Approaching transition...

Something is slowly beginning to dawn on me. As I've mentioned, I now have a job for next year, and in fact, I'll be starting that in July coming. This will involve me moving to Bristol on what could well be a long term basis. There are two consequences of this:

1. In July, I will actually leave Oxford. Not forever, I'm sure I'll be visiting, and probably quite regularly. But I will be leaving with little intention of returning to live. This will be the first time in six years. Even my year to Malaysia was embarked upon with the intention of returning after a year.
2. This will probably signal the end to my claim that I still live in Belfast, something that I've been hanging onto despite much evidence for some time now. My home will still be there, but I think once I've got a permanent job somewhere over water my claim to primary residence there begins to hold increasingly less water...

These two facts are surprisingly scary. Particularly and unexpectedly the first one, it's quite odd how big a part of my life Oxford has taken up over the last few years.

Anyway, no time for despair just yet. Before the big move I still have the predictable mountain of paperwork to complete, a house to sort out for the coming year and I believe I still have a bit to go to secure Qualified Teacher Status. Sigh...