I can see her during the day.

[reddragdiva]

We spent Saturday doing a little packing, but mostly looking at prospective flats. One nice one-bedroom, one mediocre one-bedroom, one very nice two-bedroom too far from the train station, two marvellous two-bedrooms (one with boxroom/study) with nightmarish stairs and one middling two-bedroom with a shared garden which didn't grab us but didn't suck too horribly, so we put in an application. Fingers crossed the owners will accept a cat and that the neighbours aren't insane. If we get it, the Bell will be our local!

Yesterday I went back to the ex-flat and did some cleaning and packing. I stopped when it got too dim to see and my fingers had turned to icicles. That place does horrible things to my breathing, and even stuff that isn't damp feels damp; the sooner we're cleared out, the better. I'm also really hoping we can get the rats out of there today — it can't be good for them.

If we get the middling flat, we'll hopefully be moving next weekend.

I am now at work and falling asleep. MORE CRACK NEEDED.

Update: Now hoping the owner of the prospective flat rejects us for demanding a cat — it's outside the catchment area for our GP. ARGH BUGGER FUCK!

Update 2: Landlord has approved the cat and will be putting in a washing machine. Middling flat is go! Probably! Assuming HomeLet can reference-check competently, and believe someone could possibly be on £40k in Walthamstow! redcountess is researching GP clinics for the prospective new address ...

Comments

[arkady.livejournal.com]

/me pokes you in the direction of email....

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

I always thought "flat" was a strange thing to call an apartment, especially if it had multiple floors.

[adrasteah.livejournal.com]

Good luck with the flat

[juliann.livejournal.com]

Generally speaking, most flats are only one floor, although it may be up stairs to get to them! If it's over two floors (or several other conditions basicaly to make it sound more posh) it's often referred to as a maisonette. Although basements and attics don't count as floors and I've lived in a building where the top flat was over two floors technically, although they had an office on the lower floor and the living area on the upper.

[lastaii.livejournal.com]

AFAICR it's "flat" as in "all the rooms are on one level".

Yeah, I always call 'em apartments too :)

[fanf]

Aren't GP's reasonable about keeping you on their list if you move only just outside their area?

[juliet]

If you're already registered with the GP, I'm not sure you *have* to move if you don't want to?

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Not generally in London.

[reddragdiva]

We could investigate along those lines ;-)

In other news, it's possible that if the owner refuses the cat, we could still lose the deposit if we turn it down. If this happens, we will be attempting to do the rather fast-moving real estate girl for fraud. I'm sure it'll be a cavalcade of entertainment.

[karen2205]

Depends how far you move - and how in demand a particular practice is - I had to move practices when I moved about a ten minute drive away (from Kilburn to Kensal Green). I suspect that the old practice was full up and very keen to get rid of patients who'd moved away (given that they weren't accepting any new patients at the time).

Moving practices isn't the end of the world though (just inconvenient) - I'd recommend asking for copies of your medical notes from your old practice and taking them with you when you register with the new (yes, they will eventually be passed on by the old surgery, but for speed, it makes sense).

NHS Direct lists surgeries - it's worthwhile phoning them and checking they are accepting new patients before going along to register. Some places have very specific rules about when you can go to register and which documents they want to see (eg. passport, leave/Council Tax bill as proof of address).

[wyrdlinks.livejournal.com]

And check on the limitations of the surgery. One we went to would only let one make an appointment on the day of the appointment. One was supposed to start calling them at 8AM. If, when one called, all morning appointments for that day were gone, then you had to start calling them at 12 for an afternoon appointment. If, when one called, the afternoon appointments had gone, then the whole process started the next day.

We didn't stay registered with them for very long I can tell you.

[reddragdiva]

We have discovered with ours that the doctors are mostly quite nice (except one severely burnt-out jobsworth) but the receptionists are obstructive incompetents who seem convinced a doctor's surgery would work just fine without all those annoying patients asking for things. Having a word directly to Liz's nice doctor seems to unclog things sometimes.

