London Hotels
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Belfast - Darlington - LONDON!!!
Entry 25 of 25 | show all | print this entry |
So most of you would know by now we are in London. How did we end up here? Weren't we supposed to settle in Belfast? And hey, didnt we say we didnt like London anyway?
After the excitement of Oktoberfest we decided that we had done enough eating and drinking and after 4 months of travelling and moving on every 3 days we decided that it was time to go 'home' (in the Irish sense of the word). So we made our plans to stay with our Aunt Lily in Lurgan (Northern Ireland) and organised our flights (actually there is a very funny Berlin airport story which I will write about another time). I took the opportunity to get rid of Si for a few days and sent him to stay with Pasquale in London while I flew on to Belfast to get settled in for endless cups of tea and Irish soda bread with Lily and the rest of the clan. I was pretty emotional when I flew in, my heart was leaping out of my chest and I was just about jumping out of the window to get 'home'. For those of you who dont know I went to school in Ireland when I was about 5 or 6 and my mum and I lived with Aunt Lily in Lurgan. Lurgan therefore to me is a place with distinct childhood memories, such as Dickie McGills sweet shop which is still there!! While most of my dads side spread themselves out around the world my mum only had one sister and she stayed in Lurgan...and therefore I have a massive family in Lurgan......some in the graveyard and some still kickn but either way, walking around Lurgan is a feeling of knowing and being known.
When I arrived at Lily's my cousins Jennifer, Josie and Catherine were also there to make me feel right at home. Whenever I have been back to Ireland it has always been with Mum or Dad or my sister so being there without them was very strange for me as I felt they were missing. But on the bright side to be there in Lurgan having a cup of tea with my family around me was so special and I just felt really lucky to be there, even if my parents couldnt. So over the next 4 days I settled in an worked on my accent. For those of you that were at the wedding my dad did let the secret out that I do have an Australian and an Irish accent, but even thought I was trying my best to sound Irish I was till getting picked out as Australian!
Before long Si arrived and I already felt like a local showing him around. It was even more strange for my 'new' life with Si to be crossing with my 'old' life as a child in Lurgan and I wasnt quite sure how the two would mix and how Si would handle my even larger family circle. But I neednt have worried as Si was embraced into the family with warm and loving arms and before long I had my Aunt Lily telling me that 'you're too hard on him' and the two of them, as well as the rest of the family were getting along like a house on fire.
When Si did come back from London he had met a few people there and he had enjoyed hanging out with Pas, so the upshot of that was that we started thinking about London and the opportunities it might bring. In the end we decided that we would go that bit further and try and make it in London, knowing that if it didnt work out we could always come 'home' to Ireland. So after about 3 weeks in Lurgan in was time to leave. We were very sad as we had some awesome times in Lurgan and with our cousins in Belfast (so much so that we are going back for Christmas). The great part was that Dad had arranged for us to stay with his side of the family in Darlington (England), where we could get set up, start job hunting etc before making the big move to London.
So, we flew into Newcastle and caught the train down to Darlington where we were greeted by dads neice Joanna and her husband Peter. Even though we were all family, we had only met Jo and Pete over the six days that they stayed with us in Perth a few years back so it was very good of them to take us in. Jo and Pete made us feel right at home and we had our own room upstairs. Darlington was just beautiful, as was their home which was a converted old tower with a cottage garden. My dad calls it a castle but it is a tower dad. Anyway we had some great old times with Jo and Pete, they too shared our love of wine and food so we were right at home there (so much so that we are going back for New Years!). We had 2 weeks with them and became very close over that time. Jo and Pete went through all the ups and downs with us as we hunted for jobs and sent out application after application. Until.....one day.....Si scored a job and it was then time for us to move to London and try and find a home of our own. Once again it was very hard to leave, but we knew we would be back.
After a few nights on Sam and Lisa's fold out we found a place of our won in Stoke Newington. A newly refurbished little one bedroom flat with a kitchen lounge upstairs and bedroom and bathroom downstairs. It is TINY but we love it! There is a fresh food market down the street which we go to on Saturdays for our fruit, veg and free range eggs, and then there is a 10 minute walk to Chursh street, which is the trendy street with organic food shops, cafes, pubs, funky clothes shops etc and this is where Pas lives above the wine shop.
So we have been in our home for 4 weeks today and it has flown by.
My last bit of news is that after going for many arts jobs, I finally landed my dream job and I am now the Corporate Development Manager for the London Symphony Orchestra. A job that will see me manage partnerships in London, Paris, Tokyo and New York and potentially change the whole direction of our lives.
So were we meant to end up here? I think so. It will just take some getting used to and we do miss everyone so we are expecting visitors ok!
Have a great Christmas everyone. We will update you on our mad Irish Christmas in Belfast and our tranquil New Years in Darlington.
Love Cath (& Si)
xox
Latest Comments (1)
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Well hello! (reply)
Dec 12, 2007 00:01 EST by stephenmcallan
Hey there Cath and Si! We here at good 'ol WASO think of you both often! Cath, FANTASTIC news about the LSO job! Does that mean you're based at the Barbican or the Southbank Centre? I have very fond memories of both of those places! You'll be bumping into artists and conductors you've previously worked with for sure! Who knows - perhaps a drink or two with Matthias is on the cards!!! Wouldn't THAT... show all
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