In order for
this blog to be as realistic and truthful as possible, I realised that it's
important for me to write about all the good times (as I have been doing) but
also about the more challenging ones. The last month has been a bit of a
nightmare and I thought I should post about it.
The flat I moved
into in October was always meant to be a temporary flat since my boyfriend was
moving to London to be with me in January and we were going to get our own
place. To keep a long story short, my landlady decided that Dan and I had to be
out of the flat by the end of January (when it was supposed to be the end of
February). Flat hunting in London is extremely competitive and stressful enough
as it is but with this short a timeframe it became even worse than we expected.
We also kept getting rejected by landlords because they kept telling us that
they would prefer to have a single tenant versus a couple (despite their ads
stating that they were fine with having a couple rent a room) which was
incredibly frustrating. As the weeks flew by, we became increasingly stressed
and worried that we wouldn't find a flat in time. After lowering our standards
and widening our search area, we finally found a place to live in Notting Hill.
We have been living here for a few week now and we couldn't be happier.
As a funny
story, when I first moved to London in January 2014, I visited a flat in
Notting Hill that was right above a fish mongers and smelled awful. There were
also 7 other people living in the flat, which hadn't been expressed in the ad.
Needless to say I didn't move there. But, believe it or not, when Dan and I
were visiting flats a few weeks ago, we went into this building in Notting Hill
right above a fish mongers and as I was starting to get flashbacks of January
2014, I realised that we were visiting the exact same flat I saw a year ago!
Again, this isn't where we moved but I found it really funny that I have now
seen this horrible flat twice!
I think the best
advice I can give for anyone looking for a flat in London (which I will remind
myself of if I need to search for a flat/room again) is:
- Rent from an agency or make sure that you have an official contract with your landlord so that they can't just evict you without a reason - it protects both you and the landlord and is definitely the way to go (despite occasional agency fees).
- Expand your search beyond what you know. I hadn't looked for flats in this area before because I didn't know the area but it's actually a wonderful, lively and quirky neighbourhood and I like it more than any of my previous ones.
- Websites like Spareroom are great and definitely help with the search. There were a few ads on the site that I thought were a bit too good to be true and sure enough, Spareroom emailed me after I tried to respond to the ads to let me know that they had determined it was a scam. It helps to know that they are taking safety seriously.
Now that the
stressor of finding a flat is gone, we can focus on enjoying our new neighbourhood.
We have already found a few wonderful pubs and gastropubs in the area and even
some that serve Sunday roasts - I'm definitely happy about that!
All that's left
on our to-do list at the moment is for Dan to find a job. Almost exactly like
flat hunting, job searching in London is extremely competitive. He had to leave
his job in Portsmouth when he moved to London and, now that we're not homeless,
he's looking for a job in London. It has been difficult for him and I remember
being in the same position a year ago when I moved here. I think that the best
strategy is to cast a wide net and apply to all kinds of jobs, any that you are
qualified for basically and see what comes of it. I have always said that it's
easiest to find a job when you already have one. It’s also good to manage your expectations;
for example, one job that Dan applied for had 11,000 other applicants! We know what
the competition is like so we’re putting as much effort as possible into each
application and now we’re keeping our fingers crossed that he finds a job soon
and that it will be a job he enjoys!
Now, as if flat
hunting and looking for jobs wasn't enough, my grandmother passed away a week
ago. I decided I wanted to go home for her funeral and I wanted to be with my
family so I travelled back to Ottawa in very cold February (it was -45!). The
flight was outrageously priced but it was worth going home and I am happy that
I was able to do so. I had heard that there were discounts/refunds on flights
when you are travelling for bereavement reasons but I did not get any support
from Air Canada when I phoned them. This is something that had been brought up
a lot on the Canadians in the UK Facebook page so I had built up an expectation
but it looks like there’s no such thing. I suppose that, for this reason, it’s
probably wise to keep some savings (even though it’s tempting to spend a lot in
a city like London) for unforeseen events like this one. It’s hard enough to
deal with the death of a relative but doing so when you’re living abroad can
make it more difficult. I feel that if you are able to go home at a time like
this, you probably should. In an effort to bring a little happiness to my
Ottawa visit, I did go to Winterlude with my dad and had a tasty
beavertail, I lost when playing Roll up the Rim at Tim Horton’s, I ate some delicious
poutine (a must!) and I spent some time with my family, remembering my amazing
grandparents. Here are a few pictures of my Ottawa visit:
My mom always says that bad things come in threes. I think with (1) horrible flat hunting, (2) a very daunting job search and (3) a funeral, we've covered all three! Now bring on the happy and fun times! So now we will focus on exploring Notting Hill, getting to know our new flatmates (it's a very international house with two Italians, two Spaniards, a Canadian and a Brit!) and enjoying living together in London.
All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.
Walt Disney
