cleaning frenzy....

Aaargh.... Kat arrives in 7 hours, my apartment is now messier that it was yesterday...

I finally collected my boxes of crap from Minna's place, now my living room is filled with half unpacked boxes and piles of stuff.... not a great improvement.

Have also discovered that cleaning is a pain when it's so damn hot. Hopefully my neighbours didn't spot me wandering around scrubbing like a madman in just my underwear and rubber gloves (they probably think I'm a strange fetishist if they did)

must stop blogging and rearrange my piles some more...c

(re)joining Generation X

I've well and truly joined Generation X (a great book by Douglas Copeland). In particular, I'm thinking of a great term coined there which is 'semi-disposable furniture'. I guess it kind of marks the high point in history where people went from needing say a chest of drawers, so buying a sturdy, hand crafted set, which would last a lifetime and could be inherited by the kids; to the stage where furniture came flat-packed and was intended to last a couple of years, or until the owners got bored of it and decided to change their 'design concept'. The whole idea of semi-disposable furniture is pretty much the Ikea concept of being able to buy cheap, interesting looking furniture, which wasn't really worth taking with you when you move, simply because it was cheaper to replace it.

This is pretty much the stage I'm at now. Ok, so I have a furnished apartment (with blue sofas), but I still managed to go out to Ikea today and pickup crockery, cutlery, bins, lamps and everything else I need to re-boot my life for less than 150 euros. There is something almost eerie about living in a now reasonably well equipped place that has no familiarity to it.
That at the fact that I'm now living with a lamp called Antifoni, some dishes called Syntes, cutlery called 365+, 12 Bumerangs (coat hangers) and several bins which I have decided to simply call 'bin'.

Kafka-esque

I'm starting to feel like the main character in Kafka's metamorphosis. I'm moving out of Smitha's place tomorrow(ish) and into Thomas and Eva's. So I'm back to packing all my stuff into my (huge) case. I have this feeling that I'm turning into somekind of beetle, as my life seems to be contained in a big black polycarbonate carapace for so much of the time.... I'm looking forward to owning drawers....

Shopping spree, the Aftermath

ok, so its time to stand up (or sit cross legged) and face the music...and finish the shopping spree post... I decided to celebrate getting paid and successfully transfering money to the otherside of the world by buying 'stuff'. The spree technically started on wednsday when I ordered myself a shiny new Macbook pro (the middle size one), got an educational discount, so felt slightly righteous. Nevermind that I'm basically going to be using it at home cos the lab has bought me a new iMac (don't get me started on why they wouldn't just buy me a laptop).... anyhow... looking back now, that technically brings my new computer total to 2 so far (neither delivered yet).

Don't ask me what possessed me, perhaps I was just feeling a bit Mac heavy, perhaps I just felt like spending some more money, perhaps I was just in a reallllly good mood on saturday. Purely by chance (and a 10 minute taxi ride) I ended up at Sim Lim square: Geek mecca... 6 floors of technology shopping center.... (I should ask them to ban me). My last, biggest impulse buy for the week was a UMPC....

....ok, so I admit that I'm trying to use an acronym to disguise the fact that I went and bought myself another (albeit tiny tiny) laptop. Honestly, it is really tiny and kinda cute. It is small enough to fit into a modest sized handbag/manbag. It has touch screen you can twist round, then close the whole thing to make it into a writing tablet. In my defence it cost much less that a laptop (less than 1/4 of the price) and it is really cute... look, here's a picture of it sitting on my old laptop.

[Attempted justification continues] It is also v.light (less than 1kg), so to attempt to justify why I could need one, I created a scenario where I could carry it around at the weekends and sit in coffee shops blogging and writing things (which I've managed to do).

I admit that at most levels I just got it because it is small and cute and I like shiny new toys.... but still.....

I now have the slight problem that in a week or so I'll own 3 laptops and have a desktop 'puter at work, overkill even by my standards... I'm planning to retire my old laptop to the lab (so we can play music by our benches). Am still searching for other forms of atonement....

Crap-herding (Part II)

Dropped off all my stuff to be shipped at Ville & Minna's place last night. Hopefully it will be packed by the moving guys (about now).... Hope they don't feel the need to re-pack some of my boxes... I think one of them is full of junk I've been hoarding for the last year, so bits of wood, metal, electrical components and work in progress things....

Am now living out of my suitcase....
(d'oh... still need to buy a suite case...)

Pirate treasure

As part of my crap-herding efforts I finally cashed in all of the loose change I've accumulated over the last 3 years. Fortunately Commerzbank has a cool machine you can pour change into, it counts it and puts it into your (or Annette's) account.

Total treasure: €71.22

Reasons for this... I've realized that i've been treating 50 cent coins as laundry tokens and anything smaller than that as balast...