Where Am I Now?

Well, after months of being in-between places,  I can now safely say that I'm definitely in Denmark again. I think. Actually, I'm going back to Ireland tomorrow, but that's merely a short sojourn.

I arrived on Friday last week, and on Saturday Leo and I packed up everything, called a moving guy (who was a very cool person, it has to be said) and moved on over to Kastrup. Kastrup is decidedly less cool than Frederiksberg. If Frederiksberg is a hip and painfully stylish 20 something sibling, Kastrup is the older brother in his 40s that is a mechanic. Honestly, though, I love it. We're close to the Metro but you can still cycle into town if you want, we're beside a nice Marina and a beach, and it's quiet and colloquial here. Just what I want.

I've spent this morning trying to register a domain name, doing laundry, and painting the hall. That's not too shabby, is it? This evening I shall go to Magasin, the big department store at Kongens Nytorv, and fantasise about all the household items I would purchase if I was a secret millionaire. Nah, really we have to exchange some plates.

First time having tacos. They were disgusting. Bonus: made delicious salsa!

This is what the living room looks like when it's messy.

Beautiful Le Creuset baby is all mine.

'Not as good as Barry's'

Having snacks downstairs in Magasin makes me feel fancy/affluent.

Some market research for my Dad. Don't ask. He works in Eggs.

A plethora of milks

So there you have it, a collection of arbitrary images tenuously linked to my first full week back in Denmark. Next week I'll be back in Ireland for most of it, while I tie up loose ends. Then it's back for painting and maybe setting up a business or two. Oh, and attempting to learn to speak this blasted language.

Vi ses!

Reasons to Be Happy

Got me this fancy new travel Bodum for 99kr on sale in Magasin. I've decided this lime-ish green colour is Leo's 'favourite' because he always seems to choose it. Now I can bring coffee with me and brew on the go! Plus, because it was on sale I now have a single-use brewed to use at home that was cheaper than a cafetiére. Life is sweet. Life is real real sweet.

Eat Well, Live Well

Happy 2013. I hope everyone had a good start to the new year.

I'm just so excited about my breakfast this morning that I had to share. An avocade, a ripe tomato, a clementine, Jersey milk and coffe, brie and real butter. These are the things that happiness and serotonin are made of.

It's Here! It's Here!

Happy New Year!

I had an absolutely marvellour 2013, my best year yet. I know I've been saying for abour 4 years now that every year was the BEST YEAR YET, but that's because they keep getting better and better.

Let's sum up some of the things that made 2013 great:

• Leo and I celebrated New Years 2013 in NYC, at what was probably the trendiest restaurant I will ever celebrate a major holiday in. We then had the most bizarre and surreal journey back to Long Island.
• We packed up everything, Leo quit his important job, I my less important multiple jobs, and we moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, in the depths of the winter snow. 
• We began a carpentry and design course which was impossibly hard for someone as inexperienced as me, but I learned so much from it.
• We got bikes and cycled absolutely everywhere, especially in blizzards. 
• We went on a number of small but very exciting trips, including an overnighter to Berlin, and a trip back to London for old time's sake.
• I learned how to drive, but have thus far failed my test twice (God loves a trier, third time lucky, how many cliches can I use until I have convinced myself failure is ok?? Ce sera sera.).
• I learned the principles of organic gardening, and am eying the prospect hungrily for the future.
• I was in an airport at least four times a month, on average, every month last year.
• In one day, my first day driving a car that was not a lesson, I drove half way across the island of Ireland, drove in rain, in the dark, did a u-turn and parked several times. Score!
• I cooked Christmas dinner twice, once with friends, once for my entire family. I now consider myself very good at cooking brussel sprouts.
• I turned 25 and was surprised by the most amazing cat cake. Everyone in my family is now divisible by 5, and long may it last.
• After refusing to consume any alcohol dogmatically for the past 24 years, I have one glass of champagne, one glass of prossecco, two glasses of mulled wine and about a shot of Johnny Walker. Everything in moderation, that's something it took me a very long time to accept I was ready for, but now I'm looking forward to a year filled with lots of different kinds of spirits. Preferably fancy whiskies. But only in moderation.
• All the friends I have. Spending time in Ireland has been so perfect, because I have rekindled my friendship with so many. I feel so lucky to have as many friends and acquaintances as I do. Something as simple as sitting in an aga-warmed kitchen on a Friday night, or jogging together, or going shopping, or going on a roadtrip and staying in a hostel, all these memories colour a life and make it wonderful. I'm not interested in cliques or exclusive best friend logic, I just want to have lots of fun with as many different people as I can. 'Have a good time, all the time, that's my philosophy in life'.
• I managed to keep a blog for a whole year, update it frequently, and not put any angsty, emotive shite on it at all. The greatest victory of all.

