I catch myself complaining quite a bit lately. The trip to Belgium last week didn’t help as it just highlighted these things even more, and meeting up with old colleagues and relatives, you tend to start bitching about everything that’s wrong and different.

The truth is, it isn’t all that bad. Take food for example, it’s a fact British cuisine is horrible, but I’m not really suffering from it since Elke is a great cook, so that’s all we eat. Yes, it’s hard to find certain ingredients or find quality minced meat, but it could all have been much worse. As for the weather, it’s freezing and wet but we’re used to that in Belgium these last couple of year as well. So I’m not entitled to complaining to much on that subject.

I think I’ve just imagined England being much more progressive, but I have London to blame for that. London is so modern and advanced, but the further away you move from this city, the worse it gets. And you quickly go far enough back into time making places like Belgium seem much more ahead.

But there are many more positives than negatives about our move abroad though. First of all, we’re renting a nice little house, across the street we have a nice park, there’s squirrels, cats and birds (something we’d never see where we used to live). It’s awefully quiet, so quiet we had a hard time sleeping in our old apartment last week, having forgotten how noisy it is.

Next, I’m doing the job I’ve dreamt of doing since I decided to study Computer Science, which is a rare thing and I’m really grateful I can do this. Also, I cycle to work in 6 minutes! I used to sit in traffic every morning for an hour to 90 minutes… I’d never want to go have to lose 3 hours a day on commuting! The amount of extra time I can spend at home is priceless!

As for the little things: Games are cheaper! 40GBP instead of 75 Euros for a PS3 game is a bit insane.. And so is Internet, with crazy cheap broadband. 800 TV channels isn’t all bad either!

So yeh, it is quite different here. Much more of a difference than say with France, Holland or Germany. It is and remains an island of course ;) But even though I live in the 9th fattest city of England, at least now I can say I’m skinny! Hah!

So we finally moved all our stuff to the UK, sort of. Some stuff will have to wait till January, but after that, we’re all set!

Due to the little fire in the Eurotunnel, we did have a lot of problems traveling between Belgium and our new home. Elke ended up taking a plane at one point, we took a ferry while moving and we almost had security called on us when traveling back to the UK for the last time using the Eurostar.

Yes I might have been pissed off and shouting at the lady behind the counter, but it’s not my fault she was incompetent ;) The Eurostar service during their little “crisis” was the worst I’ve ever seen (since when is it okay to be rude to every single customer?) and I’m pretty sure they’ve lost a huge amount of customers. I personally hope (and I’m usually not like this but this went too far) that they fire some folks at the Belgian side of the bloody tunnel.

Anyhoo! Except for that little adventure, all is well in the UK. Nottingham is treating me well, and so is my new job at Monumental Games. We just moved offices this week, where we finally have space to park our bicycle (inside)! So, funny enough, this Monday, while Belgium was suffering under yet another train strike causing hours of traffic jams, I did my shortest commute ever! Six minutes! 6! This is luxury! :D

Speaking of luxury, since this country still has you paying tv taxes (like our friends in the southern part of Belgium) even when you don’t really watch tv, we decided to get some decent tv distribution and went for Sky! Our first dish :D

800+ channels, some in HD, 5.1 surround. Wonderful but very exhausting. Sometimes takes up to an hour before you know what to finally watch ;)

On the gaming front, I’ve tried Infinite Undiscovery, the Squeenix RPG on 360, and WipEout HD on PS3. Both nice games but I find myself logging into… wait for it… no, not WoW but Battlefield: Bad Company on PS3. WoW will have to wait till the expansion hits, which is soon …

Lots happened these few months, people visited us, we went places, etc etc. There are pictures and videos but they still haven’t moved to the pc hence haven’t been edited/uploaded.

Soon though! I promise. As always…

That’s the name of my new Electra bike, an American brand that makes some sweet beach cruisers! The 3 gears seem to suffice in hilly Nottingham and I think I’m getting used to the coaster brakes (read: I haven’t found myself underneath a car just yet).

Now all I need to do is find some safe spots to park this baby in this criminal town ;)

It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just not what I need right now. Back to my old blog! Enjoy! ;)

(Oh and comments will be on again. So shoot!)

But we already got a lock! Elke got me this Kryptonite lock, which is hard enough to kill a person with if you like. There’s even a 1 year insurance included (up to $3000), so I guess they have to be some what secure :D

Our first week went quite okay. My new colleagues at Monumental Games seem like a fun bunch (ARE a fun bunch, in case they are reading this :P). It is pretty crazy to be thrown into game development like that, but except for the sore eyes and the headaches, I think I’m getting used to it.

The atmosphere is quite relaxed though (except for the hard work), so I’m feeling right at home. Today I was even asked to install Battlefield 2 on my machine at work, so I don’t think it can get much better ;)

And we have a bank account! That didn’t go easy. Apparently it’s easy to rip off banks (when will the English realize an ID card would do them good) so they don’t really trust you much when you enter their banks for a first time. But that’s been taken care of, finally, and now we’re just waiting for our cards to arrive because without them we’re pretty much screwed.

So still no phone (see above, still waiting for those bank cards). But we have Skype right?

Lunch breaks have been great up until now. Elke meets me at work, we sit in the sun on Old Market Square (which is always crowded, full of people and food stands and shops etc. I’m sorry but Anderlecht? I don’t really miss you) and enjoy some home made sandwiches. Next week will be different though, since Elke will be working for a while longer in Belgium. But then we’ll have Battlefield 2 to keep us busy, I guess.

So, that sort of sums up all I can think of. Think we’ll crash in the sofa and watch a movie. And enjoy not having to get up at 8am tomorrow :P

We’re here! Nottingham! For a few days now, and although things are still pretty hectic, I finally found the time to update our little blog and keep you all up to date!

So, 21st July I started working at Monumental Games! Developing for games! Yes, you didn’t think I’d move to another country to do more HR development right? No, Anderlecht was far enough :P

The company is located in the center of town, so I have 3 Starbucks places within 2 minutes walk and all the shops you’d need nearby. I walk to work each day, which is only 15 minutes! No more traffic jams for me!

So, work is fun. I knew it’d be harder than what I used to do, but damn ;) It’s exhausting! Thank god for the lunch breaks with Elke. She surprised me with home-made bacon & eggs sandwiches today!

Anyway, I’ll put some pictures of the house online soon. I can tell you already that we have enough room for visitors ;) And a small garden for organizing some BBQs!

So, there you go. A quick and small update. Keep an eye on my Twitter, which I  update less at the moment but as I said, the last days have been hectic. It’ll all be better once I get a phone. For which I need a bank account. And for a bank account I need more paperwork from the letting agency! … As you can see, HECTIC! :D

/cry

Thanks for all the support! It’s much appreciated ;)

It’s officialy my last day in Belgium. And I won’t be coming back soon (if all goes well :P)… Still don’t realize it, so I remain pretty calm. But I’m sure I’ll have a nervous breakdown once we reach the shores of the UK.

Keep an eye on our blog. Once we settle in we’ll flood you with pictures!

We’re not moving everything yet, just some basic things I need to survive the first couple of weeks. So, a laptop, a PS3, a 360 and a TV should do just fine?

It’s funny how Prince of Persia’s female compagnion goes by the name of Elika.

I’ve heard people mispronounce Elke like that before :P