Nice to hear

I paid a visit to my sister a few nights ago. Drinks flowed. We had some really interesting conversations about a number of subjects. I think that's something that I miss, living alone and partly why the time alone with KfW2 is so important to me. In fact, even when I shared a place with MfW or Useless Flatmate, proper conversing was not something we'd do. Though the fact that I didn't really like them or trust them might have had something to do with it.

When I was taking some time trying to drunkenly explain something complicated to my sister, she interrupted me to tell me that I was extremely intelligent.

It was a great compliment. It's always nice to hear. I've been doubting myself a lot recently, so it was well-timed and welcome reassurance.

Just pondering

Despite owning a house for the best part of five years and prior to that, living on my own* for far too long in a few different countries, I've never been great at just buying for the house. It was a habit I never got into. The six or seven years of living with people like Useless Flatmate, Heating Guy, MfW and the whole general distrust that went on wasn't conducive to just opening my wallet and buying things on semi-impulse to improve our lives. It has to be noted that they didn't, either. But then, they rarely lifted a finger in cleaning up and doing general house chores.

It's only actually with lockdown that I've found myself buying little things here and there just to improve life in the house rather than only buying things when I absolutely need them. I wouldn't say that I live a Spartan existence, but I'd say that it was basic.

It's all functional stuff. I still can't get my head around buying shit for purely decorative purposes.

*With housemates

Why is everything crap?

Maybe not the world's most serious complaint and a very definite dose of First World Problems, but I've been looking at replacing some stuff that I have in the house. I have an electric razor that's on its last legs, and I've been looking around for a replacement. If I remember correctly, my sister bought me the last one as a "going away" present when I went abroad after university and it cost about £50 at the time.

To find one that does the same has been problematic... not all razors have the same features as my current once and to get those, I would need to pay nearly £90. Nearly double the price, well over fifteen years later. Surely that's not right?

It's a similar story with my TV. I bought my current TV when I moved in with UF and I might have to replace it soon. TV technology has improved since then, so things like screen size, picture quality etc. are all going to be better, but can I find a television that has the same number of connections for HDMI outputs and all that stuff? No, I can't, dear reader. FFS.

Itchy feet.

For the second time in a few weeks, New Zealand featured heavily in a dream last night. Sadly, so did MfW and UF. The latter is just a reminder about how my social living never worked out, to my disappointment. But the New Zealand setting brought out a bit of wanderlust that I haven't had in a while.

I don't really have the spare cash at the moment, but a potential thing at work could inject some spare cash into my bank account. It's low probability though.

There's a small chance I could do something for a week with FP, which might satisfy it but nothing will be considered until the work things come to some sort of resolution.

Spanner -> Works (Part 3)

Both ladies on the list have passed on the offered room. One girl said it was quite small. I don't know what she's basing that on, while it's the smallest bedroom in the house, it is comparable to a lot of master rooms that I've seen when viewing houses. I'm slightly disappointed... I was hoping to get a girl in to add some balance to the place. Living with MfW, UF and FNG has made me want to see what it's like living with a female. I know we had NSU, but she was always away on business or back in her family home, so doesn't really count.

I'm down to one person, and I've just sent the text. I don't like getting in touch with people this late, but I can't listen to more of MfW's whining. Six day's notice indeed. I'll probably know early tomorrow morning if this guy is willing to take us up on our offer, but I can't see it... it's been too long since he first viewed the place and probably has a place lined up.

I've done my bit... I'll be interested to see what lengths MfW goes to over the next three days to ensure he can leave the place at the weekend.

Decision, decisions.

So, after spending all last week with strangers walking through our house, we need to make a decision regarding who's going to take FNG's place. I was expecting a disaster, to be honest. MfW is a friend (barely) who I've known for ten years but we rarely agree on the little details. I predicted, wrongly in fact, that there would be a massive argument over the new person.

As it turns out, our top two are the same, just in reverse order. MfW's concern over my top choice is valid - shift working patterns, so I've asked her (yes, my top choice is a female) for clarification. Hopefully she will come back and confirm that her shift working will not be invasive i.e. no 3AM finishes.

The other person is an I.T. guy. Having previously lived with two technically-minded people recently (UF and FNG), I just fancy a change of vibe about the place which is why I'm angling for a non-techy female. The I.T. guy seemed really sound though, so having to settle will be disappointing but not a disaster.

Here's hoping that my first choice texts back soon and can offer some assurance that she won't be running around the place at 4AM after doing a late shift.

Hmmm.

When UF lived here, I felt a little ostracised at times. When I first started sharing a house with UF, I made a few attempts to get the guys to socialise, but without any real result. Once MfW moved in though, UF became a lot more social. I don't think that UF liked me very much. As such, he and MfW used to head out to the pub. Rarely would I get an invite and if I did, it was usually at the very last second. Literally as they were leaving the house. Even now that UF has left the house six months, there have been a few times I know that he's gone to the pub with MfW and I wasn't invited.

