normal transmission resumes at …

BARNIKLE

where stories and pictures of the things we do will be posted intermittently at best. Hope to see you there!

It’s our last day … the lake finally froze!

Goodbye Copenhagen, goodbye Østerbro. Thanks for all the memories

Vale

You ran the good race, and you’re home now. We love you, we will miss you.

It’s hard being so far away.

I miss you … and you … and even you.

hygge

Hygge is a Danish word that I can’t pronounce (I can’t pronounce any Danish words, actually) that is hard to translate directly into English, but from what I understand, it means something like cosiness, good company, good food and drink but it’s more than that. Creating hygge in the home seems to be an art form, one that I’m sure I couldn’t recreate myself.

Our new home feels like the owners have put a lot of effort into making it a place that encourages hygge - gentle lighting, comfortable furniture, strategically placed candles (most of which I have removed out of the reach of Hugo and Sophie. Mostly Sophie).

I think we all feel comfortable and at home here. It’s not ‘our home’, but it’s our home for now, and we will be happy here. Hygge!

Copenhagen

It is my intention to keep a Copenhagen blog of our year here … initially I thought I’d try for a post a day, but here we are a week and a half  in and I’m struggling to write my FIRST post so that probably won’t happen.

After a mad final week in Sydney we finally made it to the airport and on the plane. The children were both really good, especially given Sophia hadn’t napped all day and then had a total of about 5 hours in the 24 hour flight. Thank goodness for the Dora channel on the in-flight entertainment!

We had a nice, cold week in the UK and then a short flight to Copenhagen on Saturday. Both children came down with horrible colds at the same time and have been pretty sick and miserable ever since. So this week has been a bit of a whirlwind of looking at apartments, setting up bank accounts, trying to decipher Danish labels on food at the supermarket and basically trying to grasp that we are finally here.

We’ve finally moved into our permanent accommodation today, which has separate bedrooms for the kids (Hugo is thrilled), a bath (again, Hugo loves this after bathing in a plastic packing tub for the past week and a half), wireless internet (YAY says me) and no construction work downstairs (YAY we *all* say!).

We also visited børnehavn (preschool) for Hugo today. It seems quite similar to his preschool back home (other than the fact that everyone speaks Danish), and he was really keen to start going so hopefully he won’t be on the waiting list for too long. There is a policy that all children will be offered a place *somewhere* within six weeks, I just hope that *somewhere* is not too far from our place. Also, it’s normal for children to go 5 days a week (he has only been going two days a week, and would normally have gone three days this year). I don’t know if he’s ready, or if *I* am ready for him to go all week just yet though.