Sterre relocates

[SpecialSundae]

I picked up a free pass for my friends' new yoga studio, if you'd like it. They're lovely.

There are lots of tourist bus tours up to Loch Ness or you can take the train to Inverness and explore it from there.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

If I were you I'd give myself some partial credit for those "almost" vegan days. Otherwise very good job.

[Gaming_Jeweler]

Considering all the moving you had to do from Japan to Scotland, I think you did really good this week. I hope you hear back about the flats soon.

[sterre]

I picked up a free pass for my friends' new yoga studio, if you'd like it. They're lovely.

There are lots of tourist bus tours up to Loch Ness or you can take the train to Inverness and explore it from there.

 

That sounds fun! And I think that we'll work on exploring the city a bit more before we start looking into exploring the countryside.

 

If I were you I'd give myself some partial credit for those "almost" vegan days. Otherwise very good job.

 

Yeah, maybe I should go by number of vegan meals instead of just counting vegan days...

 

Considering all the moving you had to do from Japan to Scotland, I think you did really good this week. I hope you hear back about the flats soon.

 

We went to see two of them today, actually and have an appointment scheduled to see a third on Thursday. Hopefully one of them will work out.

[sterre]

Week 2, Day 1

 

It was the first sunny day since we arrived, so I made pretty good use of it, I think.

 

Quest 1: Yoga

I did a daily stretch routine and yoga for runners. (1/5 yoga sessions this week)

 

Quest 2: Moving around

I had thought to go running in Holyrood park, but I didn't plan my route very well since I didn't have a good sense of the place. So I accidentally mapped a path that was way too steep. I gave up running after about 10 minutes and hiked up Arthur's seat, enjoyed the wonderful views of the city and nearby areas, ran around a little on the meadows between the peaks and explored a bit before going back down. I jogged on the path that was actually sort of intended for jogging a bit after my legs recovered from the climbing. It was definitely fun, even if it wasn't really a run. (1/7 walks or runs this week)

 

Quest 3: Vegan day

So if I'm counting vegan meals, I had a nice lunch of hummus and pita.

 

Life Quest: Take care of business

Made an appointment to see one place. Otherwise, not much activity.

 

Week 2, Day 2

 

This turned out to be a rather long day. We'd made an appointment to see a place at 10 am, which was of course fun because it was raining rather heavily in the morning and we were walking... without umbrellas. I stayed at my partner's office most of the day and read a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that a previous inhabitant of his office had just left behind and then went to see another place in the evening (this guy emailed last night after we'd gone to bed).

 

Quest 1: Yoga

No yoga so far and I'm pretty tired so probably not today.  (1/5 yoga sessions this week)

 

Quest 2: Moving around

I think I walked more than 10 km. Possibly something more like 15 km. I don't know. There was a lot of walking today. My legs are tired. (2/7 walks or runs this week)

 

Quest 3: Vegan day

Again, if I'm counting vegan meals, breakfast was vegan (a bagel with hummus, tomato and basil with a glass of orange juice). I also had a vegan snack, technically (250 mL of cherry coke and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps in a remarkable demonstration of how vegan things aren't always healthy).

 

Life Quest: Take care of business

Saw two potential apartments. The first one looked super nice, it had really high ceilings, bay windows, some nice moulding and views... but it wasn't furnished, isn't super conveniently located and the application is a pain in the ass. The second one was not much to look at, is being repaired a bit and the landlord still hasn't got back to the property manager about the cat question, but it's in a good location, furnished and the property manager was both super helpful and indicated that the application process will be easy (e.g. we just have to show that one of us is employed and we're both allowed to be in the country). We also booked an appointment to see another place on Thursday.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

I hope you guys find a great place soon. Good job on that run/climb/hike.

[Waanie]

I hope you'll find a nice place soon .

Good job on your first week . Moving to another continent and then even getting those workouts in is certainly impressive!

[sterre]

I hope you guys find a great place soon. Good job on that run/climb/hike.

 

Thanks! I hope we get settled on a place soon too.

