Sinbad: The Return

Regular readers of this blog will recall a colourful character named Sinbad who appeared in some posts back in September. Long story short, he was my roommate for about a month before I realized that:

A) I couldn’t live with a bloated, spoiled, obnoxious baby trapped in the body of an obese college frat boy.

B) The apartment was a complete and utter rip-off and Sinbad was paying way too much because he is:

i) stupid
ii) lazy
iii) a college boy in Cairo getting ripped by a sneaky Egyptian landlord

C) I couldn’t live with people that smoked pot constantly.

And…

D) I couldn’t live in a place where more food was on the floor than in the fridge

Well, guess what people. Sinbad is back – and he wants money.

Last week he called me and said, “dude, you owe me LE 280 for last month’s power bill and I need it right now.”

Okay, for those of you back in Canada, this is an obscene amount of money. And guess what, that’s only my share of it, meaning the power bill for one apartment in Cairo was like, LE 780, which is about $156. That’s more than most families live on in a month here. In fact, I think that translates tojust under two percent of Egypt’s total GDP last year. Or close enough.

Anyways, I’m wondering if I should even bother paying it. Really. Maybe if Sinbad didn’t lay in bed all day and all night with the air conditioning blasting at his hairy back, the power bill wouldn’t be so high?

Maybe if he turned an EFFING LIGHT OUT once in a while or didn’t leave the TV on or blast trance on his lap top and take HOT BATHS BECAUSE HE IS COLD FROM HAVING HIS AIR CONDITIONER ON EVEN THOUGH IT’S LIKE 40 DEGREES OUTSIDE, we wouldn’t be having this little problem.

My only reservation about stiffing Sinny is that the other dude, the Belgian roommate, is a cool guy and I don’t want to burn a bridge, because he paid his share.

What would you, dear reader, do?