Assuming HomeLet approve me, we'll be seeing if we can in fact stay with this one. They'll be a bus ride (69 or 357) away.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

So does that still imply moving next weekend?
I'm supposed to be going to a party at bfo and hatter next Saturday, so I could drive down to London and move stuff in my car, since I think one can park around your neck of the woods, and I think one can also park down near Battersea.
Of course that would mean driving across London. My car is less shiny than the average Londoners now... Heh, heh, heh....

[reddragdiva]

Oh, baybee! One hopes it does ;-) Agent said HomeLet can take a week (cos they're crap), so we're looking to next weekend.

The really troublesome stuff is:

* Computer table (which I did not dismantle yesterday)
* Superking mattress (6'×6'6")
* several computing devices (four desktops, assorted laptops)
* Sun 21" monitor (the same one you brought to Hendon a coupla years ago) and a 17" monitor

I will be unable to go to the flat in daylight hours this week, unless I grab a day or two off on Thursday and Friday. Probably a good idea. I'd better get a shitload of work done this afternoon ...

[gths.livejournal.com]

Receptionists, eh. The receptionists at my doctor's surgery always spell my name wrong even though I'm bloody named after their employer!

[greylock.livejournal.com]

London, clearly sucks.

Yay for Medicare.
The soon-to-be-dismantled-Medicare.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

None of that should be a problem. My car has many of the attributes of the Tardis, but lacks its temperamental nature.
Is the mattress at least somewhat bendable? I don't mean roll it into a pretzel, I do mean bending it into a gentle curve in the middle.
I think I'll be down in London with car on Wednesday for other reasons. Do you want any decent boxes for moving? I've got a stack (ex-computer boxes).

[reddragdiva]

Gentle curve maybe, tying it to a roof easier.

I bought six fold-your-own archive boxes from Ryman on Saturday :-) But hey, why not. Not sure who can be down at the flat on Wed. Or you could visit Arkady's.

[grumpy-sysadmin.livejournal.com]

the receptionists are obstructive incompetents who seem convinced a doctor's surgery would work just fine without all those annoying patients asking for things.

I've certainly never said that about users. Don't know about you.

[baralier.livejournal.com]

This from someone who live in a country where people proudly proclaim to be wearing "fanny-packs".

[baralier.livejournal.com]

Things to bear in mind before choosing your potential new home (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20041115/od_nm/odd_britain_corpse_dc)

[reddragdiva]

The main problem is that they're incompetents as well. Liz has had endless fun with their arse-disablement.

[kest]

Please to expound, if you have a spare moment, just how the british health care system works? it sounds a bit like school, here.

[reddragdiva]

I'll let you know if I ever figure it out. Good points: it's there and it's free, and medicines are £6.20 each unless you're poor in which case they're free too. Bad points: top-heavy bureaucracy and tremendous inflexibility.

it's like a HMO

[illuin.livejournal.com]

except the co-pay for medicines is only about $10 and there's no co-pay, co-insurance, deductible, or balance billing for medically necessary services. The hard part is convincing someone what you need is medically necessary.

Re: it's like a HMO

[reddragdiva]

So the US basically combines the worst aspects of the public sector with the worst aspects of the private sector?

[arkady.livejournal.com]

£6.40 actually.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

So, boxes, flat packed. Carryable under one arm. Do you want half a dozen or so?
I'm driving to Dorkbot, as my car will be full of furniture (hoping I can actually park nearby, hmmm) so I can bring them there; carrying them home shouldn't be hard for you.
(I can't give lifts, sorry - I anticipate my car being a one-functional-seater for this journey)

[reddragdiva]

Getting to Dorkbot from Arkady's will be a major PITA; a pity, as Liz really wants to go if possible. Hmm ...

[arkady.livejournal.com]

I believe Liz has looked up bus routes and so forth and worked out a way there.

I shan't be at DorkBot.