For the first time in my life

For the first time in my life, I actually really appreciate home.

Not that I don't, usually... but it seems to me clearer that we underestimate its value most of the time. i have had moments when all i wanted to do was to run out, escape and never return. on the other hand, moments like today when i have never wanted more to go back.

I awoke today, as I do everyday and happily went downstairs to perform my usual routine before going on campus... greeted by my housemates who had disgusted looks on their faces, i walked into the kitchen and placed my bowl on the kitchen counter when gonga suddenly shouted No don't put it there! He pointed to the pan that had been sitting on the kitchen counter for the last two-ish weeks and to my utmost horror, I witnessed a swarm of big fat white maggots swirling and crawling in it, basking in the putrid remnants of food left in the pan by may, my housemate a couple of weeks ago.

It never fails to amaze me why people can't just do their own washing up after they use it, if not immediately, at least in a day or two! I was absolutely revolted I felt like throwing up... I was so hungry before I went down, and after making myself a bowl of cereal and forcing myself to partake in several mouthfuls of it, I seriously felt like my insides were turning out and i had to retch. So of course I stopped eating and threw the remnants away, all the time feeling my skin crawl both internally and externally.

After several attempts to get May down to witness the offspring of her neligence, she finally did and unsurprisingly, she remarked it was really gross. So I said you know, if you just washed your dishes after you used them, this would never have happened. and she said, what's a pan and two bowls (her rotting dishes for two weeks plus) compared to the ten plates you guys have? Obviously, i told her, we may use loads of dishes but we clear them in max a day or two. And you know what I heard next? You guys shouldn't have let this (referring to the maggots) happen! I gave an incredulous look.
Let this happen?! It's your own fucking pan which you used to cook for goodness sake! Are we expected to clean your dishes for you?

Of course my momentary incredulousness and anger was only towards the utmost cheekiness to her statement, not directed towards her of course; she's a lovely person, except when it comes to cleaning dishes.

After much contemplation on how we should obliterate the maggots, May took it upon herself (after being told by us that it was her responsibility anyway) to try to burn the maggots alive. By that, I mean, she used our stove and put the pan on it to try to burn it to a crisp. or crisps. *shudder*
I vehemently objected. What if they jumped out and invaded our stove? Then we'd have maggots in our stove!
But she went on anyway. The rest of the house, fascinated at what would happen next, trooped into the kitchen to watch the massacre.
Several moments later, the girls started screaming. May said the maggots were jumping/crawling out, then she said they were dead, then Ana said they were still alive and in fact, there were more of them emerging from the tuna can that found itself in the pan. Gonga scrunched his face and sniffed the air.. that's the smell of the barbercued worms! The revolting whiff soon reached my nostrils and surprisingly enough, it wasn't as bad as i thought it'd be. It was pungent, but if i didn't know its source, i never would have guessed. By this time, I was ready to retch. I was late in meeting my tutor so I promptly fled the house.
By the time I got to my car, I felt like i needed to have a long shower. But there was no way i was going back in the house. I had another appointment. So with that contaminated sensation, I drove to campus and went about my day.

...........

10.10pm. I reached home after a very long day. I walk into the kitchen and it seemed to me like the smell still pervaded the air. I recoiled inwardly but forced myself to go about heating up my dinner in my rice cooker. Everything in the kitchen seemed to stink.
I sat down, waited for my hour of ally, and found out that it was postponed one hour later. Not impressed, I sat down to consume my dinner. My housemates came along. What happened to the maggots in the end I asked. Oh, May took it down the road and threw the whole pan away somewhere after burning it. Oh, and guess what, we wanted to take a plastic bag to put the pan in, and we found out that almost all our plastic bags were shredded to little little bits. So we suspect it was a rat. And we have no idea when this happened, because we haven't used the stored plastic bag in ages.
I gave another incredulous, mixed with disgust, kind of look for the second time today. Walked into the kitchen, and saw bits of plastic from the bags strewn on the counter and the floor. Unbelievable. I went to the sink to do some washing and got the fright of my life when i looked to my right and there was a cat that suddenly appeared itself on the back yard door. I am a feline lover, no doubt. But this was just too much for me to take. I started at the sight, then slammed the door in the cat's face. Gonga said maybe it could smell the rat in our house slightly jokingly. Then someone else said, it could even be in our rooms . Then a debate ensued over the fact that rat couldn't scale our steep staircase anyway... then another over whether rats or worms were worse. One housemate declared worms were worse because at least rats were cute.

I wasn't impressed; nor amused. I'm hardly in the house, so i had no idea when the state of our house had degenerated into such pallid living conditions. I blame it on my housemates who are at home everyday but make no effort whatsoever to clean up after themselves. But I probably have a part to play in it as well...

I came up, had a long long shower. Feeling slightly better and cleaner after that, but I can't shake that feeling that some rat is gonna spring upon me when I least suspect it; or that something absolutely disgusting is gonna happen again.
It wasn't funny.

I'm sorry to have to make you readers go through this horrific account of mine; but it is my hope that in writing it down i can purge this feeling from inside me. I have an exam on Wednesday, and instead of revising for it, I am compelled to waste time writing this.
I hate living in student houses... I wish I was at home.
Home - where mum takes care of everything, makes sure there is no corner where some other living organism is thriving in some secret conspiracy to revolt and appear some day...where my domestic helper makes sure my room is free of bugs, where almost everything is spick and span, where my brother is just a room away to call on to eliminate any unwanted visitors in my room, or in the house.

And amidst typing this, a moth has just flown into my room and perched itself on the inside of the lamp shade on my ceiling. Brave Gonga has rescued me by catching the huge moth in his hand and releasing it somewhere else I dont wanna know.

I love summer the most - but why why why, can't it be just summer without the bees, the maggots, the rats and the moths!

WHY!

I wish they'd all die and leave me alone.