ReNe: pet pee is forever

Interestingly, it has only been 2 weeks since our last post. It felt much longer because we were so busy/tired. The last post was on 24th May, and that was when we started to move into our new place. Actually, by that weekend, we were already tired because we were painting the previous weekend -- recall the previous post where we showed the 'before' shots of the cave-like apartment. After a fresh lick of paint, it looks much better now.

We shampooed the carpet on 24th May; our initial plan was to clean the place up over the weekend, give the carpet a couple of days to dry completely and then move ourselves in on Tuesday (because that's when the internet connection would be up). Easy right?

Well, there's a reason why we've been 'net incognito' for the past 2 weeks, and it can be summed as as: dog pee + carpet. In other words, one of the previous tenants had a pet (the building maintenance guy told us it was a dog) and it peed everywhere. On the stairs and all over the stairs, corner of stairs and closet, by the window, under the ladder, middle of the room, by the loft post... what the fark?!

We started to suspect something was wrong when the carpet started to stink after getting shamopooed. At first we thought maybe it was because of the wet carpet or that because we didn't get the carpet completely clean (the water coming up was still brownish) but since the shampooer (Rug-Doctor) was rented by the day, we had to return it. However, even after the carpet dried, the sharp smell of animal pee still lingered, and having owned pets before, we know what animal pee smells like.

Later, while researching online, we realized that this is a common situation -- new tenant moves in, shampoos the carpet and in doing so, removes the dust and febreeze and what-not that had been sitting on top of the stain(s) and suppressing the odors, re-wets the stains and brings the stains back up from the carpet padding back up to the carpet fibers. No wonder we did not smell it when we first took a look at this place. And no wonder there was a bottle of pet febreeze and a huge bottle of clorox under the sink.


We tried baking soda (it turned yellow; see above!) and zeolite powder -- did not work. But then, these are simply odor-lifters. We also tried hydrogen peroxide. We also sprayed on an enzyme-based solution meant especially for pet urine, which is supposed to work as a pre-treatment before shampooing again. Then last weekend, we rented the Rug-Doctor and spent the entire day shampooing the carpet, again. This time we also rented the wand (upholstery attachment) and we could see through the clear plastic that the water coming up was yellow (see the photo below)!


By the time we returned the Rug-Doctor, we were still not convinced that the carpet was fully clean but we were hopeful that the smell would improve. We were fully prepared to walk around the carpet in slippers if it meant that the smell is gone, because the carpet is so old that even the parts that do not stink of pee don't feel nice; the fibers feel matted and worn.

The smell was worse after that.

We were pretty pissed by then. Waking up everyday to a noxious smell and basically living in a litter box does amazing things to your mood. I've always thought that carpeting is a hugely bad idea in a house because it's effing difficult to keep clean. Yeah, warm and all but I'd rather wear slippers in winter. But maybe I was biased because I grew up in a tropical climate where a carpet = mold trap, and a cool (temperature-wise) floor is desirable. I remember lying on a cold marble floor as a kid during hot days. Still, there must be a good reason why carpets are so popular here, right? I just haven't found it yet.

Now I'm utterly convinced that carpets, especially wall-to-wall carpeting, is a terrible idea, even if you do not own pets. More so if you do have pets or children.

We did yet more research online, and came to the conclusion that many others did -- dog/cat pee is forever. Sure, some say you can remove it if it's a small spot and if you get to it fast enough (before it has soaked through the carpet fibers down to the padding, or even the floorboards). But with old stains like these, there's no other solution that to rip out the carpet, sand down the floorboards and seal the floorboards with polyurethane varnish.

And that's what we did.

It was surprisingly easy.

Underneath the carpet, it was truly disgusting. Yellow, brown and even black spots everywhere. The smells released were just nauseating -- flies were actually coming in through the window and buzzing around the stained areas.

The parts near the steps (both left and right) stank very badly, and here's why. Notice the yellow stains on the carpet padding.

This is one of the worse spots. A different kind of smell, not as pungent, but it attracted more flies than the yellow spots.

We showed the landlord some of the above photos and we called him over to smell it for himself. He agreed that the carpet should be changed and agreed to pay for a new floor. However, since it would take weeks for any contractor to be able to come down and install a new floor, Mike's gonna do it himself, tomorrow. The new laminate planks have already been delivered and are now sitting beside me, acclimatizing to the room's temperature and humidity. The landlord should be happy -- the labor costs saved constitutes more than half of the costs of ripping out the old and installing a new floor.

So, I was joking that Mike has leveled up his DIY skills. In our first apartment, we painted the walls ourselves and he installed all furniture and shelves. In our second apartment, Mike further learnt how to drill into reinforced concrete. He also installed all the kitchen cabinets and hob and hood by himself. Now he has learnt how to rip out carpeting, and tomorrow he will learn how to install laminate flooring. Next, he should learn how to install a toilet flush system because our current one is held together with dental floss (and that's another story).

The take-home lessons? Carpeting is a bad idea. Pet pee is forever.

This is what the place looks like right now; somewhat warehouse-shabby-chic. The shiny parts are where he painted the polyurethane varnish in an attempt to entomb the stench. Disgustingly enough, if you lean in close, you can still make out the smell despite 3 coats of varnish.

ReNe: rented or owned, it's still your home

Adding to Mike's comments about doing up our new place...

As rentals go, this is quite different from the rentals we've stayed in so far. Usually, tenants are discouraged from doing any sort of permanent work to the room, but looking at this place, it's obvious that more than one tenant had felt free to make changes. In addition to the previous colored walls and artwork painted directly onto the walls, there are a couple of CD holders drilled into the wall under the bed loft, and a folding table by the main door, which incidentally was installed badly. Right now, we're scratching our heads over what to do with it -- re-install or not? If not, what do we do about the holes? Patch up and paint over, or find some wall scroll to cover, and then shove a table or bookshelf against it?

I'm amazed at the artwork on the walls. I think the tall 'painting' on the stairs was done by a fairly recent tenant (I found leftover skirting board in the closet, which was obviously used to create the frame), and looking around the apartment, it just seems to exudes bohemian vibes. I don't think the last tenant was the one who painted the wall artworks because he's apparently in the computer industry, but the reason he left was to go on a long, long tour around the world. A good omen, I'd say.

And, there are the hooks. There are hooks everywhere, of all sorts. There are three generously sized hooks over the main door (we've no idea what for), singular little screws here and there (I suspect for hanging artwork, because they're at eye-level), and at least five hooks in the ceiling, and a couple more under the loft.

