jenepel

So, to continue the saga, I am now all packed and ready. We decided to get out of here as soon as possible, so moving day is now tomorrow while I am at work. (Unfortunately, being in a job for a week and a half doesn't really give you the power to request an afternoon off to move!) Anyhow, I packed everything up and it's waiting downstairs. All I have to do in the morning is add my sheets and toiletries to the last suitcase. I actually didn't bring that much stuff, which is really good. I only ended up with four (medium) boxes and two small suitcases (the stewardess kind) plus a bag of food. What that really means is that I left everything at my parents' house! Which is good as far as this move is concerned - I'm not bringing a single other thing back to London til I have actually signed a lease! I'm sick and tired of carting things back and forth between here and Norfolk.

We haven't heard much from landlady since her email. Andy wrote to ask her for a reference (I KNOW) because he needs one for the next flat and she was pretty squiffy about it. She refused to write one but said if he gave her the new landlord's info that she would call him herself to comment. Needless to say he didn't do that. So I'm not sure what he's going to do about the reference - he's got his job letter of course but he needs the other as well. Anna's all checked out at least, so I guess we'll see. We have actually been a tiny bit paranoid that she would do something - change the locks or come and mess with our stuff, but she hasn't really been around. Andy took his (three) electric guitars to work and locked them up there, and I've been carrying my computer in. It's probably not at all necessary, but if something happened to my Mac I might hurt someone. So I'd rather take the precaution. Also, I took my passports in to work and put them in the lockbox!

Not really much else. I've written a few people about rooms but no fantastic leads yet. I'm just going to send a few emails about it before I go to sleep...

OH NO! I just thought of something - I have no idea if there is internet sorted at this new place. Probably not. That's going to make searching for a new flat quite a bit harder considering everything is blocked on my work computer. I guess I will just have to visit the Apple store every day after work? What a pain.

This is a rant, and I just want to preface this by saying - only in London.  Well, maybe that isn't true, but I so feel like it is.

So, as you may know, I moved into my new place last weekend.  It's kind of a weird situation, because it is massively under construction.  She took the chance to renovate when all but one of her renters (my friend Andy) moved out, and it's a pretty big job.  All new kitchen, taking all the carpets out and varnishing the original wood floors underneath, new lighting in most rooms, painting all the rooms, etc.  I'd say at this point it is about 75% done.  The whole time it's been being worked on, Andy has been working on getting new people to live there - he's done all the work, she hasn't put out any ads or contacted anyone at all.  So the understanding was that he was going to manage the place (with slightly reduced rent) and then just report to her about everyone.  Fine.  And that while it was still under construction, we weren't paying rent yet - which is a pretty sweet deal, I must admit.  But Anna (A's gf), David (A's bro) and I needed a place to move in as of this week, so that was okayed by the landlady.

So a ton of things have happened this past week.  Most importantly, landlady had a fight with the builders about how they were skiiving off, not really working as many hours as they said, etc.  Nothing to do with us.  So she changed the locks on them and refused to pay the rest of their money.  So then it comes about that she doesn't plan to hire more builders, just have herself and her partner finish the job, with help from us.  This is happening toward the end of the week, and I go home to my parents' for the weekend since I have these concert tickets in Norfolk.

Andy calls me today to say "don't bring anything else up to move in, we're having problems with landlady".  Riiight.  First of all, she tells him we have to pay rent starting on Monday.  Let me emphasize at this point that my bedroom isn't even ready yet.  David (who I met last week) and I are sharing a room that also has all the crap in it from two of the other rooms that are being worked on.  He is very kindly giving me the bed and sleeping on the floor, but still.  So, full rent on Monday.  Then she tells him that we can't have five people living there as we wanted to (for lower rent) because she wants to use the 4th bedroom as storage.  Notice I said 4th bedroom, not 5th.  She wants access to that bedroom, and then she wants to charge us rent on a 4 bedroom house when we would only be renting 3 of them (Andy and Anna sharing a room) plus she wants to do it through a management company which hikes the rent more.  So we are looking at about £150 more a month then before.  For you Americans, right now that's a $300 increase.  It means that I would pay almost $1200 a month for a ROOM in a house plus a shared kitchen, living room and one bathroom.  Riiiight.  She also says that we aren't helping out with the renovations enough - the woman wants us to pay full rent for a house that isn't even ready yet and also paint, clean and sort it out for her?  CRAZY.  The worst thing is that almost every demand she is making is a renig of an older agreement with Andy about the house.

So, he has a discussion with her about all this, and she pretty much doesn't listen to anything he says.  Andy is a really level headed guy - very calm and rational, always easy going.  So he's a good person for this confrontation.  But she just won't listen.  So he's written her a letter for her to get today with our side of it all.  To whit, we are willing to pay half-rent until it is completely done, we will live only four people to the house and let her use the storage room, but only if the rent is reduced, he will manage the house for her as agreed before (saving her 17% in agents fees btw), and we will even help out with the renovations if all this is agreed on.  To me, it's quite a decent deal.  And if she's not willing to at least work with us, then we are going to have to start looking for a new place.  What a pain in the ass.

