New life, enjoying following;
- I can practically leave the pot on the boil during the time it takes me to pop out and run an errand (I also frequently do this when I go for a run around the block with scissors)
- The car is currently parked about 3m from our front door.
- Residents parking fees are actually very reasonable - for any country where a garden/carpark/garage is not some kind of automatic birthright
- Bike paths, everywhere bike paths
- A very spacious UNESCO classed heritage site just a short stroll away
- The fact that I hear more birds than cars, despite being in the city centre.
- Ground floor versus 5 flights no elevator (my lazy arse is happy)
- Art nouveau architecture
- Private internal courtyard...it's inside, but outside
- Boyfriend cwork close by enough to come home for lunch
- People actually doing recently forgotten polite things (holding open doors, stopping at pedestrian crossings, smiling)

New life, appreciating less;
- Broke, flat broke
- Surveys
- The barrage of charity collectors - tip: avoid eye contact
(Look, it's not that I don't care about AIDS/Starvation/Cancer/Lymes disease/The clap whatever, but I've picked my charities. I give either money, my time or both. I'm sick of feeling like a heel because I can't give to EVERYBODY. Because I CAN'T GIVE TO EVERYBODY. Give me a t-shirt that says this.)

So that's it then, we're both finally 100% here in Lille.But I knew, just KNEW I could not trust him to pack the last of the stuff into the car and get himself here without some incident...apparently it wouldn't all fit. So it got left. Which is no so much an issue until you find out what got left (useful stuff) and what got brought (broken cups).

Right, I'm 30 now and I haven't figured out how what guys do when they are imitating a bit of thinking passes off as logic. Now before you xy chromosomes all start howling and baying and 'bloody woman driver'ing in my comments field, that I am not talking about male intelligence nor disparaging your very useful can opening skills and telephone inventing skills and such. I'm just talking about your day to day capacity to be incredibly thick and annoying (I bet even Einstein left his dirty socks just generally around the basket, but not IN the basket, and bellowed 'where's the butter?' at his wife, forcing her to stop whatever 13 things at once she was doing to tell him 'right in front of you dear')

Now I'm inclined to think that part of the reason it wouldn't all fit is because he packs like a monkey on crack (hmmmm, and what's in this box? A keyboard, a dirty cup, 3 spoons, a glass, socks, an empty bottle of vinegar, honey....)
And what was left? The lamp, a (slightly pricy) oil radiator, the broom, the mop, the special mop bucket, vacuum cleaner bags (really, convince me that they wouldn't fit anywhere), the new bottle of adhesive paste I'd just GIVEN him just the week before to put up a hook (and hide a paint hole in the wall...) - didn't even put the hook up AND threw away my bloody tube of paste. What's all that about eh? I remember a time a couple of years ago when I used to miss all this.