Gah.

"...and if there are no more interesting surprises coming my way [...] then I'll be living here from mid-June on."

I knew it was tempting fate when I wrote that.

So yes, today the agent gets back to me with the news that his friend (who I still don't believe in) has pulled out of the supposed deal, so we're back to the landlord not being happy to hold the place empty for four weeks. The agent is going to get back to me "later today, or tomorrow" with any further ingenious thoughts he has on the subject, but I'm guessing they'll all involve me paying money I don't have for a property I don't want or need until the date I've already specified.

At this point I've decided the deal is very probably fucked - given that I was supposed to give my notice on my current place tomorrow, and I'm not doing that unless and until I've got a signed tenancy agreement for the next place in my hand first. I am not playing this ridiculous fucking game of 'last minute panic flat-hunting' that seems to be expected by letting agents in that area, with no choice but to take whatever you can find in the week before your notice runs out on your current abode. I don't really have time to look at any more flats before my surgery, and obviously I won't be able to look at any for a while after my surgery. This means I'll have to commute from my current location for a while (with a dodgy leg, great), and then look for property again once I'm in that area during the day, and once my leg is up to the walking involved - so maybe late June, early July, I dont know really. Then another month for my notice on the current place, so I won't be in central London until autumn at this rate.

I'm pissed off with the agent because I'm fairly certain this little burst of greed was his idea originally rather than the landlord's, so I won't be using that agency when I start looking again. Not that I'm under any delusion that anyone in that industry is particularly honest, but you can only ignore so many of them at a time - so I'll start with the ones that have personally inconvenienced me or my friends, and see what that leaves me.

Shiny.

In slightly better news, today's housework procrastination led me in the direction of the spare-change jars in the bedroom. I've just finished counting the lot, and it comes to a pleasing total in excess of £500 :) Which makes me feel slightly better about the laptop incident last month, tempts me in the direction of underlighting again, and on the other hand, does look rather like a well-timed buffer-zone for moving expenses. I guess I'll hang onto it for now.