October 24, 2005

• Time to let off some steam.

  
  

  But come to think of it, I do not know where or how to start. My landlady and her family has left me feeling quite exasperated. For once, I shall not deplore her children. I will focus on her and her husband/boyfriend/whatever instead.

  
  

  Two months ago, sick of carrying my laptop around, I politely asked her for permission to use her phone line for my dial-up connection. After allowing me to use the phone line but not before hoping that I would take over her broadband connection, she whined about the slight increase in the charges of the next phone bill. I shut her up by increasing the rent by ten dollars. A week later, she grumbled about the maid being uncomfortable when I am utilising the phone line late at night. She hit me with the now infamous line ”I am ok with it but so-and-so …” I did not know that the maid was relegated to sleeping in an area of the hall barricaded by cupboards and accidently switched on the lights. I immediately turned them off when I heard her tossing in bed, apparently roused from her slumber. However, it only happened once, as I bore with the darkness after that. In addition, she did not have a response when I queried where would I be surfing the net if she passed her broadband connection to me.

  
  

  She shot me with another “I am ok with it but so-and-so …”  and I ended up activating the phone point in my room and twenty dollars poorer. She kept reminding me that when I eventually moved out, I would have to fork out the twenty dollars for deactivation too (I felt like flinging two ten dollar notes at her).  It was fine for the first fortnight, after which I was unable to connect to the internet. According to the Singtel technical officer, it was due to the broadband connection that resulted in the noise in addition to the normal dialing tone that hindered the establishing of a connection. Hence, I have to use a microfilter to block out the noise, which is actually data from the broadband connection. I decided to disconnect the cable from her modem when I needed to go online instead as the microfilter would disrupt her broadband connection.

  
  

  A few days ago, the clown that is her husband (I think) did not even bother to inform me when he plugged the phone cable into the modem and I was thrown offline abruptly. Today, she gave me that “I am ok with it but so-and-so …”  line again. She claimed that her husband was not too pleased with the modem being unplugged. I ended up assuring her that I would try to log on mostly late at night.

  
  

  I am extremely disappointed with her behaviour, especially when I had offered to tutor her kid for free earlier this year. She wanted me to coach her eldest kid as he is having his PSLE this year. She did not reply after I told her to set the day and time. She revealed that he was having tuition at the nearby community centre when I had the opportunity to question her. I guess some people are either plain queer or really stupid.

  
  

  When I first moved in fifteen months ago, she implicitly informed me that she was divorced. Since then, she had a boyfriend for a few months who subsequently vanished. Suddenly, this guy pops up and I learn that he is her husband. I feel like I am part of some weird reality show on television. Towards the end of her relationship with her boyfriend, she implored me to help her to call him and pretend that I am his colleague, even at odd timings like four am in the morning (thankfully, I was awake). I think it was his wife who always answered the call and he was never at home. I do not remember complaining then.

  
  

  If it was not for the fact that there is no curfew and the favourable location, I would have packed my bags long ago.

  
  

  I will end this (demented) rant with cheap shots.

  
  

  Landlady: You are fucking ugly, no man would even venture near you if you were not slim and did not own a HDB mansionette. You are spoiling your youngest child and she will grow up to be one helluva bitch (ok, I lied about leaving her children alone).

  
  

  Landlady’s husband: What kind of a man are you? You cannot even afford your family a proper room to sleep in (all of them rest in the extended area of the hall blocked off by cupboards). Where were you for so long? And quit being a dickhead, part of your wardrobe consists of my discards, which your ego never allowed you to accept in my face and you also never had the class to even be grateful for them.

  
  

  That felt goooooood, and it will be better if they actually chance upon this entry. Then again, they might not even understand most of it.

  • 2:48 pm
  • 3 Comments