C'est chez nous ou pas ?

- Is it home yet or not ? -

Believe it or not, the hardest part about moving to London has been getting back into a routine.

I know, I know.... I thought we were leaving Paris because we'd grown tired of the monotony and wanted to try something new... and that is still the case.

Leaving the whole parisian metro-boulot-dodo routine behind us has been so beneficial to both of us and we are so happy living in a new country where every day we walk out our door we see or do something new and different.

But what I'm actually referring to are the little things that go on before we walk out our door and that had become part of our everyday life without us ever realizing how important they were to our daily life.

My bathrobe hook is a good example of this. Back in Paris, when I got out of bed in the morning I would automatically beeline it for my comfy bathrobe which would always be hanging from a hook next to our closet. Even sleepy-eyed as I was my hands would automatically reach for it's velvety material, unhook it and wrap myself in it. It would then keep me warm until I made it to the bathroom and stepped into the shower. Once clean and dry I would step out of the tub and again reach for my bathrobe which would then keep me warm during the rest of my morning activities and all the way back to the bedroom until I changed into my clothes and got ready for work, never catching even a hint of a cold draft on a wintry morning the entire time. Once I was finished with getting ready, my last action before leaving the bedroom would always be to hang it up back onto the hook were it would dry and wait for me the following morning.

Here however, things are quite different... we don't have a hook to hang our towels or my bathrobe and we can't drill holes into the walls since we don't have the permission of the landlord to do so. Therefore, in the morning I usually wake up and have to go looking around for my bathrobe wherever I left it the day before to dry which can be anywhere from hanging on a door or from the back of a chair or on the ironing stool or on a coat hanger dangling from the shower head!

I guess all expats (or anyone who's ever moved house for that matter) go through the same thing... we move things and therefore we change things and it takes a while to adapt to these changes by trying all kind of different new ways of doing the same stuff we used to do without even thinking before, until finally we settle down to a new and once again comfortable little routine.

But until then, it's total chaos.


And my bathrobe dangling off of a door somewhere is only the tip of the iceberg.

Washing dishes is weird in this new kitchen in which I no longer have two small sinks to rinse and wash easily but instead have one big one where soaped dishes mix with unsoaped ones.....

Makeup is currently scattered around three different rooms because one has a great mirror for up close inspection, another good lighting for up and closer inspection and yet another because it has a cupboard perfect for storing makeup in an orderly fashion.....

Shoes can be found lying around all over the place because we haven't yet figured out how and where we'll put them being as we no longer have an entrance closet where we could easily chuck them out of sight....

Laptops never seem to have any battery left because their chargers are plugged to electrical outlets which aren't near any chairs where one can comfortably sit down and type while the laptop is being charged.....

Running late is the norm in this house since the appliances that show the time (microwave and oven) are hidden by the kitchen configuration contrary to our previous home where they would be in plain sight and therefore never prompted the need to buy a clock.

Our dirty clothes are for the time being relegated to the category of "waste" being how they are currently tossed into a wastebasket while we try to come to terms with no longer having a handy built-into-the wall hamper basket in our bathroom and not yet acquiring one as we don't know where to put it yet (the bathroom vs the bedroom is an ongoing negotiation at the moment).

But I think the hardest thing we've had to adapt to so far is the weird place where our dining room table now sits. Basically the only place it would fit when all our furniture was finally delivered last month was is in a corner by the kitchen, which means that when seated at the table both Hubby and I are facing the wall with our backs to the dining / living room. Doesn't sound very enticing, right? And it certainly makes a big difference to us when we compare to our old place where our table used to be right next to the windows facing the street below or else the TV for when we wanted to watch something while having dinner.

Because of this and several other "little" changes in our otherwise insignificant daily routine our apartment is constantly a mess.

Basically it looks like we haven't finished unpacking (which we have), we don't yet have all our furniture (which we do) and basically this isn't our home (which it is...... isn't it?)

Photo: Verigo by Hubby

Fned.