This morning I took the tube up to Rayners Lane, a community in North London, to sign my lease. The agency has its office up there. Everything went smoothly, I handed over a wad of cash to pay the deposit and first month's rent, got a set of keys and left my cell phone. The missing phone I noticed while I had a second set of keys made at a corner shop, before even thinking about getting on the tube to go back. Lucky day?
Not quite. When I finally set foot in the apartment, after stopping for a few hours at Portobello Road market (yummie muffins and good ciabatta and a thousand other things – and a million tourists) and just in time for the furniture to be delivered, it was already to late to rent a truck. Around here, all van rental places close for the weekend Saturday afternoon. So I can't move in like I had planned. I'll have to annoy my troglodyte friend with my cheerful presence for another two days.
She's taking the blow like a true champion and even joined me in Hyde Park this afternoon for the Diaspora London Music Village Festival. In this event, a long-standing tradition, local bands from different ethnic communities play their music to a crowd that's even more diverse than the 16 bands over two days. Delightful.
Before going to the park, I went to retrieve my bike from storage. Not riding my bike is one thing. Not having a bike around is an entirely different thing, impossible to bear for me. As it turns out, riding on the left side of the road is surprisingly easy. Only sometimes do I drift to the other side, mostly when there's no traffic to guide me. Luckily, there is plenty of it, most of the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment