Winchester

So we’ve just moved into our new home in Winchester. It is an old row house on three levels and conveniently located in the middle of town. While not absolutely gorgeous, it does have some charm and some decorative features, as well as honey coloured floor boards and a garden, albeit in need of some love, out the back.

I initially thought that it was quite a bit bigger than our apartment in Germany, but by the time the furniture was delivered, the space available seemed to have shrunk. And at this point I don’t quite know where we are going to put all our stuff, especially when another 40 boxes arrive from Australia. Compared with Germany and the US, the key thing we are missing is a basement in which to store miscellaneous junk and bikes. It actually feels as though we have gone through progressive stages of shrinkage during our moves and have now reached a terminus: a small row house with no basement or garage.

Aside from space issues though, the main thing that I am noticing is just how pleasant this move feels. Everyone speaks English and I don’t have to feel like a goose whenever I head out to a store to buy a widget. We have a car which dramatically simplifies buying supplies and transport in general – no more riding ten kilometers to simply replace a portable hard drive. English culture is also very similar to Australian and having a completely separate, well appointed, cottage to which we can escape at the end of the day is just brilliant.

I’m crossing my fingers that this all lasts….

Huckle Cottage

Last week we moved we moved out of our apartment in Rostock, packed our bags and took a one-way flight to England. We are now staying in a really lovely cottage on the edge of the New Forest, about 30 minutes Southwest from Winchester, while we wait for our furniture, clothes and our other possessions to arrive from Germany.

As moves go, this one really wasn’t too bad. I didn’t have to worry about working whilst moving, we had planned out the move months in advance, and had already done a first visit to rent a house, get a mobile phone and open a bank account. We even, luxury of luxuries, had the moving company pack our stuff for us. Of course, things still happen, so our move was leavened with Brienna getting quite sick (bronchitis, we think), and a certain amount of inevitable grumpiness all-around, but frankly, we got off pretty lightly.

And sitting out in a gorgeous little cottage near Fordingbridge, in a very cozy living room with a roaring open fire is not at all a bad way to start off life in a new country. It also gives me time to get used to living in England, which while great, is simply something I never had in my vague set of life goals.

From what we have seen so far, the New Forest mostly seems to consist of low rolling hills, mostly covered in gorse and holly, with wild, or at least un-owned, ponies a very common sight. The actual forest part of the park looks the most intriguing to me, with almost prehistoric looking trees, shrouded in mist, although we haven’t ventured into them yet. I did take Aralyn and Caeden on walk into another small forest near our cottage, and that was a blast. We wandered around looking for sprites and animals and got utterly muddy, my fault for not bringing wellingtons along, not that we had any given we arrived with only two suitcases.