Well I've had an interesting evening! It was certainly stressful but I thought I'd share it with you as proof that vaping works.
RANT ALERT!
I hate my housemates. I think it's fair to start with that. They're noisy and childish. One is a trainee teacher and she's OK, even if she's 23 and doesn't know how to change a light bulb. Another is taking her masters part time and the best way I could describe her is like a 'little Himmler'. If you've ever read Golding's 'Lord of the Flies', you'll know there's a rather sadistic character (whose name escapes me right now, it might be Roger...) but who can't think for himself, preferring to go along with whatever the leader thinks. The third and final housemate is the devil incarnate. She doesn't do her cleaning, leaves her laundry on the drying airers for days and days on end because 'some of us have busy lives' and orders take away at ridiculous hours of the night so the delivery men ring the door bell and wake up the whole house. She also leaves her pool cue at the very bottom of the stairs, just waiting for someone to trip over it. When I first moved in, Ms Beelzebub had a cupboard and a half to herself in our very small kitchen which forced myself and housemate I can stand to share a cupboard between us. She also left no space in the fridge for a new housemate. Her stinky shoes fill the shoe rack in the porch (guests comment on the smell when they first walk in!), her coats fill the communal coat rack, she has an entire cupboard in the kitchen dedicated to stolen glasses from the pub where she works and her stuff otherwise goes everywhere despite having the largest bedroom!
But this isn't the whole story. There are, of course, two sides to everything and in the interests of full disclosure I shall mention why they don't like me. I play music and I watch movies in my room. When I first moved in I told them that if it was ever too loud, they just had to say. They never did so I never realised it could disturb them. Unfortunately, if they choose to have a conversation outside my bedroom door, I am unable to hear my music/movie because they are that loud...so I turn it up to drown them out, especially if I'm studying. Yet they know I can hear every word they say and continue anyway. The last time I tried to speak to 'little Himmler' about this, the response I got was 'I'm not listening to you'. One night 'little Himmler' had her boyfriend over and I can only assume that they were moving furniture around. I knocked on her door and asked her to keep it down as I desperately needed an early night, having had a deadline that day. The response was a giggle and silence. No apology. No 'sure thing!'. Silence. To combat the possibility of my 240W speakers making too much noise, I have packed them away and now use only the teeny tiny, rubbish speakers on my monitor. The sound quality is awful but much, much quieter.
The other issue is the heating. My room is north facing and the windows let in a draft. If you're not from the UK or have been living on Venus for the past 3 years, you might have missed that England has been a 'bit chilly'. I believe that the heating should be on for far longer than it is, especially as I have to work from home and can't type with gloves on. Also, my legs hurt when it's cold and the radiators are the only means 4 girls have to dry their laundry in sufficient time that it doesn't smell damp. Just because mummy and daddy only have the heating on for two hours a day doesn't make it right. They probably have a tumble drier and work full time! I've since bought a little oil heater for my room so I can be warm.
A further issue is the bathroom. If you have ever watched The Big Bang Theory, you may remember the episode where Penny falls in the bath because she lacks a bathmat or whimsical adhesive umbrella holding duck stickers to reduce the slipperiness of her bath. Ms Beelzebub's mummy and daddy never had a bathmat so she doesn't believe in them; 'little Himmler' goes along with Ms Beelzebub; and the third housemate really doesn't care. I, on the other hand, stand firm that we need a bathmat and if they don't want to use it, they don't have to but I am not putting my safety in danger (especially after removing all the soap scum with sugar soap and thus increasing the slipperiness of the tub!) just because mummy and daddy don't do it. On attempting to speak to Ms Beelzebub as to why she hid the bathmat under the stairs, she responded that she didn't think anyone used it (well I do!), it was unhygienic because dirt collects under the mat (we wash the tub, and the mat, and don't shower under the mat! Also, when you rinse the tub when you're finished, rise the mat! Finally, if no one uses it, how does the 'dirt' get there?), it gives you verrucas (no, any surface like that including a bathtub, bathroom floor, or swimming pool etc would increase your likelihood of getting verucas if the virus is present on that surface. Bathmats don't increase the likelihood and, by the way, I caught a verucca when I moved into this house!) and so on and so on. The conversation ended when she walked away. Yes, she just walked off- conversation over!
