It Sucks To Be Me

To quote a song from my favourite musical, Avenue Q, that is.  Right now, it "Sucks to Be Me".

Why?  Because I still haven't found anywhere to live.  I am absolutely, totally, categorically sick to death of spending hours trawling the internet, newspapers, lettings agents, and so on, in search of a flat.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not out on the streets - I'm staying with the Officers at Sutton and their family, which is just lovely.  They have made me feel extremely welcome and at home and a real part of the family, and I will be forever grateful to them for their kindness.  And they say can I stay as long as I need to, so there's no real rush to move out - but the commute to school is a bit of a drag because the traffic is absolutely diabolical at times.  A journey which should take me 40 minutes max, has been taking sometime an hour and a half!  Except on a Friday, which for some strange reason seems to be relatively clear.  I have my own theory about this - I think that either a lot of people take long weekends, or they leave their cars at home so as to be able to go out after work.  I don't know, I haven't tried the train on a Friday to see if its any more packed than ever.

But I digress.  It sucks to be me.

It really does!  It sucks to be me!  It sucks to spend hours on the internet, phone, email etc looking for a flat, going and checking it out, and finding out that for £390 a month ($858) you can rent - drum roll please - a box!  Albeit an apparently 'furnished' box - yes, it had a bed, but no wardrobe, no drawers, no nothing.  To be fair, there wasn't any room for anything but the bed.  And it didn't even include bills!

And there's really no point looking at anything more expensive, I just can't afford it.  I actually started off looking at some cheaper rooms and for the life of me, I can't work out how these people come up with their prices.  For example, for £300 / month I could rent a King size room, bills included (and internet!), all in the right area - but the problem with that place was simply that it was a dump.  The hallway, living room, stairwell - all cluttered with the landlord's stuff, the bathroom dingy, bathroom cabinet complete with door hanging off its hinge - but the piece di resistance was the kitchen.  I wouldn't let my dog eat food that had been cooked in there!  It was the dirtiest, most unhygenic place I've ever seen!  Suffice to say that place was a big no...

Then there was the rabbit warren, £350 including bills, where the room I would rent was I guess a double room, on the ground floor - but the bathroom, kitchen and living areas were down in the basement, a right hovel!  And there were 4 people living there, all about 5 years old (you know what I mean) - so that was a no too.

And I could go on, but to be honest, its just too depressing.  So again, tomorrow, I will be out there, hitting the streets of London in search of the elusive flat... maybe I should try Avenue Q...