We have moved!
Once again I am back into the peace of the countryside. Well it’s all relative.. as right now there are 100km/h gusts and driving rain so it’s making quite the racket around the new house. Jonathan and I live in Fornaght now, 20 mins out from the outskirts of Cork. Possibly another 10 mins to get into Cork. Another 20 mins to Mallow the other direction. It’s not really in the middle of no where, but it’s close enough.
We’re still unpacking, the only two rooms that I can say are finished are the kitchen and the sitting room. They’re both at a point where they have everything in them that’s meant to be in them. The other rooms just have piles of boxes assigned to them. The main bedroom has all it needs but could do with some more things sorting out. The spare bedroom needs the bed making and bits put away. The study has the desk built but needs shelves and cabinets as well as all the boxes unpacking. The craft room/LEGO room is still just full of boxes and the library (who are we kidding – it’s the sitting/reception room) is currently holding all unassigned boxes. The garage will be sorted out at the last possible moment and the conservatory is just housing comfy chairs and plants at the moment. It’s a bit of a sizable house, we’re very lucky!
This weekend we’ll be unpacking completely and we shall be in a position on Sunday night to finally go “right, these are the pieces of furniture we need next”. Things like bookcases, desks and coffee tables…! The likelihood is that the bookcases we have won’t fit all the books. I never fully unpacked in the last house so there are a lot of things that haven’t seen the light of day since my parents arrived a year ago in the van.
Nothing much is happening after work this week. We’re still sorting out the old house and making sure that it’s up to scratch for the handover this Friday and the depressing thing is with only a lick of paint and a hoover the place is still in better nick than when we arrived last year.
Looking forward to making this a home and looking forward to being able to put up my bits and pieces! Things like my signed Kill Bill poster, and my two huge signed Lord of the Rings framed posters. As well as the prints and rare film posters that are all bundled up. My action figures and some of my Living Dead Dolls (not all of them as there isn’t enough space at all..!). I, of course can’t wait to have people over too. It’ll be tricky what with being so far out but once everything is settled and sorted out then we have more than enough room for people to stay over and tonnes of space for extra cars to be parked up. And I’m looking forward to baking again (Jonathan does all the cooking!).
The only other thing to report on is my new car! Bought a month before the move and I love him. He’s called Mushu and he’s a black and silver Skoda Fabia Sportline. He has a funky red and black interior as well as a most treasured AUX port. Love him to bits, just like Napoleon he isn’t the most efficient car out there but I don’t mind. He’s quick, he makes a lot of noise and he works. Love it!
More photos of the house as and when it’s tidy and it will mostly be room by room. Don’t want to spam the photos…!
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The time has come…
Napoleon is going to be sold. It is a good thing because he is going to my Dad after The Van died last week. The Van hit his quarter of a million miles, then had a massive electrical failure and stopped working…! Napoleon will be going back to the UK in about a month after I can work out how getting him reregistered over there works and transferring ownership.
It does mean however, that I need a new car. So Autotrader has a few Aston Martins up for sale – but the interior in the model I’m interested in is awful. In all seriousness I’ll be downgrading. I’ll not have a car like Napoleon for a long time. Good bye heated leather seats. Good bye climate control. Good bye six speed manual. Good bye 1.9 ltr DCi. But also good buy host of problems on the car because it has all the bells and whistles!
I would like a Ford Focus. However my budget doesn’t stretch to that. However I could easily buy an Austin Mini… And I am not kidding I am super tempted to get one. The only thing that is stopping me is safety. I would be killed driving it anywhere other than the city. And in November, when the lease is up and we move out of the city I’ll need a car that can handle motorway driving for work every day. And a tiny little Austin Mini 1.3 petrol is going to struggle with that. But I really, really want a Mini…!
The other options in the mini hatchback category are the Suzuki Swift, the Ford Fiesta, Opel/Vauxhall Corsa and the Skoda Fabia. However I am then limited again with getting a 2008 or later model for tax reasons. But on the smaller petrol engines I can afford to go later. I need to purchase from a dealer for parts and labour warranty and I need to be able to pay in cash in one hit.
The main thing here is as much as I would love to buy a MG Midget or Austin Mini because I can afford to NOW – will it be affordable in the future when I need to drive longer to work, or longer out to the shops on windy roads in the middle of winter…?
Dads resolution to his issue was a car he could run into the ground and then sell in a year for a new car. One that was a good size and good for the motorway driving. My issue was selling my car for a smaller one. Part of that has been sorted, I just have to work out the buying of the new car!
I’m excited! I wonder what I’ll get at the end of the day? Not an MR-2 like my brother though…
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I’m Lovin’ Life
Not long after I had made The List official something made an appearance in my life. As I explained in the brief post about The List I had created it as a barrier for me. I was quite happy being single and it meant I had many an adventure ahead of me. I didn’t have to worry about anyone else, I could make decisions that didn’t effect anyone but me. I could just get up and go to America for work for three weeks, or decide that Ireland wasn’t for me and move to another country.
In fact, I have realised that despite all the things that drive me batty about this country I do actually like living here, a lot. And I believe it is directly related to the fact that there are only 4.5 million people in the Republic of Ireland. When I travelled home at the start of June, and I was packed onto a crowded train at rush hour in Leeds full of obnoxious, yuppie Northerners I realised then that if I had the opportunity to move home I wouldn’t actually like it in the UK any more. I have lived in the remote areas before, the fact still remains though that even if I did live on the Moors, or in the Peak District somewhere on the side of a mountain I would eventually have to deal with these people that I have now come to dislike.
On getting back to York once more I had to deal with traffic, rude people, unfriendly people that wouldn’t give you the time of day and kids that I would gladly herd onto the M62 at rush hour and broadcast a scoring system on the over head Variable Message Signs. I am not really a people person. I get on famously with people I like but if I don’t like someone it’s not long before I’ve left a trail of destruction behind me a mile wide. Don’t annoy me and I won’t annoy you.
So right then, as I waded my way through York city center in the mid-week crush around lunchtime, I realised that this is most definitely not me. I love York with a fiery passion. In my honest opinion it is the best city in England but the crowds, the traffic and the people I’m finding not to my liking now I’ve lived away for so long.
I like that the only traffic I have to deal with is because an artic has jack knifed on a country road, or a combine is squeezing down the road to work. I’m not surrounded by bad drivers, slow drivers or nervous drivers because there are just not that many people in Ireland. The people here are so friendly even if I do find myself sticking out like a sore thumb as a result of my Queen’s English. I love the fact that I can drive my car with a failed NCT (that’s an MOT to my UK readers) for three months before I have to do anything about it. I love that on a Sunday in Cork City I can park my car anywhere, and I mean anywhere even with the broken back window!
That and the only people that really piss me off nearly always end up being people from the UK on holiday over here (or other countries – I’m looking at you self absorbed dick brain from Australia in De Barra’s the other night).
All in all I really do enjoy living in Ireland, it suits me down to the ground quite perfectly. And about a month ago it got significantly more awesome. Who would have thought but there was actually someone out here that could tick most of the things on my List off! Now I have someone to go off and do stupid things with. If I’m going to have time in hospital I’m not going to be alone…!
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