I have begun a tenuous, love-hate relationship with London. Two days ago I was biking past my would be new apartment thinking, you know, I quite like it here and can imagine that in a few weeks I might even Love it here! I was so excited about all the possibilities that I even tossed and turned in my bed.
Now, two days later, I'm fed up and angry with that other, dog eat dog mentality the city offers.
We lost our dream apartment on Palace Court. We were planning on moving in on November 1, next week, and even purchased tickets to go back to Belgium to sort our storage out, arranged movers, etc...and then, some arsehole works out a private deal with the landlord on the side offering him more money. Bugger. We had put a deposit down and were just waiting for a signed contract.
Oh well, let go let go. I am now going to see a few places this afternoon and if we don't find anything today, next Thursday is our last chance with the agent, so, keep your fingers crossed for us!
So I haven't yet had the time to set up a new London blog with a more appropriate name (and certainly don't have the funds to pay for a new URL!); thus for now my story will continue right here.
A lot has happened here in London in the past week. Where to begin? First off, we found a place to live. In two weeks we'll be moving to 30 Palace Court in Notting Hill / Bayswater. It's right on the corner of Kensington Gardens and about 2 minutes from Notting Hill Gate as well as the Queensway tube. We're pretty excited about the shift, despite enjoying every minute at Paul's place on Grafton Way. You can watch the video below for a walk through, or check out the picts here.
Second, y
esterday I bought this nice little red bike. It's not exactly what I had in mind, but I traveled all the way to Hillendon (which is the second stop from the end of the line, in bumf*ck suburban London)and after an hour tube ride walked another half hour in the middle of nowhere to find the guy's house. I couldn't be bothered to walk all the way back, so I bought the bike to get back to the station. It's a '78 Raleigh that was 90 pounds...not a steal, but cheaper than anything else I could find on the net...plus it has a basket and no-one would ever really go out of their way to steal it. I've ridden it around today and it was great. It's a little old skool but it's red, it's got sass!
The third bit of big news is that I started my apprenticeship at the Jivamukti Yoga Studio in London. My mentor's name is Durga and she's amazing. The apprenticeship basically boils down to:
-5 classes at JML a week
-3 assist classes a week
-4 in-class-privates a week
-teach portions of classes
-attend workshops with sharon and david
-attend all satsangs/kirtans
It's a busy schedule but I am sure that I will love and learn a great deal. I'm very very VERY excited about this.
The last news is that I met with my friend Paul's animator friends today who own a company called Model Robot. The idea is for Paul and I to work together to develop a longer term strategy for these guys and then to implement it....Will keep you posted, but for now, it's good night!
I've been thinking that it's time to cap off this blog seeing as I don't live in Kosovo anymore - but I will keep Free Kosovo up and perhaps change the focus to following Kosovo's independence...In the meantime, I will be starting up a new blog soon and will keep the updates here before it has a home.
It's been just over 2 weeks since X and I have arrived in London, and I have to say, it's been one of the harder transitions I've had to make to a new place. London in itself is a 'lovely' city, it really is, but it is large, getting around takes time and costs money, and without a purpose it is a challenge just to be here - not spending money.
So no big news, we've seen Windsor on Sunday which was very charming, and Richmond the week before which was also very beautiful - to be alongside the Thames in the countryside on a sunny day. I leave for Amsterdam for 5 days on Thursday, and when I come back we'll start looking at flats with an agent. We've decided that Marylebone is one of our favourite areas, just near Regents Park, still well connected to the city but more like a village on the high street. Of course we're not really ruling any area out, but Bayswater, Fitzrovia, Bloomsbury and further west to Notting Hill / Kensington are also very very nice (the latter being a pinch on the wallet - what am I saying, they're all a pinch on the wallet!). Thing is, X and I are not independently wealthy so our standards are shifting all the time. Basically we just want a place that is clean with heating, and if it has some character that's just an added bonus.
More soon, if you're in Amsterdam this weekend, give me a shout.
