EPTi had made the mistake of saying that i was fine to re-locate and start immediately (i just wanted to show eagerness lol) which involved finding a place to live 150 miles away and purchasing a car to get there but fortunately i was given a week to sort myself out
finding accomodation in the area i have found is actually a nightmare, its like nothing is going and all the places under 500pcm want only females or are 6 month old adverts. i really can't believe how few rooms there are for rent in such a busy place (nearish to london)
i arranged a room to live in for 2 weeks in a country house and was happy to find the other tenant is a cool guy who used to be a runescape addict etc.
the landlady however was not so cool. i had a cup of tea with her and had a chat when i got there and thought she was just fine but it didn't last. more on this later.
so driving to the place incidently was a nightmare, i managed to buy a cheap but great car for like £1400 but i hadn't driven for 6 years due to a ban and afterwards ensuring that i always lived within walking distance to my places of work (shitty minimum wage jobs FYI)
i got a gps and the car needed a new fuse so it would charge the gps but the next morning the fuse blew again and (due to certain logistical reasons) i wasnt able to stop at a garage and after a while it ran out of battery and that was it. i hadn't driven for 6 yrs and hadn't ever driven on motorways (or A roads) in my life and i was basically heading north with no map and in constant dread of death
when i first got on the motorway for the first hour i thought it was insane to go over 50 mph but after a while i went Lina mode and managed to get up to 95 in my 1.3litre engine and spent a lot of the journey at like 80. i have never gripped something so hard in my life and sweat was pouring off me it was like skydiving for 30+++ minutes at a time for the first time (i've never done skydiving but i can imagine it being way less terrifying since in a car if you make 1 mistake then you literally die). i guess its like that point u have to jump out or activate ur parachute, but nonstop lol
anyway the day after i got to the new house (the sunday before work) i tried driving to my new place of work and it was like a 10 min drive home again but my gps ran out of battery again (i'm an idiot and should have gone straight to the garage instead of on the way back)
the 10 min drive home literally took me 3 hours 40 mins after i got stuck on the M11 and just kept going . i was having a breakdown and stopped in 3 gas stations to buy a map but nowhere sells them anymore. i was out in the country at one point and saw a 4th gas station that was literally boarded up and closed, i've never seen a closed gas station in my life i wanted to kill someone
i called a friend and got directions to a town (very lucky that i took a right instead of a left at one point or i'd be back on a motorway stuck forever again) and spent about 25 mins in another gas station while the guy there looked on his phone to help me find which way to go and off i went with hope at last
30 mins later i stopped at the sideway of an A road (sort of motorway) and called a friend and he said i've been going down it the wrong way. now this road i've been down for 30+ mins had been a normal 2-direction road the whole time (just a very fast one) and so i turned the car around on the sideway and started driving back up it. very luckily someone was coming past at that exact moment and honked me until i figured holy shit it might be a dual carriageway here and i turned around. i was about to go round a corner in the left lane and if i had driven for 30 seconds i would have died as another car would have come round at 50+ mph into me
i managed to get home and started work the next day after charging the shit out of my fucking gps all night because evidently it needs a super long charge to work
first day at work i felt super overwhelmed as they showed me a ton of new systems. i'm not very experienced and not super bright, i just do my best. work has been going OK since then, my colleagues are nice people and the guy i'm sat next to has been helping me every 30 mins (or less :/ ) when i get stuck on something. i'm learning a lot and slowly improving. i couldn't ask for more than that. i'm still worried that they might turn round one day and say "sorry, we just need someone more competent than you" and off i go again, but either way its a great experience and you can only do what you do. i spent the first week mostly doing "practice" of real tasks but they got me involved with one of the real systems so i felt like i contributed a bit. the 2nd week i have been able to contribute to a real task and its going OK, i just need to make sure i get enough sleep and keep up the tempo (and the tempo is literally non-fucking-stop). i have an idea what is ultimately expected of me now and that's great, i need to make sure that i graduate towards that on a daily basis. it's NOT easy lol. and it wouldn't be possible without the constant help of my colleague; there is SO much damn random stuff you need to know and understand in order to get things to operate and bugfix
the next morning after 1st day of work my landlady was raging at me like a madman because i hadn't unpacked my suitcases yet and i didn't make the bed. i apologised calmly (she was literally raging and saying maybe i should leave) and from that day tried to do all the things she wanted
she raged on a few other mornings/evenings about various things and i noticed that she was going into my bedroom (and the other tenant's bedroom) every morning to "check" things.
do not misunderstand - i'm a pretty neat person, rubbish always in black bag, laundry in black bag, clothes hung up etc. its pretty hard to understand from her perspective that i was practically a monster.
