Snowy Day

Here's some friendly advice from a signpost in Richmond:

I wonder what they'd think of people that foul on the pavement.

Woke up to a light dusting of snow on the ground. No more than an inch however this cripples the city. Trains stop running, taxis aren't available, and traffic backs up. On the plus side it's quite entertaining to watch the snowball fights and the snowmen being made from next to no snow.

The flat hunt was successful. The first flat I viewed was the definite front runner until the end of the day and got knocked out of first place at the last moment when I was shown a cottage that's 5 minutes from the train and shops. If all my references check out than I will be moving in within 7 days. It's strange how each rental company requires different items for references. Items can include:

Bank Reference
Employment Reference
Character Reference
Landlord Reference (since I previously owned I need to show a mortgage statement)
Bank Statements

For the employer reference they've been asked to answer the following questions:

How long has the applicant been employed by you?
In what capacity has the applicant been employed by you?
Annual salary amount?
Would you consider the applicant to be respectable and trustworthy?
Any other comments that you feel would assist the applicant in securing accommodation.

All this just to rent I wonder what would be required if I wanted to purchase something.

The agent that showed me one flat was from Poland and asked if my surname was Polish. When I confirmed she said that it is a common name in Poland. Given the difficulty we've had with finding our ancestors I found that kind of interesting. I'll have to do some more research on that later.