The End of an Era
(a very small one)

I've just cleaned my last mussel. They went easy on me today, only 30 kilos. The last mussel sort of snuck up on me, I wasn't even thinking about it and all of a sudden I was scraping the barnacles off the very last one. The Belgian Monk will have more, of course, but it won't be me cleaning them.

I'm home for a break right now. Have to head back to the restaurant at 8 for my last shift washing dishes. Definitely not going to miss being elbow-deep in filth and scraping mussels until my fingers go numb, but I'll miss the guys in the kitchen and a couple of the wait-staff (the ones who aren't miserable people). I've had a lot of fun joking around with the chefs and the other kitchen porters. A good bunch of blokes.

The head chef gave me something to remember them by... a 2nd degree burn on my leg from searing hot garlic-y oil. It was a complete accident and mostly my fault because I always wore shorts in the kitchen (too hot for jeans). I was standing at one sink cleaning mussels and he went to throw the pan into the other sink. In his hurry, some oil flew out of the pan and landed on my left calf. Hurt like a bitch at first, but I washed off the oil and just tried to put it out of my mind (a method I developed over the years as a frequently-burning-myself pyromaniac). It's not a big deal, but it's a pretty large burn with some really gross blisters. Looks a lot worse than it is!

Anyway, on with the next step (yeah, another one). I'm going to Winchester on Monday to look at a couple of apartments. We actually had decided we would move there even if K didn't get the Bournemouth job, but not it's definitely the one. It's an amazingly great town, probably the nicest one we've been to in England (reminded us of the feeling we got from Scotland). It will mean a "commuting life" for the both of us, but it will be worth it because we live in Winchester. We have to find a place this week, otherwise I'll be staying in a hostel in London for the first week or two of my job. I'll stay through Tuesday to find a place, if I have to. We found a little cheap B&B I can stay in if needed. However, if I'm lucky, one of the three I'm going to view on Monday will be a winner.

-RP-

PS- After two years of being "low-tech", we've gotten ourselves a cell phone (or "mobile" as they call it here). It's "mine", but right now we're sharing it. K will get one when she starts her job in September. Need to be able to get in touch with each other on our commutes!