breaking the cycle

Back in Bangkok. Oh that's right, I forgot to mention that I was in Penang when I wrote my last entry. It seems that I only get to blog when I'm away. Hopefully this blog post will break the cycle.

I miss blogging. D and I noticed that we both don't blog anymore. We don't write. We don't read books, listen to music or watch documentaries. We've become, dare I say it, boring. We blame TV. Crap TV. Too much of it. So, to rectify this, we cut our cable (goodbye E! and all the mindless shows that are on it) and have subjected ourselves to limited (internet) TV time to make more time to read books, listen to music and watch documentaries again.

Speaking of which, I picked up Truman Capote's Music for Chameleons recently, and have been pleasantly absorbed in it. I got stuck reading Zadie Smith's White Teeth for awhile. I had to switch books because I was struggling with it. Not that it wasn't good but because I had to get used to sitting down and reading again. I fear that crap TV has made me more restless, making it impossible to just sit still for a minute or two. So I decided to stick to short stories until I can sit through a novel again. Hopefully I get back to the groove of things and finally finish a book.

Last weekend, I also caught this fascinating documentary based on the equally fascinating lives of Herb and Dorothy Vogel. Have you seen it? It's called Herb and Dorothy, by Megumi Sasaki. I found it to be delightfully quirky and infinitely interesting. Made me want to go to New York, see their Manhattan apartment and pick their brains on minimal and conceptual art. Go watch it. I highly recommend it.

HERB & DOROTHY Trailer from Herb & Dorothy on Vimeo.

new home

Well, hello again. It's been a fun and crazy couple of weeks since my last post. For starters, we moved! After two wonderful years in a modest one bedroom apartment, D and I have decided to move on to a two bedroom. It was a difficult decision as we were in-love with the one bedroom we had. But the two bedroom was bright and airy, and well, the outdoor rooftop space was too damn hard to resist. As soon as I saw it, I was sold. D, on the other hand, was more cautious. But in the end, we just had to get it. And now, we're happy as two clams could ever be.

It's weird to have rooms. We've gotten so used to our teeny tiny apartment that it was strange to wander around the space, trying to find out where the other person could be. And we can't talk without being in the same room anymore. We'd gotten away with that in our old place. But now, we can't carry on with conversations from one room to the next. Don't get me wrong. The new place is not huge. It just... has rooms.

It's a work in progress right now. We have to buy a new couch, re-upholster the old one, buy plants for the outdoor space, put up art on the walls, get nice comfy chairs for the desk at the office (aka second bedroom), and yada, yada, yada. The list goes on.

Anyhoo, here's bits and pieces of the new place.

The Second Look: We first saw the apartment on a Saturday. We went back the next day, and we just knew we had to get it.

 Moving Day 1: The new place is in the same complex. We just moved from one building to another. But it was a lot of work. Countless elevator trips, loading and unloading. It took a whole weekend to move everything. And to think, we didn't have much!

 The View: Another perk of the new place? A lovely view of Bangkok! 

One night, we even got to watch fireworks over the river from our bedroom balcony.

First Purchase: The day we gave a verbal yes to the landlord, I got this chalkboard wall decal for the new place. It now holds daily reminders and sweet messages from the hubby.

I'll post more pics of the new place as we go along.