Tuesday 20th September 2022

The main reason, no, only reason for coming to Denmark was to carry out an audit I was told had to be undertaken face to face.

So, after checking into my hotel room yesterday, I got a call from my contact to say he was feeling very ill, flu or possible COVID, and so the audit could not go ahead.

Which meant that the whole trip becomes, in effect, wasted. My whole week had been cleared to travel and carry out the audit, and now there is nothing to fill it with.

Not that I don’t have things to do, there is always stuff to do, mails to write, meetings to attend to and so on and on. But the time and money so far spent has been for nothing. Really.

So, Tuesday morning, I wake up at six and after laying in bed for twenty minutes, get up to get ready for the day, then go downstairs for breakfast.

Breakfast is my one chance a day to eat something healthy, but not this morning. No fruit or yogurt on offer, so I make do with fruit juice and a Nutella filled roll. And a coffee. And was set.

I walk to the car, carrying my work bad and a sack of 1040 tea bags. Then drive along the old harbourside, now a place of libraries and restaurants following the tram tracks turning up hill as they did too, as the office is along here, some 5km.

It helps knowing the city and how to get about. I notice at traffic lights that the wild flower mix sown on the tram tracks as produced bladder campion, docks, betony, bird’s foot trefoil and other plants I zoomed fast too quickly to identify. And this strip of green threads through the city, attracting insects, birds. A proper wildlife habitat!

And so to the offices, where once the car park would already be overflowing, but now is barely 20% full. It might be early, but this is the reality of the way we work post-COVID, with just a fraction of the desks occupied.

My colleague came down to meet, and I give him the tea bags. He’s more than happy.

Then we go up to the office past several open plan offices, most with just one or two people in working. It really didn’t get much busier through the day, either. And I have little work to do, preparing for work events weeks, months in the future. But I will be prepared.

The trick is to look busy. And that is quite the trick to pull off.

I met the rest of the team for lunch. They’re participating in a major audit, so the only chance to talk is over lunch. And lunch is my only real chance to eat healthy, so I load my plate with salad and vegetables, so in time would feel the benefit.

And back to work for a couple of hours, but without the audit to carry out and my calendar clear, I was up to date. So, at two I log off and head back to the hotel for a snooze and shower. I was feeling shitty to be honest, and I guessed, correctly as it turned out, that was what I needed.

Then, at five, I went out to meet my colleagues at the Aarhus Street Food place for some, well, street food.

They texted to say they left the office at quarter to five, so I walked up past the bus station to the old garage where the street food place is situated, got a beer and people watched.

At half five, I get a call: where are you? Turns out we were on opposite sides of the courtyard, we looked up and waved, and I walked over. We go inside and found a table, so our Boss, Eddy, looked after a table and we went to get something to eat.

Rune advised me that the pulled duck (!) burger was the way to go, along with the duck fat fried chips.

Was a good call, though greasy, very flavoursome and helped down by an IPA.

A night on the town was never a possibility, as Rune, Frank and Eddy all live locally, and won’t risk a beer when driving. So, I finish my beer talking to Eddy, and he leaves, while I walk back to the hotel as dusk fell, and the bright lights of Aarhus came on.

Back in my room I listened to some podcasts and went to bed at a sensible time. Which was nice.