Rural comfort

Although many of the large old elm trees in front of the house are gone, there is still life where they previously stood. There is always something to be done either in the house or out in the relatively large garden belonging to Rural comfort. Perhaps there still stands an old elm tree that has not yet been felled and chopped into firewood for the stove. And otherwise there are certainly other do-it-yourself projects to take care of.

Those who work, work hard, and although the working week is usually 37 hours, there are many who reach over 50 hours of work a week. When there is surplus, there is often a need for a visit to the DIY store, for there is no reason to buy more than what one happens to be lacking. On the way home, the Rural comfort residents buy the groceries at the local Dagli'Brugsen. If they cannot just get what they need, they drive on to the nearest town to shop in one of the discount stores, preferably SPAR.

Back home, the handicrafts come out, unless the computer is switched on. Although the Rural comfort residents are not so comfortable with it, they use the internet to the same extent as the rest of the population. Besides Facebook, they gladly visit sites such as guloggratis.dk, dba.dk or bilbasen.dk. Rural comfort in fact like to trade or swap for newer second-hand consumer goods.

The TV is switched on for quite a few hours every day, and here it is DR1, TV 2 or TV 2 News. One cannot receive that many channels in Rural comfort, and that is actually fine.

Everyday life is often set in fixed, homely frames, and for more than half exercise is not on the programme - except on the television, for Rural comfort quite like to watch sport.

They also gladly watch a good film on TV or DVD. Streaming services are not something they spend either time or money on in Rural comfort. The same with newspapers, which they rarely buy. Why, indeed, when there are so many free magazines, district and local papers where one can read news? They gladly listen to P4 or the local radio, and some just supplement with Ekstra Bladet when they are down to fetch the morning bread anyway.

Transport is handled in the car or on the moped, for Rural comfort are the ones, of all the types, who exercise and cycle the least. That is how it has been for the last decades. They have, however, begun to think more about their health. Where one previously often saw Rural comfort with a cigarette in hand, many have by now quit tobacco in favour of the e-cigarette. And among those who still smoke, several are considering stopping.

The holiday habits resemble the rest of the group living Life in the Country. Two thirds in fact prefer to spend their holiday in Denmark, a good half of them in a holiday home or at a campsite.

In terms of values, the Gallup Compass points in all directions in Rural comfort. It is therefore hard to say anything one-sided about them and their orientation towards the individual-oriented versus the community-oriented and the modern versus the traditional. But there are, after all, a couple of clear statements, in that by far the majority think we should do more for Danes rather than help abroad. Most would really prefer that Denmark looked after itself and did not concern itself so much with other countries' affairs. Globalisation and modern technology can easily seem frightening, and they fear that traditional family values will soon disappear entirely.

None of those asked in Rural comfort put a cross, or could dream of putting a cross, by Klaus Riskjær Pedersen or the Alternative. At the last election there was an overweight towards the Danish People's Party (Dansk Folkeparti), Hard Line (Stram Kurs) and New Right (Nye Borgerlige) compared with the rest of the country. But the Social Democrats were the largest party, even though voter turnout was generally very low in Rural comfort.