On one hand, we're really glad to be able to customize our living space. Having owned apartments in Singapore, we've gotten used to the luxury of being able to do anything we want without having to 'seek permission'. The past two rentals I've stayed in the past year felt extremely temporary, like hostel rooms and not like a home, so I'm really looking forward to moving to this new place.

On the other hand, we're also wary of spending too much, as this is just a rental after all. There are still many things we wish to change (leaky faucets, a fridge so old it's not frost-free), but these fall under the responsibility of the building owner.

However, there are renters who would spend a lot of their own money on permanent improvements to the rental -- I'm talking hundreds, even thousands, spent on built-in cabinetry, appliances, landscaping in the garden, and so on. Their reasoning is that if they're planning to spend years in that apartment, they wouldn't mind paying to improve their living space. Also, for some, whether it's a restriction due to limited finances or a conscious choice, they would be living in rentals all their lives. Does this mean they will never live in a beautiful home? Somebody said it aptly: rented or owned, it's still your home.

That's a really interesting way of looking at it. At the other end of the spectrum, there are renters who have literally spent years living out of suitcases and boxes, always moving, never settling.

Personally, I think that if the rent is cheap enough, you could justify channeling the 'savings' towards doing up your pad. I would spend a bit, but certainly not thousands. Plus, there are ways to make-do or decorate without spending a lot of money.

More later. We've been remiss in updating because we're fricking tired. And I still had to go to work after spending the weekend painting...

MiKE: new apartment.

So, as rene mentioned, we just signed the lease on our new apartment. It's actually an attic apartment, with probably 1.5 floor height ceiling, and 2 built in loft units, one for the bed, and on for storage. The kitchen and the bathroom is on a separate, raised level. The following pictures are the 'before' shots, before we did our painting and other minor works, like changing the orientation of the bathroom door knob so that it is not possible to lock oneself in (the previous setup had the locking button on the outside(!!)), re-installing a fold-away dining table-let, and generally tightening up loose screws and cleaning up the mess left behind by the previous tenant, who seemed to have been in a hurry, leaving for a long drawn out tour around the world of sorts. So, some of the arrangements will change after we've done our work; we'll post another one then.

Here is the view from the kitchen, which is what you encounter when you enter the apartment; looking to your left, the bed:

And to the right, the storage unit:The ladder you see is very heavy, and curiously misaligned, so that leaning the upper portion on the loft, the feet would not be the same distance away from the loft edge. And yeah. We are keeping that futon, which also doubles as a mattress, so up to 2 people can sleep in relative discomfort (heh heh). Well, don't take this as an invitation, unless you're willing to pay for the privilege.

Perhaps the most impressive part of the apartment is the skylight. We've never had one of these before, always having lived in some apartment with a concrete ceiling, and in tropical singapore, one would hardly want to have the sun come in to the building, unless one had a dichroic material, which would make it prohibitively expensive, but I digress...:

Here is a shot of the kitchen area from the middle of the living area. Isn't the skylight absolutely gorgeous? Right now, at the beginning of summer, the sun is already very bright; I went there this morning to experience a virtual greenhouse (not to mention that the thermostat had been left at 30C accidentally). I think the skylight would be very welcome in winter, letting in precious sun and heat, although I wonder what is going to happen if there is going to be severe snowfall. The skylight is actually somewhat dome shaped, but still I wonder how much snow will collect. One possible downside of this is the likely increased energy loss from the skylight, and we are paying for heat. I hope it is not too bad.

The room has been through several coats of paint. It was almost like doing an archaeological examination, seeing in some corners the older paint layers. We have seen at least white, covered by maroon, covered by blue, covered by the white wash we applied, and then the final colour we chose (which we'll reveal in a later post). On this wall you see a painting framed by skirting panels, a replica of something by Gustav Klimt according to the signature at the bottom of the frame. Near the bottom of the picture you'd see the white that we are applying over the blue:

And in the kitchen, the previous occupant, or the one previous to him, painted a mural which I suppose echoes some famous artwork, and included a checkerboard pattern in black, which took us sooo many layers to completely cover. A few significant things about this new kitchen include the mercifully white worktop; compared to the fugly speckled pattern on our current place, in which anything smaller than 5mm diameter would immediately get lost, this worktop is elegant and easy to keep clean. The counter space is also that much bigger than our current one. Certainly not as big as the kitchens that we have owned, but given how we have learnt to manage with a 1m expanse, this felt good. The counter height is also significantly reduced, so serene now should have less difficulty preparing the odd meal or snack or batch of cookies.

Another shot of the kitchen area, this time to show how dark the previous colour scheme was. It was almost as if the previous users wanted to feel like they were living in a cave; you can see how overexposed the skylight is, and yet I still remain in the shadows:

Overall, after spending about 3-4 days there (painting and cleaning up, not sleeping there yet as the mattress has been ordered, let alone arrived), we noticed a few things - being on Harbord street, and not Spadina Avenue, means that we do not hear much traffic. To top it off, we were on the north facing side of the house, which overlooks the inside, quieter part, so we do not hear traffic at all, besides the odd siren of emergency response vehicles, which one must be in a really desolate place not to hear at all. We are located atop a medical (psychiatric?) practice, and they turn on their heat during office hours. Their hot air heats our floor, made of rather thin (compared to concrete) wood, which heats our apartment; so, the apartment is rather warm even without needing to turn on our heat. That's good. At this point, I suppose many things have yet to be settled, there is some leaky plumbing, and we have not even begun to move; so the best thing to say is, stay tuned...

ReNe: apartment found

We're very excited -- we're moving to a new apartment soon, within a couple of weeks.

Last I mentioned in a previous post, we had been eyeing a 14th floor unit in the apartment beside our current room, but we thought to look at one last place the next day before deciding. Well, we were utterly sold on that rental the following day. It was listed as a one-bedroom but priced as a bachelor, for its location, so we were expecting something really run-down.

We were pleasantly surprised and decided on the spot to take it.

Unlike the apartments we've been staying in, which were rooms in a big building, with shared laundry facilities and garages, this rental apartment is part of a three-storey house. There is a cafe on the ground floor, and the second floor is given over to a couple of doctors' offices, while two residential units split the third floor cum attic. Mike jokes that we got the penthouse unit. So while the actual floor space is slightly larger than a usual bachelor, perhaps closer to a junior one-bedroom, there's actually a lot more space because two lofts are built into the one and half storey height. One of the lofts is meant for sleeping, the other for storage. The other thing that we loved was the skylight in the kitchen. Plus, its location. It's just down the street from our current room, which makes moving easy (we hope), and yet although the house faces a relatively busy street, our room is very quiet and private because it faces the rear.

