in the middle where the rest of us are.

But that middle is fast disappearing into fantasies of fear. Many Muslims are afraid of being victimized. Many Danes are afraid their culture is under siege. Already, people with foreign values are converging on Denmark’s national symbols."

Now we're at the nub of the problem : erosion of cultural values, the old red herring for restricting immigration. Translation: "We don't like foreigners because they're different". I have heard opinions voiced in conversations with otherwise liberal Danes about Muslims which have shocked me - an almost visceral dislike and mistrust. But I've also had conversations with Danes who have no problem seeing Muslims as just another section of Danish society trying to get on with their lives.

But I haven't had any conversations with immigrants or descendants of immigrants which have been wholly positive about the experience of living in Denmark. Most have been a bit bemused about it, and the conversation usually proceeds along the lines of "Well, I've lived here for 25 years now, and my kids have grown up here, so what can I do?".

"Freedom of speech versus religious sensitivities. Conflicting forces which are doing battle everywhere. The Danes, in their picture perfect world, may have thought they were immune. Now they know better."

"60 Minutes" makes a fundamental error in this (rather sickly-sweet and condescending) summary. It assumes that the World at Large has neglected Denmark since 1945. But a sensible debate about how Islam fits into Western culture was going on. This is of course also one of the issues I have with "Jyllands-Posten" and where I also agree wholeheartedly with Qureshi. That debate was stumbling forward sub-optimally, but it was beginning to gain momentum. It has now been snatched out of the hands of the liberal middle in Denmark and grabbed by the hands of extremism in the World at Large. This is not an appropriate place for discussion of how Denmark's future society will be structured, especially when that discussion was at such a critical stage. That debate needs to be brought back home to moderate Danes and Muslims in Denmark, out of the gaze of "60 Minutes". Unfortunately, support for Dansk Folkeparti has now strengthened to 20% on the back of this, so I guess the debate will have to start from scratch while people get their common sense back.

Posted by daen at 12:46 PM

February 09, 2006

Cheap digs in Copenhagen

Hotel 27 is the former Mermaid Hotel at 27 Løngangstræde in Copenhagen. The hotel has 203 rooms, although at the time of writing about half of them are closed for renovation, which is being completed over the next two years.

The prices are quite reasonable (for Copenhagen, anyway) : DKK 495 per night for a single room or DKK 690 per night for a double. Prices include breakfast. These prices are their special Winter bargain rates, valid until 31st March, so expect them to climb for the Summer. They also have a "grandchild and grandparents" special : DKK 745 for a kid under 13 and two grandparents per night including breakfast.

I found Hotel 27 when I was looking for a place for some chums of mine to stay in November, and like a twit I'd left booking the accommodation until the last minute. It was the end of November, and every hotel was almost fully booked with Christmas party goers, the only remaining rooms were the expensive ones - DKK 1,700+ per night (that's about £160). Then I found Hotel 27 on the "Wonderful Copenhagen" website. It had only just opened the day before, so they weren't showing up on Google or the hotel booking portals. When I phoned, they had masses of spare rooms for my chums at DKK 700 per night including breakfast. It had to be said that the rooms were a bit small and you could see that they needed redecorating, but the staff were nice and helpful, and the location was perfect : right next to the main Town Square (which is also a main bus interchange) and about 10 minutes' walk from the main station, but the hotel itself is on a relatively quiet street. I stopped by for breakfast one morning when I was meeting the chums there, and it was good - scrambled egg, sausages, bacon, toast, cereals, coffee, tea, fruit juices, plus the usual Danish breakfast fare of rolls ("rundstykke"), cheeses, cold meats, fruit ...

So, good luck to them. I hope there's a sustainable market for smaller, friendly, lower priced hotels in Copenhagen.

Of course, there's always Can I Crash? for really cheap accommodation.

Posted by daen at 05:42 PM

February 05, 2006

Trouble in the Middle East ... Anglia?

Headline in Turkish newspaper Zaman:

"Denmark and Norwich Urge Citizens to Leave Syria"

The story starts ...

Denmark and Norwich have begun to urge their citizens to leave Syria after their embassies were set on fire in the country.

Denmark Foreign Minister Spokesman said “70 Danes left Syria. Some left last night, the others left this morning.” The spokesman advised their citizens to stay indoors until a way to get them out of there was found.

The Norwich Foreign Minister said, "It do be a bit of a rum'un, Oi reckon it moight be the waaarst news round these paaarts since that thar Great Turnip Bloight of 1895. Oi'm orf down the pub 'n' Oi reckon youse all orter do the soim fer safety's sake."

No news of any warnings for Ipswich or Great Yarmouth residents.

Posted by daen at 05:39 PM

Worst jobs (Danish perspective)

Some of the worst jobs in US science involve urine, excrement or ... ahem ... other bodily fluids. But these days, it seems, there is other unpleasantness to be found, yes even here in Denmark.

4. Moderate Danish Muslims trying get on with their everyday lives
Because, more than ever before, a bunch of ignorant right-wingers are going to make their lives unpleasant both in person, in the press and in politics.

3. Danish people working abroad
Especially those in Middle Eastern countries. After the events of the last 24 hours, this doesn't need explanation. They must feel like people from the US feel - very scared. I am gravely concerned that it is just a matter of time before the first Danish hostage is taken in the Middle East.

2. Jyllands-Posten cartoonist
That scribbling sound you hear is not cartoons being penned, but is rather that of 12 cartoonists scratching Jyllands-Posten off their CVs

1. Jyllands-Posten culture editor (Flemming Rose)
By a combination of poor judgement, Muslim extremism and bad luck a job that once meant sampling fine wines and travelling to exotic far-flung shores in the name of culture now involves furtive glances over the shoulder while skulking in and out of the public gaze. My only hope is that Flemming Rose will emerge from this somewhat the wiser.

Posted by daen at 03:53 PM

February 03, 2006

Bush government on the Muslims' side over cartoons ...

Well, what to make of this?

"Inciting religious or ethnic hatred in this manner is not acceptable," [State Department press officer Janelle] Hironimus said. "We call for tolerance and respect for all communities and for their religious beliefs and practices."

Never, ever believe that the Bush administration is stupid. This is a wily political move, an attempt to divide the Muslim world while raising popularity at home.

The obvious thing would have been to strongly support Denmark, the European press and freedom of speech. But instead the Bush administration has made a vague supporting statement about the freedom of the press (something that it's not entirely keen on itself) and, no doubt to the chagrin of Anders Fogh, has indicated its displeasure with the tone of the cartoons.

This is, on the face of it, a quite extraordinary position to take. Denmark is a trading partner and military ally. But remember that on the whole, US citizens don't care what's printed in France Soir, Jyllands-Posten or Die Tageszeitung, and they certainly don't care what European governments do (or don't do) or say. To a great many US citizens, the Fox News Channel represents all that's great and good about press freedom.

I think that the Bush administration is envious of the level of control that hardline Muslim governments exert. Too often has Bush joked how easy his job would be if he was a dictator, his adherence to fundamentalist Christianity is well known, and I'm sure he would be quite happy to see stiff penalties doled out for dodgy religious cartoons in the US if he could get away with it. So on one level, the gap between the Bush administration and, say, the Iranian government is actually not that great. This kind of "be respectful to religion" statement also makes him look wise and tolerant to the Right who will reason that if this "Inciting-religious-or-ethnic-hatred-in-this-manner-is-not-acceptable" argument goes for Muslims, it surely must go for Christians too - more warm snugglies for them and more worries for the Left and the Liberal press. Because if you argue against this kind of statement, it's hard not to end up sounding like some kind of fascist Torah-/Koran-/Bible-burning, hate-inducing, sloping-browed thug ...

In summary : The Bush administration has claimed the one small patch of dry middle ground in this morasse before any Liberal commentator could climb on it, and they will stamp on the fingers and kick the faces of anyone who tries to claw their way on there with them.

Expect Bush's approval ratings to go up these next few days.

