Tuesday 13 March 2012

King of the Castle



In January, I moved to Sheffield, England with my girlfriend to start the New Job. This brought about a vast amount of changes to what I knew as my life: new job (all but one of the employees were new to me; new technical area); new country; cohabitating with my girlfriend; not living in my parents house anymore; leaving my friends, family and dog behind.


So, what's it like being the king of the castle? It's great! But, there are two sides to every coin. This is probably the freshest start I will have in my life, the one where most things change in one fell swoop.


I can come and go as I please (well, kind of!), know for a fact that if I leave my shoes in the middle of the sitting room floor there they shall remain until I find a more suitable location for them, I can use the toilet with the door open, the apartment is filled with food I like, the bed need not be dressed, and the dishes need not be washed.


The thing is, the above that involve not doing something (dishes, washing-up) are always done. It is strange, when I lived with my parents, I rarely had a desire to do either; cleaning and tidying was something done to save someone else doing it, or, more often than not, to avoid an ear-bashing or being frowned upon.


Being the king changes things. I find it difficult to leave the kitchen in a mess after a meal, or the bed undressed, or the floors unclean. My shoes are nearly always put straight away, and the door of the toilet nearly always closed. My parents were like this, and I never understood why it was such an issue; I always thought that if it was done half as often it would still be fine. Now, I take more pleasure from seeing and knowing my castle is clean and tidy than I ever thought possible. It is more therapeutic than I could have imagined; lazing watching telly is something that is more enjoyable knowing in the back of your mind that the castle is as it should be. I didn't expect this to happen when I became king. I am becoming my Father. Oh dear.


There are flies in this monarchical ointment though: you have to pay for everything. Electricty is not the wonderfully free resource it once was, nor is the right to stay in the castle. Chores must be done by me (or, mostly, by my girlfriend). The right to watch televeision is also an expense, as is the right to be hydrated and fed. Being king is expensive!


Do I like being king? Of course, the upsides out-weight the downs. It is a totally new experience for me (all of those listed above), an experience I enjoy. Unfortunetely - or fortunately - I travel quite a bit in the New Job (check out where using the location links at the bottom of each post), so I don't get to spend a whole heap of time there. But, that's for another post.


(Written while sitting on the casing of a very large gearbox, in a factory near Chengzhou, China, listening to the machines whirr)

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