freedom in sepia

it's funny that the first word i thought of as soon as i stepped into our new "home" is liberating.  because it is.

when pia and i were waiting for the owner to finish checking the unit and our room, and also waiting for ross, mac, jason and kuya to return to the unit, i felt like something was prolonging my agony to finally leave that place.  probably that was also the reason i snapped when they spoke/discussed in chinese in front of my face again.  sobrang bastusan na to a.  i wanted so much to get it over with that when they talked in chinese and i felt like some problem was going to arise again, my mind said no.  no.  this isn't going to happen again.

good thing the people around me were somewhat cool-headed and they sorted the matter out.  my smile only came back after i boarded the bus.  i thought, "finally, i'm out of that hell."

unpacking, for me, is more tedious as it entails organization and moving of things and what have you.  but unpacking here in our new room, while it was very very tiring, was more fulfilling in a way.  i actually like our new room more.  it is smaller, but cozier.  the curtain provided by the owner is light brownish in color that when the sun reflects on it (as it is doing now), everything in the room is in sepia.  our bed is back on the floor (it has always been on the floor because we don't have a bed frame; it just felt different in queenstown because we had another queen-size mattress to use as a makeshift bed frame).  but it feels more comfortable now.  haha.  i guess it's because of our new pillows.  (i love ikea!).  we also have a makeshift dresser now!  the owner has this three-drawer low cabinet of sorts with a table top, and i just placed our mirror on top of it.  then all of our daily toiletries on the side, voila!  (i think this would have been much better if there were pictures, but i don't have a camera.)  i also got the owner's  two-layer shelves and made it something like our bedside table/headboard.  ang galing!

this actually looks more of a real bedroom in a real house, compared to the one and queenstown and choa chu kang.  now, i believe we didn't make a mistake taking this room.

redhill: ikea is still one bus ride away.

so. we're moving. finally.

it's one more mrt station away from the office for me, and one station closer to ross.  two minutes doesn't really make a difference, so it's okay.  besides, the walk from the redhill block to the mrt station doesn't take five minutes, so yeah, it's okay.

honestly, everything still feels surreal.  for the past two weeks, i haven't been really looking for rooms as i was still clinging on to the idea that come june, i would talk to the owners and practically beg them to let us finish the one-year contract.  but it was all too weird.  i woke up friday morning with a message on my phone, advertising the room.  i was a bit hesitant because i thought it was an agent.  eventually, ross and i decided to give it a try and take a look at the place.

i was surprised the moment we went inside.  someone was cooking.  frying is more like it.  frying fish actually.  and the singaporean owner was just there, sitting on the sofa.  smiling.  i said to myself, hmm...suspicious, but interesting.  tenants are allowed to cook!  tenants are allowed to fry!  instantly, i liked the place.  (yes, cooking and doing kitchen work is a big deal for me.)  so, we went inside the room and it was small.  like one-eighth smaller than our current room.  and that was when i had second thoughts.  how can we fit all of our stuff in that room?  actually, our mattress and ross's tv stand and the cabinet provided by the owner will fit just fine.  it's just that there won't be enough walking space in the room anymore.

the owner told us to think it over the weekend and let him know of our decision the following week.

ross and i headed to vivo city to eat and think it over.  we even drew on the superdog paper the layout of the room and where we would put our stuff.  after more than an hour of mulling and thinking and drinking ultimatemocha and talking over the phone with karla, it hit me.  ever since the confrontation/bastusan incident with the siblings in the queenstown place, i was more paranoid than ever.  i became super cautious when preparing food in the kitchen, even if i'm just grilling hotdogs or hams or preparing a sandwich or getting water.  i became more jumpy whenever i hear people speaking outside of the unit or whenever i hear keys being turned to open the gates.  i always had to ask ross to see if the kitchen and the floors are clear and clean of whatever.  i told ross that, and said we have to move.

the room is smaller, yes, but i'm hoping i would have peace of mind there.  we decided to see the place again that night and make measurements.  apparently, we have more than two feet of walking space (i think) between the cabinet and our mattress.  we can make everything fit.  we might just have to ask the owner if we can leave some of our stuff outside, like maybe our iron board and laundry bag and maybe our foldable table.  i don't know.  we have yet to see on the day we actually move in with our things.

this is a big relief for me.  one less thing to think about.  now, all i'm worried about is packing and cleaning our queenstown room so we can get our deposit.

this is the third room that we're renting since we've been here in singapore.  i really really hope that third's a charm.