Comment from Phil
Time: May 6, 2006, 9:18 pm

So the time had finally come for Cal and I to 'leave the nest' as the case may be. Her cousin Robin and his wife have been wonderful to us by putting us up for the last couple of weeks, but like the pair of travelling bushmen we are, it came time for us to move on. We've spent the last couple of weeks sorting through different websites, and finding places to go see. "Well that's a boring thing to write about!" you say. I say "You forget! We're in London! And London is EXTREME! Everything about London is like doing the equivalent in Sydney while jumping out of a plane."

We'd been warned that this was the case with househunting by Mendel and Khanh, but it's hard to comprehend until you experience it for yourself. In Sydney househunting involves checking out some sites, writing down some you're interested in, debating it with your mates, and then going to look that weekend. If you miss it, no worries, there's always next week. But this is not the case with London. You snooze you lose is very much a motto here. You find a place that was advertised today on the internet, call them up, visit the place, and let them know within the hour if you want it. If you delay in getting back to them, or try to reschedule till later the room WILL be taken.

In finding the place we now have, we went and saw a couple of other places. The first was close to Liverpool Station. It was in an area which could be best described as a slum. While it wasn't actually a slum per se (it had previously been council housing) it still had a lot of the hallmarks and looked a bit dodgy from the outside. The inside on the other hand was alright, and pretty cheap, but the shower was practically non existant, and the kitchen and room were tiny.

The next was one we saw today in a slightly better area (and almost above a pub!), but the house was more of a community than a house. There was no loungeroom, and there would've been 8 (!!!) people including ourselves in the house. It goes without saying that there was one bathroom to share between all of us… The price also miraculously crept up everytime the guy offering the room spoke. It started at 85 pounds each and then slowly crept up to about 100…

So we leave there, and head nearby to the place we ended up taking. Cal has already described it so I won't bother, but I'm VERY happy with it. It'll be great for people to crash in when they all come over and visit <nudge nudge hint hint> 😛 I have to say too that it's scary that the thing I'm most excited about is the free internet connection. I'm soooo hanging to go on a downloading spree. I need to know what happens in 24 goddamnit!

Comment from Callina
Time: May 7, 2006, 2:32 pm

So whilst talking with the land lord it comes out that he has been having real trouble finding a cleaner to clean the flat on a regular basis. Most cleaners have a minimum cost (ie 2 hours per week) and our place is so small you would be hard pressed to find 2 hours worth of cleaning every week in the communal areas.

So me knowing that I would end up cleaning any how offers to do it for reduced rent. But how much…. If I do 4 hours a month and charge £8-£11 pounds per hour that's up to £55 pounds a month off my rent of approx £325 a month (If the land lord is prepared to go for it).

perhaps i could add £5 a month for cleaning products.

does anyone know how much cleaning is worth? or what brands of cleaning products are good in the UK? DO you think they have Domestos and Jiff?

just glad I will finally be paid for the cleaning I do anyhow.. hehe..

oh and interesting fact for the day: our new toilet seat is silver sparkle in colour ie impregnated with glitter! 😉 ALL CLASS