Flat (Studio) Land

On Tuesday morning, first light had not yet broke when we awoke at 0600. We cleaned our teeth with the most delicious baking soda vegan toothpaste, made coffee, and proceeded to flat hunt. G texted "Todd" to arrange a viewing at his town-house for the evening, and then phoned "Mike" to arrange a viewing at a studio in the city centre.

We then spent a bit of time reading: C "Confessions of a New York Taxi Driver", and G "Farmageddon". We checked our emails again, and a minor panic ensued when C received an email from the admissions tutor, indicating that there were serious timetable clashes and could she please come in to sort it out. That meeting was arranged for half three.

G went to her first ballet class in months, which was taught by a friendly Russian-trained South American lady called Ione. There, she put to good use her questionable Japanese skills by chatting to a Japanese lady, as well as refresh some basic ballet technique. Hopefully this will become a frequent occurrence (the ballet, not the Japanese!)

In the meantime, C was brushing up on details of the course that she didn't want to drop. The noise outside the window is pretty heavy, so the noise-cancelling headphones she got for her birthday were delightful to study with!

Afterwards, we met in town for lunch, and ended up in Nando's, where after we'd ordered and sat down, realised that we needed to be at a flat viewing in ten minutes! We called "Mike" and pushed the viewing back by half an hour. It was a close call, as C had ordered a mayo-free burger, only to have her burger covered in mayo. (This seems to be a recurrent theme out here.) G was disappointed, as her favourite mushroom and hallumi burger wasn't on the menu, so made do with avocado and cheddar instead!

We made our way up a very steep hill to where the studio is, and met "Mike" outside. He was a very friendly, amicable middle-aged Kiwi who just-so happen to be an Anglophile! The studio itself was lovely, very small, but very fung-shui. Some enjoyably hideous art (think bright green splatters of paint across one of the canvases, framed above the table). The bed was behind the sofa, the kitchen behind the other sofa, and a reasonably-sized bathroom. There were four hobs, which facilitates the amount of cooking we do, and a good-sized table for C to do uni work.

Noticing a Waitrose bag on the floor, C exclaimed "There's Waitrose in NZ??" Mike laughed and said, no, he goes to the UK every two years, and we had a good old chat about the Cotswalds. Although small, it felt very homey, and we both liked it immediately, and so expressed an interest.