The 'White House' on Park Drive

Howdy folks. On Tuesday we finally moved into our new home at Apt 52, 111 Park Drive, West Fenway, Boston. It was great to finally get there. I mean whatever way you look at it there were benefits. You see 5 weeks is a long time living in one room with someone. You should try it some time. For Jude it brought an end to the listening to daft TV programmes about weddings, weird families and beauty pageants. Mucker, there was no escape. It was like some kind of Japanese torture. It was far too cold to go for a walk to escape it so you just had to take it, you had to take the medicine as they say. While for Marguerite it brought and end to Jude constantly wanting to watch the sport channels and for her there was no escape route either. For both of us it brought an end to living out of suitcases and sharing a kitchen with weirdos from America, Russia, France and lots of other wonderful places. Hey don't get the wrong idea here, we loved 82 Chandler Street, our first home in Boston, but we were only too glad to leave too. Our host Dominic certainly made us feel at home for which we were very grateful. Needless to say we were also grateful to the help InvestNI gave us in this period. They were just great to us and nothing was a problem to them.

Our excitement on Tuesday was similar to that feeling you get as a kid and you have just woken up on Christmas morning. We were given the keys at 1.30pm and immediately began shifting the bed, the settee and some other items from Michelle's (just around the corner) to our new home. This was an adventure for sure. Marguerite was frequently heard saying, 'but Jude you're a big strong man and I'm only a girl', as we made about 10 trips back and forward moving the items.

The following few pictures are of the view from our 3 bay windows in our living room. We reckon we will not tire of looking out these windows at Back Bay Fens Park, it is just the most beautiful view and we are so delighted that we have it to wake up to every day and to come home to every night. We walk across this park everyday going to and from work. It definately makes that journey an enjoyable one.

The picture below is the view looking straight out the front window. The park includes basketball courts, a softball pitch, rose gardens (like at Lady Dixon Park), duck ponds, a war memorial and lots of wide open space for us to laze about on when the weather picks up.

This next picture is the view from the right hand side window in the living room. It shows Park Drive bending its way around the park.

We sacrificed 2 days to have the apartment cleaned, floors polished, new shower curtain hung, new blinds and all the walls repainted etc. This took place on 01 & 02 March (hence the reason why we moved in on 03rd you see). The place was spotless when we went in and it had that new freshly painted whiff to it. So here is Marguerite in our new bathroom giving it another clean (just in case). Check out the additional new shower curtain she bought and hung to add a bit of her own touch to it. Pretty nifty I think you'll agree, wha? She loves that shower curtain so much she wanted to wear it out to the pub on Friday night, but thankfully I managed to talk her out of it by telling her folk would only laugh at her. You see we are spoilt at home with our shower enclosures and all that malarky, and we are just stepping back a bit and going with the flow.

Marguerite reckons this is Jude's brother Paul showing Max the view of the park (Max is Marguerite's wee friend - don't ask, it just makes her feel more at home and all that lark, ok, just don't go there, just leave it for now) but we can confirm it is definately Jude, and yes folks, Max says he is impressed with the view too!

Here is Jude taking a break from all the lugging of furniture and striking one of those, 'Hey I'm the coolest guy in this street', poses. Marguerite however is quick to point out that he was in fact the only person on the street at the time!


Below are a couple of photos of the front of our apartment block. It is a pretty nifty entrance I have to say. We feel like we are walking into the 'White House' everytime we return to it. We have not bumped into Barack yet though but we are keeping our eyes peeled mind you. Check out the pillars there muckers, wha?

Hey check out the coolest settee ever. Marguerite keeps telling everyone that we picked that little number up for 90 bucks a pop (yes we are easily amused and it does still sound funny when she keeps saying that 'bucks a pop' lark). Yes, the eagle eyed, get up early in the morning, sharp minded punters among you blog surfers will notice the cool table, yes, the 'T' table, the very same one we picked up from that gangster in Quincy.

Below is Marguerite heading off to work on Wednesday, our first morning in the apartment. We are on the top floor (5th).

Here is the view of the 'White House' from across in the park.

Finally if you have not already got a feel for the place here is a picture of a common site in Back Bays Fens Park. The resident ducks (there must be hundreds of them) just stroll about as if they own the place. It is a wonderful sight and hey, fair play to them, it's their park too!