Friday, November 09, 2007

Flat hunting

is not going well. Mainly because I have a really stonking cold (Anne is very good at blogging with a cold, I can't make the words come out right, but she manages to spell them so they sound like you have a really stonking blocked up bright red nose). I think I also have an image problem. There are a few too many stereotypes attached to being a knitting Christian librarian, or a librarian who knits and also happens to be a Christian, or a Christian librarian knitter. Typical conversations with potential flatmates go something like this:
PF: And what do you do?
Me: I'm a librarian.
[slight pause]
PF: This isn't a quiet household, you know.

Since when has a librarian been QUIET?!?!?!? Grrrr. I have only viewed one place so far, on my first night in London, just before the cold turned up. It was TINY. As in cupboard-size, with just about enough room for a single bed and a tiny wardrobe but no room for anything else at all, including Monkeys.

Monkey also has the cold (although he thinks it's flu). We're both in London for the week to catsit Gypsy and to do some flat hunting.

Gypsy doesn't have the cold and still thinks she should be fed on time, despite the fact that Monkey and I both have it. I had to cancel yesterday's flat viewings, after coming over all wappy on the Hammersmith & City en route to Paddington. It is getting slightly worrying, as I want to move house in 10 days' time and so far have only viewed one place...

There seems to be mountains of stuff to do before that. I've finished working on-site, but I still have some work to do, plus a lot of paperwork to finish off for various things. Plus all the boring nitty gritty life things that I want to get finished before I start the job - so far the car has been serviced and I've been to the nurse for my check up, but there is still the boiler to be serviced and the dentist to get to and the last few things to finish off in the house in Newark - curtains, and bookshelves. Oh, and my washing machine (with a perfect sense of timing) packed up last week. If it had lasted three weeks more I wouldn't have needed to use it. Fortunately I was heading over to Mum's for the night to see the nephew sprogs, just before coming down to London, so I took three loads of washing with me.


Dylan (on the left) is now wearing the jumper I knitted for Noah's first birthday/Christmas. I'm really impressed with how it's wearing. It's Regia 6ply Crazy Color, and it doesn't seem to have bobbled or pilled at all, despite being washed upteen times. I think I'd do a sprog jumper in sock yarn again as it seems to wear better than ordinary machine washable yarn.
I also suspect the cold came from these two, as I had to take the car out in the middle of the night to the midnight pharmacy to get Nurofen for Kids for Dylan!

Monkey's cold (sorry, "flu") must have come from this lot:

Yes, the nephew sprogs have monkeys too now... The large hairy specimen with the big grin on the right (surely that's a gorilla?) is from the Eden Project, where Dylan fell in love with him two weeks' ago.

Knitting is going slowly, I'm not sure if I'm going to get the Christmas stuff done as I seem to be running short of time as usual. I did get a mobile phone sock finished for James though:

I found the pencil button at Boyes. Isn't it cool?!
I think that's it for now. I was hoping to go to the Stitch n Bitch Day in London tomorrow and meet up with a few people but I'm not sure if I'll make it now (and I don't want every knitter in London to end up with the cold too), as I've had to re-arrange some flat viewings for this weekend. Obviously it's OK to pass cold germs onto potential flatmates. ;-) Here's hoping that these rooms won't be as tiny...

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'b sorry do hear you hab god a code... - oh hang on, it's you, not me - I can 'speak' properly!

Life sounds a little too interesting at the moment - I'm sure something will turn up, but for your sanity's sake I hope it's sooner rather than later.

And what is it with washing machines? I think they have a rather sick sense of humour, and impeccable comic timing...

Get well soon.

Piglottie said...

Oh Daisy I dont envy you! I remember how hard it was when I was flat hunting in London. I hope you find something soon - and something that is a decent size. Hope the cold clears up too.

Jamie said...

So sorry to hear about your cold! What timing you have. :) I'm a bit down with something myself.

As a fellow knitting Christian librarian, I have to admit that I am the least quiet person I know. Some of my student staff do tend to give me a look over my knitting, but a few want to learn (or so they say).

Here's a lovely comic I think you'll enjoy: http://www.unshelved.com/archive.aspx?strip=20051026

Best wishes in healing and finding a new flat.

Linda said...

I hope you feel better soon and that all with the flat hunting just falls into place. x

Seahorse said...

Sorry you're not feeling well! I've also experienced flat hunting in London and rather hope you'll end up with something better than my creepy, spider ridden room in Edmonton :0

Do you think Monkey sabotaged the washer in some sort of simian protest?!

dreamcatcher said...

I hope the cold goes away in double-quick time, worst possible moment and all that! Best of luck with the flat hunting too. I think that's hilarious that people assume librarians are quite All Of The Time :-D I can imagine it gets annoying though! Love that Regia yarn, good to hear how well it wears - must add to my yarny wishlist :-)

Mary Anne said...

I'm late reading this but I wanted to say I'm sorry to hear you've been ill with cold or flu and hope you are feeling a little better each day. and poor Monkey too.

twigletqueen said...

Why should people expect librarians to be quiet? Did you ask if they were planning to bring THEIR jobs home with them as well?
Bah.

Badger said...

If the potential flatmates are the kind of people who would stereotype librarians as being 'quiet', then you wouldn't want to live with them anyway. Everyone knows librarians are the funniest, the cleverest, the best drinkers and are all round wits and raconteurs. So there.

Unknown said...

Huzzah! My phone sock's famous!!

Bummer about the flat hunting though :( I suggest that to avoid the stereotypes you can take some simple steps. Never mention religion (not that there's anything wrong with it of course, but we're trying to keep things neutral here!) and call yourself an information professional or an information manager instead of librarian. If you want to get something a bit closer to cataloguing elements of your job maybe you could call yourself as a meta-data analyst!

Not sure how else you could describe knitting though... the practice of executive yarn-based de-stressing techniques? ;-)

Sue H said...

Hope your cold gets better soon, and that you are successful in your flat hunting. I'll keep my fingers crossed that there is a glorious flat our there, with big airy rooms and flatmates who will welcome you with open arms.

Anonymous said...

Hope you get over the cold soon - there is not much worse. I agree with the librarian image issue = people are always telling me that I am not what they expect of a librarian (I wonder what they expect), I assume a beige person wearing beige (acrylic) leading a sad beige life and surrounded by (beige?) cats... my reply is normally "well - at least you only thought I was a librarian - I had you down as an ACCOUNTANT hahahahahah!!!!" works even better if they are an accountant - not that there is anything wrong with accoutants, but I am determined to pass the insult on to someone and keep in going.

BTW is monkey-flu better or worse than man-flu?

KnitYoga said...

Hope you feel better soon and you manage to get everything sorted. Not a good time at all to have a cold (or flu) for humans (or monkeys)!

Craftydramaqueen said...

Poor you! Hope you are feeling a bit better. Good luck with the flat hunting. Hope Monkeh is getting over his 'flu!

T said...

Hope you're feeling better and good luck with the home-hunting. Blimey, Monkey looks like he's on his last legs! Love the Regia jumper, the colours are great.

Anonymous said...

How come your monkey is only wearing a T shirt in this weather. And you a knitter too. If you have a sewing machine and are deft with a needle you could maybe run to a fleece.

Tusa said...

Good luck with the flat hunting. Hope your cold is now better.

CannyCat said...

Thats one cute monkey! :)