@%$*$!!!!

i should preface this post by saying that i'm not really mad, i'm just knee-deep in the less-than-romantic details of moving abroad. :-) for instance:

- i can't withdraw money from either of my US-based banks right now. i don't know why. i have about £4 left (in change) and an american express card...

- i FINALLY have a UK bank account but there is no money in it. we get paid at the end of the month, which means i have to fund the UK account from one of the US accounts. this will be done via wire transfer and i have to fax complicated directions to the US bank in order to get them to do it. in just 3-5 business days, i will have money! probably. hopefully. God willing.

- while flat hunting affords me the opportunity to see parts of the city i wouldn't normally visit (e.g. kilbury), it eats up 90% of my evening. i get off work, scarf down dinner, run for the Tube, go see a flat, then come back home to go online and look for more flats. so far the response rate is about 30%.

there is a bit of a funny side to all this. one of the flat postings i looked at (and quickly discarded) advertised:

"I am Vegetarian but that should be fine for you. 
No meat and no fish strictly, I can't stand the smell of death."

another advertised:

"Would prefer someone who doesn't sleep in the flat every night"

which would be great for me, because I've really been hoping to take advantage of all the local park benches just waiting to be slept on.

some of the flats are funny themselves. tonight's was so musty smelling (combined with the head of garlic they were apparently cooking for dinner), that poor Christine went into a coughing fit and had to go outside. the whole flat was covered in one of the five housemate's drying laundry, and there was a half-drunk bottle of cutty sark or something on the table. also, the Jubilee underground line, which was actually aboveground at this particular station (not to be confused with the overground) ran right in front of the building.

bloody 'ell. :-)