Denmark is very lucky to enjoy a high level of digitisation. As a small country there is a lot of opportunity to streamline public services with the use of digital technology. The e-Boks system is a perfect example of this.

I wanted to share an experience I recently had with my e-Boks. I had some routine surgery done a few weeks ago and as part of the process they took some cells away for analysis. Not much was made of this but it was a screening for cancer. I didn’t think much about the results. A week later I received a text from the hospital* telling me they would be sending me a letter via my e-Boks by 8am the next morning. It struck me as odd as I’d never had this before. Later that day it dawned on my the seriousness of the mail and I checked my e-Boks. It was a clear result. I felt enormously grateful for this system. Instead of waiting several days to hear the result via the traditional postal system (which quite frankly under PostNord is abysmal) which could take some time, I was almost immediately told my result. Also if I’d received an email saying I had a message from the hospital I may have not checked it immediately but with the integrated system used by the hospital I was ready to look.

But what is e-Boks?

e-Boks is the one of the two places where you can access encrypted digital post.

Digital Post from public authorities is the same kind of communications that you may receive in your physical mailbox from, for example, the local government, hospital or SKAT. It might be patient calls, message about space for your child in a day care centre, or personal tax matters.

Private companies, such as insurance companies and banks also send digital post to their clients. Here it may be, for example, statements or bank statements. The difference from traditional paper mail and an e-mail is that Digital Post should be received and read on a secure Internet site.

The secure websites where you can read Digital Post is borger.dk or e-Boks.dk. The digital post sent encrypted. This means that security is very high — even higher than ordinary paper mail or e-mails. e-Boks now also comes as a mobile app.

It is required that all citizens above the age of 15 have to sign up for Digital Post. Your digital mailbox is connected to your CPR number, so it will follow you, even if you change email, postal address, etc.

You can save mails and important documents here. You get a personal email when there is digital post for you.

You can save mails and important documents here. You get a personal email when there is digital post for you.

You log onto e-Boks using your NemID and you can find out how to set up Digital Post from the link below. Scroll down to the bottom of the e-Boks homepage to change the language to English.If you use the mobile app on an iPhone you can use touchID to log in which can be more convenient.

If you found this post useful you may be interested in getting hold of my Guide to Danish Bureaucracy.  This guide pulls together publicly available resources, including the information above, into one simple to use document with check lists to make sure you are fully prepared. You can buy the guide here

I wanted to also address the question of why I charge for some guides. The main reasons are these guides have taken me time to research and write and to make them easy to use and attractive to look at I use a designer to create the finished product.  I also offer a lot of free resources and information both here on this blog and also via my website. But nothing is free, I pay for the hosting of both websites plus a number of other costs associated with running an online business so there are times that I, rightly, ask for payment for my work. In exchange you are able to gain a lot of information easily, some of which may take you a lot of time to find or you may even miss. You also get the benefit of my ten years of experience of living in Copenhagen.

*Please note this was a private hospital not the public sector.

In this video I visit STORM20 at Stormgade 20 in Central Copenhagen.

STORM20 is a creative meeting place for history and art. It houses a café, cultural information and creator space. I speak to Siri Buric, project manager of STORM20, and Sandra Klit, event- and communication manager about the project and we get a glimpse into the work they do here with the community.

For more information about STORM20

https://www.facebook.com/storm20kbh/

https://www.instagram.com/storm20kbh/

http://www.storm20.kk.dk

View story at Medium.com

The food scene here can seem dominated by a handful of places but as Copenhagen really cements its position as a foodie paradise, then it is great to hear about the rest.So I was delighted to hear that Mad about Copenhagen are writing a book. It will tell the stories of 50 culinary characters of Copenhagen, the spaces they inhabit, and the food and drink they make. The list includes a delicious mix of cocktail bars, bakeries, high-end restaurants, greasy late night munchies, hole-in-the-wall kinda places, breweries, beekeepers, coffee connoisseurs, brunches, traditional Danish eateries, and more.

