Part Five: My First Apartment

I am an adult. I am this thing because I now say so, and also because I am by legal definition. I now say so because I have surpassed the financial, social and personal boundaries of being a student, into being strange and foreign land of grown-up life. The land that is centered around so many things, ranging from 'what material should my new tie be made of' to 'you have to pay all the bills which will entail religious management of your money because if you don't we'll sneak into your house at night, shave off your hair, and turn all your furniture upside down before coating the floors with butter'. If this new strange life could be summed up into two equal new strange parts, the first half would be full-time employment; a fascinating concept of going to a place to do things in order to get things from the people that run/own said place. Those things can vary, but they usually entail a certain amount of financial freedom. The other half was the acquisition of my own place, the central and largest representation of said financial freedom. 


The novelty still hasn't worn off. I live in an apartment. MY apartment. It belongs to me because I give money to a man and he says "yes you can live here this is now YOUR apartment". I can leave all the windows open all day, I can move the furniture in any arrangement I choose, I can lay on the kitchen floor and do stretches while I fuss about my back, I can do ANYTHING. Well, that is until my roommate arrives in August, but that just means I can buy the spices, arrange the furniture, and fill the bathroom with my favourite brand of toilet paper. It's kind of like marking your territory, but in a more selfish, passive-aggressive sort of way. 

But that's enough of that. It's time for you to see the place. If you've seen it already, I award you +5 points for caring enough to get in contacting me and chatting over my loud expressions of excitement at the new residence. If you haven't seen it already, I award you no points for your apathy and lack of concern for singular events in my life. If I have offered to show you my place after communicating to you that I have one now, and you have refused for poor reasons such as "Stuart, I'm in advanced calculus class I can't chat" or "No repsonse", then I award you -5 points for house Stansfield (that's correct, Brant). 

This is the main bedroom. It's got a bed. It's got a closet. It's got windows & an air-conditioner in the wall. That's about it. The view is pretty decent tho. 

This is my drawer of ties. Most of them are from Value Village. They used to belong to others, but they belong to me now. 

This is where I put my clothes. I own neither an iron nor any clothes hangers, so this is where my clothing goes when it's finished being washed. If I want to wear a shirt, I hang it up outside the day before and the moisture from the air allows me to put the shirt on and wipe out most of the wrinkles. I am a smart man. Yes, those are blue pants. Yes, they do look fantastic, and yes, I wear them with a matching blue shirt and tie, because I can do that now. 

This is the bathroom. It has the things a bathroom needs, and nothing more. There is one thing I would like to note about this bathroom. There is an infuriatingly poorly-designed toilet-paper holder that sits on top of the toilet. No beside, not across from, but behind. So after finishing some 'official business', I've got to put out my back trying to clean up afterwards.

<This is my face when writing 'official business'

This is the spare bedroom (well, spare would imply it's disposable). It's a nice little room with the same sized bed, but no floor space or door, only a curtain. It also has two windows (one goes all the way to the floor) and an air conditioner. The closet is also a little smaller, but still really big and tall. It's nice (but I took the other one because of... reasons)

And for the most important room in the house (pour mangia), the kitchen. I've got it set up just right. I haven't got any dining furniture yet (which would go just beyond the sing under the brighter window in the background), so I've got that to look forward to. As you can see, in Macau they don't believe in ovens, so we don't get any. I've got a mircowave, gas range and a couple other appliances that make food go.

Here is my spice/produce corner, where the spices and semi-perishables go (is that a term? Semi-perishables? The grown bits that can sit out and that don't have to be refridgerated...). Pasta at the back, cooking oils & sauces next, spices and herbs to the side, and the bowl of your semi-perishables up front where you can grabbem for maximum ease-of-access.  Notice the silly British plugs in the wall. Macau followed suit with Hong Kong for their electrical infrastructure.
 Next is the tea/goodies nook (yes, I called it a nook, because I thought that would be neato). I've got peanut butter & honey, tea & bread, nuts for salads & such, and sweets (dark chocolate, digestive cookies, and some of dem Portuguese egg tarts that find their way into my home refuse to let me shed any weight).

Not a bad view from the kitchen. I don't have a proper exhaust fan, but the fan in the window works A-OK for my needs (as long as I don't make Steak a-la-plancha).


I also have a pineapple. I got it for (the Canadian equivalent of) fifty cents.




This is the undramatic other side of the kitchen. Fridge, things on top of the fridge, cupboards, etc. Essential but inexciting. Overall, it makes a handsome and functional kitchen. I hope that it'll be used to host many tasty meals in combination with dutch blitz & Game of Thrones hangs.





And now we have come to the living room. It's an open concept kitchen so there isn't a separated area, but it works just fine for my needs. I moved things around a little bit since I posted the video on facebook. I use my TV for computer things (I hook up my laptop to it so I can play movies/music/video games on a respectable sized screen). As you can see there are also windows on this wall as well. I've got natural light coming in from 3 directions out of a possible 4 (five if you want to blast a hole in the roof, but I think someone is living above me, and they would likely give me something other than light if I ever entertained that idea).


 This is the living room from the other angle. There's seating for three at the moment, which will have to change if Dutch Blitz is going to take off (please come over), so I'll take care of that.

 And I've even got a balcony too! It's only a small one with enough room to store a few cleaning supplies & a shopping trolley, as well as hang clothes up (they also do not believe in dryers here). It's got a nice view, but so does the rest of the apartment, so I don't spend much time out there. To the right is the cabinet of endless entertainment, containing a grand total of six games, a dozen or so books, and the collection of DVDs that I have inherited from the previous tenant.

That, my friends, is the WHOLE kit and kaboodle. I very much hope that you'll be able to see it in person one day (I've had no visitors yet :(...), because I need to play Dutch Blitz. Seriously. It's been too long.

Dinner is ready so I'm off. Thanks for checking in.