This time last year, I was driving back down the M6, heading back to Kent having visited two of my dearest friends in the whole world. The night before, I had slept at their house but one of them also had their step-daughter visiting so rather than nipping outside constantly, letting the cold in and making a lot of noise, I had my old 510 ecig on hand. That was the real beginning. I'd had an Ego-T the year before but I've covered that elsewhere... what a difference a year makes...
So things were going well. I had dropped down from 24mg in the morning and 18mg during the rest of the day to 3mg...3MG!!!!!! My old housemates who were horrors had moved out, and the new ones had moved in... talk about frying pans and fires!
Two weeks ago, one of them brought in somebody they hardly knew, who otherwise lives in Holland. At 9.30am, I got a text message asking if I knew where to buy not tobacco... you get my drift! 9.30am!!!! All I heard all day was 'oh I need it!' or words to the equivalent. Frankly, the guy was less than savoury and a total creep. That night, 'Skank Magnet', as we shall henceforth know this housemate, and 'Dutch Skank' enjoyed carnal knowledge in the communal bathroom. Which is my responsibility to clean. ICK! TOTAL ICK! (FYI, my definition of 'skank' refers to high levels of promiscuity, use of non-tobacco, and general ickyness!).Being as how from my room I can hear difficult bowel movements, they didn't exactly disguise their double occupancy of the bathroom. Another housemate, otherwise known as 'Serial Monogamist', and I went out for a drink but I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. All I wanted to do was bleach the bathroom! I couldn't stand the thought of leaving it... so I returned home and used the vast majority of a bottle of bleach. To be honest, I've not been able to use the bathroom without cleaning it thoroughly since! And thus began the noise. I could hear from the other side of the house with my bedroom door shut. They were out in the back garden for a while, smoking, which, when you realise that we have young children next door kids over the street and an elderly next door neighbour, is an issue in noise terms. The last straw was at 00.30 when there was screeching outside my bedroom window at the front of the house. 'Skank Magnet' was yelling from outside the front door to 'Dutch Skank' at the top back of the house. They know damned well that I am trying to correct my dodgy sleeping, and they've heard me or several social occasions that noise should be kept minimal and I exploded. I frightened myself! I BELLOWED! 'This is not a thing! This is not happening in THIS house! We've got neighbours!' and so on. At that point, I was stood halfway down the stairs and 'Dutch Skank' was above me on the stairs. He laid his hands on me and I bellowed all the harder; 'Don't you touch me!'. For all I know, he could have pushed me down the stairs, he really could have given that impression.
Now, I stayed out of the way for a while. I hibernated on Saturday and on Sunday decided to exorcise his presence, assuming he had gone. It transpired that he hadn't. I bleached the bathroom again and made my way into the kitchen. We pay rent to use communal kitchen equipment including plates and cutlery. But my housemates don't believe that washing up should be done with hot water. They also believe that when you wash up mugs of tea, that leaving rings inside constitutes clean. Check out the picture of the knife and you'll see their standard of 'clean'! So I figured that if things needed to be cleaned properly as I was sick of finding dirty bowls with baked beans stuck to the inside, and cutlery with food stuck on. So I washed up...every glass, every bowl, every plate, every pan, every utensil, and every square inch of the kitchen. When you consider that I had cleaned the whole house just the week before because it hadn't been done in three weeks, perhaps this will give you an indication of the issue. After two and a half hours of washing up (my least favourite household job), 'Skank Magnet' approached me and said I was inconsiderate for taking over the kitchen for so long.... 'I'm inconsiderate?! I'm not the one who brought that total skank into this house! He's not coming back here again, I can tell you! The noise you've made, etc etc, reference to his need for certain things (you get my drift!) etc etc', 'Well you had W here the other week and he came in at 4am and woke me up!', 'No he didn't! He went to a bar (without me) and it doesn't stay open that late. He also had a Subway on the way home and they don't stay out that late either. Anyway, its too late. I've already informed the landlords of the situation so its out of my hands now. And frankly, I'm sick of coming downstairs to make myself a brew or something to eat and not being able to find clean stuff to use. I shouldn't be pulling dirty plates out of the kitchen cupboard!' And so on and so on. Even 'Serial Monogamist' said it was 'nutty' and that I should just clean what I want to use... oddly, we're an age range of 27, 25, 25, and 23...I thought living in a postgrad house would be easier and cleaner... when they turn round and say 'this is the cleanest house I've ever lived in', why do they think that is?! Does it magically happen? No. At least last year, there were three of us pulling our weight!
