Thinking Back III – Accommodation

My first home in Perth was a townhouse located at 11 Beveridge Street. It was two floored, newly built with six bedrooms, fully carpeted, air-conditioned including the common living and kitchen areas, and a 15 minute walk from my office in campus.

My first year in Perth accommodation wise should had been a great luxurious experience. Unfortunately, it was anything but, because there were…

Housemates who smoked in the house.

Housemates who brought their friends into the house and who also smoked.

Cigarette ash on the carpets.

Housemates who left the kitchen littered with unwashed utensils, overnight and usually longer even with one record being unwashed materials for three nights. Imagine food leftovers that’s left on the stove for three nights.

Housemates with loudspeaker volumes when they yak on the phone.

Housemates who paired up and when they had relationship difficulties, I was unwillingly dragged in to be a crying shoulder.

Big disputes with parking with neighbors; in one case, residents from another townhouse parked their vehicles into our property instead.

No kidding on the last. It’s like if your next door neighbor parks his car into your driveway and thinks nothing of it (blogged here 6 years ago LOL).

Initially I thought it was an Asian thing – all my housemates were from either Singapore or Malaysia, and in their early 20s – but I learnt in the following year that it was an age thing in my second home when I had African housemates. Still, I lost count of the times I tried talking to these fellows asking politely each time not to smoke in the house and to clear up their kitchen mess. I think Matt remembers some of these ICQ conversations of me lamenting that I felt like I was living with neanderthals!

At the end of my tether, I called the housing agent to step in, and one fellow took offence and turned hostile claiming that I should have spoken to him first (as though I haven’t try to LOL). Yep, and now I also had to deal with hostility in the house too.

So, as attractive and comfortable as the place was, as soon as my accommodation contract expired at the end of my first year in Perth, I looked for alternative accommodation. To be continued!