City love (Part 2)

"I've got a city love. I found it in Lydia." - John Mayer

 

The first part of the post was up back in July, and by now, I would have already stayed in my "new" place for about four months, and would be leaving in approximately two months' time. Even the novelty of staying in an apartment in the city has worn off. Now, I am not even sure if moving into the city is such a good thing after all, but just something glamorous. Hurray for procrastination.

The apartment I am staying in is along Albert Street of the Brisbane City. A very close proximity to my Uni's Gardens Point campus; a mere 5-10 minutes walk. However, my classes are at the Kelvin Grove campus, so it is another 10-15 minutes of bus ride to school. The good thing is, I am right smack in the middle of everything. Shopping malls, grocery stores, and stuffs... Basically, things you normally find in the city but not in the suburbs. Honestly, nothing to shout about when it is in the Brisbane City you are staying in, because there is not much activities at night, let alone the weekends.

How is the view from the top? Quite magnificent. My unit is facing the Brisbane River, so we are getting constant breeze. Not really good during winter, but very good indeed during summer. We do not have the full view of the river, as you can see in the first picture, with that piece of an apartment in the way, but it is all good.

It is not apparent in the picture, but right at the horizon of the first picture, is actually the Brisbane airport. Day and night, we can see airplanes landing and taking off. It always brings a kind of unexplainable and bittersweet feeling to my heart whenever I see the planes heading off to unknown destinations. Not much of me getting home in time, but more of the urge to fly off to somewhere else.

How about the view down below? One side you see the bustling streets. Cars swerving out of their respective lanes, and pedestrians crossing the streets.

The other side you have a prefect view of ground zero.

Dandy.

The one bad thing about living in a developing city is that construction is always going on. It is like passing the baton; when one block is done demolishing, another block starts panning the grounds, and when that is done another block begins drilling the walls. When I first moved in, it was a constant disturbance to me. Once, they started work at six in the freaking morning. But I think I have gotten the hang of the noises now. I can say that on some days, I can sleep in through it all. Or maybe not. I just have to make sure I am listening to my music on full blast, and not sleep when I am half-awake, I will wake up not cranky.

At night, the city rings with occasionally sirens and hooligans. Especially during weekends, you can hear people screaming down the streets, or loud music playing somewhere around the corner. If things go real bad, the fire department or the ambulance would pay you a visit. So basically, living in the city, you barely hear silence - the sheer silence that rings aloud in your ears. Because even in the deepest of the night, the turbines keep the city's melody playing with the lowest hum.

The unit I am staying in is a two-bedroom unit. I have two housemates and none of us are sharing rooms. It is not rocket science, but I shall reveal to you as I proceed.

This is my housemate, Therese's room. It will be the first room everyone comes upon when entering the unit. You cannot really make it out, but it is a picture of a female pilot on her door. She has a thing for pilots (and doctors, but pilots especially, being an ex-air-stewardess herself). She is barely home during assignment season, and when she is home, she is asleep. So, most of the day while I am awake, she is actually asleep in the other room. Her alarm clock does not serve much purpose as she goes back to sleep after shutting it off. She smokes a lot. I mean, a lot. And is very loud. Heh. But a helpful friend nonetheless, and would only trouble you with the most trivial things and most random burst of irritating sing-songs.

Next, would be the bathroom-cum-laundry-room. Nothing appealing, so no pictures. Basically, it is just a tiny bathroom with a little partitioned corner for the dryer and washing machine. We have a huge slab of mirror across the sink, where guys could check themselves out while peeing. (Never really know if my guy friends do that, but I am sure it is unavoidable as the mirror is just in.the.face.). Then, the shower, which is quite spacious.

This be the kitchenette, where all the food is made with love. Where once Therese set the fire detector off while deep frying eggs. Where I burned a few of our dinners. Where my housemate, Victor, cooked different varieties of curry night after night after night. Heh.

Next, would be the living-room-cum-Victor's-corner/room. We have an interesting story here. In the span of say, four months, this little corner has been occupied by three tenants. First and initial tenant was Andrew, who stayed there for about a week, before moving up to a unit a few levels above when Victor had to move in due to erm, academical complications. He stayed with us for an entire semester before moving out in the summer to have our current housemate, Ludwig, stay for the summer.

Victor is a guy with few words, but sheer mumbles when he speaks. He talks fast and half of the time, I do not get what he is saying. Maybe it is just me, heh. Becase he is only enrolled for a class that semester, he is home most of the time watching TVB series and Taiwanese talk shows, and occasionally will play Dota. He cooks the most in the household, and as mentioned, mostly curry. So often did he cook curry that when I went on my Cairns trip and had curry after not having them for a while, it reminded me of him. Heh. He studies IT, so he does most of the electrical and Internet knick knacks at home.

Last but not least, this be my bedroom, with my Eskimo buddy to greet you first thing. It is obviously a smaller room compared to the one I was staying in in my previous house. But yet, quite spacious compared to my other housemates', which means higher rental fee. Nonetheless, I love my little space.

I had my study desk moved from Kelvin Grove, and had a new cabinet for some of my stuff. I came from a place with plenty of drawers, you see, so I had to make do with what I have here to fit in my things. Fortunately, I had a spacious wardrobe so I am not complaining. Also, I downgraded from a queen-sized bed to a single bed. Not complaining too, as I am not really a fan of big beds for myself. It is a good feeling, but it highlights loneliness too clearly sometimes.

My room has a sliding door to go out into the balcony, where me and my housemates do our bits for the environment every day without fail. I know it looks bad in this picture, but believe you me that it has gotten better since. It gets stuffy if the door is closed and I feel like I am asphyxiating so I would prefer the doors open when nobody is fagging outside.

Also, we get visitors almost every day as we have friends in, not one, but two units above us. One unit stays Esther, Shawn, Joel, Kai Wen and Leng, who unintentionally found themselves seeking refuge in the same apartment when their lease ended in another apartment. Another stays Andy, Andrew and Chung Yi. So, when we want to, it can get quite rowdy.