or: Happiness in Paintings, a Speaker and Cooking

My three day renovation continues into its second month. It’s not that I have added or changed anything. It’s that one of the people involved in the exercise appears to have over-committed himself with too many clients and a failure to manage my (and likely others’ expectations). Unfortunately I seem to be one of the projects he repeatedly delays.

I follow up daily.

It has meant I haven’t been able to put things away properly and have been constantly rearranging furniture and piles of books (surprising how many I still own given I’m a big kindle fan) to access my clothes. I haven’t been able to get into the laundry cupboard for a long time now as there is a ladder stored in front of it. It’s a pain to move. It did have the replacement glass shower door in front of it too (as he broke the original one) which didn’t fit. I am still waiting for the next replacement. It will be the third. He broke it on the first day.

Before I took my things out of storage, he told me the renovation would be completed.

He was wrong.

A layer of white dust settled everywhere.

I wipe and sweep. It reproduces under the cover of darkness to form new layers the following day. I now focus on keeping just the kitchen bench clean. Everything else can wait. At least I have a spot where I can prepare my breakfast.

The other person working on it has been great. He’s my lighting / electrical man (conveniently we live in the same building) and has now become my hang up my paintings and speaker man too.

He did this yesterday.

And so happiness began to build.

I could feel it in my chest as the music started. My feet began to move, followed by my mouth.  Before I knew it, I was signing. Not well but the walls are thick so I have nothing to worry about. Anyone walking by my front door though may not be able to hear properly.

I laughed. My cheeks hurt. Then my stomach (I hadn’t cooked yet so I can’t say that was from my cooking!)

With the assistance of a friend who happens to live in this building too, I now have a floor layout which is functional and creates more space. Quite a feat considering I haven’t bought smaller furniture and persist in using what I already own, contrary to popular HK convention for someone in a studio apartment who has downsized over the years from a three, two and one bedroom places; all with outdoor areas to accommodate my dog and because I like to be able to sit outside with a beverage and a book (My space is about 400 square feet / 37 square meters. I suspect this includes my share of the common areas too as that is how apartment size is measured in HK. I’ve read this is about the size of a two car garage – must be huge cars!).

This new layout has made it a bit easier to put things away though not necessarily in their final space. It has become clear that I have more to donate as I am still seeing things I don’t need or don’t make me smile. Baby steps…

In the meantime, I had the place cleaned. It was pointless to do this too thoroughly until now as there was always dust the following day no matter how much I swept, wiped and dusted. The soles of my feet were perpetually white. Not any more.

Having my paintings and speaker mounted has brought more colour into my place again and some awesome sound too.

Then it was dinner time and the first time I was using my stove. It’s induction and I’ve never had one before. I was not sure my pots and pans could be used on this and didn’t want to ruin the surprise by Googling it. I tested with a magnet and hoped that meant it was ok.

It was.

I live on the edge.

With some of my favourite tunes blaring, I began to chop, slice and dice. I danced around the kitchen / lounge area. I chopped, sliced and diced some more. I have enough trouble doing that at the best of times so wasn’t going to risk multi-tasking. I don’t enjoy multitasking anyway.

I took my time. I had a glass of wine. I sang and danced again. My grin was bigger than the entrance to Luna Park and probably a little less scary. I was enjoying myself and the action of chopping, slicing and dicing. I’m not a precision person with this kind of thing. I just seem to do it very slowly compared to others.

I enjoy the process.

Then it was time to cook.

The pots and pans worked.

I listened to more music. Danced. Sang. Thank goodness these walls are fairly thick. My blinds were drawn. Must work out what to do about soundproofing the door if this behaviour continues.

I’m yet to work out how to cook for one and instead, have inadvertently mastered bulk cooking.

I was happy.

I wonder if the other guy will turn up with the shower screen tomorrow…

I’ll still have my paintings and speaker to make me smile and enough leftover bolognaise to keep me going for quite some time.

 

* Thanks to Autograph for the title to this post.