The Young Dutchman Comes to Stay

Since he is about to start his Master's degree up at Oxford in a few weeks, the Young Dutchman gave up his London flat when his lease was up on September 1st, moved most all his possessions into temporary accommodation in Oxford, and then went off to the Netherlands for a bit. However, upon realising that he needed to meet with some people in London and had nowhere to lay his head at night, he asked if he could come stay with me.

Now, I live in a studio flat, so I wasn't sure how well this would work, but if he was desperate for a place to stay, he should be grateful for what he could get, right? Plus, I figured it would be a good motivation for me to get my flat finally fully sorted and organized. Hence, instead of going to the Jermyn Street festival like I had originally planned, I spent my entire Saturday vacuuming, cleaning, sorting, and putting things away.

In the end, he called me from Belgium, where he was stuck after missing his Eurostar connection. So all that cleaning for nothing! Not like it was his fault however, and at least I had a very nice, relaxing Sunday waiting for him to arrive, with no more cleaning to be done.

In the evening, I actually found myself having quite an extensive online conversation with the Young Dutchman's brother, who is one of my favourite people. I hadn't realised how long we had been chatting, until suddenly my phone rang. Over 24 hours late, the Young Dutchman was finally here!

We chatted and hung out a bit, before finally deciding it was time to get ready for bed. So I blew up the air mattress, and then while trying to move my couch and being a bit too enthusiastic about it, the Young Dutchman knocked over my lamp and broke it! That boy is really like a puppy sometimes, with too much energy and too little coordination. I was annoyed, but I didn't want to be one of those people who dwells on something that, in the end, was an accident. So we cleaned up the mess, got the bed sorted, and sent him off to bed. And then as we both lay in our separate beds, it was like being a 12-year old girl again, having a slumber party with friends sleeping on my floor.

In the morning, he woke me up by playing this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwdzjJHD2BM&feature=related, "Build a Rocket Boys", by Elbow.

And goodness, if it wasn't the most chilled out, gentle, wonderful way to start the day, just hanging out, joking with him, and listening to music. I have to say, I've really enjoyed living on my own, but I have to say, it was nice to have company around for a bit again...