 

I hope you'll find a nice place soon .

Good job on your first week . Moving to another continent and then even getting those workouts in is certainly impressive!

 

Thanks!

[sterre]

Week 2, Day 3

 
I'd meant to go on a run, but my left leg was hurting a bit and my mom requested pictures so I ended up going on a walk and taking pictures (which I have, of course, been lazy about uploading). I explored more of Holyrood park and the old town sort of area though, which was fun.
 
Quest 1: Yoga
I skipped yoga, eep!  (1/5 yoga sessions this week)
 
Quest 2: Moving around
Lots of walking. (3/7 walks or runs this week)
 
Quest 3: Vegan day
As far as vegan meals, I think breakfast and lunch were both vegan (hummus on bagel with tomato and basil and hummus with pita... we've been on a hummus kick if that's not obvious).
 
Life Quest: Take care of business
I didn't see any new apartments, but I contacted two more places, just in case.
 

Week 2, Day 4

 
Quest 1: Yoga
I did some yoga in the morning. It was nice and sorely needed. (2/5 yoga sessions this week)
 
Quest 2: Moving around
Lots of walking again. (4/7 walks or runs this week)
 
Quest 3: Vegan day
I think only lunch was vegan. I had hummus and pita. I know it's not awesome to eat the same things all the time, but the pre-made hummus here is just so cheap and tasty and we couldn't find it at all in Japan (we'd make our own, but since we made it by hand, we couldn't get it this smooth and it was a lot more work). We'll probably get tired of hummus all the time and end up having it less often, but for now it's definitely something my partner and I are both indulging on.
 
Life Quest: Take care of business
So we saw another place which was reasonable, though it's being rented as unfurnished. We're waiting to see if the landlord is willing/able to leave behind one of the beds that are currently there at least so if we rented it, we wouldn't have to buy furniture immediately. We also booked two more appointments for Monday just in case and contacted the one furnished place we saw on Tuesday to see how their repairs and all are going since we also liked that place.
As much as moving out of our place in Japan was annoying, finding a new apartment is so much worse. 
 
 
Anyway, since we're not seeing anywhere new today, I'm just going to be emailing the places we've seen already to sort out details and then I'm going to go find a yarn store because the scarves that I have with me and didn't lose on the airplane are inadequate for the winter so I'll be making one of these shawls to keep me warm (assuming I find some yarn that's nice and affordable).

[Waanie]

Nomnom, hummus is very tasty . It's cool that you can buy it premade now, all the more for you . Do you like Scotland so far?

[sterre]

Nomnom, hummus is very tasty . It's cool that you can buy it premade now, all the more for you . Do you like Scotland so far?

I definitely like it a lot so far. It's really fun, there's a lot to see (we went to a museum today just for a few hours because it's free, if we'd gotten up late most other places we wouldn't have gone in because we would have worried about getting our money's worth) and the food is shockingly cheap (compared to Japan anyway, which is what we're used to). Once we find a flat and settle in more I think I'll enjoy it more because that won't be hanging over our heads (also we can't do almost anything else until we have proof of address).

[Briniel]

I agree with the others, great job on all the workouts and vegan meals in the middle of a cross-continent move. It's good to hear you like your new home land, even if looking for a flat is annoying. I hope that gets sorted soon, I bet you'll be even more awesome when you're somewhere permanent

[spooky]

I'm late to the party, but SO happy to hear the move went well! You're doing an amazing job keeping up with your goals <3 looking forward to all the sterre awesomeness during the rest of this challenge

[sterre]

I agree with the others, great job on all the workouts and vegan meals in the middle of a cross-continent move. It's good to hear you like your new home land, even if looking for a flat is annoying. I hope that gets sorted soon, I bet you'll be even more awesome when you're somewhere permanent

 

Thanks! I think that the most annoying things to have to look for are roommates, apartments and jobs (in that order) and I think that this is not going to be any different anywhere I am in the world, really. At least I'm no longer looking for roommates at this point in my life...

