Our new home!

Our mission was a great success! We went to Leicester for three days to find a place to live and we left with a flat secured for the beginning of September. Our flat is actually a suit in a Victorian house. It’s a grand house, typical of the properties in the Stoneygate neighbourhood and incidentally, one of the finest neighbourhoods in Leicester.

This three storey house has been subdivided into 11 units and ours is the largest of them. We have the only two bedroom unit on the property and it’s one of only two units on the ground floor. The original features of the 1889 house includes the crown mouldings, fireplace in the living room and the hardwood floors.

All the rooms are oversized and both bedrooms have ensuite bathrooms. The master bedroom has a floor-to-ceiling wardrobe built into one of the walls and a dressing table built into the other. There is no shortage of storage space in this bedroom alone. Glass doors open up to our private courtyard that also leads to the kitchen.

The kitchen is full-sized, refitted and sporting new appliances. After the shabby cooking conditions in my shared Amsterdam apartment, cooking in our new home will be a dream. Off the kitchen is the second bedroom that features a built-in desk that spans the length of the room. It will work perfectly as a spare room and a home office.

I drew a floor plan from memory, but both Nina and I feel it accurately represents our suit. We only spent a half hour there, so the dimensions might be a little off. All the furniture depicted in the plan are the pieces that come with the house.

The courtyard has a few doors on the opposite side that lead to the laundry room, a large storage room and a toilet. As strange as that sounds, there is a small, self-contained toilet room only accessible outside. We actually saw this at a few of the properties we viewed and it goes back to the days when houses didn’t have indoor plumbing. So technically, we have a 2 bedroom/3 bathroom house.

Behind the house is a large garden that is basically unused. From our courtyard we have stairs that go down to it, offering direct access and are the only suite that does. In front of the house is a private parking lot for tenants and across the road is a bus stop to go to the train station and downtown.

One of our requirements was to rent a place that was fully furnished, as this flat is. The furniture and decorating in the living room particularly, is not what we would have chosen. But, the landlord has allowed us to paint which is a priority so we can get rid of the two beigeish-brown walls in the living room. Some fabric covers will probably be all it will take to make the old leather chairs and couches presentable.

Overall it was a great find and we are both really happy with it. We viewed seven places in total and this was the first one we completely agreed on. The neighbourhood, location, proximity to downtown/university, layout, features and price were all a match.

When we arrived in Leicester we had appointments with two agents and a few more with individual landlords. Each of the agents had told us he had three properties to show us, but when it actually came down to it, we only saw two with one agent and one with the other. One of the three properties was a semi-detached 2 storey house in a quiet cul-de-sac with its own private garden. We liked it, but it was a fair jaunt to the university and shops. The other two did not match what we were looking for.

On day two we visited a few private properties and did find one we liked. The major problem we had with it was the neighbourhood; it was in a rougher part of town. We did a lot of walking and took down phone numbers wherever we saw them; shop windows, post office and newsagent’s notice boards and signs posted outside people’s homes. It was this last method that netted us our new place. A small inconspicuous sign leaned up against the house as we walked by on the way to another appointment. We called and left a message and were delighted when the owner called back eager to show us the property. We were the first to come by and see it, which is not a wonder, if others had been by, I am sure it wouldn’t have still been available.

Nina’s professor took us out on Friday evening. We met him at the university, which is centrally located just outside of the city centre and amidst the nicer neighbourhoods. He drove us out of Leicester to a small village in the countryside. We had a drink in the neighbourhood pub which looked exactly how you would image a country pub in Britain to look; cozy and jubilant in an old house with exposed wood beams. We moved next door to the adjoining restaurant for supper that overlooked a private garden. Afterward we walked around the town and along a road that led into a field at the top of the hill. From there you could see the rolling hills and the surrounding farms with the sun gently setting in the distance.

Apart from being a very welcoming person, he was a wealth of information for Nina and I in the two weeks leading up to our trip. He was a resource of information about agents to deal with, letting apartments and the neighbourhoods to aim for and to avoid.

Leicester is a blue-collar town; there is no doubt about that. Without sounding snobbish, it appears they are, overall, less educated or cultured than the general populations of Vancouver, Amsterdam or Aachen. But that being said, they were helpful, friendly and polite which is all I could ask for.

One of the regional idiosyncrasies of the people is their greeting. When you walk into a shop the standard greeting is “Ya alright?” However, it is said as if it is one monosyllabic word, blurted out as a reflex rather than an actual question. I never knew how to respond to it. If I answered that I was, in fact, alright, would that mean they wouldn’t give me any service?

I am happy to report Leicester is undergoing a ₤3 billion regeneration project and they are at the tail end of it. Hopefully this will help rejuvenate the city in the coming years.

So with a home secured, we had attained our goal and were able to relax and enjoy our last 24 hours in Leicester. We visited an Italian restaurant in our new neighbourhood to celebrate.

Back in Amsterdam I had a very hectic week between working for Stefan and the terminal. This week, as it happened, was the busiest turnaround for the ship. I had three shifts between the two hotels I represent (it used to be one) and on the day of the cruise, I had a logistical nightmare. I had to transport 48 guests from the two hotels to the pier. The two hotels are across the road from each other and the bus stops at one. I then have to get the guests from both hotels loaded into it as quickly as possible. So I spend the hour before the bus arrives going back and forth countless times rounding up the respective guests in groups and checking them off my list. It’s an exercise in choreography. Then when the bus arrives, I herd one group out while putting the bellhops to work with 100+ bags. Then I dash to the other hotel to do the same. A final headcount is performed and we leave for the pier.

This weekend I started my moving process. I came to visit Nina and brought two full suitcases with me. I unloaded them over the weekend and returned with two empty suitcases. In two weeks, I will make the final journey with the two suitcases now containing the remainder of my belongings. With my bike in tow, I will leave Amsterdam for good.

I am also happy to announce that I just received my acceptance letter to the University of Derby! This probably comes as a surprise, but I decided I wanted to take more classes and since we are moving to an English speaking country, I jumped at the chance.

University of Derby has a Media Writing degree available and although I don’t have the time to commit to a 3 year program, they are allowing me to take the specific modules that appeal to me, which is very helpful. I will got for a few semesters to broaden my writing skills which should also widen the scope of work I can take on.

Before leaving for Vancouver in the middle of June I started painting two new pieces. Time started to run away from me and they were put aside. It wasn’t until this past week that I picked up my brushes again to put on the finishing touches. It’s quite funny because in actual time worked on them, they were fairly easy to produce and didn’t take long. However, from beginning to end it took close to 2 ½ months.

The first one should look somewhat familiar to some people (Marie & Dad) as I gave a similar one to Marie that now sits in her office. That one was produced on a few small canvases that sat within a picture frame with a matte that separated the canvases and put a little white space between them. I reproduced that same idea, but instead of using a picture frame, I painted on the dividing space.

Through the process of painting it I found I had a lot of paint left over on my palette. Instead of wasting it, I started to work on a second piece in tandem which resulted in the other new painting. With the move two weeks away and a lot left to do, I don’t think I will be painting again for some time. Actually, with the painting that needs to be done in the new house, perhaps I will be painting again sooner than I think. But, I will need to trade up to larger brushes for that job.