But finally, there's the issue of leg hair- I apologise, this gets a little personal. Yes, they have taken issue with me (apparently!) shaving my legs because the hair goes everywhere in the bathroom...they've even found it under my toiletries basket. What they don't know is that I very infrequently shave my legs as I am happily single, it's winter, and thus have no reason to. Said hair appears when I haven't shaved my legs in weeks and in the wrong length... What's even more delightful is finding the cap of a razor, you know the little plastic bit that covers them when you first buy them, of a style of razor I don't use in my toiletries basket. So somebody using the same style of razor that would fit this cap could very well be putting this variety of hair there. This is one option I'm mulling over...the other is a rare form of alopecia which affects only leg hair and causes no hair to actually be removed from the legs but just for it to appear elsewhere. I'm yet to hear back from The Lancet on my new discovery but I've started keeping more personal items in my room... I'm even considering buying an epilator, just because I know that summer is coming around and I know that it'll drive them crazy when I eventually point out that the leg hair really can't be mine.
So as you can see, discussion is rather out of the question if responses like 'I'm not listening to you' and just walking away from a conversation are what I'm going to get. Molehills quickly become mountains in such situations. I have, instead, adopted a passive approach to life. For example, If they think it is acceptable to hoover their rooms at midnight and not wake up until 8pm, I shall scrub the bathroom floor at 1pm because that is a reasonable time for most reasonable people. I just live my life according to what most people would deem acceptable and let them get on with it. They say you should just ignore bullies because it will just upset them and they'll wear themselves out like spoiled children. It works for housemates too. If they wish to speak to me about something, which they don't because they're too scared, I will happily speak to them in polite tones but otherwise I continue to live my life as I need to. No passive aggressive notes, nothing like that, just living my life in the room I pay for, doing my share of the cleaning once a week.
So it's fair to say, I hate the woman. I loathe, detest and despise her. With the constant conversations outside my very thin bedroom door, it's a wonder I've had any sleep in this academic year, let alone managed to stay off the fags! I am at my whit's end. I am, if you don't know, studying for a PhD which is stressful at the best of times. If you add in the sheer hell these people create, it's no wonder I'm going a bit loopy.
RANT ALERT!
I hate my housemates. I think it's fair to start with that. They're noisy and childish. One is a trainee teacher and she's OK, even if she's 23 and doesn't know how to change a light bulb. Another is taking her masters part time and the best way I could describe her is like a 'little Himmler'. If you've ever read Golding's 'Lord of the Flies', you'll know there's a rather sadistic character (whose name escapes me right now, it might be Roger...) but who can't think for himself, preferring to go along with whatever the leader thinks. The third and final housemate is the devil incarnate. She doesn't do her cleaning, leaves her laundry on the drying airers for days and days on end because 'some of us have busy lives' and orders take away at ridiculous hours of the night so the delivery men ring the door bell and wake up the whole house. She also leaves her pool cue at the very bottom of the stairs, just waiting for someone to trip over it. When I first moved in, Ms Beelzebub had a cupboard and a half to herself in our very small kitchen which forced myself and housemate I can stand to share a cupboard between us. She also left no space in the fridge for a new housemate. Her stinky shoes fill the shoe rack in the porch (guests comment on the smell when they first walk in!), her coats fill the communal coat rack, she has an entire cupboard in the kitchen dedicated to stolen glasses from the pub where she works and her stuff otherwise goes everywhere despite having the largest bedroom!
But this isn't the whole story. There are, of course, two sides to everything and in the interests of full disclosure I shall mention why they don't like me. I play music and I watch movies in my room. When I first moved in I told them that if it was ever too loud, they just had to say. They never did so I never realised it could disturb them. Unfortunately, if they choose to have a conversation outside my bedroom door, I am unable to hear my music/movie because they are that loud...so I turn it up to drown them out, especially if I'm studying. Yet they know I can hear every word they say and continue anyway. The last time I tried to speak to 'little Himmler' about this, the response I got was 'I'm not listening to you'. One night 'little Himmler' had her boyfriend over and I can only assume that they were moving furniture around. I knocked on her door and asked her to keep it down as I desperately needed an early night, having had a deadline that day. The response was a giggle and silence. No apology. No 'sure thing!'. Silence. To combat the possibility of my 240W speakers making too much noise, I have packed them away and now use only the teeny tiny, rubbish speakers on my monitor. The sound quality is awful but much, much quieter.