I found this knife in the draining rack, AFTER it had allegedly been washed up. This is the standard to which my housemates believe it is acceptable to wash up communal items...
View attachment 269426
So things were going well. I had dropped down from 24mg in the morning and 18mg during the rest of the day to 3mg...3MG!!!!!! My old housemates who were horrors had moved out, and the new ones had moved in... talk about frying pans and fires!
Two weeks ago, one of them brought in somebody they hardly knew, who otherwise lives in Holland. At 9.30am, I got a text message asking if I knew where to buy not tobacco... you get my drift! 9.30am!!!! All I heard all day was 'oh I need it!' or words to the equivalent. Frankly, the guy was less than savoury and a total creep. That night, 'Skank Magnet', as we shall henceforth know this housemate, and 'Dutch Skank' enjoyed carnal knowledge in the communal bathroom. Which is my responsibility to clean. ICK! TOTAL ICK! (FYI, my definition of 'skank' refers to high levels of promiscuity, use of non-tobacco, and general ickyness!).Being as how from my room I can hear difficult bowel movements, they didn't exactly disguise their double occupancy of the bathroom. Another housemate, otherwise known as 'Serial Monogamist', and I went out for a drink but I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. All I wanted to do was bleach the bathroom! I couldn't stand the thought of leaving it... so I returned home and used the vast majority of a bottle of bleach. To be honest, I've not been able to use the bathroom without cleaning it thoroughly since! And thus began the noise. I could hear from the other side of the house with my bedroom door shut. They were out in the back garden for a while, smoking, which, when you realise that we have young children next door kids over the street and an elderly next door neighbour, is an issue in noise terms. The last straw was at 00.30 when there was screeching outside my bedroom window at the front of the house. 'Skank Magnet' was yelling from outside the front door to 'Dutch Skank' at the top back of the house. They know damned well that I am trying to correct my dodgy sleeping, and they've heard me or several social occasions that noise should be kept minimal and I exploded. I frightened myself! I BELLOWED! 'This is not a thing! This is not happening in THIS house! We've got neighbours!' and so on. At that point, I was stood halfway down the stairs and 'Dutch Skank' was above me on the stairs. He laid his hands on me and I bellowed all the harder; 'Don't you touch me!'. For all I know, he could have pushed me down the stairs, he really could have given that impression.
Now, I stayed out of the way for a while. I hibernated on Saturday and on Sunday decided to exorcise his presence, assuming he had gone. It transpired that he hadn't. I bleached the bathroom again and made my way into the kitchen. We pay rent to use communal kitchen equipment including plates and cutlery. But my housemates don't believe that washing up should be done with hot water. They also believe that when you wash up mugs of tea, that leaving rings inside constitutes clean. Check out the picture of the knife and you'll see their standard of 'clean'! So I figured that if things needed to be cleaned properly as I was sick of finding dirty bowls with baked beans stuck to the inside, and cutlery with food stuck on. So I washed up...every glass, every bowl, every plate, every pan, every utensil, and every square inch of the kitchen. When you consider that I had cleaned the whole house just the week before because it hadn't been done in three weeks, perhaps this will give you an indication of the issue. After two and a half hours of washing up (my least favourite household job), 'Skank Magnet' approached me and said I was inconsiderate for taking over the kitchen for so long.... 'I'm inconsiderate?! I'm not the one who brought that total skank into this house! He's not coming back here again, I can tell you! The noise you've made, etc etc, reference to his need for certain things (you get my drift!) etc etc', 'Well you had W here the other week and he came in at 4am and woke me up!', 'No he didn't! He went to a bar (without me) and it doesn't stay open that late. He also had a Subway on the way home and they don't stay out that late either. Anyway, its too late. I've already informed the landlords of the situation so its out of my hands now. And frankly, I'm sick of coming downstairs to make myself a brew or something to eat and not being able to find clean stuff to use. I shouldn't be pulling dirty plates out of the kitchen cupboard!' And so on and so on. Even 'Serial Monogamist' said it was 'nutty' and that I should just clean what I want to use... oddly, we're an age range of 27, 25, 25, and 23...I thought living in a postgrad house would be easier and cleaner... when they turn round and say 'this is the cleanest house I've ever lived in', why do they think that is?! Does it magically happen? No. At least last year, there were three of us pulling our weight!
I found this knife in the draining rack, AFTER it had allegedly been washed up. This is the standard to which my housemates believe it is acceptable to wash up communal items...
View attachment 269426
