Surprise!

Observations of The Danes No 0.1:

I have noticed that when I am talking to my Danish supervisor and I say something a little surprising (not hugely like I have three knobs but in a technical context) he breathes in sharply for a small duration, which is clearly audible.

I thought it was just my supervisor but when talking to other Danes and "listening" (the obviously speak in Danish which sounds like "huerdy-guerdy-buerdy" to me) to other conversations some of them do it too.

Maybe just in the older generation - that is over 35-ish - though, as I haven't heard the younger Danes I know do it.

Or maybe they all have breathing problems. Probably from too much salt in their diet. God, salt on bloody everything. If a Danish person offers you a "sweet", especially a black liquorice thing, DO NOT TAKE IT.

IT IS MADE FROM SALT.

YES, SALT.

IT IS LIKE PUTTING COARSE SALT INTO YOUR MOUTH THEN CHEWING.


MANK

Prince of Buchanan

For some reason I've just remembered the "Prince of Persia" step on the escalator at Buchanan subway station, in Glasgow. It's the one that is a slightly different colour than the rest of joints, which means you'll plummet to your death if you step on it. It's on the airport-style flat escalator that takes you upwards from the station to the side of Queen Street Station.

Lets see you step on it then....

// mond

REMA 1000

Went to the local pub last Friday with Jacob this time and enjoyed the Royal Classic and Royal Pilsner. I miss the feel of a pint glass, with its wee curved bit at the top. Though it holds roughly the same amount of beer than a bottle. Then I discovered that they do the Classic in a stein, i.e. a litre, but not according to dictionary.com. Was most good. Didn't feel it until I was going to bed (at the very late time of 10pm!) and the room was slightly spinning.

The people in the bar seem to have accepted us as we don't get so many looks now. I think the barmaid knows us know as she recognised the international sign for "one litre of beer please". A song I was enjoying was interrupted by a middle aged man who decided to turn on the TV and watch some Danish quiz show that involved the contestants singing too. It was received warmly by the others in the pub as they sang along too. Not sure if the songs were "Danish pop" or folk songs.

I also discovered that there is a self tap service, i.e. you can pour your own draught beer. There are four taps arranged on a round wooden vertical beam, in the middle of a round table with seats round the table. It even has a meter to record how much beer has been extracted, much like a self service petrol pump. Mainly impressed by the novelty factor, much like the tills at Tesco where you scan your own shopping.

On Saturday, we were supposed to go to Silkeborg (about 30km south of Bjerringbro) for a tour by one of Jacob's friends who lives there. However, being a Saturday we had a "long lie" (9am!) plus being lazy meant we missed the bus which leaves every two hours. As we were going to Herning for a BBQ at Jacbob's house, we had to leave that town for another time. So to get to Herning (about 50km south east of here), we had to get a train to Viborg then spend about an hour on a bus. And it took the senic route which was really nice, especially at it was a hot, blue skied day.

The BBQ: beer, meat, chips, beer, beer, vodka, a cabano cigar, beer and then a pizza. All good stuff. Highlights included visiting Rema 1000 (a supermarket - who knows why it has 1000 in its name), remolaude (a sauce thing for chips), GRILL FEST, the 36 bottles of the Classic (though shared between 2-3 of us), the white sauce on the pizza for preventive hangover measures, before going back to Jacobs.

There were two Scottish pubs in Herning: Murphys and The Fox and the Hound (the one we visited). Granted they had several soltaires, a fair range of whiskeys but no Tennents and no Drambuie, so in my book, not very Scottish. They also had a red telephone box, which is more of a London thing.

Next, was "Crazy Daisys", which was neither crazy nor did I find Daisy. Free pints though.

Found out that I will be taxed 40%!!!!! ...... T E A R S ! ! ! ! And I had plans for an shiny MP3 player. :'( If we had been staying an extra month (six) we would of got a fair amount back, but unfortunately I have go back to uni in January. The tax man we spoke to at the town hall said that this new legislation had been introduced just before the Euro expansion to "keep out people from Poland picking strawberries, for example" - not my words. It's not targetting at us, i.e. students on placement, but it's to get money from seasonal labour from eastern European countries. I understand why I have to get taxed - as that they can't discriminate, but 40% still is painful. At least I don't have to pay 2% church tax!!

