The epic move 2011

Throughout my growing days in singapore, I have only moved once (in 20+ years).

I grew up in this neighborhood in outram, not far from Chinatown. Then my family moved to clementi (when I was 16?) And we stayed there since, though I did spend a fantastic 3 years in NTU dorm with Mich, only going back home during weekends.

For clementi, I wasn't involved in the renovation decisions, nor the cleaning up. All I could remember doing was to pick the lamp shade.

I don't even remember if I moved my clothes. My mum has this rule about throwing away 'useless' items - I.e. excessive clothes, accessories, shoes, cards, mails. Thus, I don't own my old school uniforms any more. My mum keeps all our photo albums though - back in those days when you still need to develop pictures.

The move was completely effortless, from what I remember.

Since 2008, I have moved 5 times - in 3 years; the recent move had to be the most challenging.

Uprooting myself from singapore to hk was not too difficult since I was allowed to have a shipload of belongings to be moved to hk - I couldn't be happier! The unhappy part of it was how to fit all my stuff in the tiny apartments I rented. It didn't help that I had to expand my wardrobe to include winter stuff.

Space is so very precious in hk. It is even more precious and delicate when you stay with someone else.

The 6 month cohabitation with j (sep-mid mar 2011) proved so, and even more so when we moved to stay with his parent's for 2 months.

Now, we have finally moved in to the new flat (thank god!)- the project which we had been working on since last Dec, the epic move.

While we still have furniture and some other household items to shop for, the flat is ready for living in. :)

Every corner I turn, I see j's contribution as well as mine (his industrial kitchen look and my aqua bathroom worked beautifully). While the works could have been done better, this is the closest to perfection we can achieve.

Let's hope we won't have to make another move too soon and get to enjoy the fruits of our labour a little longer....

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

The verdict

It's April 15th and we have both made our decisions and reached an agreement.

Where New York is the concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there's nothing you can't do, we have decided to stay put.

To me, it's quite a relief as I'm not ready to move, I've got my MBA to take, and my life plan isn't going to change so soon. Uprooting myself to a completely new place 15hours flight away is exciting, but, to a larger extent, daunting. I can't even say for sure if I'd be able to make it there.

For j, it's a relief as well. He can finally settle his mind and focus on what's ahead, and not the what ifs. He is lucky to be given 2 equally good opportunities to choose from (on paper), but a lot of things can't be weighed just like that.

In fact, he didn't how to decide and as a final resort, he sought some divine intervention - his trusty WTS who gave him 2 stories to interpret for himself. The New York option didn't look so good after.

So we're staying put. :)

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

On the right track

We finally had a heart to heart chat last night - in the 'still under construction' flat, amidst all the renovation frenzy. Just the 2 of us, looking at our future, being in our future together.

This 2 weeks will determine what the next 2, 3 years will be - where we will be mainly. Some heavy thoughts to think about, and some heavy decisions to be made, some real planning to do.

We are on the right track - u said (and I was staring at your harry potter Hogwarts express station 9 3/4 tshirt) - bit of a comic relief there but we both know this is serious and it is real.

April 15th - we will have our answers.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

I want my door knobs

Our contractor is killing us.

He fixed cheap door knobs when we specifically went to shop for good quality ones.

Now we have a problem. Because the size of the cheap ones don't match the ones we bought. And that may mean we either replace the doors and delay completion date further OR simply accept the cheap ones.

I know, its just door knobs. But I want my door knobs - the ones we spent days looking for, the ones which use magnetic technology instead of the conventional ones. I want my door knobs, and I don't want to fight with jason over it.

Will we be punishing ourselves or punishing the contractor if we insist on changing? When is this battle ending? :(

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7