Week 6 & 7 - Everything is bigger in Texas. Austin, our first stop

​We pulled into Austin two weeks ago now and decided that reading about us being stationary is probably not as exciting as reading about us doing things so we’ll break these up into two two week blogs. These two weeks have been spent with me actually working (wahoo, some money coming IN rather than going OUT) and Jonathan working on Milton. Milton looks great, we’ve added wooden floors, new curtains & blinds, as well as finally covering up some of that particularly heinous RV fabric (why oh why do they all look the same?!). He’s very much a home now, he hasn’t moved very much in the last two week, and there has been one hell of a learning curve on being stationary - but he doesn’t feel too overcrowded and he looks nice. It’s taken a long time to get figure out how to connect to city water and how to get the sewer so we don’t spill any on us, but we’re there now. We’ve settled in nicely and everything is great other than the fact that Gogi is TERRIFIED of the stove and panics any time we cook. It’s…. obnoxious to say the least.
 
Austin is great. We’re a bit further outside of the city than we’d like but the city itself is very cool. Lots of food trucks, unique eats and “alternative culture”. It’s exactly what we were looking for. I was thinking yesterday about the difference of our lives in each of the three cities we’ve lived together in, and how the character of a city (and our income) affects our outings. Shanghai, oh Shanghai how I miss your hedonism and your pink monopoly money. Shanghai, was eat, drink, dance, pass out, order food delivered to your door… and repeat (throw in a bit of work every now and then, but nothing serious enough to worry about). We did spend our time taking long bike rides to curiosities we’d read about, but it was mostly the partying. London was museums, art, culture and trying to soak in as much as I could as fast as I could.  I’d say we did a pretty good job in our time there. We were busy most nights of the week, and I wouldn’t say there was anything major we missed. Austin is about music and quirk. We’ve gone the last two Thursdays to see these old guys play Irish drinking music in a dive bar. I cannot say this enough, I LOVE them, seriously it’s fun and light hearted and they’re really, really good. South by Southwest (SxSW/South by) starts next week so the music (with a bit of free drink and food) will only continue. I like it here a lot but the weather has been rubbish, and to be honest I’ve been working quite a lot so perhaps we’re missing some big bits?
 
Work. I am not like Jonathan, I simply cannot fathom the idea of not working for three years, I would go INSANE. I was going a bit insane before we got here, I love working, perhaps it’s because I love what I do and I’ve been lucky enough to get a place at Easy Tiger on 6th (the heart of SxSW), the bakery is amazing. They provide the bread for most of the city’s quality cafes and restaurants. The quality and the care that goes into it is fantastic and I’m learning loads. I like going to work each day and I always leave feeling like I’ve learned something, and I’ve done some good work. It’s been really informative to see how a high volume bakery works, it operates 24 hours a day and the labour is split up perfectly so they never need more than 5 people at a time. I was just lucky enough to get in because they needed extra hands for SxSW when, not only their business will more than double, but so will all the people they wholesale for. The next two weeks are going to be insane at work; I’m very much looking forward to it!
 
We’ve been looking at our ever changing map and plan for the next year, and we’ve decided to head to New Orleans for a month, rather than head further along the east coast first. It just makes more sense, and I’ve already found a place to work, so we’ll have three weeks after we leave here to see a bit more of Texas and perhaps the Southwest before charging up the East Coast.