Overall, while the facilities (closets, sinks and such) were ordinary and old, the apartment is beautiful. Lots of character. Hope that makes up for some utility inconvenience -- as there are only two residential units in that house, that means going to the laundromat and leaving our garbage out on the street ourselves.

We signed the lease today and are looking eagerly to moving in. Pictures to follow when we do.

ReNe: apartment search

For the past few months, we knew that we would be moving out of our current room once the lease is up, and we were quite eagerly anticipating it. There's (always) something just not quite perfect with the current room and so, the promise of a better apartment beckons.

The reality, however, is not so rosy.

Our lease runs out end May and we've been looking at a few places. I guess, irritatingly, we cannot find all that we wanted. Again that cliché holds true: cheap, good (furnishings) and convenient (location) -- choose any two.

What follows is a rambling monologue of our search attempts.

1/ We first tried a house near downtown Toronto. It was central and priced reasonably, but it was creakingly old. Nah.

2/ Next, we checked out a couple of properties along Spadina Road, a few blocks north of where we're staying. The rentals there are a bit cheaper, and the area looks quiet. However, we looked at two buildings (70 and 66 Spadina) and they were cheap, just not in the monetary sense. The buildings were quite run-down, though we thought we could live with that. However, what decided it for us was the online reviews, which unanimously said those places sucked.

3/ Then we tried the building immediately to our south (666 Spadina). It was perfect, it had everything we wanted and a bit more... except for the price. That was also a bit more than what we felt comfortable paying.

4/ Last week, a seemingly golden opportunity came up. One of our biggest grouses with our north-facing unit is that it faces a tall office block; we felt like we were in a fish-tank. That particular building is made up of four office floors, which are right in our face, and a narrower residential block. Then our property manager told us that a south-facing unit on the 5th floor in our building was available. It was slightly more expensive but still reasonable, overlooks the low building south of this apartment and it had been fully renovated. In fact, it looked really good. It was perfect and very convenient for us, and we told the manager that we would like it, only without the furnishings (which cost $400 more each month!)... then the building owner changed her mind, saying that she wanted to keep that unit furnished. It was a perfectly reasonable business decision on her part, but we were quite pissed nonetheless.

5/ The next day, our property manager told us of another unit in our current building that should be available come July, a north-facing 7th floor unit. We went up, took a look and were not so impressed this time round. That unit still faced the tall building, though now it only faces the residential block, which is further away. Somewhat acceptable. However, while the toilet is renovated (ours isn't), the kitchen sucks (ours is renovated). Overall, not a big improvement over our current unit. We filed it away as a last resort.

By this time, we were getting a little stressed and frustrated. Trouble is, our current location (a part of town called the Annex) is hugely popular and quite expensive. It's fairly close to downtown, Chinatown and Koreatown. Bloor Street is akin to Holland Village in Singapore, only longer and with more shops; it's extremely bustling and I love shopping there.

The end of month looms and our search intensity went up a notch. We thought we shouldn't discount places that are a little further away; for example, east of Yonge, there are some cheap places that are about equidistant to downtown. We walked down last weekend, and while the place is all right, fairly quiet, there aren't as many amenities (grocers, etc.). We tried to muster enthusiasm but the thought of traveling halfway across town to use the gym (our gym is just one block down from our current apartment) or having to move our stuff just depressed us. Online reviews were generally bad, and most people tell us that those areas are rather unsavory.

We were seriously considering just moving to that 7th floor unit.

Today, I called another property I saw on Craigslist -- a house; location looks good and rent is cheap, so we'd go down tomorrow to view. Mike called the office-cum-residential block that faces us (720 Spadina), and amazingly, they had a unit available. We just went to take a look and Mike loved it. Me, the only problem I have with it is the carpeting because I would much rather have a hardwood floor. We're also apprehensive about the negative online reviews, which include a roach problem. Well, we'll take a look at that house tomorrow and then decide between the two. The end of the month is coming up and we will have to inform the property manager soon of our intention to move.

By this time tomorrow, we should have decided either way.

And then we only have to move.

MiKE: Spending Money

So, Serene moved here. She's got a job offer and will have the details worked out soon. Which meant that she and all her stuff needed to be accommodated here. Which meant we needed more horizontal surfaces upon which to put stuff on. Which meant that we needed to get to a cheap-ish furniture shop to get stuff. Which meant Ikea, especially since I had in mind the Ivar shelving unit, being pretty wide, tall, sturdy, deep enough to be useful, but not so deep that it gets in the way. But more of that later.

Her flight was actually cancelled the day it was supposed to fly due to the heavy snowstorm here. She arrived the next day, on a Monday, when snow was still piled really high at the traffic junctions, so there was an interesting obstacle course of sorts to clear. Other pedestrians before us had somewhat cleared a small footpath by stomping down the snow, but that was not wide enough for the suitcase, so we had to carry the bags up and above the snow. Fortunately, it was only across one or two crossings that we had to do this. Even after only a day, the snow was getting quite filthy at some areas, especially those that were highly trafficked. Which made me wonder - where does all this dirt go to normally?

You can see the high contrast between the snow that was just ploughed off the street overnight, and the stuff that the vehicles drive over. Not pretty:

A shot of Serene, 'for scale'... :

Seems like this guy is not about to get his bike out from the snow anytime soon...

I found the little mounds of snow on the steps of the sculpture pretty interesting:

This were the kinds of pavements we had to walk on to get around. This day, we were on our way to the Whole Foods Market, to get coffee (they roast their coffees there daily!) and some other stuff.

Serene came with one large suitcase, one large duffel bag, one laptop bag, and one small duffel bag. At St. Louis, she had a friend help her bring the stuff to the airport; she could not have coped without the help; and then, all that stuff was to be incorporated into the bachelor apartment that I was renting. Amazingly, among the stuff she managed to bring across were a 'memory foam' pillow, and a body pillow; the body pillow as large as two ordinary pillows end-to-end. These were compressed with the aid of gigantic ziploc bags and a vacuum cleaner. Most impressive and voluminous was the comforter that she somehow also managed to squeeze into the suitcase. We spent much of the first day and a half unpacking and arranging stuff in the apartment, straining the limits of whatever storage space that was available in the apartment, watching and hoping that the weak looking shelf in the wardrobe could hold the suitcases that we filled loosely with stuff like the backpacks and some other summer clothing that we would not be using for a while. After managing to squeeze all that stuff into the place, the image that became stuck in my head was that of a anaconda, swallowing a baby hippo whole, and then slowly digesting the hippo till it was no more. We both felt somewhat nostalgic/romantic; the situation reminded us of hostel living again, everything in one room, prompting us to nickname the place hostel room on steroids.

