Archive for September, 2008
Now where were we..
I have recently been informed that some people are unhappy that I have not updated this little trip report in quite some time.
Truth be told, that is because I have not exactly had a lot to report on. Let’s see what we can come up with though.
When we last left our heroes they had just returned to England from a week long binge drinking session with the Irish.
Upon arrival in London we collected our bags and jumped on a train and headed south to sunny Brighton (that is what it said in the brochure at least).
The first half of the day we were there was fine. The sun was out, there was a light breeze, all seemed to be well.
We checked into our room (thanks to Neridah for hooking us up with staff rates once more) and since we had not had much sleep the previous night (or week for that matter) it was not long before we were both out for the night.
The next morning the weather had changed a little.
Woken by the sounds of the wind trying to break down our balcony doors I had a look outside to see the flag poles bending in what appeared to be 100km/hr winds (possibly higher). Add to that some rain and you can imagine that we were not so keen to leave the room.
Did I mention that I was getting sick too? Yeah, all the partying the week before had finally caught up with me and I was feeling like rubbish.
Vlad was not much better so we headed out to the shops to pickup some supplies and then just chilled around the hotel.
We never planned to do much in our stay in Brighton this time (there is not much more we could have done on the previous trip without hiring a car) so relaxing around the hotel was not the worst thing in the world. The worst part of it was the fact that we were forced to sit around the hotel because of the horrible weather.
Vlad took a video of the wonderful weather conditions from the safety of our room. I have added it to the gallery in the Brighton folder.
You can view the video by clicking here.
On the few occasions the weather did clear we were not exactly feeling the best so plenty more bludging was in order.
We did attempt to secure a job at the hotel, but sadly things did not go to plan there so later in the week we started looking for a house to move into in London.
I am forgetting something.. Oh yes, my birthday.
The big 2 5 was not exactly my most eventful birthday bash, thanks once again to the lousy weather and the damned flu that neither of us could seem to shake. Add to the fact that Neridah had lost her job that day and nobody was really up for too much partying.
We did spend an hour or so in the local casino wasting some money on the blackjack and roulette tables but that was short lived.
While not exactly what I had planned, I still had a bit of fun on the night and I just consider the week earlier in Ireland as my week long birthday celebration.
As the week came to an end we had still not found a suitable house to live in the next week in London so we booked a hostel for a night or 3 in London so we could more easily scout out possible living quarters.
Eventually we found a place in Leyton. Leyton is in the north east part of London, about a 30 minute tube ride to the city center.
Not a bad area, not one of the nicer ones either but we were getting desperate so it was our best option.
After moving our stuff in we met some of our house mates, 2 aussie girls from Melbourne. Nice girls. They filled us in on the situation with the house (and our other house mates).
The situation was looking a little grim. We were living with a crazy Albanian who nobody liked because he was rude and stole their food and never cleaned, no hot water (the boiler was broken and the landlord had not had anyone out to fix it in almost 2 weeks), the kitchen floor was flooded due to a leak from either the broken dish washer or the clogged sink.
Not to mention the potential mouse/rat problem and the fact that nobody seemed like they knew how to clean.
Under normal circumstances I would have run for the hills, but we had paid our deposit and 2 weeks rent up front so we were not going anywhere for at least 2 weeks.
We complained to the landlord enough that eventually the hot water was fixed and in the meantime Vlad cleaned the house from head to toe and I had managed to unblock the sink.
The water problem in the kitchen seemed to be drying up and we outnumbered the crazy Albanian so he was of little concern.
As of today, I have been in the house almost exactly 1 month. To be honest, I have not done much here.
We spent a fair amount of time watching TV and abusing the really fast internet connection downloading all sorts of movies and TV Episodes to watch the next time we are on a 9hr bus or train ride.
We have not been total shut-ins, Neridah came to visit while she was off work and we partied long and hard into the early hours of the morning.
We also went out a few times with the housemates and last weekend finally managed to catch up with a few of the girls from the Ireland tour (one of them is going to Hong Kong to live so it was her going away party).
As I type, the landlord has come and gone with what I can only hope is somebody who is going to declare this house a disaster area and close the place down.
It is relatively clean these days and we have hot water, but a long term water problem in the bathroom has caused the tiles to crack and the floor to almost collapse meaning every time you step out of the shower onto the floor it feels like you are going to fall through the floor into the kitchen below.
Thankfully we will be out of here by the end of the month.
We have stopped paying rent because they can’t get their act together and even fix our toilet (oh yeah, I forgot to mention that it doesn’t flush so we have to have a bucket on standby 24hrs a day to flush it with), our deposit money covered 2 weeks rent so the 4 weeks we have paid for are up today but they have SFA chance of getting rid of me until I have at least gotten something back from them because this place is a bit of a joke.
I have added some photos of the house to a new album in the gallery located here.
You will also find a video of what the house looked like after Vlad had been on his cleaning rampage here.
For those of you wondering, no I am still not working. Enjoying being unemployed far too much to start looking just yet.
Maybe after I move house I will find some work. But then again…
Tune in next time for another exciting adventure of Daniel’s travels.