bogged down

I went to Moseley Bog this past week after viewing yet another unsuitable apartment. I came down with a cold on Sunday so after taking a tour of an environmental group’s headquarters that morning for Heritage Week, I stocked up on soup and came home to hunker down. It’s strange and yet strangely reassuring to be sick in a strange land. My body went through its familiar stages of sickness and each day I went out into this unfamiliar world to try to find a flat and/or learn more about the city. I never knew that Tolkien spent time here as a child and Moseley Bog was apparently the inspiration for the magical forests he later wrote about in his novels. I’m toying with merging my two interests—buttons and the bog—into one story. Then I applied for a flat in a neighborhood called Ladywood, and that got me thinking about two Black nerds prepping for their local Renaissance Fair and digging into the city’s medieval history…

I haven’t been writing. I even stopped penning my daily poem but got caught up yesterday. I want to feel settled and that isn’t possible right now. The Ladywood flat required me to go through a reference check process that I’m pretty sure was handled by bots. It’s actually quite convenient if you’re a UK applicant, but in my case, the bots went round and round because I couldn’t supply things they required: a current utility bill or proof of council tax payment. I submitted three months of bank statements and was required to delete them because the bots can’t verify overseas accounts. They tried to match addresses to my credit report, but they don’t understand that Airbnb or similar short-term rentals don’t show up as official addresses. I finally downloaded my US credit report and sent it to the landlord. Not sure she can or will accept it. They’ll likely ask me to pay for a corporate guarantor, which is ridiculous but apparently necessary if I ever want to have a home here. SO many things they don’t tell you when you’re applying for the visa. I wrongly assumed that getting the visa and having the Home Office’s stamp of approval would carry some weight once I arrived. A friend back in the US is working on her visa application now so at least my experience can help her prepare for what’s to come.

Think I’ll head to the library today. Or the cafe across the street. Or find a quiet canal path and see where it leads. I’m at the wheezy end-stage of my cold, which can lead to embarrassing, spontaneous cough attacks but I need some fresh air. The bots just let me know they have concluded my reference check so now I guess I wait till Monday and see what the landlord decides to do…