The haves and the have nots

As our 3 month anniversary on Newfoundland is approaching, I thought it would be appropriate to look back and see what has changed for me.

When I started thinking about the three lists below, it struck me how life, essentially, stays the same no matter where you live and what you do, as long as you are bringing your family along. The routines will find their own place, you will still eat your oat meal the same way as you always did and you'll drink your coffee from the same mug with milk, like you always did. It's just made with different beans and different water, in a new kettle and with a 2% milk instead of 1,5%, but it's essentially the same cup of coffee you've always had.

However, there are some things that have changed and below you can find a list of them. But just to be fair, I also collected a list of things that I have been able to do in St. John's, even though I had initially perhaps thought that they'd be left behind in th city life of Copenhagen. Here goes!

Things I haven't done in the past three months:

1. Ridden my bike. Seen my bike. Had anything at all to do with bikes. (it's hiding in the shed, still wrapped up in the moving company's blue and white cardboard.)

2. Been to a concert. I don't think this has anything to do with St. John's as such, there are plenty of concerts here but I haven't had the chance yet.

3. Eaten Vietnamese food. Surprisingly, it seems that Vietnamese restaurants are missing from the St. John's selection, which is in fact a very decent selection of restaurants for a city of this size!

4. Gone to the office. As you know, I quit my job when moving here and have not been to work of any kind in the past three months. Apart from maternity leave, this has never happened before.

5. Taken the plane. Someone might think - what's so strange about that? But those knowing my pre-Canadian life will know that I was a regular guest at Copenhagen airport on a bi-weekly to monthly basis, so a three-month dry-spell in flying is a first in many years.

6. Taken the train.  (no explanation needed)

7. Taken the metro. (even less explanation needed)

8. Taken the bus. Here an explanation might be needed. See list of things I've done here but not in Copenhagen.

9. Climb four flights of stairs (daily). We used to live on 4th floor and I used to work on 5th floor. Taking the stairs was a daily routine, whereas we now live in a one-storey bungalow.

Things I have done in the past three months that I didn't do in Copenhagen:

1. Drive a car (on a daily basis). You need it here - if not for the distances, then for the hills, for the weather and for the condition of the sidewalks. There are buses, but due to bad reputation, I have not tried them out yet.

2. Go shopping for groceries and use the shopping cart. In Copenhagen shopping was small-scale - without a car you needed to carry everything home on your bike or back. Here even milk is in a 2l carton, so a basket is soon full! Cart it is. And now I bring my kid shopping with me every time, so I need a place for her to sit. Thus: a shopping cart.

3. Cook a meal every day. Back in Denmark we would eat even our breakfasts at the office, and often work late, so a daily meal cooked at home (several times) was not something we did. Now it's breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks - all made at home.

4. Buy fresh bread at the bakery every second day. While bakeries do exist in Copenhagen, they are very expensive and you can also get decent bread at the supermarket. Here, if you want nice bread, you have to go to the bakery (more on that another time). So I do - we're now regular guests at our local Georgestown bakery where I have even managed to find dark rye bread!

Dark rye from Georgestown Bakery

5. See the Maersk ships in the harbour. Having lived in the home town of Maersk for the past 7 years, I rarely saw the ships at all. Now the whole St. John's based fleet is visible to our eyes on a daily basis and I find it very nice!

Finally, things I liked about Copenhagen and have also been able to do here:

1. Have weekend brunch. It's not quite as common as in Copenhagen, but you can get a really nice brunch for example at Mallard Cottage.

The cake buffet of Mallard Cottage weekend brunch

2. Take long walks in the city. This you can definately do here, and you are more likely to find nature than in Copenhagen. I'm enjoying the walks, but struggling with the hills.

3. Go to a museum. I'll write more about this later, but one of our closest neighbours is the excellent museum, gallery and archives of The Rooms.

View from The Rooms towards The Narrows

4. See a movie that is not a blockbuster. For a few months I thought that this was impossible, but last weekend I went to the Banff Mountain Film Festival World tour and saw a lot of non-blockbuster films about things outdoorsy. Very nice!