Moving Moving Moving!

Whoop whoop! We have had our offer accepted on a house in EPSOM. So roll on the process let's move as soon as poss I say. It's a lovely place, just been done up, so we won't have to do anything, and best of all it has a big garden that hasn't had much done to it, so we can let our imagination run wild! Also it is very near to some allotments, so once the garden is done we can get one of them and live the good life (sort of). Here is a picture of the house:

All that green is not actually the front garden, there is a little green out the front. Also it is just across the railway from Epsom Common, a giant wooded and green area, so that is great news. Here are some handy google earth shots, can't wait to move!

I have submitted my thesis

Yesterday I submitted my thesis, whoop. Just in time for Christmas. The next stage is for the examiners to read it and then have a viva, and then it is all over. I expect that the viva will be in February.

Dan gets a job

Just a quick one to say that I have accepted the post of bioinformatics officer at the Institute of Cancer Research in Sutton. It looks like interesting and challenging work, it is inthe right location and the people seemed to be very nice. I should start there in the middle of January. It opens the way to us moving to a suitable place too.

My PhD is still plodding along but I am nearly there, but it all depends on the amount of corrections from my maths supervisor which I should be receiving tomorrow.

The great house hunt has begun

In the near future we are planning to move out of London, to somewhere that is inbetween Alice's work and London. This is basically because it is impractical for Alice to commute to Horsham from where we live now (poor girl, it is doing her in) and Alice's work have a great relocation package.

To take advantage of that this weekend we spent a great time just checking out the areas that are within the relocation zone and close to a railway station on one of the two lines. The area is based arouns the North downs and is really beautiful, especially with all the trees dressed up in their autumn colours (in December!). The ideal place we are looking for is:
1) Close to the station.
2) Close to greenery.
3) Close to some life.
4) Affordable.
Not sure if all those criteria will be met but there are some promising places especially Redhill (and suburbs), Epsom (my favourite at the moment), Leatherhead and Dorking. The most suprising place was Horley, which is very close to Gatwick but seems to be a very pleasent place. The place to avoid is Salfords which managed to define a new level of lifelessness.