London ROTC (Part 2)

I have now a contract with my name on it that says "Hey You! Ya You! Come work here why don't cha?" and I say "Yes"

So with that we are now faced with the tasks of packing up the home in Canada (which Kate has been on like Donkey Kong) and me to find us a place with English Character but a new kitchen and bathroom here in London that is located near everything we need and friends.

Yeah. That should all be stupid easy.

Now I am about to go home to Vancouver for 4 days to help Kate pack up some leftovers and move a whole lot of stuff over to Vancouver Island to my parents house. Where it will stay for a few years while we are over in England and we try not to collect anything of Value that we want to move back with us.

I'm excited, are you excited? It feels a little itchy in here.

London and the revenge of the contract

Well here we are. Trip #3 to London and the final move is materializing this week. There should be concrete decisions with my name on them in days and the word is they will be the good kind.

I've only been here just under a week now and with 2 more to go there is a lot to be done to get ready. Finding a house, arranging storage at home getting a neighbourhood picked out here to live in and all that. Not to mention VISAS for the family and all the rest.

I did get out on Saturday a little bit, as I have been trying to limit some of my sightseeing so that we can do it as a family. I went to Westminster Abbey and have to say I was disappointed to have to pay £15 to get in but was completely fine with the result. The need for the price is apparent as the shear volume of people going through it causes need for continual upkeep and diligence. Photos we not allowed but being a tourist I did take some `covert`shots so I would have something to show for the trip.

Here they are.

Of course nothing compares to seeing the real thing; walking amongst the tombs of Kings, Queens, Hero's, and Poets and realizing the combined history in the Church is a little overwhelming. There is a real beauty to death and the workmanship and detail put in to the statues, monuments and tombs is astounding. Nothing I have ever seen is like these. The stone seems to have life, the robes almost look like they are flowing on the angels and one scene of death come from the tomb below to take the soul of man seemed like a frozen moment so real it could have continued right then and there.

Very much worth the trip and the admission paid.

Off again

Packed my bags last night pre-flight
Zero hour five p.m.

Were I to be high as a kite the flight may go a lot better, however I will not be and it'll just be another sleepless 9hours of zombie TV watching. All in all this isn't a complaint, it's three weeks away from home and another blast of work in the UK. There may be an offer of employment settled or there may not be by the time I am heading home at the end of August, it remains to be seen.

While either outcome is good, the thought of moving the whole family to London right now makes me wanna have a stroke. There is so much to do prior to the trip, so much to rid ourselves of, so much to put in storage and even more to do in the UK to arrive and settle. Money is getting low at home and my worry has been on the incline for sometime now.

Still I welcome a move and welcome the opportunity for my family to experience London living.

I took the train to the airport today and have to admit the journey was simple and really quick, I went from east Burnaby to YVR in about 1 hour. Now however I have time to kill.... which I am doing with one of the single worst beers I have ever had in my life. At Milestones, the Palamino Pale Ale. This truly is bad beer.

At least there's bowling on the TV.

Updates

We have now moved in to our basement; no longer do we dwell above with the day walkers. The change was swift and unexpected but when we found out the the tenants in the basement were leaving we snatched up the chance to save $500 on the same amount of space. There have been some challenges to deal with like the fact that there is only 1 bedroom. However I think we have made great use of the space in creating little areas that suit our needs.

With this space we have I think that our layout worked quite well. We made a few changes to our living conditions such as having a bookcase wall as a partition for our bedroom while the kids took the actual bedroom over. The addition of the closet under the stairs made a perfect toy room for the kids and they enjoy it a lot. Kate had to do some serious work to clean the sucker out though as it was not only a little moldy but had some serious funk.

On top of all of this the new neighbours moved in to our space upstairs. I say our only because as they were about to move in all the work that we wanted done ( baseboards, painting of the kitchen, repairing the wood around the rear door, light fixture changes, etc ) got done. SO it was a little heartbreaking to leave the space after that seeing it so perfect.

They have a daughter who is the same age and the same personality as Sebastian and a boy who is a little younger than Rigby. They have also just had a baby girl now 8 days old, so a full house but someone for Sebastian to play with daily (even if they do fight and occasionally hate each other).

This has been a fairly positive move for us, getting us in to a new headspace about living and also giving us the benefit of a live in play partner for the kids. Now if only I could shake that basement feeling of bugs being around all the time I'd be golden.