She Parties, Moves and Travels!

It’s been a couple of weeks since my last update, a very hectic couple of weeks!

I just about survived my leaving parties, though my liver is thanking me for minimal alcohol drinking ever since. The hangovers weren’t pretty, but they were worth it. It was so lovely that people made the effort, and so I better make the effort to keep in touch with them now I’ve gone!


Then it was ‘The Move: Part One’ from London to Southport. Packing my stuff up took so much longer than expected and packing the van was an experience in itself, we packed every last inch of space and used every last minute of the rental!!!


Less than 24 hours later I was off to NYC and surprised myself by being able to keep my eyes open until 10pm on the first day (3am GMT) despite being up at 5.30am – over 21 hours!!!

Friday Liz and I shopped until we dropped, literally. After 10 hours and more dollars than I care to add up, we sat down in the nearest restaurant we could find. We weren’t just there to shop (though you might find that hard to believe!) we also did some sightseeing, and found sometime to catch up with the gorgeous and wonderful Hannah! By far the most giddy moment of the week was when I sat there as The Little Mermaid musical started!


Since I returned to the UK on Friday I have been recovering by sleeping lots. I’ve also started to put together a to-do list. I’m sure that time will fly by, and before I know it I will be in Durham to start my new job! I’m off to the North East next week to house hunt – wish me luck!!!

The Yanks, The Swedes & The Scousers

Despite the temptation to spend my night glued to the BBC website and watch the votes come in I managed to get to sleep at a fairly respectable hour last night. Only because I have to stay awake over the next few days for my leaving parties. However my body clock seemed to be intent that I wouldn’t miss all the fun and woke me up at around 5am to see Obama’s speech.


It’s astounding how excited and interested we are in the UK. Understandable of course, this is not only a president of the USA, but the most powerful man in the world. It’s also history in the making, proving yet again that anything is possible. However I agree with Obama, he is not a black President, he is a President who is black. I am just pleased that he is a man that seems to have vision, yet is realistic in his goals. He believes in equality, yet appreciates people’s individuality. I hope that his leadership is as strong as I believe it can be, and I am excited about the possibilities over the next four years.

Even without the current crises it is of interest to us because of the effect American politics has on our little island. However the other reason is the capacity the Americans have to motivate and celebrate. It is infectious. I have followed this election more closely than any UK election. Yes some people stay up all night to watch our general election results rolling in, but you don’t see the scenes of people sat cheering in bars in central London, as was last night. Isn’t it time that we had a general election that inspired people to vote and to celebrate. That engage people in the process, rather than alienating those who feel they don’t ‘get it’. I hope our next general election can be as exciting for those of us in the UK as the American election has been!

As the Americans queued for hours to vote, I braved the land of the Swedes, Ikea. I needed to buy some of those cheap paper lampshades to replace the ones I removed the moment I moved in. Though I am a sucker for the Ikea concept, and prices, I find the experience very stressful. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and check out potential furniture options for my future home so that when I have to visit again it can be as quick and painless as possible. Despite having researched mattresses and narrowed it down to three, I still had what can only be described as a goldilocks moment when I tried them out! Thankfully the one that was ‘just right’ is the cheapest!!!


And what of the Scousers? Well they avoided a loss against Atletico taking them a step closer to the next stages of the Champions League. While the Americans dream of the next four years, I’m hoping that Liverpool have got their act together enough this season to get the Premiership title, and enjoy the European one too!

What a week!

Tuesday night was my leaving do with my team and it was so much fun. We did a quiz at a wine bar and came 4th. Not bad eh?! Well it is when there are only four teams. But we enjoyed the wine, and the competition. The snow started whilst we were in a pub down the road, which turned Joann and I into a pair of kids for a couple of minutes whilst we ran outside, made snowballs and threw them at people (we knew) inside the pub.


On Friday I was in Durham for an interview at the University Library. I obviously impressed them as I got offered the job! I’ll start in January so I have a couple of months to get myself sorted with a place to live and to move up there. I am very excited indeed about this adventure. I just need to find some new friends up there!

Back to London on Saturday, the train journey flew by thanks to the wonders of technology, talking to a friend in China on Skype from a train somewhere between Durham and London. It’s amazing that it’s so easy to keep in touch these days. Another perk to the journey was that my general buzz from having a new job was added to by a compliment from one of the train staff who said that my smile had made his day!

Saturday night was Danielle’s Halloween party. Despite minimal effort and cost (£1.50 for a witch’s hat) I was quite impressed with my outfit. It was a fantastic party with many friends. However on Sunday I wasn’t feeling quite so great (two hangovers in one week is not something that has happened for a LONG time). Sunday was spent catching up on Gilmore Girls followed by The Omen. We were planning to watch all four, but after the second we weren’t convinced it was going to get that much better so we gave up on movie watching and ordered Chinese!


It’s only 9 days until New York, which means only 8 days until I need to move out of my house. As Thursday and Friday will be spent on yet more leaving parties I better get myself into gear and start packing tonight!