Settling back in to "civilisation".

So, we are back.  I cannot believe it is almost a month since we got here!

We had an epic drive back from Bulgaria and managed to drive it between us in less than three days, which was great going!  We had a good laugh coming back.  There was a fair bit of singing, shoulder dancing and shouting at idiot drivers on the road, but all in all it was fun.  I won't bore you with the travelling pictures as he has already blogged most of them and I know most of you see his blog also.

Anyway, here we are in Manchester.  Dull, dreary, depressing UK.  As a city, I quite like it, but to be perfectly honest, even though I haven't been away from it for as long as the Mr, I am really struggling to settle in again.  The noise, I think, is the worst part.  It actually sounds deafening to me at times and it might only be a bit of traffic, or the kids coming out of college and having a laugh, but the volume just seems extreme to my ears at the moment.  Also, moving to a city where I don't know anyone has been hard and remains so, I won't lie.  It's probably hard on him too, but bless him, he is trying to keep me feeling included by inviting me out with him to places and introducing me to all of his friends, which has been more help than he probably realises.  Still tough, for us both, I suppose.

Not allowing ourselves to get consumed in a deep depression, we have made sure to get out and about and to make plans to do things that we enjoy.  So, between whisky nights, gigs, meals and generally socialising, we have managed to keep the smiles on our faces and give ourselves plenty of things to look forward to.

We went canal boating with a couple of his friends a couple of weeks ago to help them out with a particularly tricky part of their journey, but also to allow him time to catch up.  It was a great couple of days, despite the rain and the threat of an ear infection for me!  I never knew opening and closing locks could be such hard work and I tell you what, we had plenty to open.  Have a look!

Stairway to heaven?

Taking a breather

These were heavy!

Stunning

A kingfisher that we followed for a while - Beautiful bird

Reflections

More reflections

This ended up looking like a portal to another world

Milton, looking less than impressed!

No crashing!

Guillotine lock - pretty old, this!

More of the kingfisher.  Look at the colours!

The week that we went boating was the first and last week himself went to his job in Sheffield.  He was so thrilled with getting the job, not just because it was a weight off, but also because his best mate was likely to be working up there soon ish, he loves Sheffield and didn't mind having to move back there again.  Sadly, the job was not as it had seemed and he made the decision to go after another opportunity (well two, actually) that had come up - I was gutted for him.  Thankfully, he is a clever cookie and landed an even better job, working with people he knows and now has something that will give him more of a challenge.  We will now be moving on somewhere new, closer to this new job so as to allow him the opportunity to walk to work instead of spending hours commuting.  I can work anywhere, luckily as I work from home, so I go with the flow as far as location goes.  Exciting times though.  His first day is today, so send him good luck!

Having had a week off between these jobs we had a bit of cabin fever, so we decided that this weekend we would take ourselves out into the Peaks and get some fresh air.  We did this on Saturday, but the weather was not in our favour.  So cloudy and overcast!  Typical UK weather!  No matter, we went on about our plan and I am so glad we did.  Even with the mist hanging low in the sky, the views were pretty awesome, although the camera has not really done it justice.

Low cloud

Beautiful colours, honest!

I love this view

More mist

Reservoir

Cormorants?

  As we drove along there was a sign for "Blue John Cavern".  He remembered that there was a tour on offer and we decided to go for a look.  What a place.  We walked down to a depth of about 100m and the sights of this totally natural cave network were amazing.  There was obviously more to this than the public are allowed to explore, but the rock formations were absolutely fascinating.  They still mine the caves today, when necessary, but we were told that it is the only known natural cave of this type - pretty amazing.

So, here I am, sat in the living room typing away in between working.  I hope our time here goes quickly, but then I also dread leaving, as when I do, I will be leaving him behind for an indeterminate amount of time.  That bit sucks, big time.  But it's all for a good reason and we will suck it up and get on with it when the time comes, just like we always do with any set backs we have had.

This sounded like a very depressing post, it was not meant to.  All in all, everything is better than we thought it would be here.  We are having a lot of fun, it's just a different enjoyment than we had in Bulgaria and I am very glad I didn't stay there over winter whilst he came back to work.  Who would I have nagged?  So every cloud....

A xx