My Student Accommodation.
When A Disaster Turns Out To Be Your Salvation.
My name is Steve this is my story; I am a Media Graphic Art student in my middle year at a city University, my grades in my first year were very good and my finals for my second year are just over three months away in June.
I was brought up in the Scottish Borders by my mother and father who are helping to fund my studies, but are limited in what they can do for me. Mainly I rely on my student grant and any part time work I can find, which is not a lot.
For my first year I stayed in one of the subsidised Universities Halls of Residence but from year two onwards I needed to find somewhere on my own. Initially I shared with two other guys but after four months they all decided to go their own way. I couldn't afford to take on the rent.
I managed to get an unofficial second flat share with Alan also a University student but in Hospitality, he was from the Highlands of Scotland. He didn't actually need the money as his father owned a largish hotel and two bars, I think he just wanted company. His father took a heart attack about six weeks ago and he has had to go back and look after the familie's business interests.
I received an email from Alan telling me what happened and that he will not be coming back to University this year and has told his landlord, Richard that he had to give up the flat tenancy at the end of the following month. Richard although Asian was born and brought up in the city.
He suggested to Richard that I may be interested in taking over the tenancy, but that I would find it difficult to take over all of the current rent, and that he had found me very friendly to get on with, discreet and reliable. Richard said he might be able to do a deal with me as he wanted someone living there as he got the flat totally renovated to sell.
I had given the flat a tidy up and polish and was waiting for Richard to come and see me. Must admit I was very nervous as I waited for him, if I couldn't come to an arrangement with him I would have to leave and possibly give up my studies, if I couldn't find somewhere else affordable.
To steady myself I started to do some work on a private job photoshopping some still photographs that I was preparing for a friend. They were what shall I say erotic, my job was to make them even more so, which I was rather good at. The doorbell rang, I was in such a rush to impress, I forgot to shut down the computer screen.
I opened the door and invited him in, as he entered said, call me Richard, all my friends do. We did the grand tour of the flat then I made us a coffee, as he examined my photoshopping work. I should have switched it off. We sat down together in the only couch in the flat, he said I like the way you have kept the flat, I wish all my tenants kept my properties like this one.
Richard outlined what he was looking for, basically over the next four months or so he would have the flat completely renovated and was looking for someone to let the workmen in and inevitably tidy up after them. In return I could rent the flat for what I was paying Alan. I said without thinking of what it would involve. Yes I can do that; saved.
He then asked me how my finances were, he was a student at one time too and his father was very strict with money, still is. I said getting by, some days I had to skip meals or make do with a pot noodle or something similar. But I was trying to get some more extra work, I put an advert in Craigslist saying I would do some male modelling work, a lot of guys in my faculty did this. Richard asked any success and what do you normally get for a nights work.
My first job was down in a seaside town not far from here, just under an hour away by bus, for a ladies retirement art group. When I got there, it was in someone's house posing for eight ladies, in their sixties I think, one was a retired school art teacher who seemed to be in charge.
I had to pose sitting on a hard wooden stool for about an hour and a half, as they drew or painted me. Wearing only a revealing clingy type black bikini swimwear, which they provided, it was a tight fitting other than that ok. They were very good to me, asking me what I was studding etc. Two of the ladies later gave me photographs to photoshop for them. I got £35 for the modelling and £20 for the photoshopping, my costs were £20, I didn't think I was going to make my fortune from this type of work. But it fed me for a couple of weeks.
I did get four other art modelling jobs, one for the same group of ladies this time I had to pose naked. I was so embarrassed at first, particularly when they all stood round me as the art teacher explained what features they should capture. Saying I felt naked and exposed would be an understatement. After about a half hour I was relaxed and took it in my stride walking amongst them as they painted me. I got a lot of paint brush pointing that night, if I am honest I quite liked the attention and no I didn't go hard but was close to it at one point.
One Sunday night I was asked by someone called Harold, would I pose at a swimming baths in the west end of the city where he could photograph me, offered me £50. I said yes, posing in swimwear no problem with that. He lived in the city not far from here and would give me a lift to and from the swimming baths. I went to his flat, one of the nice new modern ones that had started life off as a Victorian hospital, he also had a very nice, nearly new BMW, clearly was not short of money.
We drove over to the swimming baths, it was only on arriving there that I found out it was a, clothes free (nude) Sunday night swim. By this time Richard was almost in hysterics and said you must be the only person in the city that didn't know that. He then said sorry, please continue.