work, work, work, wo-ork...

Today has been a busy day: "freelance" jobbing in the morning, ever more flat viewings in the afternoon (2 nice ones in one day, imagine that!), an interview for my new nanny-job (I wonder why anyone would want to leave me their prize-children) and a gallery exhibition opening of.., well, a friend's, I guess. Yay - love your work!

Thursday and Friday next week I'll be nannying the two Danish boys, I hope that'll go smoothly.. we'll see, C. has told me enough stuff about them during this last year to make me fear the youngest just a tad.

And my darling friend who deserted me and left for Brussels when I came here to London is here for the weekend, so hopefully we can manage to hook up.

All's good.

more carnival!

(again, for more pics, please click here!)

So, yeah, I went again, this time accompanied by a friend, which was great! Someone to marvel with about all the crazy stuff going on! There were definately more people today. We got caught in several backed up patches, but I didn't find it too much. Here's how many people were there:

I could have stayed there several hours longer, dancing and taking it all in. Alas, another viewing (of a flat I don't want, unfortunately) was scheduled, so I had to get my ass to East London, as I am still working on this project. Tomorrow I don't think I'll get to see more flats, since my psycho-"freelancing" (!) is up to 3 sessions tomorrow, and I am going to the movies. But Wednesday and Thursday I already have a few viewings lined up. Hopefully I wil come across that *perfect* room and actually be offered it. They offered me one of the ones today, however it was really smal, 2x3 m. Nice people, great living room etc, but I'm just wondering if it might get a tad claustrophobic in that sort of a cubicle...

Sambaaaa!

(click here for more pics)

Pumping samba rhythms, all smiles, red stripe Jamaican lager, Caribbean food, coconuts, red-yellow-green, dancing kids, Caribbean flags and whistles, feathers, sequins, laughter, reggae, dancing, movement, flirting, beer stalls, corn on the cob, kissing, sleeping tiger in a buggy, shaking body parts, djs, sound systems, blaring hiphop, breakdance, super heroes on scene, beautiful dancing women...

And tomorrow's supposed to be THE day to go :.) We'll see!

s***

"So, eh, hey!"

"Hi, Trev!"

"So, yeah, hey, I just called to let you know that my flatmate's friend wanted the room, so, eh.. sorry. Well, hey, good luck finding another room. I'm sorry 'bout it..."

"Oh, I'm real sorry to hear that.. But I understand, your roomie's friend, I get it, it's only fair, huh. What a shame.."

So I'm back to hunting.

And as if that's not enough, my dear, dear childhood friend has now also broken up with her boyfriend after several years living together. What IS up with this bloody year? It's like the bad stuff just keeps rolling in. I really hope something good will come of all this..

Untill then, I'm back to flathunting (and man, even on the weekend of the biggest carnival in Europe, in Notting Hill!).

S***.

more flats, more "job"

So, my freelance job is going just great! Today I learned to wiggle my big toe and ear on the right hand side of the body! Very educational, and something I didn't imagine they wouldn't actually study at a research university!
Tomorrow I've got two experiments lined up, one more brain wave one and one hand something-something. I'm digging this - it's really easy money, and actually a quite interesting look into some rather obscure research areas. Friday I've got 3 experiments! You can almost make a living off this!!!

More flathunting today. I saw THE place I want to live - if I have a choice, this is my new home! After walking around in very drizzly/half rainy weather for 20 minutes, I walked to far up the road, had to go back, then entered an estate on the wrong side of the road, then came into the courtyard but disorientedly wandered out again following a waving of the guy I was meant to meet, and finally fought my way back into the courtyard and into the apartment. All rather embarrassing, as I called the poor guy 3 times while trying to get to the place!!! Anyways, the room was really nice, plenty of space, bright flat, nice kitchen, even nicer bathroom and the price was just marvellous! At 380£ a month including everything, that's a really good deal. So now I'm just waiting for Trev to call me back and tell me it's mine.. I'm hoping anyways..! Please, please, please!

As I sit here it's just started to really pour down outside. I am really missing the sunshine and hot temperatures from Greece :.(

flats and "jobs"

Today's been rainy. Well actually drizzly, lovely word. I woke up late and decided to stay in bed to read the sunday newspaper, which lay nearly untouched on the lovely linoleum flooring of the flat.

So I got up late, baked a peach pie (improvised, based on 3 recipes and my imagination), which turned out to be less than excellent but still edible, and wrote a few emails, checked the market for new flats.. And then I went to see one of the flats that I like again. I haven't found a place yet.

Now that I've been looking for a new place to live, I've been thinking about how much stuff I have and what sort of a room I'll need and so forth. It has dawned on me that he probably took with him 70% of the stuff that we brought here a year ago. There's really not very much left: My clothes and shoes (a remarkable amount at that), a single shelf of books (yes really, that's it! I'm surprised too!), a number of smaller boxes containing.. stuff, 2 small desk lamps, 1 larger one, and very limited kitchen supplies (they were ALL his). And then of course the bloody futon.

I'm sure it'll be more than enough when I get round to actually moving it, but thinking about it doesn't intimidate me right now :.)

