Old Place. New Place.

This house couldn't really be any more different to the last one.

I've not yet unpacked most of my stuff and I realised it's because it doesn't feel like home yet. It doesn't feel like somewhere I want to stay. Does that make sense?

The old house - and it was old, falling apart, dirty, noisy... felt like home. From the start. Does that make sense? I've lived in a LOT of places and it generally takes me a while to get a feeling for where I want things to be.

In the old house people whinged through the agency about each other. Here people leave notes. It all seems so much more... anal. The draining board is always cleared quickly - I wonder how often the tea towel is changed - doesn't feel very hygienic to me. If someone 'dares' leave a cup draining, it gets placed on the window sill like god-forbid someone has to move someone else's clean cup into a cupboard.

There are - I kid you not - SIX bins for rubbish here. SIX. And separate containers for used lids, used lighters, used batteries. And people dig OUT rubbish from the wrong bins and pin notes on them... and no, it's not all mine!

I miss having my own kitchen. I miss being able to wander to the toilet or shower room without getting worried I'm going to be doing something wrong.

I miss having a fast internet connection.

I like having a clean, quiet house but I really don't feel that comfortable here.

In the old place, when I had Japanese male flatmates, I found them really nice to live with, really laid-back and, well, nice. Maybe it's a language thing but I don't know how much anyone in the house interacts with anyone else. Certainly upstairs, where they have the dorm room, I get the feeling it's pretty quiet. The Aussie guy here is nice. There's one Japanese guy who scares me and I've not really seen the others.

I know it's only for a short time and I know I don't really have any choice - I can't move again! - and maybe I will feel more settled soon - as I said, I've lived in a LOT of houses and I normally settle very fast - even if my unpacking takes longer.

I also wish I could blog a bit more about what is really on my mind but I promised myself to NEVER write anything on this blog that could come back to haunt me in the future. And no, I'm not going to start another blog for that! Let's just say, in the words of 'Lost' - I don't have a constant right now.