Elsewhere, this leaves extremist Muslims on the horns of a dilemma. They have three choices : 1) to publicly agree with the US, which would be a bitter pill to swallow, but would allow the outrage over the cartoons to continue unabated ; 2) to publicly disagree with the US, in the name of continuing the enduring game of automatically gainsaying anything issuing forth from the US, the Great Satan, which would have the side effect of effectively putting them in the position where they have effectively supported freedom of the press, which is obviously untenable ; or 3) to ignore the US statement and continue ranting. My bet would be 3. We'll see.

Posted by daen at 07:23 PM

February 02, 2006

The Muhammad cartoons : my turn

There's a review of today's Euro press on the BBC website featuring an excellent quote from a German paper:

Another German daily, Die Tageszeitung, which also reprinted the cartoons, says the media are "of course" entitled to subject religious symbols to satirical treatment.

"In a democratic and secular society, showing decency and respect for other cultures does not mean adopting their religious dogmas," the paper says.

But the paper adds that there are good reasons to regard some of the cartoons in question as "tasteless".

"Above all," it says, "in view of the current political situation in Denmark, they are a statement by the majority society vis-a-vis the Muslim minority in the country - a statement which can in fact be interpreted as racist."

Spot on. I don't condone the howling outrage the cartoons have triggered. I also believe that a free press is essential for a democratic society to function. But with that freedom comes a huge responsibility which every editor and owner of every paper in every free country has a duty to uphold. Jyllands-Posten editor Flemming Rose has failed in this responsibility. There is an ongoing debate in Denmark, as there is throughout Europe, on how Muslim immigrants and Christian Europeans can coexist, on how diverse cultural groups can live side by side. The debate has been hindered on both sides by conservatism and, too often, by extremism and prejudice. But slowly, on both sides, moderate voices were beginning to be heard and a dialogue in sensible tones was starting to gain strength. What Jyllands-Posten have done is tantamount to a journalist who is attending a crucial Israeli-Palestinian peace conference suddenly standing up and shouting bawdy Muhammad jokes. Is it legal? No doubt. Is it necessary, desirable, far-sighted or intelligent? Yeah, right. The fact that perhaps a small number of the people who hear you will find your comments deeply offensive, and are also somewhat beweaponed and more than a bit mad, is an added problem. Unfortunately, it's become a problem for all of us.

I would have had more respect for Jyllands-Posten and Rose if they'd got into this mess by having the guts to get some smart people to write some insightful articles on the problems with Islam instead of getting a bunch of cartoonists to mock it. The Muhammad cartoons were always likely to provoke a response, something that Rose is well aware of in the article which first mentions them. He appears to have been in doubt about whether to proceed, having consulted Tim Jensen, a religious historian at the University of Southern Denmark. Jensen basically pointed out that portraying Muhammad in any form, let alone as the bomb-wearing terrorist that Jyllands-Posten showed, is offensive to most Muslims and would be considered provocative. Actually, "like gasoline on a bonfire", is how he put it. So Rose went ahead anyway.

Jyllands-Posten's attempt was so heavy-handed and Neanderthal that it's probably put that dialogue back 10 years and given the stage back fair and square to extremist elements on both sides of the religious and cultural divide. Well done, Flemming Rose and Jyllands-Posten. You got what you wanted, I have no doubt.

Posted by daen at 10:04 PM

January 29, 2006

Icicle

An icicle formed from a dripping gutter. Isn't nature wonderful?

Posted by daen at 12:08 AM

January 25, 2006

Aresa goes public

Aresa is a Danish company which made the news sometime back with a GM plant which turns red in the presence of explosives. This so-called BioSensor technology can be used, among other things, for the clearance of landmines.

Aresa today announced that they will be listing on the new First North alternative investment market here in Copenhagen.

First North, launched on 12th December 2005, currently only has one other company on it, Deadline Games. It'll be interesting to see how quickly, if at all, other companies join the exchange.

Posted by daen at 05:06 PM

January 11, 2006

Christianshavn evacuated because of lesbian affair?

A bomb scare in Christianshavn led to the rapid evacuation of the area, including Christianshavns Gymnasium (the high school). Politiken reports [in Danish], however, that the whole thing could allegedly be due to a case of domestic jealousy. Apparently, the man's girlfriend, a female boxer, is rumoured to have had an affair with another woman. Feeling somewhat put out by this, it seems the guy rather decided to ge teven by stupidly phoning the police to tell them that there were explosives in his (presumably ex- by now) girlfriend's white car. There weren't. Police have now arrested a man in connection with the bomb scare.

Posted by daen at 04:10 PM

Balloon over Botanical Gardens

A hot air balloon hovers above the trees in Copenhagen's Botanical Gardens ...

Taken 9 January 2006.

Posted by daen at 12:10 PM

November 15, 2005

Fire

I was at David Heinemeier Hansson's "leaving Denmark" do tonight when, around 8:20pm, I got a voicemail from J, and an SMS. The SMS said simply, "call". You don't ignore an SMS like that. A fire had broken out two blocks away from home; the apartment was filling with smoke, there were clouds of thick black smoke on Amager Boulevard, there were huge flames appearing over the top of the apartment block across the street from us and would I please come home N-O-W. So I left (sorry, David and organisers).

And there was indeed a roof fire of a stunning size. You can get some idea of its scope if you check out the fireman in this photo (from the Politiken article):

(Some of our own photos will be here soon)

You can see how close the fire (red cross) was to our apartment (green cross) on this map:

Posted by daen at 12:41 AM

November 04, 2005

Geek dinner Copenhagen v1.0

I've been a bit remiss in not mentioning how well the first Copenhagen geek dinner went. Excellent sushi at Letz on Christianshavn. I'm really looking forward to the second one in January.

Posted by daen at 01:04 AM

October 28, 2005

Demonstration at Nørreport

I left work late today (21:00), the knock-on consequence of programming until 07:00 this morning and thereby getting in to work at 15:00. Old habits die hard.

Anyway, the traffic lights at the Øster Voldgade/Gothersgade junction were blocked all the way round by police vans, blue lights flashing. The number 42 bus I was on sat there for about 5 minutes until the driver opened the doors to get out to talk to the police, so then most of the passengers got out. It looks like it was the rump of the 500-strong demonstration which had been celebrating Ungdomhusets 23rd birthday earlier on outside Christiansborg. It moved down Frederickborgsgade, presumably heading over the lake towards Nørrebro, and by the time I'd walked to the station, it was all over. A brief moment of excitement in Copenhagen's otherwise tranquil Autumn environs. No photos, unfortunately.

Posted by daen at 01:22 AM

September 28, 2005

Danish Fall by Thomas E. Kennedy

Danish Fall, Tom Kennedy's final book in the Copenhagen Quartet, is now on sale. The man himself will be at three Copenhagen venues over the next few weeks for readings and signings:

Tonight (Wednesday, 28 September) at 7pm, Chester's Book Café, Strandgade 26, Christianshavn

Wednesday, 23 November at 5pm, Jazzkælderen, Skindergade 19, Central Copenhagen

Thursday, 1 December at 5pm, Paludan Bogcafé, Fiolstræde 10, Central Copenhagen

Posted by daen at 05:27 PM

September 24, 2005

TI Calculators

www.ticalc.org

Posted by daen at 09:05 PM

September 23, 2005

Minicomputers

I heard a young guy call his WinMobile/Symbian/whatever-enabled mobile phone a "minicomputer" this morning. This is what I think of as a minicomputer (a DEC VAX 11/780 which went on sale in 1978) ...

... not this ...

But maybe he has a point. Perhaps minis are so obsolete that it makes sense to recycle the word for real mini-computers.

Posted by daen at 03:31 PM

September 19, 2005

Geek dinner (Copenhagen) 28 October 2005

A geek dinner is in the offing for Copenhagen's fading autumn days. Sushi has been both proposed and questioned as geek fare. Personally, sushi would go down a storm, although if anyone knows of a good teppan-yaki restaurant in the greater Copenhagen area I would be tempted to table it as an alternative venue ...

Posted by daen at 07:08 PM

September 14, 2005

Dream of Tower is an exhibition celebrating the skyskraper at the Danish Architecture Center. It's on until October 23rd.

Posted by daen at 08:10 PM

September 05, 2005

Late summer in Denmark

Early evening sun on buildings near Nørreport Station.

