As I’m relatively new to Denmark, I haven’t yet started receiving much post, which can only be a good thing in my opinion.

So when I arrived home today to a letter from ‘BCS’ I was intrigued. Well, it turned out to be from British Corner Shop, a specialist in British brand groceries, delivered anywhere in the world. Quite how they got my details I’m not sure, but here they were.

The leaflet came at an appropriate time because I’ve noticed myself looking at the ‘British shelf’ in my local Super Brugsen supermarket lately, and I’ve been trying to work out why. (I’ll skim over the fact that it’s quite surprising in the first place that even a medium size supermarket here has a relatively sizable aisle dedicated to things like Fray Bentos, Coleman’s and Bisto).

It’s always irritated me to come across that kind of expat who tries to recreate their familiar home comforts all around them, in blunt denial of actually living abroad (I knew a whole community of British expats in France who even flatly refused to speak French, despite being fluent after many years living there). But I do understand that there will always be some things that aren’t readily available ‘abroad’ that you might hanker after – for example, my friend from school, Julian, lives in New York and his kitchen cupboards are always stacked with bottles of Robinson’s squash. Each to their own!

But I’m suspicious because it’s a thin line between missing your favourite type of jam, to thinking all foreign food is inferior or tastes funny (which I know full well Jules doesn’t do, just by the way). Embrace it, I say! That’s exactly why I’m here, to enjoy all the new tastes, smells, shops and approaches – everything about living somewhere completely new.

So it was with surprise that I found myself bringing home a jar of Branston’s Pickle the other day. And then finishing it in about 3 days. HELP! Am I turning into that kind of expat?!? Probably not, and although it’s potentially useful to know of the existence of BCS, I don’t expect to be using their services any time soon. Although, I’m now quite curious to know if Denmark has lifted that ban they put on Marmite a couple of years ago…