I really hate house-hunting.  And I was just happy that we had everything sorted.  I had house-mates I was happy with, the place is nice, it's near a tube that's a decent commute for me (35-45 mins), etc etc.  The price was more than I wanted to pay, but I was willing to live with that to live with friends and not have to look any further.  So now we have to maybe start looking again, and not only that, but it's harder to look for a place all together like this.  So I might end up just renting out a room somewhere random on my own - totally not what I wanted to do.  UGH!  I just can't stand people who go back on their word like this - you shouldn't have to make people sign a statement every time they make a comment about how things are going to be.  And she says we are trying to jerk her around?!  Whatever.

Updates on this whenever I next have info or the energy to write it out.

It's 3am, I have to leave for the airport at 8am tomorrow, and I just can't go to bed yet b/c I still have too much to do.  (Okay yes, I shouldn't be writing this - shut up.)  I'm ready for the trip itself, it's just that the day after I get back I have to move, and I'm not ready for THAT.  I have stuff (and paperwork) all over my room and my bed.  Nothing is organised enough, nothing is ready.  I'm going a little crazy here.  I know I don't have to move everything in this one day, but I do need to do a significant part of it, and I need everything ready for my first week at the new job.  Time just completely got away from me (as it always does).

Okay, back to work for real so I can actually try and get some sleep tonight.  It's a two hour drive; I really need to be at least somewhat cognizant.

I'm completely frustrated.  I can't go on TWoP becuase everyone there has seen the finale and I refuse (REFUSE) to be spoiled for the last ever episode.  I know that even if I go on the hangman thread (or the Heroes MM) there is a chance that someone will make a side comment about it and not spoiler bar it.  Plus, I just went to my friends page on here and people are already posting about it.  So I got off quick and have now banned myself from there.  Sometimes being overseas is such a pain!  

So, I'm at work, trying to find something to do online that's safe!  Last week was crazy, as you can see from the amount of entries in here during this time.  And now this week?  When I'm trying to avoid TWoP?  Well there is nothing to do!  I had three clients in a row that were fairly labour intensive (foreign tax credit, foreign pensions, rentals, housing exclusion, etc.)  It wasn't anything I couldn't do, it just took a while.  But now, nothing.  Just an empty office.  Grrr...  So, I just spend an hour researching methods of reporting house sales when they are used as a place of business (like an office) versus rental property versus using the section 121 exclusion.  Seriously, I'm so bored that I'm actually researching tax topics that I don't know enough about.  How very studious of me.  I guess maybe I'll train Kim some this afternoon.  We have a bunch of forms and laws we still need to go over before I leave.

I'm also considering signing up for myspace.  Not because I plan to use it (hello, LJ is better), but just because everyone and their mother won't quit bugging me about it.  It seems that everyone I know has it all of a sudden.  (No one I know in RL has an LJ - what's up with that?)  Anyhow I already have facebook and friendster, neither of which I use, pages just sitting there and linked back to this.  So perhaps I'll do the same thing for myspace - just put the page up so people can find me, and then ignore it!

I'm also considering putting some pictures on this, but f-locking them.  Can that be done?  I'm sure it can.  Hmm, okay back to work (or playing around online).

ETA: Okay, it exists - http://www.myspace.com/jenepel

I just typed out this entire entry and then it disappeared when I posted, so you are now getting the abridged version.  Losing it did not help to improve my mood.

Suffice to say I have been in a royally bad mood for the past day or so - a combo of RL and online life.  I don't really want to go into it, but I've been worrying about a lot of crap I basically have no control over.  It's stupid.

Part of the problem is lack of sleep I think.  This weekend I went almost nocturnal - I went to bed at 7AM Sat morning and at 8AM on Sun then got up about four hours later to do whatever (Katy's goodbye party, etc).  Then last night I got home late from work, made a banana pudding for the meeting today (yum) and then did some work on the computer.  Then I fell asleep on the couch around 11:30 - I hate it when I do that.  I woke up around 4:30, totally and completely wide awake.  I spent about 10 mins on the computer and then about an hour lying in bed worrying about everything.  Then I gave it up and found a book to read.  When I finished it, it was 7 and I had to get up for work in about 20 mins.  So I snoozed, then got up and went to work.  I actually haven't freaked out again yet - I'm feeling curiously zen, but that could be the sleep deprivation, or maybe having to type the same (shortened) entry twice.  Just be glad you didn't have to read the long one!

Oh, btw the answer to Scott's joke: Because his horn didn't work.  (HAH!)

So, over the course of the last twelve hours or so, I have spent a ridiculous amount of time looking through all the design options on LJ and changing my journal over and over.  If anyone were actually reading it they would be very confused right now.  (Good thing no one is!)  Never let it be said that I don't obsess.  And the thing is, I still haven't found one I'm okay with.  I think I need a list of exactly what I want in the design, and then I can see which fits it the best, particularly since I just realised that you can pick one design and then (duh) change individual things on it like fonts, titles and colours.

So watch this space.  (It's sure to look different every time you do!)