i got to molly's close to 3 and began to explore the place. she's also in a basement apartment with an entrance hallway that turns onto a kitchen-hallway, then a front room off one side that functions as a living room slash bedroom and a back bigger bedroom, and through there a bathroom. (molly's living here with her roommate from the school year madeline) the guy who owns this place is, to say the least, eccentric. there are books all over the place along the lines of proust and freud. and then there's some lighting equipment/spotlights in the living room, just in case it's a little dreary that day, as it can sometimes be in london. in the back room there are two large trunks, one which is labeled military medical supplies and the other military surgical supplies. back there, the mantle of the fireplace has a second function as a florescent light, illuminating everything placed on it from below. the door knocker is shaped like some sort of gremlin sitting on top of a mushroom. and the bathroom features a claw-footed bathtub, a wooden toilet seat with pull-chain, and no shower head. finally, there's a robot on the keychain he gave molly.
he apparently told molly that he cleaned the place up before he came but the thin layer of dust and clutter of junk tells a slightly different story. part of molly's instruction sheet regarding the oven (which doesn't have any temperatures on its dial) include the phrase "i usually turn it until the knob falls off". i guess that's generally a good indicator of when to stop. it's a good apartment though and will do just fine for the summer. we had some fun exploring it. (photos to come--my internet doesn't work here for some reason)
after getting beyond the apartment itself, molly and i donned running gear and a few pounds (the money...) and headed to hyde park. on the way we stopped in a grocery store and picked up two sandwiches, some apples and grapes, 2L of water, and a bottle of wine, all for less than L9! then went over to where people were gathering for the concert. we nabbed some of those stripped deck chairs (molly says "like lawn chairs but classier") and ate and drank while listening to dave matthews band across the divide in the festival. we eventually realized that we were supposed to rent the chairs and ditched them when a man came around to ask about them, so we heard bruce springsteen sitting on the grass! since we were there more for the idea of listening to live music in the middle of london for free (while others had paid upwards of L50 to get in), we didn't mind that we couldn't see the stage or could only hear probably every 3rd word. it was pretty awesome overall. and the people watching was glorious to say the least. toward the end of the boss' set we started heading out and ran back to her place.
some more exploring and discoveries and we have a pretty sweet sound system up and running and some mugs of tea (lacking handles). we also took our first baths in...a while. not sure how clean i feel though. i've offered molly use of my shower. tomorrow we're considering attempting to get cheap tickets to wimbledon but we'll see how that goes. the weather should be good again though, so moving in in the afternoon should be pretty easy.
(i'll try to keep these shorter than this in the future but i had to describe molly's place which is by no means done justice in this post)
the door-knocker. so welcoming!
luminescent mantelpiece--a necessity in any home
molly's bedroom/the living room. spotlight on the bedside table.
Giant bottles of wine outdoors? really? haha sounds amazing and im waiting for photos of that apartment.
ReplyDeleteIn London, it's very traditional to have lighting equipment in your bedroom. So I wouldn't worry about it.
ReplyDelete