In the previous post I mentioned in brief some of my fellow tenants. Lets delve into greater detail with this post. At this very moment there are 5 people in the 2 storey townhouse. T, A, Jin, Jin's gf and me. Technically Jin's gf is not a tenant, she just a licensee whom we tolerate. She happens to be on a 2 week visit here so the landlords decided that she could stay and we gave our consent too. T was the first to move in followed by me. A moved in 3 days after I did while Jin and his gf just moved in this morning. T is a strapping young man who does most of the cooking for the duo while his buddy A is slimmer and does most of the washing up. Both are from Sichuan. Jin and gf are from Shanghai, both are pretty good looking people.
Characteristics wise, the T & A duo keep to themselves generally and they prefer to cook their own dishes: mainly capsicum and leek with pork, leek with pork, pasta, fried rice with egg etc. Rustic stuff. They like to converse in their native direct and speak Mandarin or English only when they are communicating with others. I had suggested we could share the cooking burden but they didn't seem keen on the idea. So normally they cook theirs and I cook mine. Its a hassle when it comes to meal times and everyone is making a beeline for the kitchen. I guess they just aren't used to communal living. T is an easy going kinda guy while A is more distant and reserved. Perhaps the discipline one studies has some form of impact on a person's character, T's an engineering student while A majors in accounting and finance. Once I used some cooking oil and salt belonging to T& A. A came up to me and told me that China guys are very independent and I should get my own seasonings. In fact it was T who had told me earlier I could use the salt. Well I used my own condiments like soya sauce and pepper. So in reality I had only used some oil. Seriously who can finish a bag of 1 kg salt? It takes a really long time to consume that much salt. He also told me that I could use the pots and pans they bought but I should put them back in the cabinet after washing. A asked if I understood and I nodded "Yea ok". Later I explained that I was drying the pots and pans by the sink because I didn't want to keep them while they are wet as bacteria might grow.
So I decided to shut A up , I bought a nice posh stainless steel electric kettle and told him that everyone can use it. I also put a strainer for public use. Its funny having a 19yr old kid trying to set boundaries. Obviously he lacks the foresight to see the advantages of sharing resources with Uncle Rezzle who has deeper pockets. Oh well I guess its their loss of not being able to enjoy red wines, steaks and curries or yong tau foo. The other day I was watching T&A cook as I wanted to see how different Sichuan cuisine was. So T was explaining while chopping up the veges and meat about Sichuan food. A helped by washing the veges and peeling the garlic. It was rather comical when A tried using a swiss knife no bigger than a nail cutter to peel garlic cloves. I showed him the professional way : smashed the clove with the side of a chopper, chop off the two ends and it was peeled. T was also laboriously cutting strips of meat from some slabs of pork chop. I advised him that strips of pork were available at the supermarket. Today A was at it again during dinner time when they could not find one of their pans. I told them that Jin and gf had used it earlier. Later on we found out that Jin had put the pan into the dishwasher compartment. A then came down and pasted Post its indicating which were their stuff and how they were not for public use. Like most PRCs, T & A aspire to stay in australia for work after graduation. Its a wise move as overseas exposure can increase one's market value. I'm not so worried for T as he's a pretty laidback and easy going dude , A however needs to work on his xenophobic tendencies. If he can't even manage to get on friendly terms with Chinese housemates what about colleagues in the future? And if one wants to stick with just their own kind then why venture overseas for studies?
Now Jin and gf provided me much comic relief the first time I saw them. Jin's a 2nd yr student in actuarial science and had been staying at Barker street. The reason he moved here was that the gf couldn't stand him staying with 4 girls. She was so concerned about competition that she asked my evil landlady J three times on whether she was married. J was relating to me and her hubby on how impossible it would be for her to fall for a kid like Jin and vice versa for Jin to fall for a plump auntie like herself. We all agreed that the gf was way too paranoid. And its not like she's ugly, in fact shes pretty and has got a nice figure. Such low self esteem hehe. Looking at the well groomed Jin, its kinda obvious he's from a wealthy background. And from parts of conversation with me and the landlords we could tell that money wasn't of that much of a concern for him. He had even volunteered to pay for a gas leak alarm as he was scared that a gas leak might occur as his space is near the kitchen. Funny part is he's renting the cheapest room in the house, the living room because the gf wanted it cheap. In fact there's still another room in the garage which is better in terms of privacy and closed off from the kitchen. We figured that its part of the gf's agenda to keep him in public view so that he can't get up to any hanky panky when she's gone. I joked that I could probably act as double agent for both Jin and his gf. The gf would probably get me to spy on Jin and at the same time Jin would pay me to lie to the gf haha. We reckon its likely he'll just pay the rent and move to another place after the gf leaves.
