Word: flatly
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Hoping to avoid a hostel, I secured myself temporary accommodation in the vacated flat of some very distant relatives. These were wealthy people, so I figured I'd be spending my first week in style. Indeed, physical comfort abounded in their central London flat, but the place lacked one essential ingredient: people to talk to. Without so much as a television set, I found myself wandering around the flat in complete silence. They say that solitude is bliss, but with no one to talk to, I didn't quite know what to do with myself. Needless...
Meanwhile, an unidentified caller left a message on my answering machine (or "answerphone" in Brit-speak). The voice sounded vaguely familiar, and I soon realized that the phone number matched the number of a flat I'd visited several days before: it was Mike from Bayswater. A lively area in central London, full of shops, pubs, restaurants and tourists, Bayswater is perhaps best known as neighbor to Notting Hill. In other words, this flat was in a desirable location. Location, it turned out, was just about the only thing the flat had going...
...thing, Mike informed me that, if I chose to move in, I was going to be sharing a room with him. While less than desirable, this is not quite as sketchy as it sounds. For several years, the Bayswater flat had been populated by an ever-changing stream of American and Canadian students working in London. Inexplicably, the pool of students who chose to spend their free time by earning pounds rather than dollars was overwhelmingly female. Thus, in all the flat's known history, Mike had been its only male resident. It was a two-bedroom flat, with...
Despite the sleeping arrangements, and despite the flat's grungy kitchen and vomit-green bathroom, complete with the traditional European showerhead-on-a-hose, I reluctantly agreed to move in. Having more than overstayed my welcome at the temporary flat, I was ready to go just about anyplace. Three days later, I shoved my suitcases into one of London's finest black cabs, and I was off to Bayswater to live with Mike, Linda and Joanna. Luckily for me, Joanna had a last-minute change of heart and decided that she didn't mind co-habitating (in the most innocent...
Once I overcame my initial repulsion, I discovered that the flat wasn't so bad. Mike, Joanna and Linda weren't exactly my type of people, but they were friendly and considerate roommates. The commute was short, all the household appliances worked, and I learned the joys of fivechannel British television programming...