王盈方醫師瘋狂之旅 Dr Yvonne Wang's Blabberings

After a 6 hour long drive in a cloudy weather, leaving behind my comfortable new home in North Ryde, I was in the great unknowns of the far southern coast of NSW where kangaroos knocks on people’s doors (according to “L”, a super funny/humorous Hongkie GP registrar whom I’ve met during orientation last year)! I had arrived in Merimbula and was about to move straight into a rental unit I saw on the Internet! (I was doing ICU nights at RPA and couldn’t be there physically to find a place to rent, and no one was able to help me inspect the rental properties!)

When I first drove to the flats, I felt something was not quite right! My car was the only car parked outside the units, which made my beautiful car stood out too much. The door lock was dodgy – I had to manipulate the lock to get the door open, and slam the fly screen to get it shut! Then there was the bad smell, poor ventilation, and many of the lights didn't work in the unit, including the bathroom – and I happen to find jet-black toilets very scary! There was no washing machine.

A few hours after going in, I found myself face to face with some police officers at my doorstep: the neighbors welcomed me by calling the police because they thought the old tenants of the unit broke into the home... and the police just said that it was because the previous tenant was a convicted criminal who caused a lot of troubles to the neighbors! What an unpleasant feeling!! Did someone got murdered or was there some strange crime there before?!!

I couldn't sleep for the whole night because I felt very insecure: with such an eye catching car parked outside the unit, what if the previous criminal tenant really comes back and breaks into the car or the house something?! And I kept wondering whether someone got murdered there! At one stage I dosed off to sleep briefly but had a horrible nightmare where I thought I was awake but couldn’t move my body!

I couldn't use my wireless Internet in that unit either, so I felt pretty cut off from the rest of the world!

Anyway, I didn't unpack anything to the unit, and repacked everything back into the car in the morning. Thank God the real estate agents did not deduct a bond from me – but they really shouldn’t because they haven’t been honest with me about the previous tenant (apparently when a crime happened somewhere, real estates agents have to inform the potential tenants/buyers beforehand). It was peak season at this time of the year, so it is not easy to find good accommodation. After two days, I was able to find another accommodation which is a 2 story wooden unit with a family of 5 living above me, with 3 young toddlers thundering above me... and of course, I shall find another accommodation as soon as the weather cools down and the rental market becomes less competitive!