Shake, Rattle and Roll Out Of Bed

There was an earthquake in London last night. A frikkin earthquake!!! It originated from up north near Manchester, around 205km from London itself, but the shock waves were still felt here. We live south east and didn't feel anything, but people in the south west (including many of our friends) reported being woken up by beds shaking and ceilings creaking, and one woman at Scarf's office even fell out of bed! Me thinks she may have been on the sauce the night before though, or maybe she just has a very small bed, because that's a bit extreme. It measured 4.7 on the Richter scale, and is the biggest earthquake to hit Britain in 5/10 years, depending on what website you read. While there are no casualties, 50 houses close to the epicentre sustained structural damage.

Apparently between 200 and 300 quakes occur in Britain each year, but only about 10% are strong enough to be felt. How about that? And here I thought I was safe from all natural disasters except flooding, which is a fairly common occurrence up north (you'd think so with all the damn rain).

My housemates and I are currently in the middle of a rather bizarre situation. We've been planning to move from the dive in the south east that we call home for a while now, and just before our holiday we pinpointed April/May as the time to do it. So we haven't been actively looking for places yet, but every now and then one of us will have a quick skim through some websites to see what is around. We need something with 2 bedrooms & 2 bathrooms, and they are usually quite difficult to find as only the modern complexes are built like that. Trying to find affordable modern complexes in London is like looking for the sun in England's winter months.... usually a fruitless and frustrating experience. Anyway, Eyes came across a place the other day that looks quite amazing, and is also situation in Westminster, which is Zone 1. For those who don't know, London is divided into 6 Zones, and the further out you live, the more you pay to travel. We currently live in Zone 4. Zone 1 is widely believed to be very expensive to live in.

Eyes enquired after the flat and was told by the lessor - a lady who, from her awkward e-mails, is obviously not English - that the entire flat will cost £800 a month. That is £150 less than we're paying now, and it's in Zone 1. Of course, we all thought it was a typo, or that there was a catch of some sort, but three more e-mails proved to have the same outcome - she genuinely appears to be offering the flat for £800. So we got very excited, and tried to arrange a viewing. We got a rather long, confusing e-mail back explaining how she has been messed around by people expressing interest and then not pitching up, and people coming to view the place and then turning out not to have funds for the deposit. So she requires proof that we are a) serious and b) have the money before she will allow us to come and see it. She says she has spoken to her lawyers, and they have agreed that the only way to prove this is through a moneygram. Basically, we have to go to a post office and arrange a moneygram - a money transfer - from one of our account to the other, and then bring her the receipt. Despite our objections on the grounds that this is not only a mission for us but also just a little over the top as we haven't even seen the place yet, she will not be swayed. We have offered her payslips for all four of us, bank statements and a reference from our current landlord. We've explained how we can transfer money from one account to another through internet banking, and we've told her we will even bring her £800 in cash to see if she'd like. She is refusing everything but the receipt from the moneygram. Either this woman is a little dense, or she is ignorant to the point of being obtuse - and let's not even get started on her lawyers.

We very nearly decided to forget about it, but despite our continued skepticsm - it really does seem too good to be true - we've caved and have decided to go through with it. We can do the moneygram and draw the cash at the same time, so there's not chance of it going missing, which is the one thing we were afraid of.

If all goes well, we will arrange a viewing for tomorrow night.

All I can say is, this place better be worth the hassle!