up until a few days ago my morning routine was something like
draw curtains
make the bed
make sure nothing looks untidy
draw shower curtains to the correct side
open bathroom windows
hang bathroom mat on side of bath
hang towels in bathroom
this is not hard stuff, i had no problem doing it now that i knew she wanted those things done (through being raged at and threatened that i have to leave)
last week the electricity started cutting a few times (old, big house), i didn't think it was anything to do with me at first coz i had nothing plugged in or wasn't even in at the time or something, then one night it kept happening nonstop and i tested plugging in my pc and it cut so i told the landlady i just won't plug in my pc anymore, no problem (i have laptop and no time for dota anyway)
the next morning (she is still checking my room/bathroom every morning) she needed another "word" with me and said i am making the shower ceiling wet, i went and looked and indeed it was wet from what looks like condensation, i said OK i'll be more careful in the future and wiped the ceiling. she told me it will cost £240 to re-plaster the ceiling and buy a new powershower if i break it (ok?)
the next morning i got up, had a shower, put up the mat, drew bathroom curtains, opened windows, drew shower curtains to proper position, wipe down shower ceiling (not much to see there but some condensation coming), hang towels in bathroom, draw bedroom curtains, make bed, make sure no rubbish (cans) out of black bags. she had been blowing the dog whistle at like 7.30am (assuredly to wake me up) and i could hear her going round the other tenant's bedroom for ages until i went to the shower.
when i was going to the front door for work she yet again called me over for a stern Word and immediately starting raging that i hadn't cleaned the bathtub since i've been there. she was raising her voice a lot and i thought i calmed her down by saying "if you have a problem with something then please you need to talk to that person before getting upset about it". after that she said she wants me to leave and i said i'm not able to leave yet i have nowhere to stay and i'll be back this evening after work, then she left and i left.
i had been looking for somewhere else to stay coz i had only a 2 week agreement with her (paper deposit, no official contract) and had a place lined up that i had gone to view and was waiting for the guy to call me about after he text me saying sorry he is in another country and will call me that day. so i had 2 more days with this woman but was looking forward to moving out sooner if i could
anyway i went to work and at 1pm she phoned my mobile and said my stuff is on the ground outside the house, come and pick it up, and hang up on me.
i was extremely freaked out (shaking etc) and excused myself from my work colleagues (small team of people in various roles) and after trying to calm down a bit went to police station. well the police station had a sign across the door saying closed on thanksgiving, now i'd never heard of a police station being closed on thanksgiving before so with tears in my eyes i used the telephone number on the side of the door to phone the county constabulary. the woman there listened to me and said i need to go get my stuff and check through it and the police can't do anything unless i have good reason to believe something is missing - any money problem is not official contract so its not a police affair.
so i went and withdraw all my savings from bank incase i needed to find a place to live that evening and went to get my stuff, she was at the door and handed me the 2 days rent and said she's keeping the deposit "how much do you think it'll cost me to buy a new shower ceiling? £150" she said. well the deposit was only £50 thank god, it could have been £400+ like it usually is. it took a lot from me to be calm and polite and i even called her back , shouting at the house that i need to return her house key
so i checked through my stuff and went back to work. at 6pm i drove to 2 hotels in the town but both full and my gps battery was running dry (i have no smartphone contract and laptop battery lasts 5 mins max) so i went straight to an airport hotel and with a HUGE sigh of relief they had a room and i bought two KFCs
the next day (hello, its today) with a charged gps i drove to an estate agents and they said impossible to get a room until end of the week due to referencing and they want £600 deposit and like £150 fee on top of it all. i went back to the car and took my laptop to a restaurant and asked to use their internet, i remembered a room that came up recently and called him. (remember that in this area there are FUCK ALL rooms for rent going around!!! i have no idea why. and the prices are bonkers and many are exclusive. we're talking like 10 rooms and when you phone them up they were taken months ago etc). i drove to his place in another town and found it worried about my gps battery already and met him and he showed me round then said the price was more than advertised (and WAY more than my max target price) and he wants 1 yr lease: nooooooooot gonna happen my friend.
so i had no internet again and was thinking i could go to that hotel that was offering a room for £200/wk but i remembered a phone number i had on my phone that i'd called up about before that foreign-country guy had me viewing his room, and i called them and miraculously their room was still available. i managed to drive down there (another town) and my gps battery wasn't even scaring me yet.
and here i am. the room is fukin nice, perfect size for me, cozy, good location (maybe i need to leave 40 minutes to drive to work now tho). i'm not on a contract again...just got a written receipt and paid him a month and a month's deposit, but really i don't have any other options and the guy seems like he won't turn into some crazy evil country whore, he just seems like a normal person with a family and seemed more nervous than me about having a tenant here he can trust.
so that's what happened the past 3 weeks
