Friends will be friends

My last days in Dalston were tough ones.

I had to say goodbye to some of the best friends I have ever had... and this surely didn't happen without a fair amount of tears.

It is not the first time I've had to say goodbye to friends. Indeed, just over 10 years ago I left France to study in London. I left the country confident that I would keep on seeing my friends regularly over the holidays. In reality things happen slightly differently as only a few friends remained close.

Strangely the people who stayed close to my heart were not necessarily the ones I kept in touch with the most, neither were they the ones to whom I was the closest to just before my departure.

Not many have stood the test of time, I still see a select few and it sometimes baffles me how we can pick up so easily where we left things even though we haven't seen each other in a year (and sometimes more). No awkwardness nor resentment, just comfort in knowing that true friends stay close no matter how often you see them.

I will miss my London friends so much. Right now I am certain that I will hardly lose any, but I know from experience this will not be true. I wonder which will withstand the test of time?
In the mean time I have made it clear that they are welcome to stay anytime. I also plan to see them over the  holidays. Hopefully reality will more forgiving this time round...

We drove all night...

We rented a long wheel base van and filled it with our most prized possessions:  plants, musical instruments, fragile goods and of course our little pet rat.

And off we went! 

We drove all the way from London to Copenhagen... AND BACK in less than 72 hours. The drive took us though 6 different countries and on 3 ferries.

The first leg of the journey took us a long 19 hours after which we finally got to Copenhagen where we dropped off the contents of our van and picked up the keys to our new sublet in Vesterbro.

Beautiful Denmark greeted us with open arms that morning.

Indeed we saw the sun rise just as we crossed the Great belt bridge between the islands of  Funen and Zealand. It was an incredible spectacle that made the fact we had driven all day and night completely worth it.

Once the sun had risen and that we had made it onto the island of Zealand we went on small roads meandering through green hills covered in a light mist that made our entrance to our new home country even more unforgettable...

Good morning Denmark! We are thrilled to now be able to call your land our home.

A "grown up" move

Wow, one does collect a lot of stuff over 10 years!

It is hard to believe that S. and I both arrived in the U.K. with just one suitcase.

Things have slightly accumulated since then: I am now the proud owner of a multitude of boxes filled with paints, beads, and all sorts of craft supplies.

I also posses a wardrobe that could potentially be in direct competition with the Beyond Retro around the corner from us...

On the other hand, S. has a huuuge collection  of instruments that, of course, requires special TLC during the move. 

On top of all of these material possession we also happen to be particularly attached to our little pet rat... there's just no way we can bring ourselves to leave her behind.

So, you may ask, are we being realistic about transporting all of this stuff from one island to the next? The answer is yes, but at a cost and a complex process!

Step one:  We will fill up a van with all the instruments and Ratty - we will then tackle the 818 miles between London and Copenhagen. This little trip will also have the added perk of allowing us to bring along all our beloved plants that have made our flat a home.

Step two: A removal company from Jutland will then be in charge of looking after the rest of the stuff for us.

Total cost of the operation: circa £3000

One word: Ouch!

So, which map should we go for?

My husband and I were visiting a little vintage fair in Stoke Newington when we stumbled across a stall selling some gorgeous 1960's educational maps. We immediately both agreed that one of these would make the perfect addition to our Dalston flat and decided to split the cost to get one on the spot.

Out of the selection of half a dozen maps we singled out one of France (where I was brought up) and one of Denmark (where my husband's from). After much deliberation about colours, sizes, and who's country generally looks better on a map we decided to go for the danish one and went back home to hang it up on our wall.

Less than a week later I got some bad news from work:

The company for which I worked was having to make some employees redundant and my job as a social media manager was on the line.
The further development of the events that week meant that I found myself on gardening leave with a little spare cash to carry me over the next couple of months.

Instead of panicking we decided that this could be the perfect opportunity to start a new "adventure" - and going to live to Copenhagen seemed like the perfect choice.

Here we are now: it's been less than a week since our initial decision and we have barely three weeks left before our official move-out date!

I do wonder what would have happened if we would have got the map of France?!