Are we there yet?

As time goes by, I get more and more impatient to move. The first document I ever signed with regards to the apartment purchase was dated 16 April, and it's now 9 August. Time seems to plod by.

Sometimes I worry that I'm building it all up too much in my head, and that when the time comes to take possession and move into the apartment, it will turn out to be an anti-climax. I have such dreams and hopes and desires all bound up in that block of concrete. Perhaps I am romanticising it too much? I ask myself. It is not likely to be the answer to all my dreams any more than getting married would be.

But anyway, the planning is fun. I have bought 4 dinner plates and a set of six glasses -- growing up, we had a motley assortment of mugs to drink from, most received as free gifts with various purchases at the supermarket; but there were also the "nice glasses", the ones that came in a set, ones you'd rinse out and use when guests came to visit. And so I find myself thinking, "I must have nice glasses." Then I find myself thinking of matching cutlery, and there you go, I'm on a slippery slope downhill! At least I haven't bought any cutlery yet. YET.

For weeks I drove around with a huge-ass beanbag in the non-existent boot of my car -- I drive a two-door hatchback (Proton Satria Neo) and so had to fold down the back seats to make space for that monster of a beanbag, 3 feet in diameter at the base. Then my parents arrived in town and I had to haul it out of the car to make space for them, and now it's sitting in a blob in my living room among all of the boxes. I really can't wait to move.

"Why are you looking at furniture now?" my mother asked. "There's no hurry," and I couldn't explain that it is more or less the only thing I can do at the moment, since the transaction process is moving so slowly, and is largely out of my hands. It's the banks, the lawyers, and the property valuers (THREE WEEKS to get a property valuation report!) and their red tape that is holding things up. Bureaucracy is alive and well in Malaysia. And so since I'm waiting, there is nothing else to do but plan and hope and dream -- and buy furniture. And other household stuff.

Of course, it helps that Hari Raya is around the corner and so there are sales everywhere. Suddenly I am buying 600-thread-count sheets: it seems that when you buy a horrendously expensive mattress, you end up needing horrendously expensive sheets to go with it, because the mattress is 13 inches thick and normal sheets won't fit! Plus, it's a queen-sized mattress and all my existing sheets are for a single bed, so... "It's necessity," I told myself, and refused to feel guilty. And then I decided I might as well go the whole hog and bought two feather pillows. They've taken the place of the huge-ass beanbag in the boot of my car. At least I don't need to fold the back seat down for them.

Every time I buy something for the apartment I roll my eyes at myself and think of having to transport it over later. Most of the furniture can be delivered directly from the stores -- they'll hold the item at the agreed price if you pay a deposit -- but smaller items like the dinner plates, glasses, beanbag? Uh-huh. And don't forget mine is a walk-up apartment on the FIFTH FLOOR. Oh yes, it's going to be fun :p