Contract times

It's been a busy few days concerning myself and contracts. On Friday I signed my slightly incomplete work contract and sent it off. Today I had to make a last minute trip to London to sign my lease contract. Let me back up a minute here, really, regarding the flat. Last Friday we were told that the contract was in the mail and should arrive today. Alas, this morning we got a call informing us that this was not the case. The post office has been having random strikes over the last few months. It's been quite the nuisance and has been delaying a lot of mail. The estate agent called this morning to inform us that they did not trust the mail to get the contract to us and back before Sunday, so we would have to make a special trip to London to sign the contract sometime this week. Being the busy dissertation bees that we are, that meant either today or Wednesday. Due to a cricket situation, today won. After many delays, we finally made it onto the 1:00 pm train.

In an attempt to save time, we got off the train at Clapham Junction, got on a train that instead went into Victoria. This saved three tube stops, but the train just sort of just chilled for a while before actually getting into Victoria so I'm not sure how much time it saved. We got to the estate agent a little after 3. The contract itself was not particularly noteworthy - all pretty normal - except for the deal with the deposit. Now, I don't totally understand it, but it involves a special deal. Perhaps I will be able to figure out what it is at some point and explain it. But not today. After picking up a bunch of other particulars, it was back to the tube and I was on my way back to Waterloo and Southampton (someone else went to catch the rest of the cricket). Now all that remains is to meet with the landlord on Sunday at the place to exchange the keys and go over an inventory of the flat and its contents. Oh, plus we have to get the deposit into the correct account by Friday. It's all a bit overwhelming really. And totally infringing on my efforts to make serious progress on disseration. I'm sure tomorrow will be a much more productive day!