New Digs

Sorry its been over a week since the last post. It has been crazy!

So, last you read our heroine and hero were vigorously and disappointedly seeking accomodation. Well, for lack of time I'll sum up. After two more disappointing days of bouncing around different letting agencies, and a completely useless bus ride to nearby Shepshed, we finally made a break.

Thursday in Lboro is market day, and also the day the paper comes out. For the hell of it I called an ad from the classifieds and got a viewing appt. I called several more and we made four appointments total Thursday night and Friday. Most of the places were pretty disappointing. But, with a glowing review from our B&B hosts, who were very lovely, we took a room in a shared house on Friday. We jetted out of town on Saturday and spent a lovely 2 days in Bath and then 2 in the Cotswolds, which I'll write about later.

We came back on Thursday this week to find that the promised "cleaning service" had failed to materialize. After speaking to a roommate, she offered up the opinion that our landlord is a lying sack of scum. He's been very nice to Ryan and I so far, and has met all of our requests minus this cleaning bit. He's even offered us a free meal at his steak restaurant, which I'm hoping we can take advantage of tonight.

The house was built circa 1820 and is well preserved. The shared kitchen and living room are large and our room is quite nice. But it is very dirty and our dryer doesn't work. It was the only place we looked at that actually had a dryer, so I guess its a toss up. The kitchen and bathroom need a lot of work. Ryan scrubbed at the stove last night while I constructed a chicken pot pie remarking "Say what you want about Juan and I, but we NEVER lived like this!"

One fun fact about European construction: the idea of a single faucet has not crossed the pond for the most part. All the sinks here have seperate taps for hot and cold water, so you basically have a choice of freezing or scalding. Yes, they built some of the most beautiful buildings in the world, but give me warm tap water any day.

Last but not least, our roommates are quickly vanishing. One moved out on Saturday to attend university in another town, but the one on the top floor has apparently jumped ship after getting two months behind on rent. And our remaining roommate, who is keeper of the internet, we haven't seen since Friday. We were hoping she'd hook up our cable so we can call home via Skype, but no such luck. She has got a lot of stuff around the house, so I don't believe she's jumped ship, but we'll see......