How I live: a photo essay.

I live at Biens Allè 9, 2300 København S.

This is my house.

The entrance is the little door you can barely make out at the end of the white wall.

The living room...

And from another angle.

The kitchen.

Since we're talking about the kitchen, here's a stir-fry I made. A fairly typical meal.

Moving upstairs, this is my room.

My table is as messy as ever...

As is the rest of my room.

I live with three cats. This is Filip.

Daisy's curled up against the heater for the turtles. You'll get to see them in a moment.

This is Panther, but everyone calls him Pansy. Look carefully - he's drinking from the tap.

These are the turtles. One of them is the Million-Dollar-Turtle: I'll tell the story another day. And for all you perverts out there, no, they are not trying to mate!

There's also a rabbit in the house which is 11 years old, and gets a room to itself. Truly a welfare state. However, since I don't have a photo of the rabbit, I'll show you my bicycle instead. Again, there's a story behind this set of wheels. It'll come next time.

I was going to upload pictures of my housemates as well, but I don't have a single decent photo of them. So, that will come next time too.

Living independently is a challenge, but has its rewards. It's an enlivening experience to have to cook your own food, do your own grocery shopping, do your laundry, clean up after yourself, and perform all the other assorted chores that form the bedrock of our daily lives. In a way, it gives me a fresh respect for career housewives (and househusbands, if there is such a word), as well as domestic helpers. It's not an easy job, even with washing machines and vacuum cleaners.

My life has changed in other ways too. I cycle everywhere now. It's a bit more than 5.5km to the University, but on average, I cycle at least 15km a day thanks to trips to others' houses and assorted errands. It wasn't so bad when I first started out, but the autumn temperatures and winds are starting to make it heavy going.

Still, it's an experience, and it saves me money - a monthly bus pass would cost me 420 DKK, or about SGD$126. That buys me enough groceries for almost 3 weeks. I'm pretty much getting used to cycling almost 10km in the rain back to my place at 1:30am, at a temperature of 12°C but with the strong winds making it even colder. I have to; winter approaches, and it's going to get worse.

So, for those still back home in Singapore - move to Copenhagen if you're complaining about the heat. You'll get more than you bargained for.