Apophis
05-09-2006, 1:40 PM
I think it's practically the law in this country that when you go to university, the hardest decision you have to make at first is finding which bar sells the cheapest drinks and stays serving the longest.
Naturally being a first-year student engaged in all the 'fresher' activities and living in a pretty podular situation (where 5 students share a front door and a kitchen in Student Accomodation, each student with their own bathroom/toilet en suite), meaning that it became very easy to get ready with friends, go out and get absolutely wasted, then come back to the student halls which had been known to see some hijinks in it's time.
These 'hijinks' combined with the sudden bold independence coming from living away from home for the first time inevitably meant that drunken antics and the resultant fallout took it's toll on student halls.
The university had a solution to that scenario, which in hindsight surely breaks some sort of privacy laws or something, yet at the time seemed perfectly normal. Basically every other Thursday, cleaners would come around with master keys, clean the kitchens and make observations on the individual states of each students personal room.
I wouldn't say I was a particularly messy person, but I was far from OCD abuot keeping things tidy as well, preferring the "lived in look". I'd had a few run-ins with the housing manager and people trying to put some over important big deal on my untidy room, tryign to make out the leftover food could attract rats into my room, blah blah. What were they going to do, kick me out when I was paying such rates to stay there each month?
Needless to say that attitude was to come back and haunt me.
It was the first week back after the Easter break and only a few weeks before the preliminary exams started, so the majority of us had decided to make the most of what spare time we had left and generally party ourselves out to the max before all the cramming, studying and general brain-ache began.
Of course when we found out that there was a 'bargain booze' night at the Student Union bar with ridiculously low prices for beer right the way thru into the night, well, it was only human we take them up on such prices.
It was after such a night on the tiles - you know the kind, the one where you struggle to remember past half past 8 let alone how the hell you got home - that my trouble really began.
You see, unknown to me, one of the cleaners in particular had taken exception to me. Either she was one of these obsessively clean freaks that liked to think the whole world should be like that, or she just plain didn't like me.
Well, I was soon to find out 'the morning after the night before' that my months and months of untidyness, grotty habits and general sloppy attitude to anything except my personal hygiene were gradually pushing this poor woman further and further to the edge of her tether to breaking point.
I woke up with a jolt or as close to a jolt as you can get when you have the mother of all hangovers. For some reason I couldn't move my left arm and when I went to reach for it with my right, I managed to get it all of about a few inches away from the bed before that too was stopped right in it's tracks.
Getting a little perturbed it was then that I slowly cracked open my eyes to see a big blur standing over me in a vile coloured smock-type thing.
As my eyes slowly peeled into clarity the face of the person stood by the side of me slowly became recognisable.
It was the cleaner who I'd apparently managed to single-handedly wage germ warfare on without even realising.
'Kath' her nametag said, or at least that's what I could make out from my somewhat disadvantaged position.
"What the hell's going on?" I asked somewhat bemused.
"Oh so you've finally decided to awaken from your slumber then have we?" she replied.
"er... yeah. what are you doing in my room?" I said as I attempted to sit up forgetting that my hands had been restrained, nearly dislocating both shoulders before slumping back to the end of the bed beaten. "You're not supposed to be in here cleaning, you're only supposed to be doin the kitchen".
"well in all honesty, I'm here to teach you a lesson" she announced with a wry smirk creeping across her face, "you see, i've been keeping an eye on you sonny jim for a while now. Your habits and lack of cleanliness just disgust me.... and it's about time you were shown the error of your ways".
"what are you going to do?" I asked somewhat nervously, my voice wobbling a little, as I watched her move out of my eyesight towards the door.
"oh, you'll find out soon enough" she said with a slight laugh in her voice "believe me, it'll be a lesson you'll never forget".
Naturally being a first-year student engaged in all the 'fresher' activities and living in a pretty podular situation (where 5 students share a front door and a kitchen in Student Accomodation, each student with their own bathroom/toilet en suite), meaning that it became very easy to get ready with friends, go out and get absolutely wasted, then come back to the student halls which had been known to see some hijinks in it's time.
These 'hijinks' combined with the sudden bold independence coming from living away from home for the first time inevitably meant that drunken antics and the resultant fallout took it's toll on student halls.
The university had a solution to that scenario, which in hindsight surely breaks some sort of privacy laws or something, yet at the time seemed perfectly normal. Basically every other Thursday, cleaners would come around with master keys, clean the kitchens and make observations on the individual states of each students personal room.
I wouldn't say I was a particularly messy person, but I was far from OCD abuot keeping things tidy as well, preferring the "lived in look". I'd had a few run-ins with the housing manager and people trying to put some over important big deal on my untidy room, tryign to make out the leftover food could attract rats into my room, blah blah. What were they going to do, kick me out when I was paying such rates to stay there each month?
Needless to say that attitude was to come back and haunt me.
It was the first week back after the Easter break and only a few weeks before the preliminary exams started, so the majority of us had decided to make the most of what spare time we had left and generally party ourselves out to the max before all the cramming, studying and general brain-ache began.
Of course when we found out that there was a 'bargain booze' night at the Student Union bar with ridiculously low prices for beer right the way thru into the night, well, it was only human we take them up on such prices.
It was after such a night on the tiles - you know the kind, the one where you struggle to remember past half past 8 let alone how the hell you got home - that my trouble really began.
You see, unknown to me, one of the cleaners in particular had taken exception to me. Either she was one of these obsessively clean freaks that liked to think the whole world should be like that, or she just plain didn't like me.
Well, I was soon to find out 'the morning after the night before' that my months and months of untidyness, grotty habits and general sloppy attitude to anything except my personal hygiene were gradually pushing this poor woman further and further to the edge of her tether to breaking point.
I woke up with a jolt or as close to a jolt as you can get when you have the mother of all hangovers. For some reason I couldn't move my left arm and when I went to reach for it with my right, I managed to get it all of about a few inches away from the bed before that too was stopped right in it's tracks.
Getting a little perturbed it was then that I slowly cracked open my eyes to see a big blur standing over me in a vile coloured smock-type thing.
As my eyes slowly peeled into clarity the face of the person stood by the side of me slowly became recognisable.
It was the cleaner who I'd apparently managed to single-handedly wage germ warfare on without even realising.
'Kath' her nametag said, or at least that's what I could make out from my somewhat disadvantaged position.
"What the hell's going on?" I asked somewhat bemused.
"Oh so you've finally decided to awaken from your slumber then have we?" she replied.
"er... yeah. what are you doing in my room?" I said as I attempted to sit up forgetting that my hands had been restrained, nearly dislocating both shoulders before slumping back to the end of the bed beaten. "You're not supposed to be in here cleaning, you're only supposed to be doin the kitchen".
"well in all honesty, I'm here to teach you a lesson" she announced with a wry smirk creeping across her face, "you see, i've been keeping an eye on you sonny jim for a while now. Your habits and lack of cleanliness just disgust me.... and it's about time you were shown the error of your ways".
"what are you going to do?" I asked somewhat nervously, my voice wobbling a little, as I watched her move out of my eyesight towards the door.
"oh, you'll find out soon enough" she said with a slight laugh in her voice "believe me, it'll be a lesson you'll never forget".