The Guide
THE WARMTH OF HEARTS Few people know headwinds as well as Anette Pedersen does. She has battled the elements for 33 years. So it’s lucky that hugs exist. TEXT: MICHAEL KIRKEBY PHOTO: FREDDY BILLQVIST
THREE TIMES A week, Anette Pedersen gets on her bike and pedals down the long hill to the parking lot at the harbor in Hirtshals where her work day starts. It takes 10 minutes in a headwind. And there is always a headwind. The wind comes mainly from the west in Denmark, perhaps most of all in Hirtshals, a small fishing and ferry town just southwest of Skagen, which is home to 6,000 residents and countless seagulls. There is nothing here to slow the wind as it comes off the North Sea. When tourists flock to the wide sandy beaches outside the town in summer, the wind provides a pleasant cooling effect. But in winter, the wind tears mercilessly through marrow and bones. AT NINE O’CLOCK, Anette arrives at the parking lot and unlocks the white container that constitutes her “post office.” Here she has her electric mail bike, uniform and other practical things that she needs in her job as a postman in Hirtshals. On Wednesdays she delivers mail in the western part of the town, on Thursday she works in the southern part, and on Fridays she is in the eastern part. On Mondays and Tuesdays she works twenty kilometers from the coast, at PostNord’s distribution center in Hjørring. It covers the entire area from Skagen in the north down to Aalborg in the south, and from the Kattegatt in the east to the North Sea in the west. A few minutes after Anette, Uffe Mølgaard arrives in the mail vehicle from Hjørring with the day’s mail, and they always have time to exchange a few words P E O P L E BY P O ST N O R D
3 ANETTE’S BEST TIPS FOR WINTER CYCLING 1. Walk Get off your bike now and again and walk. It helps to move around more.
2. Windproof Wind tears away the warmth – make sure the wind does not get through your clothes.
3. Warm up If you get too cold, walk up and down a staircase for five minutes to warm yourself up.
about the weather. From the container, they can look down toward the harbor and the flags fluttering in the wind in front of the North Sea Center and Skaga Hotel. And by looking upward, they can see if a blue sky or dark clouds are waiting over the sea and heading toward them. “The weather is incredibly important for my work day as a postman on a bicycle. It determines whether I get a lovely day or a day during which I have to battle the elements. Yesterday it rained from beginning to end, and on days like that there is no one to say hello to on the streets. In such situations, I just get my head down and finish the deliveries,” says Anette. THEY ARE USED to the wind in Hirtshals. During the 33 years that Anette has worked
as a postman, there are only a few times when she has failed to complete the round due to the weather making it impossible to stand upright. During the winter, she can normally keep the wind, and thus the cold, out by wearing a wind or rain jacket on top of her big PostNord jacket. “But sometimes you freeze no matter what you’re wearing, and then my best advice is to keep moving. I also get warmth from all the people I meet on my round. We usually stop and exchange a few words. And there is one woman who always wants a hug. So we give each other a hug. That’s also a way of keeping warm.” NOW AND AGAIN, Anette thinks that she should arrange a huge party and invite everyone who she usually meets on her round. “It’s just a thought, but I'd love to get to know them a bit more. I only know them from the two minutes that we stand and talk, but lots of them have really made an impression.” When the work day is over, Anette bikes back up the hill again. It’s a bit slower in that direction, even with a tailwind. Back at home, her nine-year-old daughter Louise and her husband Keld have returned home from school and work. After dinner, Anette likes going for a walk with Bosco, the family's eleven-year-old Labrador. But then she’s exhausted. “I’m out in the fresh air and I don’t sit still for long from early morning until eight o'clock in the evening. So once I sit down on the couch I’m usually out like a light. But it is a good sort of tiredness.” 39