Housing advice

Apologies for my lack of updates! Apparently, semesters in Japan do not organise themselves...

So here is something relatively light, but topical, I feel, to a great many students at this time of year.

When buying a house! What I think it's important to consider, from my first year's experience of choosing somewhere to live, and not doing it very well:

1. Decide if you prefer bills included - so you don't have to feel guilty switching on a light or cooking your dinner, and don't feel a tiny urge to ask guests to pay for having showers - or bills not included, which is slightly more stressful, but will usually be substantially cheaper in the long run.
2. Tumble-drier/airing cupboard - or ANYWHERE to dry clothes, so that there are not constant loads of washing heaped on every radiator and airer available, and you still end up lugging loads of laundry up to your boyfriend's house in an attempt to commandeer his house's tumble-drier
3. Kitchen table - I have no idea how we didn't notice this one when we looked round houses last year, but we didn't. Lesson learned. Kitchen table necessary.
4. Shower which runs off gas, not electricity. Especially if bills are not included, or this one gets pricey.
5. A thermostat away from all other electrical devices. Apparently, this is a thing.
6. Not too much greenery in the back garden - there will be no light in your house, and I mean ever, and it will be freezing cold in July.
7. Selflessness. Yes, you know what you want from a room, of course you want the most convenient storage space, ooh look, that one has the double bed. But it's important to remember that you're about to sign away (at least) a year of your life to living with others, and it wouldn't be the best idea to open hostilities this early. Keep in mind that you can make your room individual without the help of acres of space, and that if you have a tiny room, or the worst shelf, or an infestation of wolves, you can use this to take advantage of your housemates later on.
8. Cleaning rota. This year I've learnt it's important to be honest early on. Where you are on the scale of how clean you want to keep the house, or if noise is going to bother you after (or before) a certain time, how often you're going to have friends round. It helps if everyone's on the same page.

I've genuinely loved moments of living in my first ever 'house' house away from Home, and most of those were due to some particularly delicious house-mates. I have learnt a great deal though, and I'm thankful to have the opportunity of practising how to live in a house with people for a year, before having to go out into the world and living somewhere super long-term.

Good luck to all embarking on New House expeditions.

Yours, homely,

Abby

Undeniable Rights

You know how there are two sides to almost every argument? Whether eating meat is right or wrong, whether everyone's eyes see colours in the same way, how our old Earth was begun, why children are growing up so fast, what the perfect diet consists of?

You know how I put 'almost'?

Some subjects, when they're placed in plain view for us to see, cannot be argued against, or evaded, or ignored.

We're all struggling with the changes the government have made to fix our economic situation. Raised taxes, ridiculously high student loans, redundancies. Cut grants for adults with learning disabilities, changed eligibility criteria, different methods of assessment, shaking the security of many people with disabilities. Imagine how much more difficult it is to be independent, or to fund old age, or to adapt a home to your needs with a disability.

Disabled adults have exactly the same requirements to live a purposeful life as non-disabled adults. They need to be able to get around and have a social life. They need to have a place in society. They need a job or occupation. Nothing more than everyone reading this desires. But imagine if you'd missed a key part of education due to ill health, or you needed medical equipment in your home. How much harder it becomes to live a life every adult has the right to.

It is possible to eradicate this problem. Rosa Monckton, British charity campaigner, has set up a petition to ensure financial support for adults with learning disabilities for their whole life. Children with disabilities are usually lucky enough to grow up in a supportive environment with their family around them. The question is this - who supports them when their family are gone?

It is essential that this petition gets 100,000 signatures. There are no advertising tricks; my email address has never been sent to by anything connected to e-petitions. You sign your name (with as many email addresses as possible) and you make a change to an issue which shouldn't even be in question.

Please, please, sign. Please share this blog post or the petition itself far and wide so that we can support a worthy cause. Share on facebook, tumblr, by e-mail, tweet it, any way we can get the numbers up that you can think of. Thank you for doing the right thing.

The petition

Yours, gratefully,
Abby