I went up to London yesterday with the London roomie. Heading up on the 9:00 am train, we had an appointment with an estate agent to see a place at 11:30 near Fulham. Around 9:30 am we got a call saying that the place was taken. And so began a day of looking for a 'flat' in London.
We decided that as were up there, we should at least walk around and check out some areas and possibly check out some listings at estate agents that we happen to come across. For those of you that have never heard of Fulham (which would have included myself prior to the day before yesterday), it covers the area with the SW6 post codes and is located between Kensington and the Thames, just past Earl's Court on the District Line (it's zone 2). Getting off at the Fulham Broadway tube stop, we took a quick peak at the Chelsea football club stadium and then noticed a plethora of estate agents. It took a while to work up the nerve, but we finally went into one at got an appointment to look at a place in Parsons Green (next tube stop to the south) in mid-afternoon. We got more nerve after this and booked another viewing closer to Fulham as well. The first place was a bit larger than what I was expecting (I was expecting something resembling a walk-in closet), and the second place (in Parsons Green) was literally awesome. By that time we had booked a third viewing, but before that we figured we probably couldn't do better than the second place (which basically had an extra room so you could easily sleep four guests and was 5 minutes from the tube) and called the agent back only to discover that some other folks had gnabbed it about 5 minutes prior. And the 3rd place wasn't that great. All in all, a bit disappointing about losing the fab place, but it's still a bit early to be looking for places and we figure we'll just keep going up once a week until we find something. And if we find something we like, to grab it right away! It's certainly a tough market when you can't very well make appointments to see places the day before and can't stop to think for two hours after seeing something. But I imagine there's more than one awesome affordable place in London.
In brighter news, we had lunch at the new Whole Foods on the Kensington High Street. It was freaking amazing. By far the nicest grocery store I've ever seen, the only thing you could really compare it to is the food hall at Harrods. Salad Bar was 1.79 per 100 grams. I have no idea what that translates to, but it was expensive. The whole place is 3 floors, with the main floor housing the salad bar and 28 check-out lines and the bakery, the main grocery area is downstairs, and upstairs has the sandwiches/sushi/made-to-order foods and the seating area. Oddly, they only had vinagreitte for dressings. I was not too pleased with this. They had amazing look sandwiches, but they cost the equivalent to $12.
Don't even get me started on the failed venture to the O2 Arena.
Next trip is next Thursday, which will be in conjunction with going to see my first West End show.
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2 comments:
Well, you can't leave it at that -- what about the O2 Arena deal?
Now you know what it takes to get a flat/apartment/place to live in London, and know you have to act fast. That's the way house buying was in Portland a year ago--thank goodness you are only renting/letting. But, as you do more looking, everything will seem more attractive now that you know there are others very interested, too. As long as you don't get too stressed, it should be fun!
we were suppose to go and see the simpsons at the o2 or what is now the totally failed millenium dome. its now been redone into this entertainment complex with stadium and cinema etc (had a 30 person queue for starbucks - so guess its popular now!) so anyways it was pretty busy as there was a concert with barbara streisand and the premiere in screen 1 of the simpsons. so the only way to get into the cinema (screen 2) was to go up this red carpet thing with screeming people and we had booked online so didnt have the tickets and the ticket machines were it seems upstairs past the red carpet. anyways we got there at like 10 minutes before the show and didnt have enough time to figure out what to do...so went for food instead!!!
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