Posted by daen at 01:21 PM

August 16, 2005

Hans Island, take 2

The BBC has this report on the escalating Danish/Canadian row over Hans Island. Much web space has been devoted to this titanic struggle between the two great maritime nations over the last month (in fact, back to last year), including a previous post of mine. Canadian e-commerce entrepreneur, author and patriot Rick Broadhead has a (slightly biased) Hans Island information page. Apparently, Rick took out a Google ad in favour of the Canadian claim ("Hans Island is Canadian", with a big maple leaf) after having seen one supporting the Danish claim ("Does Hans sound Canadian? Danish name, Danish island.", with a link to the Danish foreign ministry). Others are cashing in on the doubtless literally dozens of interested page views this dispute is generating from Skagen to Møns Klimt, from Vancouver to St Johns. For example, do a Google search for "Hans Island" right now and you'll get a cheeky sponsored link for a Canadian ergonomic chair company with the tagline "Negotiate? What for? Everyone knows it belongs to Canada". The linked page adds further insult with a "Special discount given to all Canadians. Danish customers pay full retail." I reminded them that everbody knows that the Danes are unlikely to buy Canadian ergonomic furniture, being one of the few areas where Denmark can definitely blow the Canadians out of the water, so to speak. That and lamps.

Posted by daen at 02:43 AM

August 15, 2005

Waiter, there's a Stegobium paniceum in my soup ...

Stegobium paniceum is the species name for the biscuit beetle (US: drugstore beetle, DK: brødbille). It's in the same family (Anobiidae) as the woodworm or furniture beetle. This small (3-5mm long) brown beetle thrives indoors at room temperatures. A tenacious muncher, it will easily chew through cardboard, paper, tinfoil, and apparently even lead, to get to flour, dried cereals, pasta, packet soup or camomile tea (about which more in a moment). The adults don't eat, they just make holes in things. Once the female has chomped her way into a nice bag of organic flour or camomile teabag (I think you can see where this is going), she lays a single egg, which hatches after a few days into a small white larva. But there can be a lot of female beetles making a lot of holes ...

We have/had a number of these beetles which set up home in our pantry. They got in the flour and they got in the camomile teabags. And there is nothing quite like making a fresh, hot pot of tea, pouring a nice cup and taking a good long swig, and then idly wondering what those little boiled white blobs are doing floating sadly at the bottom of the cup to spoil the whole tea-drinking business for you, not to mention that it rather ruins it for the little baby beetles, too.

Posted by daen at 10:29 PM

Tenuous Denmark/test cricket connection

Ricky Ponting, scourge of the England XI, was born in Launceston, Tasmania. And Crown Princess Mary of Denmark was born in Hobart, Tasmania. Tenuous? You got it.

Posted by daen at 10:15 PM

August 11, 2005

Islands Brygge, Copenhagen, July 2005

Well, no rocket packs or space holidays, but Copenhagen does have the Gemini Residence, two side-by-side former seed silos now converted into 84 space-agey apartments on Islands Brygge.

Islands Brygge, looking towards Langebro.

Posted by daen at 02:43 AM

August 10, 2005

KBH magazine

KBH is a magazine about Copenhagen. Not much about shopping, tourism or what's on, but a lot about the architecture and changes that are happening to the city, and what it's like to live here.

It's an unusual publication : issue 1 had two "recognise the ...?" quizzes - one with photos of notable loos, the other one of potholes. Worringly, we knew two of the loos and one of the potholes. Issue two was a bit more genteel : spot the gargoyle. Zero there, unfortunately.

The design is drop-dead gorgeous and the articles are in-depth and interesting. In addition to the gargoyles, issue two has a ten-page spread on the new region on Northern Amager known as Ørestad; an interview with journalist and author Rushy Rashid; and a two-page overview of the facelift which Nørreport station will be getting soon, as well as a whole bunch of other worthwhile stuff. This is beyond a doubt the best free magazine that Copenhagen has to offer, and I hope they can keep the presses rolling : producing something as high-quality as this can't be cheap.

You can pick up August's edition at any one of several hundred bars, cafés and clubs around Copenhagen, if you're lucky. Keep an eye peeled for September's. Each issue has a print run of 30,000 but they shift pretty quickly.

Posted by daen at 11:12 PM

August 09, 2005

Opera in Tisvilde

Rain and good music. More later.

Posted by daen at 04:06 PM

Cornelis Vreesvijk

Cornelis Vreeswijk (August 8, 1937 – November 12, 1987) was a very special person. Born in the town of IJmuiden, The Netherlands, he moved to Sweden while still in his teens to become one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. He recorded over 30 albums before his untimely death. Folk, blues, rock, samba: Vreewijks' Swedish music tackles many styles. His unique voice, his strong lyrics and his turbulent way of life made him a phenonomen in Scandinavia.

Tonight, at Bådcaféen on Christianshavns Kanal, we listened to the excellent Trio Cornelis (Steen Svanholm singer/guitarist, Christian Frank on electric guitar, Mads Riishede on double bass) perform some of Vreewijk's songs on what would have been his 68th birthday. I must confess to never having heard of the man, and I'm amazed at the sheer amount of material I found on Google.

Posted by daen at 03:12 AM

August 08, 2005

Den Danske Sang

Den danske sang er en ung, blond pige,
hun går og nynner i Danmarks hus,
hun er et barn af det havblå rige,
hvor bøge lytter til bølgers brus.
Den danske sang, når den dybest klinger,
har klang af klokke, af sværd og skjold;
imod os bruser på brede vinger
en sagatone fra hedenold.

Al Sjællands ynde og Jyllands vælde,
de tvende klange af blidt og hårdt,
skal sangen rumme for ret at melde
om, hvad der inderst er os og vort.
Og tider skifter, og sæder mildnes,
men kunst og kamp kræver stadig stål:
det alterbål, hvor vor sjæl skal ildnes,
det flammer hedest i Bjarkemål.

Så syng da, Danmark, lad hjærtet tale!
thi hjærtesproget er vers og sang,
og lære kan vi at nattergale,
af lærken over den grønne vang.
Og blæsten suser sin vilde vise,
og stranden drøner sit højtidskvad;
fra hedens lyng som fra stadens flise
skal sangen løfte sig ung og glad.

-- Kai Hoffmann 1874-1949 (text 1924), Carl Nielsen 1865-1931 (music 1926)

Posted by daen at 02:13 PM

July 26, 2005

It's mine! No, mine!

The recent visit of the Canadian defence minister to barren Arctic Hans Island has stirred up an old Canada/Denmark border dispute.

The border in the Nares Strait was drawn up in 1973 between Ellesmere Island, which is Canadian, and Greenland, which is a semi-autonomous Danish territory. Bleak little Hans Island kind of slipped into the gap between the ice.

Danish minister Tom Høyem may well have started the current trouble brewing when he visited the island in 1984 and raised the Dannebrog, at the same time planting a slightly tongue-in-cheek "welcome to Denmark" note and a bottle of brandy at the base of the flagpole. The Danes (without Høyem) have made return visits in 2002 and 2003 for flag maintenance purposes (and maybe to take a slug of brandy).

It also seems that Canadian troops have been popping by the island in recent months and, rumour has it, leaving whiskey at their own flagpole.

The issue is interesting in that it a) raises military issues over Canada's ability to defend its Northernmost borders ; b) raises legal issues over ownership of valuable fishing grounds for turbot and shrimp in that part of the Arctic ; and c) could determine who controls passage through the strategically important Nares Strait.

A surprising amount has been written by concerned Canadians about Danish activity around Hans Island over the last few years.

One thing's for sure : with all the bottles of booze lying around under flagpoles, whoever does finally get control of the island can celebrate with a mighty piss-up.

Denmark is also engaged in other more important border disputes concerning small islands in the middle of nowhere.

Posted by daen at 01:52 AM

July 05, 2005

The Chimp has Landed : Bush in Denmark

Bush has landed in Airforce 1 at Kastrup Airport and is on his way in Marine 1 to Fredensborg. The advance 'copter with the security people has already landed there to secure the grounds, no doubt. We spotted Marine 1 on its way from the airport about 15 minutes ago, and then a trio of black 'copters flying over Copenhagen.

