the godfather

saturday was bad. sarah and i knew that realistically no one would get back to us on the day that we contacted them about letting their flats, but we were hoping. really hoping. hoping in that "i freaking need to get out of a hostel and hang up my clothes" kind of way. it was depressing, frustrating, scary and uncertain. the last one is by far my least favorite. i like certainty.

then, of course, we almost got scammed. because no one can go away to a big new city and not have one semi-frightening experience, right? but - we're smart. and we give ourselves time to evaluate things. and we trust our instincts. jude micheal was revealed to be our first london enemy and our money stayed safe and ready to go towards paying for a legitimate flat.

so saturday ended. we make a point of giving ourselves really good evenings every day, so the day ended on a happier note. evenings are good. evenings are me and sarah time. evenings are when we ride the top level of the bus in the very front seats. it's like disneyland and it's our happiest place.

sunday rolled around and i had a job interview (it went fine. i'm just not interested) and then sarah and i went to go meet with an actual landlord who actually lives in the city and who didn't want us to carry hundreds of pounds around on our person before agreeing the let the flat. crazy!

here's where it gets good. :) the landlord's son(?) showed us two places. the second was a little cheaper and we really liked it. it's teense, but nice. we talked over terms and everything was refreshingly upfront and so...truthful feeling. i can't describe it except to say that karli was praying for us to have that "this is so right" feeling. and we had it. so we walked across the street to the furniture store that the landlord owns and met him. he's an older man with a bald head and an army of minions. he whistles for his employees (his family?) and gets things done. he went through the lease with us right there and we all signed it. then, he got a cab for us to take back to our hostel and bring us back with our bags. oh don't worry, he says. it won't cost very much because his cousin owns a cab company just around the corner and he'll cut the price in half for his tenants! at this point sarah and i are starting to feel like we may have just entered the world of the london mafia. it's an oddly safe feeling - being on the in with the mob boss. which we think our landlord must be. the cousin cab driver took us back and forth with our bags and we moved in. fast, i know! meanwhile, the godfather (our nickname for our new landlord. i swear i'm going to forget his real name) had one of his employees clean up the place for us. we went and got the money for the deposit etc and when we got back he took our hands and said that we are like his daughters now. if we need anything, we should just let him know. to prove this point, he found out that we didn't have a fridge yet (they were going to give it to us the next day), whistled for sonny (guy who showed us the place) and told him to get us a fridge right now. he also said that old tenants have left some appliances and kitchen things and he's going to get them for us.

today they're installing our washing machine and getting us a little table and about three chairs. they're just, you know, bringing them over from the furniture store across the street. :) we asked about a mirror in the bathroom and sonny said, "done. i'll get it tomrrow." our hot water handle was broken on the sink - "we'll fix it tomorrow." it's a good place to be - in the family of the mafia. we like it. we have a great feeling about the godfather. he likes us and we like him. and if anything happens to us, he'll just whistle for one of his employees and they'll "take care of it," if you know what i mean. :)

cheesy but true ikea advert, "home is the most important place in the world."

to sum up: sarah and i have a flat. the bed has no bedding. we have no cleaning supplies. we have no utensils. we have no food. we have no hangers. but we have the beginnings of something called home.