On friends and moving....

So, we moved two years ago.
We moved from the south part of the middle of the country to the very "southest" part of the country. My husband's (then) work was about to move down south and just for the h*ll of it, I applied for a handful of positions to see if I got one of them or if he was simply going to have to be a weekly commuter.
The rest is "history" of course: I got a job, we moved, I left my firstborn there, hubs lost his job and here we are.

I don't know what it's like where you live but this country is a country where people don't move all that much. You stay put. You have your friends, your relatives and your job and you stay.

Not only did we move, we opted to move to a typical small town, where people have lived for generations and where foreigners are not all that welcome. At least not on a all year round-basis....
Tourists are very welcome when they crowd the space during summer.

This attitude is new to us and weird. To me it certainly is a horror, since I'm a very social and happy-go-lucky kind of person who all my life made friends easily. During childhood it was a problem even, that I made friends too easily - I couldn't see all that wanted to see me and play. It's been like that pretty much all my life - I don't have time to see all those that want to see me. A luxurious problem, I've come to find out!

So we have each other and have to make do with that, a lot of the time!

Celebrating the good news of hubs unemployment insurance finally going through, we opted to buy something we can all play with together: a Kinect!

-Yes, Sir we did.

To much delight.

Very very much delight!

Yay, finally a Kinect, was the opinion around here.

Cheerful as only my offspring can be ;-)

Special Star Wars edition with a C3PO-golden control!

Funkie had no idea what the commotion was about, so he went ahead with some good old snutting...

Joy!

Luckily I work in a city (yeah, as you know I commute four hours a day) and just like cities are, the city where I work is multi cultural and allowing. 

I make friends via work and of course I see a whole lot of people at work, so I certainly don't dry out in an unsocial desert...

This weekend one of my work-friends invited us to come over for coffee, after my visit to the hairdresser, and we jumped at the chance since it's practically the first invitation we've had in the last two years living down here. 

As it turns out we had a very good time indeed, so good they asked if we would mind terribly to stay for dinner...!

So, the coffee date turned into dinner with wine and so much laughter that we literally felt many degrees warmer in our hearts driving home. We were indeed very thankful for their hospitality.

It also is a good thing, seeing each other - as a couple - mirroring in other people. And not only be just the two of us all the time.

And The Boy melted, after a while, and started playing with their kids, who were a little younger.

My hubs is getting ready to go into a somewhat new line of business.

Food from Spain, Italy and Greece has something to do with it...

So, to the dog's wonder, marvel and delight....

Marcus cooks, like his life depends upon it!

And I cheer him on!

And I eat restaurant style meals every darn day. And healthy meals too.

So, still nothing new to report on the hometown friend front, but a new bud of a friendship in the city.
A good receipt after two years here!

Thinking quite a lot about this we've come to realize that many angles matter in these topics: political views, education level, the job you have and the way you live (and where!).
I guess that in a small town those things matter a whole lot more, than they do in the city?
Over here it is that way, at least. Or so it seems.
Interesting. Like a slow experiment.


The new week is here. Having worked Sunday I'm already warmed up and ready to go.
I hope you'll have a wonderful week with gorgeous weather!
Here they promise really sunny, summer like weather, so we'll see....