Please choose one of the following options...

Option A

So my room hunt started with a house in Rusholme. Except it turned out not to really be in Rusholme but in Moss Side. Not knowing much about Manchester, I asked various people for advice. The general reply? 'Stay out of Moss Side, you will die'. So off I went to see the room in Moss Side (hey, it was cheap!) with a rather nervous Pete (my dad's helpful friend) in tow. My first thought was that Angie would not approve of the road I had to go down as it was next to a park and looked like it would probably be dark and scary. What Angie would think is playing a large part in my room-hunting.

The house was narrow and dingy. The smaller single bedroom turned out to be larger than my London room and (again similar to my London room) filled with such a large bed that half of the room was inaccessible. The guy who was living there already said it wasn't a very bad area and that he'd never had any trouble. Then again he was big and bald and tough looking. :S

Option B

The second house wass 15 minutes away just outside of the official boundary of 'Moss Side'. Despite Sarah Ryan's sister's description of Rusholme ("Rusholme is curry mile...so it's generally student halls or cheap quite run down terraces. Lots of muggings etc. It's prob not horrific but i wouldn't pick it unless i was skint") it looked really nice. Plus curry, that's good right? And I am totally skint. So er, yeah, lovely tree lined road and it was all looking suburban and nice.

I was shown around the house by current flatmate Abby. The first room I passed in the narrow hall had a bunk bed in it. Awesome. Well, not so much a bed that was a bunk but a bed that was on a raised platform filling half the room with a desk underneath. It turns out the landlord is some crazy DIY guy who occasionally knocks down walls unexpectedly and things like that. I'm assuming this is why all the bedrooms are split level with a smaller lower desk area and a higher platform with a mattress, accessible by some steep steps. The sleeping area in the room I was viewing was right up under the eaves with a little sky light directly above and a broken TV in the corner. It's basically like a crazy tree house bedroom.

Downstairs was a little kitchen-dining space and a dark sitting room with an extra mattress in. Dave (the guy with the bunkbed) is apparently an artist so there are various pictures around. Final flatmate Craig turned up smoking a cigarette (Angie would disapprove!) and advised on the easiest ways to get anywhere, the consensus being biking or walking are both quicker than buses! So to summarise, it was crazy, filled with bohemians, super cheap and within walking distance of work.

Option C

We wandered through Manchester for half an hour looking for the third place, a double bedroom in a studenty house in Fallowfield. The girls living there were very friendly and looking for someone to fill the place of a student who had gone home for the summer. They had two adorable young cats and it was a spacious and clean house on three levels, the sort that would make a good family home. Angie would approve! It was miles cheaper than London but still out of my price range.




I know I shoulda looked at more than three places, but I was kinda in love already. Guess which one I took? :)

Onwards and Northwards

The North, Day 1.

Explorers log, Northern outpost. Yesterday I ventured beyond the known bounds of civilisation into a land known only as 'The North'. I boarded a train at Euston station and a few minutes' travel later it was grey and raining. Just as reports had suggested, the North is a cold cold place.

My destination was Manchester, my mission to find somewhere to live before starting a new job in two days time. My main objectives were to find somewhere in Manchester that I could live without getting mugged and to subsequently learn to live without Angie's amazing cooking. Also, if I got mugged, Angie would be really cross and also Phil would force me to stay in London forever after.

Fortunately it turns out Manchester is made of lollipops and rainbows. I was met at the station by my dad's friend Pete with whom I am staying for the week. He handed me a bus pass for the week, showed me how to get the bus from my new office back to his sister's house where I have a lovely bed in the spare room and his sister Pat cooked us dinner!

Not only that but he even took me all around Manchester (mostly by foot, partly by bus) to view various rooms that I'd found on spareroom.co.uk. We also managed not to get mugged which was a total bonus.

In the next post, look forward to the excitement of reading about the three fantabulous properties I viewed yesterday!

Over and out.