Our Studio Flat

And now, as requested by quite a few people (mostly our parents!) this is where we live.

I am going to try and do two things. Firstly, I want to give you an idea of how all these pictures fit together, so I will try to orientate you in each one. Secondly, I am going to point out some rather odd design features of our flat because Ben and I find them amusing! :-)


First, from our front door looking in. This photo is to orientate you.

On the left: our bed and in the background, our study area. Out of sight, towards you, is some cupboard space and our bathroom.

On the right: in the foreground is our kitchen, in the midground is our dinner table, and behind that is a nook for a TV.

In the middle is a coffee table which is annoying more than useful, and an uncomfortable two-seater settee that I think we have sat on for a total of 10 minutes between the two of us! When we eventually get a TV the settee might be used to watch it, but I think it more likely that we will just watch on the bed!


This is taken from the dining table looking backtowards the front door. The wood-coloured door on the left is our front door, and the one in the middle is our bathroom. The other doors are our cupboards. The bed is a double which we still find too small, but at least its reasonably comfortable. There is also storage space under it, which is where we have our suitcases/bags.

I was a bit worried about storage space, but there is actually a lot of empty space in all our cupboards at this point, mainly because there is only so much you can bring over in a suitcase each! Ask me how the storage is going at the end of our year here....


This is our bathroom, which is tiny and space-rocket-like! The water goes under the curtain when we have a shower and makes the rest of the bathroom floor wet.


This is near the study space looking towards where our TV will go when we can afford one. You can also see our window, which looks like it's the perfect design for a balcony, with a window that opens like a door and everything... but yet, no balcony! Oh well, the view is still great!


This is our kitchen area. Of the two fridge-like things under the bench, one is a fridge and one is a freezer... This amount of freezer space is great because we like making up large meals and then freezing it in portions, which requires a good sized freezer.

Some odd things about our kitchen:

- All cupboards swing out sideways, despite having horizontal handles in the centre of the bottom of each door.

- The same goes for the Oven!!! Ben and I have never come across an oven door that swings sideways before!

- There are NO drawers (not even for cutlery or cooking utensils! GRRR)

- The only space for preparing food is in between the microwave and the 'hob' (i.e. stove-top) - its about the size of the stove top! Teeny!

- The hot water and cold water come out of the same tap (which is a nice change, for England, usually there are two different taps)... But:
- the cold water tap's handle is on the left hand side! (In the bathroom its around the right way, but there are two taps again!)
- and when you have both hot and cold water on, they don't mix properly so instead of warm water, one side of the water stream feels hot, and the other side feels cold!!


And finally, Ben at our study area. This is nice. It has a crazy amount of power points though, four pairs!

Having read all that, you would definitely be forgiven for thinking we don't like the place. But that's not actually true, we do like it, because it's new, spacier than we thought it would be, reasonably priced, close to town, and very, very close to where I study (less than 5 minutes walk away!). And if Ben gets the Uni IT job he's applying for at the moment (fingers crossed!) - it will be ridiculously close to where he lives too.

:-)

- nic.

The view from our flat

When we arrived at Wentworth College, having not yet seen our flat, we were asked by a resident what flat we were in. We told her the room number and she said to us:

' I have the studio flat with one of the two best views in Wentworth. You have the other one.'

I happen to think its awesome. Judge for yourselves!

Some Sunsets

These were taken over the last couple of weeks. Fantastic!








During the day

Our first morning here we heard theses noises that sounded like a phone on vibrate. We couldn't for the life of us figure out what it was!

It was mooing!!!

The view from our window. The bars at the bottom of the picture are railings across the front of our window to stop us falling out... Ben took this picture to prove that we weren't lying... we really can see cows from our window!


See... close up shot!

What we are looking out on is called 'Walmgate Stray'. Its used for recreational activties and grazing livestock for free. Apparently fieldwork in the area revealed several lines of trenches, where soldiers practiced for fighting in the mud of the Western Front!

- nic

Picturesque York

Here, at last, is the photographic evidence that York is Pretty.

I will also include some historical facts, all of which have been taken from our Lonely Planet Guide to Great Britain (courtesy of my wonderful grandmother – Thanks Inge, it's really useful!).

First, the Minster.

(It has to be first, because it's what everyone mentions when they say 'York is Pretty'... they follow that with 'especially the Minster!')

The Minster is UK's largest medieval cathedral. It is the seat of the archbishop of York, who is called ' the primate of England'. This position is second in importance only to Archbishop of Canterbury, who is known as 'the primate of all England' - the 'all' is there so it is clear that Canterbury is the true centre of the church in England!

The Lonely Planet calls it 'one of Europes most beautiful Gothic buildings' - which I would take their word for, because it is very Pretty. Well, I can testify the outside of it is anyway, we haven't gone inside yet.

Front of York Minster. It's hard to get a sense of how big it is. But to give you an idea, it's me that is wearing a pale blue top down the bottom, middle of the shot.

Side view of York Minster.

Diagonal view of York Minster, looking towards the front.

York Minster gargoyles

York Minster at twilight. The lighting is natural. Cool ha? :-)

Some other Pretty things around York

The Shambles. This small narrow street has overhanging Tudor buildings and is cool but very touristy. It's also very hard to take photos of because the slanty buildings make it look like you can't hold your camera straight!

The Shambles from the other end.

Part of the City Wall. York's city centre is surrounded by walls like this, which were built in the 13th Century. There are some walks you can do on regions of the wall, which Ben and I intend to do soon.

Botham Bar. This is one of many such Bars (i.e. Gates) in the City walls. I think they probably used to be the only entry points into the city. However, now there are lots of gaps in the wall, where main roads enter the city centre.

The River Ouse. In daylight this time! This is on the way from the B and B we stayed at, walking towards the City. This walk is called the Dame Judi Dench Walk. She is from York.

Ben waiting for me near the B and B. He is a Pretty thing in York! (yes, you are allowed to groan!).

Ben looking very happy with himself having found a store that sells Magic cards and other hobbies 'essential' to his existence! This was definitely Pretty to him!

Museum Gardens

We have also gone for a few walks and for some sit and reads in the Museum Gardens, which are in the northern end of the city centre, just inside the city walls. And Yep, you guessed it, they are near a museum! There are no photos of the Museum yet, but I have taken some of the other very Pretty buildings in the Gardens.

Panoramic shot of the ruins of St Mary's Abbey. The ruins date from 1270 to 1294. Ben is standing at the front near the right hand side of the shot, wearing dark clothes. (This size doesn't do it justice, especially given how long I spent trying to make the panorama look decent! - click on it and it should go to a higher res version).

Side view of St Mary's Abbey. (The is taken from the right hand side of the above photo, at right angles to it). The dark spots in the grass are outlines of where other walls used to be.

The Museum Gardens Lodge. It is apparently a 'neo-Gothic Revival' and dates from 1874.

Squarrels

During our wanderings in the Gardens, I got wowed by the squirrels (wildlife not native to Australia!) - and Ben and I had fun trying to take photos of them. We decided they were actually called 'Squarrels'. We got a lot of photos of their bottoms as they ran out of shot! Here are some we 'caught' (on film!).

Stalking Squarrel

Studious Squarrel

Flying Squarrel

Squarrel making a stand.

Demon Squarrel

And that is the end of my Marathon post.

I will at some point post pictures of the University campus and our flat. But for now, suffice to say the University is very green, and pretty once you get used to the square concrete 60s style buildings, which make up the majority of the buildings on campus. However, the Biology building where I am doing my PhD and our college, Wentworth, are both new buildings and very nice! So is our studio flat, and we definitely think that we will stay here for the full year of our tenancy agreement.

- Nic