After being in Chelmsford for a couple of years, things were not going too well with some of the other tenants, especially with sharing with three other blokes. One of the issues was cleaning the place, which wasn’t at the top of the list for any of them. This culminated eventually, in me deciding to find somewhere else to live.

I responded to a few adverts for different places and didn’t meet with much success.

I then responded to an advert for a room to rent in a cottage in Bocking, which was on the outskirts of the northern part of Braintree. I made an appointment to view the place.

Braintree was a little bit of a journey from Chelmsford and no where near as big. Bocking itself; was almost a village on its own, and the room was in a rather small two bedroom cottage which was down a path off of Church Street. This was going to be a totally different experience to living in Chelmsford.

There were two girls living there, who were about my age and one of the girls, whose father owned the cottage was going to Australia.

This left the other girl, who’s name was Catherine. It transpired she was a Teacher at a school in Witham.

It was very different from what I had been used to, but it also had a sense of tranquility about it. To be honest; I didn’t think I had much chance of getting the place, as I presumed they were looking for another girl. After being shown around the place and learning what it would cost, I left thinking; oh well, it was nice to meet the girl and see the place. Additionally; the girl called Catherine, who I would be sharing with, was really quite attractive, and although she was nice and pleasant, I just didn’t think she would want me as a tenant.

About a week later the phone rang and it was the girl from the cottage, asking if I was still interested. I was a bit taken back to put it mildly, and when I said, yes; I was very interested. She then replied, ‘if you would like it, it’s yours’. I must admit I mumbled a bit about thank you and said it would take me about a week to sort myself. She told me she wouldn’t be there, but Catherine would be there to assist me getting myself sorted.

To be honest, I was a bit dumb struck.

And that was how I went from living with three blokes in a four bedroom town house in Chelmsford, to living with a girl in a two bedroom cottage in Bocking.

Living with three blokes, to then suddenly living with a rather attractive girl in a very small cottage takes a bit of adjusting to, and I had to change my habits and behaviours very quickly.

Although it’s common sense now; on reflection, one can let their behaviour and manners very quickly slip when three blokes are living together, and I had to consciously be very aware of what I was doing and how I was behaving, compared to living in Chelmsford.

It took a few weeks of adjustment, especially living somewhere so quiet compared to where I’d been living before, but in the end I was very grateful I’d made the move.