Whew....We made it...so far so good!

OK...A week before we were due to fly to London, Wally's visa arrived along with a "Refusal of Entrance Clearance" for Me!!! We had 28 days to appeal the refusal but only 6 days until our flight! We decided to just go based on my staying for only six months as allowed by my passport! When we got to the RDU Airport the ticket agent, Carol, advised me that I could not use my ticket as purchased because it had a return date six months and 27 days out and that was not allowed because a passport only allows you to travel for six months. We paid the additional fee to have my return ticket changed to March 10, 2012. All is well....or is it?

We had a great flight on Delta to Boston and on to London's Heathrow Airport. On the flight to London we paid for an upgrade to Economy Comfort. We highly recommend this inexpensive upgrade which gave us 4 inches more leg room, 50% more reclining, and free alcohol to boot!!!

Once in London, Wally got in the student visa line and I went on my way to the regular visitor's line. When I got to the custom agent he said, "I'm very sorry, Mrs. Hurst, but your entrance has been denied due to a refused visa." I explained to him why the visa had been denied and told him I had the letter with me. He asked for the letter which I gave him. He told me that it could take a while to sort this out and he would take me to an area where I could set and wait.

My thoughts: "OK Wally, you little skunk, have you snuck through on your student visa and left me to rot in a tiny cell with a lousy deck of London playing cards??"

My lucky day...as the agent led me away, we walked past the student visa line and there was Wally just at the front of the line, I identified him as my partner in crime and the agent led us both away to our detention box and took Wally's visa as well.

It only took about ten minutes before he came back and told me that they could refuse my entry. I told him "Of course you can...? He continued, but we won't because we trust that you will leave on March 10, 2012 as your ticket indicates and we have put a flag on that flight to be sure you are on it. Oh, and by-the-way, don't try to take a side trip to France or elsewhere and expect it to change anything. You WILL be on that March 10, flight!" Sounds tough, but, he was actually a very nice man and I was impressed that they only detained us for ten minutes.

On to Bromley South where our friend Nigel Hake lives. Nigel has kindly agreed to put us up for a bit while we find an apartment or flat in Uxbridge. Nigel met us at the train station and took us to his place where he fixed us a full English breakfast. Then he left for work, he is a blue badge tour guide: those of you who traveled to London with us in March 2011 should remember Nigel, as he was our tour guide. Wally and I made our way back to the train station and took the one and a half hour trek to Uxbridge. We went to six Estate Agents looking for a 2 bedroom apartment and only found one available in our price range. We made an appointment to see it the next day, Tuesday, 9-13-2011. We walked all over Uxbridge, what a wonderful place! We are really looking forward to spending our time there.

Back on the train, off to Bromley South, short visit with Nigel and then to bed. Tuesday morning, up at 7:00 ready to head back to Uxbridge. Quick breakfast with Nigel and off we go. Our appointment to see the apartment was not until 3:45 so we had all morning to explore. As we were walking along, I noticed a street sign that read Hinton Road. We had seen a 2 bedroom on line on Hinton road so thought we would walk down and see if there was a sign on any of the buildings. We met two very nice people out in their yards but no luck with a rental. One of the people we met was a letting agent and he suggested we go over one street to Myddleton he thought there may be an apartment there to let. As we started down Myddleton there was a gentleman in his front yard, we asked him if he knew of an apartment and he said "You are on the friendliest street in Uxbridge, unfortunately, some Americans have just let the apartment." I told him their boat must have been faster than ours!  He and his wife invited us in and we had a nice visit. They make baked goods and jellies for one of the local cafes and she was wrapping the newly baked goods. We bought two jars of her fresh jellies and went on our way.

A couple of streets over we saw a sign to let and called the agent. He told us that the unit we were in front of was a four bedroom set up to rent each room seperately but he had two 2 bedrooms he could show us. He picked us up and took us to a brand new unit with two apartments available, one on the ground floor and one three flights up. I thought the third floor was nicer but don't like the idea of lugging groceries up three flights of stairs. Moot point as both were out of our price range. Back to town center to meet with the agent for our 3:45 showing. Nice, I think it is strange that in all 3 apartments we saw you enter into a hallway with the bedrooms and bathroom off on either side and the lounge and kitchen are the furthest rooms from the entry. I like this apartment but it is not ideally where we wanted to live. It is a little further walking distance to both town center and to Brunel University. We did put in an application to rent and made our journey back to the train to head back to Bromley South. No sooner had the train departed that the renting agent called to say the landlord wanted more monthly and 6 months paid in full up front. We told him that was not acceptable, we would pay three months up front and 4 months in January. Again he called, this time to say the landlord had agreed to 3 months up front and 2 months security deposit!! Wally told him we did not have the funds to pay 5 or 6 months up front and that we would call tomorrow after we had time to think on a solution. They probably feel like they're trying to "negotiate a better deal", but we think they're being pretty petty and stupid about the whole thing, and we're not completely in love with the location, although it is equidistant from town and Brunel. We'll see what happens Wednesday!

So, here we are, only in the UK for 2 days and already homeless!!! That's not exactly true, adn we have high hopes for the search going well. Nigel has been the perfect host, and hasn't kicked us out yet. Well, off tomorrow back to Uxbridge and hopefully better luck on the apartment front. We'll write more soon!!!