 I went to a bunch of new places, including:

Malmö, twice, Berlin, the Austrial Tirolean Alps, Long Island, D.C. and Virginia in the USA, northern Germany, The Giant's Causeway, Co. Antrim. I also went on trips to lots of places I've been many times before. Tiny trips make life more colourful.


Leo and I celebrated New Years by getting Turkish food and then cycling to a hill where we could watch the sky being lit up all around Copenhagen. Fireworks aren't for sale in Ireland and we've been fed urban legends the whole of our lives that if you go too near a firework your hand will explode and you might die. Well, not so the case in Denmark. The whole sky (and the streets around us) was lit up with a million different colours. It was the most spectacular night time display of colour I've seen (I haven't yet been to Iceland to see the aurora, see), and it lasted for hours. Danes know how to do New Years!

The picture below is not, as you might be tricked into believing, a very bright constellation. It is a firework exploding. Now, isn't that just the prettiest sight?

I hope everyone has a great 2014, filled with positivity, hard work, creativity, and logic. Possibly the 4 greatest devices for happiness and longevity. Stay fabulous.

Melt and Pour Soap: Lavender Soap

I love making my own soap, but as I haven't had a space of my own with my own, very private kitchen for my own messes and weird potions, I haven't been able to make it the real real from scratch way.

So I've been using melt and pour sets to make my own soaps. It really couldn't be simpler. Leo's apartment kitchen has NO supplies whatsoever (I don't know how people cope) so I just did this in the microwave.

1. Find a container you will pour your soap into. I used an IKEA lunch box, the ones everyone in the world owns, intending to then cut the soap into small pieces.

2. Cut your melt and pour mix into manageable cubed pieces. Make approximately enough so that it will fit into the container when melted.

3. Get essential oils, colours, anything you wish to add to the soap, and leave them ready.

4. It is great to have a spray bottle containing alcohol at hand. I used an old hair conditioner bottle with rubbing alcohol. This can be sprayed into the container before pouring the mixture in so it pops out easier, and sprayed on the mixture as it settles to remove air bubbles that look ugly.

5. Put the soap block into a glass or some kind of sturdy bowl and put in the microwave to melt. Keep a strict watch over it and take out as soon as it is 99% melted. I then stirred vigorously so the remainder would melt.

6. Add a few drops of essential oils. I'm not going to be too specific because everyone has different skin, different preferences and different tastes. I added about 4 drops of tea tree oil and 6 drops of lavender. I was also lucky enough to find a market stall selling a bag of lavender, so I chopped the lavender up into tiny pieces and poured about half a tbsp in to the mix, stirring well.

7. I poured the mixture into the lunch box, sprayed away any air bubbles, and left it to set. When there was a gel-like layer formed on the top I sprinkled a little bit of lavender on that and patted it down gently so it stuck.

8. Once it was semi-solid I put it in the fridge. A few hours later I took it up, pushed it out of the container, sliced it into smaller pieces, and put it into grease proof paper so it wouldn't sweat.

And there you have it. A simple, cheap recipe to make something great that can be used on your face, hands, in the shower, and even as shampoo if you don't have a lot of hair (I, sadly, have an awful lot of hair, so it's not really lathery enough). For what amounts to a few cents a piece, you can have bars of soap to give as presents or for your own use. It's so much fun to experiment with different scents and colours, last year we discovered turmeric makes an excellent dye for an orange scented soap, and it lasts really well. Have fun!

My experience with InterNations Copenhagen

The prospect of moving to a new city can feel like opening Pandora's box. Not only are there practical issues to take of, relating to employment, visas, medical care and accommodation, but all the social elements too.
Meeting new people, putting yourself out there and making lasting friendships can turn your expat experience into something incredible.

The InterNations organisation is active in almost 400 countries worldwide, and basic membership is free. After you sign up you get access to forums, helpful emails full of advice, and can get in touch with expats in your new city right away. Networking for business, finding a meet up with expats from your home country, a dance class or a night out suddently got a whole lot easier, making those initial weeks exciting rather than daunting.

