An office with a view

After spending the past 2 years working in offices with little to no view, my office here is a refreshing change. For the past 2 years I have either been underground, stuck in windowless rooms, or been in sight of a window which has provided a clear view of nothing more than concrete. I am told that in Denmark there is a law that every working must be within a certain distance of a window (can't remember what that distance is), but it's a great idea. My desk is on the third floor with views over Copenhagen Harbour - I don't think one could ask for any more!

Or so I thought...

Ergonomics is a bit thing in the office, and here things are taken to the extreme. Not only is the height of desks in the office adjustable, but it can go so high that many people switch from sitting to standing at their desk as the day progresses. Additionally, unlike the clunky manual systems, all our desks are plugged into the power grid so adjustments occur at the press of a button!

The sight of bicycles in this city is amazing. I would not be surprised if there are more bicycles than people, and I am even more amazed at how people are able to recognise their bike in the parking areas - there are just so many, and all very similar. And they're not the latest, fancy bikes - in fact, I have only seen a couple of bikes here of the sort that people ride back home, here they just seem a lot more generic. On the other hand, the Danes seem to be experts in bike modifications - there are standard contraptions for carrying kids (the law says you can have up to 2 children per bike with an adult), things for carrying bags, groceries, etc. It's really quite a site.

And when the Danes aren't riding their bikes, they are out running, jogging, or walking. It seems like any time of day or night there are people out in the streets doing things. And after coming from a country where obesity is a national obsession, the most striking thing here is how few people are overweight. But I guess that's really not surprising given how active they are.

My first week here has been filled with days at work getting massive data dumps and wondering whether they really hired the right person. I hadn't realised how 'out' of programming I was, until this week. Not only do I have a lot to learn in terms of the industry and environment I'm working in, but it seems like I have a hell of a lot to learn when it comes to the programming side of software development.

My nights on the other hand has been filled with house hunting. Not an easy job when half of the time is spent on Google Translate, all the free websites are filled with scams, and the one paid website you sign up for has issues where half the time you can't actually use it. Finding an apartment is definitely a lot harder than I thought it would be, and with 2 nights left where I'm currently staying, you'd think I would have stuff sorted out. Even my backup plan of staying at a pension is not 100% confirmed at the moment due to the difficulty of dealing with people outside standard business hours (9:00-16:00, Monday to Friday). At least Monday and Tuesday nights are sorted out due to a work retreat somewhere in Denmark, it would be nice to know I have a bed when I return to Copenhagen on Wednesday!

I found this fascinating - all heaters in apartments that utilise the central heating system have these 'tamper proof meters' which are read and replaced once a year by the heating companies. They use a system of evaporation to determine how much heating you have used and therefore how much to bill you.