Our Story So Far

With less than 7 days left, with 2 offers falling through we finally stumbled across our humble home, in the Bush.

And so it is that three final year aero students, all with their own mental traumae, at least one nursing a broken heart, came to live together. In 24a Melina Rd.

Nicole’s Entry:

I think we can all agree, house/flat hunting in London is a painful experience. Sure, there are lots of places to see but on a student budget, finding something that isn’t overrun with mould or is cramped or is badly kept can be a real challenge. All in all, Tom and I must have seen well over a dozen properties in that fortnight with several debriefs to Iori who was down in Wales.

First, we had our sights set on a terraced house round the corner from Charing Cross Hospital. It was one of those places that you really had to use your imagination to see as at the time it was filled with art students and all the artsy clutter that accompanies them (and incense sticks). But after looking behind the countless yoga mats and bits of lighting equipment and the various floordrobes, it looked to be a great house with a sizable patio garden – the perfect house for entertaining. The catch: an offer had been put in the evening before we went to view it so the clock was ticking. Unfortunately, starting off 24 hours behind meant we did miss out on that one.

Luckily, our back-up option was still available. This would’ve provided a change of scene for us all being located in Ladbroke Grove on the doorstep of Portobello Road Market. This too was a terraced house in a quaint mews with what appeared to be friendly neighbours. We were confident, the estate agent was confident, the landlord was on a whole other planet. Unbeknownst to everyone involved, he had found himself some short let tenants instead and that was that.

At this point, things were getting tense. We had less than two weeks until Tom’s lease ended and we needed to be in the new digs. We put in an offer on a flat on Lillie Road as a back-up to get the ball rolling just in case. Then, cue the mad hunt on RightMove and Zoopla, and manic calling and emailing to estate agents. We’d secured another 4 viewings and set ourselves a deadline to aggressively bid for a property.

The day was Tuesday 28th, our deadline for putting an offer in was Wednesday 29th. We had a viewing on Uxbridge Road. A pleasant flat but it didn’t beat our back-up on Lillie Road. Two of our remaining three viewings for the following day happened to be round the corner so to keep our minds off the perpetually ticking clock, we took a stroll to see them from the outside.

Now at this point, we had nothing to lose, so on reaching Melina Road (we were due to view a maisonette) and seeing a To Let sign specifying a 3-bed, we thought “to hell with it”. Let’s give them a ring.

“Yes, we can do a viewing tomorrow evening”

“Yes, it’s a three bed, two bath”

“Yes, it’s in budget”

And with that we had our final viewing scheduled.

Wednesday evening began well with a spacious flat on Percy Road. Then onto the first of the Melina Road maisonettes: even better than the previous. And then onto our wildcard, last minute find.

We had been fully expecting a catch. After taking a look at it online that morning and deciding it was a great looking place to live, we thought either the photos were a lot better than the reality or the dates wouldn’t align. But there was no catch, none at all.

And so, third time lucky and just in the nick of time, we found ourselves moving into Melina Road.

Tom’s Entry:

Written in Wales doing some secretive internship or something… a good break and life reset (even after the COVID holidays lol).

So hopefully you’ll have read Nicole’s whistlestop tour of how we came to find out bless’d hearth and home – a complete steal, if you ask me, and far too nice for students, but oh to be an adult. It’s a lovely little place, with enough entertaining and social space to make even Imperial Students talk, whilst (I think) giving some private work space and a place to be yours – which is Important so please take that into your head when house-hunting.

The kitchen itself is small but functional, and well furnished, and truly feels like a proto-family home. I suppose that that is what domestic life can be when you’re in digs with your friends, almost like a second family. Being out working most of the week, having matured a lot from years past, and now sporting an ever ragged (and in need of a trim) beard, I see myself as the responsible father of the family. ”Nb: there is still one portion pasta in the fridge, and eat the BERRIES! they’ll go off”. Life is a difficult thing, Imperial still, thriving more. You need friends there to bounce off, to help you and to listen to you when things get tough, and vice versa. Life is a crazy dialectic symbiotic relationship and we are far from anti-social creatures, needing one and other as much as we need ourselves, and by extension needing to be there for one and other as we need to be there for ourselves. By engaging in dialogues we gain something and grow.

