Sometimes life is confusing...

Myranda

Last term the horrific train problems caused no end of problems... so I started to look for somewhere to stay...

1st place had one of those flower-based memorials, like you get when a teenager is run over - but in a pedestrianised area... like you might get after a stabbing... NOPE

Next place lovely quiet seeming place, but slow internet and tiny room... as in too small to have me, my PC and a bed...

Next place looked like the kitchen was used for storing filth for a later use... "how fast is the internet here?" ... "oh it's really fast, never had a problem - sometimes we get as much as 2 meg" 

... few more okay places that didn't get anywhere

How about a nice room, in a nice building - virtually no water pressure (shared hot water in a 6 storey building!)... terrible internet speed.

Then Monday night - perfect room... like beautiful... big, good water pressure... 10Mbs+ internet (tested) ... only willing to accept cash, can't use the address as a formal address due to the owner's tax ... 

Even though I was nearly late to school the other day - because the connecting train was FULL (people in front of me were trying to drag themselves in with their hands on the doors - Jeremy Corbyn need not have faked a full train, he just needed to be in East Croydon on a Monday morning) - I'm genuinely wondering if I should stay commuting... much cheaper and no need to live in filth, no need to live in the digital stone age, and able to wash my hair... but 24 hours a week travelling ... 

why can't I just see some nice rooms that make me forget commuting? Why must the hell of Southern Rail be made to seem the better option

Emp_Fab

You could stay with me if I lived wherever it is you need to stay - but I don't, so that's not much help.  The thought was there though.  Keep looking - you'll find the right place soon.

Myranda

Well, thanks for the 'offer' Emp, though I'm pretty sure commuting from Wales into London might not be practical (though I'm sure I'd end up with a 4 Yorkshire-man's-style grumble - "I had to leave for learnin' pit 4 hours before I got home from the previous day, sleeping in a bin on tut train..." )

As is I'm torn between a commute I don't like or double the cost for renting a room that so-far will be horrid or with crooks ... the longer I wait to find a room the less point there is in moving (especially as many will expect a certain minimum stay...) and with 24 hours per week commuting I'm not sure how much time I want to dedicate to looking for somewhere to stay...

I've even thought about staying in hostels for a few nights a week... 

olafgarten

Myranda said:

Well, thanks for the 'offer' Emp, though I'm pretty sure commuting from Wales into London might not be practical (though I'm sure I'd end up with a 4 Yorkshire-man's-style grumble - "I had to leave for learnin' pit 4 hours before I got home from the previous day, sleeping in a bin on tut train..." )

As is I'm torn between a commute I don't like or double the cost for renting a room that so-far will be horrid or with crooks ... the longer I wait to find a room the less point there is in moving (especially as many will expect a certain minimum stay...) and with 24 hours per week commuting I'm not sure how much time I want to dedicate to looking for somewhere to stay...

I've even thought about staying in hostels for a few nights a week... 

You can find cheap year long courses online for around £300, pretend to be a student and find student accommodation. 

Myranda

olafgarten said:

Myranda said:

Well, thanks for the 'offer' Emp, though I'm pretty sure commuting from Wales into London might not be practical (though I'm sure I'd end up with a 4 Yorkshire-man's-style grumble - "I had to leave for learnin' pit 4 hours before I got home from the previous day, sleeping in a bin on tut train..." )

As is I'm torn between a commute I don't like or double the cost for renting a room that so-far will be horrid or with crooks ... the longer I wait to find a room the less point there is in moving (especially as many will expect a certain minimum stay...) and with 24 hours per week commuting I'm not sure how much time I want to dedicate to looking for somewhere to stay...

I've even thought about staying in hostels for a few nights a week... 

You can find cheap year long courses online for around £300, pretend to be a student and find student accommodation. 

That seems expensive... after all I AM a student... paying more to be extra student would be weird ... 

Cirrus

24 hours commuting a week must be terrible, I feel for you! I get annoyed at the approx. hour's drive each way to work, but that only adds up to 10 hours a week. When I was a student I learned to detest trains and kind of made a promise to myself that I'd dedicate my life to avoiding the need to use them.

So if I could offer one piece of advice to you it would be this: Be like me. Except for the things that make me imperfect. Avoid those bits.

Col_Decker

If internet connection speed is a factor in where you want to live I think you might be watching too much porn.

gubble

May I ask how much it roughly is to rent a shoebox room with live in mould in London these days?

axisus

How about a halfway house, somewhere with cheap rent and then less travel? 24 hours is insane (unless you can use it productively)

TheBlueWolf

I'm in North London but I'm a grumpy bar steward at the best of times. Plus it's a council block of flats in an area well known for anti social types.

Dominic

TheBlueWolf said:

I'm in North London but I'm a grumpy bar steward at the best of times. Plus it's a council block of flats in an area well known for anti social types.

Is that because of Grumpy bar stewards or are you trying to raise the tone of the neighbourhood ? 

TheBlueWolf

I'm not sure the tone of my neighbourhood could sink much lower even at my grumpiest lol

Myranda

Col_Decker said:

If internet connection speed is a factor in where you want to live I think you might be watching too much porn.

Define "too much"

Seriously though just Youtube and Netflix can suck up a whole lot of internets - and in a shared flat with 2-4 people using an internet 2Mb is very little infer-webs (especially when it's described as "fast")

gubble said:

May I ask how much it roughly is to rent a shoebox room with live in mould in London these days?

Somewhere between £500 for a single room big enough for a bed and the required space to open the door in order to get into the bed, to £600-£800 for double rooms (varying between a bed+door space to absolutely massive and not always at the price-points you'd expect) 

axisus said:

How about a halfway house, somewhere with cheap rent and then less travel? 24 hours is insane (unless you can use it productively)

Somehow I'm in a magic place where taking as much as two thirds off the travel journey doesn't seem to significantly change the cost of travel... all the while keeping some pretty expensive places to live... almost like both the landlords AND transport companies seem to want to shaft customers as hard as possible.

Also the public travel routes into Greenwich are strange, and because they seem to start or go through expensive places they're expensive both to travel from and rent... 

I'm still looking for alternatives, different renting locations, alternate travel routes... all sorts.

Though the further into this term I get the worse it will be regarding minimum rent terms (3 month ish term... after which I'm only travelling to uni for work, so no early mornings, get a seat on the train there and back... ) so unless I find somewhere in the next few weeks (and move in soon after) the decision is being made for meCirrus said:

24 hours commuting a week must be terrible, I feel for you! I get annoyed at the approx. hour's drive each way to work, but that only adds up to 10 hours a week. When I was a student I learned to detest trains and kind of made a promise to myself that I'd dedicate my life to avoiding the need to use them.

So if I could offer one piece of advice to you it would be this: Be like me. Except for the things that make me imperfect. Avoid those bits.

I could get that down to 12 hours commute by not working my uni-job... but then I'll be poor, and given that I'm working in IT (IT tech support) and training for an IT career I feel like those 12 hours a week extra are a fair sacrifice 
 

Emp_Fab

£500 for a single room ??!!!!  Holy shit !!  My rent for a three bedroom detached house with large private garden, front lawn and garage isn't much more than that !!

But then, it's three hours from London.