ALEXANDRA

I'm guessing some people will raise their eyebrows at finding Alexandra here, since we got to know each other in Sweden , in college, but in the spring of 2004 she took her cat and moved over here to be with me for a year.
She stayed in a bed and breakfast which was owned by a funny little man, until we found a perfect 2 bedroom flat overlooking the harbour.
The bedrooms were not right next to each other (which was important for both of us, for....you know......privacy), the lounge was small ish, but we did fit a sofa an arm chair and a coffee table. The kitchen was well planned and had a breakfast bar.

There was however a couple of, what shall i call them, downsides to our flat...

Above us lived a man who was at least 200 years old, he couldn't look after himself and really shouldn't have lived in a flat on his own, he used to leave his front door open and just call out for anyone who walked past "Hello, can you help me?" and whoever the unlucky sod who came home first was, would go in and help him dial his daughter or whoever he needed to speak to.
And at Christmas all the neighbours would post Christmas cards through our door, which is something Alexandra has never got used to, that in England you don't necessarily post your Christmas cards if you will see the person at work everyday, or if its your neighbour.
In Sweden we post ALL our Christmas cards, which obviously I will have to get used to again, not to be tight on the postage.

Living with Alexandra was great!
I think I have mentioned before that she is a great cook, and would often txt me and ask if I wanted dinner when I came home.
It is very nice to be greeted with dinner on the table when you get in, I will never deny that.
Saturday mornings was ALWAYS Swedish breakfast morning.
We would get fresh bread from Waitrose and have nice ham, German sausage, pate, cucumber, peppers, jam and marmalade, juice, tea, coffee, chocolate milk, you name it we ate it.
We would then eat and talk for hours, about what we got up to during the week, and especially if we had been out the night before.
I remember one Saturday morning, we were feeling rather fragile after a heavy night, and i looked at the window and saw two big circles in the middle of the window.
"What on earth is that on the window?" i asked.
Alexandra looked and laughed and then said:
"Cant you remember? You pressed your boobs against the window at some people who walked past last night"

......No I don't remember that!!!!!!
Thank god!
I am classy aren't I?

The house our flat was in had a roof garden, we were delighted and thought we would spend the whole summer up there, getting a tan.
More like rust, if you ask me..
But we got a table and six horrendous wooden chairs from the manager of the restaurant Alexandra worked in and dragged them up there.
A couple of days later we got a letter from another tenant asking us what the point of that was?
And wasn't it an eye sore to have such ugly furniture up there?
we ignored it, and when I moved out 18 months later it was still there.

During the summer of 2004 I went on holiday with my parents to Scotland and Alexandra had the flat to herself for 2 weeks.
Two days before I came home I got a txt from her saying
"Ive met someone I really quite like, but I wont tell you who..."
It turned out to be the young man who worked in the pub across the road from us.
When I came home we spied on him from Alexandra's bedroom, thinking we were smart since we had turned the lights off, until she received a txt from him saying "If you are gonna spy on me you have to try harder and not giggle like that"
He had heard us giggle from across the road.

After 6 months of dating Geoff and Alexandra moved in together and I stayed on my own in the flat.
In June 2006 they got married and will live their happy ever after together.

I don't know what else to tell you about Alexandra, it will take me a week to write, but we have been through so much together, happiness, laughter, sadness and tears.
And it feels so good to know, that no matter what, we will always be friends.
We might not see each other for a long time, or even talk for a while, and even though we actually are as different as night and day, our friendship has grown so strong now, that we will always be a part of each others life.

The song Ive chosen for Alexandra is one we heard for the first time in a karaoke bar in Copenhagen during our college time.
Hope you like it as much as we did and still do.