Stuff about stuff

A year ago, I moved from the Eastern part of Singapore to the West, because my university is in the extreme west and living in the west enabled me to come back home after my night classes at a less unearthly hour.

Almost a year ago, I wrote a post about how sad I was to leave the east. And I thought to myself, I'm gonna feel exactly the same when I move back to the east. (Oh yeah, I had already decided last year that I would be moving back to the east this year.) But surprisingly, I did not feel anything this morning as I finished the last bits of packing before my transport guy turned up with his van. To me, the west was not home. It was never home. It was like temporary hostel accomodation.

I wanted to minimise the stuff I had to make moving easier. So I gave away almost half of my clothes and shoes. And I thought to myself - so I'll have at most two suitcases of clothes, a carton of kitchen stuff, a carton of books, my computer, the computer table and chair, my musical keyboard (no I don't play well, I just play by ear), a carton of sentimental stuff, a carton of toiletries and I'm done.

Wrong.

I had tons of cartons. And the weirdest thing is that I have no clue why I had so many. I guess they contained "stuff". Now here's some stuff about stuff. "Stuff" is what you dunno you have. So I decided not to rack my brains anymore and just accept the fact that a girl has "stuff" and the "stuff" just has to stay with the girl, it cannot be thrown away.

But I am so glad that my new flatmate (anyone remember my dehydrated pictionary temp flatmate? I have elevated his status.) did not complain even once as we loaded our stuff into the van. Any other guy would have just started to sort thru my stuff and would have even had the audacity to offer his advice on what I should throw. Shocking. I'm so glad that there are some people who let you carry your memories with you, no matter how heavy they are.

My transport guy's eyebrows shot up higher and higher as we loaded up his van with my stuff. I was surprised at his being surprised because he is the same guy who had transported my stuff when I was moving to the west exactly a year ago. This guy is ubercool. He advertises about his transportation services now and then and this year, the title of his ad cracked me up.

"Supervan returns!" it said. :D

The guy is very good-natured and flexible. I decided to try my luck, and said "You should give me a discount, I'm your old customer." And he actually did! So this afternoon, he drove us and the megatons of stuff to the new house. He had rolled down the windows of his van and it was so amazing to feel the wind in my hair. I hadn't experienced that in a loooooong loooooong time. Makes you realise how sickening air-conditioning can be.

With the help of two life-saving friends, we managed to unload the stuff in the van pretty soon. "You'd better stay in the east, cos I am moving back as soon as I can." I'd threatened these friends long time ago when I was moving to the west. And my threat worked. They're gonna be here till May at least.

The new house looked bigger than it did when we had seen it first. It could be because the earlier tenants had a toddler, and you know how much space toddlers occupy with the insane amounts of running around they are capable of.

Right now, the living room is full of "stuff" that needs to be moved into our respective rooms. Then there's "stuff" that needs to be bought for the house, for the kitchen (I plan to start cooking again.). Speaking of the kitchen, my crazy flatmate's first reaction was "Itnaaa bada kitchen?? Yahan par cricket khelenge, okay??" (He's in the Singapore cricket team.) The look I gave him cannot be described in mere words.

This flatmate is a bit crazier than all others I have had till date. I think I gotta be a little Monica-like to avoid the possibility of cricket matches in the kitchen and F1 races in the living room. He has the F1 video game, complete with the racing wheel which he replaces my computer keyboard with and races for hours. The other day I was playing my favourite music and he insisted he wanted to play his favourite music. He closed my winamp window, played a video and said with a blissful look on his face, "Now that's my kind of music." What he had played was a video of some F1 race and the "music" he was referring to was the roar of the car engines.

But I like him. I think it's going to be fun living with him. He's not dirty and messy like most guys I know. He allows me bully him. He can cook only one dish so I have monopoly in the kitchen. (My last flatmate spent so much time in the kitchen, he almost gave me a complex.) And I got the big room without having to use waterworks or brute force. He's the most patient guy I have ever met in my life. And the best part is - he's a techno geek who can fix all my computer problems. (And no, that's NOT the reason why I chose him to be my flatmate. Ok, it's not the ONLY reason.) :P

So here I am, writing my first post from my new place. I had to play hopscotch with myself to jump over all that stuff and get to the computer. The sight of all that stuff is freaking me out. I gotta submit two chapters of my dissertation, I gotta watch Munnabhai, I gotta work on my term papers, and I gotta unpack and sort the stuff in the living room. Not to mention the psychotic cleaning of the house that's gonna happen first.

Looks like this weekend's stuffed with stuff. But it's not all bad.

Good stuff's happening too - I'm finally home. :)