First week of new work is over. Thoughts? I’m living in a room that seems to be dubbed “the cupboard under the stairs”, it’s filled to the brim with hipster furnishings, full of smart and friendly people, and most of all, it has a large fridge filled with an endless supply of Diet Coke.

(admittedly, it might have been better for me to have discovered the latter fact before I went and obtained 180 cans of the stuff on Monday. But, it’s good to have a decent stock. That’s what I’m telling myself, anyhow)

It’s going to take me a little while to get settled in, but I’m liking it so far. Even if my old nemesis has returned. Yes, Trade Gothic, I saw your font files. I will not be cowed!

What else has been going on this week? Well, it looks like Monuts will be opening soon (in fact EVEN AS I TYPED THAT SENTENCE, I got word of the soft opening potentially happening next week. I will take the hard task of reporting on their new space, dear reader, suffering each and every doughnut to give you information. It’s a tough job, I know), and demolition work has started on the HOTEL OF HORROR. Hmm, I was certain I blogged about our experience at that auction, but I can’t find it in the archives. I can, though, link you to the OpenDurham entry for the site. It looked pretty spectacular in Durham’s Golden Age, but the years took their toll…and I don’t believe Stacie has forgiven me yet from the squalor we saw at the auction site. Though great if you really wanted to purchase unopened bottles of Coke from 1982. I feel that there’s a great untold story behind Ronnie Sturdivant and his holdings in Durham, but that’s going away now, to be replaced by apartments for students. Well, we wanted people to know that Durham was a great place. Now they know, and that means a lot of change, for better and worse.

(this obviously ties in with the gentrification theme I was talking about last week - Durham is actually doing better than a lot of cities when it comes to reusing old buildings - I’m now working in a building that was once part of the vast tobacco district. The danger is that we’re building a grand new city for the creative class flocking to Durham, but sidelining those who were here before us, pricing them out of the centre and pushing them towards the edges of town. And I’m not sure how we can deal with that)

Off now to make some more chocolate.