Sunday Morning : 8.30 AM.
How good it is to awake in a city that is good to you. In a country that is good to you. All this happening at a time in my life when my health is good, money is not much of a problem, and the living is as you have imagined it to be as you enter your twilight years - past 65.
We went to bed early last night but I awoke in the early hours of Sunday morning to see Arsenal go up the stands to collect the FA Cup from William for the twelfth time after crashing Aston Villa 4-0...all this without the sound on as my wife was still fast asleep beside me.
After this there was no question of further sleep...so I awoke. Had a shower, made myself a cup of organic tea and forcibly sat myself in the living room to think for a while. I said forcibly because normally what I would do was to take the cup of organic tea and go straight to my Apple to check my emails and what else has been happening elsewhere in the world...and on steadyaku47....but this morning I wanted to start the morning thinking about life.
Life is good. Australia is good. Try as I might to think of anything that I might lack, need or want for, took to much of an effort. Nothing came to me for now - and so I turned my attention to what was around me.
If things work out as planned my son would be moving to his own apartment in the same building within a few weeks. It has been wonderful to have him with us all this time but I would be remiss if I do not say that both - him and us - have agreed that having our own living space would be good. And after speaking to Crystal, that bubbly and caring manager from Urban Communities that manages this apartment, we were informed that Zack could have his own apartment and we keep ours with no increase in the rental we are now paying - so why not! And so the planning - him and me - about how our respective living space will be once we are happily parted - have already started.
For a start this will be the dining table - the GLIVARP dining table with TOBIAS chairs - I will get for our apartment. In fact on Friday I went and got two of those TOBIAS chairs second hand for half the price that IKEA sells them for, from a couple who were selling their stuff because they were going overseas to work.
I have a lot of IKEA stuff all over the house - all bought second hand at a fraction of the price that IKEA sells them for. The bed we sleep in, the table and chairs I work on are IKEA, EKTORP Sofa, Shelves....even an IKEA trolley to move them around!
The above is my favorite chair that I sit on for hours and hours working on my blog each week. Comfortable and simple yet functional - IKEA all over it in design and function.
I need to simplify the living room to make it easier for my wife to move around. Now days either my son or me will have to help her move around the house - so there must be space for two people to maneuver amongst the furniture. I have already rid ourselves of a three-seater sofa a few weeks back and now will have to give some thought as to what we would need to achieve the minimalist look and yet be comfortable.
The TV will go on a wall bracket so that there will be space under the TV for something else - possible shelves for books....and so my mind meanders in and out of these thoughts.
Even on a pension we can do this in Australia. Ask yourself what you need to earn to afford IKEA furniture in Malaysia?
A GLIVARP dining Table in Malaysia costs RM$999 at IKEA Damansara. A TOBIAS chair RM$325 each. To get that dining table and four chairs it will cost you RM$2299. Two thousand two hundred and ninety nine ringgit! Aiyoh how to afford unless you are really earning the big bucks lah!
Here in Melbourne, a pensioner like me can actually afford to get that dining table without being financially stretched at all. Need I say any more?
Maybe you can begin to understand why there are so many "good" when I write about life for me and my wife over here in Melbourne.
What about the costs of food, you may ask. Let me share with you what we had on Friday night for dinner. We were not in the mood to cook anything and so I went to the COLES supermarket nearby at around 8 pm to see what we could get that was easy to cook - heat and serve. And what did I see there?
Hot Roast Chickens $8 at Coles
670
Family size fresh hot roast chickens $8 at Coles (Save $3) today only.
And that is what we had for dinner! Fresh hot roast chicken with stuffing...and there was enough left overs after the three of us had all that we could eat for dinner. Enough left overs for lunch the next day - and all for Aud $8 !
The weather sometimes is wet, windy and very cold but three years into Melbourne have taught us what to wear to keep warm, The heating in our small apartment allows me to be comfortable in my sarong and slippers....and I have yet to experience anything more invigorating and more sinful than a hot shower on a cold winter evening!
So here I am in Melbourne, early on a Sunday morning, trying to decide if I should put on my shorts to really give the place a real clean up, steam clean the kitchen floors, go through everything in the apartment and see what I can store or throw away to make the place more "minimalist" ...and generally celebrate a good life in a good place at a good time in a good life. Life is good.
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