Edinburgh and Limbo-Land

I've been in Edinburgh for two weeks now, and while it's a great city so far and I think I'll really love living here, at the moment I'm in limbo-land so it's a bit hard.
I don't really feel like I've been doing that much in the last couple of weeks, in fact too many days I've been straight out lazy. When I first arrived it felt really weird to think that this was my new city, my new home for a year or so...After moving around so much over Spring I feel like I should be moving on again now; but at the same time I feel like I don't need to be out sightseeing every minute of the day because I'm going to be here for awhile. 

So that's one part of being in limbo; I've also been trying to get stuck into flat and job hunting. It wouldn't be too hard if I was really desperate for either I guess, but waiting and trying for the best job or flat is quite tough on the motivation and happiness fronts. Especially for flats - I think I actually prefer job searching because you need to put yourself out there so much more when you are talking to potential flatmates. With jobs at least you have your CV and you can back up your approach with your documented previous experience. I'm much more stressed at flat viewings - constantly wanting to yell out 'Pick me! I'm nice, I'm chill, I'm normal!! Pick me damn it!!' Oh well, something will come up. I have two viewings coming up and have emailed a few more, on top of all the ones I did last week. I just don't want a place to just sleep and shower, I want a proper flat with nice flatmates that like to chat and do stuff together. After living above the pub in London I really miss having a lounge to chill out in with other people haha!

Because I don't have a job yet I've worked out my budget based on minimum wage at 35 hours - I hope to get more but just in case I'm making sure to find a cheaper flat. Lots of nice ones have still been coming up though so I think my budget is workable. I'm trying to stay below £400 a month including bills - which sounds a lot converted back into $NZ but it's just what rents are like here. It's city living so still a bit pricey but cheaper than London. I also have to watch out for a thing called council tax which is like rates back home - except that instead of the property owner paying the rates like good old sensible NZ, over here whoever is living in the property has to pay; it gets divided up equally between renters and paid monthly. The catch is that students don't have to pay it, which is great for them but if there is one person living somewhere that isn't a student, that person has to pay the whole lot. Strange, annoying and expensive, but most people are clear in the listings if they are students or not, how much the tax is and include it in the bills.

I feel like I should be out meeting people here but I can't really at the moment without a job or flat (both the main ways I'll be meeting people) as I don't know the hours I will be working or how much money I will have so I can't really sign up to things like classes or whatever. I have however just signed up to Weight Watchers! Getting my weight under control is really important to me at the mo (25 in two months!! Arrghh!!!) so I signed up despite the above lack of certainties before I lost the motivation to. I'm going to work hard at meeting a few people there as well so it should be good :)

I'm very grateful to my friend Jane who lives here (at least for another week before she moves away); I stayed at her place for a week then her friend got me to flatsit an empty flat on behalf of her sister. It's saving me heaps while I look for a place! It's also been really good to catch up with Jane and meet some of her friends.

Here is a couple of pics from around Edinburgh so far...