I didn’t manage to update my blog in Jan/Feb, so I’ve gotta blog in retrospect for the next few entries. While we were living at Ewan Residence, we shared the apartment with a Thai guy, after the Swedish dude moved out. Our new Thai housemate was one helluva smelly fella. Seriously!
He works in the same kitchen as Ben, as a Jr Sous Chef. But it’s gross to imagine how someone who prepares food all day can be so unhygienic. Like Ben, he works from 9am to 1am on most days, but comes home and goes right to bed. It’s like he got the “Go To Jail” card in a Monopoly game – “Go Directly To Bed. Do not pass the bathroom, do not shower, brush teeth, or wash your feet.” You can imagine how sweaty & smelly he is after a long day in the kitchen, plus he has super-power-terama toe jam… And he just goes straight to bed.
Now our bedrooms share the same aircon unit, so after a while, his ‘smell’ would seep out into our bedroom, or stink up the whole apartment if he left the bedroom door open. We tried to tahan at first ‘cos we were grateful that at least he wasn’t a backstabbing sneak like the previous two housemates. But after a month, his ‘bau’ was really too ‘kow’ so Ben would tell him to shut his door if he left it open ‘cos "It smells!"
Once, I tried to hint about his stench by asking him if there were shower facilities at work that he used before coming home. He got my drift but boldly replied that he knows he doesn’t shower after work and he doesn’t care 'cos he just stays in his bedroom and hardly comes out. I was too dumbfounded at how blasé he was about being smelly & dirty that I couldn’t tell him that we got his ‘drift’ too.
My brother Jeremy and his wife Hui Chin were coming to visit us at the end of January, so I spring-cleaned the whole apartment and washed the sofa set. Afraid that Tinnakorn (the housemate) would stink up the sofa again after all my hard work, I left a note on the main door one night, warning the guys not to sit in the living room if they were “smelly & dirty” and to “shower & wash their feet”. Very mak nenek, I know. But it was my last resort.
Tinnakorn read the note and asked Ben about it the next day, thinking it was a note from their company. Ben said, "No, worse… It’s from my wife! She’s very angry! I don’t know why. She didn’t speak to me all night… She’s very angry!” So Tinnakorn panics and says, “I think I can’t sit in the living room anymore”.
Tinnakorn also sings very loudly, in Thai, in a Cantonese opera kind of style. Sometimes he plays Michael Bolton’s “I don’t have the heart to hurt you” and tries to sing it in ‘Thaiglish’. I dong have the haaaarse to hursss yoo… nam mong prung chai ma dooo… His singing is so loud that you can hear him from the elevator before he reaches the apartment! Sometimes it gets to me so I retreat to the bedroom and blast a special playlist in my iTunes, made up of really loud and angry rock music.
Jeremy & Hui Chin visited, and after that Tinnakorn started sitting in the living room again, but only for a couple of times before he was told that he’d be moving to a studio apartment in Gardens. And we were moving to Gardens too. After 8 months, they finally could accommodate us in a single bedroom apartment.
A place all to ourselves. No more smelly, sneaky housemates! We had to move from Ewan to Gardens between 15th – 17th Feb, just before Chinese New Year. We were kinda sad to leave Ewan Residence ‘cos it was so spacious and quiet there.
Gardens Furnished Apartments in Jebel Ali
Ben was extremely busy that week so I had to arrange to have all our stuff moved while he was at work. I spent Valentine’s Day at the mall, stopping at countless shops to ask if they had empty carton boxes to spare. I finally managed to find a few boxes in a few of the carparks at the mall, and brought them back for packing.
On the 15th, I made two trips on the shuttle bus to Gardens to bring a load of stuff over. Our new apartment is on the 8th floor, and with a huge-ass haversack on my back and 3 other bags, it was just my luck that the lifts were not working and I had to walk all the way up. Our new apartment is huge! I found it in good condition, and not too dirty or smelly.
There are 8 blocks of furnished apartments here, and they’re all leased out to Jumeirah. So the Security and Accommodation offices here are manned by Jumeirah staff too, which is good ‘cos they’re quite efficient. There are more staff shuttle buses here too. Direct buses to Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Burj Al Arab, Madinat Jumeirah and Emirates Towers, as well as a shuttle bus on Friday mornings to the churches in Jebel Ali Village, and a twice-daily bus to Deira City Centre, Karama and Bur Dubai.
I called a mover who wanted to charge 300 Dirhams. Gardens is just a 15-min ride away from Ewan so I didn’t wanna pay that much and contacted Rana, our regular car lift instead. That night, I paid Rana 150 Dirhams, and we moved all the barang-barang together. He forgot to bring a trolley so we had to carry all the bags, boxes and suitcases from apartment to elevator to carpark to van at Ewan, then vice versa at Gardens.
It was quite a rush to get the new place cleaned and all our stuff settled by the night of CNY eve. I spent the whole of the 16th and 17th cleaning, as well as shopping for Ben’s list of compulsory CNY stuff for our new home – mandarins, pomelo, pineapple, rice, salt, oil & ‘kum chwee’ (orange crush!), last minute baking of cornflake cookies and cooking a ‘happy & prosperous’ meal for Ben n myself.
By Chinese New Year, I was completely drained, muscles sore and body aching. First day of New Year was really ‘sedih’. Ben was at work, and I was zonked out. It didn’t feel like New Year at all of course.
CNY 1st Day for me is usually in my uncle’s house in Malacca, waking up to the smell of vegetarian food, Malacca coffee and joss sticks, the sound of roosters crowing in the neighbours backyard and my Mom & aunts chatting away in the kitchen, wearing new clothes and wishing my parents and relatives, snacking on New Year goodies while waiting for more relatives to arrive or visit.