My tax woes went unsympathised from other Danes as they are used to it. The shock is going from non-tax paying student in Scotland to 40%. The reason why people pay so much tax (compared to home - the other Nordic countries pay more, i think) is that Denmark is a social welfare state, so they pay nothing or little for things like health care. The bin man even comes round the back of our house to collect the bins! I was thinking of going to the dentist before I left to "get my moneys worth". :)

As the tax is so high here (compared to at home), i have found my moral compass un-skewed when I "steal" fruit from the canteen or "take" cake that is unguarded, because I rebute with "I pay 40% tax".

Now I have accepted the tax and have started to pay for the fruit.

....

The weather has taken a turn for the worse and has been raining so much... feels like home now :)

We are going to an olympic games thing being held by the electronics factory at 4pm so I hope the weather holds out. There will be beer too. Hopefully the Classic. We got invited by a Danish guy called Palle whom we met at the local pub two weeks ago.

Other plans for the weekend may include visting the other big town near here - Randers - and trying to get to grips with all the different modulation schemes for work. FUN TIMEZ.

I think that's all, have some photos to put up but the site won't upload them at the moment. Will get that fixed soon.

Righto, bye,

// Mond

The Danes

Just over the last week I have noticed how relaxed the people around here are. For example, nearly everyone goes home on time, i.e. overtime - what's that?

And every Friday (for our team anyway) we have an informal "roll meeting", which consists of 20 minutes of eating bread rolls, with the options of butter, jam and chocolate plus coffee. The Danes have a thing about having 'open' sandwiches, i.e. in respect to the roll is halved then each half is eaten separately. I am starting to like doing it that way. I also found half a roll, butter and a 'slice' of dark chocolate to be very enjoyable. Not in a "touch ma willy" sort of way though.

I'm not entirely convinced that those around me actually do any work. So when the manager was in Germany for the day, everyone stood around talking, having more "roll" meetings and more general slacking.

Another example happened today when I was told that there was going to be free ice cream from 2pm. What? Is this some sort of new terrorist ploy? Or a "surprise". I never got the email. But no, it was actually because it has been hot here for a while so ice cream cones (Cornetto substitutes) where distributed down in the workshop. I had two. There was also a fridge/freezer that 'foxed' a few of them into thinking the ice creams were inside, as by 2.05pm there were still no promised ice creams.

Oh well, I like the laid back atmosphere...

Farvel, tiz home time. (I work 7.30am till 3.30pm (it's an hour ahead of Scotland), which after a week I actually prefer because I can enjoy the rest of the sun in my back garden).

--
// mond

Skede Ansigt

Aiee. Won't say what the subject means, as it may distress our younger viewers.

When I was trying to pronounce it to Andy during work, I was fairly loud, and forgot that I was surrounded by The Danes. :0 Oh dear.

Ok, so, Hej! That's Danish for Hello, obviously! But it's the informal way, like Hi. I know like six Danish words/phrases so far (not including swear words). They are Ja = Yes, Nej = No, Hej = Hi, Tak = Thank you, Farvel = Goodbye (probably where the english word 'farewell' comes from), Taler due englesk? = Do you speak English? Then some other words, like days, months, numbers I can kind of work out as they as similar to English. I can work out some signs and things but just out of logic rather than translating. Would quite like to learn Danish but everyone speaks English and are happy to do so.

A little intro...

As part of my 5th year MEng degree, I am on an 5 month (August to December) industrial placement in Denmark, working for a company called Grundfos. I am with a good friend called Andy (or 'ma bitch' outside of working hours) and we are working on the same Grundfos project but it will have to be split into two projects fairly soon.

The project involves using an existing power cable between a submersible pump and an above water control unit as a data communications line. It should be very interesting but very challenging too.

I'm living in a company owned house in a town called Bjerringbro (pronounced B-yer-ing-bo) that has a population of approx. 6000. The house is split into four 'zones': Aztec, Futuristic, Medieval and Industrial (soon to be the Ocean Zone). :) Andy and I live in the Medieval zone and the rest are resident to Toby (a Swedish guy we hang around with), Jacob (a Danish guy who sometimes pops down but goes home at the weekends) and another Danish guy, whose name I can't remember because we hardly ever see him (he's a programmer).