I joined InterNations when I was thinking about moving to Copenhagen, and networked, read the forums, blog articles and emailed contacts. It was amazing having all that first hand information at hand, from a reliable and professional source. I found out about which areas are good to live in and what to expect of the Danish lifestyle through the site.

Some helpful links for navigating your way around the InterNations site:

• http://www.internations.org/copenhagen-expats
• http://www.internations.org/copenhagen-expats/events
• http://www.internations.org/guide/all 
• https://www.facebook.com/InterNations.org

 Happy Expating :)

Velbekomme on a Monday Morning

In Denmark it's customary to wish anyone you come across who is eating a bon appetit, or 'velbekomme'. When we learned this in Danish class months ago myself and the other Irish in the class cracked up laughing.

The idea of acknowledging someone, anyone, even a stranger, eating food and wishing them an enjoyable meal seemed bizarre and hilarious. I think it's because the formality of dinner etiquette, so important in British tradition, is completely absent from the Irish experience. And anything British, we typically run a mile from out of sheer habit, I suppose.

Anyway, the truth is, I've come to really love this little quirk of Danish culture. Yesterday Leo and I visited Louisiana museum, and packed a picnic in this nifty little cooler bag I found in my house. It was such a nice comforting gesture to have people smile at us and wish us a happy meal. I guess it's something I could get used to.

Have a great Monday! I've already come across the happiest guy in the world, the guy working in Fakta across the road from the apartment. If I can channel half his happiness for this day, I'll be doing very well. I better start trying, because it's pouring rain.

Our Carpentry Projects: The Final Post

I realise, going through my hard drive on this fine rainy morning, that I never put up a final post about our carpentry projects.

My classmate Nicolaj took some lovely pictures of our final day, right before we smashed everything up (it was really good fun).

We found out on that last day, as we were sitting around on the picnic benches we made ourselves having breakfast, that ours would be the last CDC Basic course run at the school.

At first we were shocked that they were cancelling the programme, then a little angry when we found out the reasons behind it.

Bureaucracy can ruin a lot of things, and sadly it means that no more non-Danes will get to experience a basic Danish carpentry education the way we did. It's a shame, but at least we had such a good experience, and left the course with some valuable skills and experiences.

This was my project!

Any questions about the projects or about the course, just ask!

A Stupenduous Weekend

This weekend I am in Copenhagen (well, it's Monday and I'm still here, but think of it as an extended weekend). The 20th marked three years to the day since Leo and I met, and since we never officially started 'going out' I decided we may as well celebrate this date, as there is no more meaningful alternative.

Three years is an awfully long time to know someone, and not only that, but to be consistently overjoyed by that persons' presence in your life.

Enough of my babble. This weekend, was filled with deliciousness of all kinds, a trip to IKEA and to Sweden itself, cycling, saunas in the sea, cakes, a lot of coffee, and a lot of contentment. Hygge abounded. Det var meget hyggeligt, one might say!

I shall let a picture say 1000 words instead of meandering on. P.s. there are no pictures of the delish cakes we had in IKEA because they are on Leo's phone, and he is in work:

NO BALLOONS?!

This guy's house fell over because he had a party and had too many people on it. Absolutely mental! The guy in the kiosk beside it said they had to rush in and rescue a lady trapped in the toilets because she couldn't move and had only a little bit of airspace left. Omgeh!

'Lol'

This Sauna in the Sea is the greatest experience, it's my second time being there and it's so relaxing. You just feel reinvigorated afterwards. There are gender segregated changing and bathing areas and communal and segregated saunas. The only problem with the communal sauna is that the aged men that frequent it stare far more than is necessary. If I wasn't with my boyfriend, I wouldn't go in there. I think the gender separation is ridiculous. Grown ups are more than able to handle the nakedness of the opposite sex, it won't cause strokes or heart attacks.

We had both a dinner and breakfast buffet included in the price in our hotel, and let me tell you, they put on quite a spread. In typical thrifty fashion I brought enough breakfast foods with me from the buffet for lunch. Oh how I over-ate.

Leo forced me to watch the gaelic football final in a dingy Irish pub in Malmo, and I did not enjoy it. Dublin won, Mayo lost, but as far as I'm concerned in the petty sport of football, there are no winners.

Now I'm back in Copenhagen, having done some gift shopping in Tiger etc. and now it's off to the airport to head back to my beloved (or not) Eire.

Until next time, Danmark.