But like Ben said, “At least… new year, new home”.
He works in the same kitchen as Ben, as a Jr Sous Chef. But it’s gross to imagine how someone who prepares food all day can be so unhygienic. Like Ben, he works from 9am to 1am on most days, but comes home and goes right to bed. It’s like he got the “Go To Jail” card in a Monopoly game – “Go Directly To Bed. Do not pass the bathroom, do not shower, brush teeth, or wash your feet.” You can imagine how sweaty & smelly he is after a long day in the kitchen, plus he has super-power-terama toe jam… And he just goes straight to bed.
Now our bedrooms share the same aircon unit, so after a while, his ‘smell’ would seep out into our bedroom, or stink up the whole apartment if he left the bedroom door open. We tried to tahan at first ‘cos we were grateful that at least he wasn’t a backstabbing sneak like the previous two housemates. But after a month, his ‘bau’ was really too ‘kow’ so Ben would tell him to shut his door if he left it open ‘cos "It smells!"
Once, I tried to hint about his stench by asking him if there were shower facilities at work that he used before coming home. He got my drift but boldly replied that he knows he doesn’t shower after work and he doesn’t care 'cos he just stays in his bedroom and hardly comes out. I was too dumbfounded at how blasé he was about being smelly & dirty that I couldn’t tell him that we got his ‘drift’ too.
My brother Jeremy and his wife Hui Chin were coming to visit us at the end of January, so I spring-cleaned the whole apartment and washed the sofa set. Afraid that Tinnakorn (the housemate) would stink up the sofa again after all my hard work, I left a note on the main door one night, warning the guys not to sit in the living room if they were “smelly & dirty” and to “shower & wash their feet”. Very mak nenek, I know. But it was my last resort.
Tinnakorn read the note and asked Ben about it the next day, thinking it was a note from their company. Ben said, "No, worse… It’s from my wife! She’s very angry! I don’t know why. She didn’t speak to me all night… She’s very angry!” So Tinnakorn panics and says, “I think I can’t sit in the living room anymore”.Tinnakorn also sings very loudly, in Thai, in a Cantonese opera kind of style. Sometimes he plays Michael Bolton’s “I don’t have the heart to hurt you” and tries to sing it in ‘Thaiglish’. I dong have the haaaarse to hursss yoo… nam mong prung chai ma dooo… His singing is so loud that you can hear him from the elevator before he reaches the apartment! Sometimes it gets to me so I retreat to the bedroom and blast a special playlist in my iTunes, made up of really loud and angry rock music.
Jeremy & Hui Chin visited, and after that Tinnakorn started sitting in the living room again, but only for a couple of times before he was told that he’d be moving to a studio apartment in Gardens. And we were moving to Gardens too. After 8 months, they finally could accommodate us in a single bedroom apartment.
A place all to ourselves. No more smelly, sneaky housemates! We had to move from Ewan to Gardens between 15th – 17th Feb, just before Chinese New Year. We were kinda sad to leave Ewan Residence ‘cos it was so spacious and quiet there.
Gardens Furnished Apartments in Jebel AliBen was extremely busy that week so I had to arrange to have all our stuff moved while he was at work. I spent Valentine’s Day at the mall, stopping at countless shops to ask if they had empty carton boxes to spare. I finally managed to find a few boxes in a few of the carparks at the mall, and brought them back for packing.
On the 15th, I made two trips on the shuttle bus to Gardens to bring a load of stuff over. Our new apartment is on the 8th floor, and with a huge-ass haversack on my back and 3 other bags, it was just my luck that the lifts were not working and I had to walk all the way up. Our new apartment is huge! I found it in good condition, and not too dirty or smelly.
There are 8 blocks of furnished apartments here, and they’re all leased out to Jumeirah. So the Security and Accommodation offices here are manned by Jumeirah staff too, which is good ‘cos they’re quite efficient. There are more staff shuttle buses here too. Direct buses to Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Burj Al Arab, Madinat Jumeirah and Emirates Towers, as well as a shuttle bus on Friday mornings to the churches in Jebel Ali Village, and a twice-daily bus to Deira City Centre, Karama and Bur Dubai.I called a mover who wanted to charge 300 Dirhams. Gardens is just a 15-min ride away from Ewan so I didn’t wanna pay that much and contacted Rana, our regular car lift instead. That night, I paid Rana 150 Dirhams, and we moved all the barang-barang together. He forgot to bring a trolley so we had to carry all the bags, boxes and suitcases from apartment to elevator to carpark to van at Ewan, then vice versa at Gardens.
It was quite a rush to get the new place cleaned and all our stuff settled by the night of CNY eve. I spent the whole of the 16th and 17th cleaning, as well as shopping for Ben’s list of compulsory CNY stuff for our new home – mandarins, pomelo, pineapple, rice, salt, oil & ‘kum chwee’ (orange crush!), last minute baking of cornflake cookies and cooking a ‘happy & prosperous’ meal for Ben n myself.
By Chinese New Year, I was completely drained, muscles sore and body aching. First day of New Year was really ‘sedih’. Ben was at work, and I was zonked out. It didn’t feel like New Year at all of course.CNY 1st Day for me is usually in my uncle’s house in Malacca, waking up to the smell of vegetarian food, Malacca coffee and joss sticks, the sound of roosters crowing in the neighbours backyard and my Mom & aunts chatting away in the kitchen, wearing new clothes and wishing my parents and relatives, snacking on New Year goodies while waiting for more relatives to arrive or visit.
But like Ben said, “At least… new year, new home”.
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