O Burma, my Burma

It burns and I burn with it.

New Home

So its official - I've moved into my very own apartment. It sort of came at me out of nowhere, knocked my socks off when I saw it, and left me breathless at the very prospect of it.

Hence, I decided to take the plunge into the unknown ( having never actually purchased real estate before, ha ha ) and went for it, hammer and tongs.

Result, a really cool retro apartment, large kitchen with gorgeous Italian tiles, and dark brick walls, all reminiscent of vintage 70s, and the good kind too. Area - Paddington, that historical haven of everything new and bohemian, as well as possessing some of the most iconic establishments of Brisbane, though there seems to be an upheaval of sorts for this recently. Freestyle, for example, is gone - where am I gonna go for a big end sugar rush now, I don't know. But by the same token, there's talk of more delis, more gourmet shops, more organic food stores about to make an inroad - one can only hope.

Personally its the opshops that have me going - once I return from India, the long term summer project is to set up home properly, from a trip to Logan's Ikea for endless bookshelves, to thrift shopping with neighbours to find that exclusive object d'art at that swoon-worthy fraction of a price. I've already found one, in fact - the very last of it too - a gorgeous antique-style South East Asian hand of the Buddha, holding a lotus-shaped container for a tea-candle. At Target, amongst considerable generic junk, I might add. For a price that would fetch me perhaps only a tea-candle itself in Loot.

For now, though, my possessions live in boxes, stacked in their respective future rooms. My internet access is reduced to my laptop, a modem, my fast dying Telstra phone, and a gargantuan jumble of wires in between. My neighbour Frances (technically mother of neighbour/friend Andrea, but hey we have plenty in common too ) is the secretary of the body corporate, and resident thrift and tidy queen - her place is so spotless I'm afraid to even sweat in there. We both indulge in interior-porn through the Ikea catalogue in our junk mail, and we both indulge in pre-loved product shopping. Come November and blithering hot summer, there're gonna be plenty of sprees, sparsed in between with homemade chilled smoothies made in my housewarming gift from work - a unique retro blender.

Ahh, domestic bliss! I can barely wade through my house in a single straight line right now, but I can dream.