Day 2 - Denmark

Before I get onto the main story of the day, lets talk about Denmark a little and how they actually work. Due to the fact that I'm working on a massive account, with some problems, they have what is called a WAR room - where all the coordinators and subject matter experts (that's me) sit, so if there are any questions, they can ask, without moving more or less. The culture in Denmark is, start early, finish early - which is fair play to them really - however, this did mean, getting up at a god unearthly hour (5.30 UK time) to get showered, ready and get breakfast.

Some of you may know, I'm not the best at getting up early, and I do like my sleep, so this kind of knackered me up slightly. Anyhoo, I slightly go on a tangent, we get to this WAR room, where they've already got jugs of tea, coffee, milk, water, everything you could ask for - so by the 10am - I'm a little full. A great thing about Denmark, lunch is from 11am til 1pm - so by 10am UK time - I was having my second meal of the day - crazy. This WAR room also have salads, sweets, cakes everything - damn the Danish Pastry. Anyhoo, by 3.30pm Danish time, we were finished - and it felt good, but strange.

Anyhoo, to the story. I missed the Brakes game last night against Market Drayton - my 2nd missed game of all season - all comps - not bad hey ?! Leamington FC lost 2-1 to the Drayton - bad, but apart from a semi cup final, the season is more or less over. One of the chaps at work, who has been very good for ferrying me around the place, offered to take me to see some Danish Football - which seems fair enough. With temps dipping to around 10 oC and only having a small hooded top we reached the stadium. The story behind the Danish "premiership" goes something like this, Brondby (the team we went to see) were massive for many years - a club for the fans. Then popped along FC Copenhagen, which from what I can tell is more or less a franchise club, who attracted fans from all over the country and it concentrated on selling things etc etc - a little like the Chelsea's and Man U's of the world. Brondby and FC Copenhagen are the closest rivals, so it tends to kick off - but in a quiet Danish way.

The ground can hold around 20K fans, but tonight only had just over 10K - which for a cold Wednesday night, fair play to them. The opposition for the night were relegation fodder Viborg FF and as soon as we got into the ground (just making kick off) you can tell the fans are mentalists and follow the team with pride and passion. What was quite interesting, was that most of the songs were English football songs, sang in English too. The first song I heard, I recognised straight away - a Newcastle song, but obviously changed the words slightly. The curse of Warburton kicked in, as Viborg FF went ahead due to the keeper completely misjudging a freekick. Half time came and thankfully, a warm drink and a hot dog later, we moved upstairs to get some seating action (around lovely pretty women - mmm). Brondby must have had a good kick up the arse from the managers team talk and came back, scoring 1, then 2 and with a couple of minutes left, scoring a 3rd.

After the game, I asked if there was a club shop that I could get a shirt from, and the chap showed me, admitting that he needed to keep a low profile, as he was a Randers FC fan, but would help me out. I asked Rich if he wanted a shirt (after he offered to get me one from Germany when he was out there) and got a text back saying "yes, get the away shirt, the home one (which is yellow) would make me look like busby".

My conclusion on Danish football, fun & exciting. It needs to take off a little more, and they need to change their tactics a little more. Its slower than the premiership and English football in general, and they'd rather pass the ball within 50cms, rather than punt it over to the wide man, who has been stood there for 20mins, more or less taking up a new hobby. Thoroughly enjoyed tonight's football tho, an experience that I completely enjoyed, however, missed watching the Brakes play.

Denmark today

Up at the crack of dawn, I swear it was still dark when I got up - great - and in a bad stressed mood. After showering and putting everything into the bag, I set off to Birmingham International Airport, only to be stuck in traffic. As I mentioned in the last most, I have a bad sense of timing, so made sure I set off even earlier than I would have normally, so we should be OK. I left the car in long stay and headed to the airport to check in. I'm never sure about these etickets - scares me that I've cock'd up somewhere along the line, or don't have the correct form of ID or whatever.

In the departure lounge, I picked up some Danish Currency and some new CK aftershave, then the flight was called. Once on the plane, I was faced with an empty row of 3 - one seat for me - and loads of space to spread out. Having already consumed breakfast at such an early time, I was looking forward to whatever they give me, turned out to be salmon steak with veg, dessert, as much tea as I could drink and fresh warm bread - better than what I get at work!

When I landed, I was met at the arrival terminal by one of the chaps at work - who kindly told me he would pick me up and take me to work, rather than trying to get a taxi, getting ripped off and lost. Within 10 mins we were at work, and was shown around, including the canteen, and more food. After being introduced to the guys working on the problem, I was dropped off at my hotel in the city centre.

My hotel, pretty expensive for people of my level, was only in the middle of a redlight district - but a clean one, so not too bad. I dumped my bags, had a quick shower and left to find somewhere to eat, and around 15 mins walk, I found an English style restaurant and pub. After having eyes bigger than my belly - yes, they're very big eyes, I was stuffed, and ended up watching some premiership football in the main bar. They had different types of Carlsberg, more of an ale type beer, rather than lager, then trying one of the local brews. After 5 beers, and it getting dark quickly, I decided to walk / shuffle back to the hotel - which I managed to find without asking anyhow - and avoiding hookers. Welcome to Denmark - only have to get up at 06.30 (05.30 UK Time) - erk!

Denmark T-1 Day

OK, a couple of weeks late, but not really had a chance to blog of late - which is really a shame - seems as one of the reasons I do blog is to destress and get the chaos out of my head. Does that mean I'm not stressed and strange in the head now ? Guess so.... *

Well, the account that I'm working on want me over in Denmark as soon as possible, I suspect the amount of problems they have, are not really problems, but, a week in Copenhagen, who am I to argue. Don't get me wrong, its a great experience and good to get out of the goldfish bowl, but I don't like to travel for the sake of it - just wastes money, time and energy. If anyone has to travel in the company, they have to go thru a travel approval database - regardless if the trip is to Newcastle or New York. Luckily, today my travel was approved and they want me there first thing tomorrow.

I booked my flight, and told to take what ever tickets are available, just so happened to be economy extra - which is the first time I've travelled above the bulk standard level - exciting too. One thing also to note, my sense of time is pretty shocking, this stems from not really wearing a watch, but having to be somewhere, in advance of a certain time - I can't really do. Turns out, Cophenhagen has a large conference, so the cheap hotels are all booked out, and had to leave it to my colleagues over in Denmark to sort out - so technically - don't have anywhere to stay.

As its around midday - I don't at the moment have a dry clean shirt to take and everything else is outside trying dry before ironing and getting packed. To confuse the situation even more, I have a meeting up at the football club too, which tends to last a couple of hours.