There Ain't No Devil, It's Just God When He's Drunk: Home away from Home

Tuesday 20 October 2009

Home away from Home

Shanked by Leashie on Tuesday, October 20, 2009

No, I haven't been neglecting this wee bloggy, but not very much is happening just the noo. Acutally, some might call that a total lie. I've been busy recently with entertaining house guests, moving MORE of my (precious) crap down to the London flat, and job hunting. But none of that is particularily noteworthy stuff.

For anyone intersted, here are what the new digs are like (note, I actually wrote this about two weeks ago. Whoops.)

(Greater) London Calling

I had the great pleasure of sleeping in until 7 on Saturday morning so that I could be dressed, ready, and set to catch a train from Waverly to Birmingham. I played it lazy and caught a bus down to Prince's (or as close as you can get with all the damn tram works gutting up the city) and made sure I had plenty of time to get my favourite roast beef sandwich from M&S for munching on the train.

The train down to Birmingham was 5 hours and some change with nothing eventful in the least to mention. I did manage to do quite a bit of knitting and even had one whole finished mitten to show for it.

Then from Birmingham I had another hour and a half train journey to London. However, I was anxiously awaiting my arrival into the Big Smoke because My Honey was meeting me at the station and taking me to our new home.

Our new home, although marketed as London, is actually about 20 mins (by fastest train) from the Waterloo city centre station in the suburb of Surbiton. And I have to say, it's quite nice! The neighbourhood reminds me of the nice, old areas of Santa Rosa- Like the houses in and around MacDonald Drive, just without the mansions and with the larger homes actually being made up of 3 or 4 flats. Even though we live on a main street, it's so much quieter than our flat in Edinburgh, and that' not just because the pubs close at 10 or 11 instead of 1 or 3 AM. We don't get the constant sirens, the singing drunks, the knock-out brawls, or the sweet lullaby of crashing glass bottles any more. Instead, we are across the street from several Italian restaurants, a French restaurant, a Chinese takeaway, and some smaller shops. We have a nice 10 minute walk through a small residential and forested area, and arrive at Surbiton high street which houses a GIANT Waitrose, a GIANT Sainsbury, and a smallish M&S (no clothes). There's also quite a smattering of cafes, a few pubs, and some good charity shops. I can't wait to explore the bigger supermarkets and the larger cache of ingredients they're sure to wield.

BUT, we are also only a 10 minute bus ride from Kingston, which has some great shopping. A giant John Lewis, some other department store I had never heard of, a Primark, a clothing store that starts with Uni which I really like (Uniqui? UniGlo? UniQuoi?), an Odeon, Argos, basically everything you would need. (EDIT: I just realised that Kingston is only a freaking 1.3 miles away. Totally walkable, especially by the river!)

I've not been into London proper yet, but know that it's only a (relatively) fast train away. Apparently the National Archives are somewhere close around here, so I would ideally like to look for a job there first before looking at places farther away.(EDIT: FUCKING National Archives! Won't hire me due to an antiquated law that FORBIDS anyone NON British/Commonwealth/EU from doing research for hire. Dude, it's not 1776 anymore and we Yanks are NOT trying to sneak into your country and rewrite your precious history!)

Now for the flat: awesome. It's about 2.5x bigger than what we had back in the Burgh. You enter through a communal door and then it's straight up some rather narrow stairs. Then you unlock the door to our flat and there's about a 3x3 space to hang some coats before going straight up some more stairs. At the top is all ours. To the left is a kitchen and bathroom, to the right a hallway which leads to a bedroom and a living room. It's SO NICE to have actual rooms. The old place in Edinburgh was like two rooms. Because our bath room was so small and didn't count. But here, you actually have a separate and isolated kitchen, a separate and isolated bathroom WITH A BATHTUB! And a wonderful living room that totally just makes the flat feel like an actual home. My Honey did a great job pillaging IKEA and we made off with some great things. I love that we now have an ACTUAL couch that can comfortably fit more half a body, room for chairs, and space for bookcases. Plus a bedroom bit enough to actually accommodate a bed AND not one, but two wardrobes! It still doesn't feel like 100% mine yet since I still have quite a lot of things still in Edinburgh, but I can't wait to get this place outfitted with home-like things. I can't wait to actually start using the kitchen, to get baking, to fill the cupboard with spices and pastas and tins. to reorganise the bookshelf alphabetically (nerd, I know), to fill up the air with my incense, and to deck the place out with candles and flowers.