a room with a view...

i've been quiet over the last couple of days - after a verbose week or so i dropped off the radar in the face of a huge lack of motivation. my hangover on sunday didn't help one bit. it was Alex's boyfriend Ian's birthday party on saturday night and i wound up getting drunk with the boys out in Islington down the road and around the corner from Angel station. a good night had and i feel i held my end up fairly well. there was one conversation i had with a floppy-haired lad:

"How ye doin? Are ye noo drinkin?
course i am - just havin a break, y'know?
"...I dinn'a think Australians took breaks..."

we got back to Lambeth at somewhere past 4 in the morning after a freezing late night bus ride which i'd have had difficulty navigating while sober, and chose not to think about much while drunk. Alex knows, so we followed Alex. in Alex we trust. joyously, one of the nearby take-aways was open at that ungodly hour and so we got home with hot chips (covered in garlic sauce) in hand.

sunday was one long hangover. i dragged myself up at 1:30 in the afternoon and spent the next 11 hours feeling sorry for myself. a walk down to the local grocers led to the acquisition a fresh baguette, ham, cheese and tomato and this filled the hole, but didn't fix the head. i spent most of the day playing Unreal Tournament sitting in the armchair in the living room and not moving much, apart to refill my water glass.

yesterday was similarly unmotivated. i made the trip into town again to apply for jobs jobs jobs but wasn't performing and so i called it early and returned to my laptop and armchair. the job hunt continues to get me down. i can't help but feel that i'm just about to crack something open and then it all dances away laughing in my face. my hard work on Lou's CV and applications seems to have paid off though - she's landed herself an interview for tomorrow. this is awesome - we need a win.

that said, i'm writing this lying with my headphones on, At The Drive-In playing off my laptop, lying in my own bed in the room we secured a week and a half back. our own room where we impose upon no one and can spread out shit out wherever we please. it's freezing fucking cold outside - i went out to check out the sleety-snow earlier and even with 2 jackets on i was COLD, but it's pleasant in here. the double-glazing keeps the road-noise down to... nothing really. the drone of the cooling fans on our laptops is louder most of the time. there's ample furniture provided with more hanging space and shelving than we need. it's going to be a comfortable base of operations, even if we have absolutely nowhere to put anyone up who comes to visit. it'd be nice to have a flat of our own with our own rooms and a couch we could have surfers on, but have you seen the rents in this fucking town???

we got the move done in the afternoon, after i got back from Leicester Square. it took two trips, mostly because we had to go back to borrow bedding from Alex. that girl is way too nice for her own good. once we get some cash coming in we're taking her and her boyfriend out to an Eritrean place down the road that she's been wanting to go to for ages (i remember her mentioning off-hand once, weeks ago). i've even got Ian on-side and made him promise to find excuses to stop her from going until we get our shit sorted.

regardless, it took us about half an hour to rearrange the room to our liking - shifting things here and there, in and out, until we had a better idea as to where everything would fit. the result is a massive difference which feels more open than before and should suit our needs quite well. we got some photos of what it was like when we got here, if to prove the state of the paint and whatnot. once we've settled in and stuck some things on the walls and hung the flag somewhere (i brought a flag with me. it reminds me of home...) and stopped living out of our fucking suitcases i'll have to take some new ones. it'll be after i've fucking dusted, too - i was almost regretting wearing black when i was shifting the furniture around here i was so covered in dust.

tomorrow i'll go back into town and make more phone calls. i've taken to using the bus since it's almost as quick as the tube, but less than half the price. this is becoming important... not because i've run out of money per se, more that i'm getting tighter than a rabbi on the day before pay-day and i'm trying to stretch my available cash further. it's been so long since i've really had to worry about cash that it's taken me these last 3 weeks to remind myself what it's like to be unemployed with no job lined up. hey - maybe tomorrow, yeah?