This is what Mad About Copenhagen write about. They do not leave out the top new nordic restaurants but do their best to uncover and expose the more underground delights of Copenhagen’s food scene.

Hazel told me that they want to capture the essence of Copenhagen’s dazzling food scene, circa 2018. The book will not remain up-to-date forever, but it will preserve the current era of foodie Copenhagen, and the stories, essays and recipes in the book will be relevant forever.

Sounds amazing, yes? But they need our help to make the book a reality. They  are publishing the book together with a small local publisher (Blændværk) and they aim  to
print the first edition in September/October 2018. For this they need to raise some money, and thought what better a way to make it happen than to give people a chance to
pre-order the book (with a discount) before it gets printed.

You can pre-order the book and other Mad goodies via their kickstarter campaign, until 12th April. One of the options includes having your name in the book as a supporter! (That’s the option I took, like to see my name in print!) You can see all the options on their Kickstarter page.

You can read a brilliant article about the campaign and book here

I have to say that the current Picasso ceramics exhibition is one of the best we have been to at Louisiana. It runs until 27th May 2018 and it is well worth a visit.

I’m not one to be a killjoy but it is important to remember that just because other people are walking and skating on the frozen lakes in and around Copenhagen, it isn’t actually safe at the moment. We’ve had a cold spell but not enough for the ice to be safe. I am horrified to see people with children and prams on the ice only metres from the non frozen section of the water. And children being encouraged to jump up and down. I walked on the frozen lakes in Frederiksberg in 2010 and I agree it is an amazing experience but the weather had been subzero for several months and not weeks and I waited until it was safe.

This is a translation of the page on the Kommune’s website which also updates a list of lakes so you can see if it is safe. This is the link to check and it is updated daily.

Look for the link Sikker is? You need to see a Ja if it is safe.

Look for the blue sign “Færdsel på isen tilladt”.
You must ONLY go to the ice if the sign “Færdsel på isen tilladt” is there. The municipality continuously measures the ice thickness.

Even when it is allowed to go on the ice, be aware of the following:

Use your common sense. The weather can suddenly change and change the thickness of the ice
The ice must be 16-18 cm thick before the municipality can give permission to go on ice. But the thickness is only suitable for skating and walking. Dangerous situations can still occur if many people get together on the ice or if you dance or jump on the ice
On many lakes it is never allowed to go on ice. Experience shows that they can not be safe enough. The ice in the harbor and the coasts will never be safe ice.

I was delighted to have been featured of the Expat Focus podcast talking about life in Denmark.

You can listen to it here

We had a lovely time at the ClubCrea pop up crafting workshop in Tivoli yesterday. The table is groaning with wonderful materials to make either a mask (inspired by Chinese New Year or another kind of animal mask) or a Valentine’s card and flower. Julie and Lone, the pair behind the event, are super friendly and helpful. The workshop is for children aged 4 – 8 (for younger children you may need to help out a bit more) and it is a great way to spend some creative, screen free time with your kids. 

The workshop costs 60dkk per child and one accompanying adult and it is running everyday from 11am to 5pm until the 25th February. You can find the workshop in the Orangeriet behind the larger of the two carousels in the park.

To find out more about ClubCrea and any forthcoming events you can follow them on Facebook here.

We had our first visit to Tivoli for the Christmas season on Friday and it was amazing. Tivoli promised new things this season and it didn’t disappoint. The area around the Planen has been transformed into a Polar Express inspired winter wonderland, complete with a static steam train housing food places and shops. The steam engine even produces ‘steam’ every so often.

With the increasingly short days you can see all the sparkly lights from 3.30pm onwards. I can’t wait to go again this week!

Finally for more of a lowdown on Christmas in Denmark don’t forget to sign up for my guide and also get a holiday and celebrations printable for 2018 featuring illustrations by Charlotte Rule.