I've taken up a, shall we call it, freelance job. All year long I've been receiving mails from several testing units from the university, primarily psychologic, and the other day I signed up for a brain wave experiment - just for the hell of it and because they pay 7.50/hour cash. Basically I had a good experience, although it was not a total piece of cake. For an hour and a half I sat and read a newspaper I had brought and chatted to the Japanese researcher while he attached 4 electrodes to my face (!) and I don't know how many to my head, on a white hoodie sort of thing. Then I did several tests, probably for 2 and a half hours (had tea and biscuits too!) and finally a nice shampoo and conditioning treatment to get the ionic paste out of my hair. Altogether 4 and a half hours, and I walked out 35£ richer and with clean hair. Easy peasy! So tomorrow I'm doing another one, but this time it's a "wriggle your toes and ears"-experiment. I wonder how that's going to go down - very exciting and interesting, hehe. And they pay too ;.) I also have another of the brainwaves lined up for Thursday.

Gotta make money somehow, eh?

flat hunting

I can't quite make up my mind who is in the stronger position: the flat hunter or the flat stayers.

I mean. The flat stayers want to make sure that the person moving in is nice, tidy, friendly and perhaps even up for socialising a bit. They want to make sure not to get any psychopaths in the door, and that the person they're offering to enter their flat is not going to nick stuff (foods or cash or jewellery or shampoo or..). And of course, that they'll pay rent on time.

Most of this stuff is pertinent both ways, but for the flat hunter there are more things to consider: for example whether the group of people in the flat are willing to open their potentially closed circle of flat mates to the newcomer, how the dynamics of the house is, and whether there are any skeletons in the closet, such as vermin, a s*** landlord or the like.

I've seen 8 flats now, each with pros and cons. One was an amazingly roomy flat, the room with a fantastic view from the 15th floor and with newly redone interior, but in a slightly nasty council estate. Another was a cheap room, but small and with young students (we're talking 20, 20 and 24!).. And yet another was a large, cheap room, with a garden, two showers and separate toilet, but in a, uhm.., slightly dilapidated condition.

So, what's the most important?
The size of the room (I want to be able to have firends over)
Whether there's a living room or not?
Are the people living there friend potential?
The total cost...?

I've been offered 3 or so of the ones I've seen (pretty good, I'd say, even the students wanted me!), and I'm not sure whether to take the more expensive one, which is in really good condition and where the people have friend potential, or the cheaper (by 100£/month), larger room, where I can't really have my bike and the people aren't as obviously great.. I think I'll chose one tomorrow.

ahh

Having recently, ahem, acquired numerous albums, I am overjoyed at the new music available to me!!

Am particularly happy with Common's new album "Finding Forever" - sweet as, I say. I love the softness to the numbers, a mellow yet edgy feel.


Amp Fiddler, "Afro Strut" is also being played repeatedly. Deffo some tunes are more likely to be on repeat than others ( track2: "If I don't" is a fave). I do think it's an album that needs to be put aside once in a while, but until then I'm enjoying the happy soul-y, funky, melodic sounds - I'm afraid of the funk overload, though!

Am still working on the Pharoahe Monch album Desire, am not entirely convinced yet, perhaps it's not smooth enough for my liking..

Justin is still with me whenever I need a boost, thank you very much!

Finally I'm over my Carla Bruni/Emiliana Torrini/Madeleine Peyroux/Corinne Bailey Rae/etc, etc. phase. I still like to put on the folky blue sounds from time to time, but I am no longer content with only this soul searching and, well, blue musica. Halleluja! ;.)

Any music suggestions out there for me? I'm in need of new stuff!

Status update

So. My landlords have let my flat, meaning that I really need to start looking for something now. Not just browsing and thinking about it.. It's just difficult, you know.

Do I want to have my own studio flat or share? And in that case, how many do I want to share with? The area is pretty much sorted, I want to stay around here.. I've got my basketball 3+ times a week, and the potential of getting a job in the area around Old Street/Liverpool Street Station is good. But I could move a bit in any direction from here, Dalston, Newington, Angel, Old Street..

Have been looking for jobs too, lately, since I decided to postpone my urban design report a while. It's a bit of a challenge to find jobs in a sector that I'm not sure what is ;.) I would prefer to not do straight-up urban design right now, and am trying to find some sort of research job where I might be able to use my design knowledge too. So far I have found one job that looks really good, but that was just lucky. Have spent the last two days looking for more like it, but nothing has come up so far! So I guess I need to continue re-working my CV and writing a covering letter for this one job that I have found.

Cretan pics

..and so I'm back!

One morning, when turning on my laptop, to my horror I realised that the keyboard did not work. I've tried every single on of them, but no. No cigar. Luckily I can still go online and check my mail, the news and whatever bookmarks I was lucky enough to have stored on my pc, but basically I'm screwed. When I need to write anything at all (and I have become increasingly aware of just how much one actually writes on a computer, lately) I will have to go to uni. Or alternatively, fix it, but that's just too much to ask right now :.) All in due time.

Just got back from a holiday to Crete with the girls from my basketball team! It was good fun and we all made sure to make the most of our tans! I'm proud to say that I used an SPF20 the whole trip, never have managed to be so ardent in my sun protection before.

I'd love to relate a lot from the trip, but basically all we did was chill on the beach or by the pool, eat yummy Greek food, including Greek salad and a broad variety of desserts, m-m-m! And of course we drove around the island a bit before hitting the bars/clubs in the evening. That's about it.