 

I'm late to the party, but SO happy to hear the move went well! You're doing an amazing job keeping up with your goals <3 looking forward to all the sterre awesomeness during the rest of this challenge

 

Thanks! I do have to update a bit more often though, eep!

[sterre]

Okay, to catch up on the weekend, when I mostly felt like knitting. A lot of knitting.

 

Week 2, Day 5

 
Quest 1: Yoga
I did a few stretches and my left thigh was still being sore. I'll count it as an abbreviated yoga session, but I should do better.  (3/5 yoga sessions this week)
 
Quest 2: Moving around
Lots of walking again. I had a little adventure finding the knitting store and in the process, I think I found the veggie food store that SpecialSundae mentioned existed, but I didn't go in because my mission was yarn. (5/7 walks or runs this week)
 
Quest 3: Vegan day
Lunch was probably hummus and pita again because I was lazy. It was not a healthy eating day though; we went to a pub nearby and had drinks, fries and onion rings and then picked up a pizza on the way home. At least that was dinner and not just a late night snack? :S

 

Life Quest: Take care of business
The place we saw on Thursday got snapped up by someone during a viewing. I saw another place that was much cheaper (and only 1 bedroom, which is fine) and contacted the agency, but since this was after business hours, I didn't hear back.

I'm also going to add "make a scarf" to my business since I can definitely use it here. I made some progress on that as well. Not only in acquiring the yarn, but I knit a dozen or so rows.

 

Week 2, Day 6

 
Quest 1: Yoga
I skipped on the yoga.  (3/5 yoga sessions this week)
 
Quest 2: Moving around
Only a little walking happened. My partner and I went to the museum (which I'm still excited to note is free) and probably picked up a few things at the store. (6/7 walks or runs this week)
 
Quest 3: Vegan day
I don't think I ate any vegan meals. We'd just acquired cheese and cheese is an alluring siren.

 

Life Quest: Take care of business
No news on the housing, but lots of knitting.

 

Week 2, Day 7

 
Quest 1: Yoga
I did a little yoga again. I think I really need to work on just doing it first thing in the morning before I have any excuses. (4/5 yoga sessions this week)
 
Quest 2: Moving around
Only a little walking again. Most of our walking was a result of discovering that alcohol cannot be sold in the grocery stores after 10 pm, which is a bit annoying (well, we noticed that one place shut down its booze aisle, then we went to another and another until someone had a sign). My left thigh is feeling much better, but I think partly that's because I haven't been doing any crazy hikes, just regular walks on hilly streets. (7/7 walks or runs this week)
 
Quest 3: Vegan day
Vegan day success! I had a cinnamon raisin bagel with peanut butter and jam for breakfast, two hummus, tomato, spinach and onion sandwiches on wholemeal bread for lunch, some salt and vinegar crisps (chips) for a snack and some pasta with veggie and tomato sauce for dinner.

 

Life Quest: Take care of business
Still more knitting. I think I did at least two dozen rows that are becoming increasingly long (because that's how triangular scarves work, of course).

 

Either in half an hour or much later in the day (depending how long exactly it takes and when we have to leave), I'll post a weekly summary. I'll also try to get caught up with everyone's threads this evening after our last apartment viewing.

[sterre]

Week 2 Recap

 

Quest 1: Yoga

I slacked a little bit, but I did a bit better than last week.

4/5 yoga sessions this week (A-)

 

Quest 2: Moving around

I went out for a walk every day. I only got one sorta-run in because my leg started hurting during the week, but I mapped a good 5 km path around the park so hopefully, in week 3 I'll manage to run more.

7/7 walks or runs this week (A+)

 

Quest 3: Vegan day

So redesigning "vegan day" as "vegan meals" isn't so bad. I had vegan meals every day but one day this week, twice on at least one day and I managed the bonus vegan day on day 7!

10/7 vegan meals, 1 vegan day bonus!