So, on the third day after she came, after a failed second attempt to open a bank account for her (first, we wanted a joint account, and initially wanted to modify mine, but the avenue road branch said we could only do it at the spadina avenue branch where I opened my account; second time, I forgot to bring two acceptable forms of ID), we decided to go to Ikea, which involved taking a long ride to the outskirts of downtown Toronto (Kipling station from Spadina, which is like Jurong West from City Hall), and then taking a free shuttle service to Ikea. When we got there, it was dark (the sun had set at 5), so we were looking around, trying to find the location of the free shuttle pickup location. Kipling station is designed as a bus/train interchange, with the subway tracks at the basement level, and the buses on the ground level. We were thinking at first that the Ikea bus could be at the same bus bays as the other buses, and then realized that it was unlikely, as the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) would probably not share facilities like this, and we could not find any bus bay labelled for the Ikea bus. We tried our luck with the staff at the variety store (which sold sweets, drinks, snacks, magazines, and was stereotypically, run by an Indian family), and got a curt response to 'go down two floors', thought they were joking, as we could not imagine a level below the subway level for buses, but went there anyway, found an exit to a carpark, no sign of a waiting area, went back to the station master, and got a more courteous response to wait at the carpark for the bus.

And we did. In 0ºC weather. With occasional breezes that really got us freezing, and making up our minds to buy more competent gear. There was still no signpost of any sort to indicate that we were at the right place, just 5 or 6 other people waiting at the same place. In my mind I pictured a bright cheery yellow and contrasting blue bus, but when it came, it was a nondescript shuttle that did not even bother to put up a sign to say "Ikea" or something. We boarded, asked the driver if he was indeed driving us to Ikea, got an affirmative, then sat down to defrost.

Ikea Etobicoke, the closest Ikea to downtown Toronto, was surprisingly similar to the one at Alexandra Road, Singapore. Huge blue building, with attached warehouse, two floors, and parking in the basement, the restaurant on the left of the entrance which is, as in Singapore, on the second floor, right next to the kids room department, and the staircase downstairs to the kitchen department. I don't know how much of it is coincidence, but it sure seemed like this was the default template for Ikeas around the world. And on the menu? Meatballs, Salmon, Gravad Lax, and some local food (which in Toronto means stuff like quiche). The food trays were even similar, if not identical, and also the food ordering and payment queue layout. Perhaps the only major difference was that of space. Looking out of Ikea Alexandra's restaurant, one sees Anchorpoint a short distance away. At Etobicoke, one sees the huge parking lot, and beyond it, a very major highway. At the ground floor, where in sg you'd have a small warehouse section where you pick your own boxed furniture, here the warehouse sprawled out at least 3-5 times in floorspace, and had a ceiling about 4 stories tall, and shelving racks meant for forklifts.

We got our stuff, paid up, then lugged the Ivar shelf frame and 5 shelves up the shuttle bus, and through the TTC subway all the way back to our apartment. Setting it up, I had it all almost complete when I realizd that the cross brace was the wrong size; we had to go back and get it changed. The next day, we went there again, and this time, we remembered to bring a camera. Pictures:

A shot of Ikea from within the bus. The front façade looks remarkably clean of snow.

... because it had been shoveled and piled onto a huge mound at the back of the building:

Us having lunch, at the restaurant which cannot help but invoke deja vu:

The landscape outside the station is quite ugly, with electricity pylons and overhead cables everywhere. Still, the colors of the setting sun do manage to rescue the scenery somewhat:

Phew. Long post. This is a result of procrastinating, I guess.

MiKE: So distracting...

So, I'm sitting here, trying to finish my last paper so that I can finally take a break. And I've spent so much time looking out the window; perhaps because it is bright outside, with daylight, even through the thick clouds. But mostly because there is a huge snowstorm going on outside. And it is really interesting to watch. Yes, part of the attraction is due to my having not seen a snowstorm before, but I think the other is that the snowfall is so interesting. It'd be wispy powder one moment, falling gently as if someone were dusting icing sugar from the roof, then I'd hear the whistle of the wind in the tiny gap I left in the window to cool the room down somewhat, and then I'd look out and see the wind whip the snow till the trails fall almost horizontally. Then, the flakes falling would suddenly change size to huge almost pellet-sized chunks, and fall at the speed where one would expect rain to fall. There would be gusts, and amid the large flakes that fall, one would see the snow dust being swept up in vortices accompanying the large flakes, appearing as if there were multiple turbulent air streams outside my window. Suddenly, the wind will stop, and the flakes would all hang in midair, wondering what to do before remembering, cartoon character style, that it was supposed to fall down. All in all, mesmerizing.

And not to mention almost human drama of seeing cars stuck by the side of the road. There was this one car, that parked for a while by the kerb. When he wanted to set off, all he could do was to make his front wheel spin aimlessly in the snow-ice. He kept trying and trying, coming out, desperately pushing the snow away from under the front tyre with his shoes, and some small implement which was evidently unsuitable for the job, until someone offered to lend him a snow shovel, and I watched him clear the snow from in front of the car, pausing once in a while to stuff his frozen fingers into his jacket pockets, then continuing to shovel furiously, pausing to go back into the car to try again, failing to gain traction, shoveling again, and then finally managing to move his car out.

The snowstorm is really heavy, starting yesterday around noon, it was on and off, and got really heavy this morning. Apparently, even Environment Canada has issued warnings, predicting up to 40cm snowfalls over the weekend, windspeed during gusts at up to 90 km/h, and suggestions that it could be the worst storm in this region for 60 years. No kidding; I woke up this morning to see snow lodged between the inner and outer sliding windows, and they had been closed overnight(!):


Looking out, during the heavier snowfall period, it's clear visibility has been seriously obscured:


If i manage to shoot a picture of severe whiteout conditions, I'll post it up here.

The Environment Canada Warning:

Warnings

City of Toronto
11:15 AM EST Sunday 16 December 2007
Winter storm warning for
City of Toronto continued

A major winter storm with heavy snow and blowing snow occurring over all of southern and eastern Ontario.

This is a warning that dangerous winter weather conditions are imminent or occurring in these regions. Monitor weather conditions..Listen for updated statements.



At mid morning a massive winter storm was giving snow and blowing snow to all of southern and eastern Ontario. Some places such as Toronto were also reporting thunder and lightning.

The low responsible for the storm now lies over Lake Erie. It will track slowly eastward across New York state today then accelerate off the northeast tonight.

The snow associated with the storm is forecast to end over the Windsor area this evening, most of southern Ontario during the night, and early Monday morning over extreme eastern Ontario.

Further amounts of 10 to 15 centimetres are expected over most of southern Ontario but with higher amounts likely over portions of Niagara where winds off Lake Ontario will enhance the snowfall.