Now I shall have to think of a codename for myself =D
Characteristics wise, the T & A duo keep to themselves generally and they prefer to cook their own dishes: mainly capsicum and leek with pork, leek with pork, pasta, fried rice with egg etc. Rustic stuff. They like to converse in their native direct and speak Mandarin or English only when they are communicating with others. I had suggested we could share the cooking burden but they didn't seem keen on the idea. So normally they cook theirs and I cook mine. Its a hassle when it comes to meal times and everyone is making a beeline for the kitchen. I guess they just aren't used to communal living. T is an easy going kinda guy while A is more distant and reserved. Perhaps the discipline one studies has some form of impact on a person's character, T's an engineering student while A majors in accounting and finance. Once I used some cooking oil and salt belonging to T& A. A came up to me and told me that China guys are very independent and I should get my own seasonings. In fact it was T who had told me earlier I could use the salt. Well I used my own condiments like soya sauce and pepper. So in reality I had only used some oil. Seriously who can finish a bag of 1 kg salt? It takes a really long time to consume that much salt. He also told me that I could use the pots and pans they bought but I should put them back in the cabinet after washing. A asked if I understood and I nodded "Yea ok". Later I explained that I was drying the pots and pans by the sink because I didn't want to keep them while they are wet as bacteria might grow.
So I decided to shut A up , I bought a nice posh stainless steel electric kettle and told him that everyone can use it. I also put a strainer for public use. Its funny having a 19yr old kid trying to set boundaries. Obviously he lacks the foresight to see the advantages of sharing resources with Uncle Rezzle who has deeper pockets. Oh well I guess its their loss of not being able to enjoy red wines, steaks and curries or yong tau foo. The other day I was watching T&A cook as I wanted to see how different Sichuan cuisine was. So T was explaining while chopping up the veges and meat about Sichuan food. A helped by washing the veges and peeling the garlic. It was rather comical when A tried using a swiss knife no bigger than a nail cutter to peel garlic cloves. I showed him the professional way : smashed the clove with the side of a chopper, chop off the two ends and it was peeled. T was also laboriously cutting strips of meat from some slabs of pork chop. I advised him that strips of pork were available at the supermarket. Today A was at it again during dinner time when they could not find one of their pans. I told them that Jin and gf had used it earlier. Later on we found out that Jin had put the pan into the dishwasher compartment. A then came down and pasted Post its indicating which were their stuff and how they were not for public use. Like most PRCs, T & A aspire to stay in australia for work after graduation. Its a wise move as overseas exposure can increase one's market value. I'm not so worried for T as he's a pretty laidback and easy going dude , A however needs to work on his xenophobic tendencies. If he can't even manage to get on friendly terms with Chinese housemates what about colleagues in the future? And if one wants to stick with just their own kind then why venture overseas for studies?
Now Jin and gf provided me much comic relief the first time I saw them. Jin's a 2nd yr student in actuarial science and had been staying at Barker street. The reason he moved here was that the gf couldn't stand him staying with 4 girls. She was so concerned about competition that she asked my evil landlady J three times on whether she was married. J was relating to me and her hubby on how impossible it would be for her to fall for a kid like Jin and vice versa for Jin to fall for a plump auntie like herself. We all agreed that the gf was way too paranoid. And its not like she's ugly, in fact shes pretty and has got a nice figure. Such low self esteem hehe. Looking at the well groomed Jin, its kinda obvious he's from a wealthy background. And from parts of conversation with me and the landlords we could tell that money wasn't of that much of a concern for him. He had even volunteered to pay for a gas leak alarm as he was scared that a gas leak might occur as his space is near the kitchen. Funny part is he's renting the cheapest room in the house, the living room because the gf wanted it cheap. In fact there's still another room in the garage which is better in terms of privacy and closed off from the kitchen. We figured that its part of the gf's agenda to keep him in public view so that he can't get up to any hanky panky when she's gone. I joked that I could probably act as double agent for both Jin and his gf. The gf would probably get me to spy on Jin and at the same time Jin would pay me to lie to the gf haha. We reckon its likely he'll just pay the rent and move to another place after the gf leaves.
Now I shall have to think of a codename for myself =D
