Shallow Grave revisited

It's that time of year when the landlady remembers we exist and visits the flat, points out that we don't do enough vaccuuming and dusting (she's right, we don't) and rearranges the furniture to suit some cosmic plan that only she knows.

Except that today there is a further purpose to the visit.  My flatmate of almost a year is moving out and we are going to be interviewing a candidate for the vacant room (or at least my landlady will be interviewing, I am just there to see what I think of the interviewee).  I won't have a say in whether or not the person gets to  move in, but I do get to offer my opinion after they have left.  Judging by previous experience this will be completely ignored. 

Sometimes I wonder why I bother to turn up for the flatmate interview but then I remember.

This time I am planning on leaving too.

...and forewarned is forearmed.

So learning suitable answers to tricky interview questions will prove useful.  Or what not to say.

Now it's time to do some listening.

...and hope it doesn't turn into that flatmate interview situation from Shallow Grave.  If you haven't seen it, look on YouTube and you'll see what I mean.

Six months on

Well I have been sadly neglecting this blog. Sorry. Not intentional but I've been doing other stuff (assignments and reading for my Masters, reading for fun, and rehearsals for the amateur dramatic society I decided to join in a moment of pure insanity). So six months on is everything in the flat all lovely?

Since my last posting, nothing has really changed in the flat (things that didn't work still don't, things that might have been working now probably don't). I've gone from writing cross emails about it to being resigned about the situation. There are only so many times that you can ask for someone stop water coming through the living room wall. However I have said on Twitter and to people I know that are thinking of renting, not to use our lettings agent and mentioned the treatment (or lack of) we've had. So yet again I will be looking for somewhere to live this summer, me and my bookcases.

In the meantime I'll be working on my dissertation. My plan is to write one on libraries and librarians in contemporary fiction - although at present I am still working on my proposal. I have never had to write a dissertation before and am feeling more than slightly intimidated. When I was in the first year of my Masters the dissertation was aeons away - I could barely see it, and so it didn't worry me at all. Now it is here and the final term finishes in six weeks. It is only after the end of term that the proposal is due - and although we will have supervisory meetings, we won't actually have that much contact with anyone. I am already nervous and I know that I am not the only one. I am not sure if this is a comfort or not tbh.

So think of me, writing these two final assignments, then facing the monumental dissertation. It'll be fine, I know it will, but atm my brain is having a problem accepting it.

Moved in

...well after the rather long pause between blog postings, I can safely report that neither my bookcases nor I became homeless.

Not that the move has been the painless and smooth transition that I in my naivety hoped for. This may have been due to my new Landlord departing for sunnier climes (Dubai) or the influence of my new Lettings Agents (usual helpful phrase: 'It's nothing to do with us').

So I, and my fellow flatmates are installed in what was, according to the Landlord, a flat suitable for 'Professionals'. I am not entirely sure what type of 'Professionals' they had in mind but there was a red light in one of the rooms... This flat used to be rented out to Students and has since been done up, had a new bathroom installed, been repainted and made appropriate for its new occupants. I might be being a little picky, but I would have thought that the new brand bathroom shouldn't have a broken bath panel and maybe they could have removed the labels from all the new bathroom suite...

Perhaps they could have finished plastering and painting the ceiling in the hallway and installing the wiring. Atm there is a security light hanging from the ceiling, not actually attached, and no bulb in the light fitting - we don't know if the wiring is finished, and can't reach it anyway. This isn't actually a big problem. The water is.

We have water coming in underneath the windowsills. My flatmate had it coming in her ceiling after a particularly heavy rainstorm - and only after threatening the Lettings Agents with the CAB and Media exposure managed to get them to send someone to fix it. We now notice that there are water stains on most of the ceilings. Apparently the roof on my flatmate's part of the flat needs replacing. I suspect that this won't happen and that the temporary patch will remain in place for the duration of our rental.

There are other problems - many of which have been fixed by either my Dad (thanks Dad) or my flatmate's husband (thanks Nigel). This isn't really the point. The Lettings Agent have repeatedly told us that they didn't realise the state of the flat when they took it over. Surely they should have done a proper check? The flat could be absolutely lovely, and the improvements that we have made to it in the month that we have been here - tho only cosmetic - have made a real difference. We get on as flatmates and we want to stay here. We just want the Lettings Agents to get the mess sorted. Sadly they don't seem to be willing to do this.