MfW is a man who's hard to read. I don't socialise with him enough, but that's down to him as he's burned his bridges with people he used to call friends such as GB and GM. So when we head out, I don't include him. He doesn't have the manners to turn up and be polite - he would actually go out of his way to be difficult - so he's drifted away.

I thought with FNG moving in, this could be different. If I'd had the choice, I don't know if I would have approved of FNG moving in. He's fourteen years my junior and while he does have his head screwed on, I think I'm much rather have had someone closer to my own age. I don't know that there are a lot of people out there my age looking to share a house though.

I popped into the kitchen last night after doing some shopping and made general chitchat with FNG and MfW, asking about plans for the weekend etc.  MfW seemed in bad form, so I didn't say an awful lot. I made some dinner and sat down to eat it in the living room. After I'd finished and was sat watching some TV (none of this is different to what I usually do, but I'm usually home and finished by the time anyone else gets in), MfW came in. I heard him muttering to FNG - they'd obviously been planning something - then he asked if I wanted to go with them for a few drinks. They were leaving right then.

I did - I went out and had a decent time. But I couldn't help think that if I hadn't been sitting in the living room that I wouldn't have been invited out. I wasn't involved in their plans and it was yet another last-minute invite out. I almost didn't go because I don't really like last-minute arrangements.

MfW's seeming bad mood was nowhere to be seen and we chatted about lots of things. That continued today where we've been sitting watching telly and chatting again for a good few hours this afternoon. I was meant to be heading out with FP this evening, but he's claiming some kind of illness.

I'd love to head out to the pub. It's likely to be quiet, what with it being Easter weekend, but it's the nicest day of the year so far and just seems like too nice a night to be sitting in. I'm contemplating asking MfW. FNG is away. He may or may not be back.

Shouldn't throw stones.

I was meant to be going out with MfW for his birthday a few nights ago, but it never happened. That was for two main reasons... the first was that he wanted to go to a club. I don't particularly like clubs and especially those that play RnB/dance music. The second was that he went AWOL for hours before finally turning up at the apartment at half ten with a few mates in tow.

By this time, I was already settled for the evening, watching a couple of movies and getting comfortable after a week of trying (and mainly succeeding) fighting off the cold. It had taken its toll though, and I was really not in any mood to go anywhere.

So, that wasn't bad. I had a great night's sleep that night and chilled out the next day.

I thought that MfW might have gone home to see the family, but that was not the case. Imagine my surprise when I went to make dinner last night to see UF in the apartment. Apparently he and MfW had made plans. Since I've introduced the two of them, they seem to have hit it off, which is no bad thing, but I appear to be excluded from a lot of these trips to the pub that became more and more frequent as time went on.

I don't know if this is MfW's doing or UF's. Seeing as MfW got an invite to UF's wedding and I didn't, I am inclined to think it's UF, but it could be either of them really.

MfW was complaining last night about NSU's lack of housekeeping and this is typical of the man. He's very interested in what other people DON'T do, but rarely sees what other people actually do. All the complaints he makes/made about UF and NSU's effort around the house (cleaning, tidying up, buying little things for the apartment) can all be levelled against him. I don't think he sees that, though.

Well, I never!

MfW disappeared over the weekend without a trace or notice. I wasn't overly concerned and I did get a great weekend of chilling out without doors being slammed etc.

It turns out that he was at UF's wedding. A wedding that I didn't get an invite to. I'm not particularly annoyed - despite living with UF for over four years, I wouldn't ever say that we were friends... and that's if you ignore the fact that he's been, in my opinion, taking the piss, house-wise since we moved into our current place. Actually, when I think about the amount of piss-taking that he did with regards not paying me on time, not doing any housework etc. I do actually start getting quite angry.

I know that he and MfW often went to the pub, usually without inviting me, but I didn't realise they were that close.

Cleanliness is next to a pain in the ass.

We have a new housemate. I'm going to call her NSU because she never shuts up - she always has a story to tell or something to say. Bearing in mind, I am completely the opposite and sometimes you have to drag conversation from me, then this isn't going to end well.

Regardless, NSU has been in about a week. She's made many, many references to the fact that she's clean and tidy. I consider myself to be clean and tidy, but it's obvious that the flat is only "boy tidy". Arguably it should be better but seeing as UF and MfW haven't lifted a finger since we originally moved in (MfW claims, rather childishly, that he never did anything because UF never did), I wasn't going to do a complete clean and tidy of the place every two weeks, so certain things were neglected.

Well, NSU decided yesterday that she was going to clean the kitchen. That's not a big thing - it could have done with it. What I didn't realise was that the clean up was going to take nearly six or seven hours and that every single item in the kitchen would get a rub down (and I mean everything).

