View from my window: A few new cranes but otherwise unchanged.

For those of you paying attention when I first started this trip all of 12 weeks ago, I did say that I would need to go back to London at some point to sort out the mess that is going on with my flat there. At the moment I am just spending money travelling, and without any rental income from my flat I really can’t afford it.

I’d put it out of my mind successfully for a while but it needs dealing with and this seemed like as good a time as any. This is why I found myself back in London again.

It was strange. I’d been away for less than three months, yet I couldn’t remember which of my keys opened the front door (and I only have two, the other one opens my storage unit). It took me a good four minutes to remember that the key goes in the lock upside down, and that’s why it wouldn’t fit.

I also forgot which floor I live on (for some reason I pushed the button for the eleventh rather than ninth), I stood on the wrong side of the road for the bus (I’d forgotten which direction the traffic was coming from) and I couldn’t remember how to use the oven (that one is probably not such a surprise; I think I’ve only used it twice in the year and a half I’ve lived here).

Whilst I’ve been away the water has stopped dripping out of the electrics (which was the main reason I was unable to rent the flat before I left). I’d like to thank the freeholders for sorting it out, but in reality they did nothing except exchange emails with me expressing how ‘regrettable’ the ‘situation’ is, and the water eventually stopped of its own accord.

However prolonged water damage has taken its toll and I am still unable to get the electrical safety certificate necessary to rent out the property.

So it looks like we will be enjoying the delights of London for the next few weeks whilst this is sorted out.