Over eastern Ontario further amounts of 20 to 30 centimetres are expected.

In the wake of the main storm northwesterly squalls will develop off Lake Huron this evening then continue into Monday morning before weakening. This will delay the end of the stormy conditions over areas to the southeast of Lake Huron until Monday.

MiKE: White Night

This is what happens when it snows at night, there are few vehicles and therefore the snow plough does not need to clear the snow off the road. The road, that is normally black, is now white. Sure, there is dirt, it's a bit brown/black at parts, but it is very interesting to see the normally dark night lit up by the street lamps, and to top it off, have the roads reflect the light so the entire place looks so much brighter and somewhat more cheerful. I know, it is really hard to think that way, because of the cold weather. But right here, in my warm heated apartment, it does feel very comfortable, and the scenery, beautiful:

MiKE: sorry for previous false alarms...

...regarding the weather that is.

Seems like the previous pronouncements of coldness were, as the title says, false alarms. Short term cold snaps, that were most likely induced by temporary fluctuations like Hurricane Humberto (i think), and short term weather changes.

This one is for real now - the sun has begun to set progressively earlier, from about 7:45 - 8:00 when I arrived in late august, to about 6:45 - 7:15 this week. And the clouds have become the main feature of the sky, looking generally grey, and making the sun seem to have set earlier than it really has. Trees have also started to turn yellow and red, and there are lots of leaves of the ground.

And the forecast has been, consistently for about a week now. a maximum temperature of not more than 20C, and a minimum temperature of around 10C. People have started to wear at least 2 layers, it is not unusual to see people wearing scarves, there are fewer cyclists outside, and those that do, do wear long tights, the heating has been turned on in OISE, and even in my room (they turned on the radiator in the kitchenette, but NOT the main living room?!), and i hear fewer sounds of thundering Ducatis and Harleys outside my window.

The ABC news webcast did say however, that this year's cold season is long in coming; they even featured a particular beach, where, in September, most would be in triple layer. This month, they could still spot people out in bikinis. And what about the Boston Marathon that had to be canceled half way because of the heat and the organizers' inability to provide sufficient water for the runners? Serene says that she read somewhere a forecast that this winter is likely to be much colder than other years though. Wonder how that will play out.

Myself, I still find the indoor temperature rather comfortable. Either my thermometer is stuck, or somehow, the apartment manages to maintain a steady 20-23C despite the outdoor temperature being close to 15C or less. Once in a while though, I really like to open the windows full wide, to take in the considerably fresher, crisper outside air, and get used to the cold. When that happens, my thermometer drops to about 15C, and I can take it for about 20 minutes before I need to close the window.

Wanna know something possibly disgusting? I have not cleared my trash in about 2-3 days. No, it is not so bad! You see, what happens is that there is no trash chute in the building, not even a floor level communal one. To throw trash, one has to bag it, and bring it outside the building, braving the cold. Try to imagine doing that when you are indoors, warm, and comfortable, in your shorts and t-shirt. I mean, I have done it before, it is not that bad - It's not as if there is any risk of hypothermia, but the thought of putting on clothes just to throw trash is quite off-putting. So, I have been timing my trash disposal with my trips out of the apartment, and in the first place, my trash generation is not that rapid - Even if I cook for every meal (and I do, btw), I hardly generate more than 1 plastic bag per 1-2 days. And I meticulously tie up my bags, so they do not stink. At all. Really. What I'd be interested though, is how I am going to clear trash in -10C winters...

Ah well. At least one thing can be said though - summer is offically over.

MiKE: I eat vegetables...

Bought kale recently. I don't like it. Bitter tasting. Dont know what to cook it with. Ended up slicing it finely like this, and stir frying it with oyster sauce, tomato, and a bit of shrimp:


I guess the portion size was also a bit much.

MiKE: (self imposed) house arrest

For the last few days, since Tuesday afternoon, I have been staying at home. I did not leave the place. Not even to throw my trash at the outdoor dumpster (no rubbish chute). Amazing, but true.

Till this morning, when I had to go meet someone at OISE.

The thinking was such: I was feeling poor, my stipend payment had not arrived yet, and going out meant, in one way or another, spending money. I had all the groceries I needed to eat in (and I did so), and I did not need to go watch a movie/buy clothes/buy CDs/shop/whatever. And I think I get spoilt by the knowledge that there are three 24 hour grocers within 5 minutes walk from where I am, so I don't have to rush to make sure I have my food items before the sun sets and the shops close.

So I stayed at home, cooked my own food, and entertained myself watching videos on the computer. And I did not notice that the garbage, even meticulously tied up in the corner of the room, was starting to emit malodorous fumes. Until, of course, I left the room, and came back.

It seems like this will be a new habit of mine - to stay indoors for days at a stretch, unless, of course, I need to go to OISE for my GA duties which have not been assigned yet. Not the best thing. Because one only gets that much exercise sitting and photosynthesizing before a LCD panel. Because one only gets that much sunlight in a day.

Right now, I feel a bit more relieved, since the funding payment has been made, and I am feeling like I should be going out to get stuff - like replenish the diminishing stock of rice. But I am feeling lazy, and also, I am feeling like I should save as much money as possible, and spend only when I absolutely have to; and there's still the brown rice, dried udon, dried soba, and spaghetti.

So I think I'll stay indoors for more...

MiKE: mosquito graveyard, and strange burbling

I cannot be sure what caused it, but given its correlation with that single incidence of heavy rain about a week or so ago, I am pretty sure the mosquitoes did their breeding in, you know, what the propaganda in singapore had been advising - those upturned containers and stuck drains where stagnant water can pool. Oh and by the way, when I say heavy, I mean, yes, by singaporean standards, cos that's the only one I know. I also know that most of the time, rain here is mild in comparison, and unusually short lived, even though I live within a mortar bomb of the lake.

And the other thing I did when I cleaned my windows was to not replace the fly screen. Big mistake, though I still do not feel like replacing them, cos I think that to do so cuts down the amount of light, and makes the windows look like a prison cell of sorts.

So. The mosquitoes have been invading, in the night. But the strange thing is that these mozzies do not bite. Either I am not labelling them correctly, or I have been consistently getting a huge swarm of male mosquitoes, or mosquitoes in Canada do not leave itchy bites. They seem to be attracted to the 100W equivalent CFL bulb that I have beside my desk; and like moths to the flame, somehow either get blinded, burnt on contact, or both, and they land on my desk, in a somewhat neat pile. Like this:


Well, I did some organising to make sure they "line up correctly" for camera, but it's not as if I went out and trapped mosquitoes for this photo shoot. How do I know they do not suck blood? Besides me having no itches, I accidentally crushed a couple of these bugs, and there was no blood (hurray!?). Gross eh?

