New Year Aim #8 - I Lick my Cheese

I Lick My Cheese

Anyone who is flat-sharing or has flat-shared should get this book to either empathise or be grateful for what you have got!

Andy bought this for me a couple of Christmas' ago when a friend of mine moved into the house I once owned with Luke. She was lovely and we had always got on but the age old saying "You don't really know someone until you live with them" well and truly applied here.

The mess I could deal with to an extent, the eating of my food was rather annoying and the ridiculously loud sex that woke me up on more than one occasion was just a nightmare. Why I then decided to live with her and some of her friends at a new place for nearly a year afterwards heaven knows but I could certainly emphasise more with the people in "I Lick my Cheese" as a result.

For instance, the person who was gutted at having their ham taken with a note that said 'I really needed that ham' certainly reminded me of a time when I had planned dinner out in my head (fish fillet with a baked sweet potato) only to find said sweet potato had been eaten by flatmate (who ate a lot of my food). I remember standing in the kitchen repeatedly saying "But that was my dinner" over and over until said flat-mate finally got the fact I had no other food and that was why I was so annoyed that she had eaten my sweet potato.

Needless to say, the year at that hellhole certainly makes me appreciate even more the place I am at now. The only notes I have written consist of "Please help yourself to chocolates" and or "I hope you like the present I brought you back from holiday". I certainly have no need to write notes such as "To whoever broke my toothbrush - I would appreciate a replacement" (which might have sounded petty if it was your £1 plastic job but it was an expensive electric toothbrush which was smashed during one of the countless parties had at my previous place) or "please do not turn the heating off - it is on a timer and is too cold for it to not be on first thing in the morning" (the bathroom in the last place was one of the coldest rooms in the house. Having said that the whole place was pretty cold in comparison to my latest place and my house before).

When you are flat-sharing it is easy to think you are the one being unreasonable but after moving I realised I actually wasn't. General politeness and common sense really should come easily especially when you are sharing with others however my ex-flatmates never understood this. This book made me realise that it wasn't just me who felt others were being unreasonable or even anti-social with some of their behaviour.

I'm glad I now live in a place where sleep is respected, rooms are each person's sacred space, food if eaten is replaced before you even know it's gone (once in my favour - my non-alcoholic beer was replaced with alcoholic ones), and people are consulted before anyone is allowed to sleep on the sofa for the night (and they never outstay their welcome).

However, I digress.

If you have never flat-shared, this book is a wonderful insight to the many challenges facing those who do and how important it is to get the mix right in any house. I hear stories all the time of people that have lived in an amazing flat-share but one flatmate left and the replacement disrupted the status quo resulted in the person who had the perfect flat-share to want to move out themselves. But don't be alarmed - there are good flat-shares out there. I promise!

This will make you laugh and you will feel quite bewildered by some notes.