The kitchen is now spotless, fair play to her, but she's moved about 99% of the stuff we had in the kitchen, seemingly to fit in with whatever logic she has and everything now has a place in a cupboard. Lots of stuff has been thrown out and half the stuff that I have in the kitchen now requires a ten-minute hunt.

Seemingly she has an issue with stuff being visible so if it's not anchored down, it's been tidied away. Literally, the only two things left standing are the microwave and the kettle. The toaster's gone, bottles of cooking oil, juice, stuff on high shelves etc. that we had no space for elsewhere have all been put into cupboards.

I used the toaster and the bread board this morning and they've been put back to where they lived, pre-NSU.

I've no qualms about NSU wanting the place to be cleaner, but arbitrarily reorganising a kitchen that's worked well for the in-situ housemates for well over two years without a question or comment is, quite frankly, taking the piss. Doubly so when you consider that she claims she's only going to be here at most four nights a week.

That seems to be her personality though. This needs to be watched.

Have a break... have a...

I know it's a bit early for a review of the year with practically four full months still to go, but a lot has happened and, quite frankly, I'm mentally exhausted. It started off well with the potential of meeting CB and plenty of positive encouragement from GM and GB... but that all soon dissipated, at least from GB as she was fucking useless and it's something I still haven't fully forgiven her for.

There were changes at work, for the worse, and that's something I still have to battle on a daily basis. There may be an end in sight, but people are being very cagey about it, and that hasn't stopped the past six months from being extremely tough, stressful and frustrating, work-wise.

Over the summer, I've had a foreign holiday, KfW2 got married, I had a close friend's death, G's wife has a serious illness that currently being treated, KfW2 has had a rather serious medical issue and I feel that my friendship with DSC has run its course - she threw a huff before I went away in July and she's not been in contact since. I simply cannot be arsed to contact her myself - I don't need the drama, whining and the other stuff. There's also been the issue of having to replace UF and a couple of other house-related issues that were completely unnecessary.

There's still four months to go and the negatives have greatly outweighed the positives though some things could turn around - I still, against my better judgement, hold out a little hope that I will manage an introduction to CB, but the rest of it is starting to take its toll, mentally.

It's not stress or depression, it's just mental fatigue. I think that I need another holiday.

Curiouser and curiouser.

I've just been told by UF that MfW has a few interesting tales to tell. He won't elaborate, but has indicated that they're not "fun" or positive stories and I reckon that one of them will be about him splitting up with his most recent girlfriend, which he's hinted at, but never gone any further than that.

The next few days will hopefully shed some light on this.

Missed opportunities?

I had anticipated a quiet weekend - UF and MfW have gone away and I have the place to myself and was planning on chilling out. Then I got an email from a couple of friends - S and GM included talking about a last-minute night out.

We started off having drinks at mine, then headed into town, generally having a laugh, chatting to tourists etc.

GM got chatting to a couple of girls and the rest of us sat down. By this stage, I was fairly drunk, but the banter was good. GM whispered conspiratorially to me that I should stay close to the thin brunette, that I was definitely "in" there and he seemed to be right, but the problem was that I had no interest in "closing the deal". There was simply no attraction there for me and when that's the case, I tend not to be able to motivate myself and even though I've been horny as fuck over the past month or so, this was no different.It's already been suggested by USHW that I should have gone for it anyway, just for the ego boost if nothing else... and the release wouldn't have done any harm either, but I don't think I'll ever be able to screw someone that I have no attraction to, even as a one night stand.

A good indicator is how I feel the next day - even now, I still have days where I am annoyed at myself for not approaching CB when I saw her in the pub on New Year's Eve, but I have zero regrets about not pulling the girl on Friday night.

And so it all begins...

We're in the middle of a discussion with our landlord about an outstanding bill. As far as we're concerned, our lease specifically states that he is responsible for it, but he is claiming that the law says otherwise and over-rides those particular terms of the lease.

He's obviously done a bit of homework on this because there's nothing concrete out there to categorically state either way who is correct, but that obviously means that no-one is completely incorrect either.

As usual, UF is trying to be the fount of all knowledge when it's not his area of expertise and is already making declarations of intent. As much as I completely disagree with how the landlord has handled things (text messages and the actual outstanding bill rather than telling us upfront), the fact remains that he could be correct. If that's the case, that would push the cost of living here to a point where I would have to consider looking elsewhere, and I know that MfW, who's extremely tight with money, is already considering it.

It's just more stress when I don't need it really.

Cheers! Cheers?

I had an impromptu night out with S on Friday, arranged over a few pints with KfW2 and S, to remember our friend. I say "night out" but really, it was just sitting in S's back garden, chilling and having a few drinks. We did arrange to go out properly last night though.

