Travel

I got a phone call from the estate agent yesterday to say that my mortgage company’s surveyor has been in touch and will be going round on Thursday morning to carry out his survey. So that feels like real progress. When I got the letter from the estate agent last week, it said that I had 14 days for a surveyor to get in touch or else they would advise the vendor to put the property back on the market. So I am relieved that another hurdle seems to be well on its way to being dealt with.

The Chinese boys seem to be learning about the British transport system. I was at home on Sunday morning and the phone rang and it was one of the leaders from the group the boys are with. She said that one of the boys was at home because he had a headache. I was kind of surprised to hear this because I didn’t think anyone else was at home. Anyway, she asked me to go and speak to him and ask if he would be joining them later, but I said I didn’t want to go and disturb him if he was ill because he was probably asleep – I also had no desire to wander into a teenage boy’s bedroom because who knows what he might have been doing. So, I wouldn’t go and disturb him, but as it turned out he wasn’t there anyway! In fact he had gone off to visit a friend in Ware, so had I agreed to go and speak to him, I would have given the game away. When he caught the train to Ware he went to Liverpool Street and thought that his Oyster card would cover him for his whole journey, so ended up getting fined £20 for travelling without a valid ticket. He then had to pay £14 for a taxi when he got to his destination. I suspect that may have rather given him a headache even if he didn’t already have one.

On Monday night the other boy got home about 10.30pm, which my landlady wasn’t too impressed by because he is only 12 and was out on his own. What was more concerning though was that he said that someone had given him a lift home from the station. From what I could work out, it was someone who worked for London Underground, but even so it wasn’t entirely safe. I think my landlady had a word with him about getting into strangers cars, because even if the person this time was a really nice chap, others may not be.

I spoke to D last night which was the first time since January. It was really good to catch up and exchange news. I have always had a decided soft spot for D and it was nice to be in contact again after several months of not really being on contact (more due to circumstance than for any particular reason). D is off to Venice next week and did tentatively ask if I wanted to go as well, but I decided that could be way too complicated and so declined. Hopefully we’ll see each other soon anyway and have a proper catch up then.