Visitors arrived (some human, some not!)

This morning as we got ready to go to the airport, Grace saw a mouse running around the house.

She was worried that I didn't believe her, but I did. We also found some droppings, so there was definitely no doubt!

We had to rush off to the train, to get to the tube, to get to Heathrow. A bit of a mission, especially when the tube has to wait for 10 mins in a tunnel for a space on the platform. The same distance could have been walked overground in about 5 mins.

Getting from Heathrow tube station to the Terminal was another mission. Several long tunnels with travelators. It felt like we were never going to get there. But we made it, and found Allyson and Paul (and Paul's brother David and soon-to-be-wife Emma - they are over for the wedding).

We got our suitcase that Allyson and Paul had kindly dragged all the way from Auckland (via Thailand, Melbourne and Singapore) using their "Gold" frequent flyer benefits of excess luggage allowance :-)

On our way home we bought some mouse traps to attempt to catch the little vermin. It was like Christmas all over again when we unpacked all our (mainly winter clothing) things, having forgotten what we had packed in there.

More shopping

London has 24 hour supermarkets. Unfortunately, this means 24 hours Monday morning until Saturday night. Sunday is left out and all you get is 11am-5pm. Most shops are open late during the week, but Sunday, no. 11-5 is all you get. We bought an airing rack so we could finally wash some clothes, a broom, a trolley bag (now we look like senior citizens when we wheel our groceries home) and more stuff from Debenhams!! It was pissing with rain, but we just have to get used to it. There is some pretty awful weather coming our way soon.

I think we got close to spending in the three figure mark this weekend, but we have all the essentials, and more.

Our first home cooked dinner tonight!

We have a home!

Grace woke up not feeling too good this morning. Lack of sleep and stress is getting to us both.

Andrew caught the tube to Victoria station and walked down the road to Hertz to pick up the rental car. We booked a Ford Mondeo sized car but the first offering I got was a Saab convertible. When I reached the car and saw exactly what it was, I though "cool" (it would have been a pretty cool car) then turned around and went back inside and told them that I really wanted a four door car with some boot space. They then offered me a Ford Focus wagon or a Volvo wagon. I had to take the Volvo, so we ended up with a Volvo V70 turbo-diesel station wagon. It was a pretty quick car, and had plenty of space. Luxury!!

Picked up Grace, went to the letting agents office, signed the contract, drove to the house, met the landlord again and went though the house with the inventory clerk. I was expecting: 1 sofa, check. 1 table, check... But in reality it was: that window pane is cracked, there are finger marks around that light switch. She noticed every minor flaw in the place. Stuff I never would have seen. It's good though, we can't be blamed for the minor damage around the place. Not sure if this is normal, since it's our first time renting. First time away from our 'home'!!

Once that was all complete, we were officially in our new place. Ahhhh.. what a relief. Well, almost. We drove back to the hostel and loaded up the wagon and brought all our stuff. We didn't have that much, although had begun to collect some 'house stuff'. Traffic was getting quite busy so travelling around took some time. Next stop was Croydon for Ikea (only 15 miles away, but took over half an hour). We got our plates, cups, glasses, duvet, cover, pillows etc. No sheets, because it wasn't possible to get 2 sheets and some pillow cases in any one colour!! When we got back (another slow drive - they have way too many pedestrian crossings here) we went to Debenhams (department store) and bought sheets. Only £9.75 for King size sheets, so it didn't matter that they wouldn't fit our double bed, the main thing is they were cheap. We said that we were only buying sheets, well as usual we came out with way more than we intended. A wok, bowls, water filter jug... Still not done, we went to Asda (superstore/supermarket) and bought more kitchen stuff and of course, some food! No time for cooking so Subway for dinner.

Relief, it's all sorted

After a stressful night, calling our banks and Baycorp in New Zealand, we had a plan to solve our rental problem. Thanks to those in NZ who offered some invaluable advice.

We agreed with the letting agency that we would try and get credit references from NZ and put down 2 more weeks deposit on the rental. Our banks were very obliging and after we faxed them, they faxed back within the day (Friday NZ time). Baycorp were a little slower with our credit checks, but we had sufficient information.

We spent all morning talking (and arguing) with the letting agent about all the problems we have had, and we finally went to the house and met the landlord. It was good to check that everything was in order at the flat, and to meet the landlord.

Fingers crossed for no more last minute issues!

No place to live

Grace had a phone call from work today from the manager of the letting agency. The lady said that the landlord didn't accept our credit check so we couldn't move in. This was not an unreasonable response from the landlord, considering that we don't have any credit history in the UK, but not TWO DAYS before we are due to move in!!! The credit check came back good, which actually meant that there was nothing 'bad' on our record (it's hard to have anything bad when you don't have anything at all). There was bad communication between the agency and the landlord, so we all thought he was happy, but then when he finally saw the report, he was not.

Hostel & Chicago

We have moved into a hostel for the next couple of weeks before moving into our flat. Hostel is ok, but can get noisy when other people walk around since there are wooden floors and reverberating corridors. We get free breakfast which consists of cereal and toast - all in all not too bad.

We went and saw our first West End musical tonight - Chicago with Ashlee Simpson. Our friend Trudy (whom we met at Rob's flat) and who used to go to the same intermediate as Grace (small world) came with us. Before the show we had dinner with Trudy as well as Rob & Debbie and caught up with their news.

Andrew starts work!

Andrew started work today - quite hard after 9 weeks off!
And Grace had a site visit to Horsham (near Redhill and Gatwick) for work. A nice day out of the city!

A little London outing

We visited our friend Kirsty in the Isle of Dogs today. We took the tube to Monument and checked out the Monument to the Great Fire of London. We were supposed to meet Kirsty here but as the weather wasn't so flash, we decided to meet at her flat instead. From there we were planning on catching the DLR from Bank to her place, however due to engineering works, that part of the line was not operating. We had to take another tube to Canary Wharf, which meant that we got to see the posh buildings in that area. We finally made it to Island Gardens where Kirsty picked us up from the station back to her place.

After having a chat we decided to go over to Greenwich, the walk started off in fine-ish weather and slowly deteriorated, but we managed to get to the Greenwich foot tunnel before it got really awful.
At the other end, we saw the Cutty Sark, and found a market (in a warehouse type building) which we browsed as it poured with rain outside. We then headed to Cafe Rouge for some hot chocolate to warm up - not before entering a Mexican cafe and deciding that this wasn't really the place for a hot chocolate. Due to finding hair in our bread and dips and paper in Andrew's hot chocolate, we managed to fill ourselves on a rather cheap lunch!