"Triumps" in the world of flatting.

Dear slightly younger me,

You're about to start living independently, congrats! It all sounds very thrilling, I know. You're (finally) in charge - all these wonderful responsibility laid upon you - and you have this exciting new challenge of taking control of your life. You're almost shaking with excitement, you can't wait to live alone.

What you don't know is that the reality of living alone is a lot (a lot) different from your current idea of independency. Your opinion of success will alter dramatically. To help you - me - us - out, I've complied an 10-fold, easy to follow guide of what will become "triumphs" in the world of flatting:

1. When you get through a whole week without having the same dinner three nights in a row.

2. When you actually have a clean pair of knickers in your drawer (and don't have to wear bikini bottoms).

3. When your washing comes out of the machine the same colour it was when it went in.

4. When your washing comes out of the dryer the same size it was when it went in.

5. When you bought the perfect amount of weekly groceries: enough that you are able to construct a meal on the Saturday with more than just condensed milk and baking powder, but not too much that you have floppy carrots sulking in your fridge's vege bin (a month after you bought them).

6. When the recipe says "2 tsps of diced tangy ginger spice" and you actually find diced tangy ginger spice in your pantry.

7. When guests come over and you have enough glasses that everyone can have a drink.

8. When guests come over and the living room is clear of underwear and/or dirty dinner plates from a few days back.

9. When you actually put away your clean washing, rather than just fishing the specific clothes out of the dryer when needed.

and 10. When you are actually telling the truth to your mother on the phone when you say that you vaccuumed yesterday/just did the dishes/my bed is already made.

Good luck, mini me. I hope my time machine works.

Love, Ophelia