the past few days

This photo makes me dream more and more of Brighton,
and England in general...

Why hello there!

I'm sitting here in bed thinking over the past few days. I've been busy working, meeting up with Nadia about England, and resting from crazy days. It doesn't seem to be anything compared to December where I only had one day off other than Christmas holidays, but still!

On Thursday afternoon, my UK visa was issued to me and sent to my front door. I'm not going to lie, I fan-girled a bit just about getting my visa! How am I going to live in sanity in England with everything 1D, Sherlock, and tea going on around me? Oh dear me...

I've somehow managed to get myself back into a horrible routine of not waking up until 10 or 11 on my days off. It's making me a lot lazier when actually getting to work on days I'm supposed to go in! I don't like it. Bad, Maddie, bad! I was planning on waking up early today, but I've been feeling pretty sick the past few days. And after the Neo Citran I took last night hit me, I was out like a light!

I made my first Youtube video which was an insane step for me! You can read my last post about it... so nerve-wracking getting in front of that camera, though! But I've been receiving some lovely comments from other Youtubers on it, giving me lots of hope for the future of me on Youtube, haha!

My Dad and I bought tickets to see Owl City and Echosmith in Spokane, WA at the Knitting Factory. We also booked our room at the Davenport Hotel for the night before my planned flight to England! It's scary how close the move is getting... wow! My younger sister, Clare, is in love with Owl City, so it will for sure be a great weekend! Not to mention the massive brunch at the Davenport on Sunday morning, mmmmm.

I spent Saturday and Sunday working at my Dad's café and it was crazy busy! We've had so many people in town the past week for ski races and other events. Sunday was insane, just three of us and our biggest Sunday yet! I ended up coming home afterwards, immediately stepping into the hot bath, lit some candles, and started reading Pride and Prejudice. I then broke Whole30 (I've been doing it a second time with my Mom, we completed it really well last October!) and had a bowl of ice-cream  I had never had such an insane, hectic, frustrating day at work.

And today, I slept in, went to the café to talk to my Dad about my flights (we're booking them tonight), & picked up Insurgent and three DVDs from the library (The Brothers Grimm, Downton Abbey season 1,  and In Her Shoes). Afterwards, I met up with Nadia and we looked into homesharing with some other people our age in Brighton. Phew! At least now I feel like I had a semi-productive day off. Somewhat.

Well, time for dinner and then I think I'll pop in one of the movies!

Madelaine

-- photo from Pinterest page found here

moving to England

I'm moving to England! Hopefully. I'm still anxiously awaiting my UK work visa acceptance, but my fingers are permanently crossed! But that means a shit ton of planning, pardon the language. I'm moving there with a girl from my town, Nadia. She and I are both SO ready to get out of our small Canadian ski town of 3,500 people and move to the big city for a while!

So, I'm spending the afternoon in a local café (not my dad's, it's way to crazy in there right now for pizza day!) writing lists upon lists. Researching my first move EVER is difficult enough, but doing it half way across the world from where you're moving!? Oh no... way tougher...

Cities I'm looking at moving to:

• Brighton - the fact that it's on the coast just makes me giddy with excitement! I miss living on the ocean, I miss the salty breeze and everything it has to offer. So this smaller city is definitely at the top of my list!
• London - I fell in love with London the first, and only, time I went there (last summer). So it's only fit! I know I would love living and working there. So much to see and do! It's completely different from my current lifestyle, which scares me a lot, but it also excites me! I need to scare myself, I don't do it often enough.

Then there's the problems of flat (or apartment) searching. It's fairly pricey to live in England, especially London. So trying to find a 2 bedroom flat that's reasonable compared to the amount of money that we'll be making it work? Difficult! I've tried a couple different websites: Flatland London, Zoopla & Gumtree. Along with some others. Nadia and I are getting to the point where we've seen so many, it's painful! Guh. No fun. If anyone has tips for finding decently priced 2 bed places in London or Brighton, please let me know!!!

Madelaine

-- photo from Pinterest page found here