Posted by daen at 09:52 PM

July 02, 2005

La Fontaine : Bad Attitude

The first night of the Jazz Festival has been soured for us by an incident in La Fontaine where my girlfriend was groped by a drunken man called Søren. We moved to another table, and I asked Søren to leave. We also complained to the barstaff, but the only thing they did was to ask Søren to move to another table ; we wanted him out of there, because he had made my girlfriend feel most upset and uncomfortable and she no longer wanted to be in the same bar as him. The response from the doorman was "I didn't see it happen and he's a paying customer and there's nothing I can do and it wasn't that bad was it?" - irrelevant and wrong. A long argument ensued outside La Fontaine between the doorman and my girlfriend over whether or not being touched by a complete stranger constituted harrassment or not, during which I was not as calm or polite as I should perhaps have been as I listened with mounting frustration and disbelief. All through this Søren was sitting comfortably inside listening to the jazz. My girlfriend called the police, who came quickly but were not helpful. At this point the music was ending and Søren came out to go home. The police asked him what had happened, and then they let him go. All through this, the doorman and barman were completely unhelpful, unsympathetic and just plain wrong. All we were asking was that Søren be shown the exit, so that we could continue to enjoy the music undisturbed, sitting with the people we wanted to sit with. Søren apparently is known to La Fontaine, whereas we are not, so we had to leave while he could stay. So, ladies, if you are touched up by a complete stranger in La Fontaine, it had better not be by someone they know there, because otherwise you you won't get any help from the doorman or barman and you might as well just leave and go somewhere without a sexual harrassment policy from the 1800s.

Posted by daen at 06:00 AM

June 24, 2005

Sankt Hans Aften 2005

Beautiful evening last night, perfect for watching the sun go down on Tisvilde Strand.

Posted by daen at 10:44 AM

June 22, 2005

Summer on Fyn

Just back from a short break on Fyn (Denmark's middle island). Beautiful weather and wonderful landscape.

Posted by daen at 12:48 AM

June 08, 2005

Arson attack on immigration minister's home

There's some strange goings-on in Denmark right now.

In April, a young man was gunned down with a machine gun in Christianshavn, in front of a number of horrified bystanders, apparently over a drug deal that went wrong.

Last week a doorman at Club Rust, a nightclub in Nørrebro, shot and killed a young man and seriously injured his older brother. The brothers have been implicated in various drugs-related criminal activity in Copenhagen, possibly the killing in Christianshavn. Threats have been made against the family of the doorman, an Imam has suggested that blood money be paid to the family of the dead young man, and much confusion still surrounds exactly what happened outside Rust.

Now, a particularly nasty attack on the home of the immigration minister Rikke Hvilshøj has left her car burnt out and her family no doubt shocked and scared. A group calling itself "Beate Without Limits" has claimed responsibility, citing Denmark's overly-restrictive immigration laws as motivation for the attack, and police are scratching their heads over who these people are.

What gives?

Moron Abroad (Greg Nagan) has covered the madness with great aplomb. Also, why not buy his book?

Posted by daen at 09:56 PM

June 06, 2005

Thomas Kennedy and Walter Cummins' new book : The Literary Traveller

Thomas Kennedy and Walter Cummins are launching The Literary Traveller on Wednesday June 8th 7pm at Chester's Book Café, Strandade 26, Copenhagen and on Thursday June 9th 5pm at Paludan's Book Café, Fiolstræde 10, Copenhagen.

The book is published by Del Sol Press and is 256 pages in length, price DKK 150.

... set off for an afternoon with J. P. Donleavy in his Irish mansion, to visit the Paris of Hemingway, the Lisbon of Bernardo Soares, Joyce's Dublin and his gravesite in Zurich, the Ionian home of Lefcadio Hearne where Sappho plunged to her death (or did she?), the Victorian pubs of London where Phileas Fogg made his famous wager, Synge's Aran Islands, Voltaire's Ferney, the luxurious abode of Baroness Varvara in Copenhagen, the "secret" erotic shrine of Emanuel Vigeland in Oslo, Robert Graves's Mallorca and the digs and haunts of scores of New York writers. Visit Helsinki, Chicago, Florence, Venice, Slovenia, the Rhine of Goethe and Byron, the Alps, Stonehenge, Oxfordshire, the mysteries of the Yorkshire Dales, and the poets and pubs of Edinburgh's Auld Reekie. Journey with them, off the beaten path, down the narrow alleys, up the mountains, and into the pubs in search of literary history.

Posted by daen at 09:01 PM

May 29, 2005

Got Wood?

Posted by daen at 11:24 PM

May 24, 2005

Back from Wivenhoe

I went to a birthday party on Saturday back in Wivenhoe, England, and also met up with a whole load of people I haven't seen for 4 1/2 years. It was a good trip, but I am so tired now. More blogging about this later including the full photo journal, entitled 29 hours 12 minutes. There will be lots of beautiful Essex countryside, old buildings, even older people (some with hats) and two (count'em) rainbows.

Posted by daen at 10:30 AM

May 19, 2005

Oh, to be in England

Oh, to be in England
Now that April's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England—now!

And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray's edge—
That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!
And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dower
—Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

-- Robert Browning

(Whatever)

Posted by daen at 12:58 PM

Fødselsdag sang

I dag er det Oles fødselsdag!
Hurra! Hurra! Hurra!
Han sikkert sig en gave får
som han har ønsket sig i år
og dejlig chokolade med kage til.

Hvor smiler han, hvor er han glad
Hurra! Hurra! Hurra!
Men denne dag er også rar,
for hjemme venter mor og far
med dejlig chokolade med kage til.

Og når han hjem fra skolen går,
Hurra! Hurra! Hurra!
Så skal han hjem og holde fest,
og hvem der kommer med som gæst,
får dejlig chokolade med kage til.

Til slut vi råber højt i kor.
Hurra! Hurra! Hurra!
Gid Ole længe leve må
og sine ønsker opfyldt få -
og dejlig chokolade med kage til.

-- Otto Mikkelsen

Posted by daen at 12:59 AM

May 13, 2005

Copenhagen Port

This year, some 283 cruise ships are expected to dock at Copenhagen. That's one more than last year, and an all-time high.

One notable arrival on Monday 16th May will be the Queen Elizabeth the Second, staying until Thursday 19th. I will count the QE2 as the record-breaking ship.

The QE2 is 293 metre (963 feet) long, carries 1791 passengers and a crew of 921 and displaces 70,327 tons.

Posted by daen at 07:51 PM

May 05, 2005

Denmark's First National Research Day : May 12, 2005

Denmark's first national Research Day is on Thursday 12 May, 2005. A whole bunch of institutions, businesses and organisations will be focussing on research with a load of exciting arrangements. For example, experience physics and chemistry in a fun and different way at Aalborg University, follow the rise of the robots at the Danish Design Centre in Copenhagen, or find out about Jupiter: King of the Planets in Odense.

Posted by daen at 05:54 PM

April 07, 2005

Summertime ...

Summer is on its way ... Bakken is open, Tivoli opens in 9 days, and the Copenhagen Jazz Festival is less than three months away ...

Posted by daen at 02:19 AM

March 13, 2005

Arty Hotels

There's been a lot of coverage of Project Fox recently, one of whose aspects is the conversion of a dowdy 3 star hotel into Hotel Fox.

The Hotel FOX is a completely new type of hotel, unparalleled in the world says the blurb. Maybe. But there are a number of similar concept hotels in the World, one of which is the Sorat Art'otel on Joachimstaler Strasse in Berlin, where I had the pleasure of staying on and off between '92 to '95.

Admittedly, Hotel Fox has well and truly focussed on getting art into each of its 61 rooms, whereas most of the art in the Sorat is in the public spaces, like the dining room ...

... and the lobby, for example.

