Saturday, December 18, 2010

Free Rice: A scary housing trend

So after introducing you to our lovely home we have some news... we've decided to move.  There are far too many people in the house and it's becoming a bit of an issue.  We still really enjoy our nice big room, and most of the flatmates are really nice people whose company we enjoy.  But the fact that there is never any room to cook in the kitchen at dinner time, you can't leave things out, and I'm never sure if I invited people over if we would even have room to hang out without shutting ourselves in our room like we're freshman in the dorms or something is a huge downside.  

Well we aren't moving just yet, but we do keep scouring ads online, and I've gone and looked at 2 places already.  The first one was absolutely foul and the whole building smelled like cigarettes and what I assume sleazy Vegas motels smell like.  The 2nd one was actually pretty nice but didn't feel just right, and they would have wanted us to stay for about 6 months, which I wasn't sure I wanted to commit to just yet. But we're still looking!

During our little search we've noticed a rather odd trend on many postings in the CBD/Ultimo/Haymarket area: FREE RICE.  And the proof is below:





I'm not quite sure why in the listing rice was listed under bills... but interesting none the less.  Please keep in mind that these are not just a few ads that have this, if you search "free rice" on Gumtree (it's Australia's version of Craigslist.  Yes, Craigslist has an Australia section, but no one uses it) there are 4 pages of listings with that phrase included!

Odd housing situations are nothing newsworthy in Sydney.  Our friend Kelley went to at least 30 houses looking for good accommodations when he got here, and could probably write a book on the odd living arrangements/situations he encountered during his search.  (Actual example: His own ROOM! Although he would have to step over the 2 people who live in the living room and sleep on an air mattress to get to his room.)  But the idea of including free rice in a housing arrangement is just too weird to me.  

Aside from looking for a new place to live we've both been busy with lots of work (Stefan is in the middle of 16 days straight without a day off), and getting Christmas presents ready to ship off.  We still need to do a post about what we did for my birthday (Stefan planned a really fantastic night that deserves it's own post, and I got lots of lovely presents from the family), but that's for another time!  And Stefan fully intends to write a post soon, which will probably be much more funny than anything I write, and possibly contain Simpsons references.  

But here is a picture of Darling Harbour taken last week to leave you with. :)

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