Housework used to be one of those items on my to do list that was expendable. If I was feeling generous, or rather guilty, I would perhaps do some washing or unpack the dishwasher. But those days are gone as housework has come to claim revenge on my independent living style. See, I have moved out of home, into the nursing quarters of Katoomba hospital.
Whilst overseas, I discovered that I would be working in the Blue Mountains and then had a generous time span of 3 weeks to organise accommodation. Lets not forget the fact that I was overseas! The easiest and most obvious answer was to move into the nursing quarters (NQ).
NQ is rather basic but is justified by the incredibly low weekly rent, its convenience and social atmosphere. Imagine a coffin, double that size, and double it again and that’s about the size of my meager wooden floor bedroom. It’s made all the more homely by my scattering of clothes and feeble attempts of decorations. (I have refrained from returning to my adolescent days of pinning up posters of Scott Wolf on the blank walls.) It’s not really all that bad, it just needs a bit of carpet and perhaps some furniture other than a bed. It’s no worse off than a college room I imagine.
In fact, life at the NQ sounds similar to college life, or at least the Sydney University Village, except we are probably a lot less heavy handed on the drinking scene considering we all start work at 8am. There are around a dozen different health professionals living in the NQ including the physio who has decided that a public cramped living style is the way to go for 8 years straight! We have formed a kind of health professional posse, mainly because we are all out of towners who don’t have any other contacts in the region. We go for bush walks weekly after work. When someone leaves, we celebrate. When someone gets a pay rise, we celebrate. When someone decides it’s the night to hit the happening streets of Katoomba, we celebrate.
Watching TV in the communal living room has actually become a social occasion where snickering comments about the desperate women of Desperate Housewives are just as entertaining as the show itself. Sharing fridge space and greeting someone in the hallway before the styling gel could mould their hair into shape are certainly bonding moments. Health Science and medical students have this exciting opportunity if they do a rotation somewhere out of Sydney.
Doing the washing, shopping and cleaning the kitchen are a small price to pay for the independence and adventures I will embark on this year. Mind you, I do come groveling back to Sydney on Fridays in time for mum's home cooked meal with a bag full of washing in tow!