House of Notes

Yes, I have been MIA from here for a month since the last post.

What have I been up to?

I was busy packing, packing, packing, and packing for moving, almost every single weekend. Right after moving in to new place in Bandar Utama, I evacuated myself from the city to Tioman for a 4-day escapade to breathe some fresh air.

Talking about packing and moving, it's never a fun thing to do. I've been in KL for about 10 years, thus you can imagine how much stuff I have accumulated over the years. I had actually thrown tonnes of stuff from the last round of moving. Some were still nicely boxed, not even unpacked before the recent round of moving. So it was really a time consuming task for me to go through all my stuff to identify those no longer needed to throw away or to give away. Most of my weekends were filled with massive housekeeping and throwing. It was seriously drop dead tiring till my body was aching all over.

Prior to moving, I was staying in an interesting house of notes with an unique lady notes. This house house of notes is a double-storey linked house at Taman SEA, PJ. I was renting a room there. In this house of notes, stays a lady notes (the landlady, a 40+ years old single lady) whose hobby is to stick notes all over the house of notes. This is how literally the house of notes and the lady notes got their names from me. Haha...

So, what are these notes all about? Basically, lady notes has a lot of house rules and reminders for her tenants to follow and she loves to stick the house rules all over the house in small notes. Wanna know what are written in these interesting notes? Well, where do I begin with since the notes are all over the house of notes? OK, let me share with you some of them that I can recall, though not entirely the same word by word. I actually wanted to take picture of or jot down all the notes, but too bad I didn't manage to as it was quite rush and I didn't have the time to do so.

OK, let's begin. The moment you step into this house of notes, your journey of notes begins immediately.

At the back of the front door -Pliz do not wear shoes in the house, as I need to spend time mopping the floor (meant for Ms. Messy, the air-stewardess tenant who liked to wear shoes in the living room whenever she wanted to leave for the airport. Lady Notes didn't like that. Miss Messy moved out after rounds & rounds of rule breaking and mess-up)

On the row of switches on the wall, next to the front door, some main switches for light and fan are labelled, which is of good intention.

On the main electrical swith box near the front door - If it trips, push this switch up

If you walk further down, there will be the bathroom and the kitchen. This is an area where you'll find most of the notes.

On the row of switches outside the bathroom - Please off all lights before you retire

Inside the bathroom:

On the heater - Dealer's advice, when not in use, power must be off. (Something like that, I can't remember the exact sentense, as there are too many notes all over the house. haha...)

Around the heater (her own advise) - Leave it, no need to off when not in use (refering to the cap that controls the temperature). Don't turn the knob (controlling the water volume) too tight, use a light touch.

Above the toilet bowl - Please keep toilet bowl clean. Splash more water before and after use. Got residue/'sai' in the toilet bowl. (hiyoh, as if we don't understand residue in English, providing translation somemore. This one is also meant for Ms. Messy as he stayed in the room downstairs)

Somewhere on the bathroom wall - Please pick up own hair

At the heater swith far outside the bathroom - Remember to off switch after use (after new tenant moved in, this note was refurbished with bigger font, significantly magnified as compared to the old note)

At the kitchen:

On the fridge door:

- Please limit your items to 2. I may need to use other space

-The house is meant for female tenants, please entertain boyfriend outside

- Please do not bring friends to stay overnight

- Please throw own rubbish and sanitary pads. Rubbish collection is on every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

- and some other rules that I can't remember

On the side of the fridge - There's a fanstatic poem (with rhymes, don't play play), 1 full page of an A4 size paper, about the house rules which I can't remember the contents.

On the table where I placed my rice cooker and slow cooker - Please limit to 2 pots to keep clean and tidy (you mean 2 & only 2? control freak??!!!)

Near the sink:

- Please keep the sink clean

- Please don't leave food package overnight, must throw must throw (ya, must throw x 2, no typing error) every night, or else it will draw cochroaches and lizards.

- Please don't place cooking pot under this area, it will heat up the formica

- Please use the chopping board for cutting, or else knife will get chipped

There are 2 other major rules, surprizingly unwritten in notes:

- Cannot use the gas stove (not even to cook instant noodle)

- Cannot use the washing machine

Now, let's get upstairs.

On the switch at the begining of the staircase - Please leave lights on during Raya week (stuck before last Raya week)

There are 3 rooms upstairs, 1 master room which is occupied by lady notes, and 2 medium rooms for renting. I was occupying 1 room and the other room (used to be occupied by a gal who then moved back to her hometown) was vacant before I moved out.

On the wall near the door of lady note's room:

- please close the door gently (obviously for tenants to see, it doesn't make sense if this note is meant for herself)

- Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm, I need to use the phone line (Sometimes, when I was on MC or on leave, I used the phone line to dial up to go online, to work from home for urgent matter. So this is definitely meant for me as the other tenant upstair wouldn't go online)

Let's get into my room.

It's a furnished room with wardrobe and cabinets. At a corner near the wardrobe, there's a 3-tier round table rack.

On the 2nd and 3rd tier of the rack: Please do not put heavy things on the round table (the notes were there before I moved in)

Now, let's proceed to the atached shared bathroom.

In the shared bathroom:

At the back of each door - Please unlock the door after use

On the wall at both sides of the mirror:

- Shared bathroom (who doesn't know it is?)

- Throw own sanitary pad

- Please clean the basin and toilet bowl. Splash more water into the toilet bowl before and after use.

- 1st week - xxx (refers to tenant 1 on duty)

- 2nd week - yyy (refers to tenant 2 on duty)

- 3rd week - xxx

- 4th week - yyy

Somewhere on the wall - Pick up own hair

Let me do a quick count on the no of notes. Gosh, there are more than 30 of them! A lot, right? I might have missed out some though.

So basically this house of notes owned by the lady notes expects you to go to work, eat outside, just come back to take your shower and sleep, and visitors are not encouraged. So it's place where there will be only you & your room.

Anyway, lady notes is actually not a bad or difficult person, she is very friendly instead. She used to come to my rescue when I was in need of help once and I used to go to pasar malam with her once in a while. She also never bugged me when I forgot to pay my rental on time. I personally don't have any problem with her. Just find her 'hobby' of sticking notes all over the house a bit overdosed. The main reasons for me to move out is because cooking is not allowed and not much freedom but a lot of boredom staying there.

My new place is a brand new apartment unit. Now, I have a nice and spacious room with new curtain and comforter set, a spacious living room, house mates that I can interact with, wireless broadband internet access (an upgrade from the dial-up stone age to the wireless age, hehe), and a kitchen that I can cook! Feel reborn. Yeah, I can cook again!

Hate the hassle of packing and moving, but please don't ask me why I don't buy a place of my own instead of renting. Who doesn't wish to have his/her own place to stay?