As an adult I have encountered many interesting and now that I look back on them rather funny stories concerning my many accommodation experiences. As a student in Armidale, Australia, one such experience was sharing a house with a married couple. It was here that I made the ultimate mistake of dipping my butter knife into the honey jar and I can remember the repercussions to this day. Armidale is a town half way between Brisbane and Sydney and it was here that I lived for 4 years of my life. As I had to settle into accommodation before re-commencing my Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of New England, I needed to find somewhere to live. I constantly moved around Armidale like a game of musical chairs but more so musical houses. I went from house to house and it was in the "Honey Jar" house that I was asked to leave for the simple reason of when having breakfast one morning, I dipped my buttered knife into the honey jar. I was only in this house for 3 weeks which in itself was historic for it was the longest time to settle in before being asked to leave for unbeknown reasons to me. Don't get me wrong, I paid my rent and was conscientious but people had to find an excuse to get rid of me as I never seemed to fit in anywhere.
The "Honey Jar" house was occupied by a couple. The husband was a male masseuse and his wife a school teacher. I could often hear them in the house giggling like to Hyenas and furthermore having no choice but to put up with neurosis. If you used the toilet for instance at night, they did not like it to be flushed at night and more importantly as the husband was a light sleeper etc. Their house was clean but they were just neurotic to say the least. Also you could not park your car on their lawn and more importantly you felt like you had to tip toe all the time as if you were the magic fairy ensuring you wouldn't touch the honey jar in the cupboard.
My many accommodation requirements were many while in Armidale. I can remember the elderly lady I boarded with her had two dogs (A Blue Heeler and a Rot wheeler) and a cat. She believed she was from the landed English gentry often pretending to fit the description also. Her biggest mistake was letting her cat lick the contents of her breakfast bowl while it sat in her lap. Also the Blue Heeler was so fat that it struggled to walk properly. As the accommodation was supposed to be a board arrangement, this lady cooked rather lazy meals and on one occasion, she neglected the cooking food, only to serve it burned and inedible. Also when I returned from a university lecture, I cooked some noodles on the stove with her coming into the kitchen paranoid in seeing smoke coming out of the chimney. She also insisted that when items were washed such as spoons or forks, that the utensils had to be placed to dry facing down beside the sink. If you had to frequent the bathroom at night also, you had to walk past the doorway where this elderly lady slept with her two dogs and cat in the room.
In one house in Armidale, the land lady had a husband that she had a restraining order on, apparently fall through the ceiling to supposedly spy on her in case he suspected her cheating. The children were also corrupted with one of the children being manipulated by the husband. It was all very sad and unfortunate and the child stole one of my frozen ice creams denying he took it when confronted. I was to also be woken up by the drunken boarder who never paid a cent in rent and who was drunk as a skunk. This person also stole my bicycle and whatever money he could get his hands on. Such were my experiences in the town of Armidale while a university student.
Aspies find living with other people very difficult. In my case, I can remember feeling annoyed when parties were on and I could not sleep. In one flat, I was never even asked or invited to attend the party and yet I had no choice but to try and sleep through it. On a trip to Sydney to visit family there, I encountered the trio conspiracy. Three girls conspired to get rid of me in the flat and I knew it was happening but just went to Sydney anyhow. Upon returning to Armidale, the conspiracy was a reality. I found a complaint made against me for simply being a male, and of course the university could do nothing about it. I just had to accept the line of least resistance and move. On another occasion I shared a 4 bedroom flat with this male stand over merchant. He tried all he could to drive other people out and played music up until 2am in the morning. What was worst was the person responsible wore ear phones with the other music playing. You couldn't do much apart from trying to stand your ground and to insist upon your rights. My final stay was in a granny flat with the home owners reluctant to take the rent money I gave them. Maybe I shouldn't have paid them the rent at all. People can be so weird and screwed up with their own insecurities.
I can also remember driving my father's Datsun C20 Van between Armidale and Brisbane. It broke down on the road once at Stanthorpe. Also I had the early morning starts at Coles Supermarket. I had to get up at 4am in Armidale during winter. For anyone who lived in Armidale, winter is no fun. Ice and frost everywhere and sometimes even snow. I almost cracked the car windscreen which was frosted over by thinking that pouring hot water from the kettle could thaw the windscreen. I later learned that this procedure could actually cause the windscreen to crack. Furthermore, the choke got a workout and the starter motor a wearout. Despite the several attempts to start the old car, the choke just wasn't up to it. I kept persisiting and probably woke the whole town of Armidale by my continual attempts to start the car engine with my final attempts being successful. This was after something like 30 attempts.
I also undertook some volunteer work experience in the local federal member of parliament's electorate office but found the member's secretary to be unhelpful. The only thing I managed to do was sit in the front of a computer for 30 minutes trying to get some software program to work and never being thanked afterward.
Anthony Julian fellow friend and Aspie is featured in the video which I also think is light humored and funny and for your viewing pleasure.
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