And then this morning, I heard a gurgling, burbling noise. Sounded like pipes were being filled with water, against their wishes, and there was some bit of choking, air being displaced, that sort of thing. The last time I heard it, I was in serene's apartment, and the waste pipes had choked, the kitchen sink backflowed and started to flood with generally icky stuff. So, I had reason to be worried - Could it be that the pipes here were also getting clogged? I started to get worried, especially because yesterday there was a scheduled water supply interruption.

Turned off Aunty Beeb (BBC world service) streaming off my computer, then listened carefully to find out the sound coming from this:

(the slipper is there for scale purposes!)

And then I started to get relieved. And then worried again. And then relieved. And then blasé. Let me explain: Initial relief was that I found out the source of the noise. Then worried that, since this meant that they were filling the radiators (with water) that meant that they (the landlord/property managers) were expecting the cold season to be coming soon. Then relieved that - hey at least at this place, I'd be warm.

Then I decided to be blasé about the whole thing - it's not as if any amount of worry on my part can change the weather. The last few days have been simply brilliant: bright cloudless skies, 27C noontimes, 50-55% humidity, coming together to give luscious azure blue skies and deep golden sunsets when viewed from OISE building which is one of the taller buildings in the neighbourhood.

If it's going to be cold, so be it.

ReNe: b***** shoe cubby

So I saw the above at Goodwill and thought it was a good idea. Currently, my shoes are all laid out in my closet, on some plastic bags so as not to dirty the carpet below. And at $9, it wasn't too expensive. I don't know what it originally retailed for, but it definitely should have been a lot more than $9.


After an hour, that's ONE hour, I got something like this. Hands were aching... I know all that advice about not using your hands as tools, but what tool could you possibly use to shove pieces of plastic together?? But never mind, that's done...

...and then I realized I should have worked on the planning a bit more, because unlike most other women, I don't have small pumps, I prefer boots... And I have size 9/10 feet... So a bit of knocking about and breaking apart of the structure to re-arrange bonds and another hour later, I got the above end result. And my shoes didn't all fit into the cubby nicely; one cubby is too small for both shoes.

But at least my shoes are organized now.

MiKE: my room at night

This is a shot of my room at night, with all the lights off. The light you see is coming from a sodium vapour lamp from the access road downstairs to the parking garage for the next block (the light gives a characteristic orange glow, which has been converted by the white balance algorithm in the camera to look less orange). Anyway, the interesting looking thing near the bottom of the picture is the LED internal illumination of my humidifier, quietly giving me 80% humidity in the air, while giving me a strange blue glow. I'm not too disturbed by it, since the orange of the lamp dominates the lighting into the room. And beside it, the little green lights are those of my internet modem/router/wireless base station.

MiKE: view from my window (more)

So, as I wrote in the previous post, the view directly out of my window is not very attractive; it sorta reminds me of the side of people's park complex or something in Chinatown singapore, which is not well maintained. Anyway, here is a couple of shots:

Me, reading and then getting distracted, taking a shot of my feet propped up on the generous window bay area.

If you see carefully, you can observe in the lower right corner, the building that was featured in the previous post. Now you understand what I mean when I said that the building was off to one side of the view.

And of yeah, the windows are quite dirty. The upper pane is not open-able, and the lower ones I did my best to clean, even removing the sliding panes and bringing them to the bathroom to wash with Krud Kutter®. But a recent shower managed to wash a lot of dirt onto them, negating a lot of my effort.

Totally unrelated to these images, here is a shot of what I had for lunch today: Stir fried Kale with green bell peppers and pork with oyster sauce, Tamago - Japanese styled omelette, brown rice, on a seaweed mat. Nice?

MiKE: view from my window

Well, this is the view from my window. Not directly out my window; I face another building (looks like the office floors of a taller block) which is not particularly pretty, but as my windows face north I am glad for the building's existence as it reflects a lot of light into my room, even though the walls are somewhat grey and not the most well maintained.

A few things about this picture though: firstly, the buildings are University of Toronto property, as you can see (or not, sorry, saving space) from the blue sign in front of the building. I dunno what department uses these buildings.

secondly, this picture was taken some days ago, but right now as I am writing, the view looks exactly like this, or brighter. And the time now is 5:11, and it will not get dark for another 2 or so hours. And this is somewhat related to the previous post: You'd think that with this degree of solar illumination, that the place would be somewhat warm, or, at least, not cold. A couple of hours ago, I went next door to post off a mail. Well, cold is relative I guess, but the temperature now is in the low 20s. Which is quite comfortable. But when the sun goes AWOL behind the clouds, for example, this temperature quickly drops 5-10C. I'd never thought that I'd miss the sun so much.

Thirdly, this has been the view for me for the last few days - I've been lazy, and not wanting to go out to eat because it's expensive (more so than if I cooked for myself) and it is a trouble having to put on clothes to go out. No, not as if I spend my days naked in the room, but the downer of having to go out is also having lots of clothes to wash. And did I mention that I was lazy? Yeah, so if I did not really have to, I've been staying at home. Which is a better place, I think, than some other rooms I've seen, like Graduate House, or a friend's rental room, which are just rooms, with a small porthole of a window.

Now I think I am getting how people can get SAD, and I am not talking about being unhappy, but what is known as Seasonal Affective Disorder.

MiKE: Moving in.

Near the end of the trip to Niagara on Saturday the 25th, I got a call from the property managers, telling me that the out-going tenant (err, I meant she was moving out, not that she was gregarious or something) had been waiting for me at the place so as to show me her stuff and to discuss sales price of the items she had. As I was at least an hour's drive away, there was no way I could make it back that day; so, the arrangement was made for me to meet her at the apartment on Sunday, which was supposed to be the day I moved in.

Sunday, I woke up, expectant but relaxed as I was supposed to meet her only at 12, but the check out time at Canadiana was supposed to be no later than 10:30. I packed, had a leisurely breakfast of coffee and fried flour that tried to pass off as pancakes, drowned in a sugary concoction trying to pass off as maple syrup, then read Michael Apple while keeping an eye out for my luggage as practically 90% of the hostel population emptied out of the place, out on their day trips, walks around town, leaving the city for Montréal and some out of the country even. I guess, with hostels in general, and places where one does not get too mch privacy, not many would linger and spend lazy days indoors.

