My New Flat in St Albans
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Here it is. My spangly new flat, complete with computer desk and leather sofa...
... TV, Wii and plant ...
... a table and another sofa thing ...
... door and drawers ...
... bedroom and double bed ...
... a spangly tiled bathroom ...
... and checkered floor for chess ...
... kitchen with microwave, toaster and washing machine ...
... fridge, freezer, cooker ...
... and acres of worktop space ...
... and finally my well constructed desk!
Hoorah!
Posted by FofR
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Amateur Alumni Adventures
Thursday, September 13, 2007
So, recently I graduated, spent some time at home over the dismally wet summer and looked for a job. The job hunting aspect pretty much dominated my time. It started out with two or three phones calls a day from recruitment agencies with a number of roles they thought I might be interested in, including throughout my holiday to Plymouth - everything from Control systems sales to supply chain management - I selected the roles that interested me most to pursue - this transformed into a multitude of interviews and tests. I travelled to London, Surrey, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, Gloucestershire and more, completing no more than 9 separate interviews. These interviews included aptitude tests, intelligence tests, reasoning abilities, problem solving tasks, data analysis tasks, group exercises and other such nasties. For the sake of prosperity, these were with such companies as Unilever, Data Connexion, GE Sensing (they do not refund travel expenses), Smiths Aerospace and Ocado. Both Ocado and Smiths offered me a job, and I opted for the more interesting and superior offer from Ocado, based in Hatfield.
Whilst not looking for jobs or houses I turned on the TV, linked it to an AV output from the PC and watched some X-files or Twin Peaks to fill me up on my mystery-weirdness fix for the year. I am about half way through season 2 of Twin Peaks now. Agent Cooper is my hero. Anyway, moving onwards. With a job confirmed and a start date of September 10th I had 3 weeks to arrange viewings, partake in viewings, make a decision and sort out all the fine print, on a single solitary residence. I arranged six viewings, two in Welwyn Garden City, two in Hatfield and two in St Albans for the bank holiday weekend in August.
I can't be bothered to find pictures of all of them, and to be honest, I want to forget a few of them, they were that awful. In fact the last one we saw needed a light on in every room in order to see anything... this being at 2 pm on a cloudless day with the sun high in the sky. It was also disgusting with a shoddy door, the whole thing was tacked onto the back of a house - they wanted £625 a month for it!
Here is the second best candidate - a one bedroom 'mini' house. This was in walking distance from where I work and was a strong contender at £650 a month. Although in the end we decided the nearby amenities weren't great and living in Hatfield wasn't the nicest of options.
My third arranged viewing for a studio flat in Hatfield fell through, and in that spare hour we roamed the streets of St Albans, popping in every estate agents we came across on London Road. Eventually one such agent had two apartments we could look at straight away, one just (the day before) coming back onto the market after a previous deal had fallen through. The first of these was an atrocious annex in London Colney, it was damp, smelled of wet and was pretty much a shed. We left (the family and Sam) as fast as we possibly could. The second was a one bedroom flat for £725. This was like a breath of fresh air. It was clean, spacious, light, secure, well-appointed and very close to both rail stations, the town centre, a supermarket and retail park, a large park with golf course et al. and a bus route to get into work. It was perfect except for the price. We continued looking at our other appointments - except for one cancelled two-bedroom viewing which nastily clashed with a much needed toilet stop on my part. The flat was always on our minds and at 3pm we decided that I should go for it - and cancelled any further viewings, the extra price was decided reasonable for the distinguished improvements that it offered.
Having settled that matter we spent the afternoon drinking in a nearby pub, watching the football results (which were also amicable). I remember having a lovely large glass of Newcastle Brown Ale, before moving on to Wetherspoons to have Steak for dinner. It was a nice evening all around. We were there for the weekend, so on Sunday we had a picnic in Verulamium Park - right next to my new flat. Crispy fresh baguette, pasta and salad selections and a Mars bar to cap it off. Activities also included "playing catch in the park", buying expensive chilli chocolate, a tour of the lake, excitement over the kiddies water park feature, remote control boats and Ye Olde Fighting Cocks pub. Then we headed back to Bristol, with Sam going north. I would move in on September 3rd, the next Monday.
In the week following I spent some time learning Java, managing my websites and frantically sorting out the huge deposit and one month's rental payment (£1800) to be made available in only four working days (bank holiday issues) in cleared funds! That was a laugh. On the Friday I watched Knocked Up at the cinema with Mum and Stu, post scrumptious Chiquito Lazy Boi starter. I also watched the Bristol Rovers vs. West Ham game on Sky as well as a number of the England vs. India ODI's, including the stunning 8th wicket partnership of 99 runs to seal a win, which we celebrated whilst eating chips on the way back from visiting my Aunt (avec graduation photos).
With only one car the packing needed to be ruthless and precise. Fitting a computer, tv, all the clothes I will need for a number of months, crockery, cooking pans and utensils, duvet and sheets and any additional entertainment I decided to bring was akin to those crazy Christmas toys that involve arranging shapes into a cube.
