Georgia Moodie: There’s a bunch of big tables. Um, one dishwasher. Thankfully,

Georgia Moodie: uh, yeah, lots of pots and pans. Everyone’s everyone’s food. And then the other piece of crucial piece of paper is the cleaning rotor tasks. So clear the drying rack. Clear the dishwasher. Do the washing up clean everything pretty much in the kitchen.

Georgia Moodie: We have the cleanest person in the kitchen right now. Does he want to speak

Housemate 1: You can never shut me up.

Georgia Moodie: Jonah. Introduce yourself, Ryan. 

Housemate 1: Yeah, I am the cleanest person in the house… certified on we say rotor, not roster. Slowly change.

Georgia Moodie: I’m just translating, you know, it’s a it’s a difficult is a bit of a language jump for the Australian audio thing. This is my friend Mike. This is for…

Mike Williams: locked down in a share house with 13 people. Could you do it? My guest today has found herself in that exact situation, and she’s taking you inside.

Mike Williams: At the start this year. My good friend George Moodie set off on the great Australian tradition, and I’m not talking about the M. C. G. on Boxing Day. I’m talking about her moving to London and she’d been planning this for months. Over a year, actually. And when she landed, she found home in a warehouse with a lot of people. This warehouse-sharehouse situation. She didn’t know at that time, she’d be getting to know them or very intimately. This morning, very early. We had a chat. It is 6:30 a.m. Here on Wednesday. What time is it?

Georgia Moodie: It’s 9:30 p.m. I’m sorry I made you. Really? Oh, no,

Mike Williams: it’s fine.

Mike Williams: It’s fine. Luckily, I was a champ about the time zones, and I asked her how she was coping when I found out was movie nights room to room, pub crawls, escape rooms, daily yoga. It sounds like a holiday retreat. Sounds pretty sick, and I don’t mean in a coronavirus way.

Georgia Moodie: We moved into this place in early February. We were like the new housemates when Corona hit in March. So we’ve seen living in this massive warehouse since then. So it’s it’s a at the moment. There are 13 people living here,

Georgia Moodie: which sounds crazy, but it’s 13 including yourself 13, including myself. But it’s bean so great, like I know it sounds crazy, but it’s like this really, really well functioning warehouse. I think it’s been like a place where people have lived for about 10 years, and it’s got these huge room. So right now I’m sitting on the mezzanine off the room that I share with Evan and up here on the mezzanine there’s a day bed, which is where I’m sitting right now. There’s also I could be bookshelf on my desk and then downstairs there’s, like our bed and, um, all of like, lease covers and staff.

Georgia Moodie: I’m just bring you in the front of the house, Mike. The first thing you see when you come in is by cracks. There are,

Georgia Moodie: I think they’re 12 boxing title hung up on the wall

Georgia Moodie: and their doors up to people’s rooms on, then into the left. I’ve got

Georgia Moodie: come introduce you to the houses.

Georgia Moodie: Most important, resident, I’ve come into the laundry, which we’ve got the dehumidifier,

Georgia Moodie: the dehumidifiers in here, because there are so many loads of washing. We need a dehumidifier so that people’s clothes dry

Georgia Moodie: and in a box on the shelf,

Georgia Moodie: we have the cat bear

Georgia Moodie: so biz. Sitting in a black plastic box, he’s a little bit squished into this box, but it’s very, very cute. What do you think about that?

Georgia Moodie: It’s just being like this instant community

Georgia Moodie: living through Corona has really thrown everyone together in a way we might not level being is close if we hadn’t just, like spent, I think more than 50 days living in this place with just each other to rely on

Georgia Moodie: come into the kitchen.

Georgia Moodie: Oh, so in the kitchen, we have two housemates to live past night we have Sean. And with Nikki,

Georgia Moodie: what do you got? A little little snack. Their heavy shown a shameful dinner, which is toast with avocado and cheese.

Georgia Moodie: I’m gonna blame covid , but there’s no way blaming covid for it. So

Georgia Moodie: I guess it’s got to that point of isolation with, you know, toast is illegitimate. Dinner? I think so. It’s desperate times.

Georgia Moodie: The kitchen’s really big. There’s like I don’t know how many plants you think that being this room, Sean? Oh, my God. Like

Georgia Moodie: 2030.

