Hello irony, my old friend. Welcome back. When I last wrote in the blog, I was in a hotel room, about to scout for a place to live. It has been four days since that post, but as my current situation does not support internet access at home, I am writing these posts with the hope that soon I shall be uploading them. So apologies in advance…
The hunt for a room proved simple at first, loads of great rooms for roughly the price I was hoping for. The problem I found was with the landlords here, especially when they did not appreciate my time schedule. I was hoping to find a room on Saturday, secure the paperwork and move in on Sunday, ready for work on Monday. As it happened, I found a room on Saturday, said yes that night, then was told at midnight that there was a snag. The landlord wanted confirmation that I was working nearby, in the form of a letter from the office addressed to him. Thus, I could not move in until the Monday. This headache was not helped by my agent refusing to answer his phone or update me during Sunday. When eventually he did, it was Sunday evening, and I was assured that I would have the room on Monday after work. It was here that I explained to him that Monday had to go smoothly, else I would technically be homeless (having checked out of the hotel on Monday morning).
Monday arrived, and I took a taxi to the office wheeling around my luggage. Once there I was greeted by old colleagues and the bosses and felt relaxed once again. During the office hours I kept ringing the estate agent hoping to get an update. Eventually it came in the form of a text informing me that the landlord now wanted more money. My patience had worn off. I informed him that I would not be taking that room, and asked for my second choice room. The agent said he would speak to the new landlord and get back to me.
By this point, at work, I was placed on a competition team that had been working for the past week towards a deadline this coming Friday. It quickly dawned on me that they had a lot of work yet to do, and that it was going to be a late night. Once my agent got back to me saying to meet at 6pm to sign and take the keys, I quickly said sorry and left the office wheeling my luggage to the apartment block. I viewed the room once more and signed to get the keys – I HAD A ROOM!
Around this time, my colleague text me asking whether I could come back after getting the keys as they were struggling. Happy now that a major headache was solved, I decided to head back (even though it was 8pm by this point) with the intention of working for a couple of hours. Once I got there the two hours went by very quickly. It was not until around 4am that I realised the irony of it all. After worrying and taking so long to sort out the apartment, I was not able to sleep that night.
I got home at 7am, having sent an email to the bosses informing them of the time I was leaving so that they wouldn’t expect me at the office till later. Unfortunately, even though I tried to sleep once I got back, the sun was rising and so was the temperature. Even though I wanted to, it was pretty impossible to sleep past 12. Therefore, I ended up going back to the office earlier than planned.
I have just got back to the apartment and the current time is 11pm. There are no bedsheets, or pillows on the bed, but I do not care. The competition is not over yet, but all of us concerned could not face doing another all nighter. Not bad for the first two days…
