Back Dahn Sarf
Posted by: Rowan in Personal Blog, tags: halloween, hat, london, Manchester, party
Wow, it’s been really rather a long time since I wrote a proper blog post. Why? Well, frankly I’ve been a bit busy. Sorry about that. Why so busy? Let me try to briefly explain…
Since I last wrote I’ve had the world’s longest sore throat problem, I’ve moved from Manchester back to London, I’ve switched project at work, and I’ve started looking for a flat to buy. Where to start?
Two weeks ago now, I moved back to London having spent 7 months in Manchester. I’d been working on the development of BBC R&D’s new lab there, and I’ll be aiming to blog about that soon separately. But with the department moved into their new home it was time for me to return.
While I am glad to be back in London, it was sad to leave the people I’ve got to know in Manchester. My housemates and I went for a lovely meal and a few drinks, and I shall miss them all, while my colleagues and I had a goodbye lunch, some drinks, some more drinks, and then another beer. I was particularly pleased with my goodbye presents, a bottle of wine and a flat cap (see picture!). Apparently whippets can’t be bought as leaving presents.
A strategic mistake I made was arranging to have a party at my London flat on the day I returned. Packing a car, driving 200 miles, unpacking and then having to entertain made for a very long and tiring day. Truth be known, I didn’t get any of the packing done until the next day really, but the great evening we all had was worth it. It was lovely to see old friends, and I hope I’ll continue to see them more often now I’m back in the capital. The day in question was in fact halloween, and despite my protestations, Dave had decided to make the party a ‘proper’ halloween do, with cobweb decorations, conical flasks of cocktail ingredients, and costumes all round. Things took a turn for the decidedly odd however when I arrived at the flat to find a life sized cardboard cut out of Troy and Gabriella from High School Musical. HSM is a bit of a long running joke in my group of friends (a few too many of us have a secret love for it), but this was taking things further than ever! The present had been sent by our sadly absent friend Sarah, and so Dave and I sent a suitably cheesy posed photo to her…
Jonathan and I decided to protest the costumes by dressing as the scariest thing we could think of; John and Edward! If you haven’t been watching the X Factor you’ll probably still have seen these two irritating twins who can’t sing, as they’ve been all over the tabloids. Some guests understood the costume others (I’m looking at you, Kat), didn’t really get it without some explanation! 
And so back to work, where I’ve been plunged headlong into a new piece of work. Thankfully I’ve had yesterday and today off, as I was starting to run out of steam what with the stress of finishing my old project, moving across the country and starting a fairly high pressured new piece of work. Hopefully next week I’ll be a bit refreshed and ready to continue my new piece of work. I’m spending my time on a project looking at internet connected set-top boxes for providing on-demand programming. I hope to be able to share more soon.
Finally, Dave and myself are looking to buy a flat. We’re a bit bored of renting, and think we can just about afford to buy. I’ll share more once we choose somewhere, but with trying to balance the requirements of somewhere we like, in a decent location, at a price we can afford, and in a building that the mortgage company like, is proving tricky. In particular the mortgage companies don’t like flats in council managed blocks, but in London and with our budget, such properties account for a huge proportion of available properties. Ah well, we’ll see…
Hope everyone’s well. More soon (maybe).