The other issue is the heating. My room is north facing and the windows let in a draft. If you're not from the UK or have been living on Venus for the past 3 years, you might have missed that England has been a 'bit chilly'. I believe that the heating should be on for far longer than it is, especially as I have to work from home and can't type with gloves on. Also, my legs hurt when it's cold and the radiators are the only means 4 girls have to dry their laundry in sufficient time that it doesn't smell damp. Just because mummy and daddy only have the heating on for two hours a day doesn't make it right. They probably have a tumble drier and work full time! I've since bought a little oil heater for my room so I can be warm.
A further issue is the bathroom. If you have ever watched The Big Bang Theory, you may remember the episode where Penny falls in the bath because she lacks a bathmat or whimsical adhesive umbrella holding duck stickers to reduce the slipperiness of her bath. Ms Beelzebub's mummy and daddy never had a bathmat so she doesn't believe in them; 'little Himmler' goes along with Ms Beelzebub; and the third housemate really doesn't care. I, on the other hand, stand firm that we need a bathmat and if they don't want to use it, they don't have to but I am not putting my safety in danger (especially after removing all the soap scum with sugar soap and thus increasing the slipperiness of the tub!) just because mummy and daddy don't do it. On attempting to speak to Ms Beelzebub as to why she hid the bathmat under the stairs, she responded that she didn't think anyone used it (well I do!), it was unhygienic because dirt collects under the mat (we wash the tub, and the mat, and don't shower under the mat! Also, when you rinse the tub when you're finished, rise the mat! Finally, if no one uses it, how does the 'dirt' get there?), it gives you verrucas (no, any surface like that including a bathtub, bathroom floor, or swimming pool etc would increase your likelihood of getting verucas if the virus is present on that surface. Bathmats don't increase the likelihood and, by the way, I caught a verucca when I moved into this house!) and so on and so on. The conversation ended when she walked away. Yes, she just walked off- conversation over!
But finally, there's the issue of leg hair- I apologise, this gets a little personal. Yes, they have taken issue with me (apparently!) shaving my legs because the hair goes everywhere in the bathroom...they've even found it under my toiletries basket. What they don't know is that I very infrequently shave my legs as I am happily single, it's winter, and thus have no reason to. Said hair appears when I haven't shaved my legs in weeks and in the wrong length... What's even more delightful is finding the cap of a razor, you know the little plastic bit that covers them when you first buy them, of a style of razor I don't use in my toiletries basket. So somebody using the same style of razor that would fit this cap could very well be putting this variety of hair there. This is one option I'm mulling over...the other is a rare form of alopecia which affects only leg hair and causes no hair to actually be removed from the legs but just for it to appear elsewhere. I'm yet to hear back from The Lancet on my new discovery but I've started keeping more personal items in my room... I'm even considering buying an epilator, just because I know that summer is coming around and I know that it'll drive them crazy when I eventually point out that the leg hair really can't be mine.
So as you can see, discussion is rather out of the question if responses like 'I'm not listening to you' and just walking away from a conversation are what I'm going to get. Molehills quickly become mountains in such situations. I have, instead, adopted a passive approach to life. For example, If they think it is acceptable to hoover their rooms at midnight and not wake up until 8pm, I shall scrub the bathroom floor at 1pm because that is a reasonable time for most reasonable people. I just live my life according to what most people would deem acceptable and let them get on with it. They say you should just ignore bullies because it will just upset them and they'll wear themselves out like spoiled children. It works for housemates too. If they wish to speak to me about something, which they don't because they're too scared, I will happily speak to them in polite tones but otherwise I continue to live my life as I need to. No passive aggressive notes, nothing like that, just living my life in the room I pay for, doing my share of the cleaning once a week.
So it's fair to say, I hate the woman. I loathe, detest and despise her. With the constant conversations outside my very thin bedroom door, it's a wonder I've had any sleep in this academic year, let alone managed to stay off the fags! I am at my whit's end. I am, if you don't know, studying for a PhD which is stressful at the best of times. If you add in the sheer hell these people create, it's no wonder I'm going a bit loopy.
