Bank Holiday!

Hey y'all - sorry for dropping off the surface of the earth!!! Yes, we are still alive and well! Life just got really busy since I started work slightly over a month ago - yes, when you stopped seeing entries! ha ha. It's a bank holiday today which allows me a little free time to catch up on things which is why you are seeing this entry now. :-) It's quite strange that they call their holidays "bank holiday", don't you think? There's another bank holiday coming up in 2-3 weeks. Yes, it's also called "bank holiday". I'm not sure if they just can't be bothered to be creative or thought it trivial to randomly name a holiday?

Anyway, we are well but busy. We recently renewed our lease for another 6 months so we'll be in this apartment/flat for another 6 months. It's small but we are adjusting to it though at times we still find ourselves on top of one another, especially on the weekends when I am home all day! :-) Needless to say, looking for a bigger place is next on our list of things to do. At this point, we are hoping to buy. Yes, buy. What we can afford, we don't know. House prices are insanely high in Edinburgh. And the sad thing is, it's not even as bad as London. Unreal. I would say house prices are at par with LA or Manhattan in the U.S.. For example, as an average (mind you "average"), a 500 square feet one-bedroom flat (yes, not even a real house), is about ₤160K, which is about $320K. Average income in the UK is ₤33.5K. To further put it into perspective, for a college grad with about 1-2 years working experience, you can expect to earn about ₤19K per annum. If you convert it into $$ ($38K), it's actually on the low end of average salary for a college grad in Manhattan. You can arguably and reasonably survive in LA or Manhattan with a take home pay of say $2.1K a month. At ₤19K, take home pay is around ₤1,358/mth. After rent and utilities + all bills (on the low end), one is left with say around ₤650. If one chooses to get a car, car payment and insurance (again on the low end) is around ₤200, which now leaves you with ₤450. If you are really good, stay in and cook your own meals all the time, you can get away with ₤150 of groceries. But we know that this is not realistic for a young person. So let's budget for the person to eat out say twice a week (₤17 typical meal + a drink x 2), that's roughly ₤140 rounding. So where are we....we are now left with ₤160. Bear in mind, I have yet to account for toiletries (ie essentials such as shampoo, soap etc.) or incidentals such as movies, clothes, shoes etc. Walk into say a gap in the US and for a decent shirt, it'll cost you $20. That same shirt at Gap UK will cost ₤20. Same goes for shoes, toiletries etc. etc. A basic sedan car which cost $17K in the US will cost ~₤13K in the UK. Going to the movies cost $9 in the US, it cost ~₤7-9 in the UK. And the best parallel comparison that is closest to all your hearts - gas prices - ~$4/gallon in the US, ₤4.40/gallon in the UK. Oh, not to mention, college loan payback that I did not factor into the equation. All that is to say, I don't know how young people (or any average person really) live/survive in the UK?! Anyway, if you are still curious and not bored/confused to death after my rambling, you can go to http://www.espc.com and have a browse on house prices in the UK/Scotland. :-)

We had a brief opportunity to visit London a couple of weeks ago. I had to go down to London for work for a few days and Dylan tagged along for a visit. He managed to see the Tower Bridge, Big Ben, St. Paul's cathedral, London Bridge (which was a HUGE disappointment - I warned him), British library, Tower of London etc.. We didn't get to go around together (I had to work) so we'll try to head down there another time when I am not there for work. But since I have been to London before (maybe 10 years ago, also for a business trip) so it's great that Dylan is now caught up so we can extend our tour together the next time we're there. :-)

What else is new...well, Dylan turned in his first big paper a couple of weeks ago - 14,000 words. Next step I believe is he'll have to defend his paper to a panel of profs. before he moves on to the next phase (year 2). He's still teaching Finance/Business. The semester ends end of June. We are heading to Malaysia/Singapore for slightly over 2 weeks as soon as he's done with teaching. We are very much looking forward to that. It'll be a great opportunity for me to introduce him to my extended family (so far he's only met my mum and sis) as well as for me to show him around my home town.

Now that we have settled into a routine, there really isn't anything exciting to report. We'll keep you posted on our travels in our future updates.