I'm Back!

I imagine no one is checking the website anymore, because I have not updated it in a while. The reason for my radio silence is that I was flat hunting. It was grueling. London is a strange place in many many ways. Besides the complete lack of English people and the perpetual invasions (what was once armies are now waves of immigrants… and immigrant is a dirty word here… much worse than in the states… or perhaps I was just believing the propaganda written on the base of the statue of liberty… do they even let you walk up to it anymore?) one key quirk in London is the flat letting market. There are scams everywhere. And the estate agents are so inundated with requests, they can do a brisk business with just the customers that they happen to answer the phone for. If you leave a message, they almost surely won’t call you back. And the flats disappear in a day, unless there is some huge flaw… So I have spent every spare moment in the past month trying to maneuver this bog known as the London flat letting market. We saw several doozies and met quite a few would-be scammers. But we have finally found a place.
Many of you have visited us and know what our current flat looks like. This new one, is about the same size, maybe a tad smaller. But, it has laminate floors (no industrial carpet) and an actual kitchen in its own room (although it is quite small). And while we are still left with the joys of the compact cooker, this flat also has a microwave and a toaster (for those who have not visited, there was no place to put such modern conveniences in the current flat). And (drum role please), we have our OWN BATHROOM. That’s right. No more sharing a toilet. And the shower is no longer in our bedroom. And the shower is a proper tile shower, not one from a campsite (although I have to admit, I kind of liked the camping shower… I spared my wife my camping stove idea… maybe next time…). Other nice features include a beautiful city park just two blocks away, a television attached to a roof aerial (tried to rabbit ear it in the current flat and got nothing), wireless internet. The new flat is just north of the old one. And since we have crossed over to the ‘right-side’ of the railroad tracks, we are in a new borough. But from a commuting point of view, it is pretty much the same. Anyway, we have a proper table with four proper chairs, so no more folding lawn chair and there is actually room to have people over. Anyway, here are the pictures from the web advert. We will of course take proper pictures of it once we get it ready. But I am so excited to finally not be spending time rifling through Gumtree (London equivalent to Craigslist), I just had to post a blog… I’m back!