Many of you may have already signed up for my Christmas guide and dates printable (if you haven’t, why not do it now 🙂 – here is the link) and you will have seen the lovely cute little illustrations on the dates printable. I was delighted to work with a talented local artist, Charlotte Rule, on this project and I thought today I would share a little interview with Charlotte. Charlotte and I met with the monthly crafting get together, Craftenhagen, which I host and I love her creativity. She has shared so much with us as a group and we have learnt a lot of new skills from her.Charlotte is originally from Stevenage but grew up in a small market town in Norfolk, England and has been living in Copenhagen for the last few years. She went to the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, where she studied for a BA HONS in Visual Communication, specialising in Illustraton. She is currently a part time freelance illustrator, working alongside that as a window dresser for a well known clothing brand.

So over to Charlotte…

Do you find inspiration in any favourite places in Copenhagen? Can you tell us about these places and how they inspire you.

 

So back in 2016 I wrote this blog post about Valby as an alternative to central city living. In it I said (which was true at the time) “Valby is not the place for hipsters or trendsetters” and “It is not a slick and trendy part of town”.

A few weeks ago I had to meet with some parents from my son’s school at a cafe on the main street in Valby. I’d not been down to this part of Valby for some months and the change was significant and noticeable. There were a number of older businesses which had closed down and there was activity inside the shops indicating a new business would be opening soon. But mainly I was surprised to see a Wokshop, Lagkagehuset and also a Riccos coffee shop within stone’s throws of each other. All are places I like but their new presence in a previously pretty old school Danish area is a definite indicator as to the changes afoot there.

I’m not sure that the term gentrification can be applied to what is happening in central Valby but it certainly looks like gentrification-lite. These businesses start popping up where there is a demand or potential demand for them. Valby is certainly an area where more affluent people are starting to live due to the housing situation in nearby Vesterbro and Frederiksberg but it is often a chicken and egg situation. In the UK it is referred to as the *Waitrose effect’ (here is a recent article about this), whereby if a branch of this expensive supermarket opened up in your neighbourhood you knew that house prices would be on the rise and the face of the neighbourhood would begin to change. But also in seeing places like Waitrose or in the case of Valby, Wokshop, opening up prospective residents will see it as more of an exciting area than if there is a Netto, an old style bakery, pizza shop and a clothing shop for big men.

And what does this mean for rents and house prices? Undoubtedly rents will rise as will demand from people to live here, pushing current residents and businesses out of the area in time. Of course this is capitalism but it doesn’t make it any more palatable. Over the last few decades areas such as Vesterbro and some parts of Nørrebro have gone through a painful change and as long term residents found themselves priced out of living in Vesterbro, they moved out to Valby and Sydhavn and now these two areas are beginning to gentrify, where will these people end up? The issue of displacement is one which should not be ignored. The cycle keeps going until all the city areas are the same, with the same types of coffee shops, bakeries and restaurants, same types of people with the same affluence and  the city is only for well off people.

Copenhagen is a long way off becoming as homogenised as some towns and cities in the UK but the writing is on the wall. I’ve said it before but every Krone you spend is a vote for the kind of city you want to live in. Support for individual and local businesses helps them survive and also ultimately keeps a city alive and unique. When I read about businesses in Amager for example which have been there for three or four generations, I wonder how many of the current businesses du jour, such as Gorms, Cocks and Cow, Wokshop, Jagger to name a few will still be in business in ten or even five years time? With the fast Twitter generation cycle of life where things are soon discarded for something newer and shinier makes me think none of the above.

I’m not against change but when change benefits the few and not the many, I wonder how positive it is.

Although not about European cities this podcast about the gentrification of parts of Los Angeles and also Brooklyn, New York make for fascinating if not disturbing listening. The issues they explore are not unique to the US. Also this piece in the recent issue of The Murmur about Copenhagen is an interesting read