Sometimes, not everything in my world is quite so black and white in the real world, after a few months of viewing "holes in the ground" and some nice places and sticking in offers below asking prices and getting knocked back I've succumbed to the obvious that "my world" really is a very different place to what is REALLY "Out there".
Not everyone is as desperate as I would like to think, and logic kind of dictates that if I want to rent (and probably live) in a nice area, the prices for doing so stand good and firm, so I can only really grab what I can afford if I'm lucky enough for the opportunity to present itself to me.
That time has now come. I've managed to get a nice place in the target area where I was looking fully furnished for a decent sum of money, all be it, as I was saying the price suited my pocket rather then me actually negotiating a lower monthly rent, I'm not saying for a minute I was starting to get desperate but looking at prices in this part of town for 3 months or more I realized this was about the lowest it was going to get, and there were certainly more places to rent as much as £150 MORE a month for what was basically the same thing, and some of those places didn't even come furnished.
I've done all the paperwork now and paid the initial fees, and the bill for the remainder came in just the other day, £1898 - not cheap, but I cut right back in December and January, think I've been out once in that time, the general idea on this one is to pay out cash for as long as I can before I have to resort to borrowing money on my credit card, not that it would be a problem, I've just done a load of planned work out of hours which brings in extra money and it's my turn on call this week so there will be a few quid coming in for that which will be paid at the end of March which I can then use to settle any outstanding debt I run up when I move on 3rd of next month.
I'm quite looking forward to it now, and already I'm getting that feeling that says I should have done this along time ago and that makes me cringe when I think about the amount of wasted opportunities that have come and gone in that time. I think there is always going to be times in my life where I tut and put my head in my hands when it comes to the things I've done, but I do have a universal word now, that describes me and these moments, that word is "twat".
I've been running round like a headless chicken since I paid the initial fees trying to get stuff in place for the move date, I'm on the look out for a TV (a big one that I probably won't ever switch on) and all the "Homie" stuff I need like linen, quilt, pillows, towels, bins, irons etc etc and I have this diary with all the costing on it, somehow and I have no idea how, I've managed to "spend" £1100 on these items! I think some of the NEXT bed linen will need to be substituted for something cheaper, it all looks nice but in to comparison to other places you certainly cough up just so you can say "Oh but it came from next" which would probably make most people stare blankly and shrug their shoulders.
I got on to BT and my ISP this week as well, both conspiring to make moving house the most difficult and miserable affair ever! All I need is for my line and broadband to be up and running on the day I move in, I need my internet connection for work incase something happens that requires me to log on out of hours - it would appear both of the companies responsible for this are not capable of making sure I can do this with minimum fuss, so I've given notice to my ISP and reluctantly I'm having to sign up to a BT line and their Broadband Service, because this is the ONLY way I can get my service running on the day I move in.
Today I'm going to do a mass clear out, I've got stuff here that I need to part company with, I've got so much rubbish I seriously rival Edmund Trebus (Google him if you've never heard of him) and I'm only taking stuff I can't live without to the flat