I think this place will make me a better man, especially at the end of a very challenging and difficult year. And I’m glad to have good friends here with me, and around me, even if Covid has meant that we’ve been separated out a fair bit, tech means we’re never too far out.

By now, (if you’re still reading, and kudos to you if you are), you can probably tell that I’m not you’re average writer – I tend to be very stream of consciousness (much like my felix column last year), which is like Marmite, you either love it or abhor it. But the one thing i’m trying to be is honest (and authentic I guess?). I don’t mean harm, and know that in life some truth isn’t *all* the truth. I guess what I’m trying to get at with this whole ‘new flat great’ spiel is that there really are some helpful guidelines that I’ve found help out in the inevitable struggle that is uni, and that perhaps some struggling Fresher could do with hearing:

Be kind to yourself. You’re the hero of your own story, and the first person player, that’s pretty important if you ask me. All too often in life we put pressure on ourselves, too much pressure, and we just don’t take our foot off the gas. Please try to be kind to yourself, cut yourself slack when you need it, look out and be a friend for yourself. This resilience and 3rd Person view can be so helpful, all too often we neglect ourselves over things and it bottles up like pressure in a pipe. Every so often just have some you time and destress, responsibly (that’s the big part too, doing it in a mature sense. I think perhaps so many of these points nod to some sense of maturity, you gotta look after yourself and just be a tad slower in things and more thoughtful, it’s a marathon, not a sprint).

Friend and Important. A wise man once said: “Surround yourself with people who want the best for you”. You’ll know a good friend: you don’t have to talk everyday, but they care about you, ask how you are, and are somewhat invested in the relationship you have, again even if you don’t talk each day. They should be the friend to you that you should be to yourself in some ways (?), a second conscience but also a release from life, wanting that which is good for you and them too. Oh yeah, and you can always just be yourself and pick up a conversation with them where you left off!!

Be open and honest. If there’s one thing that will make your life easier, it’s honesty, and openness. When you’re honest you don’t get caught up in a web of lies that results in your RBMK reactor exploding, life’s easier in its construction, you tend to form more meaningful relationships (that are after-all) built on honesty and people know what they’re getting when they get you. I think it also says a lot about you if you have a commitment to just being honest and genuine and just “being who you are”, a strange surrender and acceptance.

Never be afraid to change, improve, and adapt – growth is painful as a kid, you burn yourself on a kettle you didn’t know was hot, or your bones ache from stretching, it’s less obvious in its entirety as an adult, but when you’re out of your comfort zone embrace it and you’ll grow. You can’t be letting yourself give up or lose hope either, yes life is hard but it’s almost your responsibility to yourself (and all those who went before you) to live a full and meaningful life.

What are your hopes and dreams? To convert that hearty hearty 2:1 into a firsts for the sake of a job application? To save the day and win back the girl? How about to be a better person ey?

Anyways, that’s probably enough of my ramblings until next time, it’s a strange old time, post-quarantine, pre-year. Out here in the sticks too. Perhaps it is because I travelled to Wales with so little than I am thankful, and have some new sense of peace, and I guess the New flat helped. Alas, the peace did not last in its entirety. No job is ever as glamorous as it sounds. I’m learning a lot, and not a lot, but a lot about what I don’t want to do as a Job too and the importance of flexible working hours and work from home… I swear I get more/most stuff done late at night! (The wee hours of the morning). It would be really nice if the working world reflected this. I think I’ll save more of this for a future instalment and little debrief on how things go (currently on week 2 of 8) and I have a strange feeling I’ll be visiting this website: https://capital-placement.com/internship-is-not-going-to-plan/. So I’ll leave you with a quote from a colleague whose analysis of the working situation we’re in is most thought provoking.

There’s a lot to be said for computation, it’s safer than experiments, and you can’t short your balls out on a keyboard.