Copenhagen: Day 1

Avid readers might recall I’d spent a month researching the Viking era and then a further month acting out certain Viking traditions: mostly their diet and workout regimes. It’s an interest I have as my surname Tuckey derives from the Old Norse name Toki, which in turn comes from Thortekill, meaning ‘Thor’s Metal Cauldron.’ 

To further that research and scratch that historical itch, I planned a few days in the Danish capital with my parents. We had scouted out a particular Viking museum but wanted to see what else Copenhagen had to offer. 

An electric taxi took us from the exceptionally clean Copenhagen Airport to the Central Station as there were a few hours before we had access to the accommodation. There are lockers to rent to keep bags safe. 

First port of call: National Museum of Denmark, featuring some prehistoric and middle ages finds.

 

 

 

 

 

The Round Tower, built in 1642, was next on our list. At 34.8m, it’s the highest vantage point in Copenhagen.

 

 

 

 

King's Garden:

 

We’d rented a modern apartment from Stay, an accommodation brand in Nordhavn. I gathered this area was like the Ancoats of Copenhagen. Lots of new build flats, mostly still under construction, lots of fencing everywhere, but the soundproofing in our room was solid and the amenities very comfortable. A good base for the holiday. 

Danish Parliament

Not seen a Netto since ASDA took over their UK sites in about 2011

Hideous week for disabled people

This week our multi-millionaire Prime Minister decided he wants to ‘strip GPs of their power to sign people off work as part of a plan to tackle what he calls the UK's "sick note culture".’ 

This is yet another in a series of ongoing attacks against the country’s sick and disabled. 

At the same time, Sunak has cut from the NHS, the Social Care bill and the support services that would have helped disabled people to find the work in the first place. Absolute insanity. He was also in charge of the disastrous Eat Out to Help Out scheme which sent COVID rates through the roof in 2020, and the disease itself led to a huge number of respiratory and mental health issues. He’s punishing the people that he caused to be sick in the first place. 

Of course, Sunak was happy to take a 3 week sicknote from Simon Case, who was supposed to appear at the COVID Inquiry Hearings during that time. 

Over recent weeks, I’ve been on several social media blocking sprees, cutting out the anti-vaxxers, the Zionists and the Tory voters. I’ll have nothing to do with people who are dangerously misinformed, as is the case with people who chose not to get vaccinated. There was a time when I’d be open to giving people the benefit of the doubt, but those days are over. 

I can’t be amicable with people who are, for instance, planning to vote Tory knowing it will make my life as a disabled man more difficult. 

So, not only have the Tories not protected us from COVID, lifting the lockdown twice before the vaccine arrived, then didn’t mandate the vaccine allowing healthy people to opt out, causing more spread, but they didn’t install vaccine passports for nightclubs, which would have massively reduced the transmission rate. They also cut from the NHS, putting more strain on services, cut from Social Care, meaning each individual worker gets less time with each client, and cut from Mental Health services at a time when the country’s mental health is spiralling downwards... largely due to the government’s disinterest in our safety in the first place. 

The fucking bastards are going to kill us all. Among the first will be disabled people like me, and the vulnerable people with mental health conditions like the ones I work with. 

We need a general election.

Iain M Banks vs Baby D

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A post shared by Matt Tuckey 🇬🇧 (@matttuckey)

 

Decent week. Lots of prep for upcoming events. Expect blog posts about Europe, a convention in Liverpool, a couple of articles about potential films that could be made, predictions for the world, and at least one on fitness. 

Got an Insta comment of 90s singer Baby D on my selfie bomb photo of her.

Oh, look at these beauties: Ashton-Under-Lyne, 2003

You might have seen the ‘Me at 21’ trend doing the rounds on Instagram a few weeks back. I knew I had a load of pictures from my 21st back in 2003, so I dabbled with my scanner (which seems to have inexplicably fixed itself after a period of inoperability) and dug out a few pictures from my the night, taken with a disposable camera. 

At the time, I’d been texting a few mates asking if they could make it out, but no-one seemed to be responding. My mum had organised a family meal in Ashton, so I knew I at least had that booked in. I walked in and found 4 of my girl mates waiting for me! The whole week, it transpired, Mum had been coordinating with one of my mates to get everything organised. Everything was on the hush!

We reminisced over college, the memories we had, the fun times. The time when Sal was having a serious conversation with the staff in the office, but the class clown was pressing his face up against the glass and blowing air so he looked like Aardman’s Wallace from Wallace and Gromit. The time Claire dressed me up as a Viking for a drama about the year 1000. Or the time I got bollocked in front of the whole media department for ‘interviewing’ a giant plastic hotdog (putting on a fake Irish accent as the hotdog character explaining how he’d welcome in the new millennium). 

Halcyon days. 

Then we went to Ashton’s Atomic bar and got pissed.