So… I thought it was time for a quick life update!
As everyone and his wife probably now knows, we’ve moved back to my home city of Manchester!
We’ve got a gorgeous city centre flat, ten minutes walk away from my work, and opposite from where I used to live before I moved. Very very happy with it, and we’re already looking forward to having friends come to visit.
The past few weeks have been a pretty stressful slog, and it’s great to have come through it on the other side, and to finally be winding down and settling in.
It’s been great fun spending the GDP of a small African country at IKEA and John Lewis, getting all of the new stuff for the apartment, and I think we’ve ended up with it looking awesome! We even spent £80 as a ‘treat’ on an amazing/huge clock!
If you’re interested in seeing the new apartment, I shall be doing an updated ‘video walkthrough’ next week once I’ve got the internet at home to be able to upload the video.
Max really seems to be liking it up here, which is fab, and we’re both incredibly appreciative to anyone who has helped support us during this move, especially Andrew for driving us all over the country in just 24 hours.
I need to start off my CIMA studies again soon, so I’m currently looking at getting all of that scheduled in – again, dependant on the internet at home (I still can’t believe how long it takes to get connected up in this day and age!). Once I complete this first stage (equivalent to a degree), you’ll all totally have to address me as Mr. Gari Davies (CIMA CBA). I will INSIST upon the designatory letters being used! haha!
I’m off work on Monday coming, and I also have a whole week of from Monday 20th February – can’t wait, will be an awesome chance to crash out. If anyone’s about and fancies catching up (or wants to visit already), please drop me an email!
Speaking of work, it is insane just how little has changed since I was last working out of the Manchester office properly – bar a few people changing hair colour/style, it is all exactly the same! It is totally eerie! Very bizarre when you’re talking to someone and continuing conversations from 2007 ha!
Right, enough from me – I’m about on Facebook and Twitter a fair bit at the moment, as I’m forced to cane my 3G mobile internet (constantly with me!) until I get sorted at home and can go back to my iMac, so go on, hit me up folks
We were given the keys to our new apartment up in Manchester today, and so a rather excited me decided to do as video walk-around for all you nosy folk hehe!
Property came furnished, so nothing that you see is ours. We intend on making some cosmetic changes, and hiding away a lot of the stuff that came with the apartment hehe!
Do bear with me, I am VERY excited in this YouTube, haha!
A daily video blog documenting my last 20 days in London before I move back to Manchester on Saturday 28 January 2012.
Monday 9th January 2012.
You will have to forgive my tired ramblings, for it is late and I have giraffe to attend to! There is also a MUCH better still image coming too once YouTube updates it’s servers properly ha!
Promise that it will be less boring as time goes on, and the updates will be far shorter (and I’ll be far less tired/more cheery) heh!
If you want to keep up to date with what’s happening, do please follow my blog (there is a button at the bottom of the page).
Thanks to all for your continued support and interest!
Gari x
Oh, and ‘Moving On Up’ is my ‘move’ song, in case you’ve not caught this yet
So, here’s the skinny-mocha-choca-cappucino – I am very pleased to say that Max and I are moving in together… and in doing so, will be relocating back to my hometown, Manchester!
Today, I handed in my notice with my employer, and officially kicked off arrangements for moving back home.
It’s a bit of a bold decision, as neither of us have yet secured new employment to go to in Manchester, though both of us have been casually applying for roles since around September, and so this is not something that we’re rushing in to – after a few near misses, we figure, why make things complicated for employers, simplify our situation and we’ll no doubt enjoy success with interviews and role placements etc.
As I am on a rather lengthy seven week notice period, we figured that too was probably working against me, so it’s great to now have a final date to be able to provide employers, again, simplifying the situation. After seven years, four months and fourteen days (yup, I started off there as a wee bairn on 13 Sept. 2004), my last day at Ticketmaster / Live Nation Entertainment will be Friday 27 January 2012.
Incidentally, if anyone reading this in Manchester is currently recruiting (especially in the live entertainments or accounting industries) – please contact me for a copy of my CV!!
Max and I will be renting a city centre apartment in due course, and we’re both MEGA-EXCITED about the relocation, which will hopefully happen on Saturday 28 January 2012.
We’re already in Manchester for a pre-Christmas visit between Monday 12th and Thursday 16th December, and then travelling back up to stay in the uber-classy 4* Mint Hotel over Christmas, enabling me to spend Christmas with my family for the first time in about 9/10 years!
If any pals from Manchester want to catch up during this period, or after the relocation, that would be fantastic, and if anyone is possibly able to help us out, in any way, big or small, during the move (likely Saturday 28 January), then we would love you FOREVER!!!
Leaving London will still, however, be sad for me; it was the first place where I really felt that I had a real friendship base behind me, and, with some folk, I have been through a lot with them. I don’t think I’ve ever made my love-hate relationship with London a secret, and so I’m sure to many this won’t really come as a surprise. Over time, I’ve beaten it down to next-to-nothing, however, why settle and endure tolerance when you can readily have love – which is how I feel about my hometown! Even better, there are FAR fewer Tories up north!! I will, of course, make sure that I see anyone who wants to meet up before the move, and of course, our as-of-yet-non-existant couch is always open to folk who fancy a visit up to us in Manchester! I sincerely mean it when I say that I would not want to lose touch with anyone!
I always said as I was going through College that when I was 30, I hoped to be in London, and with the beginnings of a successful career behind me. I am very proud that on June 30th 2007, at the age of 21, I made that happen, owing to my then boss (and now Financial Controller) spotting my talent at work, and that now, at 26 years old, I feel satisfied enough with my achievement to know that I’ve fulfilled my ambition, and can confidently walk away from it, back to the place I’ve always called home.
The thing that I am going to miss most of all, of course, are the West End shows! Although I will try to get down as much as I can to see shows, the fact that I’ll now undoubtedly be paying for them (in addition to hotel and train costs), means that I fear the number of occasions may, regrettably, be much diminished (though feel free to send me comps and offer me sofas to sleep on!! ). All that said, the West End no longer excites me as much as it once did, something which I recently covered in my editorial piece. I am FAR more excited about the touring circuit at the moment, as producers finally seem to have woken up to the notion that regional theatre can also be a big money earner, and thus the quality of productions has shot up immensely in my opinion. If anyone happens to work in theatre in Manchester and again wishes to get a blogger/reviewer on board, please do get in contact!!
In all of this, the most important person to thank is Max – it’s great that he wants to move in with me, and even greater that he’s prepared to uproot his life, and move 200 miles from Bristol all the way up to Manchester, pretty much just on the basis of a short 4 day trip in August, and on my assurances. I know that he’s happy to make the move, and not just doing it for me, but it really does mean a lot to me that he’s prepared to make this incredible leap of faith – leaving family, friends, his job and such, behind.
Oh, and by the way – if you think that you’re going to miss me THAT much (and let’s face it, you totally will! ), you could totally keep up with my adventures via my social media sites – feel free to Stalk Me!
This song seems an apt way to end the post – thank you very much for your interest in what is going on in my life, and I am very much looking forward to the slightly daunting adventure ahead!
haha!
