How fast does a year go by….

Today is the second anniversary with a week that marked a substantial change to my life; a year ago on the 7th I left a job and a group of friends whom I had worked with for over 10 years; on 10th I left a city that had been home for almost 22 years and a flat that been my humble abode for almost 18 of those years. You may surmise that I can be a creature of habit and comfort.

However today is my first anniversary on my new job in a new city and a celebration of a year of commuting!

The former is good; yes it is a crazy place that needs some serious sitting out in termed of it’s priorities, but it (and the people) are generally up for it and are very open.

The middle thing is challenge to me; I know next to nothing about the city I commute to every day. I know how to get from the station to office, and I know a couple of good pubs, but that is it. What is actually in this city? I don’t know and with a hour to travel there and back again the prospect of finding out any time soon is not really there. I just wanna get home at the end of a day.

The latter aspect is the biggest surprise to me; I don’t mind the commute! From being an Owl in those 22 previous years (up late and to bed late), my working week has turned me, without to many tears and tantrums, into a Lark. I use my train time to study, read, write this blog and other such nonsense. Yes the spring, summer and autumn are far better than the darkness of winter, but there has been no SAD this year and I think that is partly due to the commute as an activity.

So all these anniversaries also mean that it has been a year of co-habiting; that has been a year of big changes as well bit it has been “survived” very well by both of us. We have moved on from that commuter relationship to house buying, cat adopting and weekly Tesco shops in an easy stride that I have loved and adapted to with easy. That maybe down to the Other Half and their adapting to me.

But for a year I do have some regrets; I have not seen some good friends in the North and do miss them and my family is that much further away and, though I was never the most regular visitor, it is now even more infrequent. More effort must be made on my part.

And for a year I am amazed how fast it has gone. Whirlwind!

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Headlong

So it is 2 months in to living as a Yorkshire man and life still goes on a pace and two thing have completely surprised me over the last few months;

1. Cohabiting was the right thing and has come completely easy to me. I was worried that after so many years of being used to my own place under my own control I would completely frustrate the new co of the habit aka @maccagraeme. However the indications are that he doesn’t want to do me in and I have adapted with ease to our weekly Sunday morning trips to Tesco. Even our joint gym membership is being used!
2. Commuting isn’t that bad. I thought I was going to very grumpy at 6am and stomping down to the train station in a teenage strop, but no. My Kindle and Audible are getting heavily abused and the whole thing relatively pleasant. The only niggle factor is that I am on my second commuter cold.

However there is one thing the three of us (Ezio is included in this one) have realised is that our current abode is a tad on the small side for is al. So much so that, even though more than half of my “stuff and nonsense” still reside in Glasvegas, we have had to take storage down here to be able to fit in.

So our weekends are spent looking at houses and preparing our humble home for a new owner.

House hunting is an odd thing, what do you ask? How do you decide? How much do you pay? All of these things we are learning as we tour York looking at some desirable and not so desirable homes. It is also hard not to set our ideals on somewhere when we have not sold, but we have. So we are “hopes up” and showing prospective around the house with smiles and, for once, a sociable and nosy Ezio.