My London Family

Upon moving to London, one of my main concerns was where on earth am I going to live?

I had no idea about what was a good area and what was bad.  To be honest I still don’t have much of a clue about places and when people tell me where they live I often just accept the fact that I have no idea and just smile and nod my head when they say where they live.

A good friend from home had moved to south London and when I visited her the place seemed to have everything I needed.  A large sainsburys, a wilkos, a primark -  what more could you want.

So the house hunt began.  I headed over to gumtree and searched north London.  I had found and viewed a few places.  One with an overgrown garden and a man telling me that it would be a great place for sunbathing.  I was starting to lose hope.  Then I found a house.  It was the next street away from my friend and the best thing is they had a dog.  I went to view the house and fell in love with the place.  My room is a little bigger than a prison cell but i have made it feel like home.

I’ve never lived with housemates that weren’t family before so I was in for some learning.  The house started with 3 girls, 3 guys, 1 dog, 2 cats and 1 rabbit. The tally is now 4 girls, 1 guy, 2 cats and 2 rabbits.

From pretty much the get go there was a divide in the house.  It was explained to me as day shift and night shift.  Myself and Tom were on the day shift as both of us weren't working and Jacob, Luke were on the night shift.  Charlotte was the middle man who did our change over.  As soon as the night shift came home, the day shift left.  It was like this for a while until Jacob let us know that he was moving out.

Success for the day shift.  We didn’t get along with him and were convinced that him leaving would be the best possible thing in the world.  

It is important to note that there is another female housemate that has been around since I moved in, but she stays in her room so will only be referred to as the mystery housemate.

Once Jacob moved out, we were then introduced to Nicole.  Nicole brought with her a love of photography, festivals and Dave the rabbit (who is a girl).  But most importantly, Nicole brought down the day shift and night shift.  The day shift had now taken over the house!

Charlotte and Luke (the house couple) were starting to look for a house of their own as they had the 2 cats locked in their room, so we had the potential of getting another new house mate.  But what happened instead from Charlotte and Luke broke up, Luke moved out and our house was looking to be a happy haven.

We were all getting along great.  We had huge plans for a 90s themed house party, we watched eurovision together, went to the local pub quiz (team magic for life) but then it all went downhill.

It was a Saturday night and after being awake for 30 something hours, Charlotte dragged me to our semi-local pub.  After pulling up my hood, putting on my sunglasses and falling asleep like a ninja, I decided to come home.  Nobody else was home so I dragged myself up to bed and fell into a well deserved slumber.  At 2:30am the house buzzer went off.  Assuming one of my housemates had forgotten their keys, I stumbled downstairs to let them in.  When I opened the door, 4 strange men (one of whom was 6 foot 7) were at the door asking to be let in.  “We are Toms friends”  

When I asked where Tom was they said he was at the pub, and they would told that I would let them in.  Having never met nor seen these men before, I told them no, but alas they wouldn’t let me shut the door, so being the confident girl I am, I ran upstairs to my room and locked my door hoping that serial killers were not in my house.  The next day when I confronted Tom about it, he didn’t see anything wrong with not telling me that his friends were coming over and he wasn’t  going to be home to let them in.  My day shift alliance was officially over and he turned into the enemy.  

After peer-pressure from Charlotte, Tom gave me the worst apology I have ever heard but being the bigger person, I let it be.

Fast forward a couple of weeks later, 1 drunk Tom and 1 sober me.  I was told that being an Aussie and a girl that I am sexist for being scared about 4 strange men coming to my door, that I am racist (because all Australians are) and that I am a liar (his friends said sorry apparently).  Oh and lets not forget the nail in his coffin, that horrible apology, he didn’t mean it.

Let the war begin.

I now made it my mission to make his life hell.  Playing cheesy music really loud was my personal favourite thing.  It only took a couple of weeks until I got the message from Charlotte that Tom was leaving the house and we had to find a new house mate.

That brings us to the final member of my little house family.  Thom. (Yes we replaced one Tom for another - just spelt differently)  Thom is fantastic and even though he doesn’t live here during the week, makes the weekends all the more fun knowing that our little awesome foursome will be complete on the weekends.

Why are my housemates important?  These guys will feature in blogs and podcasts.  They are also my London family and I wouldn’t be here without them!

Aussie Out

xo