Hi Ho!

Like clockwork, or airline schedules that are actually kept we — Jan and Richard flying from Boston, and David and I from Albuquerque, actually met up Thursday morning in front of Heathrow Airport’s Virgin Atlantic Courtesy Counter as planned. A miracle.

After that, the miracles required for plans to “come off without a hitch” did not show up…like the mini-cab driver who was supposed to meet us, name sign in hand, and, after 45 minutes asking black-suited men holding signs with other people’s names, “Are you with Kensington Cabs?”, we took a taxi (50 pounds). The unrelenting roar of the city and poisonous smell of traffic congestion from the airport to the flat at 21 Holland Road (Chelsea) only added to our addled sleepless, jet-lagged brains.

The next un-miracle (or disappointment) was the flat I’d rented that was supposed to be really nice. The photos had not been inaccurate per se, just without context. How could I have known that the size (or lack thereof) of the “living room”, for example, was about 8-ftx10-ft and one must daintily step over and around the furniture to move from the kichen to the hallway? Or, what about the dirty entry to the building and 4 flights of worn-carpeted stairs? Or, a new definition for “self service” which means the owner doesn’t supply basics like shampoo and soap in the bathroom or salt and pepper in the kichen? It also was not clean and tidy and the street noise from the bedrooms was, well, very loud and incessant. Oh, and the bathroom, with hand-held sprayer (and mold in the corner) and the toilet crammed against the wall so you have to sit side-saddled on it. Then, to top it all off, the mattress in the second bedroom — literally a bed filling a room (which Jan and Rich said they’d take) — was like a box spring with nothing on top. A yogi’s challenge to lie on, like a bed of nails. Factor in David’s disgust (“You paid WHAT for this?!”) and I had to call the owner who happened to be in London, as he and his wife live part-time in the Bahamas.

Carl calmly explained that he never supplied any products (“Then people would complain I didn’t have the right brand.”) and that the bed was bought in May. That’s fine, I said, why don’t you come try it?…maybe someone stole the mattress.” He agreed to come over and see what he could do and did end up bringing another mattress from another of his half-dozen flats in the area and sincerely wanting us to be happy. I think he was truly surprised that we were not as thrilled at his apartment as other renters seem to be.

I think it speaks to the different ways people live, the differnt values and sensibilities we hold; to our expectations and the fact that…some people are FRIGGIN’ PIGS!

Ahem, I shall compose myself myself again. We are, after all, in England. As I paid by for the flat by wire, not credit card (a big mistake), we will make the best of it for the few nights we’ll be here and move on.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 7th, 2007 at 3:29 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.