New Flat, London, Sat 7 June 2008

Unfortunately all the traveling (and lack of sleep and a real bed) took its toll and i developed a nasty cold that got progressively worse throughout the week.

I moved into my new flat on the Saturday and I was really looking forward to my own space. I hadn't had my own room for over two months, I had been sleeping on air beds and mattresses on friend's lounge floors up till then (very lucky to have such great friends).

I went out with Arn on the Saturday to get some bedding from Ikea - pillow, sheets, duvet etc. Made up my bed and literally fell in it. Didn't really get back out until Monday I was so ill. I was very lucky to have my own room and bed to crawl into as it helped me get better a lot faster (and stopped me from inflicting my cold on others too much).

My new flat is in an area of London called Putney, south west of central london. It's a nice quiet area, a bit out of town, but popular with kiwis and aussies. It has a few great pubs and some nice parks around the area. I'm a bit far away from public transportation but the walk in the mornings is actually quite pleasant at this time of the year... I probably won't be thinking as much in winter but that's a bit far off to worry about.

It's a two bedroom place and I'm living with a couple - Christa & Andrew. Christa is the cousin of Den who is my friend Arn's boyfriend, so it's nice to be living with friends of friends. They are really nice and I get along with them really well. Turns out Christa is also cousins with the wife of Ben, who I used to work with at Intergen in NZ. Gotta love how small the world is sometimes!

My room is huge for London which is great, and gets some really good sunlight. We don't have continuous hot water, just a boiler, which I'm still trying to get used to. If you need a shower out of normal times you have to turn the boiler on and wait for it to heat up first. Not too bad though. Plus we're just around the corner from Sandi & Brett who I stayed with when I first arrived which is good to have friends so close by. And my mate Jodi is only a couple of train stops away.