For the past year and a half, this has been the view from my balcony. I could see the Stratford and other such buildings from the comfort of my home. This was taken recently during a very foggy morning. We are exchanging this view and the busy hustle and bustle of London to some relaxing and soothing, even sedate, lifestyle of Swansea (at least that is our hope). We will be moving to Swansea this New Year and start a new phase there. New job, new place, new lifestyle closer to the seaside. I am getting ready to be battered by the winds daily.
This was a sudden and very surprising move for us. We wished for it only by the end of October after some thought and by end of November, we had options available for us. As they say, be very careful of what you wish for 😉 We decided to take the plunge, be adventurous and see how life is in Wales. I hope that it will be as pleasant as it has always been, thanks to everyone who has been very kind to us and I am sure I will let you on in all the stories I encounter during this new journey. I am ready for this new ride, are you 😉 ?
It has been a year since I arrived in London and boy, does it seem like ages ago. What with the move, not just the place but also the job it definitely feels like too many things have happened this year. I am on my half-term holiday break now which is great and much needed, but there are so many things to be done. On top of that, I fell ill and lost my voice for the past two days. I can kind of whisper things today without straining, but it is now at the stage where a dry cough has taken over and my sinus is slightly clogged so not a good few more days to look forward to. Among all these did I enjoy the snow? I definitely did. Not the icy patch the next day though. I almost fell a few times walking on those.
Silver lining among these events is that we are going on a short trip to Italy this Sunday and will be back just before Christmas. All our presents are ready and waiting next to our nativity set (we don’t have Christmas tree). That would also mean I will be off the grid unless I get good wifi there and am not too tired to blog. We are going to take it slow and steady with the trip, not rushing through the places etc. There will be lots of photographs for sure and a travelogue once I am back.
Y’all stay safe, hope for better things, spread the festive spirit, be safe, keep blogging, and most of all keep smiling.
We recently moved home to a new place which feels a lot bigger than the tiny studio apartment, even though it is just a one bedroom flat. And we do not have an internet connection at this new place as of yet. We are managing with mobile data and a temporary WiFi connection which isn’t always great but at least it helps us with our day to day activities to the most extent. So I might be on and off for a while, even though I try to keep up with my regular posts through my mobile, which isn’t always my preferred mode of blogging.
One would assume that living in a studio flat, with very less space, you wouldn’t have much to own and so the move should be a breeze. But we found that to be incorrect 😉 Since we rent only furnished flats, we were able to complete the actual move from place A to place B which includes the moving of all the items from a second storey flat to the van + transport of 20 mins + moving the items from the van to the car park and then from the car park to the flat all in about 2 hours. Which is pretty incredible I should say and it felt like I have worked out enough for a week at least. Even though the actual move just took two hours, the preparation for the move took 2 days and the post-move installations took 2 days. So you can imagine the amount of stuff we had to move.
For almost a week it is all we have been doing and now almost after a week, we rest easy. The new place now looks and feel like a home with things in their places and places not crammed with boxes. It does feel like a luxury, with all those extra space and central heating and hot water at the turn of a tap 😉 We do have a very good view of the city from out here but unfortunately, there are some building works going on and so the scaffolding is up which means the view is blocked. It is enjoyable none the less. Some of my regular habits have taken a hit during these holidays and I have to work on getting back on track and that includes blogging 😉
Most of this week, I have been filling forms of one sort of the other and by today, Friday, I am officially tired of it. I don’t want to write my own name for a week in any paper. Grrrr!!! And if it is possible I don’t want to fill any forms, unless the ones I had filled does its purpose. I guess this is all part and parcel of moving to a new country and all…but I need a break! And when you have forms which have small space to write your name and that isn’t enough to fill your long name…another Grrrrr!!! moment. I think what my friend and his wife are doing is wise. They haven’t named their child (a boy) yet and he is already a couple of months short of his first birthday (auspicious times and all). By now he might as well name himself and that wouldn’t be a bad thing, even though I am not sure what name he would choose since he can hardly talk.
Hell down, heaven down
Livin’ in the same town
Tryna find something new
Broken picture frame
I’ve been frozen in
Tryna find a better view
This ain’t real, this ain’t cool
This ain’t what I signed up to
This ain’t right, it’s no good
No good, oh
Everything is changing,
And I’ve been here for too long
Going through the same things
I’ve been hurting too long,
Got to move on
Say I-I-I-I can’t do this anymore
If everything is changing
And I know, yeah, you gotta let go
…
I don’t understand playing by the same hand
How you find something new
I can’t work it out what it’s all about
I won’t live my life through you
…
I’ve been here for too long
The above song and its lyrics were part of a post I created close to 2 years ago but it did not see the light of the day for some reason. It resonated how I was feeling at that time and maybe I thought it was too personal to share… I don’t exactly remember why I didn’t publish it. I remember playing that song again and again and again. I remember thinking my life was like a bag of frozen peas. I was in no way unhappy. I was content, I was enjoying life. But there was this feeling of me not moving on, even though I moved on from my previous marriage. I traveled far and wide, loved my gym and the workouts, had great fun spoiling my nieces and nephews…But you get a feeling that I was still holding back. From what? I couldn’t figure out. But that was OK. I have a great support system (family and friends) and I couldn’t ask for anything better.
Last year I decided to not play the same hand and try something new. First time ever in my life, I tried dating. It was interesting, having never done such a thing before. Then in a few months, I found someone. He isn’t Indian, but he is more Indian than me in so many ways (sometimes annoyingly so 😀 ). Does that even matter? Nope. But the time and distance mattered. He lives in London (hence my London visit this year) and the daylight savings weren’t helping us either. When he came down to Bangalore last year to meet personally for the first time, it didn’t feel awkward. On the contrary, it was like meeting a long time friend. I told him when we had started talking earlier that if I can’t be friends with him, then it wouldn’t work. I quoted Friedrich Nietzsche to him: ‘It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages’. Slowly, things started falling into place once we started to get to know each other.
We got married a couple of months ago, which leads to the current move. After the hassles of preparing the documents (which almost weighed 2 kgs and took almost 3 months of preparation) and submitting the visa, attending the interview and waiting with abated breath for the results, I got my visa end of last month. Since then my days has just been filled with goodbyes, packing, more goodbyes, and more packing. I never realized that I knew so many people and so many of them cared about me. It is slightly overwhelming. My maid, even though happy that I got ‘settled down and ain’t single no more’, wasn’t really ready to let me go. She had tears when I told her the news. She was a pseudo-mom to me all these years and I respect her a lot. Today she was asking if I would forget her once I move away. I had to assure her that I wouldn’t.
I thought that my move wouldn’t be a big deal and hardly anyone will notice. But the reality was very different. I had to spend a lot of time explaining to my nieces and nephew why I had to move and none of them were happy about it. My mom had enough time to prepare herself for this and given that I am the only child of hers who is going to be staying so far away, she is both happy and sad. Happy that she can boast to her friends that her daughter lives abroad (sometimes I don’t understand why that is a big deal…is it because of the age-old belief that if you are living abroad, you are living a better life? FYI: that isn’t true. It is just a myth) and sad that I won’t be able to meet her whenever she / I feel like.
I am totally exhausted, now that all the packing and cleaning is done. I have got my flight tomorrow and might be off the grid for a few days until I get to my unpacking, once I reach London. Everything is changing and this is the next step of another phase of my life along with a partner, who is all the more happy to give me a helping hand 😉
So yeah, I will catch up with you all again from a different country and a different city. Until then, take care, happy blogging and be safe 🙂
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