Dear friendslist

[wiseheart]

Where are you all gone, fellas? Have you died, fallen ill, got eaten by Real Life or migrated from LJ elsewhere? I still remember the time when one had to check LJ almost on the daily basis to keep up with the lives of one's friends. Now it seems that most of you got eaten by a big, blue space yellyfish, and nobody thought to send me the death certificates.

Come on, folks, spring starts tomorrow, rise from your tombs! The people in Romania will pin the mârtisors on their jackets (small, flower-shaped broches with colourful ribbons) to remember everyone that spring has come again. So finish the hibernation act and drop in for our very own little spring festival! I can't offer much more than a warm welcome because I am being eaten by Real Life right now, but you will be most warmly welcome, for sure!

Comments

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I was never any good at posting to my livejournal in the first place and these last few months I have been wrapped up in getting a new job and finding a new place to live. Did I mention I am moving to Belfast?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

No. Which is exactly my point. :)
Last thing I heard was that you applied for a new job, and then - nothing. So, I assume you did get it? Are you happy with it? Did you find a place to live?

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I did indeed get the job -- lecturer in the Physics department at Queen's University Belfast -- and am very, very pleased about it! The people in my new group are simply lovely: they have been enormously helpful with areas of Belfast I would and (more to the point!) wouldn't want to live in. They are a friendly, cheerful bunch and I am looking forward to working with them very much.

I made a post, prompted by yours, so you should be able to read a little bit about it: I bought a house! Up until now I have always rented, and I was getting seriously fed up with it. It wasn't so bad when I lived in Sweden, where renting your home is a fairly normal thing to do, but here in Britain rented accommodation is seen as a temporary or less desirable form of living. There are quite severe limitations to what you are allowed to do with 'your' flat: for example my contract says I am not allowed to hang things on the walls! After speaking to my landlord, I got permission to do so, but that is sort of my point. It was something he granted as a favour, not something that was mine by right which it would have been in Sweden!

The house I have bought -- as of yesterday -- is lovely, with a little bit of garden for me to play with as well. I am really looking forward to moving in, which will happen next Wednesday. Of course before then there is the moving out to be done, but hopefully this won't be too painful. My new employer has a generous relocation package which explicitly states that they will reimburse me for not just the cost of moving my belongings, but having them packed as well. Hence I am getting the removal firm to do the packing -- they are coming in to start on Sunday morning, and will have everything out of the flat by 2pm on Monday when the cleaners are coming to clean the flat.

[lhun-dweller.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! May you have many years of joy under your very own roof!

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I am really looking forward to having my own place. And the extra space that it will give me to fill with bookcases... :-)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Those are fantastic news indeed! Congratulations on all aspects! It's sooo important that one have a good working atmosphere and a good place to live.

Now I should probably start looking for organized package holidays that include a visit in Belfast.... *g*

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I totally agree: having good people to work with in a friendly atmosphere is extremely important. And I have always been quite picky about where I want to live, though people kept being shocked about how quickly I had found and bought a house in Belfast. To be honest I liked it pretty much as soon as I walked in the door, and looking around just confirmed my opinion. I did get a survey done -- it was one of the conditions of getting a mortgage, but I would have anyway -- and was rather worried they would find something that meant it wasn't a good place to buy. The one thing it lacks to be my dream house is a suitable space for a library, but then my living room usually looks quite a lot like a library with bookcases covering most of the walls...

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

P.S. and yes, do come to Belfast! It is really quite pretty, and as pretty much everybody I have talked to about moving to Northern Ireland remarks, "I want to see the Giant's Causeway". I have wanted to see that since before I moved to the UK, so it really is high time for me...

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I'd love to! Unfortunately, it also depends on how much Mum is willing to take upon herself, as I won't go without her. And package holidays are rather exhausting as a rule. We wee both fairly dead from the England-Wales one two years ago. But they're still the financially most doable way to travel, so I'll start looking.