Less me. I get it, I get it

Enough already, right? Three solid days of me and mehab and me and doctors, and I can tell you're all hitting unsubscribe faster than you can make a cuppa. Hint: it's actually three minutes for the ideal tea, according to several programs I've seen that focus on exactly this issue. But if you've got a DavidsTea problem, disregard my advice; your times are listed on the can. I see you caught that: yes, they have programs about tea here. And yes, I've seen them. Moving on then.

In an effort to be less about my medical history, because let's be honest, aside from my mom, NONE of you care for the details, I thought I should give you a little tour of our flat! And that means this post relies heavily on photos, relieving the all-consuming pressure I feel to be the brilliant spark of amusement in your mid-week work routine. Sighs of relief all around. If you've already received the virtual tour via FaceTime, I won't be offended (much) if you scroll to the bottom feigning interest and then carry on with your day.

I don't know if I mentioned but our front lawn has a palm tree. It also happens to be covered in ivy. It's pretty fantastic. And no, I won't be posting front door shots, stalker. Yeesh.

We ended up with a two bedroom flat simply because the number of people who have already/plan to/say they will but won't visit is astounding. And I like having somewhere to put the computer (and thus, James) that isn't the living room.

So if you should happen to be one of the lucky thousand who are planning a trip to visit (or have already visited - you people were really on top of things to get here already), here's where you stay:

And here's where James and I stay:

Because I didn't take the photos (James did a while ago), there are a number of features in each room that I can't point out because, well, you can't see them. But I can point out that there are massive floor to ceiling windows in both rooms and the ceilings are something like fourteen feet. It's actually adorable because the rooms all have normal doors with extensions stuck to the top. And wardrobes. I've never had a great big Ikea wardrobe, but I'm loving it right now. Which is probably why all my things get put away neatly each day.

The tour is going to skip the bathroom because I can't actually find a photo of the bathroom, even though I know I've taken a half dozen.

Our living room/dining room looks like this: 

And at this point, I'm a teeny bit regretful that I'm too lazy to pull out the ultra wide lens and take a proper photo. In the bottom left corner you can just see the arm of the couch....so yeah, there's a couch there too. While we're on the subject of the couch, let's talk about that: our flat is completely furnished. Apparently that's the thing to do in London. You rock up to the city with zero and move into furnished accommodations, give or take an item or two. We are either incredibly lucky or grossly overpaying because our landlord supplied EVERYTHING. Including dishes and cookware. It's a really odd concept for me to grasp and I spent a lot of time deep cleaning everything when we moved in because, seriously, who puts down a shag carpet for tenents?! Thankfully the flat was also furnished with a beautiful Miele S2 vacuum, so I've been compulsively cleaning.

Our kitchen actually requires you to go down a short set of stairs around a corner. It's hard to do them justice, but they're a little scary when you're tipsy. The kitchen is actually a lot larger than pretty much every other kitchen I looked at when hunting, so we lucked out here. It has some really crazy features, such as hidden appliances, that I love. Our fridge, for instance, is in that far left bottom cupboard. It's tiny. Our washer/dryer (combo - that's another story altogether) is in the cupboard below the dish rack. And our dishwaster is to the right of the sink. All very well concealed and teeny tiny.

Because I think they're fabulous, I did just snap iPhone photos of the appliances (bless you iCloud for putting them on the computer for me):

Our little fridge - the beer isn't ours, I haven't changed THAT much.

Washer/"dryer" combo. I'll explain that another time.

Dishwasher perfectly suited for two.

And to complete the tour, how about a shot of our back neighbours from the kitchen window? You might as well get a look at them - I watch them daily.

Just to answer any questions (what, you mean you didn't have questions?!), both of the houses you can see are COMPLETE UNITS. The people over there have all four floors to themselves, whereas on our side of the street, our house is divided into five units. The people on the left have a nanny and a gardener. The people on the right have a cleaning lady. Not that I noticed. Or that I actually worked out their schedules. I'm just really observant. Seriously. Like, special agent observant. Shut up.

There you go. A whole post not about my leg or about my continuing quest to find myself. And mostly just pictures. You're welcome!

December 7th?!

Ok, I'm not quite sure when December 7th rolled in....I didn't think it was so....Decembery already. I did spend all of last weekend absorbing a ridiculous amount of roller derby at the World Cup in Toronto, so I missed four days of real life. And I've come home with a technicolour snot-inducing illness. I'd really prefer to not be sick as the countdown ticks away.

There are a couple of things I really want to get off my chest, but I don't have time to bang it all out this morning. Our house is being shown to potential renters, so I need to do one more thorough inspection and then get out of here. As a side note: I don't think I ever want to sell my house; this is already so much work and it's just for renters.

The newest thought plaguing me these past couple of days is that I'm terrified. More specifically, I'm terrified of the prospect of trying to find a job in a new city that is already experiencing employment issues and recession. I haven't been responsible for finding a new job in over four years. And the type of job I'm leaving is not one in a field that is transferable. I don't now how much I'm actually worth in the job market and my current job cannot be used as a reflection of my actual earning potential (no, seriously, you'd have to understand the history to realise I'm not just blowing my own horn here). So yeah. I'm terrified.

James keeps telling me we'll have enough money to live off of and won't need to worry too much at first, but I'm very aware of how poorly I did when I was poor. I don't want to go back there....or even to have those feelings. Let's be honest here too: we're not well off. In fact, we're pretty low on the spectrum compared to other couples we know, but we also don't live outside our means, making it much easier to survive on the income we have. Without me working, I just get scared that we'll feel the pinch of our situation and have to forego certain opportunities that I'd rather be in a position to take.Blah blah blah, money.

Blah blah blah everyone has problems. I better get moving so that I'm not lurking around when our potential renters show up.

Working Weekend

We spent the bulk of this weekend running around, taking care of those little things that needed attention. Aside from some actual job-related to-do items, there was no end to the mountain of chores that had to be dealt with around the house. During the "heat wave" today we were able to tackle the yard clean up. I'm pretty aggressive at the best of times when it comes to cleaning out at the end of the season, but this year I made sure to go just a little deeper. I feel like I just have to assume that the people we're going to be renting to won't care for gardening and that I'll be back at square one with all those invasive plants when we return.

It seems now as though renting the house has turned a corner and will be a far less painful process than I had imagined. I'm waiting to see how it all turns out, but at the very least, we might have found a property manager we can trust and feel confident that we'll return to our house in *almost* the same condition. We did a little staging of the house to get some photos while the light was good. I trust this guy to know how to rent a house, but I think James and I could both agree that we didn't want to leave the photos to chance when they can place such a crucial role in getting someone to give the ad consideration.

Tomorrow is also our last Halloween for a while. Yes, yes, I've been told that England does Halloween, but let's be honest, it won't be the same. And I won't be packing up my extra-amazing Halloween decorations, so I'll be two years without strobe lights, smoke machines, misters and the other spooky accessories I've collected. So Halloween may exist, but it won't be my Halloween and I'll adapt to, and embrace, the ersatz version next year.