Bells /  by Søren Bjørn-Andersen

I can hardly walk today! We got set of kettlebells the other day (we have some in Denmark as well but they are to heavy to bring over here), and we ran through a routine using them yesterday. I have a DVD from Art of Strength that we use which, 2 months ago, I didn´t get totally knackered from. Now though, after not working out for a while, I felt like fainting while doing the 50 minute set  . Kettlebells, by the way, are a fantastic work out tool. They give you a really nice combination of a cardio and strength work out at the same time.

Getting the 4 kettlebells was quite the mental workout as well! I ordered them off a british site called Powerhouse-fitness. First off, they got back to my saying my credit card was not registered at the address I had given and that I therefore had to send in extra proof of my address. I checked with my bank in Denmark and confirmed that my card was indeed registered to the address, I had used in the order. Now the reply from Powerhouse-Fitness was that their Credit Card supplier-thingy couldn´t check addresses outside the UK…Maybe you should only accept UK credit cards then. The funny thing was though, that while all this was going back and forth, they actually took the the money of my card…

Bell of Doom

Anyways I finally got them to send my order. They use a delivery company called Parcelforce. My general experience with delivery companies is that they are 100 % useless at delivering to private addresses. Parcelforce didn´t fail to disappoint me either. First of, they had my stuff sitting in their Edinburgh warehouse for a full day for no apparent reason. Then, on the second day, I saw on their tracking website that they had delivered the parcels to someone who wasn´t me. I naturally called them to enquire about where my kettlebells where… Long story short, after many phonecalls and while I was waiting for them to call me back, their delivery guy suddenly showed up, dropped my parcels of downstairs and drove of without a word of explanation and without waiting for my to sign for anything…

Morale of the story: DO train with kettlebells. Don´t order them from Powerhouse-Fitness. And avoid Parcelforce like the plague.

Carpet /  by Søren Bjørn-Andersen

Online, online at last! You realise how dependent on Internet you have become, when you have to go 2 weeks without in-house internet. Especially when setting up in a new city and trying to find banks, insurance, transport connections etc. Well, now we are online, so I can write a bit about the last 2 weeks.

We got the keys to our new flat on the 30th of October. The flat came furnished but with a minimum of furniture so a trip to Ikea was inevitable. 600 pounds later we have desks and bookcases plus assorted stuff. We have since then been cleaning, building Ikea furniture, opening bank accounts and getting mobile phones.

 The most notable features in the kitchen is probably the old stove and the carpet. The same carpet is found in the rest of the flat, including the bathroom. I think you have to be british to understand why anybody would put carpet in a bathroom, let alone a kitchen. 

Ignoring the yellow walls and carpet, the living room is actually quite nice. Its pretty big so we can fit my desk in there. Practical, as we also use my iMac as a TV. Notice how we, after only 2 weeks, already have 9 bottles of wine in a wine rack and a number of books 

The guest bedroom is also fairly big, so Anna Mie has set up office in there. She will be working from home mostly, so its nice to have a prober office. We also have an extra madras, besides the bed in the guest room, so do please come and visit!

The bathroom again have nice, nice carpet. And lovely colours all around…You will notice that there is no shower curtain, nor any sort of waterproofing on the walls. This is however not a problem as the shower only has enough water pressure to work when you are sitting down in the bath. Hence the little stool in the bath tub. Our letting agency has promised to fix this with a new water pump soon. which we are very much looking forward to.

All in all, though, we are quite happy with the flat. It is spacious and in a good neighborhood with parks, restaurants and shopping nearby. And the weekly Blues dancing night in Edinburgh is held at a hotel 50 meters from our front door. The Weekly Lindy Hop dance is a 5 minute walk away. So if you are a dancer, come to Edinburgh and hang out with us

:)

Reset /  by Søren Bjørn-Andersen

I dawned on me the other day that a month ago I had a good job, a car and a nice apartment…Today, totally through me own choice, I have none of these. I quit my job, sold my car and rented out the apartment. If you are reading this blog, you probably know I did all of this because Anna Mie and I have decided to move to Edinburgh to live and work for a couple of years. And I have not regretted it one second. It still feels like the completely right thing to do.

I am actually writing this sitting at a cafe in Edinburghs Grassmarket. I have been in Edinburgh for the past week, trying to find an apartment for Anna Mie and me to rent. The plan was for both Anna Mie and me to be here, but Anna Mies mom has cancer and she unfortunately took a turn for the worse just before we were supposed to leave. Anna Mie has therefore stayed in Jylland with her.

Renting a place in Edinburgh has been a bit more tricky than expected. The university here started its term this week, and apparently a lot of the foreign students hadn’t secured somewhere to live before coming over. So at almost every apartment viewing I have gone to, I have been joined by about 10-15 young asian students, desperately wanting to know if they could move in the same evening, or at least the next morning. When I saw a place on Saturday that seemed well enough for us to live in, I made sure to be the first person in at the office of the letting agency Monday morning.  So if everything goes to plan, we should now have a flat in the Newington area of Edinburgh from September 30th. The flat has a kitchen, fairly big living room and 2 bedrooms, so we will have room for visitors! Start booking your tickets now 

Tomorrow I will fly home to Denmark to attend a wedding. After that Anna Mie and I will go to Jylland for about 2 weeks, before moving to Edinburgh on the 30th of September.

Next big task is to find a job!