Living on my own

It is standard practice in Malta that one does not leave his/her parents' home till the day s/he gets married. There is simply no good reason why one has to! Why should s/he? To live closer to uni? To live closer to work? What's the point? Saving a couple of minutes' worth of travel? And paying sky-high bills when you can live in the comfort and safety of home? Well, it all changed the day I moved to London.

Till that day, I never did any form of work which can be classified as being "household engineering". Never cooked (except at barbecues by the beach), never washed anything (except my car), never took care of any bills (except topping up my mobile phone). But when you find yourself in a city with 7.5 million inhabitants, then things had to change. It was possibly a bigger challenge for me to take care of myself than to work and get my M.Sc. back in 2007-2008! To be fair, I lived in a catered hall, where weekly room cleaning was also carried out, so "all" I had to do was laundry and the odd bits of shopping. It was a great time: had an "awesome" room-mate ("awesome" is a result of "How I met your mother" influence!) and established good friendships which remain.

Once I started working here in the UK in 2008-2009, I moved a step further up the ladder. I was living in a shared flat, where I had to do virtually everything (except remember to pay the utility bills). Luckily, I am quite organised and systematic and in a few weeks I set a routine for shopping, laundry and cleaning, which, I must say, was not too stressful after all. Of course, the various Sainsbury's meals did play a bit of a role back then!

Now that I am back in London, I find myself in a bit of a hybrid: a non-catered hall where one has to also make sure his/her room is kept clean. Again, not too hard a commitment. And I even manage to find time for a bit of daily exercise! I do not mind being in a hall; I am virtually only here to eat, wash and sleep. Having shared a room for a year and a flat for just over half a year, I do not find it hard to share a house, but I think I prefer having a single room this time round. I think the stereotypical room-mate experience is not like the one I enjoyed at all and, after a day's work at Imperial, I would rather could back and enjoy some peace and quiet.

As before, I consider myself to be quite privileged to be living in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the elite quarter of London (not that this affects me much). What I like most about here is that I am within walking distance of Imperial College, High Street Kensington and all its shopping delights, Holland/Kensington/Hyde Park and the Science/V+A/Natural History Museums. All in a posh setting of Neo-Classical buildings, all boasting rhythmic Doric porticos and elaborate facades which totally satisfy my fancy for architecture. Living literally around the corner from Earls' Court Station, I have the added convenience of being only a Tube ride away from Heathrow for easy travel, the West End for entertainment and the City for the sights. Well, the sky is the limit. As Samuel Johnson correctly wrote, "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford".

Unlike many Maltese of my age and my social status, in the words of Freddie Mercury, I am "living on my own". Well, this is only a transient period, since in a couple of months all will change again...but that is another story!