I have took some pictures which you can find updated every week or so (along with this blog) at http://www.protactin.co.uk/photos/mond. There are some of the house there, which is quite nice especially as we don't have to pay for it. The town is really nice actually. So very quiet though, that it's like being in a ghost town sometimes (on Sundays and after 10pm when everyone is asleep?). We have already done several 'laps' of the town, well of the town center bits, as it's really small. Grundfos is the biggest employer around here as it employees around half the population! Though most work at the manufacturing facility.

Trying to write this on a crazy Danish keyboard where all the keys are in the 'wrong' place and several new ones thrown in too, like: æ å ø.

I think the letters are quite funny.

Though reading Danish and speaking it are quite different matters. Quite like English I suppose. I think Danish people drop a lot of bits from words as well, making it harder. I enquired about lessons but I might have to go to a place nearby called Vijborg.

Went there last Sunday on a wee day trip with Andy and Toby. In Vijborg we went to see the granite cathedral (most lovely - has all these frescos from the old and new testament and gold alter things), Danish history museum and before I left I had a wee ice cream cone (actually meaning large with 3 scoops and a weirdo but tasty strawberry foam stuff). Mmm, yum.

Getting to Denmark was quite a "3 day camel ride". Had to wait around at Stanstead for ages. But knew that anyway. Such a rubbish airport though. Had a sandwich from Pret a manger and a few Caffreys from O'Neils to pass the time. We went to check in really early when it opened at 5pm but the queue was doubled back on itself as there was no room. Took about 1.5 hours to check in!! And boarding was at 6.30pm! And then security took 15 mins so we were rushing to the gate. So our plans for a nice Wetherspoons dinner after security were no more. As there was still lots of people behind us, boarding was delayed and the plane was late anyway. Ryan Air sucks tha boaby!! Though the plane did have more leg room than Easyjet. As my luggage was 8 kg over the Ryan air limit (Easyjet let me away with it), I had to pay £32! And Andy who was 9 kg over didn't have to pay at all because they were so rushed and running late that they decided to let on all excess for F'KING FREE!! :( Was too rushed go complain. Was thinking of getting a better flight back from Copenhagen.

Was thinking of visiting there for a weekend of maybe if I can get a week off. Last Friday we have a small "party" to celebrate the monumental one week milestone. Bascially meant going to the super market to buy lots of beer (they actually have a good selection, including Scottish ales, like Caledonian 80/-!) then to the only pub to sit in the sun and drink more. I had a glass (NO PINTS HERE) of Royal Stout but that was a bit manky. Guinness is a lot smoother. We didn't get as many evil stares when we went into the pub this time, so they must know us now.

Apparently the town is full of gossips, as we were informed by a Danish guy, Palle, who we were talking to in the beer "garden". He has invited us to a BBQ sports event thing next weekend so that should be good. They are a bit crazy about volleyball and handball here - they even have a beach volleyball court on the Grundfos site. Remember that this is on the same latitude as central Scotland. I also tried the "national" Danish drink generally called Akvavit, which is really just schnapps. I had the unflavoured kind, which was ok, there is not that after taste like vodka. There is loads of different kinds and I think it is quite normal for people to make their own flavoured akvavit at home.

On the Saturday when went to a city called Århus (pronounced Or-hoose), the place we landed at. It is the second biggest city in Denmark and has a population of around 260,000, so it was really strange to see so many people! It combined the new with the old, which was reflected in the ranges of architecture. For instance, from the pictures, the Domkirke cathedral, the pink house, the blue hotel with the relaxed cafe/bar/pub street scene overlooking the canal. We visited the Den Gamle By which is a combination of recreated houses from the "old days" to form an interactive town. You can go in all the houses which are fully furnished to that time, ride on some fairground attractions, play the hoop game (as demonstrated by Andy), take a ride on the horse drawn carts and there is even people in costume that sit about. Interesting only for the first few houses, including the Mayor's house then the excitement of an other "half timber house" fades.

That's about it so far, if you have made it down to here then well done!

Thanks for reading, until next time....

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// mond