Due to visa delays and a certain amount of naivety about the London lettings market, TLOML and I have been homeless since the first of February. That's almost eight weeks.
Thanks to the generosity of that Outstanding Family, the one with the enviable property portfolio, we do have a roof over our heads. A trip to IKEA, my storage unit and some elbow grease, made it habitable. We do, after all, have a bed.
Important clothes can be hung.
A quick fix with a nail has rendered this formerly three-legged table usable as a desk. And TLOML rummaged in the basement of our squat to find this fridge and the telly. It only gets three rather fuzzy channels, and TLOML is bitterly disappointed with the quality of BBC2's daytime scheduling but it's something. I may be the only homeless person in the country who has a TV licence (blame my upbringing). Oh, and I've put the calendar that nice Brazilian translator gave me above the mantelpiece to brighten the place up.
Still, we can't really cook. That's because during our trip to the storage unit we dug up salad servers and lobster crackers but no truly useful utensils.
We pilfered the knife and spoon from the trusting pubs of NW5. They just leave these things lying around, the fools. So we can boil water for tea in the saucepan the former resident left, but that's about it. To be honest I'm not sure if we'd want to stay in, even if we could cook.
The ultimate win-win at the moment is to babysit for friends. We can make dinner in their fully equipped kitchen and watch their many-channelled TV. They get a big night out and we get that best prize of all, a nice night in.
TLOML is in the States this week, no doubt enjoying some home comforts. And I am going to check out Fox Corner this weekend, in the hope the work is complete and we can start planning to move in.
Till then, keep buying the Big Issue folks.
Thanks to the generosity of that Outstanding Family, the one with the enviable property portfolio, we do have a roof over our heads. A trip to IKEA, my storage unit and some elbow grease, made it habitable. We do, after all, have a bed.
A quick fix with a nail has rendered this formerly three-legged table usable as a desk. And TLOML rummaged in the basement of our squat to find this fridge and the telly. It only gets three rather fuzzy channels, and TLOML is bitterly disappointed with the quality of BBC2's daytime scheduling but it's something. I may be the only homeless person in the country who has a TV licence (blame my upbringing). Oh, and I've put the calendar that nice Brazilian translator gave me above the mantelpiece to brighten the place up.
Still, we can't really cook. That's because during our trip to the storage unit we dug up salad servers and lobster crackers but no truly useful utensils.
We pilfered the knife and spoon from the trusting pubs of NW5. They just leave these things lying around, the fools. So we can boil water for tea in the saucepan the former resident left, but that's about it. To be honest I'm not sure if we'd want to stay in, even if we could cook.
The ultimate win-win at the moment is to babysit for friends. We can make dinner in their fully equipped kitchen and watch their many-channelled TV. They get a big night out and we get that best prize of all, a nice night in.
TLOML is in the States this week, no doubt enjoying some home comforts. And I am going to check out Fox Corner this weekend, in the hope the work is complete and we can start planning to move in.
Till then, keep buying the Big Issue folks.
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