“Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.”
– Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
Our “stuff” arrived on Wednesday. A container of 31 packages, containing a variety of pieced together items that we thought we would need/would use here in Lion City, packed with both care and haste, if such a thing is possible, shipped across the Pacific to our new home. The idea of shipping this “stuff” was a curious one – we had a weight limit that we never needed to be concerned with, all told; we were able to bring 8 bags of clothes and whatever on the plane with us – we essentially had to look into the future to see what we could do without for a month, but wanted to have for the other 17.
First on the list was our bed – the week before we found out this was happening, Bev & I bought ourselves a brand new bed as a Christmas present to ourselves. Our old mattress and box spring were on their last legs, it was time for the new bed. Of course, two days before it shows up, we learn that we’re moving to Singapore. So the bed was coming, goddamnit. It was ours.
Beyond the bed, kitchen utensils were high on my list as cooking was going to be one of the things I wanted to work on while in a place with fresh food a stone’s throw away. This added some hilarity when I moved into Parvis because I realized that I hadn’t packed anything to cook or eat with. I then began to walk the line at IKEA between the bare minimum and utter redundancy – I couldn’t bring myself to buy silverware though, so I compromised and bought silver-colored plastic forks and knives1This turned out to be a real conversation piece when I went to Claire’s party on Easter. She too had the same set of plastic utensils from Fair Price, which drew a lot of chuckles towards her “fancy silverware”.
The other side of our stuff coming was that the landlord had agreed to remove some of her furniture to make room for ours. Both beds in the apartment were unneeded, and unwanted, so to make room for ours in the master, and a couch and desk in the spare. This became the focal point for “moving day” as I sat at the dining room table to use the computer and the spare bedroom became a graveyard for our luggage and various unwanted items.
That “other side” had its own curiosity as well – outside of broad strokes, Bev & I had forgot what it was that we had shipped. It made “moving day” a bit like Christmas as we ripped open packing paper to find what it was that we actually brought to the other side of the world with us. This Christmas though, was a hectic, sweaty affair, as I labored to construct the bed I had bought in Portland and Bev directed the unpacking of our kitchen stuff. The movers were amazing, though – they constructed the futon for us, helped with the bed, and when that became obvious that it was a several hour long job, called in handymen to build the bed for us.
Yesterday though, I was given no such luxury, and set about assembling the desk, chair and drawers that would make up my new work space from which, gentle reader, I am assailing you with tales of material goods. That turned out to be a rather lengthy task, and a hot one as well – even with the air con roaring, sweat rolled off my head as I realized that I really miss not bringing my cordless drill.
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