The Start of a New Adventure

So am leaving Blighty to start a new era in Belgium; moving from Bristol to Leuven and joining the Brexodus. The point of this blog is to chart this new adventure and the observations I make upon the way. Also recording different things about the move, what is annoying, what is better, and what I miss and do not miss. 

So why the move in the first place? Well essentially three reasons.

1. My girlfriend is Belgian and lives in Leuven. For the purposes of this blog she will be called River Song. This is because I think stetsons are cool and she always calls me "Sweetie". Now River Song has a similar love of good food, so I suspect a lot of this blog is going to end up being the about the restaurants we visit. She also, like me, likes to travel a lot. In the last year we have had time away in Mexico, Italy, Paris (twice), and Le Touquet; so I suspect the blog will also centre around the places we visit.
2. The second reason is that I have been in my current job at the University in Bristol for nearly 18 years now, and in Bristol for over 20. So a change is needed; having been there, done that, and bought a few hundred T-shirts in the process. Leuven University is kind of cool, a step up in terms of world rankings, a great bunch of staff, and I am joining the world leading group in my area. So should be fun and a challenge (well a Brit learning another language is always a challenge).
3. The third reason is the disaster called Brexit. As a Brit I have become utterly embarrassed by the country which I am meant to call home. But as our PM thinks people like me are "citizens of nowhere", I thought it time to go "somewhere" else. This is especially because I employ a lot of people from the EU and have found it hard to recruit people now that the UK has become unwelcoming to non-Brits. Also being a researcher, the majority of the funding I use, and the collaborations I need, are on an EU wide basis.

So hopefully the blog will not be too dull, and will be interesting to at least some people. Mainly I am writing it for myself so as to record my thoughts over time. And having thought of the name "Moules et Brit" it seemed too good a name to waste.