Well, I have been scouring the UK (remotely) for the past few months for a suitable place to live in, it hasn't been easy .. but so far:
1 - Gathered as much information about certain geographic places, initially was undecided between Sheffield/Lincoln or Manchester .. never considered London due to it's high cost (altrought saw a few bordering regions of London who where very nice .. but once again, expensive).
Ended up by considering Wales . after allot of Q&A, goggling and research, ditched the Manchester / Sheffield / Uk North region and put the efforts onto researching the triangle of Swansea / Cardiff / Newport ..
2 - Once I set my mind up on those regions, I decided to look for a flatmate, the idea is to go first with a flatmate, get into the Uk, get settled, then hopefully buy or let something by myself so the wife and kids can come (these things all take time, and even so it's painful to leave the family for a few months, I am comforted to know they are safe on our Florida home, and close to the in-laws, this also gives the Wife a vacation from me
plus with the advent of Internet webcams, we can see each others.. I also carry a Vonage phone with me, so calling to the states costs .. 0$ .. yep .. technology is our friend) anyway ..
3 - I register with uk.easyroommates.com . bought a 6 months subscription for the Cardiff and another for the Swansea ares .. and that is when i realized .. this was NOT going to be easy....
For once it was thought to get somebody to let to somebody who was away (I am in Portugal at the moment) .. second .. I got the strangest people answering my requests .. some who left my confidence in their mental stability in doubt .. and the vast majority was students .. and at the tender age of 30 .. grumpy as I am, I was not in the mood to be in a fraternity house
But there is always hope, a few days ago I finally meet a good match, Malcolm, a 38 year old who works in environmental soil science field, and is a bit of a computer nerd like myself read my add and contacted me .. he is located right dead center in Cardiff, and with an apartment with a view of the Millennium stadium ... what else can one ask ?
So I took his flatshare .. and here are some pictures of the place ->
http://theregos.com/thumbnails.php?album=103--------
Now .. the plan is to leave and arrive on the 16th of August .. the Itinerary is
- Leave the Azores on the flight to Lisbon at 8:30 - arrive in Lisbon at 10:15 (+/-)
- Leave Lisbon to London at 14:00 - Arrive in London at 16:30
- Leave London to Cardiff by Train 19:00 - Arrive in Cardiff at 21:00
The place already has a 512K DSL Line, which it's being upgraded to 1M .. so when I arrive I bring with me a little wireless router, so I can start working as soon as I get there .. no downtime .. PERFECT
THAT is the PLAN .. plans have a tendency to get messed up .. tomorrow I am calling the travel agency, I just learned there are Flights from FARO directly to Cardiff .. if they have them from Lisbon also, then I'll do that instead of going to London, or if they have Azores to Faro, I'll do that also .. we shall see
I want to thank the people here like Kizmet122800 and AnneG for all their PMs and off site information they provided me .. this place is a wealth of information
I will post any updates .. I am extremely excited, but would be lying if I didnt say I am scared .. one never knows what is ahead for sure.
cheers
Null
