Moving away

I mentioned on Tuesday that I have a new job (Yay! So far, so good) well, I’m not the only one. My PhD funding ran out at the same time as P’s did, we were both funded by the STFC which means that for 3.5-year funding programmes everything dries up in March, in our case it was March 2016. So, while I’ve been desperately trying to write my thesis and find a job, P has been doing the same.

He has been successful! Hurrah for P! He has a job lined up with a software company based in Edinburgh and he’ll start in a few weeks. It’s a very exciting time for both of us and I couldn’t be prouder of him for finding such a good a job so quickly.

However, for those not familiar with Scottish geography, Glasgow and Edinburgh are not actually super close together. They’re on opposite sides of the country (although not opposite ends, which would be far, far worse). It means that if you live in Glasgow and commute to Edinburgh your commute is a minimum of an hour.

In our case, P would have to walk for ~25 minutes to get to Glasgow Queen Street train station, then sit on the train for ~1 hour, then walk for another ~20 minutes to get to the office. Meanwhile, I walk for ~35 minutes to get from my front door to the office, sometimes via a coffee shop, and that’s it. As much as I love my morning walk through Kelvingrove Park, I have to admit that that is not fair. Besides, making him get up that early isn’t going to be conducive to a pleasant and happy relationship. He is not a morning person.

See? Glasgow and Edinburgh aren’t as close as I’d like them to be right now. Also, Scotland is huuuuuuge.

So, the only sensible thing is to compromise. In our case, the compromise is likely to be moving to a town halfway between the cities we need to work in. The most central town is a little place called Falkirk. That’s around 30 minutes on the train each, plus a short walk/subway ride and we’re both at work. It’s longer than we’re used to, but only an extra 30 minutes longer – not an extra 90 minutes longer.

The plan is to wait until I’m working full time, which will be in the middle of July, and look into moving then. We’d do it sooner, but moving is expensive, Y’all, I could do with all the income I can get to make sure we can afford deposits and whatnot. In the meantime, we can explore Falkirk, and maybe a few other options, and start collecting boxes to pack all of our belongings into.

Eventually, one day, we’d hope to both work in the same city again. If that happens we’ll both live in it. Until then, I have a small town life to look forward to in the near future. I love living in Glasgow and I’ll always love Glasgow, but I figure if I still work there I can still hang out there, and if I miss it it’s only 30 minutes away. I’m looking forward to trying somewhere new.