Hello! Do you have any advice for flat hunting in (North) London? My lease is up soon and looking to move with my flatmate to Islington / Highbury / Camden (maybe) - there's so little available (and a lot of it doesn't look very nice... particularly given prices...) - do you have any advice? It seems like you've always done a great job ata this from your posts!

Yeah! So the market is crazy right now, I'm sure you know, but this is sort of what it was like when I first moved to London - by the time something's online, it's taken. So the key is to go to the high streets of the neighborhoods you're interested in, meet the estate agents, get on their lists so that as soon as something comes up, you're in the queue for it. Local agents tend to be better so I generally avoid the huge national brands (esp Foxtons).

Because of how fast things are going, you need to (1) be clear in what you need - agree with your flatmates what you will and won't compromise on, (2) be flexible - when something comes on the market that sounds like a fit, you should view it the same day, as early as possible. Tell your bosses that you're flat hunting and might need some flexibility in your schedule while you go to viewings. If only 2 of the three of you can see a place, you might need to go ahead without everyone present - my first place in London was chosen by my flatmates while I wasn't even in the country. (3) Be ready - no time for delays, if it meets your needs and you like it, make an offer right away. Definitely the same day, ideally within an hour of leaving the place. This is not the time to be searching for the best deals, it's the kind of market where you take what you can get. Talk to your estate agent but generally, my experience is that landlords like longer leases, so if you can commit to a two year with a break clause, that can make your offer more attractive.

Good luck babe, it's crazy out there but there are things going, you just have to keep at it.

Surprise! So I had the honor of doing the M9 pre-show trivia art again, and here they are close-up! ^_^

It was a blast working with folks as always and so much fun coming back home to the M9. I hope you all enjoyed the arts!

made some horror stamps :]

first makeup test for orin!! don't look at the wig i couldn't be bothered to glue it down

I'm gonna make them fools into stickers~!!!

so hyped for MCM London and have been enjoying all the merch making~

a lot of things have happened in the first month of the year but being compelled to draw the clockwork sun and getting thrown into a weeks long art block right after sketching it out was one of them?? i guess??? timelapse below:

my spread in an adachi risograph zine! 9 people are in this zine and we're only selling it in-person at cons :^)

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If somebody had warned me that playing Fallen London leads to thoughts like "As soon as I've left this island I'll have to collect some rats" and "None of these operas are worth getting kicked out of court for" and "I need to have more nightmares about storms" I would not have believed them. And yet, here we are.

obsessed with this comment on the fifth city wiki page for polythreme

Hi S! Update on Kenya boy - we’ve kept up talking and he’s back in the UK for a few days this next week! Flying visit but he has asked to hang out so eeeek. Any cute London date recommendations for something chill are welcome 🧡🧡

Ah so cute!

My favorite London dates are going to a museum and then having a neighborhood wander. The BM is good for this, visit the museum and then go to the London Review of Books, have a wander around Bloomsbury, maybe over to exmouth market or Lamb's Conduit street. Actually wait there's an awesome bar over there! WC Bloomsbury, in a converted old loo, super intimate and romantic.

The Sir John Soane museum is also super interesting and especially good for their after dark events. And the V&A, then you can head down into Chelsea.

In non-museum ideas, crazy golf is always fun, food crawl in China town (try Rasa Sayang for Malaysian, and def get pandan cake from the bakery on dean street), shopping along brick lane (DF is solid for tacos, stop into Libreria the bookshop), south bank (go to the food market behind the South Bank Center for duck burgers from Frenchie, could pop into the Tate modern)... If none of those sound good pop back for more and I'll see what I can do!

I FUCKED UP

So I had to look up what a "threewords" is, but it turns out it's pretty cool!

Basically it's a substitute for latitude/longitude, where instead of using sequential numbers to identify a location this company has assigned every 3-meter square of the world it's own unique 3-word combination. If someone gives you the words for their location, you can look it up on the website, and find them

And yes, "from.vision.ruled" is in Highgate Cemetery.

The London tube has the best signs.

travel tales: london, uk