 

Life Quest: Take care of business

So I added one item to the list, crossed one off (I found a good running route, though one that's only especially good until I move to a new place) and worked on finding a new place. So that's 17/20 items done so far. This week, we should have a place (even if it's a crappy place we're only going to live in for 6 months and then move again because we really have to find a place) and hopefully I'll have either finished my scarf or made significant progress.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Sounds like a great week. Way to stay on top of your goals while literally moving to the other side of the world.

[JessOfAllTrades]

I'm so impressed at how well this challenge is going despite relocation stress! Hope the living place is shortly settled (and I want to hear more about your knitting)

[sterre]

Sounds like a great week. Way to stay on top of your goals while literally moving to the other side of the world.

 

Thanks! It feels like less of a great week with the flat hunt hanging over my head.

 

I'm so impressed at how well this challenge is going despite relocation stress! Hope the living place is shortly settled (and I want to hear more about your knitting)

 

Well, I'm about halfway through. I attached the second skein last night.

[sterre]

Week 3, Day 1

 
Quest 1: Yoga
I did some yoga first thing in the morning. (1/5 yoga sessions this week)
 
Quest 2: Moving around

We walked to my partner's work (which is far), then to see a place.

(1/7 walks or runs this week)
 
Quest 3: Vegan day
I had a vegan lunch of peanut butter and jam sandwich with a banana and a bit of hummus and pita on the side. (1/7 vegan meals)

 

Life Quest: Take care of business

I got some more knitting done. I did at least a dozen rows and passed the halfway point. These rows are getting super long since I add four every other row.

We also went to see a place which is at the upper end of our budget. It was nice, but way too much apartment for us and a lot of other people saw it with us. We were supposed to see another place that was a bit cheaper, but the letting agency screwed us over by accidentally booking us to see a six bedroom flat instead of the two bedroom I thought I was booking. The two bedroom place was taken yesterday morning. We're seeing another place that's pretty cheap today and hopefully we'll get started on some paperwork. Unfortunately, I suspect we're going to have to book some more time in the temporary place anyway, which sucks.

[sterre]

Week 3, Day 2

 
Quest 1: Yoga
Once again, I got some yoga done first thing. This seems to be a good strategy for sure. (2/5 yoga sessions this week)
 
Quest 2: Moving around

So we walked an hour in the morning to see a flat, then an hour later on to deal with applications then I don't know how long home. Lots of fast walking up and down hills. My feet hurt and my ass hurts and I'm tired. (2/7 walks or runs this week)
 
Quest 3: Vegan day
So dinner was vegan (I did leftover Snobby Joes). (2/7 vegan meals)

 

Life Quest: Take care of business

We saw a new flat. Then we decided that it was cheap and nice enough so we called in immediately and put a holding deposit down. Then we started on the application process. Then we decided that we had to make sure our application was in as soon as possible so we went there in person to submit it. We still need to have character references sent in for us (we both asked our PhD supervisors, I don't know if mine is going to be way too busy to do it yet), but otherwise we're set. The place should be ready to move in some time next week or early the week after, which means that unfortunately, we do have to rent our current place for an extra week, but it's such a relief to have this basically done.

I got very little knitting done. I think just a row or two.

 

Tomorrow I would like to get a run in, but after all the walking lately I don't know. I'll have to evaluate how I feel in the morning and if the answer is "super sore" then I might try for a more relaxed walk (instead of speedwalking for over two hours).

I'll probably also try to update my resume and stuff so I can get on the job application thing (or take a day off and just knit).

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Glad you guys found a place, hopefully you'll not have any problems in the application process.

[Gaming_Jeweler]

Congratulations on getting a flat! Is it closer to your partner's job than the temporary flat?

[sterre]

Glad you guys found a place, hopefully you'll not have any problems in the application process.

 

I hope so too.

 

Congratulations on getting a flat! Is it closer to your partner's job than the temporary flat?

 

Yeah, it's something like a 10 minute walk or so instead of 40 minutes.

[Waanie]

Congratulations on your apartment .

 

I've heard that they fry everything in Scotland. Is it really as bad as the stories go?