Tuesday, December 23, 2008

DUBAI | Life With a Housemate

Rent in Dubai is expensive, especially if you want some place near your office and a room of your own. I'm sharing an apartment with H. We each get our own room, but there is still the inconvenience of having to live with someone who isn't family. It's been okay so far, except for the occasional irritation. It happens.

We have our little quirks and preferences. H prefers to dry her clothes on the balcony. She uses a nylon clothes-line. I enjoy a cup of morning coffee on the balcony - without the clothes-line, thank you very much. So what do we do? Every time H takes down her laundry, I untie the clothes-line. It must annoy her, having to re-tie the clothes-line every time. But I really hate that blue clothes-line. Besides, I wanted to practice yoga on the balcony before the weather turned so cold. It was disruptive.

Just a few days ago I found frozen milk in the fridge. Seriously. The milk had mysteriously chilled into ice. Somebody has been turning down the temperature in the fridge and I have frozen carrots, frozen zucchini, and frozen eggs (!) Apparently H is tired of food turning bad so soon that she has resorted to turning down the temperature in the fridge. But hello, everything  is now frozen. Do you know what happens when you defrost zucchini? They turn flaccid. Do you know how ridiculous it is to look at a flaccid zucchini?

We have two types of milk in the fridge. We can't share milk, because H buys low-fat while I want the full creamy richness. What's wrong with fat milk?

I have a stockpile of Dr Pepper in the fridge. It takes up a lot of space, but H lets it be. She has stockpile of meat in the freezer. My ice-cream sits nicely next to her frozen fish and chicken.

From time to time H would prepare lunch for work. Except she would forget to pack them. I would come home in the evening, and find her lunch sitting on the kitchen counter. *sigh*

I always spill liquids onto the stove when I cook. There's a lot of cleaning involved when I'm using the stove.

H loves fish. I dislike the smell of fish.

I dislike cleaning. H just let me be. :)

H likes to keep the TV on when she do things, like cooking, surfing the net. I let her be, even though I don't watch TV.

I have gone crazy. H doesn't realize it yet.

8 comments:

Ana S. said...

I had to deal with a lot of similar things when I shared an apartment with a stranger for the first time in my life last year. In the end things took a bad turn due to some dishonesty (basically, my flatmate wanted to see if he could get away with not paying his share of the bills). But when both parties have good will, things can work out. It sounds like you and H are making it work despite the annoyances.

Unknown said...

FROZEN EGGS? SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!

Melwyk said...

How cold is that fridge?!
I lived with roomates for 6 years throughout university and thankfully I only had one or two I didn't really get along with. Having to adjust to someone else's preferences can be... irritating. But it helps to recall that it is only temporary.

darkorpheus said...

Nymeth - I hope your flatmate did not get away with not paying. How dare he. But it must have been stressful to deal with someone who is so shameless.

With H and myself it's "good fences make good neighbours." Like she knows I don't clean, so she finally gave up, and said to me: "Tomorrow is my off-day. I will clean the entire apartment except your room!"

Yay! Thumbs up.

Ah Leng - Yeah. And with frozen eggs, they expand and crack the shell. So you have to cook the egg immediately after defrosting.

The frozen eggs was a very WTF moment. I just wanted to make some omelette for breakfast and I find THIS?!

Melanie - I have no idea. It was just really cold. It's like a freezer in there!

But I guess we can also see it as a test of character - how well we adjust to someone else's preference. Oh well.

At least you didn't end up killing any of your roommates.

Unknown said...

Truthfully, it NEVER EVER occured to me, this concept of frozen eggs. WTF lor, totally!

Anonymous said...

I rented a house in dubai with my friends.Ofcourse we had such differences.Sharing rooms with friends is the art to be learnt.I mastered it.But this is the first time I hearing about frozen eggs.

hillarysyogapractice said...

thank you for the link to my podcast. happy to have your taking my classes in dubai - my eye Dr does work there.

it is always a challenge to share space but watch what you are bothered by and then release it.. perhaps you can find the humor in it all.

best to you.

Carl V. Anderson said...

I certainly feel for you, I never had a room mate that wasn't also a friend before that and even that was hard sometimes. I cannot imagine sharing space with a complete stranger.

"Do you know how ridiculous it is to look at a flaccid zucchini?"

Ummm...is that personal question? :) I laughed my ass off reading that!!!