Georgia Moodie: Let’s count them, actually,

Georgia Moodie: love

Georgia Moodie: 2345

Mike Williams: Okay, you’re in the house and everything sense. Fantastic. But get to the good stuff. Give us the dirt. There’s gotta be some bad stuff about living with

Mike Williams: 12 other people. How many bathrooms?

Georgia Moodie: e? Ah,

Georgia Moodie: there’s a standalone toilet and a standalone shower, and then there’s a whole other bathroom. So actually, I haven’t told you that

Georgia Moodie: probably about a month ago, we had a scare with Corona, so we’re almost certain it was Corona that came through the house. We don’t know because no one had a test. But Ben, who’s one of our house mates? Boyfriends. He was the 1st 1 to show symptoms, and then a bunch of people started showing symptoms, and we were almost certain it was Corona because it was like all the telltale signs, like high fever, persistent cough, extreme exhaustion

Georgia Moodie: and so the like full separate bathroom

Georgia Moodie: became the Corona like zombie bathroom. So our housemate Ryan made a sign for it that said the zombie bathroom. So all the people who had Corona symptoms had to use that bathroom anyway, to answer your question. They’re they’re kind of like three bathrooms,

Mike Williams: so there’s three bathrooms between 13 people. Does that seem like a problematic ratio to you?

Georgia Moodie: It’s actually fine. It’s actually fired. I think I’ve waited for the bathroom like, maybe three or four times.

Georgia Moodie: And I’ve been living here since February.

Mike Williams: Has the hot water tank you having one minute showers each or what?

Georgia Moodie: we

Georgia Moodie: like. Two weeks ago, the hot water birders deed go out, and that was pretty dire. Some of our house mates just decided that they couldn’t hack the cold showers, but they weren’t saying anyone from the outside world. So they just weren’t bathing. Really,

Georgia Moodie: I decided to heat up just a whole bunch of hot water on the stove so they would. There’s a really big pots and pans here, so I would just, like heat up a whole bunch of water and Ferried back and forwards to the bath on have, like a pretty miserable, But at least it was warm by. That’s

Georgia Moodie: but I’m happy to report that the when it’s running the hot water system is great.

Georgia Moodie: We’ve got 44 without having the need to be doing. I pretty much was trying to count by part, but now the criteria is changing. We can just say for more than 40 hou plants in the kitchen alone. You should know being chief gardener. Yeah, that’s right, That’s right. I’m still waiting for my official uniforms.

Georgia Moodie: Got

Georgia Moodie: so I’m now walking down the corridor. Lucas, one of our housemates, is a lighting designer in nightclubs here in London. And so he has, like, completely transformed the corridor recently. So we’ve got purple and red lights which guide us away down the corridor and then I’m coming out into the back room

Georgia Moodie: on the back room is a huge space, so I probably should have described

Georgia Moodie: the half of the ceiling is windows, So we’ve got slanted windows. So there’s always masses of natural light pouring in the back room, there are more plants at the back. Don’t worry, I’m not gonna count them. And they’re a bunch of desks. So people who are working from home

Georgia Moodie: have got set up at the back. Who? You also have a martial arts enthusiasts were actually a few martial arts enthusiast in the house, we’ve started doing a 30 day yoga challenge, and every day at 6 p.m.

Georgia Moodie: A group of people

Georgia Moodie: congregate in this back room to do yoga.

Georgia Moodie: What else have we got? We’ve got a projector and a projector screen later tonight. You know, I think about five or 10 minutes. People are gonna be meeting here to watch the latest episode of Rick and Morty on. And there are also

Mike Williams: when you living with 13 people, how do you go about

Mike Williams: managing policies about

Mike Williams: people and movement? And how you gonna

Mike Williams: adhere to these

Mike Williams: social policies?