At 11:20 or so I called for a taxi, worried that it would cost a lot, especially since I called for a taxi. Turns out that there was no charge for calling a cab, and the flag down fare was only $3, which seemed quite fair. The trip to 710 Spadina Avenue from 42 Widmer Street was quite close - I could have walked it; it might have taken 20 minutes or so, but then, with over 80 pounds (37kg) of luggage, I was not about to risk damaging the luggage wheels and my back by trying something that foolish. What I was not prepared for, however, was that Toronto is a very nicely gridded up city, which means that every city block there will be a traffic light. That is usually red. And that the meter jumps every 170m; very much like Singapore, yes, but the increments are by quarter dollars. And one is expected to tip the driver.

So, 2.48 km and $10 later, I arrived nicely punctual at the entrance to 710 Spadina, and waited for the tenant to show up. My lease was to only begin on September 1, but she was willing to leave the place earlier so that I could move in. Went to the apartment, and she was quite eager actually to leave lots of things behind - like the queen sized mattress, the Ikea workstation, a dresser, a large shelf, a small shelf, some crockery, a drying rack, a standing lamp, and, in the freezer, 7 tubs of ice cream, which she had sampled, to put it nicely.

Apparently, she was from the PRC, and had spent the last 6 years here in Toronto, studying at the U of T, up to her Masters in Finance, and had recently started work, where she met her current boyfriend and is now moving in with him to a condominium downtown. In my mind, it seemed as if she was not in a melancholic mood about moving out of the place - thinking about it, it was hard to be sad in her situation - she's starting her career, among all industries, in finance, she's moving in with her boyfriend, and leaving behind this place which must have been quite uncomfortable compared to the new place, and definitely did not mind dumping some of the stuff. She said, at least twice, that she understood that since I was just moving into the country, that I needed extra help, so she was happy to help. Somewhat sheepishly, I thanked her, at least twice.

After lunch, I went over to Honest Ed's, wanting to get a start on setting up the apartment. Honest Ed's has a interesting history, of Edward Mirvish, who started off as poor immigrant, started a discount store, made it big, but still remained honest, selling stuff at low low prices, and giving stuff away (like one famous time when he gave away turkeys during christmas). Apparently, he had been recently honoured by the province of Ontario, and a plaque had even been laid on the sidewalk outside the store. My impressions of the place was that it looked pretty much like a thrift store in STL, the warehouse look with high ceilings and fluorescent lighting, except everything was much neater and well stocked (of course). Price wise, I felt that it approximated Mustafa's in Singapore, and interestingly enough it also resembled Mustafa's because of its sprawl across 2 buildings, connected by 2nd floor walkway, and a basement warren of store space.

Came back tired and poorer, took a bath and napped to regain my energy, and then made it to Honest Ed's again this time only to find that they were closed at 6pm...

Went back, felt strangely alone after the last week of having the 3 boys for company. Felt good, in a way, as I had my privacy back again, but on the other hand, the room was strangely quiet. Well, whatever the case was, I was too tired to think too much then, and quickly fell asleep.

Oh yes, pictures:


Google Earth screencapture. For those who are interested, I am now staying at postal code M5S 2J2 or M5S 2J3, and 42 Widmer Stret is M5V 2E9.

The washroom. I think she must have liked the green/blue scheme. The rugs have been thrown away since.

We packed our stuff into vacuum bags which we applied vacuum cleaner suction to. Good that it allowed us to bring lots of stuff, but bad cos it was too easy to overload the luggage. This is the only pack that made it all the way from Singapore, to St Louis, to Toronto. Inside there are two pairs of jeans, and about 3 shirts. I have yet to open the packaging - I'm curious how long the vacuum would last.

A collection of all the stuff that made it to the room. Actually quite amazing how little stuff I had, but how much weight it all added up to. I managed to bring 10 books across! Yayy me.

My attempt at a meal on the second day I was there. Yes, that is a bottle of Lee Kum Kee Oyster flavoured sauce near the bottom left corner of the picture. I bought it at Dominion, the local Cold Storage equivalent, but only for grocery items. Alcohol though, is only sold at very few places, like the Beer Store, which is right next door to my block.

ReNe: apartment starts to shape up

After a few days, the apartment is starting to look more livable.

The bar counter, which I like very much. Though it also means that cooking disasters end up smoking the entire apartment. This picture was taken before we bought a desk, so Mike's doing the internet cafe thing. Not as comfortable as it looks. The overhead cabinets look cool, but to be honest, I can barely reach the bottommost shelf, much less the higher ones, so it's quite wasted.

I must say something about the barstools -- after scouring the thrift shops and malls, we eventually bought these from Bed Bath & Beyond ($20 each) and carried them ALL the way back from BB&B across 2 mall lots (and the warehouse malls here, or whatever they are called, are huge), to the metro, and then from the metro station again to the apartment. It was at least a 30 mins walk.

The kitchen area. The fridge and stove are bigger than the appliances we had back in Singapore. The microwave and rice cooker, I got from a graduating student, a Taiwanese. The oven and dishwashers were new toys for me. =) I mean, I have used an oven before, but that was over a decade ago when I was still living with my parents, so I've not baked anything since. But this is the first time we've both seen a dishwasher. We learned something too -- don't use regular (hand) detergent in the dishwasher. It foams up really, really badly. Like overflowingly badly. On the upside, the kitchen floor is cleaner now. We had to go out to buy detergent for the dishwasher, which looks like a viscous thick gel, and come with all sorts of additives that are not so good for the hands, like bleach.

The rice cooker, by the way, deserves a little description. It was carried all the way from Taiwan, and is a famous brand 'Tatung'. Mention that to any Taiwanese and they would (probably) nod knowingly. That Taiwanese student, and I, both assumed that I would know how to use it, but when Mike and I got back, we stared for a while at the rice cooker. It had a pot for the rice, a lidded and flattish pot that can sit on top of the rice pot, and a flat steamer, but it also had obvious water stains in the heating compartment. We presumed that for the rice cooker to be used as a steamer, water is poured directly into the heating compartment, but is that correct?

Luckily, when we went out later that night with some Taiwanese students, we asked them. (Turned out if we used it the way we normally do in Singapore, we would probably crack the rice pot! Another student had made that mistake!)

Note for the Taiwanese -- we in Singapore (Japan also, I think) do not pour water outside the pot, only inside.

And note for the Singaporean -- in addition to the water in the rice pot, water is ALSO added outside the rice pot, in the cooker. So the rice is 'double-boiled'. Yeah, the rice cooker can also do doubled boiled soups. And the amount of water in the rice pot has to be reduced slightly because additional steam now comes from the water outside the rice pot.

Because of this difference in cooking methods, Taiwanese rice is a little sticker than what we normally get in Singapore. Takes a while to get used to...


