Wednesday, August 29, 2007

A little piece of London

For me, Custom House seems like a little piece of London in Copenhagen. Bacino, the Italian restaurant, in particular feels like it has been transported straight over from there. It is my favourite restaurant for a special evening out in Copenhagen.

And now I have been told that the place hosts monthly evenings for expats here and Danes who have lived and worked abroad before. For 150kr on the door, you can enjoy tapas and a glass of wine, as well as the stunning views over the harbour, while meeting fellow expats.

Maybe I'll see you at the next on 25 September!

Thursday, August 16, 2007

You know you've been in Denmark too long, when...

  • You think there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.
  • You understand why not every type of meat can be put together on top of bread.
  • You think it's impolite to sit next to someone in a bus if there is a bench where you can sit on your own.
  • You can open a beer bottle with almost anything.
  • You honestly believe that the distance between Copenhagen and Aalborg is long.
  • You can tell the difference between a Grøn Tuborg and a Carlsberg beer
  • The first thing you do on entering a bank/post office/pharmacy etc is to look for the queue number machine.
  • You accept that you will have to queue to take a queue number.
  • Silence is fun.
  • It no longer seems excessive to spend 800 kr. on alcohol in a single night.
  • You know that "religious holiday" means "let's get pissed".
  • You use "Mmmm" as conversation filler.
  • The word "yes" is an intake of breath.
  • You don't mind paying the same for a 200-metre bus ride as you do for going 10 kms.
  • You start to believe that if it weren't for Denmark's efforts, the world would probably collapse pretty soon.
  • It feels natural to wear sport clothes and a backpack everywhere.
  • You know the meaning of life has something to do with the word "hyggelig".
  • You don't think it strange that no one ever comes by to visit without being invited and you never show up at any one's place unannounced either.
  • You wouldn't dream of coming even 10 minutes early to a party. (Once around the block is always an alternative.)
  • You find yourself lighting candles when you have guests - even if it is brightly sunny outside and 20 degrees.
  • You offer people strange-tasting brown alcoholic liquids with their coffee in the morning...

I was sent this little gem today. And it's too true...

Monday, August 13, 2007

Lovely, lovely lists

The slightly oddly named Danish Enterprise & Construction Authority (Erhvervs- og Byggestyrelsen in Danish) has produced a fantastic page for those wanting to buy or sell property in Denmark. boligejer.dk (seems to be in Danish only, I'm afraid) even helps you create a seller's checklist, letting you know everything that you need to do as part of the sales process, depending on how involved you want to be and how much you want to leave up to your estate agents and/or lawyer.

The site also provides the equivalent information for those buying property.

Perhaps I need to get out more, but I find it fantastic that you can get all this info and create lists at the same time!

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Cabin fever

After reading this in The Times, I feel a little more confident about the process of buying a property in Sweden; after all, if people can manage to buy a summer house from the UK, then it cannot be that difficult, can it?

Countdown

Today, I am starting the countdown to putting my apartment on the market. Now, I only need to put a couple more coats of paint on the sitting room wall and to finish off the bathroom and then I can get on with the final stage - tidying the place up and setting the scene before the valuations start.

So, the goal is to have the place up for sale by the beginning of September - can I manage it...? Watch this space.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

"Happiness is... being Danish"

An article in The Times this week takes a look at why, even though the Danish tax is so high, the Danes have consistently come out with top scores on life satisfaction in surveys over the past 30 years.

Not only is the article - which concludes that despite Danish society's slightly homogeneous nature ("Friendliness to outsiders stops short of real friendship"), Danes are so happy because of a lack of competitive consumption - an interesting read, but the comments below (8 and counting...) make some good additional points.

Having just returned from the long-awaited long weekend in the UK, I can agree with the points about over-consumption of everything and anything. I spent 20 minutes in the local supermarket in England trying to find a packet of Oxo cubes, wandering up and down the myriad aisles before finally discovering them on a shelf above the ice cream (yes, apparently, that is the obvious place for stock cubes... why did I not realise that straight away?). I did not expect this of myself, but I actually started to praise the narrower range of goods in supermarkets in Scandinavia - now, that really is a turn-up for the books.