No news....

The owner of the flat is on holiday somewhere in the middle of nowhere and can't get to a phone, so no news on that front :(

In other news that will make this week hectic through the end, I have a job interview on Friday afternoon! We'll see how it goes. But now, between drinks tonight with my American friend, hopefully moving tomorrow and preparing for the interview, life will be crazy again for the next few days!

I can only hope that the interview will be the end of the chaos and my weekend will actually involve some relaxation and wandering around London, but if I've learned anything since I've been here, it's that just as the craziest slows to a dull roar, something else crops again. But it's still fun!

So, I went bank hunting this morning and unfortunately, I found a not-nice British guy. NatWest bank is not cool. They have a branch next to the hotel, so they were my first stop for obvious reasons...my mission? To at least figure out, for later purposes, how to get the money for the flat deposit. They wouldn't let me open an account, fine, no surprise, but they also wouldn't even give me the time of day or any advice on how I might go about my task...hard to explain, but the guy was just rude. So off I went, already feeling defeated and on my way to HSBC, who I know has an account type specifically for new immigrants...it's just that it's £60/year and paying for a bank account bugs me. I got lost and saw Barclays first instead and though I'd heard that they weren't friendly either, I was right there so I figured what the hey.

And while they wouldn't let me open an account either, the guy I saw there was my hero and also a genius. "Why don't you just wire the money to the landlord?" He said. Duh. Yes, why don't I? So that was that...a quick email to my bank and that's easily done.

So, with that out of the way, it was off to lunch with the Card Guy and we had a wonderful time. He arrived with red roses, one for each day I've been here so far :) We had lunch at a yummy French cafe off Oxford Street and then we strolled to the cheese shop he'd told me about where he bought me half a wheel of my beloved Brillat Savarin...sweetest guy EVER. Hopefully we'll do lunch again soon, I'm very glad to have met him :)

But then the tube made it take forever to get home...for all you Washingtonians who whinge about the metro (I'm just as guilty), trust me, metro is awesome. For the second time since I've been here, the tube driver changed his mind about where we were going...and if you didn't hear the one announcement about it, you're suddenly going the wrong way. So that was fun, my feet were in agony, nature was calling and the wine from lunch was taking it's toll on my coherence. But I'm back!

Took a quick nap (I never do that, second time since I've been here though) and I'm off in a minute to drinks with the American :) This, of course, means getting on the tube, but perhaps it will be kind this time.

It seems that my astute readers include more than just the hapless victims who already knew me and had no choice but to read my ramblings, so thanks to all of you ;) Friends and strangers included...hopefully I'm not too boring!