I mentioned this to MfW and he was keen enough to come out with us. Somewhat inevitably, when I contacted S to confirm details, he'd changed his mind. I text MfW to let him know and he'd already gone to the pub with UF. I said that I'd try and catch up with them later.

A couple of hours later, I got a text from MfW telling me they were moving on to another pub, one that I don't like as it's full of pretentious wankers and the bar staff are appalling. I replied, telling him that I didn't fancy that pub and would give it a miss.

S then got in contact saying that he'd changed his mind yet again and that they were heading out.I arranged to meet up with them at one of my favourite bars. When I arrived, who else should be there but MfW and UF? MfW was annoyed that I'd come out for some reason, but he seemed to get into a better mood quite quickly.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that I was angry that MfW and UF had gone out with even inviting me - it's unlikely that I would have gone with them initially - but it has happened a few times before. UF is due to move on soon and I'm hoping that his replacement will be a better housemate and perhaps friend.

"...in the middle of our street"

UF was due to contact the landlord about six weeks ago to confirm that he was leaving the apartment and to ask if it was OK if myself and MfW could stay on and get another tenant in to replace him. Everything went quiet until today when the letting agent called me to ask if we were going to renew the lease.

It became apparent that UF hadn't made any of the contact that he should have done. I should have known really... we ran into similar issues when we last had to move house and UF wasn't very forthcoming with information (he was the landlord's go-to guy with regards to contact).

The landlord also mentioned a slight rent increase and, immediately, MfW is onto property websites to see what others in the complex are paying. I've said before that he appears to judge value on what others pay, not what he thinks things are worth.

It's now looking like a semi-stressful summer instead of something more chilled, which is what I was hoping for.

A little digest of not a lot.

Out of the blue I got a text from MM today, asking if I wanted to go to a fancy dress party this coming Saturday. I don't particularly like fancy dress parties (I get really self-conscious when I dress up), so tend to avoid them, but the thought of seeing MMBF in some kind of skimpy outfit probably would have persuaded my otherwise... except it's my mum's birthday and we'll inevitably be having a meal. MM asked me to pop in later if the night ended early, and I might do that... without fancy dress of course.

I was also talking to GB today about S's blind date. I didn't particularly want to talk to GB, but CH invited her along when we were grabbing a coffee. MFF also turned up, but she wasn't involved in the blind date conversation sadly, otherwise I might have tried steering the conversation to wards CB. We had a decent chat about the blind date, about S and S's priorities. GB said that she thought that the man should do all the running, but I said that seeing as she was meant to be setting up her friend, it was her friend who had to make first contact, in my opinion. It might have been a pleasant and interesting conversation, but it hasn't stopped me being annoyed at her for being a shit friend though.

Also, UF looks as if he'll be staying on for another few months. I'd much rather he pissed off at the time he said he would, but he's got housing issues that have yet to be solved.

Oh, and as a last piece, I have finally heard back from QC2, so we're hopefully going to meet up sometime next week. I'm looking forward to that already.

Hurrah!

I was thinking that I was going to have to be really sneaky and do a bit of behind the scenes skulduggery with the landlords in order to get our lease into an annual thing rather than a rolling monthly contract. If we did that, then we would be looking for a new flatmate on our now usual anniversary in the house, not when UF decided he was going to leave.

However, UF himself admitted that he would be leaving on the anniversary date (he seems unaware that we switch to a rolling monthly contract on that date that would mean he could hang around another few months), so it looks like I might not have to be as sneaky as I thought.

I'll still have to be sneaky to a certain extent, mind you, but I think it's about time I had a chat with the landlords...

Cheers!

I'm hoping that I will have the house to myself this weekend - I need the space because both UF and MfW are pissing me off. In addition, I'm planning on having people round for St. Patrick's Day before and after we go to the pub, so getting these two imbeciles out of my hair means I can give the place a good clean... because it's not like they'll ever lift a finger. And, well, you know I don't want my friends to think I am some kind of unhygienic slob, because I'm not. I might not be tidy per se, but I'm clean.

There should be a good crowd out - S, GB, GM, KfW2 amongst others and previous days out have been very successful and lots and lots of fun.  I can pretty much guarantee that I'll be in good form too - I usually am when we all head out. I'm looking forward to it a lot. I tried to get CH out, but she's having none of it - it's too far away and too expensive to get a taxi home. JB also said she wouldn't be out, but that's more from too much partying last week.

So...

...not twenty minutes ago, UF puts a wash on. It's fucking quarter past midnight FFS! I'm not starting anything now, but I have gone into the utility room and turned the washing machine off. The fucking useless twat can restart it in the morning as he leaves for work... which is what he should have fucking done in the first place.

Also, the bin in the kitchen has been full since probably Monday (I've not been in the house much) and I'll probably have to empty it when I return from work tomorrow because no-one else will.

This is really starting to take the piss now.