Adventure in London
Went to London again this weekend to escape Leeds.
Jeremy was kind enough to let me stay at his apt while he was away, so it worked out well - I got to wake up in a real apt instead of a hotel room. It's hard to describe the feeling of waking up in an apt instead of a hotel - if you've never spent a month living in a hotel, you won't understand. It was awesome.
I had a great time hanging out with Anchal - we saw a flamenco show at Saddler Theatre, and I had my first dinner with her and her sister. good times.
I then met up with Rick and Tamara (friends from Stanford) - haven't seen them in a while, it was great to catch up. Took a double-decker bus home, went up to Jeremy's apt and tried to open the door.
Which brings me to the "adventure" part: the door wouldn't open. My thought process:
- am i in the right building?
- check
- right apt?
- check.
Turns out the real-estate lady that was showing the apt (since jeremy's moving out) did the "sensible" thing and locked the deadbolt at the bottom of the door, to which i (naturally) didn't have a key.
so pop quiz: it's 1:30am in the morning in London, what do you do?
Naturally, i tried to break in - there was a ladder going up to the roof but the roof was locked. Scaling up/down a few stories wasn't very appealing anyway, it started to rain and the windows were locked. Not that i didn't try, though. scouted the backard, tried goign up, but since i'm not a real rock climber and don't have good insurance, that wasn't really an option. nor did i want to end up in jail. I called up the # on the Faron Sutaria real estate agency sign outside, left a pleading voicemail and wrote it off - they weren't going to call back in forseeable future.
Faced with a night of walking around london, sleeping on the stairs (or gutter), i took the "grown-up approach" and got a room in a b&b across the street. so the short-term problem was solved.
Naturally, real estate offices are closed on Sundays - so i'm still faced with the fact that all my stuff is in Jeremy's place, i have to catch a train back to Leeds in the evening but i can't go to work w/out my laptop. And jeremy's out of the country for a week. Fun fun fun.
Thankfully, i got a hold of Marjorie - jeremy's neighbour, who lent me some much needed emotional support and let me hang out in her apt while i sorted things out.
Went up to the "letting office" - naturally, it's closed. Went next door to Foxton's which was open, severely disappointed the agents there since they thought i was going to rent something. Unfortunately, they don't hang out with the neighbouring real estate agents, so they couldn't help. very nice though, they tried.
All i really needed was a "hook" - a way to get to any Faron Sutaria agent that could get me the lady that had the keys and locked the apt. You could see the desks from the street windows - but none of them had any visible business cards on them. I've seen enough spy movies, but takign a picture of the barely-vsiible card and enhancing it requires either a photo lab, or at least a laptop. which i had, but it was in jeremy's apt. catch-22.
Long story shorter - I got "on the horn" and called up both Anchal and Tamara, the only other people i knew in London. Tamara was awesome - loooked up a list of all the #s for Faron Sutaria she could find.
From there, it was just a matter of luck and good old social engineering. After a few misses, a call to "corporate services" resulted in some random person (possibly even a janitor) picking up a phone, getting me a # of some real estate agent that dealt with Jeremy's apt.
Naturally, she was out of town, but she got through tosomeone else (in the middle of her brunch with parents) that eventually drove down to the office and got the keys and unlocked the deadbolt.
So, halfway into sunday problem was solved, and i'm now eternally grateful to the unknown Faron Sutaria people, along with Marjorie, Tamara and Anchal.
So afterwards i went sightseeing and straddled the meredian in Greenwhich.
Jeremy was kind enough to let me stay at his apt while he was away, so it worked out well - I got to wake up in a real apt instead of a hotel room. It's hard to describe the feeling of waking up in an apt instead of a hotel - if you've never spent a month living in a hotel, you won't understand. It was awesome.
I had a great time hanging out with Anchal - we saw a flamenco show at Saddler Theatre, and I had my first dinner with her and her sister. good times.
I then met up with Rick and Tamara (friends from Stanford) - haven't seen them in a while, it was great to catch up. Took a double-decker bus home, went up to Jeremy's apt and tried to open the door.
Which brings me to the "adventure" part: the door wouldn't open. My thought process:
- am i in the right building?
- check
- right apt?
- check.
Turns out the real-estate lady that was showing the apt (since jeremy's moving out) did the "sensible" thing and locked the deadbolt at the bottom of the door, to which i (naturally) didn't have a key.
so pop quiz: it's 1:30am in the morning in London, what do you do?
Naturally, i tried to break in - there was a ladder going up to the roof but the roof was locked. Scaling up/down a few stories wasn't very appealing anyway, it started to rain and the windows were locked. Not that i didn't try, though. scouted the backard, tried goign up, but since i'm not a real rock climber and don't have good insurance, that wasn't really an option. nor did i want to end up in jail. I called up the # on the Faron Sutaria real estate agency sign outside, left a pleading voicemail and wrote it off - they weren't going to call back in forseeable future.
Faced with a night of walking around london, sleeping on the stairs (or gutter), i took the "grown-up approach" and got a room in a b&b across the street. so the short-term problem was solved.
Naturally, real estate offices are closed on Sundays - so i'm still faced with the fact that all my stuff is in Jeremy's place, i have to catch a train back to Leeds in the evening but i can't go to work w/out my laptop. And jeremy's out of the country for a week. Fun fun fun.
Thankfully, i got a hold of Marjorie - jeremy's neighbour, who lent me some much needed emotional support and let me hang out in her apt while i sorted things out.
Went up to the "letting office" - naturally, it's closed. Went next door to Foxton's which was open, severely disappointed the agents there since they thought i was going to rent something. Unfortunately, they don't hang out with the neighbouring real estate agents, so they couldn't help. very nice though, they tried.
All i really needed was a "hook" - a way to get to any Faron Sutaria agent that could get me the lady that had the keys and locked the apt. You could see the desks from the street windows - but none of them had any visible business cards on them. I've seen enough spy movies, but takign a picture of the barely-vsiible card and enhancing it requires either a photo lab, or at least a laptop. which i had, but it was in jeremy's apt. catch-22.
Long story shorter - I got "on the horn" and called up both Anchal and Tamara, the only other people i knew in London. Tamara was awesome - loooked up a list of all the #s for Faron Sutaria she could find.
From there, it was just a matter of luck and good old social engineering. After a few misses, a call to "corporate services" resulted in some random person (possibly even a janitor) picking up a phone, getting me a # of some real estate agent that dealt with Jeremy's apt.
Naturally, she was out of town, but she got through tosomeone else (in the middle of her brunch with parents) that eventually drove down to the office and got the keys and unlocked the deadbolt.
So, halfway into sunday problem was solved, and i'm now eternally grateful to the unknown Faron Sutaria people, along with Marjorie, Tamara and Anchal.
So afterwards i went sightseeing and straddled the meredian in Greenwhich.
Labels: England
posted by toli at 3:14 PM
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