We finally bought the lights a couple of days back. Found both the desk lamp and floor lamp at the thrift shops, for less than $30. It was a really good deal because both were pristine, not even used. Interestingly, in the foreground, with the exception of the french press, 2 black bowls and the plastic tumbler, everything else, I found in the thrift shops. Even the Brita water filter ($12), which was almost completely new.

The chair Mike is sitting on -- he loved it when we saw it at Goodwill and carried it all the way back. It is not light of weight.

Didn't bother to buy a bed, only the mattress. This is a 'full' sized mattress, the equivalent of a 'super-single' in Singapore, but a little wider. Many things here in the US are bigger -- even the bolster (known as a body pillow here) is much bigger.


Some organization to the primping area, finally. I got the wooden thingy for $4 at Goodwill. The shaver ($4), new, was also from Goodwill.

So sad. I lost an earring down that sink when I was washing my earrings... a diamond stud that was my first earring, and the only non-cheap earring I have (everything else is under $3).

S&M: settling into st louis

Been busy the last few days settling into my new apartment. Spent Thursday and Friday shuttling back and forth numerous places; from the temporary dorms at Danforth campus to Central West End (CWE), where my apartment is (I'd be studying at the medical campus, which is over at CWE); from the thrift shops along Forest Parkway and back; from the malls at Brentwood area and back...

And all done at over 100F or 40C temperatures. I may have mentioned it in passing before, but I'd say it again -- it's freakishly hot here. And it was no joke walking back and forth in that heat. Most amazingly, we carried back 2 barstools from Brentwood, and on another occasion, a sturdy dining chair from Goodwill.

But we officially moved in Friday morning. It felt great to have a place of my own again, even if it's a rental. For one, I can walk around barefooted. First thing I did after all the stuff and suitcases were put away was to clean the floor (the non-carpeted parts). On my knees with a wet toilette because there was no mop yet. Luckily the studio is small.

The other great thing was to be able to prepare our own meals again. It's expensive eating out, and food choices here tend to be higher in fat. Even a salad, though generous, comes laden with grated cheese and dressing. Thinking about it: the past week we spent at the dorms, we had to eat out for almost every meal (except for the times we bought back bagels for breakfast); the week prior was spent at Mike's brother's place, where we also ate out everyday; and the week before that was spent clearing our flat at 88 and settling administrative stuff, so we hardly cooked as well. I'm trying not to think about the amount of money we spent eating out..

Furthermore, we spent a lot of money over the past few days buying stuff for the apartment, though the place isn't quite done yet. I'd still need some stuff next week, like a vacuum, lamps and another table, but for now, it's livable. Today was spent vegging out, just a lazy Sunday. Probably the first day we've had to relax in the past 3 weeks.

Earlier today, I was comparing this move with the first time we were setting our own place at Blk 70. The second time we moved to Blk 88 doesn't really count because we had a lot of furniture by then. Moving into Blk 70, we had minimal stuff and some furniture like a couple of shelves, some chairs, tables... Everything else, we bought new. New bed, bookcase, tables... New toilets. New KITCHEN. Thinking about it, we spent a LOT of money.

Moving to North America was more extreme; we literally arrived with 2 suitcases each. But this time, we've realized that we didn't need so much things. For example, back then, we had desktops, and we had 2 stereos (one for the bedroom and one for the living room). What the hell did we need 2 stereos for?? We also had a lot of CDs. Because we had a lot of CDs, we needed 2 CD towers. Now, we have ripped everything onto our portable HDs and everything plays off our laptops. That's it.

Another important thing we've realized is that we didn't need all new stuff. I've bought or been given some used stuff from graduating students (rice cooker, microwave, frying pan, small desk), and I've bought some stuff from thrift shops like St Vincent de Paul and Goodwill, which were amazingly cheap. Very decent crockery going at around 50 cents (USD) and cutlery going at 10 cents. I got a nice, small stainless steel pot at $4. Some stuff were really new, like this Brita water filter; a piece of plastic was chipped off (it helps hold the filter cartridge in place but is not crucial) and I guessed perhaps it was for that reason that the previous owner gave it to the thrift shop. I bought it for less than half what it would have retailed for new. One of the purchases I was really pleased about was this winter trenchcoat at $6.

It's a mixed bag of stuff at the thrift shops. The electronic equipment were mostly old and probably not working, and the appliances were also not too confidence inspiring. One can find very good quality flatware though, at rock bottom prices. It's almost impossible to find forks and spoons but for some reason, knives (the butter spreading kind) are everywhere. Furniture tended to be old, but as long as it's undamaged and still sturdy, it's generally a good buy. The dining room chair I'm sitting on right now was a good buy at $25; it's sturdy and comfortable. In contrast, this office chair a student gave me for free (when I bought her desk), was cheap and hence light and flimsy. Shoes were still in surprisingly good condition and clothes; that's the biggest section. If you can be patient in digging through to find your size, it can be a good bargin.

I wished I bought more used stuff. =P
Would have saved me a bundle.

So yeah, those yuppie days when we got married, moved into our first flat and were feeling rich since we were both working; they seem like a long time away now.

The issue about using used stuff is also a bit of environmentalism as well. I really would have like to get all second-hand stuff, partially on the principle of it, but I just can't find some stuff so it can't be helped. I had also been reading about freegans and I agree with their reasoning.

On another note, it's 7:17pm right now and it's still bright outside. I'm not sure what time the sun rises because I usually wake at 8:30am and the sun is high in the sky by then, but sunset here is about 8-8:30pm. It sets slowly; the sun first starts to dip beneath the horizon around 8, but there's still plenty of light from the fading rays until 8:30.

And a final random observation. A senior wasn't kidding when she said that one of the reasons she moved away from her first apartment at CWE, one that faced Forest Park, was because of the noise -- in addition to the medical campus, there's a huge hospital and many other medical facilities around the area, and hence there are ambulances and medical helicopters. The place I got is slightly further away so it's rather quiet. No ambulances yet, but I heard 3 helicopters in the past 2 hours or so.

S&M: pictures of the empty apartment (park 44, st louis)

When the place was totally empty...


The living area... 15x15 (feet), fully carpeted (and just shampooed so the whole apartment smells... not wholly unpleasant, but it smells like bitter chrysanthemum, which, oddly enough, remind me of the hair-lice killing solution I had to use before when I was a kid...)


What you see just as you enter the front door... toilet and primping area... There's actually another closet just facing the sink. The layout is rather much like a hotel room, with the toilet near the front door, followed by the kitchen and finally the living area.

All our worldly possessions....

The little balcony. This unit gets the afternoon sun, so if it wasn't for the air-conditioner (which, by the way, is included with all utilities in the rental), the apartment would be unbearably warm.

Sleeping on the floor because the company I bought a mattress from is f***ked up.