Wednesday, October 20, 2004

From SPEC (Whatever it means)

Hi there.

I'm here again. Just trying to talk about the things that happened to me this last few days. And there are some things I'll like to talk about and so little time.

This was the flat-share-looking-week, which means I spent the last three days looking for a place to stay in. Of course it was infructuous. It's not that I couldn't find anything, it's not it's impossible to find anything. But when you have little time and you don't want to spend too much money, and you can't promise to stay a long time, the search can become "mission impossible" but of course I'm sure with more time it's not impossible, in fact I could have stayed in some houses.

But why didn't I stay on those places? I'll explain to you. The first thing that happened is I went to an agency. I had to pay 59£ for them too call people and give me addresses. I thought at the time I was at the office it was well expended money. That changed when I went to see the first house.

It was a very old house, completely dirty, dark. The room was ridiculously small and the bed... The owner, or something like that, was a pregnant east-european who looked really tired. She was nice, but she told me she was living with another 8 guys from different places. This was 80£ a week. And it's not that I'm too meticulous, but knowing I could stay in better places if I wasn't so shy... Anyway, on the way to that place I saw a group of black people on a car taking a photo from a mobile of... me? That scared me a bit.

The second was the house of an old couple from jugoslavya. The miss wasn't at home neither their son. The guy who attended me was a 70 year old parkinson poor old jugoslavyan. He needed so many time to walk up the stairs that finally he decided to tell me walk in front of me. He was very sweet. But more of the same, a tiny, tiny room, dirty place and 80£ as well. Do the Jugoslavyans stay with their parents 'till they are 50 like in Spain?

The third more of the same, except this time the old woman was english. And also 80£.

So at the end of that day I had visited 3 horrible houses in very horrible neighborhuds. I had another meeting at 7pm for the house the guy from the agency said was the best, so I was still hopeful. Then I checked the internet and saw an advert really interested. Then I called the guy, a kiwi, and went to his house. This time I was amazed. It was 90£ pw and on a very posch place. The house was inmense, gorgeous in fact. I talked to the guy, he was either nice, and it wasn't that dirty, just a bit, considering that 9 people lived on that house I believe it's normal, and it's something I can dare with when I'm in such a hurry as I am.

So he told me to wait 'till next day (today) because another couple would come to see the house. He didn't told me but I suspected the couple would pay more, because of something he said. I was dammed right. He has just sent me an email to tell me the share has been taken, dammed couples. Just one question, Why the hell couldn't he tell me the same on the phone, or by sms, I think it could have been nicer.

I forgot to tell you that on Monday I went to see another share, just for 2 weeks and from www.gumtree.com as well and it happended exactly the same thing, he told me I was late. And that's exactly what happened today. I went to see another 2 houses from the agency but I couldn't even describe them, and another from gumtree but I was also late. It seems finding a cheap house in London takes some time. If you have a job it's easier, because you can get a bedsite or a studio, for the same price and clean, without sharing with dirty filthy strangers.

Anyway. I decided to go back to Mig's house, I called him and he told me to go. I'm waiting for him to call me to check again. I'll be there as much as I can while I can't find a job and then a studio.

The other thing that happended to me was at Monday night. Hannah (Faye's sister, Colin's daughter) told me if I wanted to join them for a kind of catholic meeting. Just to have a chat for a couple of hours with other people (catholics) and argue about things. I thought I could lie if I was asked, so I decided to make Hannah happier (she earned points for bringing me to the meeting, whatever points means here). It was interesting at the begining, free food, drinks (water, cofee, milk, tea, no beer) and the opportunity to relax and chat. There I was in the middle of catholics arguing about how much they pray, or someone asked how do they do not to fall asleep when they're praying at night, or if it's good to pester to god on prayers. I just wanted to shout, to scream, to yeel them what I think about praying. One girl said something about praying because she wanted a catholic boyfriend and I thouhgt, "go out, drink something and dance, be sexy and I'm sure you'll find somebody, perhaps not catholic, but religion it's not the most important thing in life". I had a good time, and I really needed to chat with somebody. They were good people, but you know, I can't bare straight catholics for a long time, talking about conversion, talking about the meaning of life and the rules of the catholic church.

I'm sorry if somebody is offended with these, I just ask them to be patient and tolerant because I don't believe in all that ......... (put your own words, please, so it won't be my fault)

Hope you like this new post.

Have a nicer time than I'm having at the moment. Well, that's not exactly true, I had an opportunity to walk a lot and to go to a lot of different places in London, including that gorgeous house on a posch street I'm not going to live in.

Cheers.

Manoel.

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