Georgia Moodie: Yeah, well, we had

Georgia Moodie: We’ve had some, like, intense house meetings over the past. I guess it’s more than a month because you know, there are people. When it was initially heating, we had people who wanted to still see friends or partners who lived outside of the house, and we were trying to negotiate how that would work. But then, as soon as people within our house showed symptoms, we had to go into a 14 day locked down. So for 14 days, we no one really left the house. We had groceries delivered and we were really careful about that. And then by the time our house was out of lock down, the whole country was in look down. And so we’ve just been following government guidelines. So we had

Georgia Moodie: that The government has just recently changed their rules about social distancing. Here it’s

Georgia Moodie: pretty minor changes, but we had a house very about it last night. And the biggest change is that now you can meet with one friend who is not in your household

Georgia Moodie: as long as it’s outside, a new meat and use remain two meters from them at all times. So that’s super exciting. Because we can, you know, we can go see people again as long as we’re, you know, responsible about it

Georgia Moodie: s So we had a chat about that, um, which was really good. And then we also discussed, like, I guess, in any any house meeting, someone always brings up like a cleaning issue. So, um, we have a cleaning Reuter where

Georgia Moodie: once used to be once a day, the kitchen had to get cleaned. So you so you would get, you know, assigned a Wednesday cleaning shift, and you have to empty your bins and clean all the surfaces and

Georgia Moodie: empty the dishwasher, that kind of thing. But with 13 people in the house using the kitchen for three meals a day, the kitchen was just like getting slammed. So we decided to split it up into morning and evening shift, which is really good But you know, if everyone leaves one mug in the sink there 13 months in the sink. So

Georgia Moodie: it’s, you know, it’s so easy to forget which pots and pens used to cook. So there’s always like we have a house. What’s up? And like every couple of days, there’s like, Come on, guys, this was left in the scene. Can we do better? And the general consensus is yes, let’s do better on sometimes the dishes do get claimed, which is really nice, something real, like all Sorry, that was mine. But more often than not, they just sit there until it’s the person who shifted is and then they clean up.

Georgia Moodie: I just realized a crucial thing I forgot to describe in the kitchen.

Georgia Moodie: I’m gonna describe the cleaning rotor.

Georgia Moodie: Okay, so I’m back in the kitchen mark

Georgia Moodie: way. Have the cleanest person in the kitchen right now.

Mike Williams: I haven’t gone mad at all. I haven’t gone mad at all. I haven’t gone mad at all.

Mike Williams: It’s actually been wicked. I mean, there’s gift and a curse. The curse was at the start. You know, there’s that many other people to think about in terms of hygiene and everything else But

Mike Williams: when you compare our situation to friends and family were really lucky, cause now, socially,

Mike Williams: I mean, this is probably the most social I’ve been in a long time. The schedule is fucking rammed movie night, quiz nights, murder mysteries, all sorts of things.

Mike Williams: Is that any kind of like survivor tactics going on here where, you know, a little alliances form and

Mike Williams: that sort of thing? You aware of that?

Georgia Moodie: Um,

Georgia Moodie: I don’t think so. I mean, unless I’m just, like, completely oblivious to them.

Mike Williams: The Australians aren’t in any alliance

Georgia Moodie: We are the Vegemite Allince and it’s us versus all of the Marmite people . I mean, there are a few ally like

Georgia Moodie: Evin, and I are the only people in the house really who drink cow’s milk. So most people drink milk here, so and they’re kind of vegetarian verging on vegan. So evident. I feel really guilty whenever we get like cow’s milk out of the fridge. Maybe that’s an alliance. Maybe everyone is, like, actually against us and trying to convert us to veganism like behind out back.

Mike Williams: That’s perfect. No one ever takes your milk, then?

Georgia Moodie: Yeah, Yeah, that’s the one that said That’s true. That’s true. Um, So, like, I know I know what you’re digging here for, Mike, is the tension and the drama and the fights.

Georgia Moodie: No, no, no, I

Georgia Moodie: look, if

Mike Williams: it came up, it came up. It’s not like I got looking for you mean,

Georgia Moodie: I know you. And I know your radio brain and you’re ready to produce. The brain is going okay. We need some tension and drama here. I

Mike Williams: just work up.

Mike Williams: Biggest tension was made pluggin in my headphones.

Georgia Moodie: We have had some, like competitions in the house. So over the weekend, housemate Joy made an escape room,

Georgia Moodie: So

Georgia Moodie: Okay. Uh Yep.

Georgia Moodie: Believe me or you don’t believe

Mike Williams: you don’t believe you.

