My dream for those first six months was to ditch Forest Gate and move into a cool warehouse somewhere in Hackney, to live and work with and meet all kinds of creative people, get on with my own work and make something of it. I didn't want to waste any precious time. I'd made a few good friends so far (one pictured here), and interviewed for a lot of houseshares, but still being just a random, socially awkward guy with no real connections in the city, I was finding that process difficult, and the rejections were starting to stack up. And so when I saw a room available in a converted pub in Hackney Wick - very close to where I'd been to some great shows and parties - and then found out I'd be the first to move in to one of its many rooms, I jumped at the chance, thinking this was a place that other like-minded people would surely flock to, and where I could start to build something. This was a huge mistake that came very close to costing me my life.