Wanderers

I hope y'all have a Merry Christmas, whether it's your holiday of choice or not. Never hurts to have a good day after all.

I moved from Perth to London a week ago. I'm now feeling rather settled in and comfortable in our new, tiny flat.

It will, of course, be much better once bastett's visa comes through and he arrives.

The move is indefinite - which means that we may or may not be returning to Perth. A few people have asked why.

It's a good question, because Perth is a great place and we had a fantastic life there. The perthfurs are a tight-knit, diverse group of almost 100 furries, and they are collectively awesome. Bast and I own a nice little house in Perth, had/have jobs we enjoy, and had an unreasonably fulfilling lifestyle.

Given all that, I have been agitating for a few years to move to a bigger city. London was the obvious place given its size, the job market (good for me, looks positive for Bast) and the fact that I've lived here before.

I'm very much a city horse. I love the anonymity that a big city affords - I don't like to stand out in a crowd. I also really like people in general - being around a lot of them is great.

Perth is relatively small and is very isolated. Over the past few years, Bast and I have effectively visited every place you can visit that is within 4 hours from Perth - by motorcycle or by plane. That has given me a bit of cabin fever that escalated pretty rapidly during 2008 and 2009, to the point where I was considering taking 3 to 6 month work contracts in places like Kuala Lumpur or Mumbai.

Amongst the furry group in Perth, I stand out, which I don't really like. At 34, I'm just about the oldest fur there (hello wolphin), plus I have _very_ grey hair. It's great when I'm socialising in a small group or one-on-one, but as soon as there are more than a few furries in a room, I naturally get looked to as a bit of a patriarch. I'm not comfortable with that.

Furry does a great job of ignoring basic social constructs. So while I might be twice the age of a friend of mine, it doesn't affect the balance of the relationship, like it would if we met in a non-furry context. But in a larger group, it doesn't always work so well. Every now and then, someone will make a comment along the lines of "why would a 30-something have teenage friends" or draw attention to my conspicuousness some other way.

I'm not a natural leader, and I find that sort of attention uncomfortable to say the least. In London I'm a much smaller fish in a much larger pond - I can just be a friend, and enjoy the company of other furries.

The final reason for wanting to move is a bit cackhanded: my life in Perth was lacking in challenges. I had no problems personally, financially, workwise - no problems of note. I'm not looking for problems per se, but I am looking for some more risk. Life isn't very interesting when success is guaranteed.

The last couple of weeks - saying goodbye to the perthfurs, leaving Bast for a while, reorganising my life and setting up here - have been difficult. But really rewarding. I feel very pleased for what I've been able to do.

I'm looking forward to see what the world, and life, offers up over the coming years.

So...on Tuesday I had a baby boy; Nicholas Demetrios Demetriou.

Tomorrow Tony and I are going to take him home from the hospital for the first time.

Get yo'self to mah place for a titanic battle between American Belgian-style Ale and a true Belgian (Trappist) Ale!

We have Ommegang Abbey Ale and Westmalle Dubbel on offer and we'll see which is better this Friday.

They have the same scores on BeerAdvocate... but will they score the same with my palate? Only time (and taste) will tell.