Posted by daen at 02:59 AM

January 30, 2005

Daniel Goldenberg exhibition

Daniel Goldenberg is the son of a friend of mine. He has an exhibition opening at Galleri Knud Grothe, Jægersborg Allé 11, 2920 Charlottenlund (close to Jægersborg station). There's an invitation only preview on Saturday 5/2 from 11am to 3pm and then the exhibition proper is open to the public Mondays to Thursdays from 1pm to 5:30pm, on Fridays from 1pm to 7pm, Saturdays 10am to 2pm and on Sundays from 1pm to 4pm, and it runs up to and including Sunday 20/2.

Posted by daen at 10:31 PM

September 21, 2004

Earthquakes or ...

An earthquake hit Copenhagen today, at about 3:34pm, measuring around 3.0 on the Richter scale.

Shortly before, there had been an earthquake measuring around 5.0 on the Richter scale near Kaliningrad whose effects could be felt in Lithuania and Poland.

My theory is that this isn't a geological phenomenon but a political one, as Europe shifts rapidly to the right.

Posted by daen at 08:39 PM

September 13, 2004

Slug / skovsnegl

Slug / skovsnegl
Originally uploaded by daen.

These brightly coloured "wood snails" (orange slugs, actually) are very common here, at least in Northern Zealand, and grow up to 7 inches long. There are also black slugs, which are more familiar to English people, but I haven't seen the boring English grey slugs in Denmark yet ...

Posted by daen at 08:12 PM

September 10, 2004

Thomas E. Kennedy

We went to the launch of Thomas E. Kennedy's new book, the third in the Copenhagen quartet, at Paludan's Book Café last night.

"Kerrigan's Copenhagen" was the first, a spring love story.

"Bluett's Blue Hours" is the next, a "Copenhagen Noir" story set in wintertime.

"Greene's Summer" is the summer book, and the third in the series.

"Breathwaite's Fall" will be the fourth, the autumn book.

But wait! TEK himself says that there will be a fifth in the quartet ...

Posted by daen at 12:06 PM

August 09, 2004

Opera in Tisvilde

The fifth Opera in Tisvilde was on Saturday night. For the first time of the four times I've been, it didn't rain. The director of the Royal Opera, Kasper Bech Holten, "sang" the part of Benoit in Act 1 of La Boheme. Coincidence? You tell me ...

More text + photos soon.

Posted by daen at 11:18 AM

July 14, 2004

Otto Frello

Otto Frello has an exhibition on between July 2nd and August 8th at Badstuestræde 14 (11am to 5pm weekdays). The man himself is there to answer questions from the curious.

Posted by daen at 04:01 PM

July 06, 2004

Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2004 (and 2003 retrospective)

Adrian and I went to La Fontaine last night to see Jesper Thilo (sax), Olivier Antunes (piano), Bo Stief (bass) and Frands Rifbjerg (percussion). We had to queue for 15 mins in the rain, and once inside (70 kr. per person entrance fee) there was nowhere to sit. Still, the music was excellent. Ade's been living there during the nighttime since Friday.

Tom Kirkpatrick (trumpet) isn't playing this year, although Henrik Bolberg, the other great trumpeter we saw last year at Dansetten, is playing at Sabine's Café on Thurday at 17:00 (entry fee, unspecified) and then again at Glassalen in Tivoli, same day, at 19:30 (tickets 150-210 kr., yeah right), in DR's Big Band 40th Anniversary at Nytorv on Friday at 19:00 (entry fee, unknown), and finally at Café Bopa in Djazz on Sunday at 16:00 (entry fee, again unknown).

Frederik Lundin, another great sax player, is at PH café tonight at 21:00 (free, it says), but you're probably reading this too late ... He's also with Jonas Johansen's "Move" at Kongens Have on Thursday at 16:00 and finally in 2 x Laptop Duo (really) at Kanten on Magstræde on Sunday at 21:00.

Meanwhile, Bo Stief makes several more appearances : at Glassalen tonight at 19:30 in "A Tribute to Montmartre", in a retrospective of the life of bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (also with 82 year old harmonica-player Toots Thielemans) ; at Helgoland Søbadeanstalt on Amager Strandvej with his group New Dreams, also tonight at 20:00 (hope he's got a fast car ...) ; at Borups Koncertsal with Steve Swallow, also tonight at 23:00 (better make it a Ferrari) ; tomorrow at Café Den Blå Hund at 21:00 ; at Amager Bio on Friday at 18:00 ; at Café Dan Túrell at 21:00, also on Friday (brm, brm) ; and finally at Café Dan Túrell again on Sunday at 21:00. Then to the garage for a full service and a new set of tyres.

Posted by daen at 06:19 PM

July 01, 2004

Vegan and vegetarian eats in Copenhagen

Vegetarian-restaurants.net has this to offer by way of veggie and vegan eating places in Copenhagen ...

I know, I know ... it's for a friend.

Morgenstedet (Langgaden, Christiania).
Cascabel (Store Kongensgade 80-82).
Den Grønne Kælder (Pilestræde 48).
Den Økologiske Café (Griffenfeldsgade 17).
Govinda's (Nøerre Farimagsgade 82).
Muree (Fælledvej 22 C).
Picnic (Fælledvej 22 B).
Riz Raz (Kompagniestræde 20).
Riz Raz (Kannikestræde 19).

Posted by daen at 09:14 PM

Copenhagen Jazz Festival '04

Don't forget that the 26th Copenhagen Jazz Festival starts tomorrow ...

Posted by daen at 04:07 PM

June 28, 2004

Kongens Nytorv 2003-2005

The 300 year-old "New Royal Square" has been getting a makeover for the 200th anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen's birthday. When finished, there will be something like 1,000,000 granite cobblestones making up the new paved areas.

Some of the most famous places in Copenhagen (apart from Tivoli and Christiania, of course) surround Kongens Nytorv ...

No. 1
Charlottenborg, which is home to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. The building is from the late 1600s, and the Academy are celebrating their 250th anniversary this year with exhibitions and other events.

No. 9
Det Kongelige Teater (The Royal Theatre). Built in 1872, its main doors are "guarded" by statues of playwright Ludvig Holberg and poet Adam Oehlenschläger. Currently the setting for most ballet, theatre and opera in the city, although a huge new opera house opens on the other side of the canal in 2005, and a new theatre is opening on Kvæsthusbroen in 2007.

No. 13
Magasin du Nord. Big department store in an impressive building. Expensive stuff, designer labels, cafés and an excellent food store in the basement. Did I mention it was expensive?

No. 17
Café à Porta. Built in 1857, shut down in 1973, and reopened under new ownership in 1999. Excellent coffee. Also, pricey!

No. 19
Hviid's Vinstue. Built in 1723. One of the oldest pubs in Copenhagen. Still has the original bar staff. Only joking.

No. 34
Hotel D'Angleterre (yes, they spell it with a capital "D"). Perhaps the most exclusive and expensive hotel in Copenhagen. If you're Maddona/Clint Eastwood and you want to stay in Copenhagen, where do you go? No prizes for guessing. The building dates from 1792 and has hosted politicians as well as celebs, including Winston Churchill and Otto von Bismarck (although perhaps not at the same time).

No. 4
The Thott Mansion. Built in 1683 by Danish naval hero Niels Juel, since 1930 this building has housed the French Embassy. I don't want to be undiplomatic, but, splendid building though it is, it really could do with a bit of replastering and paint. Come on you French!

Nyhavn
Built in 1673, the Nyhavn canal area now bustles with tourists and locals who frequent the many outdoor bars and restaurants on sunny days. Several canal and harbour boat tours also start and end here (DFDS for example).

Posted by daen at 10:59 PM

April 08, 2004

Collaboraid

Collaboraid - Contact Information

Posted by daen at 05:45 PM

March 09, 2004

Picky picky

Included in IMDB's "goofs for "Krøniken" (2004)" (a series describing the development of television in Denmark during the 1950s) is this splendidly pedantic entry ...

"Anachronisms: Episode 1.9: When Palle enters the new building "Bellahøj" in the 1950s, a power switch model "LK Minitangent-afbryder type 102H" is visible. This model wasn't produced until 1961"

I can imagine that this disastrous oversight must have completely ruined the entire series for someones :-)

Posted by daen at 12:37 AM

February 11, 2004

Charlie's Bar on the web ... almost

A link to Charlie's Pubs ... which currently just has a graphic and the addresses ...

