Electricitree.
I mentioned a few articles back that I'd be heading back up to Aberdeen for the rest of the summer but that is now not going to happen because we got royally screwed by the letting agents Martin & Co. To be fair, it wasn't completely their fault, but the bits that were my fault are excusable because I have red blood running through my veins and emotions. Our general inexperience with the whole renting a house thing may have contributed but what do you expect? We also had the most appaling bad luck. We've never done it before an- OK. Maybe I should start at the beginning... the beginning... the beginning... [insert wavy flashback effect here]
It all began about a month ago. There's four of us wanting to live somewhere, preferably together, so we look around and find a four-bed flat/house amalgamation which is excellent. We contact the letting agents and let them know we're interested.
The fun begins.
The first thing they want is a deposit of £300 each for the house and guarantors' forms so that if any of us should somehow become an outrageous gambling addict they'd still get their money. We were all fairly alright with this, we could do that. When do they want it? We looked through their papers where they casually remark that finding a guarantor, printing out the forms, sending it to our guarantors, getting them filled in, and then sending it back to Martin & Co should be done within "two days" or the place goes back on the market. We of course assumed it was some kind of terrible mistake because the Royal Mail delivers letters, it does not currently employ matter transmitters. After much frustration and blood and tears they agreed to give us four more days. Bloody fantastic.
I printed out the forms which seemed to go on for ever so to save ink I turn the quality down. It's no big deal. At least it wasn't at the time.
The forms arrived back home and with so little time left it was agreed that the best way to finish this would be to scan the signed forms on the computer and then e-mail them to the company. Ah, big sigh of relief. Not so. They soon reply that they can't read the forms and I remember all too late about the ink quality. So, the forms are posted to Martin & Co who accepted them. It was all looking pretty straightforward after that, soon we would be able to move in on the 2nd of July and all would be right with the world. Not so.
They give me another impossible deadline to procure guarantors' accounts. For the last three years. My dad was the guarantor and happens to be a self-employed gardener so it was going to be a bit tricky. In the end the only thing we could do was get my father's most consistent employer to send them a letter with the information they needed. So I got the letter and I posted it hoping they'd get it in time.
The very next day, and I am not joking, the Royal Mail goes on strike. What. The. Flightless hippo.
These delays pushed us to the 2nd of July, the day when we thought we could move in, for them to finally tell us that the accounts weren't "good enough". There's not really much to say after that is there? Part of me wonders whether they get a secret thrill from utterly shattering our hopes on the very day everything was supposed to be sorted. We now have to look for somewhere else except there IS nowhere else because we've been spending the last month breaking our backs trying to appease these nutters who treated us like the middle-class burgeoise looking for a second home instead of students trying to get somewhere affordable to live within walking distance of the university. It totally reeks of piss this. We've got four people looking at a two-bed flat now and even that looks shifty. And we won't all be able to live with each other either. Thanks very much Martin & Co. Thank you very bloody much.
So, as a result I'm going to be staying in Crail for the rest of the summer and try to supervise the acquisition of a new flat from afar, and try to arrange some employment for myself when I get back to the granite city. Which means I'll still be around which nicely segues us into NationStates things.
Given the popularity of 'What Kind Of NationStater Are You?' I will make a new and improved version soon which should be much more accurate. And cool. With go-fast stripes.
There will also be new issues soon, but that's pretty much a given. The only new news regarding them is that I'm hoping to make them even better over the next few months. Which tells you absolutely nothing but I don't want to give anything away. It might not even happen. So. Oh, and no-one seems to have been getting the last issue I put in which is, yes, an Easter Egg issue. I had a browse through the nation pages and only came across a handful who'd be eligible but I still believe people will work it out soon enough.
I'm planning to end the competition for a new Sirocco's Blog logo by the end of the week, so anyone with, to use the computery terminology, 1337 Photoshop skilz, and wants to enter should do so as soon as possible.
And finally, at the end of a long, long post... Gahd, I really wouldn't mention it unless I needed to so badly, but if there's any rich and generous (or even just generous - just rich won't help) benefactors out there, you can PayPal me using siroccothemod@gmail.com for which I will always be eternally grateful.
I'm going to miss the relative simplicity of first year university. Bye bye fair fresherdom, you were always there for me. Kinda.
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