Pride and Prejudice

Flatmate and I have started the horrendous task of finding a new flat - preferably before we have to leave our current situation, and even better if we can be moved in before my parents come for their visit at the end of next month, so they have somewhere to doss (incidentally, how wrong does it sound to say that my parents, a pair of sixty-plusers who have qualified for senior citizens discounts for a few years now, are dossing?). The chances of this happening are looking increasingly slim.

The London housing market is in something of a slump. In fact, the London everything is in something of a slump, hence the need to move. However, my new revised, run-through-the-dryer-in-spite-of-washing-instructions budget doesn't stretch very far around the area I live now. I always new it was expensive. It's been a stretch the whole time I've been here, given my complete inability to save money (surely it's there for spending, no?). So I'm confronted with the task of finding somewhere suitably cheap and cheerful. But there is a catch. Flatmate is very attached to this area. In fact, I think it will take a bulldozer to get her out, no matter how much she hates out current flat. Based on recent forays onto internet sites, she's willing to either live in the worst flat in north west London, provided it's within half a mile of our present location (with restrictions, of course), or, it seems, to subsidise my rent to a ludicrous degree. It's not that she's ever visited many of the places that she has written off. In fact, some of them she's never heard of. It's more that she has a prejudice against any postcode that doesn't start NW but isn't within 10 minutes of at least 2 of the major London parks. 

Don't get me wrong here, I love the area too. There's the parks, there are bars, restaurants, and amazing transport locations. But there are also rents higher than the GDP of many African countries. And that's when you combine those GDPs together. I'm also realistic enough to figure that if I struggle on my current salary, when the pay-cut kicks in, I'm going to be drowning in debt in a hurry. 

But I also have my pride. I am willing to live in a nice enough but not over-posh part of London, to the east, to the south, to the north and my only prejudice against the west is that it's far from friends. I am not willing to sacrifice the quality of my living premises though. I draw the line at a single room, sharing a room with a stranger, or living without a lounge room. As far as flatmate is concerned, these seem like reasonable sacrifices to make in order to stay in the area. For me, they would be a year of torment, knowing that if I had been able to convince her, I could have had an enormous room in the docklands, potentially with my own bathroom and bills thrown in. I could have lived without having to borrow money. I could have still accepted invitations out. I wouldn't have Kiwi paying all the time when we go out.

So now, my pride runs up against her prejudice. Any physicists out there? What happens when two imovable forces collide? I think the outcome may be quite catastrophic. So I've been looking into flat shares within my budget all over London, and lining up viewings of flats in areas I can afford. She has been contacting agents about flats so far out of my budget that if I was to pay what I've told her I can afford, her rent would not be reduced at all on what she pays now. The question of who wins - or which estate agent does, at any rate - has yet to be resolved. Stay tuned, sports fans.