Actually, my landlady isn't really looking for one more tenant. After all, there are only three rooms in this HDB unit, and the other common room is where the maid stayed. There are two beds in the room and can accommodate three persons, because one of the beds is a trundle bed and the maid used to sleep on the lower bed.
The landlady's sister-in-law (her younger brother's wife) works in Singapore and used to travel to and fro Singapore and Malaysia every day. Since she was pregnant a few months back, she has been staying here during weekdays just so that she does not have to tire herself out. She sleeps in that common room.
Then a few weeks ago, i came back from JB on Sunday and saw a new person in the house. She is a young lady at her early 20s, quite pretty and slim. She is my landlady's sister-in-law's cousin. I heard from them that this girl had some problems with her previous landlady and is quite rebellious at home. Hence her mother hopes that her cousin can help to keep an eye on her, and that was why she moved in here. She stays in that common room too and pays about SGD200 as rental.
(Oh, and by the way, this makes 7 people staying in this house now.)
Anyway, i am not going to talk about how i needed to wait for my turn to use the bathroom, especially in the morning. What i am gonna relate today is about this girl, whom i seriously do not understand at all.
This girl is a very self-centered person with no regards or consideration for other people at all. I do not understand how would anyone behave in this way at all, because to me some of the things are just common sense, without the need of anyone to tell you to do or not to do. I can only attribute it to bad upbringing - seriously, i heard from the landlady that this girl's mother doted on her very much when she was young and had probably spoilt her.
Well, to illustrate how self-centered and inconsiderate she is, here are the things she had done so far since she moved in:
- She would come back very late in the night (sometimes past mid-night) and take bath. She would wash her hair and the blow dry it in the living room, when everyone has already gone to bed. She didn't care that the noise of the hair dyer might wake people up. And as i am typing this, she is now talking very loudly to her friend on her mobile phone, with the room of her door open.
- She does not tidy up her own stuff and would just leave her things all over the place, e.g. she does not fold up the blanket in the morning; she leaves her bag on the sofa in the living room after coming back from work; she leaves her contact lenses and contact lens solution bottle on the basin in the common bathroom; she leaves her clothes on the bed without folding, etc.
- She does not wash the dishes at all. She would just leave it in the basin in the kitchen and expects others to wash for her, even when there is no maid now. So the landlady or the landlady's mother have to do her dishes. In fact, my landlady, her daughters and her mother went back to the hometown in Malaysia for the long weekend. When we were back today (they took a ride from my mom), there were actually unwashed plates and pots left in the basin.
- She would just eat or use the stuff in the house without asking, as if those things were hers. For instance, she wore a shirt and scarf that belong to my landlady without asking her. When my landlady saw it at first, she thought the girl had the same shirt as her but only realised later that she actually wore it without asking for permission. I've never seen her bringing any toiletries to the bathroom when she wanted to bathe, and apparently she is using my landlady's shampoo and shower cream. I've also seen this girl simply opened the closet in the kitchen and made Milo that was bought by my landlady, without asking first too. Today when we were back, my landlady discovered that this girl actually went into the storeroom and took out a package of instant noodles and ate it. She also drank the Yakult in the fridge that my landlady had bought, but didn't finish it and simply left the half bottle on the table in the living room.
- She does not wash her own clothes, not even her underwear. She would just leave it in the room (my landlady even once found, on top of the ironing board in the room, an underwear that the girl had worn!). Her cousin, who is at least 5 months pregnant and with a big tummy now, has to wash the underwear for her every morning. This long weekend, since the cousin was back in Malaysia, she had to wash her own probably because she ran out of underwear. Then she simply hung the underwear and bra all around in the common bathroom.
- My landlady keeps the clean towels in a cabinet in the common bathroom so that it is more convenient for the family to use after bath. Then this girl simply used it without asking. It is ok if she wants to use it, for she may not have brought one with her, but she simply used one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and left the wet towels on the bed or anywhere after she used it. Even more outrageous was that my landlady had found twice that this girl actually put the wet towel back to the cabinet, on top of the stack of clean towel!
My landlady absolutely cannot stand this girl and has wanted her to move out. However, my landlady's brother asked her to be patient and even used Christianity to convince her - he told her to be more tolerant and helps to change the girl, just like a Christian should do. I felt that my landlady was kinda compelled to do so because of how her brother has used religion as the reason to not chase the girl away. I suspect her brother was also caught in between the wife and his own sister on this issue. Yet, after the mess that we found today at home after returning from Malaysia, i think my landlady really cannot take it anymore.
This girl actually seems to be a very nice girl, as she is very polite when she speaks to us. One can never tell how untidy and lazy she is unless staying with her. I heard that she was unhappy with the previous landlady (who was her relative) and moved out because that person told her off due to all these unacceptable habits.
As for me, this girl has not really inconvenienced me in anyway, for i do stay in my room most of the time and keep my things there too. If for anything, i am just puzzled at her behaviours. For instance, i will always ask for permission when i am using things that do not belong to me. When my landlady swept and mopped the floor in my room when there is no maid now, i felt so embarrassed and told her that i would do it myself (but she said never mind since she was already doing it for the other part of the house). I always wash my own dishes even when the maid was around last time. I will never leave anything in the common area such as the living room or the bathroom. If i were to wash my clothes here, i would hang dry it in my own room. To me, all these are just, well, normal.
I do not understand why this girl actually does not think that there is anything wrong with all her behaviours and bad habits, especially when she is only renting a place and it is not her own home. My guess is that this girl has been pampered since young, and the parents had never really taught her of good manners, how to be considerate and what are the "social norm" when staying with others. Yes, i do believe that the parents are somewhat at fault for making her the way she is today.
Labels: life
