Song of the
day: “A song for Ireland” by Mary Black. Such a gorgeous song. I’ve had it in
my head off and on for the past week or so. Do love it somewhat fierce.
Yeah…a lot
has changed once again. Quite suddenly, just last week, we got a call from one
of the anti-squatting companies we signed up for, and it was a beaut. In
particular since our month was almost up.
I’ll give
you a rundown of how that conversation went. The caller we’ll be calling D for
recognition purposes:
The phone
went, and I snatched it from my pocket to squint at the unfamiliar number
displayed. It came Utrecht so it was nearby, but other than that, I was
oblivious of who it was. It could be anyone of the fifty or so real-estate
agents, private rental owners and whatnot, so there really was no choice but to
pick it up.
Me: “Hello?
This is Samaya speaking.”
D: “Good
afternoon, my name is D whatshisname.”
I racked my
brain but nothing popped up. Me: “Sorry, that name doesn’t ring a bell. What can
I help you with?”
D laughed,
said: “I’m from thisandthat anti-squatting company. You applied for that,
right?”
Me: “Yes.
Yes I did.” Something started bubbling inside me, but I didn’t want to get my
hopes up for fear that they were just doing some sort of formal check thing.
D: “I was
wondering if you are still looking for a place to stay?”
Me: “Yessss!”
without even a second’s hesitation.
D: “Would
you be interested to live in Ztown? We’ve got a place—“
Me: “Yessss!!
Even better. That would actually be splendid. Yes.” Was trying to curb my
enthusiasm there, but I think it didn’t work, because he was laughing a lot. He
mentioned something about an address, talked about prices and how he would send
me the required this and that’s, at which point I cut in: “That’s fine. Would
it be possible for my brother to move in with me?”
D: “Well…I
guess. The apartments are rather small, though, and we’ve got three of them
free at the moment, so he could get his own.”
Me: “Oh my.
That’s even better.” My head was already running with that, considering that
with anti-squatting you pay per person, rather than per apartment. So taking a
place together was going to make very little difference since we’re not home
all that much, and when we are, we often work at the computer together, and
since it is in the same building, and I cook most of the time anyway, we wouldn’t
need to get an extra washing machine, or refrigerator, or anything.
Me: “Yes, we
would be interested in that, too.” Imagine me, doing a happy dance at the
thought of having a place to myself that I can decorate whichever way I please,
without a big brother looking at me in exasperation about color schemes, styles
and whatever because he’d be more interested in where to put his butt ugly
computer. Hah. Anyway, I’m thinking color. Lots of it. I’m at a point in my
life where I want cheerful colors around me. *wink*
D: “Great. I’ll
send you the particulars tonight, but for now the appointment is set for Monday
at 14:30. Will that be alright?”
Me: “Yesssss!”
while in my head I’m formulating the request in my head to our boss, for an
early day so we can make our appointment.
D: “Very
good. Would you know where I can reach your brother so that I can speak with
him as well.”
Me: “Of
course. He’s standing across the room from me.”
We both
laughed at that. Me: “He’ll be there.”
D: “Excellent.
That saves me another call. You will be meeting with my colleague R, who will
discuss the paperwork, contracts and whatnot with you and then hand you the
keys.”
“GREAT! And
can I just say that you’ve made our day, D. We were really starting to get
worried about not being able to find anything to suit us.”
From the
sound of it, he didn’t mind playing knight errant for the day, and we said our
goodbyes while I turned to big brother and high-fived him. Me: “Dude. We’re not
homeless!”
Big brother:
“We weren’t, silly. We have this place, remember?” He, too, was grinning.
Me: “Yeah.
But you know what I mean, right? Our own place, one for you, one for me without
it costing all that much extra. How awesome is that”
Big brother:
“Pretty friggin’ awesome.”
And it is,
because, let’s face it, we’d been counting on having to share some teeny little
space that was way above our budget (were actually at the verge of renting
something a few miles farther away when this popped up) simply because we
couldn’t find anything that we could afford. This is a way better solution.
Hah.
Anyways, the
weekend seemed to take really long, but regardless of that (and the fact that I
had these horrible thoughts of: what if something goes wrong, what if it doesn’t
work out? Kept going through my mind) we started packing some of our things already.
Then, on Monday we got there on the dot, were shown three apartments, together
with another future resident, and I picked the last one because it was on the
top floor, overlooking a small park, and a nice clean white floor. Not so much
the white, but I liked it better because it didn’t have carpet, and no neighbors
overhead. That was a big plus. All it missed was a cooking stove, but then that
was the case with all of them.
