Another Saturday, another Open house inspection. The house I currently live in is up to be sold.
Unlike back home tenants have literally no rights here. It took me some time to really understand that when I first came here but it's quite simple: as a tenant you have to pay the rent and then you are -more or less- at the mercy of the landlord/owner/rental agent. If they want you out they can kick you out without any real notice and in some cases for example if the owner can't pay his mortgage they send the Sheriff and you just have to vacate the property within the hour. This is hard to get your head around, I mean it's not your fault that the owner didn't pay but they kick you out...
One of the other strange things are the Open house inspections. When they sell a property, potential buyers come and inspect the house regardless if anyone lives there or not. This happens since 2 weeks with our place. Twice a week we have the real-estate-agent showing the house to some potential buyers. Ben and me have to keep the house reasonably clean which is fair enough but each of us has a cat, which is illegal so we have to remove any trace of cat-presence and hide the cats. It's ok with Spunkie, quite funny actually as she really hated her transport box. Every time she saw the box she ran away and hid somewhere and it was a real challange to get her into the box but by now she got used to it. Two night ago I woke up in the morning and Spunkie was nowhere to be found. In the end I look into her box and there she was, she had climbed into the box by herself and slept in there.
How to hide a cat:
1. This morning I had to vacuum my room as Spunkie tends to spread cat litter all over the room
2. collect her toys
3. hide her food and water bowls
4. hide the cat food
5. hide the scratching post
6. hide the cat litter
7. finally hide the cat herself.
One cat is hidden in this picture:
Spunkie was put in her box, the box was put in a corner of the room and covered with cloths. In order to conceil any cat related noises I played some music in my room and just to make a point I choose to play Dead Kennedys' "Let's lynch the landlord" in a loop even though I guess that this effort was wasted but it made me feel better...
Spunkie refuses to leave the box, she's still in there...
Looking a bit confused...
But is still sitting in her box, even now...Everything was good until Toby came in....now they are having the next stare-off...Spunkie is growling and Toby just doesn't understand why she won't play with him...awesome entertainment:
And now for something completely different:
The downside of your parents being on Facebook
Both of my parents are on Facebook. Initially I was proud that my parents could master the internet but yesterday evening I experienced the downside of this situation. When I spoke to my mum she told me in this typical mum-voice that "I should watch my language on Facebook". I asked what she meant as I watch my language (I always double check the spelling and grammar before I post something). She then told me that people could be offended by the use of the f-word. What the fuck?
To be fair, she didn't complain for her sake, she was more concerned that potential employers or official people could find my facebook site and be offended. I explained to her the existence and effect of privacy settings and that put her at ease again.
I explained that I don't use my real name and my privacy settings are quite high so that no one who isn't my friend can even find me. And I know the dangers of the internet. I was already online when my mother hasn't even heard of the internet. And I love the word "fuck". In my view it's not even a swearword, it's an emotional amplifier. For example if you compare the sentences:
"I hate Open house inspections"
and
"I fuckin hate Open house inspections"
the second sentence expresses the emotional state of hatred towards Open house inspections in a much more vivid way. I guess it's a generation thing that my parents don't approve the use of the f-word. I don't ask for approval just for tolerance, the use of the f-word is covered by the freedom of expression...
It's a pity that the German language doesn't have an equivalent word. "Verdammt" (=damn) is just not the same and "verfickt" (which would be the translation of fucked) just sounds wrong.
In short, I'll keep using the word "fuck" and if anyone doesn't like it they can fuck off!
Ok, that was it for today, I'm looking forward to the meat feast tonight and will report tomorrow...
Take care!
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