Okay, since we actually have a place now, I will say that we’re moving into Cork City centre, rather than living in beautiful but comparatively remote Cobh. This was prompted, more or less, by 1. the Paco Peña concert and a wistful comment on both our parts about how nice it would be to be able to go to those (concerts in general) without much in the way of fuss, and 2. an epiphany on my part. I’ve said a number of times that if I ever moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area, I would live *in* San Francisco, because that’s where everything I want to do is. And lo! it struck me that living outside any major city is exactly the same thing.
So we started looking in Cork instead of Cobh, and this place that we found isn’t the one I talked about a week or two ago. That was an apartment; this is an actual house, with 3.5 bedrooms (one of the bedrooms is a walk-through room: you can’t get to the master bedroom any other way except through it). It’s old enough to have windows that are nearly arm’s-length in depth, and is consequently very quiet despite being right on the street. From the front it looks like absolutely nothing, but when you walk in there’s suddenly All This House there! It’s quite grand. :) And it has a potentially glorious garden looking over the city and St. Finbar’s Cathedral, and I wouldn’t have expected it to have a garden at *all*, from the front. So that was quite a wonderful surprise. Ted and I were gaping at it and each other while we got shown around. :) The letting agent said he’d give us the weekend to think about it and we were like, “Er, we’d be fools not to take it.” But then it took nearly a week to get all the details organized, so it’s only today we’ve gotten in.
It’s about a 7 minute walk from Ted’s work and about 10 minutes from the city centre. There’s a dance studio at the foot of the hill from the place. The pool I’d like to use is slightly too far away for me to realistically walk to it, so either I’ll need to get a bike or a bus schedule. I know where at least two yoga studios are, and at least three pubs that have regular trad nights, and I know where the photography club meets, although they apparently go on hiatus for the summer. I don’t know that I’ll do all of those things, but aside from swimming, none of them are more than a 20 minute walk from my front door, which removes a *huge* amount of ordeal in Trying To Get A Life. Also, having packed approximately 3450987 pounds of gaming materials today, I’ve decided that I will become Most Fussed if we don’t find ourselves some kind of semi-regular gaming group. :)
After all the adventures in /buying/ it, we will almost certainly sell the car, because, as stated above, 20 minute walk from almost anything you’d want to do. And no parking. And gas and insurance are expensive. We can rent a car if we want one for a holiday.
I’m really looking forward to living in the city. :) I hope we’ll be entirely out of here and have the place cleaned by Sunday evening, because I’ve got to revise the HANDS OF CHANGE proposal for Luna and revise THE QUEEN’S BASTARD for Del Rey by…well, the 9th at the latest, as
It sounds grand. I know what you mean about living in a city centre.
I’m hoping that you’ll be able to get it.
Sounds like you got a winner of a house! Congrats!
Ahh, misread it the first time. I thought you’d be putting in an offer on it, not that it had already happened.
Congrats!
It’s just a rental. :)
Yay for you! What do you do when you have major grocery shoping, though?
The new house sounds absolutely lovely, and sounds like you’ll have a blast living in Cork.
Congrats on finding a place – it sounds most excellent!!!
Sounds like a Lovely house.
I know what you mean about city living. I had an apartment once that was ten minutes Walk from O’connel St. in Dublin. Great access to everything!
So basically colour me jealous!
As for Gaming the usual suggestions spew forth!
http://www.irishgaming.com/forum/ is a good place to begin the search, however thats how you end up making friends with very strange people. (there is a Mailing list associated with that forum that seems slightly more alive!)
i suppose you could always try going to a gaming Con in Cork
Like Warpcon (http://www.warpcon.com/). or you could try http://www.otherrealms.com/web/main.html
oh and i have wandered away from the topic.
Congrats on the new house (a rental though it be) and may you have many happy years there.
Take a taxi, but I’m pretty much planning on just having the heavy staples delivered, and buying fresh fruit and veggies and meat at the fabulous English Market. :)
Yay! Posting anonymously ‘cos my Blackberry won’t remember my password and I sure as hell can’t at 12.30, but It’s Myles and he’s saying “Yay!”
Also, gaming group in city centre? ‘Waves’
Pick us, go on, we’re relatively sane and have many dice.
I’ve been thinking “in the city” thoughts myself, but that’s prohibitive in Austin right now.
Another day, another place.
May this be all you hope for and more!
That’s what I used to do, living in Cambridge these many years ago. Walk to local supermarket, buy a fortnight’s heavy staples, take a taxi back.
People fail to realise that, if you’re only doing a handful of vehicle journeys a week and those are short, a taxi is cheaper than running a car.
There are plenty of gamers in Cork, and Warpcon is certainly the place to make contacts.
I’m still trying to figure out exactly where the house is from the decsriptions so far, but I’m pretty sure we’re less than a 30 minute walk away. That’s got to put us in the running for potential gaming buddies. :)
Sounds like a sweet place! And 3.5 bedrooms means lots of room for roving guests!
It sounds beautiful! Having grown up in the country where everything was at least a 30 minutes drive away this sounds like another planet.I have always wanted to visit Ireland but never got the chance so please post pictures.
The new Jury’s hotel on washington st has a pool I believe… If you don’t know about that already…
And YAY! new house! … (PS. There will be a wargamming con in UCC in a couple of weeks if your into wargames. Fliers are all over realms.)
Congrats on finding the new house, it sounds fantastic. Have a great weekend.
Ann
I suspect it’s not a 25 meter pool, which is what I want. :) Most hotels don’t have full-sized pools… :)
Yeah, it’s like living on a different planet to me, too, as I grew up in a similar location :)