* Chocolate Muffin Break *
Mum and I arrived in good time via M4 and M25, signed the contracts, picked up the keys and moved in, with Sam quickly behind us with her odds and ends and a much needed set of drawers. Then we set about with the ickle things - arranging internet and phone installation, sorting out water, gas and electricity, television license, finding myself a computer desk, filling my cupboards with food (Sainsbury's is very expensive!), unpacking and making myself feel at home. Mum left the next day, to return to work, it was a sad goodbye, and I had that melancholy feeling all day.
I think that is enough of the tale, I have now been here ten days and obviously the internet has been installed (20mbit, woo!) and once again I have spent too long writing this, it is late and I must go to bed to get up for work tomorrow. All I have left to say is thank you so much to Mum, Sam and Stu - your help was invaluable, I couldn't have done it all without your help.
Whilst not looking for jobs or houses I turned on the TV, linked it to an AV output from the PC and watched some X-files or Twin Peaks to fill me up on my mystery-weirdness fix for the year. I am about half way through season 2 of Twin Peaks now. Agent Cooper is my hero. Anyway, moving onwards. With a job confirmed and a start date of September 10th I had 3 weeks to arrange viewings, partake in viewings, make a decision and sort out all the fine print, on a single solitary residence. I arranged six viewings, two in Welwyn Garden City, two in Hatfield and two in St Albans for the bank holiday weekend in August.
I can't be bothered to find pictures of all of them, and to be honest, I want to forget a few of them, they were that awful. In fact the last one we saw needed a light on in every room in order to see anything... this being at 2 pm on a cloudless day with the sun high in the sky. It was also disgusting with a shoddy door, the whole thing was tacked onto the back of a house - they wanted £625 a month for it!
Here is the second best candidate - a one bedroom 'mini' house. This was in walking distance from where I work and was a strong contender at £650 a month. Although in the end we decided the nearby amenities weren't great and living in Hatfield wasn't the nicest of options.
My third arranged viewing for a studio flat in Hatfield fell through, and in that spare hour we roamed the streets of St Albans, popping in every estate agents we came across on London Road. Eventually one such agent had two apartments we could look at straight away, one just (the day before) coming back onto the market after a previous deal had fallen through. The first of these was an atrocious annex in London Colney, it was damp, smelled of wet and was pretty much a shed. We left (the family and Sam) as fast as we possibly could. The second was a one bedroom flat for £725. This was like a breath of fresh air. It was clean, spacious, light, secure, well-appointed and very close to both rail stations, the town centre, a supermarket and retail park, a large park with golf course et al. and a bus route to get into work. It was perfect except for the price. We continued looking at our other appointments - except for one cancelled two-bedroom viewing which nastily clashed with a much needed toilet stop on my part. The flat was always on our minds and at 3pm we decided that I should go for it - and cancelled any further viewings, the extra price was decided reasonable for the distinguished improvements that it offered.
Having settled that matter we spent the afternoon drinking in a nearby pub, watching the football results (which were also amicable). I remember having a lovely large glass of Newcastle Brown Ale, before moving on to Wetherspoons to have Steak for dinner. It was a nice evening all around. We were there for the weekend, so on Sunday we had a picnic in Verulamium Park - right next to my new flat. Crispy fresh baguette, pasta and salad selections and a Mars bar to cap it off. Activities also included "playing catch in the park", buying expensive chilli chocolate, a tour of the lake, excitement over the kiddies water park feature, remote control boats and Ye Olde Fighting Cocks pub. Then we headed back to Bristol, with Sam going north. I would move in on September 3rd, the next Monday.
In the week following I spent some time learning Java, managing my websites and frantically sorting out the huge deposit and one month's rental payment (£1800) to be made available in only four working days (bank holiday issues) in cleared funds! That was a laugh. On the Friday I watched Knocked Up at the cinema with Mum and Stu, post scrumptious Chiquito Lazy Boi starter. I also watched the Bristol Rovers vs. West Ham game on Sky as well as a number of the England vs. India ODI's, including the stunning 8th wicket partnership of 99 runs to seal a win, which we celebrated whilst eating chips on the way back from visiting my Aunt (avec graduation photos).
With only one car the packing needed to be ruthless and precise. Fitting a computer, tv, all the clothes I will need for a number of months, crockery, cooking pans and utensils, duvet and sheets and any additional entertainment I decided to bring was akin to those crazy Christmas toys that involve arranging shapes into a cube.
* Chocolate Muffin Break *
Mum and I arrived in good time via M4 and M25, signed the contracts, picked up the keys and moved in, with Sam quickly behind us with her odds and ends and a much needed set of drawers. Then we set about with the ickle things - arranging internet and phone installation, sorting out water, gas and electricity, television license, finding myself a computer desk, filling my cupboards with food (Sainsbury's is very expensive!), unpacking and making myself feel at home. Mum left the next day, to return to work, it was a sad goodbye, and I had that melancholy feeling all day.
I think that is enough of the tale, I have now been here ten days and obviously the internet has been installed (20mbit, woo!) and once again I have spent too long writing this, it is late and I must go to bed to get up for work tomorrow. All I have left to say is thank you so much to Mum, Sam and Stu - your help was invaluable, I couldn't have done it all without your help.