Just back in the country, after another short trip to Chicago where I was running a presentation and a workshop for the Agile 2009 conference. It was a fantastic, exhausting and energising week where I finally got to put many faces to names, rekindle old friendships and make new ones.
I also managed to catch up with some people that I knew in Chicago although it was a shame I didn’t have any more time to be able to do that. It’s great to be back.
I’m finally back in London after commuting back and forth from Copenhagen on a weekly basis. Doing a weekly intercontinental commute certainly eats up more of your free time, hence the lack of blogging for some time. Getting up at 4:30am every Monday to still arrive at the client by around 10am doesn’t really leave you with a lot of energy on a Monday.
I certainly did appreciate that we were working in Copenhagen at least. It’s a very liveable city, and if it weren’t for the draw of the bigger city like London, I would even consider moving there at some point. There are many great things about the city including:
I am, however, certainly glad to be back and looking forward to rebuilding a weekly routine, or least participating in all the wonderful things London has to offer during the week.
A couple of weeks ago, I ended up at Islington’s wonderful Union Chapel, to see John Butler perform. It’s a wicked venue and with most of the pews filled on all sides, I have no reason to doubt it was a sold out show.
It was a great way to unwind after getting back from the weekly overseas commute and he played an awesome show for all. There’s some great photos of the gig on Flickr including the one above. He played a lot of songs from old albums, a few new songs and even dedicated a Michael Jackson cover song the king of pop.
Last week I was staying at the very nice Admiral Hotel, located near the riverside in Copenhagen. Like most hotel breakfasts, theirs was a buffer complete with a four slice toaster. I thought it’d be nice to have a single slice of toast with my breakfast, proceeding to put a single slice into the toaster before wandering off to add a few other items to my plate.
I sat down, watching from afar, waiting for the toast to pop when I saw another guy put some bread into the toaster. Thinking nothing of it, he waited for the toaster to pop and proceed to take both slices of bread, including mine.
I’m not quite sure what he was thinking but I certainly found it strange. At least there wasn’t any shortage of bread to toast.
Every Friday the client brings in some breakfast for everyone. This week, one of the guys brought in an extra special breakfast item, Gammel Dansk. Translated as “Old Danish”, it’s a drink they apparently have with breakfast during certain festivities.
Anders made everyone have a shot and all the locals apparently couldn’t wait to see everyone’s faces as they downed it with their breakfast. It was certainly strong, tasting like a much less sweet mirto or a stronger version of gin and that’s when the after taste kicked in… Urgh. It was obvious all the locals knew what was coming and enjoyed watching people react to its taste for the first time.
I can’t say that I’ll be making it my traditional breakfast drink yet.
Last week a bunch of us went to Tivoli Gardens for the first time. It’s apparently the location that inspired Walt Disney to build Disneyland and I can really see why. Located right in the middle of the city, it’s amazing how much entertainment they pack into such a small amount.
With only a few hours after work to really enjoy it all, we hit all the rides that looked like the most thrilling including several rollercoasters and various rides that dropped you from great heights.
Tivoli Gardens is amazing considering how old it is. It’s a great balance between entertainment for the young and plenty of activities for adults as well. Forget about cheesy, low quality entertainment although the park caters for all tastes. It even has two restaurants awarded with a Michelin star!
Considering we only about about £30 for both entrance and unlimited rides, you easily get the value for your money for a day.
We’ve mostly stayed at The Square during the last few weeks and although it’s nice, I thought I’d try a different hotel, and thought I’d give Hotel Fox a go. Built as an interesting concept with each room individually decorated by a different artist, it also has a nicely decorated lobby and an outdoor patio area.
As you can see above, the lobby probably isn’t particularly functional, despite being the location for breakfast as well. The seats are far too low and backs pretty much impossible to sit on. Classic design that looks stylish yet not practical.
I was hoping for a more exciting room, ending up with Room #306 titled Pico Pico. Compared to many of the other rooms, it sits on the more bland side with the stark whiteness accentuated by the two windows letting in the sun almost all day long. Fortunately the draw curtains do their job well keeping the light out until I’m actually ready to get out of bed.
The stay in the hotel was nice enough but probably wasn’t as nice as you might first think.
The last couple of weeks have been busy including spending the weekdays in Copenhagen for work. Weekends have been pretty busy as well including two weekend’s ago an engagement picnic, dinner with a friend my sister has known since she was in primary school and then a nice brunch in the East End of London, Albion.
The week is pretty much filled with a couple of runs around Copenhagen (the lakes are really nice and we discovered some fields on the other side of the canal), some great dinners and, of course, plenty of sushi these days. This weekend, we’re having a work Away Day which are always great fun. It’s a time to socialise and catch up with everyone that you might not see all the time and Sunday will be pretty much chillin’ before starting another week overseas.