I suppose I should be used to the fact that inside six and a half hours I can travel from Dover and be at my desk in Esbjerg. Even though I must have done this 20 times this year, it is still amazing. Two train rides, one flight and a 60Km drive and I’m here.
We woke up well before dawn to the sound of more rain hammering down outside. We had breakfast, I checked my bags and was satisfied I have everything. So, we drove into town, Jools dropped me off. The train whisked me to Stratford in an hour, I walked to the DLR station and in 20 minutes that dropped me off in the departure hall of the airport. There were no queues, so I checked in, went through security and had time for a leisurely breakfast of eggs benedict and a huge cup of coffee.
The flight was called, so the 20 of us on the flight make our way to the gate and are shown to the plane in yet more rain. We took off and soon were lost in the low cloud over east London, but once we got high enough, we broke through the clouds into the bright sunshine. I skipped the cold meal again, read a magazine as western Europe, or East Anglia, the North Sea, Holland and Denmark rolled by under the clouds before heading back down to land.
And it wasn’t raining, at first, in Denmark. Although once I picked up my car and set off for Esbjerg the clouds did bust. And here I am. In Esbjerg. In the office. Drinking coffee. Checking mails and work stuff.
Tomorrow, the team building of terror!
Tuesday.
Evening.
Work finished, or it reached that time in the day when all the others in the office packed up and went home, so I decided to follow them. However, I was off to pastures new in Bullum. This is because the much anticipated team building exercise was due to happen in the lone hotel in the village.
I leave work and head out towards Blavand, and at the roundabout turn right instead of left and there on the right is the Kro. I park up and take my bags to sign ion. It feels like a throwback from the 70s, with smoked glass and wooden cabinets around the bar. Over the courtyard is a two story block, and my room is on the first floor.
I walk over, climb the steps and let myself in. It is comfortable enough, with twin beds, a nice flat screen TV and an en suite WC/shower. I look out the window and see the small railway station and level crossing. Something to keep me entertained, then?
After a while, I go down for dinner and end up having ribs. I get an absolute plateful of them, enough to feed two, but I manage to east most of them.
Wednesday
The day of the team building. Only, it isn’t really. It’s a project kick off meeting, and those of us who had arrived the night before are introduced over breakfast, and the rest turn up before half nine. We are shown into the conference room, and so we wait for ten. And away we go.
I won’t bore you with the details, but it lasted three hours before we were told about the ‘fun’ activity planned for the afternoon. Land yachts powered by huge kites.
What could go wrong?
We drove to the coast, and onto the beach and along to where the Aussie, or Assie accented Dane was waiting.
He gave us a brief explanation as to what we were to do, and how the kites work. Made it sound so simple. We were paired off and let us got on with flying the kites first. And lets be honest about this, I was useless at the kite flying. The kite spent most of the time in the beach. The other progressed form the kite flying to the buggies. And away they went, some slower than others.
I gave up at this point. I did try one more time, but the kite was one of the 2.5m kites, producing three times the amount of lift and power. I flew across the beach, managed to bring the kite down, and left it alone.
The afternoon passed away, we got cold, and others whizzed up and down the beach, or at least up the beach, coming back down seemed problematic. Anyway, as the sun set, we packed up and headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours rest before the evening meeting was due to begin.
We met up, got a beer in, catted, went for dinner, ate, drank wine, drank more wine, drank some dessert wine. I was tired so went to bed, and fell asleep watching the football on TV. As usual.
Thursday.
I was awoken by the 5:55 train stopping at the station outside my window. I say that, when it was the bells of the level crossing that woke me up. I lay there, heard another two trains pass in 20 minutes. I must have snoozed off and woke up in time to hear the seven fifteen train pass through, so got dressed and went down for breakfast.
After washing and packing I was walking to the car to load it up, a wasp, with malice aforethought came down and stung me. OK, I was fresh out of the shower and smelt lovely. But anyway, the wasp got me and I dropped my cases and swore.
Another day of meetings stretched before us, and the hours crept by and the minutes crawled by. There always seemed to be just ‘one more question’ and so the hopeful half two finish slipped until the half three, quarter to four.
We broke the meeting up, and drove the short distance to Hjerting.
Yes, Hjerting.
Just north of Esbjerg. All hotel rooms in the town were taken so I would have to slum it at the most expensive hotel in Esbjerg. I arrived just before sunset, and so went for a walk along the prom to snap the scene.
I checked in, and made myself at home. But not being at home, of course. No matter how lovely the hotel is, its not home is it?
I realised as I walked along the prom, it was seven years ago to the day I got made redundant by the chemical company in Yarmouth. I remember laughing about it; how dare they sack me from the shitty job, I wanted to resign. I had no idea what to do, no money to pay the mortgage. Within a month I was working for Gardline and on my first north sea trip on silly money.
And here I am now, managing things in a project, with responsibilities and stuff. Scary stuff.
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