It's been two months since this blog :-
http://matthewtrow.blogspot.com/2005/11/from-wasteland-to-market-live-from.html
Hard to believe that time goes so quickly. I'm sitting in exactly the same spot as the last time, and took another photo of myself for the sake of comparsion.
So what has really changed ?
Aside from numerous blogs since then and keeping the promise to myself to write more often, no matter how dire or boring it sometimes may be, quite a lot.
I'm no longer in the B&B, but still in Wimbledon. I now am employed (almost), but have considerably less cash.
I can now consider myself comfortable with London, for the most part, but thankfully, it's still full of suprises.
I've written about the market here too often, so I'll just say I treated myself to a tasty falafel and got a small block of cheese. Oh yeah, and a pint which as per usual, I'm enjoying slowly.
Can't wait to visit here in Summer time.
It feels good to get out of the house for a bit. I was indoors for virtually the entire day on Friday, only venturing out to go to the supermarket (although, what's super about it is anyones guess). Bloody cold outside. Today is really miserable weather, perfect for spending an hour or two in the pub. Due to some clever spending yesterday, I can afford myself an extra pint, aint life sweet ?
Although having the luxury of spending time in a house where I can actually use the kitchen, after a few days pottering about, I get itchy feet and need to get out and about. No doubt I'll be inside the entire day tommorrow.
I still haven't aquired the London habit of lazing around in bed on weekend mornings and then going to bed in the small hours of the morning. I was up at 8am this morning and the next house mate to get up was around 11am. Usually crash around 1am.
It's an easy environment and one in a state of flux. I've arrived there at one of those "end of an era" times, when everyone is preparing to move on. The only person who is staying, if she can, is the Susan, the Spanish girl.
Everyone here is moving because of one person - Randal.
He's the catalyst in the house and the rest of the house mates, aside from me and Susan, are relatives and lifelong friends. He is in charge of the finances and is the type of person others follow. It's really odd that the couple who live here feel the need to move out even though they don't have to. They are not even going "up north" with Randal, so I have no idea why the hell they don't just stay ?
Too scared to accept the responsibility of taking over the finances of the house ? Not sure.
It's really rather silly, as it's an excellent place and it's not like they are moving job. Well, good luck for them putting themselves out for no reason. There's obviously a deeper reason.
Randals cousin, Rendon, is a youngster, so he's going up north too, following on Randals coat tails. He's only been in London two months and hasn't really got any direction yet. He's also at that age in life where he still has boundless energy, slams doors by accident, doesn't walk down stairs, but thunders down them and is so full of enthusiasm, it gets a bit tiresome after a while.
Randal is a really standup guy, he's going to assist Susan (who wants to stay) to get new people into the house, not only that, get in someone who is prepared to take over the house finances. He's none too pleased about it however. Can't say I blame him.
Susan has a bit of a language barrier, so I can understand her not wanting to take on the responsibility of dealing with the finances, but she is asking a lot.
I have a feeling that things are not going to go according to plan (they rarely do in these situations) - and that Susan will find herself looking for new digs, or returning to Spain.
Such is life in the "transient zone" - things change at a rapid clip. I'd hazard a guess that a million people are constantly moving accommodation from one moment to the next. Must be a lucrative market to be involved in. So lucrative in fact, that the law is about to change in favour of tenants. Landlords will no longer be able to hold onto deposits without very good reason.
Ask anyone who has lived here for some time and virtually all of them will have been ripped out of their deposits at least once, or will have waited months to get them back. It's a minefield out there with little in the favour of the tenant. To be fair, Landlords need to protect themselves too, however, there are far too many of them taking a chance.
