Did you know, if you ask most people to think of an animal beginning with the letter "E" and a country beginning with the letter "D" most of them with think of elephants and Denmark? Don't thank me now but you could win money by performing this "mind reading" trick.
Had to go to Denmark this week. Just a quick trip, flew into Billund Weds night had the day in Aarhus and came back again Thursday night.
I hadn't been there for a few years and a number of things struck me. the immediate impression was how quiet the roads were. An Audi A6 saloon taxi took me from the airport to my hotel. 3.0 TDi auto version. Quite a nice place to sit as a passenger. Very pleasing leather interior. Uniformed taxi driver in so far as he wore a company liveried open necked shirt. Car spotless inside and out and driven swiftly but expertly for the 45/50 minute or so journey.
Hotel was also astonishingly clean and ordered if a little bit like sleeping in Ikea with the only real disappointment being a lack of pickled fish for breakfast. Some things are sent to try us.
Having arrived late at night I decided to go for a bit of a walk around the town to stretch my legs before bed having sat in horrible traffic on the way to Stansted and suffered the privations of the airport and a budget flight. ( why can't you have something secretly added to your passport which indicates to security that you've not even slightly tried to hijack an aeroplane for the past 35 years, despite having been on rather a lot of flights, and so might be quite a good risk really and it might not be totally necessary to make this one undress ? )
The thing which then occurred to me was a distinct lack of litter. Walk around any British city late at night and you're constantly avoiding treading in discarded chip papers and McDs wrappers. There was just no litter at all and no one drunkenly staggering into walls either come to that.
The following morning I decided to walk to my business meeting rather than take another cab and enjoyed a gentle 20/25 minute stroll to my destination.
The next thing which struck me was how casually everyone was dressed. I can't remember seeing anyone in what you might describe as "business wear" but on the flip side, their casual clothing was in main, very smart ( if you see what I mean? )
A lot of bicycles were being used by a broad cross section of the population and in fairness seemed to interact with motor vehicles and pedestrians without issues. Almost no helmets being worn interestingly enough.
From later conversations, it seems the economy is stable and unemployment is kept at very low levels.
It seemed almost too good to be true in fact, the people were polite and friendly, most spoke excellent English, the whole place seemed on the surface anyway to be properly sorted.
I liked it, although I'm sure it has its downsides, I didn't find many though.
I wonder how they do it?
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Not watched the Killing, Borgen or the Bridge then? (the latter also involved Sweden of course).
The average income in Denmark is higher than the UK isn't it... by quite a bit. It's not only a wealthy country but productive as well.
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Oh and they like cycling.
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>> The average income in Denmark is higher than the UK isn't it... by quite a
>> bit. It's not only a wealthy country but productive as well.
>>
The Danes have acquired their wealth by adding excess water to their bacon.
Never buy Danish bacon, always buy British.
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They have some pretty serious taxes in Denmark IIRC. On cars especially. But they do seem very laid back. I think they may have relaxed the rules now, but until not long ago the shops shut on Saturday afternoons and Sunday, which they regarded as family time. Very civilised.
The cost of living is generally fairly high I think. Even some Danes working in Copenhagen live in Malmo.
Last edited by: Manatee on Fri 8 Nov 13 at 18:10
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"Civilised" Yes, that just about sums up my less than 24 hour impression. Very civilised.
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I thought you were going to link the Danes with Elephants for which they seem to have a thing.
The Order of the Elephant is their highest level of ennoblement, if that's the right word. Carlsberg call their premium lager Elephant. There's something going on with elephants.
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Its pretty easy for an average earner to end up paying 51% in state and local taxes. Vat is 25%
Denmark is in the top 7 most expensive places to live.
So in short, it costs, a lot to live there.
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>> it costs, a lot to live there.
Yeah Zero, but what do you get for your taxes? Where are the horned helmets, the smelly wolfskins, the reek of fermented mares' milk and unwashed bodies?
The poor old Danes have lost it big time. I blame feminism.
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>> the reek of fermented mares' milk and unwashed bodies?
Sorry, that was some other lot. Substitute 'fermented honey' for the mares' milk. The rest can stand.
Actually modern Danes are interesting people. The Lutheran Church that has formed them is cool too and I speak as a Catholic by birth, trained to see Martin Luther as the Antichrist more or less. In the flesh Lutherans are much better than Catholics by and large.
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Despite Luther's anti-semitism. My father is an admirer of him - and a self taught expert on his work.
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Oh and by the way, I bought the new William Boyd book "Solo" at the airport. I quite like Boyd and was curious to read this one as it's his take on a James Bond novel. ( £13.99 for a paperback mind - sheesh ! )
I heard the author being interviewed on the radio the other week and he was at pains to point out that he's not trying to write in the style of Fleming but has simply taken the character into his story while using Fleming's main signposts. Set in 1969 with a cynical and sociologically flawed 45 year old Bond as the central character it must have held my attention well enough as by the time I put it down as we touched back down in London last night I'd got half way through. Having said that, two waits for planes and two flights can cause you to read almost anything in desperation !
We'll see if the second half gets read in anything remotely similar time.
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I think I caught that interview as well.
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Incidentally Lud, the Bond character's "cover" is that of a British journalist working for a French news agency in a war torn African country in 1969...That little angle alone might interest you I guess?
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>> That little angle alone might interest you I guess?
In principle, yes, but in practice it would probably drive me up the wall with irritation. Successful novelists of that sort really get up my nose. They use researchers and don't get it quite right. 'You're too hip Baby,' I want to sneer like a New York junkie.
Of course my own, far better and more authentic stuff - far less pompous and conceited too - would probably drive them up the wall if they were privileged to read it.
Other British hacks I met in the back of beyond always made me feel edgy, paranoid and possessive, and I'm sure it was mutual. Same with other European hacks, but less edgy really.
Over the years made some lifelong friends, and fondly remembered acquaintances, among the hack packs here and there. Also had to rub shoulders with utter screamers whose very memory makes me want to puke. It gets a bit intense in Grub Street, and a lot of hacks are far from urbane.
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Yup.
There's something about an airport potboiler that prevents you from giving mush of a damn what happens next. The characters tend to be a bit two-dimensional, but to the extent that they carry conviction they are howling carphounds that no sane person would let into the sitting room. All of them: heroes, villains and romantic interest.
Actually some of the villains have the odd redeeming feature. Unfortunately though they are the bad guys.
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I heard that maintaining a car is quite expensive in Denmark.
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And is it not about a tenner a pint??
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This land of ours can be quite disgusting compared with some on the continent. I was watching a Network Rail route training film the other night. Liverpool Lime St to Southport ( I know how to live ). The litter on the tracks was appalling. People just seem to throw anything into the cuttings. Southport station and it's approaches had serious problems. The area between the platforms needed a team with shovels and a couple of skips.
What visitors must think arriving at what has always been an elegant, genteel watering hole I can't imagine.
Badwolf, get down there with yer Dyson....Sir John Aspinall will be spinning in his grave !
Ted
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Expensive to live in Denmark,wages are good do.The Horned Helmets come out when they go for a drink.School mate father used to run a harbour café in R/Dam.
Used to get lively when the Scandinavians got stoned.
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Tried it on my wife who came up with earwig and Djibouti. Truly women are different.
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Elephants in Denmark - rtj70