Posted by daen at 12:00 AM

January 11, 2004

"Same procedure as last year?"

This BBC article on Freddie Frinton's "Dinner for One" makes for interesting reading. I've known since arriving in Denmark that this 15 minute play, traditionally shown every New Year's Eve, was a cult programme here in Denmark, but I didn't realise there was such a big following in Austria and Switzerland as well as Germany!

Posted by daen at 09:44 PM

December 10, 2003

Sunset over Nuevolution

Sunset out of the window on the stairwell at work. Shot through glass, hence the annoying reflection.

Posted by daen at 10:32 PM

Scaffold companies' protest on Nørreport

Update! Found this link (in Danish) to Dansk Byggeri's reaction to today's strike. Enjoy.

I was on my way to work today, and just missed the last bus from Nørreport that left before the following happening ... Lucky for you, dear weblog connoisseur, because I happened to have a digital camera with me to record ongoing events for posterity.

What happened? Well, scaffolding companies from around Denmark chose today to hold a protest against something or other on Nørreport, outside the Dansk Byggeri building ...

... which organisation (about which I know nothing) is presumably the target of their wrath. Their wrath consisted of parking their trucks around the traffic junctions outside the Dansk Buggeri, sorry, Byggeri building at Nørreport, blocking traffic for kilometres on all four sides.

Initially annoying though the protest was, I was impressed (although not enough to find out the details, obviously) by their laidback attitude to lawbreaking. They put up a banner on one of the trucks ...

... and put another one up above the Dansk Byggeri building entrance (which said "Vi skide på Dansk Byggeri" (or "We don't like Dansk Byggeri very much at all" in English). They had a few beers while waiting for the police, and peed up against their truck tyres a few times.

The police eventually turned up in their little blue camper van with the flashing blue lights ...

... and got out and walked around a bit and said something to the stilladsarbejderne through megaphones which I could neither hear nor understand clearly. Sadly, just when it looked as if it would get interesting, the bus driver said that we were going and would we like to get on, please?

Moment of the event? Two traffic wardens walking past, looking greedily at all the illegally parked trucks, and one saying to the other "Hvor er det fedt?" Perhaps they were on commission?

Posted by daen at 10:25 PM

November 18, 2003

Sunset over Amager

Large (2048 x 1536 99Kb)
Medium (820 x 615 21Kb)

You may spot what look like quails sitting on some of the chimney pots ...

... but, prosaically, these are actually fume vents with wind vanes to keep them aligned in the prevailing wind direction so as to stop the wind blowing the fumes back down the chimney.

Posted by daen at 12:04 AM

November 06, 2003

Elvis Costello concert

Did anyone catch the Elvis Costello concert in Ringsted on 1st Nov?. I found the set list here on the unofficial EC website but no photos/reviews yet.

Posted by daen at 04:00 PM

That Theatre Company presents Waiting for Godot

The That Theatre Company is presenting "Waiting for Godot" between 5th November and 6th December.

Times are Monday - Friday 8pm, Saturday 5pm.

Ticket prices between 30 and 150 DKK (depending on the usual formulæ of how many there are of you, whether you're members and how old you are).

It's showing at Krudttønden theatre, Serridslevvej 2, 2100 Copenhagen Ø. Phone 70 15 65 65 for ticket sales.

Posted by daen at 03:55 PM

October 31, 2003

Old and grey

My 35th year is well under way now (my birthday was last week). I had a great time - J. arranged for my Ma & Pa to fly over from Spain where they are spending their twilight years. All in complete secrecy. The first I knew about it was a lunch date last Wednesday with two extra and very familiar faces!

They were only here for three days, but it was great to see them both - Spain agrees with them.

On Sunday, J. and I went to Esrum Sø, Gribskov forest and Esrum Kloster (the old monastery nearby). The woods were wonderful, lit by a low autumn sun which made the golden-red chestnut and beech leaves glow like coals in a fire. It was cold, still and bright - a perfect autumn day (and great geocaching weather!). Watching the sun go down over Esrum Sø made me realise that summer is over, autumn is under way and soon winter will be with us. Still, Christmas will soon be here, and then it's only 3 months until spring (!).

Esrum Kloster was fun - good food and 500 year old architecture. They had an exhibition of medicinal products ("fra klosterhave til Medicon Valley") which was partly sponsored by Leo Pharma - will I never escape that name?!?

Posted by daen at 10:51 AM

October 30, 2003

Northern Lights over Copenhagen

Incredible. The recent solar storms have led to displays of the Northern Lights here in Copenhagen. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo, but here's a good one taken in Trondheim, Norway, which is very close to what we saw tonight.

Posted by daen at 12:01 AM

October 09, 2003

Culture Night 2003

Friday is Kulturnatten 2003.

"On October 10th 2003 the 11th Night of Culture (Kulturnatten) takes place in Copenhagen. More than 300 venues all over the city will be turned over to artists, musicians and creative forces for a spectacular night of art and entertainment. Museums, churches, musical venues, art galleries, theatres, libraries, schools, bookshops, and lots of other venues will open their doors from 6 to 12 pm offering all sorts of special events for the curious and adventurous public."

Posted by daen at 02:01 AM

October 01, 2003

Whisky excise slashed 45% in Denmark? I'll drink to that!

Ireland OnLine reports that Denmark slashes excise duty on Scotch : by 35 DKK per bottle.

Here's a short article on "Savoring Scotch".

Here's a picture of a bottle of 10-y.o. Laphroaig.

Posted by daen at 04:26 PM

September 26, 2003

Titania I sold for €800,000

Jorn auction record

An oil painting by CoBrA vanguard artist Asger Jorn has commanded a record price at an auction in Copenhagen

An oil painting by non-figurative artist Asger Jorn was sold at Copenhagen's Kunsthallen Auction House for DKK 4,619,000. It is the highest price ever paid in Denmark for a work by the famous CoBrA painter.

When VAT, commission and charges are all included, the buyer, a Dane resident in Switzerland, secured the work for the tidy sum of around DKK 6 million.

The painting, measuring 100 X 125 centimetres and entitled "Titania I" was painted by Jorn in 1940. A sister work dubbed "Titania II" can be seen in the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, north of Copenhagen.

Jorn (1914-73), one of Denmark's greatest 20th century painters, played a key role in post-war European art. Jorn helped found the CoBrA art group (COpenhagen-BRussels-Amsterdam) in 1948 along with other Danish, Belgian and Dutch artists.

Here's some background info on Asger Jorn and the CoBrA movement.

Posted by daen at 01:01 AM

September 25, 2003

Danish Fred to marry Australian Mary ... or is she?

Scotsman.com News - International - Scottish roots of Danes' 'perfect princess'

Posted by daen at 07:10 PM

September 24, 2003

String Theory

RTN Workshop, Copenhagen 2003 --- Home

"The quantum structure of spacetime and the geometric nature of fundamental interactions, a workshop, jointly organized by the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (NORDITA) and the Niels Bohr Institute (NBI), took place in Copenhagen, from September 15 to September 20"

Missed it. Bugger.

Posted by daen at 09:25 AM

September 23, 2003

Power cut ...

BBC NEWS | Europe | Danish capital loses power

12:25pm -- A beautiful sunny day, about 25C outside with a fairly strong breeze. My ogfs partition is recreated (see ongoing Linux nonsense over the last two weeks) and I figure it was time for a spot of lunch.

12:35pm -- I'm sitting in the lunch room, just next to our kitchen, about to finish my plate of grub when two things happen. First, I can see the door between the office and the kitchen shuts. Second, the sound of the compressor in the fridge stops. Funny, I thought. About 30 seconds later, a string of people come through the door. "The power's off", they say. Some of our doors are on a timed electric lock, which keeps them open in the day and shut automatically (but thankfully don't lock) outside of 10pm or if the power goes off. Some people have found out that this affects at least the whole of our street and maybe wider.

12:40pm -- Lunch abandoned, I shut two of the servers down in the hope that the backup job which is running will complete before the UPS is out of juice.