Mike Williams: I believe it’s just

Georgia Moodie: funny. So, like,

Georgia Moodie: yeah, it’s well, it’s wild. She put so much work into it, she’s being It took her about 2.5 weeks to make because she had to, like, find enough locks and things, like hse used, like, backpacks that she could lock up. She’s been researching it. She took so much time with it and it was so much fun. So

Georgia Moodie: she created a story, which was that? This we had a sub- letter called Spencer and he had killed one of the housemates. And we had an an hour in this room to work out

Georgia Moodie: who spent two killed where he buried the body. And then we had to text all of this information to the right. Detective Ryan, her partner, works in films, so he set up a GoPro in there. And so they were watching us as we went around the escape room. And if we needed to, we could art, like, on the walkie talkie. We could ask for clues. So I was in a group of three, and we came last. Um,

Georgia Moodie: but way had to use the walkie talkie to get quite a few tips because we were just really stumped. It was It was quite challenging, but it was so much fun. Um,

Georgia Moodie: it’s not really tension.

Georgia Moodie: You’ll just genuinely get on. Yeah, that’s my conflict. My complete was that we came fitted out of out of three. 

Mike: That was terrible Georgia

Georgia Moodie: genuinely. The dishes, like, is probably the most conflict. 

Mike Williams: How do you run these meetings? I’m interested in the meetings. Like is there a chair? Facilitator, how’s that work?

Georgia Moodie: No, I mean, pretty much we just go, we just everyone goes around. We just, like, say how we feel. Um and

Mike Williams: oh, that’s funny The way you said that just did it. Just say how we feel.

Georgia Moodie: Yes, someone’s playing kumbaya in the corner. Someone else has made a lentil dish for everyone to eat. No, no no….

Mike Williams: everybody says how they feel for, like, four minutes. That’s like an hour of just ‘how you going’?

Georgia Moodie: No, no, no. Sorry about the particular issue that we’re talking about. So, like, we’ve only had I think they’ve had three house meetings the whole time I’ve been here. They don’t normally happen unless there’s something that the whole house needs to talk about. So

Georgia Moodie: we had a house meeting a while ago to talk about rent because lots of people in the house are out of work at the moment because they work in hospitality. So lots of people in the house work in pubs or nightclubs or bars or they work in film and film production has completely shut down.

Georgia Moodie: So lots of people were out of work and we’re lucky, and that the landlord has given us a reduction in range, so we kind of had to work out. How you going to distribute that? But

Georgia Moodie: what kind of happens is that people will take it in terms until we reach an agreement and there’s not not always. Everyone doesn’t agree. Like when we had the first house meeting, when Corona was just really beginning and we had to decide is a house whether to self isolate or not. Some people was super keen for the whole house toe, 100% isolate. Others weren’t. And it wasn’t as if everyone agreed. But we just had to come to a consensus as a house. What we’re going to do,

Georgia Moodie: and pretty much what we came came up with is that we all pretty much ice like were self isolating, apart from two people who could go see their partners. So there’s different opinions in this conflict, but we just kind of try to get everyone in a place where they feel happy and safe. Does that work?

Georgia Moodie: Yes, So far it’s I think it’s worked really well,

Georgia Moodie: like I’ve lived in the big chair house before. I think it was like eight people. Um and I don’t know. I thought it would be more complicated with the attain, but it’s been going really well.

Mike Williams: So there’s, you know, group yoga talking about feelings. Three bathrooms. Are you sure you haven’t joined a cult?

Mike Williams: Seriously, have you? Has that going through your mind?

Georgia Moodie: Yeah. Everyone’s just regular people like I fall.

Mike Williams: They always cult people. Always great looking for It’s always the baby, at least expect

Georgia Moodie: well, look like no ones asked for money for a pyramid schem .

Mike Williams: Just what? Everyone Watch out. Just watch out, OK? I’m just saying. Yeah, yeah, que If they ask you to do something you’re comfortable with, let me know.

Georgia Moodie: Yeah. Okay. Well, I’ll call you straight away. Thank you. I start feeling weird about it. Thank you. You’ll be the first person I call

Mike Williams: after 6 30 AM. Thanks for being a friend. Georgia Moodie.

Mike Williams: Episode Artwork is by Chris Vernon and Chris Vernon underscore Instagram. Georgia Georgia I’m hoping that when you hear this, you could do me a favor and put up a poster advertising this episode in the house. If half of your roommates listen to this, I could be looking at record download figures, which is a thrilling prospect. Seriously, get them onto this.