So we
settled who was going to go where (big brother and me on the third floor, the
other fella on the second) read through and signed the contracts and agreed to
at least put some of our things in the apartment that same evening, because the
whole purpose of this project is that it looks lived in…didn’t get to bed until
after eleven that evening, and the three nights that followed while we arranged
for our move and carted everything to the two separate places.
We were way
short on stuff, too, so I got myself a couch (a bright red! I will post
pictures below) to fill in the blank. Regretfully the couch looked way smaller
at the thrift store, so we couldn’t get it in the elevator, meaning we had to
carry it up a whole set of stairs. *sigh* But it all worked out in the end,
despite being pretty darn tired after work, cleaning up the temporary rental,
and moving for so many hours so many days in a row. In fact, the other day
(supposedly my free day where I only found time for breakfast) I actually got a
strange buzzing in my ears while we were in a thrift store looking for a closet…one
of the prerequisites of anti-squatting is that you keep things neat, so a
closet is definitely necessary. Anyways, I really had to stop for a moment lest
I ended up hugging the floor. Anyway, luckily I had a couple of oranges with
me, so I ate those and felt way better. Did decide to eat a proper dinner that
evening, rather than doing something on the fly, because that was scary.
So now,
after this “free” day, my new apartment is neatly arranged into a rather new style for me,
quite a bit of red there. I told you I was doing color this time! I got some
blues to keep things interesting, and some turquoise because I like the color
so much. The end result is cosy and welcoming, which is the tone I’m trying to
set, of course.
Lucky for
us, on the night we moved in, there was a big thing going on. The next morning
a big skip was going to be loaded up, so basically all the residents were
throwing everything they wanted to get rid of away. So I’ve got chairs that I
didn’t have before. Had two already, but decided they looked better at big
brother’s. Also a nice small white table which I’m now using as my desk. Yay.
Added to that a neat rounded, white rattan chair for my bedroom. A selection of
things for big brother, including a couple of small brown leather couches (he
doesn’t like the brown, but it will do for now) which color up nicely with some
throw pillows on them.
Also had to
get some lights at thrift stores, but other than that we’re all set, I guess. I
even have a cooking stove. Regretfully no oven yet, but that will just have to
wait until later. Either I find a cheap combi at some point, otherwise I’ll get
a small grill oven at some point that I can at least bake my own bread again.
Now all I have to get is my box with books and a few more things (like our
tools) at the storage and then we’re done for the next six months or so (cross
our fingers and hope that it takes at least that long before we need to get out
of here again; everyone seems to think so, so I try not to worry).
So that’s it
for the living arrangements. What else? Well, we went out with our father and
stepmother, who invited us to go and eat at a friend’s place up in Amsterdam.
It was rather lovely, that day, despite the atrociously rainy and cold weather.
The female friend, let’s call her Ie for the moment, had a lovely old place
(completely restored, I tell ya) beside a canal. It used to be one of those
high merchant places with the wide hatches and the hook overhead. Really cute.
Was still the original old stairs, almost worn down with wear. It was gorgeous.
After lunch,
which took several hours, we spent the evening walking through the streets of
Amsterdam (seriously, you have to see it to believe how much those houses have
sagged over the past few hundreds of years!). It was fun to see, I’ll admit, despite
the fact that my foot was bugging me to the point of me wanting to chop it off.
The wet cold didn’t help with that, even though it should have, but then,
nothing new with the stupid foot feeling as though I’m walking on broken glass.
Thought I’d moved past it, but apparently the past few weeks of extra work
(being on my feet more then 10 hours a day) didn’t help that…and the fact that
I skipped several days of the much needed bloodwine. *sigh* That is not a
mistake I’ll make again, I’ll tell ya.
What else?
Well, no writing these past few weeks…well, maybe a page or two before the move
started, but that’s ok. I’m set up now in the apartment, so I should be able to
do some on my free days, and I will be taking my computer along to work, for
those few hours that I can while away there waiting for big brother. I’ll get
this banshee story written yet. They are in my head, you see, Brendan and
Neeya, the leads of the story. They don’t like each other much yet, but what
did you expect; it’s a romance after all. Hah.
Oh, and before I forget, the daughter of one of the residents here, has a Basset hound that looks just like my Chaos did. He was beautiful, this James Basset. He was walking through the corridors with his mistress, and I was standing there watching him mosey along, before saying: "Oh you beautiful, you." His head swiveled back, tail going up as if he understood more than just my tone. "Yes, you. You beautiful boy." He turned, came moseying over for a proper petting while I chatted with his misstress about the amazing-ness of Basset hounds. *sigh*
So that is
it for today, folks. I’ll be back with more news soon, hopefully, and will
leave you with the promised pics.
Have a good
one.
Then a view of the whole, with the kitchen in the back...sorry 'bout the dishes. They are clean but I didn't feel like putting them away before the pic. Hah.