12:50pm -- Back at my desk, there's really not much to do. The office is like a library - you could hear a pin drop. Some people are working on laptops, others are trying to get mobile phones to connect to a too busy network. I read a bit. Other people give up and go home, others take the opportunity to catch up with some reading. From the office window, I can see the traffic lights aren't blinking at all. Mads, my boss, has heard that this isn't just Østerbro and is widespread across Copenhagen, Southern Sweden and Bornholm! It's a biggy, and the power won't be back for at least four hours.

1:30pm -- I give up. The UPS is almost empty with the backup job only 46% complete at 50Gb. I cancel the job, shut the server down and switch the UPS off. Silence in the rack. I leave for the day.

1:30pm -- The number 42 is a bit more full than normal, and the journey from Lersø Park Allé to Nørreport Station takes twice as long as usual. I'm quite impressed. The normally reckless and impatient Danish drivers seem to be behaving better without traffic lights! Cyclists take their lives in their hands, weaving in and out of the traffic, and across the junctions ...

1:50pm -- There are hundreds of people outside Nørreport Station. A TV crew is filming people being turned away from the Metro by a young Metro steward. Most people are waiting for busses. As I cross the street, I can see ATMs with black screens and shops that have closed or are closing -- none of the Dankort swipe machines are working either, of course. Some smaller shops are open, and the pølsevogn (sausage wagons) are doing a roaring trade.

The number 5 bus from Nørreport is packed. It is taking us ages to get through the heavy traffic.

2:20pm -- After 30mins we're at Hovedbanegården (the main station). I'm expecting a huge crowd of people to pile in, but fortunately the bus stays almost empty.

2:50pm -- Home! Stupid really, I could have walked home more quickly than this.

7pm -- The power is back on again, and hundreds of thousands of Swedes and Danes are writing their blogs!

9:30pm -- After a kip, I think it's time to go back to the office to reboot the servers ...

Posted by daen at 09:29 PM

September 11, 2003

Euro 2004 : Denmark v Romania

We've just watched one of the most thrilling footy games. Denmark pulled ahead in the otherwise uneventful first half with a penalty in the 34th minute from Tomasson. Mutu equalised for Romania in the 61st minute by slipping one past the Danish defence and goalie, and then Pancu tapped one in just ten minutes later with the Danish goalie barely getting a glove to it, to no avail. With the clock ticking, it seemed the Danes were relegated to runners up in Group 2 - if they were lucky. But in the 90th minute, seconds before the whistle, Laursen made the most of confusion among the Romanian defenders to slot in an equaliser from a corner kick. "They think it's all over ... it is now!" So Denmark pulled back a point and stopped Romania drawing two points clear in group 2. Now, with all Romania's games played, and at 14 points a piece, Denmark needs to win or draw to go top of the group and automatically qualify! That game is against Bosnia, on October 11 ...

Posted by daen at 12:07 AM

September 02, 2003

English/Danish Fish-tionary

Fakta om fisk

Did you know the Danish knurhane was the yellow/grey gurnard or that it looks like

this?

The site also has common names in Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, German and French ...

For example ...

FÆ:	Knurrhani
ÍS:	Urrari
NO:	Knurr
SE:	Knorrhane, gnoding, knot
FI:	Kyhmykurnusimppu
D:	Roter/Grauer Knurrhahn
ENG:	Yellow/Grey gurnard
FR:	Grondin perlon/gris

There's also a great chart of drawings of fish, shellfish, molluscs and an octopus here and a dictionary of common fish names here (which has a column for Greenlandish names "coming soon").

When confronted with a name like "rødspætte" I google for it, find the Latin species name, -- "Pleuronectes platessa" in this case -- regoogle for that and voilà! "Plaice"! This site solves that problem ... now I just need one for birds, flowering shrubs, trees, insects ...

Posted by daen at 09:49 PM

July 29, 2003

Denmark's longest museum, railway signals

The Danish Tram Museum

Updated 20/9-2004 (links to dead pictures fixed)

I read this story on the BBC news website about trams coming back to Paris, and thought "wouldn't it be nice if they came back to Copenhagen, too?"

On a related (but less aesthetically appealing) note, I feel I have to include this link to Danish railway signals and this link to a collection of Danish railway track maps. Why? Well, it's 1am, I'm a week behind in my OU studies, and isn't this what displacement activity is supposed to look like?!?

Posted by daen at 12:45 AM

July 28, 2003

An apology from the management ...

Apologies for the paucity of postings these last couple of weeks, Loyal Blogfans, but I have been officially, and actually, on holiday, and couldn't be arsed to post anything. I have picked and dined on chanterelles, painted part of a converted summerhouse black, painted some of my clothes black, been to the Tuborg Grøn Koncert, viewed modern art and basked in the Danish summer sun on a beach on the North Coast of Denmark.

While not entirely relaxed - I'm running too late with an assignment for my OU course to be relaxed - my batteries are somewhat recharged and I'm ready to face work again ...

I don't think I'll do S810 next year ...

Posted by daen at 12:12 AM

July 27, 2003

Bob Kerr - update!

You may remember I wrote about Bob Kerr and his Whoopee Band a while back, lamenting that not only had I missed them coming to Denmark in June (and the last three years), they weren't playing the Jazz Festival either.

I e-mailed Bob at his agent and, to my surprise, got this reply:

Hi Daen

Thanks for your email. Yes we have been in Denmark quite a bit over
the last few years. We hope to be back in September. Nothing is fixed in DK
for 2004 yet.

Look us up on our website www.whoopeeband.de. There you will find our Swedish Agent who fixes things for us in Scandinavia. If you need any more info just let me know.

Bob Kerr

That's nice, innit?

Posted by daen at 11:58 PM

Louisiana Museum for Moderne Kunst

Louisiana

The Louisiana Museum for Modern Art - the largest collection of modern art in the Nordic region.

"Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is situated in Denmark on the North Zealand coast in a spacious, old park with a fine view across the sound of Sweden. It houses an exquisite collection of modern art by international artists such as Arp, Francis Bacon, Calder, Dubuffet, Max Ernst, Sam Francis, Giacometti, Kiefer, Henry Moore, Picasso, Rauschenberg and Warhol."

Posted by daen at 09:09 PM

July 14, 2003

Copenhagen jazz festival over, Grøn Koncert coming up

Well, we caught some of it this year ... B- : could do better.

Grøn Koncert

But, more good music coming on Sunday - Suede, Lars H.U.G. and TV.2 are playing the Tuborg Grøn Koncert at Valbyparken ... stay tuned

Posted by daen at 10:45 AM

June 28, 2003

All that Jazz

Copenhagen Jazz Festival - 25 years anniversary! - Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2003

Posted by daen at 10:08 PM

May 20, 2003

Ærøfærgerne

Highways.dk - Ærø ferries

Velkommen til Ærø Færgerne

Ferries to Ærø from other parts of Denmark.

Posted by daen at 05:13 PM

May 11, 2003

Ale and arty

Danske Ølentusiaster (Danish Beer Enthusiasts)

Blast. Missed the beer festival again.

Posted by daen at 11:51 PM

May 07, 2003

Splat

Shoot to Thrill - Paintball on Amager

If you're ever in Copenhagen with a group of pals and you fancy firing small but spectacularly sticky pellets of paint at each other at a bruise-making, bone-jarring 190mph (300kph) in the scenic Danish countryside while wearing camouflage overalls with all the protective power of a piece of wet toilet paper, a) put your analyst on danger money (as Zaphod would say) and then b) give "Shoot to Thrill" a call.

Posted by daen at 04:29 PM

May 04, 2003

Copenhagen weather

Copenhagen Weather Webcam & Gallery

Since 1996, Thomas Ring has been putting pictures of Copenhagen up on the web. See them here. The picture and information above should update on a daily basis.

Updated 20/9-2004 (fixed dead link and picture, removed dead DMI picture links)

Posted by daen at 11:08 PM

May 01, 2003

Nate's News

Nate's News - Thoughts on technology, travel, music and life

My usual trawl through GeoURL throws Nate Aune into my blinding headlights. Look out, Nate! Ooops.

