Life outside climbing
Now that my bouldering dilemma is out of the way and I'm just left shitting in my pants till Saturday.. on to other stuff.
Real estate agents are a real pain, especially since I didn't know that my landlord actually uses TWO of them. One who bothered to call me up and give me notice that they were coming; and one who just turned up, knocked and would have walked in without my permission had I not been home. And the only reason why I happened to be home was because there was a strike yesterday and I didn't go into uni. The latter turned up first, I was checking my (snail) mail and he walked right past me, then I heard him knocking on someone's door upstairs while I was walking up and it turns out that it was my room. I had been expecting the other agent the day before (who did not turn up, even after I CALLED their office and someone told me that they were on their way 5 mins away), and so I thought that this guy was that agent. I proceeded to rant at him that I waited for 2 hours for him the day before and that no one turned up etc etc.. I was really pissed off. He was quick to absolve himself from blame and said he was from the other agent. I shouldn't have stopped mid-rant.. I should have gone on about the absence of notice that he was going to invade my privacy since he obviously brought the keys with him (he walked straight in through the front door) and was about to unlock my door when I walked up.
The other agent was even more incompetent. First of all, she came over to the flat, not knowing A SINGLE THING. Questions she asked me were, "Is this sales or lettings? Are you the owner or the tenant? How much is the rent going to be for the new tenant?" and the ultimate was "I don't have the contact of the owner.. could I get it off you?". I must have looked utterly disbelieving because the guy who came with her quickly jumped in with, "Oh, she's new and I'm here to show her the ropes." Well, boy, if you're here to show her the ropes, why didn't you brief her on the way over and make sure she doesn't make an ass of herself? How the HELL am I supposed to know what the new rent rate will be.. and what kind of agent doesn't even have the contact of THE CLIENT?! Absolutely ridiculous.
Other random bits: Was on the tube yesterday and there was this really adorable lil kid in a stroller who kept yelling, "Finger! Finger!" and pulling on random strangers' fingers. (The tube was quite packed so there were a lot of fingers within her reach. LoL. So cute.
There were loads of ticket inspectors, transport police and a sniffer dog (who looked soooo sweet!) when I got out at ME. Saw a few guys being held up and questioned.. wondered what was going on and why there were so many of them if it was merely a routine check. We were speculating on the way home that the loads of transport police were to protect the ticket inspectors from being beaten up (rough end of town?) and the one sniffer dog was thrown in for good measure. [Which reminds me of K unknowingly overtaking the police dog car on the highway.. luckily she was just within the speed limit] And apparently the way they train the dogs to sniff things out is to get them hooked onto the stuff. Poor things!
Met up with my ex-lecturer for lunch today. And spotted Michael Palin at the restaurant. Well, I wouldn't have recognised him had my lecturer not pointed him out. Awww... apparently I remind my lecturer of his daughter.. small-sized, extremely driven and always on the go, go, go.
Am starving now... looking forward to sushi buffet dinner with Rach.
Real estate agents are a real pain, especially since I didn't know that my landlord actually uses TWO of them. One who bothered to call me up and give me notice that they were coming; and one who just turned up, knocked and would have walked in without my permission had I not been home. And the only reason why I happened to be home was because there was a strike yesterday and I didn't go into uni. The latter turned up first, I was checking my (snail) mail and he walked right past me, then I heard him knocking on someone's door upstairs while I was walking up and it turns out that it was my room. I had been expecting the other agent the day before (who did not turn up, even after I CALLED their office and someone told me that they were on their way 5 mins away), and so I thought that this guy was that agent. I proceeded to rant at him that I waited for 2 hours for him the day before and that no one turned up etc etc.. I was really pissed off. He was quick to absolve himself from blame and said he was from the other agent. I shouldn't have stopped mid-rant.. I should have gone on about the absence of notice that he was going to invade my privacy since he obviously brought the keys with him (he walked straight in through the front door) and was about to unlock my door when I walked up.
The other agent was even more incompetent. First of all, she came over to the flat, not knowing A SINGLE THING. Questions she asked me were, "Is this sales or lettings? Are you the owner or the tenant? How much is the rent going to be for the new tenant?" and the ultimate was "I don't have the contact of the owner.. could I get it off you?". I must have looked utterly disbelieving because the guy who came with her quickly jumped in with, "Oh, she's new and I'm here to show her the ropes." Well, boy, if you're here to show her the ropes, why didn't you brief her on the way over and make sure she doesn't make an ass of herself? How the HELL am I supposed to know what the new rent rate will be.. and what kind of agent doesn't even have the contact of THE CLIENT?! Absolutely ridiculous.
Other random bits: Was on the tube yesterday and there was this really adorable lil kid in a stroller who kept yelling, "Finger! Finger!" and pulling on random strangers' fingers. (The tube was quite packed so there were a lot of fingers within her reach. LoL. So cute.
There were loads of ticket inspectors, transport police and a sniffer dog (who looked soooo sweet!) when I got out at ME. Saw a few guys being held up and questioned.. wondered what was going on and why there were so many of them if it was merely a routine check. We were speculating on the way home that the loads of transport police were to protect the ticket inspectors from being beaten up (rough end of town?) and the one sniffer dog was thrown in for good measure. [Which reminds me of K unknowingly overtaking the police dog car on the highway.. luckily she was just within the speed limit] And apparently the way they train the dogs to sniff things out is to get them hooked onto the stuff. Poor things!
Met up with my ex-lecturer for lunch today. And spotted Michael Palin at the restaurant. Well, I wouldn't have recognised him had my lecturer not pointed him out. Awww... apparently I remind my lecturer of his daughter.. small-sized, extremely driven and always on the go, go, go.
Am starving now... looking forward to sushi buffet dinner with Rach.