Posted by daen at 12:11 AM

April 30, 2003

En ordentlig øl

Charlie's Bar på Alt om København - AOK

Charlie's Bar got its Cask Marque last year. Since then, Iain and Andy have added cask conditioning cabinets (one holding four venting casks, the other six serving) and have as I write, I believe, ESB, HSB and Abbot Ale. Charlie's won the AOK "Best Pub 2002" award with a stonking 37.5% of the vote. Can they pull it off again this year? We'll see ...

Posted by daen at 10:57 PM

April 27, 2003

The Industrial PhD in Denmark

ErhvervsPhD

Guide to applications for projects under the Danish Industrial PhD Programme

Objectives and target group

The objectives of the Industrial PhD Programme are:

To educate PhD researchers with knowledge of business aspects of research and development,

To establish personal networks for the exchange of knowledge between enterprises and Danish/foreign research institutes

To enhance the development and innovation of Danish trade and industry.

Posted by daen at 12:09 AM

April 26, 2003

Danish cookbook incorporating "empty the fridge" recipes

Alletiders Kogebog 26/04-2003 Mere end 10.000 opskrifter til hverdag og fest opdelt i katekorier opskrift Mad Madopskrift Madopskrifter

The "empty the fridge" ("tøm køleskabet" in Danish) section is especially useful :-)

Posted by daen at 11:27 AM

April 23, 2003

PhD research topics at Copenhagen Uni

København Universitets Satsningsområder

Posted by daen at 04:39 PM

April 22, 2003

Ooops, Prime Minister

BBC NEWS | Europe | Danish film shows EU warts

Anders Fogh Rasmussen has taken some stick for a documentary aired tonight on Danish telly which shows his Foreign Minister, Per Stig Møller, in a less than flattering light ...

"Did I tell you that Joschka Fischer had three different points of view in less than 12 hours on the question of Turkey's application?" Mr Moeller asks Mr Rasmussen.

"First he told me that Turkey would never be a member of the European Union, then that we needed some form of membership. And finally (he said): 'No, no forget about it, those were just ideas,'" Mr Moeller is shown saying.

Mr Rasmussen says: "There is not a complete match between what they (Germany) say in public, and their real attitude."

Where's Sir Humphrey when you really need him to advise you, eh?

Posted by daen at 11:40 PM

St John's Wort

St. John's Wort - Hypericum perforatum

Used against depression ... and as a snaps flavouring in Denmark where the plant is known by the popular name of "perikum".

Posted by daen at 11:26 PM

March 31, 2003

The new war between France and America ...

No comment needed on this. :-)

Posted by daen at 07:27 PM

March 26, 2003

Copenhagen Zoo

Copenhagen Zoo

We went there yesterday. Great place, especially the ring-tailed lemurs, which in my opinion are the cutest animals known to humankind. They have the complex social structure of primates, a soft mewing cry like a kitten, fur like a teddybear, big orange eyes like I don't know what, and they sit amusingly in the sun for all the world like little old men, with legs spread wide and their "hands" on their thighs, as if they're about to lean forward and tell you a funny joke about what happened to them before the war.

Posted by daen at 01:59 AM

March 03, 2003

Danish National Library of Science and Medicine

Danmarks Natur- og Lægevidenskabelige Bibliotek

I joined Denmark's National Library of Science and Medicine today. All you need is a CPR number (the Danish SSN or Social Security Number) and some ID. It's free, you can get electronic access to thousands of electronic versions of journals and they will reserve books and articles for you for a nominal charge. The library has been around in one form or another for 521 years, on various sites. They have somewhat in excess of 1.4 million volumes and an extensive collection of important works on-line such as Flora Danica and the book which put Tycho Brahe on track as a career astronomer, "De Nova Stella" from 1573.

Posted by daen at 09:54 PM

February 14, 2003

Watch the birdy : waxwings

Silkehaler

These pretty little birds are known in Danish as silkehaler, or Bohemian Waxwings in English, which I think is a brilliant name. Sounds like some decadent bikers' club ...

Anyway, they mob our apartment block from time to time to steal the berries (the silkehaler that is, not the bikers). They're really pretty and have a very soft, ringing call - a bit like an old British Trimphone which you can hear here.

Posted by daen at 12:42 PM

February 13, 2003

And now, the local news ...

Wikipedia Copenhagen entry

Copenhagen is a beautiful city. Read (a bit) about it on the Wikipedia (for more about Wikis (and TWiki especially), stay tuned ...).

(Thanks to susning.nu)

Hans Krog's Amager pages

I live on the island of Amager, to the south of central Copenhagen.

Hans Krog has put together some wonderful pages with the history and photographs of this all-too-neglected part of Denmark on the www.cph2300s.dk site (the name is from northern Amager's postal code : Copenhagen 2300 South). By the way, it's all in Danish.

Posted by daen at 01:20 AM

February 07, 2003

BigHouse

- BigHouse -

More idle browsing of my GeoURL meatspace neighbours (don't I ever do any work?) reveals the BigHouse site. Two lads in Århus thought it would be fun to have total strangers goggling at their shark tank and turning the lights on ("tænd lampe") and off ("sluk lampe") in their kitchen. Who am I to argue? :-)

Posted by daen at 02:09 PM

All that jazz ...

Bo Stief - New Dreams

We went to the Copenhagen Jazzhouse tonight to listen to New Dreams (Bo Stief on electric & acoustic bass, Frederik Lundin on sax and Poul Halberg on electric guitar). "Electric fusion/Nordic jazz" according to the Jazzhouse blurb, which I'd pretty much go along with ... great fun. Catch them when you can.

Posted by daen at 12:41 AM

January 29, 2003

Which side to drive on today ...?

Licence conversion (converting your driver's license to a Danish kørekort)

Found it! After perusing the pathetic so-called "British Embassy" website and, momentarily getting excited to find a "Driver Licence (British)" link ... and - yes, that's right it takes you to the DVLA homepage!! AARGH!!.

But then I calmed down (a bit) and figured out that I might need to get my license converted to a Danish one (after hunting through the DVLA for some clues). And waddya know - I googled for "danmark kørekort" and found the link above (well, actually the Danish version, but what the heck) which explains everything :-). Huzzah.

So, being a good citizen (apart from posting an incitement to peaceful demonstration on this website yesterday :-) I thought it would be good to let the Embassy know, so they could include this link for puzzled ex-pats like myself.

But look carefully at their website, gentle surfer, and tell me if you can find an effin' telephone number, let alone an e-mail address, barring the irrelevant "commercial contacts" who are at least "jacked into the matrix" (sarcasm).

I give up. No wonder we lost the bloody Empire.

Posted by daen at 09:24 PM

January 28, 2003

War in Iraq? No, thanks!

Ingen krig mod Irak

Stop the War Coalition

Danish and UK websites representing those who oppose war in Iraq.

The Danish activists are planning a demonstration outside the British American embassy in Copenhagen (Dag Hammarskjölds Allé 24, Østerbro) on 15 Feb 2003 at 12pm.

You have to ask what possible good could come from a war in Iraq. Whether the US succeeded in destroying Saddam's regime or not, the attendant loss of Iraqi civilian and American military lives would be terrible. The US would face further reprisals from hardline Muslim states which, though no friends of Saddam, would not want to be next in the cross sights. Former allies of the US, such as France and Germany, would possibly put trade sanctions in place in protest. And once more, civil rights in the US would take a downward swing, as right wing politicians push the "national security" hot button to try to get the go ahead to snoop in everyone's social security and medical records in the hope of discovering that John Q Citizen is a terrorist.

Sorry about the rant, but the World is a mad place.

Posted by daen at 10:31 PM

January 18, 2003

Geocache "PKN go west"

Cache: (GCB1E0) PKN go west by Supermulen

My first ever found geocache, on 30 Dec 2002 ...

Difficulty: 1 Terrain: 1

Cachen er placeret på Amager fællede.

En lille insider-cache med slet skjult budskab. ;-)
Alle er velkommen til af finde den.
(Og meget gerne før PK!)

Koordinaterne er revideret d. 10.12.2002 med lidt hjælp fra "Jens". ;-)

Posted by daen at 08:20 PM